NEW' CIA DEEPENS U.S. INVOLVEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100620028-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: June 5, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/13. CIA-RDP90-005528000100620028-4
/ C m
H~D
5 June 1983
`New' CIA deepens
U.S. involvement
By ALFONSO CHARDY
And JUAN O. TAMAYO
.Herald Staff Writers
international skulduggery.
Administration'officials adamant-
1y defend the covert operation. say-
ing it is an, essential part of a three-
W ASHINGTON They were legged campaign to stem-.the spread
known as the CIA's "Fami- of Marxist insurrection in the re-
ly Jewels," the-private -sins- gion : between -the -Panama Canal
Deane
tee as a
on his
a career
U.S. a
named
Also on
Enders,
state f
who w
leaked- n
negotia
rebels:
horne
litical a
bassado
whose public airings virtually .de- and Mexico's Oilfields.' ,' Ironic
stroyed the agency's capacity%for s''The-campaign combines U.S. mil- _.pervised
covert action in the. mid-1970s.. , itaryaid to U.S-allies fighting -left- covert Eight plots to assassinate-.'Fdel_? ;ist?sutiversion,;~hSSeconomic aid to the Uni
Castro. -Destabilization aof:Salvador;. erase??the;social=inequities that fuel bombing
Allende's administration In :Chile revolutions, and.-CIA funds to at- 1973, w
The Bay,of.Pigs. The overthrow?bf ' tack-theKperceived root of much of the U.S.
the Diem regime .in . Vietnam.
Snooping -on -American-' students.
Opening U.S. mails. - '
Throughout the late' 4970s. the
'CIA's strong-arm specialists moped.
retired early or were fired -.as a
'post-Watergate Congress shined the
bright light of morality on the dark
corners of the spy underworld.
But now many of the CIA's cov-
ert action experts have come in
from the cold, lured out of inactivi-
ty by President Reagan's vows to
pull up America's socks in a world-
wide contest with the Soviet bloc.
Reagan's "new" CIA has
launched at least II covert cam-
paigns since-.he walked into the
White I-louse, by far the highest
number since the agency's salad
-days in the 1960s, U.S. intelligence
sources say.
The biggest of them - in fact,
the biggest CIA operation since the I
Bay of Pigs -.is in Central Ameri-
ca, where Reagan sees leftist sub-
versions being fueled by Nicaragua.
Cuba and the Soviet Union. .
And now,, public disclosures of
the Central American ccvert opera-
tion have brought new criticism, of
the CIA. The controversy has'
grown into one of the most heated
in Washington today.
Liberal congressmen want to
squash the CIA campaign. There.
are fears that it could help trigger a
war between Nicaragua and Hon-
duras. There are high-sounding ar-
guments that the world's leading
democracy should not stoop to
'the trouble ' (Nicaragua's leftist
Sandinista-governmenL.:.. -
In the past two years, Reagan has
pumped-:more than.,$l.billion in eco-
nomic -aid. and -$218 million in mili-
tary assistance- into-Central Ameri-
ca - not counting the S19.5 million
for the CIA operation.
The number -of U.S. military per-
sonnel stationed in Honduras will
soon :rise to about 300.. Fifty-five
U.S. military advisers-are stationed
in.El .Salvador , and Reagan is re-
portedly considering. ending up to
least 50 Others `to Guatemala. Even
Costa -Rica:which doesn't have an
army, -has received U.S. military
The. economic .aid requests have
had easier, sailing through Congress
than proposals: for military assist-
ance.' While agreeing largely on the
Marxist threat to Central America.:
members of Congress dissent heart-:
ily over Reagan's-accent on military
assistance.
Unwilling to face future charges
that it "lost" El Salvador. Congress
grudgingly approves only part of
the Reagan requests for military aid
- and wraps them in a spider's
web of demands for progressive re-
forms by the Salvadoran govern-
ment.
In recent weeks, the dispute over
Reagan's approach to Central
America has spilled over into the
executive branch, essentially pitting
the National Security Council
against officials in the State Depart-
ment.
NSC chief William Clark and the
U.S. ambassador to the United Na-
tions Jeane Kirkpatrick, both hard-
liners on Central America, are now
said to have the strongest voices on
Keepj
Reag
usefuln
in the t
rebels i
have come
who read the GOP 1980 campaign
platform.
The platform vowed Reagan
would "seek to improve U.S. intelli-
gence capabilities for technical and
clandestine collection, cogent analy-
sis. coordinated with counterintelli-
gence and covert action."
It also deplored Cuban and Soviet
intervention in Central America and
the Marxist Sandinista takeover of
Nicaragua." More significantly, it
promised to "support the efforts of
the Nicaraguan people to establish a
free and independent government."
Reagan had been campaigning
for the GOP nomination as Central
"America virtually went up in
flames. In mid-1979, Sandinista
guerrillas toppled Nicaraguan Presi-
dent Anastasio Somoza. Six months
later, Marxist insurrections explod-
ed in neighboring El Salvador and
Guatemala.
Congressional sources with ac-
cess to intelligence information say
that a few days after the GOP
adopted its 1980 platform, several
former CIA officials began forging
the framework of a covert program
to restore the agency's "strength"
around the world.
These former CIA officials were
described as "old-timers." some of
them covert action specialists dis-
missed bv the hundreds in the
1977-1978 housecleanings that fol-
lowed congressional investigations
into charges of CIA abuses - the
so-called Family Jewels.
.emu
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100620028-4