CIA DIRECTLY OVERSAW ATTACK IN OCTOBER ON NICARAGUA OIL FACILITY

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020011-8
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
January 25, 2012
Sequence Number: 
11
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
April 18, 1984
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020011-8.pdf91.96 KB
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020011-8 ,1.'RA-ICL AP EAR_rl WASHINGTON POST 18 April 1984 QA Directly Oversa `v Attack in October an Nicaragua Oil Facility By Charles R. Babcock Wa hington PwtStatf Writer CIA officers aboard a "mother ship" off the coast of Nicaragua directly supervised commando raids from speedboats that heavi- ly damaged Nicaraguan port facilities last fall, months before they supervised the con- troversial mining of the country's harbors in January, administration and congressional sources said yesterday. The CIA leased the ship last summer, ac- cording to the sources, and American agents aboard it furnished the speedboats, guns and ammunition and directed the raid by anti- government rebels in the port city of Corinto last Oct. 10. The CIA officers stayed on the ship in international waters beyond the 12- mile limit, while CIA-trained Latin comman- dos piloted the speedboats into the harbor and shot up an oil terminal, the sources said. The raid heavily damaged oil storage, tanks and forced thousands of inhabitants to flee. At the time, the Nicaraguan govern- ment charged that the "criminal attack" was part of a CIA plan, but the U.S.-supported "contras" of the Honduras-based Nicaraguan Democratic Front (FDN) claimed credit for the raid. A senior White House official confirmed that CIA agents supervised the attack, say- ing their role was necessary because "they [CIA officers] had the speedboats." The Associated Press quoted a source as saying the CIA had directed a series of such raids on Nicaraguan ports, including one on oil and pipeline facilities at Puerto Sandino on Sept. 8. A CIA spokesman declined to comment yesterday, except to say that Congress had been informed of its covert operations as required by the intelligence oversight laws. But, as in the case of the mining, congres- sional sources said the House and Senate intelligence committees were not told of the direct involvement of Americans in the port raids until recently. CIA Director William J. Casey alreay under fire from congressmen for his alleged lack of candor in informing intelligence com- mittees of the details of the Reagan admin- ' istration s supposedly secret war against Nic- aragua. That controversy has threatened congressional support for continued funding of the rebels fighting Nicaragua's Marxist Sandinista government. - One congressional source said staff mem- bers of the House intelligence committee first "got wind of the mother ship about mid- October," but didn't get a full briefing on .either the ship's role in the raid or the min. ing until Jan. 31 and then only after persis- tent questioning from members, But another source said that some House committee members didn't know until yes- terday that the CIA had directed the raid, as well as the mining. "We were directly misled," he said. "They led us to believe it was the contras, but as it turns out it was CIA personnel on the mother ship, di- recting the operations, picking the targets and the whole business." A Senate committee source said the agency had told the committee in general terms last summer that it was training the anti-Sandinista forces in laying mines, but not that Americans would be directly supervising their actions. "When you get agency officers directly involved, that's really a high-stakes game," he said. The Senate committee staff learned about the U.S.-directed raids from House staffers and then began asking questions on the "mother ship" at an April 2 briefing, one source said. A few days earlier, in answer to a query about mining by Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-RI.), the rank- ing minority member of the Foreign Relations Committee, the CIA's legislative liaison, Clair George, sent minority staff director Gary J. Schmitt a two-sentence letter that said "unilater- ally controlled Latino assets" were involved. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201020011-8