CLAIMS ON CONTRAS IN DISPUTE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870029-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: March 18, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870029-0
AL? AM= `4
WASHINGTON POST
18 March 1986
Claims on Contras in Dispute
Reagan's Campaign for Aid Draws on Contested Statistics, Charges
By Joanne Omang
woo" Poet staff writer
In his weekend pleas for military
aid to rebels in Nicaragua, Presi-
dent Reagan drew on the bywords
of 40 years of staunch anticommu-
nism to paint a dark and ominous
picture of the Marxist government
of Nicaragua and the threat it poses
to the United States.
To make his grim portrait, the
president invoked some disputed
statistics and accusations and a pan-
oply of devil figures, from Italy's
Red Brigades to [ran's Ayatollah
Khomeini. In the end, Reagan sug-
gested that Congress' upcoming
votes on the $100 million aid re-
quest will determine the course of
the entire East-West conflict.
Grimmer versions of the appeal
were drafted, according to White
House officials. Those drafts includ-
ed two grisly examples of alleged
atrocities by the Sandinista rulers
of Nicaragua in addition to the two
Reagan used, the officials said.
On Saturday, Reagan charged in
his re ular nationwide radio ad-
dress that Nicaraguan operatives
"dress in freedom fighter irebell
uniforms, go into the countryside,
then murder and mutilate ordinary
1 ra uans. Asked for evidence, a _
senior official briefing reporters
said it came from "sensitive mte~-
ligence sources. that I'm not going
nt
to get io."
One of those is presumably a San-
dinista defector, Alvaro Baldizon,
who made the charge at a news con-
ference two weeks ago but provided
no evidence.
On many other points in his radio
talk and in a nationally televised
speech Sunday, Reagan used dis-
puted information to draw a stark,
black-and-white image of the Ni-
caraguan situation. For example:
^ His portrait of the counterrev-
olutionaries, or contras: "When the
Sandinistas betrayed the revolution,
many.who had fought the old So-
moza dictatorship literally took to
the hills .... [Today they have)
more than 20,000 volunteers, and
more come every day."
A 1982 Defense Intelligence
Agency summary described the
NEWS
ANALYSIS
early contra groups as
mainly remnants of
Anastasio Somoza's
National Guard, one of which, the
"15 of September Legion," had car-
ried out "terrorist" acts, the DIA
said.
Provided with Central Intelli-
ence Agency tan mg and a vice
ginning m , the contras be-
gan to grow, recruiting an army of
peasants unhappy with a an r
nistas. Their political leaders, held
together in uneasy unity by CIA
prodding, are civilian critics of the
Saiidjiistas or disaffected Sandi-
nista officials, but their military
leadership still consists predomi-
nant y o 0 oraoza oya ists. 1e
cent intelligence summaries provid-
ed to Congress put contra troop
strength between 15,000 and
18,000, of whom a small fraction
are inside Nicaragua.
^ The military threat: Nicaragua's
"first target is Nicaragua's neigh-
bors ... the Nicaraguan military
machine is more powerful than all
its neighbors combined," Reagan
said.
That careful wording seemed to
suggest a Sandinista military inva-
sion without flatly declaring it. Rea-
gan also made skillful use of the lan-
guage of possibility to describe a
reddening Western Hemisphere.
With Nicaragua as a base, the So-
viets and Cubans "can become" the
region's dominant power, and then
"will be in a position to" threaten
U.S. interests and "ultimately"
Mexico. "Should that happen," mil-
lions of people would flee north, he
said.
However, none of Nicaragua's
neighbors has expressed concern
over any Sandinista invasion, nor
have administration officials called
that a threat. They worry instead
about infiltration of guerrilla train-
ers but admit that guerrillas move
freely worldwide and do not require
Nicaragua as a base.
On other occasions, Reagan has
displayed pictures of a hemisphere
glowing blue with the spread of
democratically elected govern-
ments.
? The global netwoik of commu-
nism: Reagan placed "thousands of
Cuban military advisers, contin-
gents of Soviets and East Germans
and all the elements of international
terror-from the Palestine Liber-
ation Organization to Italy's Red
Brigades" in Nicaragua. He warned
not only against "a second Cuba"
but "a second Libya" in the region,
and evoked Yasser Arafat, Muam-
mar Qaddafi and the Ayatollah Ru-
hollah Khomeini in addition to the
Warsaw Pact as enemies of the
contra aid package.
"Now, we must make our deci-
sion," he said.
Estimates of the number of
Cuban military advisers range from
the Sandinistas' count of 200 to the
administration's charge that all the
Cuban construction workers, teach-
ers and agricultural workers in Nic-
aragua are also military trainers.
While the PLO has an office in Nic-
aragua and international criminals
have been seen in Managua, the ad-
ministration has cited only secret
sources for its allegations that "ter-
rorist training camps" exist in Nic-
aragua.
^ The drug connection: A 1982
photograph of Federico Vaughn, an
aide to Sandinista Interior Minister
Tomas Borge, "loading an aircraft
with illegal narcotics, bound for the
United States," means that "top Ni-
caraguan officials are deeply in-
volved in drug trafficking," Reagan
said.
But Drug Enforcement Admin-
istration spokesman Cornelius Dou-
gherty said earlier this year that
"no evidence was developed to im-
plicate the minister of the interior
or other Nicaraguan officials."
^ The church connection: Reagan
said "the entire Jewish community
[wasi forced to flee Nicaragua,"
while the Roman Catholic Church
"has been singled out" for persecu-
tion, evangelical pastors have been
tortured and people cannot "wor-
ship freely."
Nicaragua's few Jews closed
their synagogue for lack of use, and
most who left had backed Somoza.
A 1983 State Department inquiry
found no evidence of anti-Semitism.
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870029-0
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While some Protestants have
been harassed or their churches
closed, mostly in contested Miskito
Indian areas, others operate freely.
The tortured pastor Reagan cited
was working in the contested zone.
Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel
Obando y Bravo is the leading op-
position voice, but Catholics are
split on the Sandinistas. U.S. Ro-
man Catholic Church leaders crit-
ical of Nicaragua's internal policies
are still among the sharpest oppo-
nents of aiding the contras.
^ The history of negotiations: "Ten
times we have met and tried to rea-
son with the Sandinistas. Ten times
we were rebuffed," Reagan said.
Special negotiator Philip C. Habib's
recent trip was the 49th U.S. dip-
lomatic mission to the region, Rea-
gan said Saturday.
Habib did not go to Nicaragua,
nor did those on many of the other
trips. After bilateral discussions be-
gan in mid-1984, the Sandinistas
complained that U.S. positions
amounted to demands that they
leave office, and U.S. officials broke
off the talks.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870029-0