ACCURACY, BALANCE OF WOLA FOUND LACKING BY ITS CRITICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201180011-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: April 10, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RD
WASHINGTON TIMES
10 April 1985
U.. 0
found lacking by its critics
By Roger Fontaine
THE V SHINOTON TIMES
When a congressional delegation
arrived in Managua in 1979 shortly
after the Sandinista takeover, a
member of the group recalls that the
first person they met at the airport
was an employee of the Washington
Office on Latin America.
According to at least one report , a
WOLA staffer later showed up at the
U.S. ambassador's residence on the
arm of one of the Sandinista coman-
Third in a series.
dantes. The comandante, Jaime
Wheelock, was then as now in
charge of the regime's agriculture
program.
Among the hundreds of groups
that comprise the left-wing "Net-
work" working to radically influ-
ence the administration's policies
toward Central and Latin America,
WOLA could probably lay claim to
being one of the most senior, if not
effective, in its area.
Founded in 1974 - and therefore
"ancient" as these organizations go
- WOLA is headquartered on
Maryland Avenue on Capitol Hill,
almost across the street from the
Supreme Court in a suite of offices
located. in the United Methodist
Church building.
A major focus of WOLA's activi-
ties is Nicaragua. WOLA is provid-
ing information in opposition to the
Reagan ' administration's proposed
assistance to the resistance forces
fighting the Sandinista government.
Unlike some other groups in The
Network, WOLA is not a "one-man-
with-a-mimeo" affair - the kind of
political activist group that once
flourished in the heat of Vietnam but
then was left to wither.
Rather, WOLA is established. Part
of its funding comes from such
respectable sources as the Mac-
Arthur Foundation and Ford Foun-
dation as well as from mainline
iriNETWORK
TARGET:
Reagan's Central
American Policy,
church bodies. In 1983, WOLA
raised $340,866, more than one-third
of it from religious organizations,
according to its Annual Report.
The key to WOLA's effectiveness,
according to one former legislative
staffer familiar with the organ-
ization, lies in its ability to provide a
steady stream of information to
members of Congress and their
staffs. "On Capitol Hill, information
is everything;' the former aide said.
But it is the accuracy and balance
of WOLNs information that its crit-
ics have called into question.
WOLA literature describes the
organization as "an information
source for interested officials, pro-
viding resources for documenting
information, briefing those traveling
to Latin America, facilitating inter-
views between prominent Latin
American leaders and U.S. officials,
organizing background briefings for
congressional staff and giving testi-
mony before congressional commit.
tees:"
Amid all these activities, one of
the major criticisms leveled at
WOLA is for practicing a double
standard on human rights.
Governments,. and organizations
that are either"-anti-communist or
non-communist, particularly if they
are U.S. allies, typically come under
WOLNs close scrutiny, while allega-
tions of human rights violations by
socialist states, such as Nicaragua
and Cuba, are not subjected to the
same degree of attention.
It means all criticism is directed
at one set of problems, and that leads
to an unbalanced situation;' one
WOLA critic said.
"WOLA has been a faithful
spokesman for the Sandinistas and
El Salvador's guerrillas;' said a State
Department official.
"They [WOLA] consistently nave
distorted the fatalities in El Salvador
and blurred it so it all appears to be
coming from the right;" the official
said.
Penn Kemble, founder and direc-
tor of the Institute on Religion and
Democracy, said of this double stan-
dard, "from a Christian perspective
that argument is wholly unac-
ceptable.
"Christians are obliged to judge
all governments and institutions
from the standpoint of the
churches;' Mr. Kemble said.
Castro's Cuba has received men-
tion in WOLA reports only in the con-
text of U.S.-Cuban relations. Human
rights abuses documented by the
Organization of American States
and other organizations have been
largely ignored.
In fact, according to Update's 1984
index, Cuba went unmentioned the
entire year, despite the fact that the
newsletter had space for 44 articles
on 12 other Latin American coun-
tries.
"Our interest is helping to make
available to the public a concern for
the way, the effect, the impact that
U.S. policies have on people who live
in this hemisphere;' said Joseph T.
Eldridge, WOLAs director, in an
interview.
Contributions in 1983 from reli-
gious institutions totaled $124,602,
according to WOLA's Annual Report.
Some of the contributors included,
the National Council of Churches,
the American Lutheran Church,
American Baptist Churches, Mary-.
knoll Fathers and Brothers, Mary-
knoll Sisters, the Presbyterian
Church, the Episcopal. Church and
Jesuit Missions.
Mr. Eldridge, a Methodist
clergyman, is paid his salary by the
United Methodist Church Board of
Global Ministries, according to a
Heritage Foundation analysis pub-
lished in 1984.
Although WOLAs annual budget
may be small by Washington stan-
dards, observers point out that
WOLA increases its budget's effec-
tiveness by using hardworking vol-
unteers.
Not all critics, however, speak
harshly of WOLA.
Elliott Abrams, head of the State
114,.~vJ
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Accuracy, balance ouvvuix