Iran-Contra Hearings Day 1 Part 24: Richard Secord Testimony Part 9 (1987)

May 5, 1987 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full hearing: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/08/iran-contra-hearings-day-1-richar...

Edén Atanacio Pastora Gómez (born in Ciudad Darío January 22, 1937) is a Nicaraguan politician who ran for president as the candidate of the Alternative for Change (AC) party in the 2006 general elections. He finished in 5th place. In the years prior to the fall of the Somoza regime, Pastora was the leader of the Southern Front, the largest militia in southern Nicaragua, second only to the FSLN in the north. Pastora was nicknamed Comandante Cero ("Commander Zero"). His group was the first to call itself "Sandinistas", and was also the first to accept an alliance with the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front), the group that was to become more popularly identified by the name. At the end of 1982, a few years after the revolutionary victory, he became disillusioned with the government of the FSLN, and formed the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (ARDE) with the object of confronting the "pseudo-Sandinistas" politically and militarily. He was reviled by Oliver North and other Reagan-era insiders for his refusal to subordinate to the CIA-backed FDN. He is also known for his unorthodox behavior in interviews. In an interview he responded to the question "what do you do to relax?" with the answer "I make love with my wife."

The seed for Pastora's revolutionary spirit was sown at the tender age of seven, when his father was assassinated by the Chief of Staff of Anastasio Somoza Garcia's National Guard. While in high school with the Jesuits in Granada, he first learned about Augusto Cesar Sandino through his Panamanian history teacher. He began his rebel career when he decided that the government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle was corrupt and formed the southern Nicaraguan ARDE from local peasant farmers (called campesinos) and aboriginal tribes living according to more traditional ways. Eden allied himself with the FSLN in the mid 1960s. He became a rebel guerrilla and was the mastermind behind the August 1978 standoff on the Nicaraguan National Palace, in which he and a 19 piece Commando of FSLN operatives, disguised as members of Somoza's National Guard, stormed the Palace, disarming or killing the real Nicaraguan National Guard members in the process. Among the hostages taken were members of the Nicaraguan Congress, which was in session at the time of the attack, and Somoza's half brother, José Somoza. Members of the commando used numbers as codenames, with Pastora as Zero, and Dora Maria Tellez as Commander "two" leading to a lasting identification of Eden as Comandante Cero and Dora Maria as Commander "two."

The operation was famed to have infuriated Somoza and was considered one of the turning points in the insurgency. Originally organised to free FSLN members imprisoned by the regime—among the prisoners being Daniel Ortega and Tomas Borge-the raid marked an uncontested victory for the FSLN, whether viewed in financial, political, or military terms. After negotiating a USD $500,000 deal with Somoza and Cardinal Miguel Obando, Pastora, Ortega and other released prisoners left for Cuba where he claimed to have been a "prisoner" lavished with women and luxury, but not allowed to leave the country until Martin, the son of then Panamanian strongman Omar Torrijos (His son, Martin Torrijos, is the ex-president of Panama) and Pastora's personal friend, voiced his concern and went to Cuba to personally rescue him.

Pastora was put in command of the FSLN's Southern Front, driving on the town of Rivas from bases in Costa Rica. In reaction to Pastora's widely held reputation, Somoza sent his best troops against him and as a consequence the Southern Front made little headway while suffering heavy casualties. However, the Southern Front contributed significantly to the Sandinista victory by tying down over 2000 strong heavy equipped Nicaraguan National Guard forces, as Somoza remained fixated on stopping Pastora, even as major cities fell to the rebels.

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[roberts11000]

I'm not hearing much in these hearings about the real terror the CIA sponsored Contras inflicted on the teachers, health care works and other soft targets which is terrorism, Yes you heard me , the U.S , Reagan were backing terrorists and the fact the issue at these hearings was the trivial lying to Congress when the real issue was the absolute terror is crazy.