WHODUNIT: THE PASTORA BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100250010-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: March 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/22 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100250010-6
COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW
March/April 1986
After a year-long investigation. reporters Tony Avirgan
(on stretcher), who was wounded in the Pastora bombing,
Pastora's would-be assassin etas a Libyan exile (inset).
Whodunit: the Pastora bombing
The bomb that ripped through Eden Pastora's
jungle headquarters near the Costa Rican bor-
der on the night of May 30. 1984. failed to
kill the anti-Sandinista rebel leader. but it left
three journalists dead and more than a dozen
wounded. The assassination attempt during
a press conference called by Pastora shocked
Costa Rica and was one of the country's big-
gest news stories since the Sandinistas came
to power in neighboring Nicaragua in 1979.
It may receive some more attention in the
United States. thanks to two American jour-
nalists who have investigated the bombing
and have concluded that there is evidence of
United States complicity.
Tony Avtrgan, now a free-lance camera-
man working for CBS and a correspondent
with National Public Radio and the BBC.
covered the Pastora press conference for
ABC News and suffered shrapnel wounds
and burns. His wife, Martha Honey. is a
stringer for The Times and The Sundae Times
of London and for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation. Supported by grants from the
Committee to Protect Journalists. the News-
paper Guild. and the World Press Freedom
Committee - plus more than $20.000 of
their savings - the two spent more than a
year following up on the myriad leads that
emerged after the bombing. Last fall. the
results of their investigation were published
in an eightv-four-pa?e report which details
what they describe as the role of Costa Rican
officials, Central Intelligence Agency oper-
atives, contras, and anti -Castro Cuban-
Americans in planning and executing the
bombing. The report identifies Pastora's
would-be assassin as Amac Galil an anti-
Qaddafi Libyan exile allegedly recruited by
the CIA in Chile, The report also accuses
some U.S. and Costa Rican authorities of
hampering efforts by local police to inves-
tigate the bombing and asserts that a sophis-
ticated disinformation campaign - launched
from Washington - tried to shift the blame
onto Basque terrorists allegedly in the hire
of the Sandinista government.
Avirgan and Honey's report has since be-
come the basis of a lawsuit on behalf of ses-
eral of those injured in the bombing. After
months of research by attorneys associated
with the National Lawyers Guild in Phila-
delphia. a group including Avirgan has de-
cided to seek damages from individuals
whom they believe to be responsible for the
bombing. Among the defendants will be John
Hull. an American farmer in Costa Rica who
is widely suspected of helping to train and
supply contra troops. as well as several
Miami residents believed to be tied to the
anti-Castro terror groups Omega 7 and Bri-
gade 2506.
Claims against U.S. government officials
are also being considered. ''We'll argue that
the government, or people involved with the
government, intended to interfere with the
constitutional rights of U.S citizens," sass
Judith Brown Chomsky. one of the attorneys
preparing the suit. "Another possibility Is "a
suit argued on First Amendment grounds
that the choice of bombing a news conference
was designed to discourage the press and to
interfere with the press trying to cover what's
happening in Nicaragua."
Meanwhile. Avirgan and Honey are them-
selves being sued. Following the publication
of their report, John Hull and another man
implicated by the investigation, Costa Rican
Colonel Rodrigo Paniagua, filed libel suits
against the journalists. demanding a total of
$750.000 in damages. Paniagua's suit has
been dismissed, but Hull's is still pending.
Under Costa Rican libel law, the burden
of proof is on the defendants. ''First we have
to prove what we said is true, then we have
to prove we wrote without malice." Avirgan
says. But Avirgan and Honey are confident
they will prevail. \orking in the couple's
favor is the fact that allegations of Hull's
involvement with the CIA surfaced long be-
fore the Pastora bombing. Avirgan himself
was part of an ABC News crew that recorded
landings of CIA-supplied planes on Hull's
property in northern Costa Rica. In addition.
two Americans who were arrester( by. 5 -ta
Rican security forces in a raid on a contra
camp identified Hull and his associates as
links between the contras and intelli-
gence officials.
For Avirgan and Honey, their lives since
the day of the bombing have been punctuated
by violence and fear. One of their principal
sources, a contra identified only by the pseu-
donym ''David." disappeared and, accord-
ing to Costa Rican security officials. has been
murdered. Another source fled the country
after his home was fired upon by a passing
car. In the wake of death threats prior to the
publication of their report, the Costa Rican
government supplied armed guards to stay in
Avtrgan and Honey's home and the couple
sent their two children to live with relatives
in the U S.
Throughout. U S. officials in Costa Rica
hale been unsympathetic. Ambassador
Lewis Tambs denounced Avirgan and Hon-
ey's report, calling them ''madmen" and
"traitors '' "He said we were traitors to our
country. that we only did [the investigations
for the money.'' Avirgan says. ''If we
thought that suing for libel was a good idea.
I guess we should be suing him.''
Joel Millman
Joel Millman is a free-lance writer who lines
in A'ew York.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/22 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100250010-6