SOVIETS PLAY UP SADAT DISCLOSURE TO ASSAIL U.S. FOR AFGHAN STRIFE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605720018-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: September 25, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605720018-4
ARTICLE APPEi
ON PAGE /
THE WASHINGTON POST
25 September 1981
By Dusko Doder
WuhingWn Pox Ybeeign Sark.
MOSCOW, Sept. 24-With the zest re-
served for exceptional propaganda opportu-
nities, the Kremlin today seized on Egyptian..
President Anwar Sadat's disclosure of arms
shipments to Afghan rebels as proof that the
United States is conducting an undeclared.
war against Afghanistan.
The government newspaper Izvestia de-w-
scribed Sadat's disclosure as a rare act of
"political striptease" that laid bare a conspir-
acy coordinated by the CIA.
``This fresh evidence," the= press agency.
Tass declared, "should be enough to convince:
the U.N. General Assembly that if anyone'
was. interfering in Afghan internal affaim-,it
was the United
In an interview with NBC broadcast in
the United States Tuesday night, Sadat said
that immediately after the Soviets invaded
Afghanistan in December 1979, the Carter
administration asked that Egypt provide So=
viet-made weapons to resistance forces.
Sadat said that the United States had been
"very generous" in paying for these weapons.
Izvestia went into raptures describing the
"facts" surrounding "the undeclared war that
reactionary forces are waging against the
Afghan people." One fact ommitted was that
the weapons involved were Soviet-made and
given to Egypt before Sadat broke with Mos..
cow in 1972.
Izvestia talked about the killing of inno-
cent people, bombing attacks on schools,
hospitals and other buildings and about fire-
bombings of public buildings, "including
mosques.".
Saying that these "facts speak for them-
selves," the commentary concluded that "the
hands guiding the war" in Afghanistan are in
Washington, which is plotting with China
and "unspecified other client states" against
a legitimata.government.
Tass said that subversion against the
Kabul government is coordinated by the CIA
and involves Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China and
Pakistan. It said "bandits" had received more
than $100 milion in arms and that the Rea-
gan administration "has ordered a consider-
able increase in these supplies." "" =
"In the, light of these new facts about the
buildup of U.S. interference in Afghanistan
affairs," Tass said, "how hypocritical are the=.
appeals from Washington for a withdrawal of
the limited Soviet contingent there.. ; . -
The Soviet Union is: estimated to have
85,000 troops in Afghanistan,
Tass described China and Egypt as sup-
pliers of weapons that are paid- for, by the,
United States and Saudi Arabia and sent by
air and land to Afghanistan, with Pakistan
providing "unhindered use of its-territory." -
In a related effort to counter recent allega-
tions by Secretary of State Alexander M.
Haig Jr. that Soviet chemical weapons were
used in Afghanistan, the Soviets gave promi-
nence to a report in the West German ne
paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The newspaper quoted an International
Red Cross 'representative, Jean-Michel
Monod, as saying that the allegations- were
an "irresponsible calumny."`
"None of the Red Cross physicians work
ing in Pakistan border areas has ever:met
patients affected by the . use of chemic j
.weapons," Tess quoted - Monod as saying'...
Tess said Edgar Frey, a physician from Zu-,
rich, had confirmed this, too.
Moscow is likely to use Sadat's NBC inter-
view and the West German. report to-try t
ease Afghanistan's diplomatic isolation and
press for a political solution that would legiti
mize the Babrak Karma! government there.."_]
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605720018-4