DISBELIEF REPORTED REASON CASTRO CABLE NOT REVEALED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600090006-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: June 12, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/05/21 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R00060
Tried to Halt Zaire Invasion?
Disbelief Reported Reason
Castro Cable Not Revealed
Associated Press
The Carter administration report-
edly did not disclose a statement by
Fidel Castro that he tried to head off
a bloody attack by rebels on Zaire's
Shaba province because it did not be-
lieve Castro-was telling the truth.
Senate sources said the= Cuban
leader informed the United States
four days after the Katangan rebels
invaded Zaire that he had prior
knowledge of the attack and tried to
head it off.
That appears to support President
Carter's ;claim that Cuba was aware
of the invasion plans. But it casts
doubt on his statement that the
Cubans did nothing to prevent the at-
tack.
cable after Sen. George McGovern,
named, said CIA Director Stansfield
Turner confirmed the contents of the
mat in Havana, who relayed them to
the State Department in a secret
cable, sources said Saturday night.
to Lyle F. Lane, the top U.S.
YESTERDAY, Deputy White
House press secretary Rex Granum
declined to comment on the matter.
And Mary Ann Bader, a State De-
partment spokeswoman, said, "It is
not our practice to comment on diplo-
matic exchanges."
Castro made his comments May 17
D-S.D., read a copy of it to a closed
publicly because Carter administra-
in the cable` had not been disclosed
The sources quoted Turner as say-
5r-
DATE oL ,do Page
tion officials did not believe Castro
was telling the truth.
Carter cliArged-May- 25 that. Cuba
shared with Angola. a responsibility.
for the attack.
"WE BELIEVE that Cuba had
known of the Katangan plan to in-
vade and obviously did nothing to re-
strain them from crossing the bor-
der," Carter said in a statement that
he read to ? a news conference in
Chicago. .
Castro claimed that after learning
early in April of the impending inva-
sion, he tried to persuade the Ango-
lan government of President Agos-
tinho Neto to put a stop to it, the
sources said. But Castro was un-
succesful, they said, partly because
the Angolan president was ill and
staying in the Soviet Union.
On May 13, the rebel Katangans
captured the copper-mining city of
Kolwezi and killed hundreds of black
and white civilians. The rebels even-
tually were dislodged from Kolwezi
and driven back into Angola by a
combined force of troops from
France and Belgium as well as those,
from Zaire. The United States pro-
vided logistical support.
Sen. Dick Clark, D-Iowa, chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations sub-
committee on Africa, referred to the
cable in a telephone interview Satur-
day night.
"'The thing that I find disturbing is
that the president didn't bring it out
and let the Congress and public de-
cide (on Castro's truthfulness),"
Clark said.
Approved For Release 2004/05/21 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600090006-1