HOSTILE FIRE ON ADVISERS KEPT SECRET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450015-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: March 30, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450015-5
Hostile Fire
On Advisers
Kept Secret
Latin Aid Measure
,? ,
Voted as Senate
Debates U.S. Role"-----
By Joanne Omang
and John M. Goshko
Washlngton Post Staff Writers
U.S. military advisers came under
hostile gunfire in El Salvador three.
times in the last five months but the
Reagan administration held back the
news, Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.)
said yesterday.
"We simply are not being told the
whole story" about U.S. military:1h:-
volvement in Central America, Sass:"
er charged as heated Senate debate
continued on administration _re-
quests for emergency aid to the gov-
ernment of El Salvador and to rebels:
in neighboring Nicaragua.
Late last night, the Senate voted
tentative approval of a compromise
862 million package of emergency
military aid to the government of El
Salvador but also agreed to consider
the amount again.
The measure passed on an 11 p.m. -
voice vote with only six senators
the floor and was part of an agree!,
ment to end an undeclared filibuster
by critics of administration policy.
The critics thus deprived adminis-
tration backers of the decisive roll: -
call vote they had sought in favor of
the $62 million figure.
Earlier, Sasser said the Defense
Department had acknowledged the .
three gunfire incidents in writing in
response to questions he raised at a:
hearing a week ago. The U.S. advis-.,
em were uninjured, but Sasser said .
the administration had broken the
law in not reporting the incidents to
Congress.
WASHINGTON POST
30 March 1984
? His ilisaosure came_aSiLS. Aim
.bassador)fo Salvador_Themas.
Pickering also confirmed that U.S.
riTilitary _nlartes are making_ recon-
naissance_flights over El Salvador to
provide instant intelligence to
vadoran troos in combat, on the
pound. The reconnaissance
were r_epsirle_d_i.The Washirigton
s_Post ;oh We_dnesAky. Pickertys
careftiemaarksaie ata conference
here in the first time a U.S. official hasac-
knOltdged_p_ubliclv that U.S. forces have
any involvement, in the combat in El Sal-
vador beyond training Salvadoran troops.
Last night's vote accepted an amendment
from Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) that
lowers the administration's aid request for El
Salvador from $93 million to $62 million, but
makes it subject to further amendments next
Monday, including some that woutd impose
stiff conditions.
The move followed several huddted floor
negotiations in which Senate Republican
leaders sought to halt a talkathon led by
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.)' in re-
turn for not forcing a recorded vote on which _
the critics were sure to be badly beaten.
The Senate earlier rejected, 72 to 23, an
amendment by Sen. Edward M. Kenisedy
(D-Mass.) that would have barred use of
U.S. civilians or troops for any combat-re-
lated purpose in El Salvador or Nicaragua
without specific authorization from Congres.
Kennedy afterward likened the vote to tile
Gulf of Tonkin resolution of 1964, in which
the Senate, by 88 to 2, gave President
Lyndon B. Johnson power to take "all nec-
essary measures" in Vietnam.
Calling Central American policy "the most
_ _ _ _ _ _
important foreign policy issue that the Sen-
ate will address this year," Kennedy said ad-
ministration policy is "slowly but surely put-
ting our combat troops in harm's way ....
We are being led into a war and we are en-
titled to an explanation."
Sen. John P. East (R-N.C.) defended the
administration, saying, "There is strong bi-
partisan support" for Inouye's plan. "Those
who oppose it are the reactionaries ... of-;
fering a policy of isolation and washing their
hands" of Central America, he said.
Supporting Kennedy, Sen. Patrick J.
Leahy (D-Vt.) warned that Congress "rolled
over and played dead" when the president
sent troops to Lebanon, which were subse-
quently withdrawn. "If there's anybody who
ca stan up an say we have a coherent
policy in Central America, I'd like to hear
.him spell it out," Leahy said.
U.S. military personnel have been fired
on, and in some cases hit, in several previous
incidents in El Salvador. In February, 1983,
an Army sergeant was wounded when a hel-
icopter in which he was flying took ground-
fire east of San Salvador.
Sasser called the new disclosures "very
disturbing." The Pentagon reported that "a
small group of insurgent forces" attacked a
Salvadoran training _camp at San Miguel,
where 17 U.S. Army and five Navy, special
forces personnel were billeted, once in No-
vember and again this month. In neither
case did the attackers "penetrate the perim-
eter and there were no injuries to U.S. per-
sonnel," the Pentagon said.
'The Pentagon said a sniper attack oc-
curred in February at the Salvadoran naval
base at La Union, where 10 Army personnel
are stationed. No injuries were reported.
Sasser said that when he asked about U.S.
personnel at those two sites during a Febru-
ary visit to Honduras, he 'was told that none .
were stationed at either location." He also
said that the Arms Export Control Act re-
quires any attack on U.S. military personnel
to be reported to Congress, but no report
was made on these incidents.
The senator said he plans to ask the Sen-
ate Foreign Relations Committee to decide
whether the War Powers Resolution applies
in this case. It requires a favorable vote from
Congress for troops to remain where hostil-
ities are imminent or occurring.
Pickering acknowledged that U.S. military
planes are making reconnaissance flights
over El Salvador and providing 'real-time"
intelligence information to Salvadoran forces.
Previously no senior U.S. official had ac-
knowledged publicly that U.S. activities in El
Salvador had gone beyond the training func-
tion prescribed by President Reagan in 1981.
The term "real time" refers to intelligence
gathered and disseminated while military
operations, such as a battle or troop move-
ments, are in progress. . ?
Although he did not say, so specifically,'
Pickering's admission appeared to indicate
that the United States, while not necessarily
directing Salvadoran military operations, is
providing Salvadoran forces with informa-
tion that helps them decide how to direct
their artillery and air fire.
r!Plefil.te4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04 : CIA-RDP90-00965R0003074snn1