From: cberlet@igc.apc.org (NLG Civil Liberties Committee)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: Bellant: Old Nazi Networks in US
Date: 12 Dec 92 02:28:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1299600110:cdp:1299600127:000:13356
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet    Dec 11 18:28:00 1992


/* Written  9:10 pm  Dec  8, 1992 by cberlet in igc:publiceye */
/* Written  8:30 pm  Dec  6, 1992 by cberlet in igc:p.news */
/* Written  7:34 pm  Mar  4, 1990 by nlgclc in igc:publiceye */
Bellant: Old Nazis/Allies 6
	     
PART THREE - SECTION 6
	
ALLIES AND ALLEGIANCES
	
     - Central America, Death Squads and the ASC -
	
      Much of Central America has been plagued by poverty, 
corruption and U.S.-backed dictatorships for most of this century.[f-350]
	
      In Nicaragua, the Somoza family had ruled from 1933 to 
1979. In the 1970's, a form of "crony capitalism" similar to that 
of former Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos also dominated 
the politics and economy of Nicaragua. Few prospered without the 
blessing of Anastasio Somoza. A small corrupt circle of wealthy 
landowners and National Guard leaders ruthlessly maintained their 
hold over Nicaragua.
	
      When the Somoza regime in Nicaragua collapsed and the 
Sandinista coalition came to power on July 19, 1979, the American 
Security Council was quick to respond. "The Marxist Threat to 
Central America" was the headline and sole topic of its 
newsletter, <Washington Report>, August, 1979. It immediately 
formed a Task Force on Central America. "The goal of that Task 
Force is to be an energizing element within the Congress and 
within the two political parties that would seek to force the 
[Carter] Administration to correct its policies toward Central 
America." By which they meant, get rid of the Sandinistas.
	
      The ASC Task Force on Central America included a handful of 
retired generals, including John Singlaub, Daniel O. Graham, 
Richard Stillwell, Gordon Sumner, William P. Yarborough and 
Alexander Haig. Congressional members included Larry McDonald 
(D-GA), George Hansen (R-ID), John Murphy (D-NY), Bob Stump 
(R-AR), and Charles Wilson (D-TX). Retired Admiral Thomas Moorer, 
also of the Task Force, saw threats "all the way from Mexico down 
to the Cape of South America." [f-351]
	
      The ASC sought to make a popular issue out of Nicaragua for 
the 1980 elections, just as the Panama Canal issue had aided the 
Right for the previous four years. The film "Attack on the 
Americas" was produced in 1980, the first of three ASC films on 
Central America. It depicted all revolution as the result of KGB 
machinations rather than as responses to conditions in Central 
America itself. Even Florida was judged to be threatened.
	
      As the Task Force name implied, the ASC was interested in 
all of Central America, not just Nicaragua. In 1979, a delegation 
of ASC leaders went to Guatemala and met with rightists connected 
to the death squads there. The delegation, led by Graham and 
Singlaub, told the ruling Guatemala military that they would urge 
Reagan to resume aid to the military dictatorship, which Carter 
had terminated because of the military's death squad activity. An 
estimated 100,000 deaths resulted from the brutal pacification 
programs in rural Guatemala in the late 1970's and early '80's. 
After the ASC delegation briefed him, one Guatemalan official was 
quoted as saying he felt the message was clear, "Mr. Reagan 
recognizes that a good deal of dirty work has to be done." Within 
days of the ASC visit, there was a dramatic increase in death 
squad activity. [f-352]
	
      Latin America has death squads, active or dormant, from 
Mexico to Argentina. Most, if not all, are linked to military 
intelligence and police or national guard units. [f-353] They 
also have above-ground political organizations complementing 
their covert activity. These political organizations publicly 
advocate the most extreme measures against dissent within their 
respective countries. [f-354]
	
      The ties between the legal political organizations, death 
squads, the American Security Council and World Anti-Communist 
League can be found in several countries including El Salvador, 
Guatemala, and Argentina.
	
      Such was the case with the Argentine Anti-Communist 
Alliance (AAA) in the 1970's. It was an organization of 
right-wing murder, terror, and propaganda whose activity was 
coordinated with the military regime. [f-355] It was also the 
Argentine branch of the World Anti-Communist League.[f-356]
	
      Roberto D'Aubuisson, closely identified with the death 
squads of El Salvador, is affiliated with the ARENA party and he 
serves as that country's representative to WACL.
	
      During a 1981 trip to Washington, D.C., Roberto D'Aubuisson 
was an honored guest at an ASC conference, although D'Aubuisson 
had already been linked to El Salvadoran death squad activities, 
including the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero. The purpose 
of the D'Aubuisson visit was to enhance his support in Congress. [f-357]
	
      The ASC also conducted an interview with D'Aubuisson in 
June of 1984 for its radio program that is broadcast into Latin 
America, and for the ASC newsletter. [f-358] A photo of ASC 
leader Samuel Dickens and D'Aubuisson still hangs on the ASC 
conference room wall. Dickens is a retired colonel who held 
various intelligence posts and headed the Air Force Directorate 
of Plans for the Western Hemisphere.
	
      In early 1987 the ASC also organized a Washington reception 
for Alfredo Christiani, D'Aubuisson's successor as head of the 
extreme right ARENA party. Over 150 attended the reception, 
according to the ASC. [f-359]
	
      As an ASC and World Anti-Communist League organizer, 
Singlaub also worked with D'Aubuisson. One mercenary magazine 
photo shows Singlaub and D'Aubuisson studying a military map in 
El Salvador. [f-360]
	
      Under Somoza in Nicaragua, the National Guard was the base 
of WACL. In Guatemala, Mario Sandoval Alarcon is the leader of 
the National Liberation Movement, a political party, as well as 
the leader of the death squads in that country. [f-361] He is 
also the Guatemalan representative to WACL.
	
      An official spokesman of the National Liberation Movement 
(MLN) glorified the violence of his movement in terms strikingly 
similar to those used by Mussolini:
	
     "I admit that the MLN is the party of organized violence. 
Organized violence is vigor, just as organized color is scenery 
and organized sound is harmony. There is nothing wrong with 
organized violence; it is vigor, and the MLN is a vigorous 
movement. [f-362]"
	
      The ASC view of death squads was probably best expressed by 
Neil Livingstone, whose Institute on Terrorism and Subnational 
Conflict  works out of the ASC offices. Often perceived as an 
opponent of terrorism, Livingstone wrote in <World Affairs>, 
Winter 1983-84, that "the problem of human rights is genuinely 
bad in Guatemala and El Salvador. We should not wring our 
hands, however, over this problem." After giving a misleading 
explanation of the origins of death squads, Livingstone advocates 
their use because "they have helped more governments remain in 
power than they have harmed." He offers Argentina as an example. 
>Argentina is one country where the death squads embraced the swastika.
	
      Livingstone, who also serves on the ASC Foundation's 
Strategy Board, wrote in <World and I>, (a monthly publication 
under the control of Rev. Sun Myung Moon), that "methods are 
needed that involve targeting individual terrorists and their 
leadership for assassination." [F-363] A box accompanying 
the article identifies such groups as the African National 
Congress and the ruling party of Zimbabwe as "terrorist." [f-364]
	
      Livingstone works with other Reagan Administration 
luminaries through his role with <World Affairs>, whose editorial 
board includes Jeane Kirkpatrick and her husband Evron; as well 
as pro-Contra activists Penn Kemble and Joshua Muravchic.
	
      Livingstone's Institute also employed Robert Owen, Oliver 
North's courier in secret Contra-support operations. Owen, a 
former staffer of then-Senator Dan Quayle, met with a key Contra 
organizer of the southern front against Nicaragua, John Hull, in 
Quayle's office. According to the <Wall Street Journal>, "After a 
long talk about conditions in Central America, Mr. Owen escorted 
Hull to the White House, where he met Col. [Oliver] North. In 
August, 1983, Mr. Owen testified that he made his first trip to 
Central America, traveling to Costa Rica on a round-trip ticket 
provided by Mr. Hull." [F-365]
	
      North discussed the secret operation with Livingstone. 
[f-366] According to the <Report of the <Congressional 
Committees Investigating the <Iran-Contra Affair>, Livingstone's 
Institute received at least $75,000 from International Business 
Communications (IBC). IBC was part of the Oliver North network 
which funded various pro-Contra operations while working closely 
with Carl "Spitz" Channel's National Endowment for the 
Preservation of Liberty>. [F-367]
	
      The ASC's Director for Inter-American Affairs is Samuel 
Dickens. An associate of contra military commander Enrique 
Bermudez when they were on the Inter-American Defense Board in 
1976, Dickens says that in 1981, "I took him to meet people at 
the State Department and Defense Department, saying this is a 
man, these are the efforts that should be supported." [f-368]
	
      Dickens traveled in Honduras in 1981 "on the border of 
Nicaragua. . .meeting and really reviewing some of his forces." 
He adds that "the ASC is one of a number of organizations that 
put [Congressional funding for the contras] really high on the 
priority list of things to accomplish."
	
      Connected into the Latin American extreme right, Dickens 
believes in a hardline military policy toward the civil war in El 
Salvador. In 1985, he wrote an article for <Replica> that 
attacked El Salvadoran President Napoleon Duarte's gestures 
toward negotiations with the FDR opposition. Dickens claimed that 
"Many people in El Salvador consider the word `negotiations' to 
be a `bad word,' and with complete justification." He called 
advocates of negotiations "dreamers." [F-369] In 1985, in 
another article in <Replica>, Dickens praised the founder of El 
Salvador's death squads as "the patriotic General Medrano," and 
called Medrano's critics "fools." [F-370] <Replica> is the 
magazine of the Tecos, a Mexican neo-Nazi group noted for 
bizarre anti-Semitism and for its longtime leadership of the 
Latin American affiliate of the World Anti-Communist League--an 
affiliate which served as the political umbrella of Latin 
America's death squads. [F-371]
	
      The same murderous policies pursued by the Romanian Iron 
Guard when it collaborated with Hitler are praised as appropriate 
and necessary by current ideologues in Latin America. The Iron 
Guard, for instance, appears to be allied with the Pinochet 
regime in Chile. Pinochet has personally met with Iron Guard 
leaders, and several Guardists proudly display photographs of 
themselves individually posing with Pinochet and his wife. In 
turn, Iron Guard propaganda, such as Alexander Ronnett's 
publication, <Potomac>, praises Chile, speaks of the "years of 
progress" under Pinochet, and expresses its hope "that other 
>nationalist governments will follow the example of President 
Pinochet." Pinochet is secretly funding WACL according to 
Ronnett. [F-372] That the Pinochet regime would ally 
itself with pro-Nazi elements was evident as early as 1974, when 
Chile's new ambassador to the United States met with Austin App 
and others to discuss improving Chile's image in the U.S. 
press. [f-373]
	
      In the introduction, by Dr. Dimitrie Gazdaru, to the 
English language translation of <For My Legionaries>, by Iron 
Guard founder Codreanu, the policies of the Iron Guard are seen 
as having current application in Latin America:
	
     ". . .level-headed youth in several parts of the convulsed 
globe are now being guided more and more by the doctrine of the 
movement ideated by Codreanu. The most telling demonstration of 
this is the recent recognition of it by healthy-minded youth in 
Chile, whose spokesman, an eminent university professor, clearly 
declares that the anti-communist victory there has initiated 
posthumous victories for Corneliu Codreanu.[f-374]"
	
      The ideological training of many of the Latin American 
death squad members emphasizes the brutal tactics and theories of 
Mussolini and Hitler. Sometimes the connection is quite direct. 
For instance, after WWII, Third Reich collaborator Klaus Barbie 
actually continued to ply his gruesome trade in Bolivia as an 
advisor to the government-sanctioned death squads and a supporter 
of a 1980 pro-Nazi coup. [f-375] Some death squad members have 
openly sported swastikas.
	
      These are the groups Singlaub, WACL and the ASC work with 
internationally. The words may change from Counter-insurgency to 
Special Operations to Low-Intensity Conflict, but these are 
merely deceptive terms for what history calls war. As an advisor 
to the Contras, the Pentagon, Oliver North and others, Singlaub 
provides advice based on his own experience, including Operation 
Phoenix, a covert operation which employed cross-border raids, 
terrorism and assassination against Vietnamese civilians. [f-376] 
Now applying those lessons to aid the Contras, Singlaub declared 
on the Phil Donahue show that "my life has been dedicated to... 
low-intensity warfare." [f-377]
	
Xref: sparky alt.conspiracy:12989 alt.revisionism:839