Word: hasenfus
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...That's the same type of SAM they used to shoot down Eugene Hasenfus," a bystander remarks, referring to the CIA contractor pilot whose cargo plane was downed by Sandinista soldiers in 1986, while making a supply drop for "contra" insurgents. More recently, the U.S. has tried to get Nicaragua to destroy its remaining stockpile of surface-to-air missiles, allegedly out of fear they'll fall into terrorist hands. But Nicaragua has insisted it will hold on to its 400 SAM-7s for strategic defense purposes - and amusement park photo ops. (Read "Nicaragua: Where Every Day is Christmas...
...corporations.” The “Salvadorans in the World” convention was a panel-style conference featuring politicians and speakers from the Salvadoran community. “The conference claims to represent 500,000 Salvadorans living in the U.S.,” said demonstrator Sofia Hasenfus, “but it costs $50 per person to attend the panel. Do they really think immigrants have that kind of money to pay?” The Salvadoran population is the fastest growing Latino population in Massachusetts, with a 137 percent growth since 1990. According to the City...
Administration officials tried to counter charges that the U.S. had sponsored the Hasenfus flight by suggesting that he and the crew had been working for retired Army Major General John K. Singlaub, 65, the controversial head of a Phoenix-based group called the World Anti-Communist League, which raises money to support anti-Communist insurgents around the world. A frequent visitor to El Salvador, Singlaub is said to have helped the contras buy arms, but he denies any connection to the downed plane or its unfortunate crew...
...second press conference, Hasenfus said he was recruited to work in Central America last June by Cooper, the plane's pilot, whom U.S. intelligence sources describe as a veteran of CIA operations and the leader of the airborne contra-aid group in El Salvador. Hasenfus said he and Cooper had both flown missions in Southeast Asia for Air America, a CIA-owned carrier, during the Viet Nam era. Since June, Hasenfus claimed, he had flown on ten missions, four from Aguacate, a contra base in Honduras, and six from Ilopango. He said he was paid $3,000 a month...
Administration officials insisted that Hasenfus was singing under duress. Said Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams: "I'm confident they are telling him, 'If you say the things we want to hear, you'll be out in no time. If you don't cooperate, you'll be in prison for 30 years.' I hope no one will believe anything Hasenfus says until he can speak freely." Hasenfus was permitted to meet briefly with his wife Sally Jean, who traveled to Nicaragua from Wisconsin. At week's end two coffins containing the bodies of Cooper and Sawyer were unceremoniously dumped outside...