NICARAGUA/U.S. AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200910011-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 27, 2008
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: October 20, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200910011-6
1 1-11W LNAO Y J
20 October 1983
IVILAAAGUA/ RATHER: Covert American .aid to rebels fighting Nicaragua's
U.S. AID Sandinista regime became a symbol today of concern over deeper
U.S. military involvement in Central America: The House of
Representatives, voting largely along party lines, showed 'its
feelings, voting to cut off that aid.. But, as Robert Schakne
reports, the vote may be a message without muscle.
SCHAKNE: For the second time within three months, the House
today rejected all the appeals of the Reagan administration and
voted to outlaw the CIA's covert war against Nicaragua. REP.
LEE HAMILTON (D.-Ind.): This covert action clearly has brought
about wider violence in the area. The covert war has already
produced fighting in Nicaragua, increased fighting there, and
the war has already widened.
SCBAKNE: The administration's .defenders argue that the covert
operation shoul'o continue until Nicaragua halts its support for
Salvador rebels, that nothing else would work. REP. HENRY HYDE
How .do you get a revolutionary, messianic,.
anti-status quo power to negotiate? Certainly the only way is
pressure.
SCRAKNE: But nothing that's happened since July, not ever, the
spectacular bit-and-run attacks by CIA-supported guerrillas in
Nicaragua seems to.have made any difference to Congress. In the
first test vote, the proposal to end the covert war passed,
227=to-194. While the House was debating, Nicaragua's Foreign
Minister Miguel D'Escoto was calling at the "State Department,
where he said he had presented a new significant proposal for
regional peace. MICUEL D'ESCOTO (Foreign ?Sinister, Nicaragua)-:
And that violence, if continued to go the way it'.s going, is
going to establish its own dynamics irreversibly. I think'it's
important at this point to make an appeal to sanity.
-SCHAKNE: D'Escoto did not publicly disclose what his new
proposals were. Despite today's House vote, the debate over
covert operations is not over, because the full Senate is
expected to vote to the continue the covert war. host people on
Capitol Hill say the final outcome is simply unpredictable.
Robert Schakne, CBS News, Capitol hill.
Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200910011-6