CIA COVET ACTION PUNISHES NICARAGUA FOR SALVADOR AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201580008-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 20, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201580008-9
DTI OLE r r D
E _I
WIN,
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
2O DECEEr_R 1982
6 Covert Action
"e. Ir 0,
.Nicaragua for Salva'dor
By ROBERT C. TOTH, Tines &cff f writer
WASF.INGTON -Under orders
from President Reagan to "harass"
but not "overthrow" the Sandinista
regime in Nicaragua, the CIA is
using neighboring Honduras as a?
base for ' its biggest covert action
since the Vietnam War.
The CIA's operation against Ni -
caragua are a pale shadow of the
high-flying days of the secret war
in Lames, however. With the agen-
cy's manpower drastically an back
and its mission closely circum-
sc ibed by -the President-and Con-
gress, the CIA is largely limited to
supporting local paramilitary forces
waging a hit-and-run campaign to
ptrish Nicaragua for aiding leftist
rebe in El Salvador.
'The CIA-backed operations are
using a "tit for tat" strategy, intel-
ligence sources said. When the Sal-
vadoran rebels blow up.a power line
or bridge in El Salvador, for exam-
pie. the anti-Sandinista guerrillas
demolish a :power. line or bridge in
Nicaragua.
Marber this year, leftist rebels
tried to disrupt the Salvadoran
economy and elections . by felling
power pylons, blowing up bridges '
and setting trucks afire to block the
main highway between San Salva-
dor and San Miguel in retaliation,:
two bridges in norLbern Nicaragua'
were destroyed and,' Nicaraguan:
authorities charged, -sabotage teams
tried to dynamite a power plant, -a
cement factory and another bridge
in western Nicaragua.
The message to ' Managua 1&'
There's a price to aiding the rebels'
If you stop, well stoop the groups
harassing' you,' " one intelligence
official said
Because the operations of U.S. in-
telligence agencies in, Central
America are classified, A inistra-
tion :officials declined to discuss the
matter on the record. But inter-
..views with persons close to the
i operations provided details-on the
scope of American covert opera-
tions and the guidelines under
which they are being carried ouL
The directive signed by Reagan a
year ago bars funds for followers of
:the'-late Nicaraguan strong man
:Anastasio Somoza,-.who was ousted
.by the Sandinistas in 1919, the offi-
cial said,,.and it specifies that.the
taim is to "harass" rather than. des-
tabilize or overthrow the Sandinis-
150 to 200 !bents '
The price tag on the covert pro-
gram for Central America. which
includes indirectly providing arms,
training and organizational support
for between 500 and 1,500 anti-San-
dinista guerrillas, was $19.9 million
for 1982, according to the officiaL
Approximately the same funding
level has been requested for next
Rep.. ' Thomas R. Harkin (D-
Iowa) and Sen. Christopher H. Dodd
(D-Conn.) both have tried to stop
funding for the CIA operation. The
present policy has only "radicalized
Nicaragua to the left and Honduras
to the right," Harkin said. "Dodd
complained that the policy is at-
tempting to impose "military solu
tons to political problems."
The Administration's covert ac-
tion program also was criticized by
'Morton H. Halperin, director of the
Center for National Security Stu-
dies, which describes itself as a
project of the Fund for Peace and
the ACLU (American Civil Liber-
ties Union) Foundation. Halperin,
whose organization recently studied
public reports on the operation, said
in a review of those reports that the
operation is either "aimed at de-
stroying the government of Nicara-
gua or is out of control."
On the other hand, William G.
Hyland, former deputy national se-
curity assistant to the President in
the Ford and Nixon Administra-
tions, said his opinion, also based on
published reports-is that "things
are probably going okay."
Might Backfire
"I'm not against our having a lit-
tle something on the bargaining ta-
ble (i.e., harassing capability) If it's
not the size of an army," Hyland
said. "But remember, the name of
the game there is El Salvador, not
Nicaragua."
There is concern within the Ad-
ministration, as well as In Congress,
that the covert operation cannot ea- i
sily be contained and might backfire
to the embarrassment of the United
States.
Specifically, relations between
Nicaragua and Honduras have de-
teriorated toward open hostilities as
Honduras, torn between the United.
States and Cuban-backed Nicara-
gua, becomes what one official
there called "the Lebanon of Cen-
tral America." The startling rise in
urban terrorism, as well as leftist
guerrilla activity in Honduras dur-
ing the last year, has been directly
attributed to Honduras's support for
This amount, and the number of
CIA men involved, is miniscule by
Vietnam ' standards. Hundreds of
millions of 'dollars were spent for
the secret= CIA war in Laos alone,
and more than' 5;000 CIA employees
were involved.
Now, there are reports that 150 to
200 CIA agents are in Honduras. But.
Administration sources insist that
the CIA does not yet have that
many men in its entire covert oper-
ations program.
"Rebuilding has begun after the
draw-down during the Carter Ad-
ministration," one intelligence
source said, "but these aren't the
kind of men you pick off the street."
Another source speculated that if
there are 150 to 200 intelligence
agents in Honduras, the number
must include personnel from other
U.S. Intelligence agencies in addi-
tion to the CIA, organization such as
the National Security, Agency,
which operates , radio -and other
electronic eavesdropping networks.
Honduran officials are also being
trained in intelligence-collection
work.
Despite the relatively small size
and scope of the Nicaragua opera-
tion, some members of Congress are
increasingly concerned because it
represents the first significant re-
birth of CIA-backed paramilitary
action in almost a decade. And it
was covert action that got the CIA