SENATE VOTES, 84-12, TO CONDEMN MINING OF NICARAGUAN PORTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87B00858R000200170021-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 17, 2010
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: April 11, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Senate %otes, 84 -12,
To Condemn Mining
Of Nicaraguan Ports
Administration Tries
To Defend Its Position
By Joanne Omang
and Don Oberdorfer
Washington Post Staff Writers
The Senate voted overwhelmingly
yesterday to condemn U.S. partic-
ipation in the mining of Nicaraguan
harbors, rejecting a last-minute ef-
fort by the Reagan administration to
defend its position and its program
of aid to rebels against the leftist
government of Nicaragua.
The 84 to 12 vote, on a non-bind-
ing 'sense-of-the-Congress" resolu-
tion that can have no direct effect on
the program, was the first time the.
Republican-controlled Senate has
gone on record in opposition to any
aspect of President Reagan's policy
in Central America.
"If it is not binding, I can live
with it," Reagan said last night at a
state dinner for President Salvador
Jorge Blanco of the Dominican Re-
public. "I think there is a great hys-
teria raised about this whole thing.
We are not going to war."
Earlier, a large number of sena-
tors from both parties gave a hostile
reception to administration officials
who came to Capitol Hill to explain
the policy. And Sen. Barry Goldwa-
ter (R-Ariz.) sent a strongly worded
letter of complaint about the mining
to CIA Director William J. Casey.
Goldwater, chairman of the Sen-
ate Intelligence Committee and a
stalwart administration backer, said
in the letter that the mining, which
has reportedly damaged eight ships
from five nations, is "an act of war
.... I don't see how we are going to
explain it." A copy of the letter was
obtained by The Washington Post.
The Senate vote put that body on
record against the use of U.S. funds
to "plan, direct, execute or support
the mining of the 'territorial waters
of Nicaragua." Sen. Russell B. Long
(D-La.) was the only Democrat
among the 12 dissenters.
See LATIN, A16, Col.1
STAT
4
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A16 ... it w d..a n y.u sr, e+w THE WA8HLN ON NISI
Senate Condemns Mining Nicaraguan Ports
i LATIN, From Al
Republicans who voted against the administra-
tion included Majority Leader Howard H. Baker
Jr. of Tennessee, Minority Whip Ted Stevens of
Alaska and Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada, a firm
friend of Reagan's.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who spon-
sored the resolution as an amendment to the ad-
ministration's tax bill, said afterward that the vote
showed "the deep concern all Americans feel
about the escalation in Central America and Nic-
aragua, and the real possibility of -American boys
dying in the jungles of Central America.". Al-
though this is the first expression of such senti-
ment by the Senate, he said, "There will be more."
Kennedy sponsored a series of unsuccessful ef-
forts last week to eliminate the administration's
request for $21 million to aid the rebels opposing
the Nicaragua government and to cut its emergen-
cy request for $62 million in military help for the
government of El Salvador.
The appropriations measure carrying both pro-
visions passed the Senate virtually unscathed, but
House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill Jr. (D-
Mass.) said yesterday that it will not pass the
House before its Easter recess begins Friday.
Administration sources, who have insisted the
aid is needed right away in El Salvador to keep
that country's army from running out of supplies, ,
said a decision would be made today on whether
to use emergency funding authority to provide the
money or to ask the House and Senate appropri-
ations subcommittees to provide it by reprogram-
ming money allocated to other nations. "We can't
wait any longer," one source said.
The administration tried throughout the day'to
respond to a frenetic week of news and lealwd
any Sen
rs ex-
D
pressed anger that they'had not been told in ad-
vance that the mines" were to be laid. But Casey
"took the position he.had advised the [Senate In-
telligences Committee" about the mining in "a sen-
tence" of the briefing to which Goldwater referred,
Sasser said.
Sasser end several other senators indi red th
t
.
. billed the speech a week in advance as a major
foreign policy address that would be a benchmark
for election year debate.
Yesterday the administration dispatched Un-
dersecretary of State Kenneth Dam and Casey to
brief senators on the situation in Nicaragua.
Sen. Jim Sasser (D-TTnn.) told reporters on
.4--
emerging from the seseios! that m t
happens,
happens, I'm going to raise one hell of a lot of fuss
about it in public."
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Larry
Speakes said Reagan had been surprised at heavy
press coverage of a speech last Friday in which he
criticized Congress for undercutting his foreign
policy in Lebanon and Central America and called
upon its members for bipartisan support.
"The president was surprised that that harsh
interpretation was put on the speech," Speakes
said. He called the coverage "disproportionate to
f Reagan'sl intentions
" The White House had
a
Executive they were unmoved by that argtmient. "I want A.
mining stopped forthwith," Sasser said He added
4 ~Z that cow W iaiaiM "a, lot of
*Mlalii dN ,i* do issue.
reports about U.S. actions and plans in Central leftists in Central America after the November
America, and to concerns from members of Con- election, assuming that Reagan is returned to of-
gress that they had not been kept informed. fice. The .mining is viewed as "a holding action"
The White House issued an unusual three-page until that time, the story said.
statement from Secretary of State George P. The statement also insisted that "all U.S. ac-
Shultz, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, tivities in the Central American region have been
CIA Director William,J. Casey and the president's fully: briefed in detail to the committees of the
assistant for national security affairs, Robert C. Congress, which exercise jurisdiction in full com-
McFarlane.
"We state emphatically that we have not con-
sidered, nor have we developed plans to use U.S.
military forces to invade Nicaragua or any other
Central American country," the statement said.
Citing "longstanding obligations under the Rio
Treaty, our treaty obligations to defend the Pan-
ama Canal or military contingency plans for di-
saster relief, humanitarian assistance or emergen-
cy evacuations," the statement acknowledged that
"For over a generation, as prudence would dictate,
we have maintained and updated plans for these
contingencies. We have not, however, planned to
use our forces to invade any country in the re-
gion."
The New York Times reported Sunday that
"contingency plans are being drawn for the pos-
pliance with the law."
Goldwater's letter to Casey disputed that. "It
gets down to one, little, simple phrase: I am pissed
off!" he wrote. "Bill, this is no way to run a rail-
toad .. The ~t has asked us to back his
foreign policy. ill, how can we back his foreign
policy when we don't know what the hell he is
doing?"
Goldwater's letter predicted that the House will
defeat the measure containing funds for the Ni-
caraguan rebels, known as "congas," "and we will
not be in any position to put up much of an ar-
gument after we were not given the information
we were entitled to receive ... when you briefed
us on Central America just a couple of weeks ago."
Goldwater continued, "I don't like this. I don't
like it one bit from the president or from you." He
sible use of U.S. combat troops in Central Amer-, promised that "in the future, if anything like this
ica" if leftist forces cannot be defeated by current
strategy. In another article yesterday The Times
said the new contingency plans are political ones
and that military plans have not yet been fully
drawn up. The word "invasion" was not used.
The White House statement also denied plans
for "a post-election military enterprise in Central
America," apparently referring to a Washington
Post article yesterday that reported that a senior
administration official had said Reagan "is deter-
mined to go all out to gain the upper hand" over
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Administration Scrambles to Defend Its Position
LATIN, From A16
but said there was "no indication
from Casey that they are going to
change the policy."
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said
after the briefing that he had known
about the mining "as a result of my
own specific questions in a briefing
outside the committee" and "as-
sumed everybody knew about it."
He called the program "absolutely
stupid. It will prove at best a harass-
ment to the Nicaraguans and can
only diminish the position of the
United States in the rest of the
world."
Earlier, former president Jimmy
Carter agreed.
"I think it's a disgraceful thing for
our country to do,' he said at a news
conference before a speech at Roa-
noke College in Salem, Va. The
White House decision to remove
U.S. actions in Central America from
the jurisdiction of the World Court,
Carter said, is "an unprecedented
approach to international law and
quite damaging to our country's rep-
utation among nations."
Kennedy had introduced a, com-
panion resolution expressing con-
gressional sentiment that the with-
drawal from World Court jurisdic-
tion should be reversed, but he
dropped it from the tax bill amend-
ment as part of an agreement with
Senate leadership in order to obtain
a vote on the mining resolution, Re-
publican sources said.
Under the agreement, which the
sources said was approved by the
White House, Republicans were told
that the vote was not a test of party
loyalty.
There were no floor speeches, but
afterward Sen. Jesse Helms (R-
N.C.), one of the 12 who backed the
administration, said that the people
laying the mines, whoever they are,
"are working for the best interests of
the Nicaraguan people and of all the
people of the region. Whatever role,
if any, may have been played by
U.S. officials should not blind us to
the fundamental truth that what we
should do is applaud."
House Minority Leader Robert H.
Michel (R-Ill.) said, "The Sandinis-
tas [governing Nicaragua] are the
ones who have been throwing bean-
balls. Let's not blame their targets,
and let's not send our friends to the
plate without a helmet."
Lynn Bouchey, head of a conser-
vative group called the Council on
Inter-American Affairs, promised
that members of Congress would
hear from their constituents in sup-
port of administration policy during which is expected to run out in June,
their Easter break and might yet ap- was carefully drafted to exclude that
prove aid to the Nicaraguan rebels. possibility.
"If they feel the heat, they may The administration's statement
see the light," he said. "I don't think
the administration is by any means
ready to throw in the towel."
The administration" statement af-
firmed the policy, calling the San-
dinistas "a government fanatically
dedicated to intervention beyond its
borders" and "the source of regional
subversion and insurgency."
The statement said it is "critical
that the American people under-
stand what is at stake" in Central
America. It said U.S. policy has con-
sistently supported the Contadora
peace process originated by Mexico,
Venezuela, Panama and Colombia,
but "Nicaragua's response through-
out has been fraudulent and cyni-
again asked support for the admin-
istration's request for $62 million in
emergency aid to El Salvador, saying
"recent uninformed comment on
these matters has diverted attention
from the central issue ... the ongo-
ing Salvadoran election process
about to enter a runoff requires our
support so that El Salvador can en-
sure its safe conduct."
There is considerably more sup-
port in the House for this program
than for aid to the Nicaraguan reb-
els, which was rejected twice last
ye.'
But O'Neill said that "there is no
question" he has the votes to cut
that request in half.
ew
Staff writer Fred Hiatt contri6-
Senior adminstiatlea olligiNM WW to this report.
agreed yesterday that there is little
leeway in existing law that might
allow them to fund the Nicaraguan
rebels other than through congres-
sional appropriations.
The compromise legislation last
year that provided $24 million,
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