CIA CALLS SHOTS AGAINST NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560004-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 17, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

CSTAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560004-0
11 -Al C. ALL
17 Alt,, 1983
CTi A Calls rho
Against Niear~
By ALFONSO CHARDY
And JUAN 0. TAMAYO
Herald Stc?; Writers
. CIA officials have told Congress
that the intelligence agency has as-
sumed virtual day-to-day control
over guerrillas fighting the Nicara-
guan government, pinpointing their
targets and plotting their attacks,
according to congressional sources.
The CIA defends its increased
control over the Nicaraguan guer-
rillas by contending that it guaran-
tees the "secret war" will remain
within congressionally approved
guidelines.
Congressional intelligence
sources say, however, that they
doubt the CIA's claims and fear the
covert operation may be out of con-
trol - and in violation of U.S. laws.
New evidence of the increased
scope of American involvement
emerged last week as Congress
began questioning whether the CIA
had exceeded its authority. By law,
that authority is limited to using the
Nicaraguan rebels to interdict al-
leged weapons shipments from Nic-
aragua to guerrillas fighting the
U.S.-backed government in El Sal-
vador.
Sources 'in Washington and in
Honduras say the CIA role shifted
within the past month from arm's
length contacts with the guerrillas
to face-to-face and daily direction
of a force whose avowed intention
is to overthrow Nicaragua's leftist
Sandinista government.
The sources, some of them
briefed by CIA officials on the na-
ture of American involvement, said
the CIA had provided the following
examples of its activities:
? CIA and U.S. military intelli-
gence operatives now confer daily
with leaders of the 4,000 to 6,000
anti-Sandinista rebels operating in-
side Nicaragua and on the Hondu.
ran side of the 400-mile border.
? American agents pinpoint tar-
gets for the rebels. plot how and
when the targets should be attacked
and debrief raiders when they re-
turn to Honduras from Nicaragua.
? CIA officials are asking Con-
gress for an additional $20 million
- perhaps as much as $25 million
- to continue the operation well
into 1984.
? "Thousands" of CIA-ordered
listening devices and metal detec-
tors are being deployed along Hon-
duran-Nicaraguan border areas be-
lieved to be supply routes for arms
to Salvadoran guerrillas.
? U.S. spy planes - as many as
five of them - their fuselages bris-
tling with antennas, regularly
sweep the border, as well as air and
sea lanes between Cuba and Nicara-
gua
According to CIA officials at
briefings for congressmen, the
thrust of the U.S. campaign con-
tinues to be to interdict the flow of
weapons to El Salvador and to gath-
er intelligence on Sandinista and
Cuban activities in Nicaragua.
"We are being told that, every
day, Americans remind the rebels in
Honduras what the purposes of the
missions are, and not to exceed
their orders," said a skeptical con-
gressional intelligence ,source who
asked to remain anonymous. "They
tell us'that preserving U.S. control
of the operation is now more of a
priority than deniability."
Liberal congressmen argue. how-
ever, that the scope of covert war
already exceeds levels approved by
the House and Senate Intelligence
Oversight subcommittees. They call
for an end, to the operation.
Congressional sources said Presi-
dent Reagan signed a "presidential
finding" in November 1981 certify-
ing the need for a covert CIA cam-
paign to stem the unrest that he ac-
cused Nicaragua and Cuba of sow-
ing throughout Central America.
The finding was accompanied by
a 519.9-million budget, much of it
to expand U.S. intelligence-gather-
ing operations curtailed during the
CIA upheavals of the mid-1970s,
the sources said.
Other 'congressional sources said
only $1.5 million to S3 million went
to train and arm the Nicaraguan
Democratic Front (FDN), at the
time largely made up of Nicaraguan
National Guardsmen who fled to
Honduras after the Sandinistas top-
pled President Anastasio Somoza in
1979.
$20-million request
CIA Director William Casey
asked Congress in January for
about $20 million to continue fund-
ing the coven campaign into the
fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, con-
gressional intelligence sources
added.
To preserve Washington's "deni-
ability," the early U.S. money was
channeled to the FDN through Ar-
gentine military intelligence offi-
cers drawn to Central America as
counterweight to the Argentine
leftists who floc`--led to Managua
after the Sandinista triumph.
But Argentina reportedly recalled
most of its agents after the United
States sided with Britain during the
Falklands/Malvinas war last year.
Only a handful of Argentines re-
mained with the FDN by year's end,
among them Col. Carmelo Gigante,
who was awarded a Honduran
army medal in February.
CIA officials, in secret briefings
with congressmen, reported that
the U.S. intelligence contingent in
Honduras was forced to expand to
take up the Argentines' slack, con-
gressional sources said.
Late last year, according to the
CIA briefers. the agency ordered
the FDN to shut down its Honduran
training bases and move into Nica.
ragua to increase the pressure on
the Sandinistas to stop shipping
`weapons to El Salvador.
The congressional sources say
that by the". the "secret war" was
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560004-0