U.S. TO SHOW EVIDENCE ON LATIN REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403960019-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: May 11, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403960019-1
AR-2I CLE APPEARED
ON PAGE 11,4
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
11 May 1984
U.S. to sh
ticate the documents" on which th
report was based, although he stooc
by the' conclusions.
While the CIA is balking at makin
public its information about Nicara
Juan aid to Salvadoran insugei~ts
the project has the support of Nation
evidence on
By George Gedda
Associated Press
as content a could W 1n CIA con-
sent for the release of at least part of
aSecurity Adviser Robert C. McFa_rL atin rebels 1 bane. Ofiidcials said that McFarlape 11
WASHINGTON - The Reagan ad.
ministration, in a policy shift, is
planning to release what it says is
evidence to support its charges that
Nicaragua has been providing aid to
leftist rebels in El Salvador, U.S. offi-
cials said yesterday.
The officials, who spoke on condi-
tion they not be identified, said the
documentation would be in a special
report that they hoped to release
within two weeks.
I Administration charges of wide-
spread Nicaraguan involvement on
behalf of the Salvadoran insurgents
have been met with considerable
skepticism because the United States
has not made public any evidence.
11 S intelligence agencies J----e
posed releasing the evidence, e,ayt'ng
that to do so would expose their
sources o inform, Privately,
howeverofficials have said that
much of the administration's infor-
mation was based on interceptions Qf
radio communications betwee, J cj-
raguan authorities and the Salvadot
pp rebels.
The U.S. monitoring operation is
said to have intercepted several
thousand messages since the Nicara-
guans installed the system in the
spring of 1981.
Want no mistakes
Release of the special report has
been delayed because the adminis-
tration wants no mistakes, the offi-
cials said. They noted that in 1981,
the impact of an administration
white paper aimed at demonstrating
Soviet bloc involvement in the Salva.
doran insurgency was diluted when
press reports cast doubt on the accu-
racy of some of the conclusions.
After the 1981 paper was attacked,
James Cheek, then-deputy assistant
secretary of state for Latin. America,
said. "It's been impossible to authen-
the evidence.
"If he can't, it's going to be a pretty
drab report," one official said. He
added that the State Department had
been encouraging maximum .possi-
ble disclosure.
The assistant secretary of state for
inter-American affairs, Langhorne A.
Motley, told a State Department gath-
ering Tuesday that Nicaragua also
had set up command and control
operations for the Salvadoran rebels
in Nicaragua.
`Downtown Managua'
He said he had raised that issue,
among others, with Nicaraguan au-
thorities, adding, "If they don't know
where it is, we'll give them the street
address. It's in downtown Managua."
Nicaragua has denied the adminis-
tration allegations about its support
for the Salvadoran insurgency. In his
nationally televised address Wednes-
day night, President Reagan repeat-
ed the accusation, asserting that
Nicaragua was playing the same role
for the Soviet Union that Cuba long
had performed.
The Sandinistas, he said, have be-
come "Cuba's Cubans."
"Weapons, supplies and funds are
being shipped from the Soviet bloc to
Cuba, from Cuba to Nicaragua, from
Nicaragua to the Salvadoran guerril-
las," he said.
An integral part of Nicaragua's sup-
port is said to consist of an installa-
tion where vehicles are modified to
permit the transport of hidden
equipment The equipment is often
reportedly trucked to Honduras and
then transferred to vans and other
smaller vehicles, which then com-
plete the journey to El Salvador.
The officials said the administra.
tion also might publish a second re-
port outlining Soviet bloc
involvement throughout Central
America. No final decision has been
made on whether to go ahead with
the project, the officials said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403960019-1