A witness set to testify in a trial alleging illegal drug and gun smuggling was dead. In late 1986, 27-year-old Steven Carr collapsed outside of a home in Los Angeles from a suspected drug overdose. A source claimed he had been fearful of being killed by the CIA. Carr had been slated to speak to a Senate investigation investigating the Iran-Contra arms sales scandal, in which the U.S. government had continued to illegally fund the Contras, the common name for various guerrilla groups supported by the CIA to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. He was also set to testify as to his knowledge of the rebel groups engaging in illicit activities. This civil lawsuit, which had begun earlier that year, invoked the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act and accused 29 individuals of being part of a longstanding conspiracy involving drugs, guns, and assassinations. The roots of this case began with a crime perpetrated on an offshoot Contra group at an event attended by journalists. The intended target was a Contra leader who steadfastly refused to accede to the demands of the CIA.
The Crime
On May 29, 1984, Peter Torbiornsson, a Swedish TV journalist, was discussing his request to interview Eden Pastora with his cousin and spokesman, Orion Pastora, near the entrance of the Gran Hotel in Costa Rica. A former high-ranking member of the Sandinistas, in 1982 Eden Pastora had declared war on the government after resigning his post, founding the Contra group known as the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ARDE), which operated in southern Nicaragua. As a precondition for significant aid, the CIA had already successfully merged several smaller Contra groups into the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN), which had been receiving the bulk of U.S. assistance. Pastora explained in a radio interview his opposition to joining the rival FDN: “There are strong pressures by the CIA. And they have blocked all help to us. For the last two months, we have not received a bullet or a pair of boots, we have not received anything.” In a TV interview he went further, claiming that in order for the ARDE to join the FDN “the CIA will have to kill me first.”
Torbiornsson was looking to speak with Pastora, but so were many other journalists and in response a press conference was planned to take place at one of the remote ARDE camps. Present at the discussion of logistics was Per Anker Hansen, a freelance photographer from Denmark, who mostly stayed quiet but spoke enough for Orion to notice his Spanish was fluent enough to sound “like a Latin.” The following morning, around two dozen journalists, including Torbiornsson and Hansen, were stationed in the parking lot of the Irazu Hotel in Costa Rica’s capital, San José. As the press conference was scheduled to occur on the Nicaraguan side of the Juan River, ARDE vehicles were expected to take the journalists to a hamlet called Boca Tapada, the farthest destination reachable by road, before boats would take them to the camp. Confusion ensued with less vehicles arriving than anticipated and Orion stepping in to block ABC-TV journalist Tony Avirgan from attending the press conference. The ire against Avirgan had been fueled by reports from ABC and the New York Times of ARDE’s assistance from the CIA and its operations in Costa Rica, which resulted in an ARDE command post being raided by the Costa Rican government. Pastora was subsequently banned from the country, the Costa Ricans stating his presence violated their neutrality in the conflict. Susan Morgan of Newsweek and others came to Avirgan’s defense, who were able to convince Orion to allow Avirgan and his sound technician, Edgar Ulate, to attend the press conference.
“Everything got screwed up as usual, but we are just about to get on our way,” Linda Frazier, reporter for the Tico Times, explained in a call to her office. The trip was akin to a “Sunday picnic,” according to Reid Miller, an Associated Press correspondent, who was one of twelve journalists transported by ARDE jeeps. Frazier, Hansen, Torbiornsson, and his cameraman Fernando Prado also rode in one of these vehicles. Avirgan took his own jeep and brought with him Morgan, Ulate, Agence France-Presse correspondent Gilberto Lopez and Xinhua News Agency correspondent Roberto Cruz. This “carload of leftists” as later described by the Costa Rican press would make them the first suspects.
Hansen, who smoked calmly throughout his entire ride, had originally offered his assistance to Torbiornsson and Prado in carrying their camera equipment, but he seemed preoccupied with his aluminum case that held his cameras. Torbiornsson reflected on its odd shape: “It seemed like an awfully bulky thing just for a few cameras and lenses.” Once they arrived in Boca Tapada, the sun was fading in the distance and clouds covered the sky, as the journalists set out on their final stage of the journey: a two-hour trip by canoe to the guerilla camp called La Penca.
Despite previous threats on Pastora’s life, none of the journalists’ credentials or equipment were examined upon their arrival at the camp after sundown at approximately 7:00 pm. The reporters struggled up a muddy riverbank to a wooden shack where Eden Pastora was to greet them. Since the darkness had already set in, Pastora decided to push the official press conference to the next day, but having already made the trip, the journalists elected to stay and ask questions. Hansen placed his camera case on the floor near a counter, close to where Pastora was standing and speaking with the reporters. Hansen began taking pictures, loudly expressing his displeasure with his malfunctioning camera. He soon backed away, heading towards a door that led to an outer stairway.
The journalists moved in closer to Pastora, asking him questions regarding the state of his leadership of ARDE and the possibility of a merger with FDN. Regarding the latter question, Pastora responded, “I would rather die.” Within moments, Rosa Alvarez, a radio operator with the ARDE, brought a cup of coffee over to Pastora and in the process may have kicked Hansen’s camera case. The aluminum case concealed a bomb in its hidden lower shelf, which exploded at 7:20 pm, killing her instantly.
A “huge bolt of blue light” ripped large holes in the ceiling and floor and wounded nearly everyone in the room. At first, there was stunned silence, followed by moaning in pain: “God help me. Please help me,” could be heard. Chaos ensued as wounded victims tried to locate their colleagues and escape to the outside area, where an ARDE guerilla was firing his submachinegun into the jungle. Seven died in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, including five ARDE members and two journalists, Linda Frazier and Jorge Quiros from Costa Rica’s Channel 6. An additional victim, Channel 6 journalist, Evelio Sequeria, died a week later from injuries sustained in the blast. Up to 20 journalists and an unknown number of ARDE members were wounded and suffered from burns, lost limbs, impaired hearing, shrapnel wounds, and months of incapacitation, a group which consisted of Avirgan, Cruz, Lopez, Miller, Morgan, Prado, Torbiornsson, and Ulate.
Pastora, the intended target, survived but sustained burns to his upper body and face, as well as shrapnel wounds to his legs. He was rushed into a speedboat while the journalists’ pleas to also take the seriously wounded Frazier and Quiros went unheeded. Orion Pastora had been situated in a back room and was unhurt by the blast. He later attempted to justify the action taken to save his cousin before assisting others: “We thought it was a Sandinista ambush and we had to make the object of the attack—Pastora—disappear from the scene. We didn’t know then who was behind it.” Minutes after Pastora had left the scene, Orion saw Hansen at the bottom of the stairs “bumping around among some oil drums.” Hansen asked about the location of his “friends” Torbiornsson and Prado, but Orion was unaware of their whereabouts. Another ARDE member had seen Hansen outside just before the blast, explaining his presence saying that he was a journalist who had exited the building to “take a leak.” A photo of Hansen sprawled close to the oil drums was used in newspapers worldwide to showcase the horror of the event, the papers unwittingly featuring the bombing perpetrator rather than a victim.
The only doctor had left with Pastora and the victims were therefore left waiting for an hour for basic first aid treatment. A canoe left around the same time, Hansen slipping in with the more seriously wounded, which included Susan Morgan. Other journalists with serious injuries waited 4 to 5 hours for the canoes to make round trips to Boca Tapada, where ambulances were waiting for another 2 ½-hour ride to a hospital in San Carlos, Nicaragua. Hansen arrived among the first group of the injured at the hospital at midnight, additional victims arriving 45 minutes later. Doctors could only find two superficial cuts on Hansen’s right arm; otherwise, he appeared to be uninjured. He watched from a wheelchair those being admitted to the hospital, asking staff for a list of those wounded, particularly enquiring about Pastora’s condition. In a final ironic twist, ARDE’s plan to evacuate Pastora first backfired when delays in securing air transportation meant that Pastora ultimately arrived later than the journalists at the San Carlos hospital.
That night, Hansen declined an interview with La Republica, saying that he did not speak Spanish. However, later in the evening he accepted a 10-minute interview in Spanish with Radio Cima, claiming the explosion had caused him to fall down the stairs. The next morning, Hansen and Torbiornsson, who had suffered some shrapnel wounds and burns, checked out of the hospital and took a taxi back to San José. Torbiornsson noticed that while Hansen again smoked constantly on this trip, he now appeared to be nervous for the first time. After arriving at their hotel, 20 minutes later Torbiornsson found Hansen downstairs checking out, explaining that he was “leaving for Miami.” Hotel staff reported he never called a taxi and simply walked outside, suitcase in hand and bag over his shoulder, never to be seen again.
The Secret Team
“Pastora was a pain in the butt to everyone. The Sandinistas, the CIA, his wife. You name it, and they might have tried to kill him."
-Curtin Windsor, former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica
Avirgan and his wife, Martha Honey, in their search for answers on the bombing, produced a book detailing their research. They posited their findings pointed in one direction as to the perpetrators: “Those who hired the assassin include the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), members of the MDN and FDN contra organizations, and Cuban Americans in Miami…While recognizing that the Sandinistas had reasons for wanting to kill him and the capacity to do so, we have not found any concrete evidence that they were responsible for La Penca. Neither have other journalists, Costa Rican investigators, or Pastora’s wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ARDE).”
Their report identified John Hull, a Contra supporter in Costa Rica, as a member of the group that planned the attack and noted that Contra supporters were financing the cause in part through the drug trade. Hull filed a libel lawsuit against them in Costa Rica for $1 million and defendants Avirgan and Honey were able to win the case on technical grounds. They turned to pursuing a civil action in the United States against those they believed had perpetrated the bombing. The two found a lawyer willing to take their case: Daniel Sheehan, the founder of a non-profit law firm known as the Christic Institute.
After meeting with contractors frustrated by their inability to secure government contracts for the Contra and Mujahedeen efforts, as well as imprisoned former CIA officer Edwin Wilson, Sheehan became convinced that their stories of private-public partnerships to commit illegal acts were connected to the La Penca bombing. More than an isolated incident, he saw it as the part of the broader context of what he termed the Secret Team: a mix of government officials and private mercenaries that worked outside of the regular branches of government. These individuals were involved in covert operations, including selling drugs and guns to fund illicit activities, as well as conducting assassinations. The connections dated back to the 1960s with CIA-trained Cuban exiles attempting to overthrow Fidel Castro, the secret war in Laos, the CIA’s Phoenix program in Vietnam, and the present-day Iran-Contra affair. Wilson identified Ted Shackley, a former high-level CIA official, as the person in charge of a private hit squad with operations spreading out across the entire globe. “Wilson went into such detail,” Sheehan recounted of this key source of information. “It’s not something that’s being made up.”
Avirgan and Honey let Sheehan merge their bombing case with his unified theory of covert operations. “We saw John Hull as the center, and Sheehan saw it as Shackley,” Honey recalled. The Christic Institute filed the lawsuit on May 29, 1986 in Miami and sought $22.4 million in damages from 29 individuals on behalf of Avirgan and Honey, including John Hull, Cuban exiles in Miami, arms dealers, a mercenary, an aide to Oliver North, and other figures from the Iran-Contra affair such as John Singlaub, Albert Hakim, Richard Secord, Thomas Clines, and Ted Shackley, among others. The suit also accused one Amac Galil, said to be the true identity of Per Anker Hansen, as the agent responsible for the La Penca bombing. Based on the research of Avirgan and Honey, he was identified as a Libyan-born hit man paid $50,000 by the CIA to assassinate Pastora.
Expectations for the trial were high, as supporters viewed this as an important step in taking on dozens of current and former operatives of the national security establishment. “The Christic Institute’s court declaration represents a year of relentless research into the activities of members of the United States’ invisible government that have gone far beyond the laws of God, governments, and society,” said former CIA officer and critic John Stockwell. “If there remains any justice, indictments and civil judgements will follow.” Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg enthused that “The Christic Institute’s Contragate project has the potential of enlightening the American public—more than anything I’ve seen since the Pentagon Papers and the Church Committee investigation—on the hidden arms and instruments of our covert foreign policy over the last two generations. I don’t know of a single effort in the country at this time more worthy of support than this project.”
Beginning in 1979 and over 12 years, as General Counsel for the Institute, Daniel Sheehan had helped prosecute some of their successful lawsuits, which included:
Representing victims of the nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island;
Securing damages in a civil suit against the KKK and American Nazi Party for the murder of five civil rights protestors in the Greensboro Massacre; and
Defending Catholic workers providing sanctuary to Salvadoran refugees in the American Sanctuary Movement.
One of the defendants, John K. Singlaub, a former member of the OSS, CIA and U.S. Army, charged the motivation for the lawsuit as being financial: “I think that the Christic Institute is interested in raising money and they have formed this group of lawyers who are in fact primarily concerned with raising money…I can’t imagine how they were able to get the imagination to develop such a wild conspiracy theory.” In a separate TV appearance, Sheehan countered: “We’re willing to go to court and prove what we’ve said. We’ve done it in every case we’ve ever done, we’ve never lost a single one of our cases. We prosecuted the people in the courts and convicted them and we’re going to do it for these people too.”
The lawsuit had identified some of the key players now known to be part of the Iran-Contra scandal, bolstering the credibility of the complainants’ case. Sheehan supplemented the filing with his own affidavit, purporting to be supported by the testimonials of 79 witnesses with knowledge of the bombing and its connection to past international terrorist acts. On January 30, 1987, in a surprise move from the defendants’ perspective, the judge allowed the case to proceed to discovery. As one of the Christic Institute members explained, “The judge has ruled it’s a valid suit now legally, we now have subpoena power, not just over these individuals but over documents, very wide subpoena power because of the racketeering law...we have now begun to take depositions.”
What none of those involved in the case knew at the time was that there was an attendee from the press conference who had inside information as to the ultimate perpetrators that could have helped to solve the case, but who was purposely remaining quiet, betraying them all with his silence.
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