SECRET ARMS BID REPORTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403750001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 17, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403750001-3
ARTICLE APPEARED BALTIMORE SUN
ON PAGE ' /Y-/ 17 May 1984
Secret
arms bid
reported
CIA was proposed
to panel as conduit
for El Salvador
' WASHINGTON - The Reagan
administration has reportedly de-
veloped a plan to send some mili-
tary equipment to El Salvador se-
cretly through the Central Intelli-
gence Agency.
The plan, submitted this month,
was blocked by the House Commit-
tee on Intelligence, members of
Congress and administration offi-'
cials said.
According to the lawmakers, the
committee objected on the ground
that it appeared to circumvent aid
limits set by Congress. The chair-
man, Representative Edward P.
Boland (D, Mass.), reportedly was
angered and told William J. Casey,
the director of central intelligence,
that the committee would not toler-
ate the shipments.
The plan came to light yester-
day when Representative Clarence
D. Long (D, Md., 2d), chairman of
the House Appropriations subcom-
mittee on foreign operations, an-
nounced that he had received a let-
ter from Mr. Boland about "CIA
arms shipments to El Salvador."
Lawmakers said that the
amount of arms involved was not
clear but that it involved heavy
military equipment, including four
combat helicopters.
"While we are sitting up here
painstakingly debating -how much
military assistance to give El Sal
vador," Mr. Long said in an inter-
view, "the Reagan administration
is figuring out how to secretly send
everything they want down there.
It is outrageous. I won't stand for
it."
Mr. Long, who said he was re-
stricted on what he could say about'
the secret plan, said he had asked,
for a CIA briefing for today. .
Other lawmakers and
tration officials later prove e-'
tails.
The disclosure came as House
and Senate members met to try to.
resolve differences over regular.
military aid to El Salvador and to'
Nicaraguan rebels in a supplemen-
tal financing bill. The Senate ver
sion includes $62 million for El Sal-
vador and $21 million for Nicara-"
guan rebels. The House version.;
provides no aid to either party.
The military equipment the ad-
ministration planned to send
through the CIA would have been in
addition to the regular aid ap--
proved by Congress. It also would.'
have been in addition to $32 million
in aid Mr. Reagan authorized earlier this year under discretionary
powers.
The idea of using the CIA, ac__
cording to lawmakers familiar.'
with the proposal, was developed.,
as a way of swiftly getting military
equipment to El Salvador.
According to the. sources, the.,
plan called for the Pentagon to de-
clare some military equipment sur-
plus and to give it to the CIA at a .
nominal price for forwarding to El.
Salvador. The monetary value as
listed on government ledgers would;,
thus have been much smaller than
the actual value.
An administration official said .
that, because of the objections of
the House committee, the proposal
would be temporarily set aside.
"Congress has overreacted," he
said. "Once we have a chance to
educate them on this idea, we may
try to submit it again."
Mr. Long said he estimated the
actual value of the military equip-';
ment at more than $20 million.
"This administration is playing
all kinds of games, and I deeply re-
sent it," Mr. Long said.
Members of the Committee on
Intelligence said the panel had ob-
jected to the plan in part because,
as one member put it, "it proposed
an inappropriate role for the CIA."
The members said they thought
the timing was especially unfortu-
nate because the proposal was sub-
mitted just as Congress was in the
midst of debate about aid to El Sal-
vador.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403750001-3