ANTI-SANDINIST AID SPLITS HOUSE PANEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707350013-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: April 23, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707350013-7
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ANTISANDINIST AID
SPLITS HOSE PANEL
Decision Is Delayed on Funds'
-Cutoff - 5 Congressmen
Plan to Tour the Region
By MARTIN TOLCHIN
speewW7bNewYohTimm
- 'Just Further Evidence'
The President said, "The episode
with the Brazilians' holding the planes
from Libya the other day, when the as
pirins they were supposed to be carry.
ing turned out to be hand grenades and
things, is just further evidence of what
we have said all the time - that there;
are outside forces, all of them princi-
pally aligned with or sympathetic to the
Communist bloc, who are in there and
intervening in the legitimate affairs of
those countries."?
In. another development, 65 House
members, all but one of them Demo
seats, called for either an end to United
States support for covert military ac-
tion against Nicaragua or a0chance to I
vote dir-ctl on the
Dodd Seek C-losed Senate Session
In a related development, Senator
Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Con-
necticut, has told the leadership that he
will move to have the Senate go into a
closed session on Tuesday to discuss
United States operations in Nicaragua,
A high-ranking Nicaraguan official,
meanwhile, told reporters that although
he lacked proof that the purpose of
United States support of insurgents was
to overthrow the Nicaraguan Govern.
ment, "for us, there is no doubt about
it.,,
The remark, by Rafael Solis, Secre.
tary General of Nicaragua's Council of,
State, was made at a news conference
sponsored by Representative John !
Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan.
Mr. Solis acknowledged that the Libyan
aircraft were headed for Nicaragua,
.but denied that Nicaragua intended to,
pass the weapons to Salvadoran gueril.
WASHINGTON, April 22 - The Republican was Representative matter. The MM ;
House Intelligence committee was oJim
cef r Iowa, a former er Foreign n Seri-
badly split today, mostly along party Leach of
tines, about whether to recommend cut- f . - Most Democrats on the House Intelll-
tiag off funds for covert support of gence committee support the conten.
rebels seeking to overthrow the Sandin. tion of its chairman, Representative;
ist Government of Nicaragua. Edward P. Boland of Massachusetts,',
Five members of th
e committee that th uitd St i i
,eneatessn "apparent ;
Democrats and Republicans, accepted violation" of a prohibition against coo.
the invitation of William J. Casey, the ert action "for the purpose of" over-
Director of Central Intelligence, to tour- meowing the Sandinist regime in Nica.
the region this weekend. ragua. A House Foreign Affairs sub.
The committee has delayed a deci- committee voted last week to ban any
sign until after President Reagan ad- such aid.
dresses a joint session of Congress on 1 . (Firmness About Being Skeptical'
'Wednesday on the problems of Central
America. "We decided to put things on
hold until the President comes before
Congress," Representative Robert H.
Michel of Illinois, the Republican
leader and a committee member, said
in a telephone interview from Peoria.
Democrats-Ready to Cut Aid
,Most committee Democrats favor i
Representative Norman Y. Mineta,
Democrat of California, a member of
the Intelligence Committee, said the
Democrats had demonstrated "a firm.
ness about being skeptical about the Ad-
ministration's policy and implementa.
tion, which has spilled over into another
area: the Administration's relationship
with the Congress."
.'We're overtly car
yin
o
r
g
n a covert
that it is now an open secret. They con- coeration, which is screws " Mr.
tend tha: Congress should debate and Mmeta said in a telephone interview {
vote on whether to make the aid overt. from San Francisco. "You could cut off
Most committee Republicans, on the the covert operation and ask, 'Should
other hand, favor continuing the aid as this be done as an over,, operation?' The
a : effor ; to counter communist influ- Democrats think that this is the issue
ence in the region. we ought to be debating."
President Reagan, meanwhile, un- To Mr. Michel, on the other hand, the
derscored a Government allegation Brazilian interception of the Libyan air-
that the Palestine Liberation Organiza.' craft was "a gift from God" that tinder-
.lion has provided aid to the Sandinist, scored the correctness of the Adminls-
port is true," Mr. Reagan said at a news
conference. "They, like the others from
the Communist states, have been in
there and are in there."
The President also cited Brazil's in-
terception of four Libyan aircraft des-.
tined for Nicaragua, with a cargo that
the Administration said was headed for
the rebels in El Salvador, as further evi-
dence of the international aspect of the
'conflict. The aircraft, ostensibly carry.
ing medicine, turned out to be laden
with military equipment.
g
on
Sunday morning.
tration's position.
"I happen to think the Administration
is moving along in the right direction '
and making some progress," Mr.
Michel said.'
He added that the C.I.A. might spon-
sor a second tour of the region next
weekend, because many of the commit-
tee members were unable to reschedule
commitments for this weekend. Those
going on' the initial C.I.A. tour are Mr.
Mineta and Dave McCurdy, Democrat
of Oklahoma, and three Republicans -
Bob Stump of Arizona, Bill Young of
Florida and G. William Whitehurst of
Virginia They will leave Washin
t
Nicaragua Wants Directs Talks
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, April 22
(Reuters) - Nicaragua demanded di-
rect talks with the United States and
Honduras today before considering
wider discussions on the problems of
Central America.
The request came in a Foreign Minis
try communique a day after foreign
ministers from nine Latin American
states ended talks in Panama City.
The communique said,. "The funds.
mental premise for a lasting solution of
the -conflict with Honduras - and the
United States is a dialogue between
Nicaragua and the United States to end
the mercenary invasion against our
country and establish terms of coexist.
ence which conform to internationals
norms and rights.,,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000707350013-7