Contra Terror in Nicaragua:; Report of a Fact-Finding Mission, September 1984-January 1985

Boston, MA: South End Press, 1985. First Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing. Trade paperback. Good. [6], 206 pages. Wraps. Illustrations. map, chronology, footnotes, bibliography, covers somewhat worn and soiled. Reed Brody is an American human rights lawyer. He specializes in helping victims pursue abusive leaders for atrocities, and has gained fame as the "Dictator Hunter". He worked as counsel for the victims in the case of the exiled former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré - who was convicted of crimes against humanity in Senegal - and has worked with the victims of Augusto Pinochet and Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. He currently works with victims of the former dictator of Gambia Yahya Jammeh. After law school, Brody worked as New York State Assistant Attorney General from 1980 to 1984 where he authored consumer protection laws and advocated on behalf of consumers and workers in class action-type suits against large corporations and financial institutions. Brody left his position as Assistant Attorney General to research and uncover a pattern of atrocities against Nicaraguan civilians by US-funded "contras". His report, Contra Terror in Nicaragua received national front-page coverage and led to U.S. Congressional hearings and a temporary halt to contra funding. Brody conducted a speaking tour of over 60 U.S. cities and appeared as co-counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights in litigation in U.S. federal court to stop U.S. aid to contras. His report was also introduced into evidence in the case Nicaragua v. United States at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He was attacked by United States President Ronald Reagan, who called him a Sandinista "sympathizer". A telling indictment of the U.S. policy of attempting to destabilize Nicaragua through a campaign of terror directed at its people. The testimony of the victims of contra attacks exposes the policy of torture, murder, rape, kidnapping, and random violence employed by the people Ronald Reagan describes as "the moral equals of our founding fathers". In a letter to the New York Times, Reed Brody wrote: To the Editor: In his April 15 address, President Reagan sought to cast doubt on my report (page A1, March 7) of atrocities by anti-Sandinista ''contras'' in Nicaragua by alleging I was ''shepherded through Nicaragua by Sandinista operatives'' (excerpts, April 16). Each account of murder, brutality, rape and kidnapping in my report is based on the sworn affidavits of eyewitnesses who were selected and interviewed with no interference and whose names and addresses are listed. Representatives of the Washington Office on Latin America, the International Human Rights Law Group and Americas Watch have independently confirmed the accuracy of these horrible accounts and documented many others. Your March 7 article also verified four incidents chosen at random. The President cannot deny the systematic terror of these so-called ''freedom fighters.'' REED BRODY New York, April 17, 1985. Excerpts from an article in The Washington Post: Inquiry Finds Atrocities By Nicaraguan 'Contras' By Joanne Omang, March 7, 1985 An independent attorney's probe of charges that antigovernment rebels in Nicaragua commit human rights atrocities has produced 145 sworn affidavits from witnesses that he claims document "a distinct pattern" of murders, kidnappings, assaults and torture of civilians. The report by Reed Brody, 31, a former assistant state attorney general in New York, is to be released at a news conference today by the International Human Rights Law Group and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), private groups that endorse the findings. Rep. Samuel Gejdenson (D-Conn.), who is also scheduled to attend the news conference, said yesterday that the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, of which he is a member, will review the report to check its accuracy. "It's clear we have a situation where the 'contra' [rebel] targets are primarily and almost exclusively civilians," he said. If Congress provides $14 million in additional aid to the rebels that the Reagan administration has requested, he said, "we become knowing accomplices to the crimes of the contras." The report is the latest in an escalating crossfire of studies, testimony and speechmaking by both the Reagan administration and its critics over the future of the three-year-old program of U.S. aid to rebel groups fighting the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Brody's report is the first to include sworn affidavits from witnesses who he said are available for further questioning. Brody said in an interview that he began the study after visiting Nicaragua last summer with an office colleague whose brother is a priest there. Moved by residents' accounts of contra attacks, he said, he was receptive when Paul Reichler, Nicaragua's attorney in Washington, suggested a serious probe of the charges "as if taking evidence for a court case." Brody said he wrote the 141-page report and approached WOLA -- known as a critic of administration policy -- which joined the International Human Rights Law Group in sending two other attorneys to Nicaragua to recheck Brody's findings. The two are New York attorney Donald T. Fox, vice president of the International Commission of Jurists, and Michael J. Glennon, former counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In a joint statement, they said "the preponderance of the evidence indicates that the contras are committing serious abuses against civilians" and that Brody's report appears accurate.