October 10, 1986
U.S. Prisoner in Nicaragua Says C.I.A. Ran Contra Supply Flights
By JAMES LeMOYNE, Special to the New York Times
An American captured when a plane delivering supplies to rebels was shot down here said today that the supply flights were directly supervised by members of the Central Intelligence Agency in El Salvador.
''Two Cuban naturalized Americans that work for the C.I.A. did most of the coordination for the flights and oversaw all of our housing, transportation, also refueling and some flight plans,'' the prisoner, Eugene Hasenfus, said at a news conference here with Nicaraguan officials seated beside him.
Mr. Hasenfus then named the two reported C.I.A. officials and gave the most detailed account so far of rebel supply operations out of El Salvador and Honduras. His statements are being treated as a major political victory by the Nicaraguan Government.
Plane in 'Sting' Operation
''I was told we were working out of the El Salvador Air Force base at Ilopango,'' Mr. Hasenfus said. ''We would be flying into Honduras to an air base called Aguacate and there we would load up small arms and ammunition and fly into Nicaragua. There it would be dropped to the contra.''
The American prisoner looked healthy and Nicaraguan officials said he had been well treated. But reporters could not verify the conditions under which he has been held and questioned, and Mr. Hasenfus's future treatment could depend on the statements he is willing to make here.
In a statement this evening, the United States Embassy here strongly protested the continued denial of consular access to Mr. Hasenfus and also the handling of the remains of the two Americans killed when the rebel plane was shot down.
Protest Over Remains
The remains, reportedly already cremated, were taken to the American Embassy this afternoon in two coffins that were left in front of the embassy gate in what appeared to be a propaganda gesture by the Nicaraguan Government. Embassy officials termed the action ''ghoulish'' and said it violated ''decent human behavior.'' The Drug Enforcement Administration said the plane was earlier involved in a United States ''sting'' operation against the Nicaraguan Government.
And Senator Dave Durenberger, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, challenged the White House to acknowledge what he said was its role in the plane's flight.
The incident comes at a sensitive moment: Congress is about to release $100 million in aid to the rebels. If the C.I.A. was involved in the supply effort, as Mr. Hasenfus says, it would appear to violate Congressional restrictions and contradict repeated statements by Administration officials that the plane was part of a purely private effort by American supporters of the Nicaraguan guerrillas. If, on the other hand, the rebel supply effort was run by a private American organization, as the Administration says, the group appears to have had impressive resources that allowed it to hire former C.I.A. personnel, maintain dozens of Americans in El Salvador, warehouse tons of equipment, buy military transports and fly repeatedly in and out of El Salvador, Honduras and the United States.
Mr. Hasenfus, who is 45 years old, said Nicaraguan rebel supply flights from the main military air base at Ilopango in El Salvador and rebel bases in Honduras were not only supervised by the C.I.A., but were also supported by more than 25 employees of an American company based in El Salvador. These employees appear to have ferried more than 130,000 pounds of military equipment to rebel forces.
Prisoner Appears Nervous
The American prisoner appeared nervous and spoke slowly, staring straight ahead. Nicaraguan officials said he did not want to answer questions and Mr. Hasenfus left the stage after talking for about 10 minutes. A Nicaraguan intelligence officer said Mr. Hasenfus had spoken because he was demoralized and felt abandoned.
Officials said they still had not decided if he would be put on trial.
Mr. Hasenfus is being detained in the Ministry of the Interior and has been interrogated for two days, according to Nicaraguan officials. They added that it was uncertain when American diplomats would be allowed to see him. However his wife, Sally, who traveled here Wednesday night, was permitted to talk to him today.
''His situation is very difficult,'' said Capt. Ricardo Wheelock, head of Nicaraguan military intelligence. ''He is a mercenary who has been shot down.''
Several documents reportedly taken from the plane, including logbooks, registration certificates, Salvadoran Air Force identity cards and personal papers, were shown to a reporter for two hours and appeared to support key parts of Mr. Hasenfus's account.
But other aspects, such as his supervision by C.I.A. agents in El Salvador, cannot be independently confirmed and are not documented in the papers captured by the Nicaraguans.
Reported Tie to Miami Company
Mr. Hasenfus said the Americans all worked for a company called Corporate Air Services in El Salvador, which he said was part of the Southern Air Transport Company in Miami.
Nicaraguan officials charge that both companies work for the C.I.A. Mr. Hasenfus said Corporate Air Services is based at the Salvadoran Air Force base outside San Salvador.
Captain Wheelock said Mr. Hasenfus had told interrogators that he believed he was working for the C.I.A. when he agreed to join rebel supply flights as a specialist in freight loading. Mr. Hasenfus did not repeat that reported statement today.
But he did describe working for eight years for a C.I.A.-operated airline in Southeast Asia, Air America, which he said also once employed the American chief pilot of the downed plane. The pilot and the American co-pilot died when a Sandinista rocket hit the plane over southern Nicaragua on Sunday.
Mr. Hasenfus added that he was approached five months ago by the former Air America pilot, William J. Cooper, with whom he flew supplies to C.I.A. agents at remote airstrips in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam from 1965 to 1973. From 1960 to 1965, Mr. Hasenfus said, he was in the Marine Corps.
Pay Is $3,000 a Month
He said he was paid $3,000 a month plus all expenses for working as a loader on rebel supply flights over Nicaragua. The money was deposited directly into his account at the Pestigo Bank in Marinette, Wis., according to Sandinista officials. It is not clear who paid the money.
The documents found on the rebel C-123 military supply plane include Salvadoran Air Force identity cards that describe the three American crew members, including Mr. Hasenfus, as United States military advisers in El Salvador.
In a statement today, the Salvadoran Army high command denied any involvement in the rebel supply flights. A spokesman at the American Embassy in El Salvador has also denied that any of the American crew members were working as United States military advisers in El Salvador.
One of the crew member's wallet carried the business card of a Robert W. Owen and listed a Washington address and telephone number. Another business card was for a Mr. P. J. Buechler, listed as working for the State Department's Nicaraguan Humanitarian Affairs Office. That office was in charge of sending nonlethal aid to Nicaraguan rebels over the last year.
The card listing Mr. Owen may refer to a close associate of a National Security Council member, Lieut. Col. Oliver North. Nicaraguan rebel officials in Costa Rica say a man named Robert Owen was sent by Colonel North to help them when Congress cut American aid to the rebels two years ago. A telephone operator in Washington said the number listed on the card for Mr. Owen had been disconnected.
Crew Members Named
Three logbooks reportedly taken from the rebel plane appear to list every guerrilla supply flight the plane had made, the names of more than 30 non-Latin crew members and the 100,000 pounds of equipment dropped to the rebels.
The logbooks also indicate that the plane has had three unusual changes of registration numbers in recent years. In 1982, the plane appears to have been registered as N3142D or O. In 1983, its number changed to N4410F. Three months ago, its number appears to have changed again, to a Panamanian registration, HP824.
A certificate of registration lists the plane as belonging to the Sekman Aviation Corporation in Miami, which Sandinista officials say they believe is owned by Southern Air Transport. At least two of the Americans on the plane carried Southern Air Transport identity cards issued in recent months.
The logbooks, two of which appear to have belonged to the American co-pilot, Wallace Blaine Sawyer, also appeared to list landings at Nicaraguan rebel camps in Honduras at Rus Rus, Mocoron and Aguacate, as well as at the main Salvadoran military base at Ilopango. Other notations appear to indicate landings in the United States.
If the rebel supply effort was private, as the Reagan Administration says, it appears to have gone on for over a year, since Mr. Sawyer's logbooks list flights from June 1985 until last month.
Mr. Hasenfus said he made six flights out of El Salvador and four out of Aguacate, a rebel air base in Honduras that American officials say was built by United States Army engineers and then handed over to the C.I.A. three years ago.
Captain Wheelock gave reporters a telephone number in El Salvador that he said C.I.A. agents had given the plane's American crew members in case of trouble. He also gave the address in the Salvadoran capital of what he described as a C.I.A. safe house where some crew members stayed. Reporters in El Salvador found the house to be empty today.