Pubdate: Sat, 04 Aug 2001 Source: Tampa Tribune (FL) Copyright: 2001, The Tribune Co. Contact: http://www.tampatrib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446 Section: Nation/World page 6 Author: Kevin G. Hall, of Knight Ridder Newspapers CIA PAID PERU SPY AGENCY IN DRUG WAR Early Ties May Come Back To Haunt U.S. LIMA, Peru - The Central Intelligence Agency paid the Peruvian intelligence organization run by fallen spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos $1 million a year for 10 years to fight drug trafficking, despite evidence that Montesinos was also in business with Colombia's big drug cartels, Knight Ridder has learned. Montesinos, 56 and in jail near Lima on corruption charges, is now dragging the CIA into his legal battles, asking Peruvian court officials to interrogate two CIA officers as part of his defense against charges of smuggling guns to guerrillas who allegedly provide protection to big drug cartels. Despite attempts by the U.S. government to distance itself from the powerful Peruvian intelligence chief, years of cooperation with Montesinos dating to the mid-1970s may be coming back to haunt the United States. U.S. Cultivated Montesinos New documents obtained by Knight Ridder show how the CIA and State Department first cultivated Montesinos decades ago. They also show how the U.S. government maintained a relationship with him for a quarter-century despite warnings that he was working for both sides in the drug war. In a document dated July 27, 1991, the U.S. Army Intelligence and Threat Policy Center reported that Peruvian Gen. Luis Palomino Rodriguez had arrived at a U.S. defense attache's home wearing a bulletproof vest and warned that Montesinos was trying to "frustrate joint U.S.-Peruvian counter-drug efforts." Judge Jimena Cayo Rivera- Schreiber, one of six judges on a special Peruvian anticorruption court that's probing alleged illicit activity by Montesinos, said in an interview that the former intelligence chief has given court officials the names of two CIA officers who can provide him with an alibi. Cayo would not name the officers. But he said Montesinos claims they can vouch that he had nothing to do with a ring that smuggled arms from Jordan through Peru to guerrillas in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. "He says it's the CIA that told him about this," Cayo said, adding that court officials are trying to get sworn statements from the CIA officials. Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to Knight Ridder that the CIA has told Peruvian investigators that the agency gave Montesinos' National Intelligence Service $1 million annually from 1990 to 2000. The CIA declined to comment. Investigators Follow Money Investigators are trying to determine whether Montesinos diverted any of the money the CIA provided for antidrug efforts into his own pockets. At least $270 million allegedly belonging to Montesinos has been found in secret bank accounts in Miami, New York and around the globe. Former Justice Minister Diego Garcia- Sayan, Peru's new foreign minister, charges that Montesinos may have stolen $800 million. The judges who are investigating Montesinos are able to provide the first glimpses of this highly secretive man. They describe him as compulsive, orderly and accustomed to stature. In prison, he has insisted on dining on Gerber baby food - to soothe his gastritis - with fancy cutlery brought by his family. Appearing to forget that he is imprisoned, he sought unsuccessfully to persuade his keepers to allow him a different menu each day, and to be served separate courses. "He is very sure of himself," Judge Magaly Bascones-Gomez Velasquez said. Montesinos was once a key ally of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and the architect of Peru's successful war against leftist rebels. Now he faces 57 cases and at least 168 criminal investigations, divided among the six anticorruption judges. The inquiries, which will end in public, probably televised, trials, cover 24 crimes that range from money laundering to organizing death squads, protecting drug lords and illegal arms trafficking. Sarkis Soghanalian, a Lebanese arms dealer of Armenian descent, has told Peruvian authorities that Montesinos arranged for an illegal shipment of up to 50,000 AK-47 assault rifles to be parachuted to Colombian guerrillas in the jungles. When news of the arms shipments broke in August 2000, Montesinos held a rare news conference to suggest that Peru had discovered the illegal activity and broken a gun-running ring. It was only the third time the shadowy spymaster had been photographed in a decade. Alleged Bribe Stirs Furor A month after the revelations about arms smuggling, a secretly taped video was released showing Montesinos allegedly bribing a Peruvian lawmaker. The furor that followed forced Montesinos into exile until he was captured in Venezuela on June 24. Former President Alberto Fujimori, a longtime ally of Montesinos and the United States, was implicated in the scandal, and in November he faxed his resignation from Japan, where he's been granted citizenship. Since his capture, speculation has been intense that Montesinos would try to link the United States to his illicit activities. The CIA and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have privately defended him against detractors in the past. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former antidrug czar Barry McCaffrey have both publicly said they tried to distance the Clinton administration from Montesinos and Fujimori but lost out to the CIA and DEA. A declassified DEA document written on Aug. 27, 1996, shows U.S. authorities knew of allegations Montesinos and the chairman of Peru's joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Nicolas Hermoza Rios, who also is in jail, took protection money from drug traffickers. Newly declassified U.S. government documents, not yet published but provided to Knight Ridder, show that the State Department and the CIA cultivated Montesinos as early as 1974. State Department documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit foreign policy center at George Washington University, indicate that the U.S. Embassy in Lima identified Montesinos as a potential ally and took him to Washington in 1976 when he was an obscure army captain. Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the archive, predicted that a Peruvian trial of Montesinos would produce "ample evidence" of the secret U.S. association with the spymaster. Documents show Montesinos was a political operative in the dictatorship of Juan Velasco when the U.S. government first sought him out. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake