PRESIDENT ADMITS AIDING GUERRILLAS AGAINST NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404560006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 15, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0404560006-8
VvASHII`TGTOIN PCS-'-
15 APF'L 1983
President Admits
Aiding Guerrillas
ainst Nicaragua
By Lou Cannon
and Patrick E. Tyler
P ashington Post SLf( Writers
President Reagan yesterday ac-
knowledged U.S. support of anti-
governlnent guerrillas in Nicaragua
but said his administration was
"complying fully" with a congression-
al prohinition on activities aimed at
overthrowing Nicaragua's leftist San-
dinista regime.
"Anything we're doing in that area
is ,inipiY, tryin to interdict the sup-
ply lines which are supplying the
(leftist; vuerrillas in El Salvador,"
the president said at a brief news
conference. "But thepicture today is
that Nicaragua. with its protests that
somenow someone is trying to over-
tnrov. them, is, as a revolutionary
government, trying; to overthrow the
government of ... El Salvador
', high administration official said
later that "p art of the interdiction"
Wa, the use of sophisticated Air-
13Urt1E t'
~"nCllmg and Control System
aircraft to spy on air traf-
fic in and out of Nicaragua. The
planes., based at. Tinker Air Force
Base. Okla., are refueled in midair
over -Mexico and are blanketing Nic-
aragua with radar surveillance from
the safety of international waters in
the Pacific, officials said.
While Reagan publicly insisted in
the White House briefing room that
his administration is obeying the law
in Central America, Secretary of
State George P. Shultz and national
security adviser William P. Clark
were making the same argument in
the Capitol to Rep. Edward P.
M and (D-Mass.), chairman of the
House Permanent Select Committee
on Intrliivence.
Boland is the author of an amend-
ment bearing his name that prohib-
its U.S. assistance "for the purpose"
of overthrowing the Nicaraguan gov-
ernment or provoking military con-
flict between Nicaragua and neigh-
boring Honduras.
The 35-minute meeting was de-
scribed by administration officials as
"a good, friendly consultation on our
policy in El Salvador and Nicaragua"
in which Boland did not assert that
the Reagan government is violating
the law. They described Boland as
"cordial and non-committal, as we
expected." -
But a congressional source said
Boland "expressed a very serious
arlount of, concern" among commit-
tee members about whether the ad-
ministration was complying with, the law.
"I don't think it was a meeting to change
anyone's position," the source said.
Each side listened carefully to the op-
posing concerns and agreed at the end of
.,the meeting that Shultz would return
Wednesday to testify before the full com-
mittee in closed session. Clark does not
plan to testify, in keeping with what the
White House described as a long tradi-
tion.
Reagan made his comments on Central
America at a news conference called to
celebrate the Senate confirmation of
We are not doing anything to try and
overthrowthe ? Nicaraguan government,"
Reagan said. Nicaragua today has
created the biggest military force in all of
Central America and large parts of South
.America=an army of some 25.000
backed.by a milita of 50,000, armed with
Soviet weapons that consist of heavy--
duty tanks, an air force, helicopter gun
ships, fighter planes. bombers and so
forth ...."
Reagan said this Nicaraguan armed
force was opposed by a few thousand
Miskito Indians and guerrillas and
- added, "I don't think it's reasonable to
assume that that kind of a force could
nurse any ambitions that they can over-
throw t:hat government with that great
military force.-
In previous intelligence and State De-
partment reports. the administration has
never asserted that the Nicaraguans pos-
sess an air force of any significance. The
air force is mainly a few old trainers and
civilian propeller planes, although Nic-
aragua has received modern artillery and
heavy tanks from Cuba and the Soviet
Union, according to these reports.
Reagan attempted to turn around crit-
icism that the United States, is support-
ing efforts to overthrow the leftist Ni-
caraguan government by insisting Nic-
aragua is trying to overthrow the elected
Kenneth L. Adelman as director of the
arms to leftist insurgents. The president
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. hinted that he would take action to pre-
h
t-
i
d
B
announce-
gnore
t
a
ut reporters
ment and all their questions except one
were about administration policy in Cen-
The president, after first saving he
couldn't say anything except, that the
administration was "complying with the
law," launched a rigorous defense of his
policy and do attack on the "completely
Marxist" government of Nicaragua.
vent this if permitted, but said "what I
might personally wish or what our gov-
ernment might wish still would not jus-
tify us violating the law of the land."
White House, counselor Edwin Meese
III also reflected administration unhap-
piness with the Boland amendment at a
breakfast meeting with ' reporters. He
said, "It is the responsibility of the pres-
ident td:) conduct foreign policy; limita-
tions on that by the- Congress are im-
proper as far as I'm col~rgrl?ed "_ ~r .:
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