NO PROOF OF NICA ARMS TO SALVA: PAT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606120077-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 77
• Publication Date: June 14, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000606120077-4
ARTYCLE AP'!JBID
ON PAGE 11 n
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
14 June 1984
No proof of Nica arms
tPat'
By HARRISON RAINIE
and BARBARA REHM
Washington (News
Bureau)--Sen. Daniel P.
Moynihan (D-N.Y.), vice chair-
man of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, insisted yesterday
that the Reagan administra.
tion has failed to provide "any
conclusive information" about
massive weapons shipments
from Nicaragua to leftist re-
bels battling the U.S.-backed
government of El Salvador.
The existence of an ongoing
cross-border flow of arms has
been the major justification
for the administration's highly
controversial, three-year-old
"secret war" against the Sandi-
nista government of Nicar-
agua.
Moynihan said his commit-
tee, tee, which oversees intelli-
gence operations, "has not
been presented with any con-
clusive information" to docu-
ment the arms flow. uic -
ment appeared to lend sour
crume e o assertions bv fo-
meT ana s avid Ma -
t Mic el that the Reagan ad-
ministration is misleading
n ress and the public about
Nicaraguan ac ivity in El Sal-
o.
IN A SERIES of interviews
published yesterday and over
the weekend, MacMichael, who
worked for the CIA from 1981
to 1983 as a contract employe
dealing with Central American
intelligence estimates, said the
administration has lacked
credible evidence of a substan-
tial flow of weapons from
Nicaragua to El Salvador since
the spring of 1981.
But Secretary of State
Shultz angrily disputed the
MacMichael charges. "It is in-
conceivable that an informed,
honest person" could deny the
arms supply from Nicaragua
to the Salvadoran guerrillas.
"The evidence is everywhere.
I've looked at a lot of it and I
-think it is totally and absolute-
ly convincing that the direc-
tion and the supply of the
guerrillas in El Salvador
comes from Nicaragua."
Shultz, at a luncheon with
diplomatic correspondents, ex-
pressed astonishment at being
questioned repeatedly on the
issue and suggested that Mac-
Michael "must be living in
some other world."
CIA DIRECTOR William J.
Casey said that MacMichael's
charges were "just one man's
opinion." Neither Shultz nor
Casey provided evidence to re-
fute MacMichael.
Moynihan, a consistent
supporter of aid to the anti-
Sandinista rebels, predicted
that disclosures challenging
the Reagan administration's
repeated assertions about
Nicaragua "exporting revolu-
tion" will prompt Congress to
halt aid to the "contra" guer-
rillas fighting the Nicaraguan
government.
Senate and House leaders
have been trying to work out a
compromise on funding that
will at least give $6 million to
$8 million more to the contras
to help them wind down their
operations. But House leaders
have said that recent disclo-
sures about the lack of proof
about Nicaraguan involve-
ment in the Salvadoran civil
war mean that no new aid will
be voted by the Democrat-
f controlled chamber.
MOYNIHAN also disclosed
that the Senate Intelligence
Committee had reached writ-
ten, formal agreement with the
CIA about when and how the
agency is to notify Congress
about covert operations. He
said the CIA has asked that the
agreement be kept secret, but
he spoke about its major
points.
The agreement requires
that Congress be informed of
"significant anticipated activ-
ity" in spy operations, Moyni.
han said. He acknowledged
that there might be loopholes
in the document, because "you
cannot devise a fail-safe sys-
tem." But he called it "the
most important" development
in congressional oversight
over intelligence operations
since Congress revamped the
law in 1980.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000606120077-4