U.S. SHOWS PHOTOS TO BACK CHARGE OF NICARAGUA BUILDUP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302860014-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: March 10, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302860014-9
771
By John M. Goshko
THE WASHINGTON POST
10 March 1982
icaraiia
Washington PostSttft Wrttee
The Reagan administration, seek-
ing to swing public. opinion behind
its Central America-policies, yester-
day staged a display of blowups of
aerial photographs to bolster: its,
charges that Nicaragua is engaged in
a massive military buildup that
poses a threat to its neighbors.
The photographs, projected onto a
giant screen in the darkened large
auditorium of the State Department,
were the highlights of, a lengthy
press briefing given by Adm. Bobby
R. Inman, deputy-.director of the
Central IntelligenceAgency, and
John Hughes, deputy director of the
Defense Intelligence Agency. ..
As described by Hughes, the pho-
.tographs purported,. to ? show
Nicaraguan military installations,
built according to an alleged Cuban,
model, airfields with runways length-
ened to handle Soviet Mig, jets that'.
the United States claims are ear-,"
marked for Nicaragua, and Soviet
tanks and art illery~ . in place at some:
of these installations
-The two officials also showed"a<
series of before-and-after .photo'
graphs showing.. Indian. villages -near'
Nicaragua's border , a ith.. Honduras;
that- allegedly ,were." burned :,, by
Nicaraguan. authorities. The._admin"
istration has d iaiged;Nicaragua with
repression and ?.forted `relocation : o
the Miskito Indiangand other tribes:
that lived in thearga:.
Except for - the- photographs, `col
lected by, unspecified aerial iiecon-i
naissance-'methods;-the briefing-was.
largely a reiteration: of.;information
that the administration": previously-
made
Its main-.point, ich Inman and
Hughes tried. to-.'drive-home _ with a
drumbeat of tough rhetoric, ;W33 the
allegation that icaJagup's ; revgIu
tionary,?:. Sandinistacontrolled, gov
ernment;: 'withCi ban aria'- Sovie
h l burl i - - = =t--- - --
needs for': legitimate self-defense.
Inman said the intelligence commu-,
mty- believes Nicaragua's goal is to
create a standing army of 25,000 to
30,000 and a ready-reserve militia of
between 100,000 and 150,000.
--He added that while the purpose'
wasn't clear, he believes the "pattern
of Cuba" is being repeated in Nic-
aragua-and that "the military infra-
structure is there to turn the country
into a Soviet bastion" from which
campaigns. of political intimidation-
or outright warfare can be waged
against the rest of the Central Amer-
ican isthmus.
"This time, the . ocean barriers
aren't there," Inman said. "They can
move much more easily into Central .
.American countries."
?~ What - - set yesterday's'= briefing
apart-- fromprevious administratiop
attempts to make its case about
communist penetration, of. Central-
America was the almost theatrical
flair with which it was staged. Ad-
ministration officials also made clear
.it was only the opening salvo in a.1
major effort to influence. public opin-
ion and counter the mounting, oppo-
~_sition iii-Congress and elsewhere to
President Reagan's backing" .of the
;military.=civilian goverment in.El Sal-
vador and his hostility to Nicaragua.
The session yesterday was limited
'to` presenting evidence -about the
Nicaraguan.: arms buildup,. and did .
'not deal-vith the_ charge__made_ by
Secretary; of State Alexander A.
.Haig Ji: that the leftist guerrillas in
'the Salvadoran civil war `are con-
trolled and,supplied by suchoutside
'forces as -.Cuba and Nicaragua.
Haig's-' accusation caused several
members of Congress who advocate
negotiating-=-with the- Salvador
guerrillas; and Nicaragua to; ask him
. e.P~ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
-Inman said evidence about the
so-called "Salvador-.Nicaragua_con-1
iriection" is being presented to Con-;
gress.. in closed briefings that will;
continue through Thursday. He also j
said a similar briefing will be given
today at the State Department for aI
bipartisan group of distinguished ,
former government officials, and he
added that another press briefing on
the subject is likely Friday.
The. tone of the administration's
approach was set by Inman, who
opened the briefing by saying he wasp
"concerned" and "angry" because the
:public has not been getting "a clear
idea of what is concerning us in the
intelligence community" and because
government officials -have been in-
hibited in responding` to congression
al interrogation by the need to pro:
tect intelligence sources.
For that reason;. he continued,:
CIA Director William J. Casey ha
declassified the aerial photographs
tnade public yesterday. To explain-
;them, Inman thencalled on Hughes,:
whom he described as "the premier-
bhoto_ interpreter- i6- the intelligence
community." He also noted pointed-
ly that Hughes had'conducted the
briefings during `the 1962 Cuban
"missile crisis dealing 'with aerial 're'-'
cdnnaissance of Soviet missile sites
there.
Hughes said the are 49 active
military garrisons in Nicaragua, 36 {
of them built since the Sandinistas
won power in -1979.. He then showed
aerial photos of ;several that he'sai
were built on the Cuban patternof_a
,rectangle divided into,three parts. amotor pool, a barracks area and a
training area.- containing what;.:he
"contended were "Soy iet-model".ob-
' stacle and physical training.courses. `
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2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302860014-9
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