Secret U.S. Bomb School Exposed
Klare, Michael & Stein, Nancy
When the new Costa-Gavras film State of Siege opened in commercial theaters in 1972 (a scheduled premier showing at the federally-funded J. F. Kennedy Arts Center was cancelled because of...
...Sudan...
...is politically identified with police terrorism...
...3. See: Jeff Radford, "The Brazilian Death Squads," The Nation, July 30, 1973, pp...
...20-5...
...subsequently, NACLA received a full set of the documents which were used in preparing the following story...
...Rep...
...Nevertheless, passage of these restrictions indicates a new determination on the part of some Congresspeople to obstruct Administration efforts to strengthen the repressive forces of favored Third World dictatorships...
...involvement appears in: "Uruguay Police Agent Exposes U.S...
...For most American viewers, these scenes must have appeared as mere cinemagraphic flourishes in a controversial film...
...9 Considering the extent of U.S...
...The compromise measure failed to affect training at the International Police Academy, however, and it is already obvious that opponents of the Public Safety program will have to watch very carefully for Administration maneuvers designed to evade the intent of the bill...
...Agency for International Development (AID) acknowledged September 25, 1973 that AID's Office of Public Safety (OPS) provides instruction for foreign policemen in the design, manufacture and employment of homemade bombs and incendiary devices at the U.S...
...1443) to require an orderly phase-out of existing police training programs abroad and a oan on any new programs...
...Advisors," NACLA's Latin America & Empire Report, July-August, 1972, pp...
...and, Joseph Novitaki, "It Doesn't Pay to Take on the Death Squads," The New York Times, August 8, 1971...
...4,091 206 3 Ecuador 3,715 229 3 El Salvador 2,040 220 1 Guatemala 4,480 373 7 Guyana 1,299 45 - Honduras 1,625 102 3 Jamaica 695 72 1 Mexico 745 65 - Nicaragua 224 28 2 Panama 1,979 336 3 Paraguay - 21 - Peru 4,142 151 - Uruguay 2,188 141 4 Venezuela 3,375 583 4 Other countries 582 38 - Regional costs 1,468 - - NON-REGIONAL 2,025 - "aSource: U.S...
...FOOTNOTES: 1. Nelson Fonseca, quoted in the Miami Herald, July 24, 1970...
...312 97 - CENTO/Region 235 61 - AFRICA, Total Cent...
...Philippines...
...Bardesio also speculates that Cantrell was in fact working for the CIA--which is highly possible given the fact that ex-AID official David Fairchild revealed that the CIA used the Public Safety program in the Domigican Republic as a cover for six of its agents...
...Zambia...
...Region/Country r IUruguayan and Brazilian police forces is very strong, with one Brazilian diplomat offering to install equipment for direct radio communications between Brasilia.and Montevideo...
...22 - (By Fiscal Year...
...The Brazilian Death Squads--notorious for the mutilation of their victims--are closely linked to the police and the military intelligence service and operate with the tacit approval of the military junta...
...itures Trained Advisors Tunisia 924 118 1 Upper Volta 219 14 - Zaire (Congo) 4,729 139 10 Other countries 1,624 169 - LATIN AMERICA, Total 54,285 4,170 43 Argentina 120 84 - Bolivia 2,141 119 2 Brazil 8,612 654 1 Chile 2,386 107 - Colombia 6,584 446 5 Costa Rica 1,794 150 4 Dominican Rep...
...308,623 7,480 419 EAST ASIA, Total 212,487 1,600 352 Burma 195 - - Cambodia 2,583 - - Guam - 3 - Indonesia 10,121 240 - Korea 7,432 47 - Laos 4,567 61 9 Philippines 5,106 215 8 Thailand 88,436 561 39 Vietnam (S...
...8 (Fleury, a leader in the campaign against Brazil's urban guerrillas, has been identified by hundreds of political prisoners as the man who supervised their torture...
...The investigation was finally suspended when witnesses implicated Sergio Fleury--a top officer of the political police--in Death Squad executions...
...Ecuador...
...involvement in the organization, training and equipping of Uruguay's Death Squad is abundantly described in the testimony of Nelson Bardesio--a police photographer and Death Squad member who was kidnapped and interrogated by Tupamaro guerrillas in 1972...
...165 Source: U.S...
...According to the AID documents, students in the Technical Investigations Course first attend a four-week preliminary session at the International Police Academy (IPA) in Washington, D.C., where they are treated to lectures on such subjects as: Basic Electricity ("Problems involving electricity as applied to explosives are given"), Introduction to Bombs and Explosives ("A lecture/ demonstration" on "the various types of explosives and explosive systems"), Incendiaries ("A lecture/ demonstration of incendiary devices"), and Assassination Weapons ("A discussion of various weapons which may be used by the assassin...
...Uruguay Police Agent," p. 25...
...In its memo to Senator Abourezk, Harvey argues that the Technical Investigations Course was set up to help foreign policemen develop "countermeasures" against terrorist attacks on banks, corporations, and embassies...
...b and previous editions...
...Embassy and Public Safety personnel as intelligence operatives who met regularly with members of the DII...
...I As depicted in State of Siege, these groups engage in kidnapping, torture, assassination and bombing...
...police advisers were officially with- drawn under the terms of the Jan...
...When the new Costa-Gavras film State of Siege opened in commercial theaters in 1972 (a scheduled premier showing at the federally-funded J. F. Kennedy Arts Center was cancelled because of official displeasure), U.S...
...After event, several dozen police officers were arrested and later convicted of murder and other terrorist crimes During their trials, links were established between the Death Squads and numerous military officers, officials, and even a state governor...
...CAll U.S...
...Chad Dahomey Ethiopia Ghana Ivory Coast Kenya Liberia Libya Malagasy Rep...
...In addition to Cantrell, Bardesio identified other U.S...
...Guyana...
...Uruguay...
...Costa Rica...
...As part of this process, U.S...
...but this myth only provides a cover for the kidnapping and assassination of political activists, and their sympathizers, while creating a climate of terror in the country...
...Already the relationship between the - 21 -r U.S...
...AID Police Plan for 1971-72," NACLA's Latin America & Empire Report, July-August, 1971, p. 18...
...NEAR EAST & S. ASIA Afghanistan...
...Now, over a year later, comes new evidence that State of Siege was unerringly accurate in its portrayal of U.S...
...dSource: U.S...
...Jordan...
...1973 peace settlement...
...In his testimony (which served as the basis for several scenes in State of Siege) Bardesio named Uruguayan police officers and military officials who participated in specific Death Squad assassinations and bombings with the approval of government officials--including the Minister of the Interior...
...and Incendiaries...
...Since it is obvious that the American public will not permit massive numbers of U.S...
...In addition, the United States can take credit for the construction, equipping and development of curriculum, staff and faculty for Brazil's National Police Academy, National Telecommunications Center and National Institutes of Criminalistics and Identification...
...Venezuela...
...police programs abroad, Congress in December 1973 took the first steps toward abolition of the Public Safety program, 400 - 23 - After defeating more decisive measures (the "Abourezk Amendment" calling for complete termination of all police programs), the legislature voted, in the Foreign Assistance Authorization Bill (S...
...Includes training at the International Police Academy, the FBI Academy, and other schools...
...El Grafico (Guatemala City), October 30, 1973...
...Public Safety Advisor William Cantrell...
...African Rep...
...Embassy personnel periodically solicited specific informat on from the DII for their own intelligence work...
...Explosive Charges...
...Electric Priming...
...4 The use of terrorism to intimidate Third World populations is considered an essential element of America's post-Vietnam strategy for social control in the Third World...
...Mexico...
...involvement in the Brazilian police apparatus, it is safe to assume that U.S...
...EUROPE Germany...
...police training grants in the region...
...But State Department documents unearthed by Senator James Abourezk (D-S.D...
...The material on U.S...
...1 1 In addition, according to Bardesio, two Uruguayan intelligence officials received Death Squad-type training in Brazil...
...Despite such obfuscation, there is a growing consciousness in Congress that the United States is deeply involved in political terrorism in Latin America...
...Pakistan...
...Dominicana...
...9. "Tortures Continue Unabated," Brazilian Information Bulletin, August-September, 1971, p. 11...
...1 0 In line with the Nixon Doctrine, it is likely that these institutions are also being expanded to take over the training of other Third World policemen because of the growing criticism of such training in the United States...
...Thus a recent article in a conservative Costa Rican newspaper called for the formation of a native Death Squad to deal with the growing criminal violence in that country.1 2 Often, the progovernment press has portrayed the Death Squads as executing petty criminals in an effort to wipe out crime in the streets...
...aid programs to Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, Pat M. Holt, a staff assistant to the Senate Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, reported that "The U.S...
...Guatemala...
...All costs of the training--rated at $1,750 per student--are borne by AID...
...movie critics generally confined their comments to the "aesthetic" qualities of the film and avoided discussion of the movie's charges of U.S...
...5With Johnson's words in mind, it comes as no surprise that the countries with the most active para-police assassination squads--Brazil, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay--are also the recipients of the largest U.S...
...Third World regimes without deploying U.S...
...Public Safety Program, 1961-72 Dollars in Thousands) Officers Expend- Trained itures in U.S.b U.S...
...Jamaica...
...He also reported that the Death Squad had ample supplies of explosive materials used in the manufacture of homemade bombs and booby traps...
...Tunisia...
...Congress, House Committee on Ap- propriations, Foreign Assistance Appropriations for FY 1973, Hearings, 92d Cong., 2d Sess., Part II, 1972, p. 805...
...The Washington Post, January 3, 1972...
...Border Patrol Academy in Los Fresnos, Texas...
...their victims range from petty criminals to students, folksingers, academicians, and political activists...
...Indeed, once a "trainee" becomes proficient in bomb techniques, there is no stopping him from using them offen- 19TABLE I: FOREIGN POLICEMEN TRAINED AT U.S...
...For full text of the report, see: U.S...
...BOMB SCHOOL LOS FRESNOS, TEX...
...Later, the same officer is linked to a rightist "Death Squad" implicated in multiple murders--some performed with explosives--of prominent Uruguayan radicals...
...combat forces...
...Bardesio also testified that Cantrell (who he sometimes served as chauffeur) made daily trips between the DII, Montevideo police headquarters and the U.S...
...Honduras...
...Korea...
...2. For the script of State of Siege and supporting documents, see State of Siege (New York: Ballantine Books, 1973...
...Niger Nigeria Somali Republic 25,802 241 527 323 2,924 131 743 697 3,464 444 454 398 3,400 4,560 983 11 12 22 116 43 3 16 113 22 1 16 43 125 16 2 3 Region/Country Expend- Officers U.S...
...Brazil...
...2 Week after week, the Latin American press announces the death of yet another body...
...This "preemptive" strategy was described by Under Secretary of State U. Alexis Johnson in a 1971 speech to IPA graduates as follows: "Effective policing is like 'preventive medicine.' The police can deal with threats to internal order in their formative states...
...complicity in right-wing police terrorism in Latin America...
...It is generally acknowledged that the Death Squads are made up of "off duty" policemen and representatives of the civil and military intelligence services...
...some estimates of the number of persons executed by the Death Squads in Brazil exceed 1,500.3 Frequently, the bodies of these victims are found with cards boasting of the work of the Death Squad--clearly the intent is to intimidate the population and discourage the development of any opposition to the established regime...
...Lecture/demonstrations encompass such topics as: Characteristics of Explosives...
...Saudi Arabia...
...In a memorandum to Senator Abourezk, Matthew Harvey of the U.S...
...See Table II...
...According to AID, these sessions include "practical exercises" with "different types of explosive devices and 'booby-traps...
...AID officials knew of and supported police participation in Death Squad raids against Leftists...
...Agency for International Development, Operations Report, Data as of June 30, 1972...
...ground troops to be employed in future counterrevolutionary wars, the Nixon Administration seeks to eliminate all threats to pro-U.S...
...Thus in hearings on the Foreign Aid program, Senator Proxmire summed up the results of the Public Safety Program in Brazil as follows: "The biggest program we had was in Brazil, a program which went on for more than 10 years--at the end of a 10-year period we have an account of a death squad in which 15 police have been arrested...
...l 1 3 In a report of U.S...
...Panama...
...Agency for International Development, memo to Senator J. Abourezk, Sept...
...Homemade Devices...
...1969-73 Number Country: Trained: LATIN AMERICA Bolivia...
...After completion of the preliminary course, the "trainees" are flown to Los Fresnos for the four week "field sessions...
...6. Bardesio's testimony was inserted in the Uruguayan Congressional Record and subsequently published in Marcha (Montevideo), April 28, 1972...
...AFRICA Kenya...
...In his testimony (which was recorded in the presence of the President of Uruguay's Chamber of Deputies), Bardesio affirmed that the Department of Information and Intelligence (DII)--a government agency which provided an official "cover" for the Death Squad-was set up with the advice and financial assistance of U.S...
...For years no one dared testify against the Death Squad members, but in 1970 the incidence of murders increased dramatically: the "Ten for One" (reprisal) dictum had become a basic tenet of police work in Brazil, and, following the murder of a Sao Paulo police investigator, nearly 20 people were summarily executed by the police...
...At one point in the film, an Uruguayan police officer is shown receiving training in the manufacture and use of explosive devices at a secret training school in the Southwestern United States...
...In State of Siege, sample bombs are exploded in buildings, automobiles, and in a 'public plaza' filled with dummies...
...Colombia...
...British Honduras...
...U.S...
...94,047 439 196c Other Countries - 34 - N. EAST & S. ASIA 14,014 731 8 Greece 129 34 - Iran 1,712 218 - Jordan 2,536 65 - Lebanon 149 15 - Nepal 188 - - Pakistan 8,553 125 1 Saudi Arabia - 75 7 Turkey 200 41 - United Arab Rep...
...Thailand...
...The Public Safety program in Brazil has assisted in training locally over 100,000 federal and state police personnel, while an additional 600 high-ranking officers received training at the International Police Academy and other schools in the United States...
...The members of the Death Squad are policemen," Sao Paolo's top criminal judge affirmed in 1970, "and everyone knows it...
...20 - sively--against criminal enterprises or, as in State of Siege--against opponents of the ruling oligarchy...
...Although Harvey stresses the "defensive" nature of the training program, he admits that the Department of Defense found the subject matter so inherently sensitive that it refused to provide instructors for the course--thus forcing AID to get help from the CIA...
...The existence of the Abourezk papers was first disclosed in Jack Anderson's syndicated column for October 8, 1973...
...El Salvador...
...Government has trained foreign police officers in bomb design at a remote camp in Texas, and that at least 16 Uruguayan policemen received such training...
...Should they not be prepared to do this, 'major surgery' may be required in the sense that considerable force would be needed to redress those threats...
...Prominent entries include Bolivia (3 students), Brazil (6), Guatemala (18), the Dominican Republic (4), Chile (5), Uruguay (16), Korea (3), Thailand (10), Iran (2), and the Philippines (5...
...This action is painful and expensive and often disruptive in itself...
...Such concern becomes justified when one examines a list of countries represented at the Texas bomb school: almost every country in Latin America is on the list, as are such conservative Middle Eastern nations as Saudi Arabia and Jordan...
...Electric Firing Devices...
...7. "USAID in the Dominican Republic - An Inside View," NACLA's Latin America & Empire Report, November, 1970, pp...
...Senate, Committee on Appropriations, Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1972, Hearings, 92d Cong., 1st Sess., 1971, p. 748...
...8. Charles Antoine, "Indicting the Death Squad and the Regime," Le Monde, Weekly English Edition, May 6-12, 1971...
...1 4 As a result of such findings, and the growing opposition to U.S...
...Fabrication and Functioning of Devices...
...Iran...
...Trinidad...
...show beyond a doubt that the U.S...
...71-3...
...In order to develop countermeasures, however, the trainee must first study "home laboratory techniques" used "in the manufacture of explosives and incendiaries"--only then, according to AID's argument, will he be able "to take preventive action to protect lives and property...
...Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, Staff Memorandum, 92d Cong., 1st Sees., 1971...
...See Table I.) Indeed, there is mounting evidence that some Third World policemen (particularly in Latin America) are themselves engaged in terrorist activities, utilizing their U.S.-supplied training in vigilante assassination teams like La Mano Blanca (White Hand) and Ojo por Ojo (Eye for an Eye) in Guatemala, La Banda (The Band) in the Dominican Republic, and the "Death Squads" in Brazil and Uruguay...
...Nigeria...
...Vietnam...
...Chile...
...At least 165 policemen--mostly from Third World countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America--have taken this "Technical Investigations Course" since it was first offered in 1969...
...3 6 1 19 4 5 6 7 18 1 4 22 7 4 5 16 3 1 3 5 10 1 1 2 2 1 6 3 2 2 4 6 3 TOTAL...
...19, 1973...
...1-10...
...Public Safety Advisorsd WORLDWIDE, Total...
...counterinsurgency programs in Latin America...
...E. ASIA & PACIFIC Guam...
...4. "Rio's Death Squads," Newsweek, August 9, 1971 5. U. Alexis Johnson, "The Role of Police Forces in a Changing World," Department of State Bulletin, September 13, 1971, p. 282...
...By building up a powerful and ruthless police force in each country, the United States can insure that radical movements will be destroyed before they present a significant military threat...
...A macabre legend has emerged surrounding the operation of such para-police groups as "Ojo por Ojo", in Guatemala, "La Banda" in the Dominican Republic and other Death Squad organizations...
...Here, all lectures are delivered at an outdoor "laboratory" presided over by CIA instructors...
...The police assistance program in Guatemala, where right-wing paramilitary organizations have run rampant for many years and have carried out nearly 1,000 murders, "has cost the United States more in political terms than it has gained in improved Guatemalan police efficiency...
...Holt concluded that the effect of the public safety program has been marginal...
...Embassy to insure the steady transfer of intelligence data and effective coordination of extra-legal operations...
Vol. 8 • January 1974 • No. 1
