NETWORK NEWS SUMMARY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504140009-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: July 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504140009-2
NETWORK NEWS SUMMARY
(Wednesday Evening, July 24, 1985)
ABC's John McWethy: After six Americans were gunned down in El
Salvador last month, U. S. officials say there was a heated debate
within the Reagan Administration about whether the U.S. should
retaliate and how. Intelligence sources say options included strikes
at targets in both El Salvador and Nicaragua, military strikes at
bases used by leftist guerrillas believed to have committed the
killings. For reasons described as both political and military, none of
the options was selected. Today at the White House, spokesman
Larry Speakes, refusing comment on specific contingency plans,
warned once again that the U.S. will "take appropriate action against
terrorists." On Capitol Hill, Secretary Shultz echoed those
sentiments.
(Secretary Shultz: "We're at a point where it doesn't make much
difference what you say or what resolutions you pass. The question
is, What are you going to do?")
Shultz, for the first time, warned Congress that he would soon ask
for $4B to rebuild nearly half of America's 262 embassies and
consulates around the world to make them more secure against both
terrorist attacks and espionage. Some committee members, however,
argue that American instruction program was not enough.
(Rep. Lantos: "And we have been singularly reluctant as a people to
engage either in preemptive action or in punitive action. The gap
between rhetoric and response has been appalling.")
Shultz said if the right targets can be identified, he is prepared to
(Secretary Shultz: "I don't have any heartburn about trying to do
something about it.")
But others in the Administration apparently do, because as yet, those
arguing against military action have carried the day -- even when
very specific targets have been identified. (ABC-8)
Brokaw: Embassy security -- or, more accurately, the lack of it --
prompted an urgent appeal to Congress today from Secretary Shultz.
He called for funding of a massive building program to make American
embassies less vulnerable to terrorists. Startling deficiencies have
been found.
NBC's Bob Kur reports that even as Secretary Shultz asked Congress for
to ma a U. S. embassies and consulates more secure, construction
of barriers to prevent car bomb attacks was underway at the State
Department where Shultz works. Four billion to improve security is
more than the State Department's annual budget. The subject of
today's hearing -- a report from a commission headed by former CIA
official Adm. Bobby Inman. It warns that almost half the U. S.
embassies and consulates around the world do not meet minimum
technical and physical security standards. Both Inman and Secretary
Shultz say the cost of providing adequate security could be so high it
might be advisable to reduce the size of some embassy staffs.
(NBC-8)
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504140009-2