U.S. CITIZENS ALSO AID MARXIST SANDINISTAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320013-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: October 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320013-1
ARTICLE AFFeA J
ON PAGE 1A
WASHINGTON TIMES
13 October 1986
U.S. citizens also pia
Mir Sandinistas
By Bill Gertz
THE w%SHINOTON nMES
in Nicaragua supporting the Marx-
ist Sandinista government.
Sen. Robert Dole of Kansas, the
majority leader in the Senate, says
the capture in Nicaragua of Eugene
Hasenfus, an American aboard a
privately owned Lockheed C-123
cargo plane downed Oct. 5, has over-
shadowed the much larger private
American Participation in the Nica-
raguan civil war.
Scant attention is being paid b
American leftist sympathizers in
Central American. Mr. Dole told the
Senate on Friday.
"There seems to be so much hue
and cry about Mr. Hasenfus - peo.
pile raising the Neutrality Act and
who knows what else - that maybe
it's time that we focused some atten-
tion on the broader question of pri-
vate Americans involved down there
on both side of that conflict;' Mr.
Dole said.
Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana,
chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, agrees. He said he be-
lieves "Americans for both sides are
down in Nicaragua;' according to a
Lugar aide.
Both Mr. Dole And Mr. Lugar said
the passage of the $500 billion gov-
ernment spending bill, which con-
tains provisions for 3100 million in
aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, would
help end private support for the re-
sistance.
An aide to Mr. Dole said the sen-
ator was told by State Department
and CIA officials thousands of
Americans are supporting Marxist
guerrillas in El Salvador and the
Sandinista government in Nicara.
gua.
"There are literally thousands of
Americans working in the Sandin-
ista government, some as advisers;'
said the aide, who declined to be
named. "Most are probably legiti-
mate, but if any of them are
breaking the lavK they should be
prosecuted."
The Sandinista government or-
dered foreign supporters to leave
combat zones in Nicaragua in Sep-
tember following the death of three
Western Europeans killed in a
shootout with rebel forces July 28.
Nicaraguan rebel leaders later
disclosed documents captured from
the three men - Swiss, West Ger-
man and French nationals - reveal-
ing they had been permitted by the
Sandinistas to carry automatic
weapons.
Mr. Lugar's comments were made
following a briefing on the capture
of Mr. Hasenfus, who was taken by
Sandinista forces when a camou-
flaged C-123 plane on which he was
a passenger went down in southern
Nicaragua The plane was report-
edly laden with arms for the Nicara-
guan rebels.
Sandinista officials said Mr.
Hasenfus, who spoke briefly with a
U.S. Embassy official for the first
time over the weekend, will be tried
for his role in assisting the Nicara-
guan rebels.
Mr Lugar said he had no reason
to doubt U.S. officials who repeated
earlier denials of official U.S. con-
nection to the plane.
In contrast to remarks by the Re-
publican leaders, Sen. Patrick Leahy
yesterday charged the Reagan ad-
ministration may have illegally
aided the Nicaraguan rebels. He
said Congress has not been fully
briefed by the administration on of-
ficial backing of private groups aid-
ing the rebels.
Mr Leahy, Vermont Democrat
and vice chairman of the Senate In-
telligence Committee, told reporters
in a telephone interview from Ver-
mont: "I don't think we've had ade-
quate answers (about) whether the
administration was involved with
more than verbal encouragement of
these people:'
"The question that hasn't been an-
swered fully to all the congressional
inquiries is whether they stepped
over the line from political encour-
agement to illegal cooperation.'
Assistant Secretary of State El-
liott Abrams on Saturday defended
American supporters of the Nicara-
guan resistance and contrasted their
efforts with private Americans sup-
porting Nicaragua's Sandinistas and
the communist-backed guerrillas in
El Salvador.
"We do not follow and find out the
identities of the thousands of
Americans who help the (Farabundo
Marti National Liberation Front)
guerrillas in El Salvador, the com-
munists, or the communist regime
in Nicaragua because they have a
right to do so as Americans," Mr Ab-
rams said on Cable News Network.
"And we don't follow the people
who are trying to help U.S. policy
and restore freedom to Nicaragua,"
he said.
Meanwhile, Vice President
George Bush on Saturday denied re-
ports he was linked to a former CIA
operative Mr. Hasenfus has tied to
the mystery aircraft.
Mr. Hasenfus told reporters in
Nicaragua Thursday he was work-
ing for the CIA in supplying rebels
with weapons. He said he had re-
ceived orders from two Cuban-
Americans working for the CIA, in-
cluding a man named Max Gomez.
Mr. Bush described Mr. Gomez,
now working as a military adviser to
El Salvador's Air Force, as a "pa-
trigt"
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320013-1