WHITE HOUSE SAYS INSURGENTS NEED STINGERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302490026-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: April 6, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

~ Approved For Release 2010/09/02 :CIA-RDP90-005528000302490026-7
ON PAGF ~Z~ '+E';J 'CORK ' i'?E~
6 April 1986
The
World
White House Says
Insurgerrts
Need Stingers
The Stinger is a shoulder-tired
guided missile system about 5 feet
long and weighing 3~.5 pounds that
uses an infrared system to home in
on low-dying planes and helicopters.
One man can operate the 175,000
weapon, sighting the target and tir-
ing the high-explosive missile
through a disposable launch tube.
Stingers are among the weapons in-
cluded in military and other aid the
Reagan Administration wants to
supply the anti-Government rebels
in Nicaragua for use against Soviet-
made MI-24 helicopter gunships of
the Sandinista air force.
Last week, Stingers became the
center of another dispute between
the White House and Capitol Hill - a
debate over how much military mis-
chief the Administration shoWd
sponsor without a Congressional
vote. The Reagan Administration
plans to supply hundreds of Stingers
to rebels in Angola led by Jonas
Savimbi, who has been fighting for 10
years to overthrow the avowedly
Marxist Government in Luanda, and
to the insurgents who have been
fighting since 1979 against a pro-
Soviet Government in Afghanistan
and the Russian troops supporting it.
The Congressional opposition to
su 1 'n ere groups was led
y epresentative ami ton, the
Indiana mocrat w o is chairman
o e Dose me i ence ommit-
tee. a ca or an en to the so-
called covert aid programs under
which Washington supports the rebel
groups, saying, "[ don't think it is
wise to proceed on these highly con-
troversial foreign policy decisions
without the support of the Con-
gress." "This is not a covert action
in the ordinary understanding of the
term," he said of the hostilities in
Angola: "this is a war."
The President may initiate covert
programs without Congressional ap-
proval, but he is regwred to notity
the intelligence committees of both
houses. At week's end. Mr. Hamilton
said that if the Administration did
not resc its ecision he w
press for le station to end or restrict
covert al or to utre~on
sional approval or such programs.
Approved For Release 2010/09/02 :CIA-RDP90-005528000302490026-7