U.S. NEWS, TIME REJECTED NEWSWEEK 'EXECUTION' PHOTOS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000200830004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00845R000200830004-1
-AnT1 _r APPEARED
IW -Siy,, NG ON i :MS
2 A-) ri1 1985
U.S. News, Time rejected Newsweek
`execution' photos
By George Archibald
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
An American college student who
photographed what he was told was
the execution of a Sandinista spy by
members of the Nicaraguan resis-
tance defended vesterdaythe execu-
tion as a legitimate act of war.
Frank o , a -year-old
Northwestern University senior
whose pictures were published this
week by Newsweek magazine, said
he tried to prevent the photos from
being used by defenders of the San-
dinistas as evidence of atrocities by
the anti-Sandinista resistance.
Before he sold the photographs to
Newsweek, he said, he had tried to
sell them first to U.S. News & World
Report and then to Time magazine.
U.S. News turned him down because
the magazine said it could not
authenticate them with a second
source.
Mr. Wohl said he insisted that he
have the right to approve the mag-
azine text to accompany the pic-
tures, in order to ensure they were
"not misrepresented" as an unwar-
ranted killing before Congress voted
k e
on the president s aid pac as Newsweek agreed to those terms, he
said.
A Newsweek official said no such
agreement was made.
As a matter of course, we do not
give photographers copy approval,"
said Gary Gerard, the magazine's
communications director. "That is?
an extraordinary statement in and of
itself
The pictures of the unidentified
victim, who was made to dig his own
grave before being knifed to death,
were cited this week by two Demo-w.
-cratic senators, 'Ibm Harkin of Iowa
returned to argue against President
Reagan's $14 million aid package to
the anti-Sandinista forces.
The authenticity of the pictures,
taken by Mr. Wohl, a freelance pho-
tographer, was challenged by admin-
istration officials and by a
Washington spokesman for Free
Democratic Nicaragua (FDN) - the
largest of the resistance groups.
They said the uniforms worn by the
reputed FDN executioners are no
longer used by the resistance.
However, two reporters for The
Washington Times, who returned
from scene of the fighting in Nicara-
gua two weeks ago, said the uni-
forms and boots in the photographs
were typical of the attire of FDN
men they had seen.
Newsweek made independent
efforts to verify Mr. Wohl's pictures,
the spokesman for Newsweek said.
"Newsweek reporters spoke with
various sources in Central America,
Miami and Illinois in a careful and
thorough effort prior to publication
of the photos depicting the execu-
tion," Mr. Gerard said. "The Contras,
typical of most Third World insur-
gencies, often dress in civilian
clothes and different uniforms
i according to their availability."
The resistance fighters "had no
choice ' u to i F the reputed spy,
Mr?. Wohl said in an interview with
The Times.
" " e had to be executed. He was a
Sandinista informant who had
already caused many Nicaraguans
who were helping the Contras to be
killed by the communists," he said.
Mr. Wohl said he made two trips to
Nicaragua during school breaks last
year and spent a total of almost six
months with FDN forces. He said he
was known at Northwestern as an
anti-communist activist, and was
denounced as a "fascist" and phys-
ically assaulted by history professor
Bonnie Blustein, faculty sponsor of
a Marxist-Leninist campus organ-
ization, when he returned last Octo-
ber from his. first four-month tour
with FDN forces.
Mr. Wohl said he traveled with the
FDN as a. noncombatant photo-
1"and John Kerry of Massachusetts, .
-who went to Nicaragua last week to
talk to Sandinista leaders and..
journalist, wearing the same light
blue-green uniform worn by resis-
tance soldiers. He went by the name
"Rata Asesina" - "Killer Rat" - to
hide the fact that he was "a gringo,"
he said.
The execution took place in the j
barrio of Balsama, near San Juan in
the province of Madriz, he said.
Commandante Sergio, the leader of
the FDN brigade, "did not go with
us" when the killing occurred, he
reported.
Mr. Wohl said he did not know the
names of either the victim, who "had
no identification:' or his two reputed
FDN executioners. "I trust what the
FDN commanders told me" about
the victim's Sandinista ties, he
explained. "They had never lied to
me"
Mr. Wohl said he first offered the
photographs "for free" to the Cen-
field
tral Intelligence Agency's
office in Chicago, but the CIA officer
said a was not interested intern.
"I knew I had to sell t em within
the next month or, they would have
no value for me," Mr. Wohl
explained. "I knew they would
enhance my career."
He said he then tried to sell the
pictures to U.S. News & World
Report. The magazine paid his travel
expenses from Evanston, Ill., to
Washington to meet with its editors
April 15, said spokeswoman Kathy
Bushkin.
"They discussed with him the pic-
tures at length but finally concluded
that, since there was not any inde-
pendent verification from another
eyewitness on pictures of such a
nature, we would not run them;" she
said.
Mr. Wohl then flew to New York
and, with the help of his photo-
graphic agency, Sygma, offered the
photos to Time and Newsweek. Time
magazine's reasons for not buying
the photographs could not be deter-
] mined yesterday. .
Bill Outlaw contributed to this
report.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/16: CIA-RDP90-00845R000200830004-1