END TO AID TO 'CONTRAS' IS DEBATED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090021-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: May 24, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Y
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090021-0
ARTICLE APPEARED PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
ON PAGE 24 May 1984
End to aid.
to `contras'
is debated
Dam alsd told'fhe`Senete Appropri-
ations Committee's. foreign opera-
tions subcommittee that the United
States had spent,. $$ million in El
Salvador to help cute a special siX
man investigation unit to probe the
death squads and to train security
personnel to protect jurors, lawyers
and judges in human rights cues.-
O'Neill told reporters, meanwhile,
that Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska) the
assistant majority leader, Apd Rep.
Edward P. Boland (D., Mass.), chair-
man of the House In"to pom-
mittee, wel se eking o an
agreement that would force Abe CIA
to withdraw,the estimakg 1SA'00 re-
bels fighting Onside Nicaragua.
,Heaaid the proposed compromise
would, -inyglye, between $2 million
and S6 million for the intelligence
agency to use in retrieving the coun-
terrevolutionaries.
By Alfonso Chardy,,,q?is, wo.bnyeo~ s,,...r WASHINGTON Democrats and
Republicans in Congress began nego-
tiations yesterday on a proposal to
provide from $2 million to $6 million
to the CIA to shut sewn its covert
operation supporting anti-Sandinista
insurgents in Nicaragua, said House
Speaker Mass.) .
Because of the negotiations, he
said, a package of $21 million in
emergency aid for the Nicaraguan
rebels and $61.7 million in additional
military assistance to El Salvador
was being held up. The House had
been expected to debate and vote on
those funds yesterday.
Meanwhile, Salvadoran President-
elect Jose Napoleon Duarte, in a fare-
well news conference at the National
Press Club here, said he planned to
remove more Salvadoran military of-
ficers in an effort to improve human
rights conditions in his country.
"1 have asked for changes in some
of the military positions ... so that
we can' work along the lines of our
way of thinking," Duarte said.
Duarte had said Tuesday that he
would fire Col. Nicolas Carranza,
head of the Treasury Police in San
Salvador, who has been widely ac-
cused of having links to right-wing
death squads.
But at his news conference yester-
day, Duarte declined to name other
military officers he wants dismissed,
citing security reasons and a desire
to "proceed with extreme caution."
Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth
W. Dam told a Senate hearing yester-
day that he believed the Salvadoran
military would support Duarte and
that the incoming president would
end death-squad activities.
Aides, to O'Neill said the proposal,
advanced by Stevens, was initially
rejected by Boland. They?said Boland
believed the administration would
not end the operation and instead
would use the money to pursue the
fighting in Nicaragua.
However, congression .A1 sources
said Boland iagroed to take a new
look at the proposal because of Ste-
vens' apparent willingness to accept
legislation that would restrict the
funds solely for winding down the
21/2-year-old covert program.
House Majority Leader Jim Wright
(D., Texas) said he told Secretary of
State George P. Shultz and CIA Direc-
tor William J. Casey that "they can-
not expect to pass money for continu-
ing the covert war in Nicaragua in
the House and they would be wise to
drop that."
Wright said he also warned the two
officials that if they pressed for the
Nicaragua program, they could jeop-
ardize aid for El Salvador.
Initially the administration had ap-
peared willing to phase out the Nica-
ragua program, albeit temporarily.
But President Reagan indicated
strongly in his news conference
Tuesday night that he wanted the
full $21 million. for the ,contras so
they could continue fighting the San-
r-dinistas.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090021-0