NICARAGUA/U.S.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200890003-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 26, 2008
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 6, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/06/26: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200890003-8
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
6 ,October 1983
NICARAGUA/U.S. JENNINGS: Good evening. We begin tonight by concentrating on
Nicaragua. There have been more charges and revelations today
about CIA involvement in the war against Nicaragua's Sandinista
government. Nicaragua has shown reporters the wreckage of a
plane it shot down, and introduced the pilot who said he was
working for the CIA. The Sandinista government has warned Costa
Rica to stop letting anti-Sandinista forces use its territory
for which to launch attacks. The U.S. supports that group in
Costa Rica and a similar group based in Honduras. Now, as our
Pentagon correspondent John McWethy reports, there are signs the
CIA is helping those groups even after they cross the Nicaraguan
border.
MCWETHY: Government forces say the CIA has been air dropping
food and ammunition to American-backed guerrillas operating
inside Nicaragua. The flights are said to originate in both El
Salvador and Honduras. It was one such flight, this time'a
DC-3, that the Sandinista government of Nicaragua claims they
shot down earlier this week. The pilot of the plane said he was
hired to do the job by the CIA. Last month the CIA, apparently
provided guerrillas with another kind of help. This time
airplanes. On September 8, two planes bombed the airport of
Nicaragua's capital, Managua. These were the first guerrilla
air strikes and were a major escalation is the insurgent war
against Nicaragua. One of the planes was shot down, a Cessna
404, and it has provided a fascinating trail of clues outlined
today in the New York Times that appear to lead directly to the
CIA. Ownership of the plane was traced to a McLean, Va.,
company, *Investair, whose officers have been involved in
previous CIA front operations. They sold the aircraft to a
Panamanian company at the end of June, and within two months it
was used in a bombing raid in Nicaragua. Sources outside the
U.S. government said the Cessna was loaded with bombs at
*Elpanga Airport in El Salvador, both the commercial and
military airfield. The pilot of the Cessna was *Augustan
Romain, a Nicaraguan revolutionary who had defected to the U.S.
in 1982. Flight documents pulled from the plane indicated
Romain personally picked up the aircraft in Panama and delivered
it to Costa Rica. There were also instructions on how to make a
covert contact with the American embassy in Costa Rica,
passwords and locations. So in addition to America's highly
publicized military and economic aid to Central America, the
United States is also deeply involved in a covert war against
Nicaragua, a war about which the American public and the press
still know very little but which appears to be aimed at the
overthrow of Nicaragua's leftist government. John McWethy, ABC
News, the Pentagon.
Approved For Release 2008/06/26: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200890003-8
 Approved For Release 2008/06/26: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200890003-8
CBS EVENING NEWS
6 October 1983
NICARAGUA/U.:S. RATHER: Meanwhile, various sources claim the CIA was involved
with a small plane shot down early last month while trying to
bomb Nicaragua's main airbase in Managua. The CIA connection
was reported by the Associated Press and some newspapers. The
plane's pilot, who was killed, has been identified as a member
of a rebel group.
Approved For Release 2008/06/26: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200890003-8