PRESIDENT SAYS 'FLOOD' OF ARMS JUSTIFIED MINING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390099-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 99
• Publication Date: May 30, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390099-3
ARTICLE APPEARED
OF PAGE A__=_l
President Says
1`Flood' of Arms
'Justified Mining
By David Hoffman
Washington Pose Starr Writer
COLORADO SPRINGS, May 29
-President Reagantoday said th
IA-backed mininff of vNiomug's
jn er Ict_"$ " of Snvip? Arms
? flowin through Nicaragua's ports to
leftist guerillas in El Salvador.
But Reagan dismissed the contro-
versy over the mining as "much ado
about nothing," and said, "Those
were homemade mines that couldn't
sink a ship."
In an interview with Irish televi.
sion that was recorded Monday and
broadcast in Ireland tonight, Reagan
offered his strongest justification so
far for the mining, citing specific
instances when ships had unloaded
arms in Nicaragua's ports.
A storm of protest erupted on
Capitol Hill recent) when it 8;3
disclosed that the I had not .informed congression 1_ oversight
committees about the extent of U.S.
involvement in the__min .
The magnetic mines which re-
portedly would damage but not sink
vessels, were placed in Nicaraguan
harbors as part of the CIA's assist-
ance to anti-Sandinista "contras -a
,-program Congress is threatening
down.
The CIA reportedly worked from
g "mother ship" to he pJhe contras
place the mines in Nicaraguan ports.
Reagan. questioned about the min-
ing April 4 at a White House news
conference, refused to comment on
the "tactics" used by the contras.
But he vowed then to "inconve.
nience" the Sandinista regime if it
continued to arm and train leftist
rebels fighting the government of El
Salvador.
Reagan offered a more detailed
'jestification Monday in the interview
With Brian Farrell of Ireland's gov-
ment-run television.
'The subject came up because Rea-
WASHINGTON POST
30 May 1984
gan is expected to encounter demon-
strations protesting his Central
American policies when he visits Ire-
land on Friday.
Reagan said the protesters had
been "misinformed" and "propagan-
dized" by the "vast, worldwide dis-
information machineries" of the So-
viet Union and Cuba.
"I don't mean this to sound pre-
sumptuous, but is there any one of
them that has access to all the in-
i formation that the president of the
United States has?". Reagan asked.
"I'm' not doing this because I've got a
yen to involve ourselves or spend
some money."
The president said he received
"irrefutable evidence" shortly before
his 1981 inauguration that the San-
dinistas were exporting arms to the
leftist guerrillas in El Salvador.
Reagan was asked about the min-
ing after he asserted, as he often has
before, that the Sandinistas had "no
honor, no honesty" and were intend-
ing "further revolution throughout
all of Latin America."
"Would that, nevertheless, justify
mining ports?" Farrell asked.
"Those were homemade mines
that couldn't sink a ship." Reagan
said.
He added that "right, now, there is
a Bulgarian ship unloading tanks
and armored personnel carriers at a
port in Nicaragua. That is the fifth
such Bulgarian ship in the last 18
months."
"Just a week or two ago, there
were Soviet ships in there unloading
war materiel," he said, claiming that
the Sandinistas are "funneling this
through to the guerrillas in El Sal-
vador."
Reagan has recently won victories
in Congress in his bid for additional
military and economic aid for El Sal-
vador, but the House rejected his
request for $21 million to continue
funding the contras' effort.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505390099-3