BARE SPY PIX OF ARMS FLOW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202320009-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Al Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA _RDP90-00552R000202320009-5
ON PAGE_________ 9 August 1984
are spy pix
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By BARBARA REHM
Washington (NewsBureau)-In a dramatically darkened
briefing room, the Reagan administration yesterday showed
eerie films taken by American spy planes high over the coast
of El Salvador to document -clandestine military support by
Nicaragua, Cuba and the Soviet bloc to guerrillas battling to
overthrow the U.S.-backed government of El Salvador.
I ft was the first major in-
telligence briefing on El Sal?
vador since the administra-
tion released a detailed-and
highly controversial white
paper-in 1981.
The evidence yesterday,
which included captured
guerrilla maps, documents
and reconnaissance photo-
graphs, marked the latest
attempt by the administra-
tion to wrest more military
aid for Salvador from Con-
gress.
The administration has re-
quested $117 million in addi-
tion to $124 million already
approved for the fiscal year
that ends Sept. 30. The Sen.
ate is expected to approve
the request this week but the
House has refused to go
along.
WITH THE emergency
aid, Gen. Paul Gorman. chief
of the U.S. Southern Com-
mand, predicted the Salva-
doran military can confine
the guerrillas to about 10%r of
the nation within two years.
The U.S. ambassador to
Salvador, Thomas Pickering,
and Gorman used colored
maps, captured weapons, re-
bel logs and spy-plane films
to support the administration
case. They detailed weapons
flows by sea across the Salva-
doran beaches of Espino,
Cuco and lcacal up the Lem-
pa River and Juquilisco Bay
and by mule trains and 1t5-
wheel trucks across the
mountain roads from Hon
duras
BUT AFTER an extensive
list of dates and hazy photos,
Pickering admitted "there is
no smoking gun." "We have
yet to intercept one of those
crates," said Gorman. "They
(the Salvadorans) have yet to
get their hands on it; we have
to get our hands on it." .
Gorman said pilots with
night visor goggles, flying
6,000 to 12,000 feet above the
coast, used low-light t.elev.i-
sion and infared sensors to
document a series of arms
shipments to the southeast.
ern coast of El Salvador
from Nicaragua.
On June 24, he said, the
pilots saw 25 "hot spots,"
mules and men, on the beach
and three 60 and 70 foot
trawlers a half-mile off
shore. Two shrimp boats
apparently picked up crates
from the boats, dropped
them on the beaches where
they were carried north
through the jungles.
Qne of the major critic-;
isms of the Salvadoran
forcess has 6een their inabil-
ityy+.to u.se spphl .ticatP .
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202320009-5