ANGOLAN REBEL LEADER STARTS LOBBYING FOR U.S. AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100230004-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 29, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100230004-5
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
29 January 1986
Angolan rebel leader starts lobbying for U. S. aid
ARTICLE AP
ON PAGE _ -J&; I
f
for covert milita assistance to
na-
5'~'
tionalist organization. "
e administration wants to give
Savimbi "more than just moral
support" but opposes legislation
authorizing overt military aid,
State Department spokesman Ber-
nard Kalb said Monday.
Secretary of State George Shultz
will meet Savimbi Wednesday, a
day before the guerrilla leader is
to meet with Reagan at the White
House. He also will give a private
briefing to the White House Na-
tional Security Council staff on
battlefield conditions in Angola,
where his forces face an estimated
30,000 Cuban soldiers and 1,200 So-
viet advisers.
Next week he will meet with
congressional leaders to lobby for
at least $27 million in overt mili-
tary aid to his pro-Western Nation-
al Union for the Total Indepen-
dence of Angola, known as UNITA.
"Everybody wants to meet with
Savimbi," said Christianne Lem-
mon, executive director of the
American Angolan Public Affairs
Council, one of the groups that has
been making preparations for his
visit.
The biggest problem is, "When
you say Savimbi, people say,
that it would undermine American
credibility in much of black Africa
because of Savimbi's ties to the
white-minority government of
South Africa.
Savimbi comes here as the de-
bate over military aid has inten-
sified in Congress and the adminis-
tration.
"Savimbi's personal visit and
appeal may well make the differ-
ence between aid going to him or
not," said Jeffrey Gayner of the
conservative Heritage Foundhtion.
The administratio s t9 jave
Savimbi a warm public welcome
while reportedly favoring a plan
Chicago TrIbune
WASHINGTON-Angolan rebel
leader Jonas Savimbi, called a
"freedom fighter" by President
Reagan and a "terrorist" by
Angola's Marxist government, was
scheduled to arrive Tuesday for 10
days of personal lobbying to win
American moral support and mili-
tary aid for his guerrilla war.
He will be embraced by the
Reagan administration and ap-
plauded by conservative groups,
which want the U.S. to give open
support to what they say is his
`Who?' " said Jose Sorzano, presi-
dent of the Cuban American Na-
tional Foundation and formerly
Jeane Kirkpatrick's deputy when
she was U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations.
To remedy that, Savimbi has a
busy schedule of media inverviews
and speaking engagements with
conservative groups, such as the
Heritage Foundation and the
American Conservative Union,
where he is certain to get an
enthusiastic reception.
He also will hold seminars with a
number of think tanks, including
the Carnegie Endowment for Inter-
national Peace and Georgetown
University's Center for Strategic
and International Studies.
The visit is being coordinated by
the local lobbying and public rela-
tions firm of Black, Manafort,
Stone and Kelly, which has a
$600,000 contract with UNITA.
The White House said Monday
that it hasn't Yet made a
decision on whether to seek mill
to ai either overt ov
Savimhi,
The State Department has been
concerned that overt aid for
UNITA would further complicate
the already difficult negotiations
underway to broker a broad re-
gional settlement that would in-
clude the withdrawal of Cuban
troops from Angola and the pullout
of South Africa from neighboring
Namibia, which it controls in
defiance of a 1978 UN resolution.
The administration favo covert
aid to UNrrA, gmgh the CIA. of
ion to $15 million.
The admini, tin needs no con-
gress iona approval to prove e
such Aid but it is~reauired to
notify members of the Senate and
use intelligence committees in
advance, w_ ic__ tt reportedly Has
c e sTa-
.ponents can on to block covert aid.
avim i s conservative sup-
porters want him to get overt mili-
tary aid, to demonstrate publicly
that the U.S. is prepared to con-
front Soviet influence in Africa.
"It's a right-wing issue," said a
House critic's staff member.
Conservative Rep. Mark Siljan-
der IR., Mich.] has signed up
more than 100 cosponsors for legis-
lation that would give UNITA $27
million in open military aid. Sen-
ate Republican leaders failed last
month by a vote of 39-58 to win
passage of a resolution calling for
material assistance to Savimbi if
the Angolan government refuses to
negotiate with UNITA.
"Chngmss will decide whether or
not Savimbi will be given aid and,
if so. will it overt or covert."
Lemmon said.
Conservatives have made aid to
Savimbi a top issue on their for-
eign policy agenda, putting pres-
sure on Reagan to follow through
on his pledge to help "freedom
fighters' around the world.
The Conservative Caucus is
spearheading a campaign to pres-
sure Gulf Oil Corp., now part of
Chevron Corp., to end its Angolan
oil production, which is a major
source of revenue for the govern-
ment there.
Critics of aid to UNITA include
congressional liberals such as
Howard Wolpe [D., Mich.], who is
chairman of the Africa subcom-
mittee of the House Foreign Af-
fairs Committee, and a number of
black leaders, such as Jesse Jack-
son. They warn that American
backing for Savimbi, who now gets
most of his outside aid from the
white-minority government of
South Africa, might turn much of
black Africa against the U.S. and
increase Angola's reliance on Sovi-
et and Cuban support.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100230004-5