NWJWD

The private contra aid network first came to public attention when, on September 1, 1984, two U.S. mercenaries belonging to the Alabama-based Civilian Military Assistance group were killed in a helicopter crash while attacking a Sandanista training camp. Their deaths prompted a number of journalists to explore the network of "Private" - and ostensibly independent - religious, secular New Right and paramilitary organizations working with the contras. By 1984, the most prominent of the "private" donors were Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, the Unification Church, Civilian Military Assistance and related paramilitary groups, Louisiana State Representative Louis Jenkins' Friend of the Americas, and the Knights of Malta led by J. Peter Grace. At the center of the "Private Aid Network" was John Singlaub, head of the World Anti-Communist League. Singlaub had been tapped as one of the Reagan administration's key National Security Council Coordinator for private Contra fundraising. Some, but not all of this was revealed in the Iron-Contra scandal at the end of the Reagan administration.