Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2001
Source: Aberdeen American News (SD)
Copyright: 2001 Aberdeen American News
Contact:  http://web.aberdeennews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1484
Author: Knight Ridder Tribune News Wire

PERUVIAN SPY CHIEF PAID BY CIA

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 that he 
helped smuggle 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. New 
documents obtained by Knight Ridder show how the CIA and State Department 
first cultivated Montesinos decades ago, and 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 
showed up 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 
anti-corruption court that's probing alleged illicit activity by 
Montesinos, said in an interview last week 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 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 are trying to determine whether Montesinos diverted any of 
the money the CIA provided for anti-drug 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.

Once a key ally of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and the 
architect of Peru's successful war against leftist rebels, Montesinos now 
faces 57 cases against him and at least 168 criminal investigations, 
divided among the six anti-corruption judges. The probes, which will end in 
public and probably televised trials, cover 24 crimes from money 
laundering, illicit enrichment and corruption to organizing death squads, 
protecting drug lords and illegal arms trafficking.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens