THE REASONS FOR LYING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000503820010-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: October 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503820010-6
0 PAGE NEW YORK T;'
13 October 1906
ABROAD AT HOME I Anthony Lewis
The Reasons for Lying
BOSTON
There is a wonderful absurdity in
the Reagan Administration's ef-
fort to distance itself from the
C-123 cargo plane shot down in Nicara-
gua while carrying weapons to the con-
tras. The performance brings back
happy memories of Richard Nixon's
flights of Watergate deniability.
The plane flow from a Salvadoran
air base, Ilopango. The base is en-
tirely financed by the United States
Government. Americans can get into
the place only if they have identity
cards approved by U.S. officials.
But of course the three American
crew members had nothing to do with
any official United States enterprise.
So President Reagan and Secretary
Shift and their aides assure us. And
they are all honorable men.
The C-123 was connected to South-
ern Air Transport, a charter airline
once owned by the C.IA In 1664 the
same aircraft was used in a United
States effort to catch Nicaraguan offi-
cials at drug smuggling. The CIA In-
stalled hidden cameras on board.
But of course neither the C.I.A. nor
any other U.S. agency had anything to
do with the plane on its last flight So
the highest officials assure us, and
they are all honorable men.
The one American survivor of the
flight, Eugene Hasenfus, said he
worked for a contra air supply opera-
tion rem from El Salvador by two
Cuban-Americans, Max Gdmez and
Ramon Medina. Max Gdmez flew for
a C.I.A. airline during the Vietnam
War. The, Ica. Angeles Times re-
ported that Vice President Bush's na-
tional security adviser got Mr.
Gdmez a job with the Salvadoran Air
Force, and he has told friends he re-
ports to Mr. Bush on his operations
for the contras.
Ends and
means in
Nicaragua
The Vice President said Max
Gdmez was "a patriot" He did not
comment an his stalls role to placing
Mr. Gdmez in El Salvador, or on Mr.
Gdmez's reporting to him about the
contra supply flights. Mr. Bush did
deny what no one had alleged: that he
himself was in charge of the opera-
tions. "It's absolutely untrue," the
Vice President said.
The exact chain of command that
put Eugene Hasenfua and the others
in that airplane with a land of guns
and ammunition may remain a se-
cret for some time. "I know the White
Hose knows and is not wiling," the
chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, Republican Dare Duren-
berger of Minnesota, said.
But there are only two broad possi-
bilities. One is that the operation was
in tact being rem by agents of the
United States Government, in viola-
tion of statutes that have banned such
activity since 1964. The other is that
the operation is a "private" venture,
active without formal official control
but w0i the Reagan Admitistratio of
Over tits last several years there
has bees a awhroom growth of "pri.
vate" militasy activities in areas tar-
geted by the Reagan AdmIOittratian.
Retired Gen. John IL Singlaub; head
of the Wield Asti-Csmmtral t League,
has raised upward of $10 million for
what he says is nonlethal aid to the
contras.
Reagan officials have also per-
suaded foreign governments to help.
Saudi Arabia, for example, report-
edly agreed to pay for contra arms in
return for Reagan Administration
support of its bid for Awacs aircraft.
The nature of the Reagan crusade
against Nicaragua is what inevitably
produces lame explanations when
something like the C-123 crash hap-
pens. It is a lawless crusade, resort-
ing to the extremely dangerous de-
vice of private war because it does
not have public support, designed to
slip the American people into a com-
mitment they do not want to make.
Everything about the Reagan war
an Nicaragua has been a He from the
beginning: the talk of aiding the con-
tras only to stop arms flowing to the
Salvadoran guerrillas, the later state-
ment that the objective was to force ,
the SandiMstas to negotiate. Ronald
Reagan is trying to overthrow an-
other government. From that im-
proper, un-American objective flows
all the embarrassment A bad end
produces bad means.
"This is an outrageous violation of
international law," Elliott Abrams,
Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-
American Affairs, said the other day.
He was talking about the Nicaraguan
Government's temporary delay in al-
lowing U.S. consular access to Eu-
gene Hasenfus.
That from an Administration that
has violated international law whole-
sale in Nicaragua - and that ran
away from the World Court's adjudi-
cation of the issue. In its foolish shrill-
ness the remark is a telling indication
of how American values and common
sense have been corrupted by the war
on Nicaragua. ^
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503820010-6