MERCENARY WROTE TO HAYDEN ABOUT CONTRA AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100300014-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: December 19, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/11 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100300014-2
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,.._,.r_ .. _-, l `~ D e c e m h e r 19 ~ 6 FiIE ~NIY
Mercenary Wrote to Hayden About Contra Aid
By MARK HENRY, Times Stay Writer
Eleven months before he died
from an apparent cocaine overdose
in Panorama City, a mercenazy
imprisoned in Costa Rica wrote a
letter to a California legislator that
provided details of gun-running
and military aid to Nicazaguan
rebels.
The author of the letter, Steven
Paul Carr ,died leaf Satu~ay to
e veway of a San Fernando
Valley town house. Although the
caux of death had not been deter-
mined. pollee believe he died from a
cocaine overdose.
Cam's three-page letter to As-
semblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa ~
Monks) is similar to accounts he
already provided to federal investi-
gators, elected officials and jour-
nalists about his role in the U.S.-
supported waz against the 7-yeaz-
old Sandinista government.
Hayden mid he decided to re- i
in Janu
Rica a mon
seemed relev
events in the Irfp-c~~anda~
Carr in the let d he ed
for American CIA contacts, and he
accused the National Security
Council and other governmental
agencies of playing "dirty tricks" in
Central America. "I am here in La
Reforms Prison outside the capital
of San Joae for possession of explo-
stves and hostile acts for my part in
the U.S./CIA-sponsored contra
fighting here," Carr said.
Wrob $~l1lq of Ilwtters
Carr wrote a series of letters
from Costa Rka that are in the
hands of his former attorney, Jerry
Berry, in Naples, Fla One of the
nine letters, dated Jtm~ ZZ, 1986,
left instructbns to make their
contents known if Carr came to "an
untimely end," Berry said
Berry refused to release copies of
the letters but said they did not
contain any new disclosures.
In the letter to Hayden, which
was addressed to "Sen. Bill Hay-
den." Carr said he first contacted
the contras in Costa Rica in June,
1984, but "my lack of Spanish
disabled my joining up at that
time." He said he returned nine
months later, on a secret weapons
supply flight from Florida to the
Ilopango military airport in El
Salvador in March, 1985.
Carr, in an interview that aired
in June on the CBS television
program "West 57th," laid he
trained Nicaraguan rebels in
northern Costa Rica for five weeks.
Carr participated also in "several
ambushes" and joined one raid into
Nicaragua before he was arrested
by Costa Rican authorities in April,
1985, according to the letter and
other reports.
On his release on bond 13 months
later, Carr fled to the United States
but was jailed in Naples, Fla., for
violating his parole stemming from
a conviction for writing bad checks.
He moved to Panorama City in
mid-November after five months
in jail.
A month before his release from
jail in Naples, Carr said he was
approached by people who "indi-
cated they were with the CIA" and
who asked if he wanted to fight in
Central America or South Africa,
Berry said. '
"I advised him that I didn't think
that was a wise thing for him to be
doing," Berry said. Although Carr
said in the letter to Hayden that he
was "very interested in testifying
against the CIA," federal prosecu-
tors refused to say whether he
testified before a federal grand jury
in Florida investigating the March.
1985, arms shipment.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Ana Barnett
in Fort Lauderdale said federal
prosecutors are trying to determine
whether the delivery of weapons to
the contras in March, 1985, violated
the Neutrality Act, which prohibits
military or paramilitary actions
against a nation with which the
United States is at peace. Carr's
death will not hinder the investiga-
tion, she said.
Carr was also expected to be a
central witness in a lawsuit filed ;n
Miami by [he Christie Inst~'t~of
Washington on e~ half of two
American journalists against '?9
individuals, including former CIA
agents and current U.S. officials.
One of the journalists was wounded
during a bomb-ng at a press confer-
encecalled by acontra leader along
the border of Costa Rica and Nica-
ragua in 1984. The reporters claim
that the defendants in the suit were
financing) the contras through co-
caine smuggling operations.
Approved For Release 2010/08/11 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100300014-2