wSTAT E OF SEIGE IS BASED ON FACT! am* f*»' ÇIA Teaches at 'Terror School' Phila. Bulletin, 10/8/73

By JACK ANDERSON school come from military-backed regimes such Washington — Bomb and booby-trap experts as those in Brazil, Guatemala, Thailand, Uru­ from the Central Intelligence Agency have been guay, Panama and El Salvador. Only a thin quietly training foreign police to make explosive blue line of policemen is trained for the demo­ devices at an isolated federal school in Texas. cracies. The tutelage is so dubious that the Pentagon AID officials explained to us that they have has refused to have anything to do with it. had fewer requests for the "technical investiga­ tions course" from democracies. The bomb- The cloak-and-dagger professors are on loan building course, they add, is only part of the from the CIA to the Agency for International curriculum at the Texas hideaway. The visiting Development, which runs the school at the Bor­ police are also taught bomb squad organization, der Patrol Academy in Los Fresnos, Tex. record keeping and a course called "press re­ The existence of the school was first depicted leases and press relations." in the movie "" in which foreign At the CIA, a spokesman said the decision to police were shown being trained to use bombs help with the anti-bomb courses was associated and booby traps against political opponents. But because the film was propagandists, few took with terrorist attacks on American personnel seriously the reality of the "terror school." and facilities in foreign lands. The courses are now being reviewed. Dubious bui curious, Sen. James Abourezk (D-SD) began a quiet investigation. His con­ fidential findings raise disquieting questions about America's police aid to military juntas. IN ONE MEMO wrung from AID by Abou­ rezk, Assistant Administrator Matthew Harvey MV\# «icedes that the Defense Department refused ^T[ mmmW leach the bomb course when it was set up in Rmil 9. Therefore, "the Central Intelligence Agen­ cy agreed to provide guest lecturers for this portion of the training program." At the secret school, he says, demonstrations are given of "the construction, use and counter- measures against homemade bombs and ex­ plosive devices used by criminal terrorists," The foreign police also get graphic lectures on booby traps, "incendiaries" and other lethal de­ vices. To defuse and dispose of bombs, explains Harvey, a police officer first has to learn all about them. The documents obtained by Abourezk show that most of the 165 policemen trained at the

A scene from "State of Siege' A page from the album of the International Police Academy, published in Washington by the State Department. Mitrlone is in the second row (arrow).

PHILIP SANTORE's real name was . . . DAN MITRIONE: ALL-AMERICAN COP NARMIC/'Anne Flitcraft

Mitrione's police career began in Richmond, Indiana in 1945. He served in various positions, including juvenile officer and captain, until 1955 when he became chief. In 1957 he took the standard course at the FBI National Academy in Washington, D.C. and gained full credentials as a professional cop. In 1960, under the State Department's International Cooperation Administration, the predecessor of the Agency for International Development (AID), Mitrione moved to Brazil to become involved in a newly-started project of training Brazilian police. He worked for two years in Belo Horizonte and five years in . After years of Public Safety advice, "The use of torture against opponents of the present military regime... now appears to surpass all other techniques of police investigation and inquiry," according to a report issued by the American Committee for Information on Brazil. The Brazilian cops, many of whom were trained by Mitrione, have formed a vigilante death squad during their off-duty hours. The Escuadrao da Morte has killed over 1000 "petty" criminals in the urban areas of Brazil since 1958.2 After training such a police force, Mitrione returned to the U.S. as a Latin American expert. In 1967 he trained foreign police officers in the techniques of counter-guerilla warfare at the AID-Public Safety International Police Academy in Washington, D.C. In July of 1969, Mitrione headed for South America again, this time to for AID. He was the leader of a four-man team of Public Safety Advisors that trained 1000 Uruguayan police in police management, patrolling, use of scientific and technical aids, anti-guerilla operations and border control. These trainees have in turn instructed an untold number of police in more outlying regions of the country. Mitrione himself, during his year-long stay, trained personnel in transportation techniques, established a police training facility and a radio network for police, and set up a joint operations center of communications to facilitate cooperation between the police and the army. Again, after eight years of U.S. Public Safety advice, a legislative report of seven Uruguayan Senators reveals that torture is a "normal, frequent and habitual occurrence" in police operations of that country. The Reverend Louis Colonnese, Director of the Latin American Division of the United States Catholic Conference, says that "the investigation showed that many of the torture victims were students and labor leaders. This is the type of police force which Mitrione was advising."3 His work in Brazil and Uruguay made Mitrione the American authority on the and he was considered "to have contributed materially to the government's anti-guerilla campaign."4 But despite the communications networks, fine training, scientific and technical aids and border control operations, the police and the army of Uruguay could not find Mitrione while he was held by the Tupamaros - even though constitutional rights were suspended, house-to-house searches were conducted, and the city of Montevideo was virtually sealed off. When the government refused to free 150 political prisoners, Mitrione was killed. However, Mitrione's work for law and order continues. Like so much of the exported death technology, it too comes home. The proceeds of his memorial fund are being donated to a proposed law enforcement center at Eastern Indiana Community College, near the town where Mitrione's career began.

FOOTNOTES 1. Dossier prepared by American Committee for Information on Brazil, April 1970. 2. "Brazilian 'Death Squad' Vows to Avenge Mitrione," The Palladium-Item and Sun-Telegram (Richmond, Indiana), August 19, 1970, p. 1. 3. Press release by United States Catholic Conference, Latin American Bureau (Washington, D.C), August 25, 1970. 4. E.S. Harris, "Vulnerable Position of Uruguay Blamed for Singling Out Mitrione," The Palladium-Item and Sun-Teleoram (Richmond, Indiana), August 16, 1970, p. 2.

SOURCES "Americans Teach Torture to Brazilians, Jurists Say," Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), July 23, 1970, p. 34. "Fr. Colonnese Asks 'Torture Teaching' Probe," Telegram (Bridgeport, Connecticut), August 26, 1970, p.l. Palladium-item and Sun-Telegram (Richmond, Indiana), July 31 - August 19, 1970. United States Catholic Conference, Latin American Bureau (1401 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C). Press release dated August 25,1970. "Uruguayans Say Police Torturing," Washington Post, June 22, 1970, p. A20. William L. Wipfler, "The Price of 'Progress' in Brazil," Christianity and Crisis, March 16, 1970.

(Excerpted from Police on the Homefront, NARMIC. To order copies, see back flap.) The events in STATE OF SIEGE actually took place in Uruguay. Another STATE OF SIEGE IS HAPPENING NOW IN VIETNAM! ! -J <^m\. me new NMMIC slide show The post­

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