MACNEIL-LEHRER REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201580003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 3, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201580003-4
MACNEIL-LEHRER REPORT
.3 May 1983
MACNEIL: Good evening. The House Intelligence Committee esis ing stron& Reagan
administration pressure today voted to ban U_S. covert military activities in or
against Nicaragua. The vote in the 14-man committee was nine Democrats for and five
Republicans against the bill which extends the force of the Boland amendment passed by
Congress last December. That banned the use of L.S. funds to back efforts to
overthrow Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government. The administration has since
been accused of breaking that law through CIA backing for anti-Sandinista rebels
operating from Honduras. The administration says it is only trying to stop Nicaragua
from sending arms to rebels in El Salvador. Today's committee action gave the
administration an alternative: $80 million' for friendly governments in Central
America to stop such arms flow. The bill still has to pass the full House and the
Senate. While the committee was deliberating today, Nicaragua claimed that some 1,200
rebels had launched what it called a massive new invasion from Honduras. Tonight:
tying the president's hands in Nicaragua. Jim?
LEHRER: Robin, one of the nine Intelligence Committee members who voted to tie those
hands was Congressman\Norman\Mineta, Democrat of California. Congressman Mineta
recently visited Central America at the invitation of the administration.
Congressman, why did you vote the way you did? MINETA: Well, first of all, the funds
that were given to the administration for the covert operation was ostensibly for the
interdiction of the arms supply line going from Nicaragua to El Salvador, and in
Congress in December, they passed the Boland amendment to prohibit the overthrow of
.the Nicaraguan government or to provoke war between El Salvador and Honduras, and I
just felt that the administration....
LEHRER: Nicaragua--you mean Nicaragua now. MINETA: Between Nicaragua and Honduras.
I'm sorry. And I just felt the administration had gone beyond the Boland amendment,
and I think the bill today does two things. First of all, it cuts off the covert
funding and it says let us look at this whole issue whether or not we want to have
assistance to those friendly foreign countries in Central America to interdict on this
arms supply line in an open, public policy manner.
LEHRER: So there's no question in your mind that the covert actions going beyond
trying to interdict those arms supply lines.... MINETA: In my estimation, I think
the administration in this recent trip that I took with our fine colleague Bill Young
has, didn't show, at least to me, the, any shred of evidence that they were within
their current goals or policies.
LEHRER: Did you see evidence to the contrary, that they were actually involved in
trying to overthrow the Sandinista government? MINETA: I think it's there, and
again, that's just open to interpretation. I an not convinced that what we were
financing there was strictly for interdiction of arms supply, and I think that the
administration was beyond the Boland amendment.
LEHRER: What.did you see that made you think that.? MINETA: Well, first of all they
had not been able to show for, at least to satisfy me, that there's been an
interdiction of that arms supply line or that there's been one round of ammunition or
one pound of high explosives that they've interdicted in the length of time of this
covert operation.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201580003-4