PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER ARTICLE 6 MAY 84

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86M00886R001200340016-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 17, 2009
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: May 6, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Philadelphia Inquirer Article 6 May 84
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THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
6 May 1984
U.S. presence
is growing. in
p. 1 of 3
The skry's the limit" for the CIA in its effort to discourage
.communist expansion, says Rep. Bill Goodling.
James McCartney
Inquirer Washington avre"
WASHINGTON'- The U.S. military buildup
in Central America has become a massive
display of U.S. military power, both overt and
covert, in the days preceding today's presi-
dential election in El Salvador.
On the overt side, more than 34,000 US.
military men were involved, as of yesterday,
in three separate sets of military exercises in
or near Central America.
But .covert activities also have grown in
recent months as the election has ap-
proached. According to congressional.
sources with access to intelligence informa-
tion, they now include a variety of CIA opera-
tions, plus deep involvement of Army, Navy.
Air Force and Marine special forces. Those
sources cite the following:
? The CIA is supporting between 15,000
and 20,000 Latin Americans fighting a two-
front war against the Sandinista government
in Nicaragua.
? At least 1,000 Americans are involved
directly in clandestine activities in the Nica-
ragua-Honduras-El Salvador area and the
number might run as high as 3,000. The
precise figures are highly classified.
? The presence of special forces'of various
branches of the US. military in El Salvador
has effectively boosted the number of US.
military advisers to about 110..Administra-
tion spokesmen continue to insist that Presi-
dent Reagan is observing a self-imposed SS-
adviser limit.
The congressional sources also con-
firmed that-the CIA masterminded air
strikes in February on Nicaraguan
targets, including a radio transmitter
and a military camp, and the mining
of Nicaraguan harbors. Specially
trained Latin American commandos
staged the raids. That same pattern
was followed in October; when CIA-
trained Latin commandos attacked a
main oil center in Nicaragua.
According to Rep. Bill Goodling (R.,
Pa.), a member of the House Intelli-
gence Committee,' the basic objective
of the CIA campaign is not, as Reagan
repeatedly has asserted, to interdict
the flow of supplies from Nicaragua
to Salvadoran guerrillas.
Goodling said CIA representatives
have told the committee many times
in closed sessions that the principal
aim of the campaign is to cripple the
Nicaraguan government.
He said the CIA and its allies want
to force the Nicaraguan government
to "turn inward" in order to discour.
age any effort at further communist
expansion in Central America. And
Congress, he slid, has given the CIA a
"green light" to go ahead in almost
any way it wishes.
"The sky's the limit," Goodling said.
,There is also evidence that U.S. mil-
itary exercises in and around Central-
America are a part of a secret military
buildup intended to make-.it possible
in the future to send U.S. troops there
easily and quickly if that should be
considered necessary.
Officially. Reagan has denied that
the huge program of exercises has
any special meaning.
Asked about the exercises at a news
conference April 4, he said: "I think
these maneuvers are something
we've done before. They're not some-
thing unusual or aimed at anyone
down there ... all they are is war
games."
But the Pentagon's news releases on
the exercises suggest otherwise.
A news release issued March 23
announcing exercise Grenadier 1.
now 'under way in Honduras, said it
was designed to "enhance our abili-
ties and techniques to conduct multi-
national regional military opera-
tions." More than 1,000 U.S. combat
troops are participating and will stage
an airborne infantry assault with
Honduran troops.
The -administr.-don officially de-
nies that it lids develotx.`~! contingen-
cy plans for sending U-& combat
troops to Central America. But con?
gressional aides pu.i. out that the
exercises already under way are, in
fact - and as Pentagon press releases
have made clear - contingency
plans.
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Congressional sources have now
made It possible to piece together the
major elements of the administra-
tion's military policies in Central
-America. On the covert side, those
elements include the following:
? At La Union, on El Salvador's
coast on the Gulf of Fonseca, 1. mem-
bers of the Seventh Army Special
Forces Group. Third Battalion, are
helping to train Salvadorans in inter.
ception techniques on the gulf as part
of an effort to stop the flow of arms
from Nicaragua'to El Salvador's guer.
rillas. With them are seven members
of Navy Special. Warfare Group 2, ex-
perts in clandestine warfare. The CIA
is involved at La Union, but in what
numbers is unknown. In the overall
program; the CIA and service-con-
nected special forces are training Sal.
vadorans and Hondurans in clandes-
tine operations in a sizable secret war
against Nicaragua.
? At Tiger Island, in the Gulf of
Fonseca, another U.S. base for clan.
destine activities was established in
1983. A key feature is a U.S. Marine
Corps radar listening post that moni.
tors traffic on the gulf. CIA agents
working from the island planned and
directed October's attack on Nicara-
gua's major oil facilities at Corinto by
Latin Americans using speedboats.
CIA agents are taking a direct
role in training and equipping guer-
rilla forces fighting the Nicaraguan
government The two major CIA oper-
ations involve support of contras -
counterrevolutionaries who have
proclaimed their aim of. bringing
down the Sandinista government.
One is the now widely publicized
guerrilla drive that is based in Hon-
duras and has forces numbering be-,
tween 15,000 and 18,000, twice the size
of a year ago. It is a conservative force
that includes some former army offi-
cers of the Somoza dictatorship. A
Honduran air base near Aguacate is
believed to be the center of CIA activ-
ities in Honduras.
A less widely publicized CIA effort
is support of, another contra group
operating from Costa Rica and com-
manded by Eden Pastore, a one-time
Sandinista who defected. The size of
this force is unknown, but some esti-
mates run up to 1,500.
The United States also is providing
direct reconnaissance, involving U.S.
soldiers, for the Salvadoran army in
. its battle with guerrillas.
The U.S. Army's 224th Military Intel-
ligence Battalion, about 300 strong,
operating from the Palmerola air base
iniHonduras, is flying reconnaissance
missions over guerrilla positions in
EIjSalvador and relaying information
to ithe Salvadoran army.
The United States also is maintain-
ing electronic spy ships, radar-
eq;uipped Navy frigates, off the shores
of'Central America in both the Pacific
and the Caribbean, to monitor arms
shipments to and from Nicaragua.
Somewhere in those same seas are
CIA mother ships that have directed
,~-?attacks on the Nicaraguan harbors
p. 2 of 3
? Grenadier 1, Involving about
3,5003 military personnel, operate:
from two Honduran bases , Cucuya?
gua Air Base, about 20 miles from the
Salvadoran border, and Jamastran
Air Base, the same distance'from the
Nicarguan 'border.
? King's Guard. It involves about
about 500 US.. military personnel
working with forces of El Salvador
and Honduras in and around the Gulf
of Fonseca. The exercise.
xercise began April
26 and is to end tomorrow,. the day
after the Salvadoran presidential run-
off election.
and possibly other targets.
?
Meanwhile, the administration is
seeking to continue a buildup of mili-
tary facilities in Honduras that has
caused some U.S. representatives and
senators to contend that the adminis-
traiion is leading the country toward
war. -
Facilities created in Honduras now
include eight air strips capable of
handling troop and cargo-carrying
transport planes and four base camps,
all ostensibly built for US. military
exercises in the region.
But Sen. James Sasser (D., Tenn.),
who has made detailed studies of the
U .S,. buildup in Honduras, has ob-
seryed-that sufficient facilities have
now been built to deploy the U.S. 82d
Airborne Division in less than a day.
Sasser and others believe that the
Honduran buildup is, in fact, part of a
covert U.S. plan to prepare for possi?
ble iintroduction of U.S. troops in the
area. . .
As for the overt US. activities sin
the region, the congressional sources
say three major exercises are now
under way:
-Ocean Venture '84, involving
more than 30,000 U.S. military person.
nel, opened April 20 in the Straits.of
Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, the S_outb'
Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Unit?
edi States itself.
ii
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t = sue; b ATLANTIC OCEAN
k:. " pw
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ftm
1 ~e 1i d major! . L . ` x
operational base supporting, r,
'the;contres is in northern Costa Rica, s Y
near the Nicaraguan border ;opposite:
the Nicaraguan city of San Juan del Norte
Ocean Ventura '84.
Straits of Florida, Caribbean Gulf,
of Mexico and the south Atlantic
More than 30000 U.S. 'military
personnel and 350 ?shlps .jnduded.are,?
the 82d Airborne Division, 26th
Marne Aious;.Unit; the. aircraft.
carrier' America.and its?:battle
group the Strategic Air: Commend and.
the Tactical Air Command .
Purpose aTo show the .U.S. ,capability]
to support allies in the Caribbean
basin= Dates ,April 20 to May 6:
and from May 23 to Juice 30'Phase I
involves finishing assault: airstrips'
-
at Cucuyagua end Jarriastran in
combat !tmope I n9aging in an as'
ONDURAS ? assault operation. U S troops are.'
0 ^_ working pith Honduran,?posSibly:
~' :i st , Salvadoran artd outer Central t:
American troops. L
O ,Tks= t ~ h ~ ;
ti '. (~ Kittg',s QtraM, in the C ulf of
NICARAGUA Fonseca' involvir g U S , Sah~adoran
~`,' k tf 'and Honduran troops from April ,`' -1
26 to May 7 Involves more then. 500
3'' ~~ U1 S Rmilitary, forces including: two
s =s ` ships off the Pacific Coast. Purpose
~, An interdiction eiiercise to try to
OSTq stop the flow of !
C arms from Nicaragua
r ,?t, ' R/ across the gulf to El Salvador
k j Cq
Union, ~> t,r r'' cz R_ s A . 7.;x } L ANAMA MAC
~ >lrll Ir{ EI Salvadrx art Ca
the coast of the Gulf of Fonseca O sin Lorenso and Cislrteea, , `: ? Tiger Island,
Involves t 7 members of the nears the Gulf of Fonseca m'Harltltu8e. in the Gulf of i on?eta=
r :.Inclines a.Marine . ~, #.': ' PANAMA
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