U.S. DEFLECTS NICARAGUAN 'BLAST'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302440029-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2012
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: September 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT I
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/01: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302440029-1
ON PACE'g.J .. -
WASHINGTON POST
14 September 1985
U.S. Deflects Nicaraguan `Blast'
Report Accuses Sandinistas of Supporting Guerrillas in Region
By John M. Goshko
Waalwipto" Post Staff Writer
The Reagan administration, par-
rying Nicaragua's "propaganda
blast" against the United States in
the International Court of Justice,
yesterday issued a 130-page report
accusing the Sandinista government
of supporting, training and arming
leftist guerrilla forces in neighbor-
ing Central American countries.
In releasing the report, Elliott
Abrams, assistant secretary of state
for inter-American affairs, acknowl-
edged that it was intended as a par-
tial response to Nicaragua's
charges before the Hague tribunal,
known informally as the World
Court, that the United States is
waging aggression against it by sup-
porting anti-Sandinista rebels
known as contras.
The United States announced in
January that it would boycott the
proceedings because it does not
recognize the court's jurisdiction
over what the administration con-
tends is a political rather than a le-
gal dispute.
"The timing is not coincidental,"
Abrams said. "Nicaragua is in the
middle of a propaganda blast, and it
has chosen the World Court as its
forum. They are putting out an aw-
ful lot of lies. In our view, it is time-
ly to set the record straight."
Abrams said the report refutes
Nicaragua's "lie" before the court
that the Sandinista government
never engaged in aggression
against neighbors. Although he not-
ed that the report contains new in-
ormation derived from declassified
U.S. rote Bence. cantur docu-
ments and statements by guerrilla
e tors, reporters at his briefing.
immediately dubbed the report "son
of the White Paper."
That was a reference to a con-
troversial 1981 document. in which
the administration first detailed its
charges that Nicaragua was provid-
ing arms and other aid to guerrillas
in El Salvador. In that report, and in
several later statements, the Unit-
ed States contended that the San-
dinistas, shortly after gaining power
in 1979, began supporting guerril-
las in El Salvador and elsewhere in
Central America.
The newest report is essentially
a restatement of those charges, in-
cluding the contention that a Sal-
vadoran guerrilla leader visited
communist capitals in 1980 to ob-
tain promises of arms aid and ar-
ranged to have the arms smuggled
into El Salvador through Nicaragua.
"With substantial Cuban assist-
ance, [the Sandinistas] helped unify
guerrilla groups in El Salvador,
Honduras and Guatemala; provi-
sion, train, direct and advise guer-
rillas in El Salvador; insert guerrilla
groups into Honduras, and sustain
radical antidemocratic parties and
associated armed elements in Costa
Rica," the report said.
"By late 1980, Nicaragua was the
hub of a flow of hundreds.of tonaef
weapons from the Soviet bloc to El
Salvador, serving both as staging
point for insertion by air, land and
sea routes," it added. "By January
1981, the rebels were armed with
modern weapons, including M16s
drawn from stocks left behind by
the United States in Vietnam."
In one new piece of substantiat-
ing testimony, the report quoted a
Salvadoran guerrilla defector as
saying he was part of a force that
prepared for a successful 1983 at-
tack on a Salvadoran army base
with practice maneuvers in Cuba,
using a model of the garrison con-
structed from sketches. The report
added that the weapons and explo-
sives used in the actual attack were
sent to El Salvador through Nica-
ragua.
The report said these activities
demonstrate why the United States
was forced to conclude that its at-
tempts to deal with Nicaragua
through friendship and diplomatic
negotiation were not working and
that support for the contras, or
counterrevolutionaries, was neces-
sary to put "effective pressure on
the Sandinistas to halt their policies
of aggression, achieve internal rec-
onciliation and contribute to region-
al peace ......
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/01: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302440029-1