REAGAN TO PUSH AID FOR DUARTE'S MILITARY
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870062-3
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
2
Document Creation Date:
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date:
February 23, 2012
Sequence Number:
62
Case Number:
Publication Date:
June 21, 1985
Content Type:
OPEN SOURCE
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Body:
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870062-3
ARTICLE LR.ED
ON FAGIL
WASHINGTON POST
21 June 1985
Reagan to Push Aid
For Duane's Military
U.S. Retaliation for Attack Ruled Out,
But El Salvador's Efforts to Be Backed
By Joanne Omang
and Michael J. Weieskopf
Wa,j i 1tm Post S mil Wrous
The Reagan administration said
yesterday it would seek additional
military and other assistance for El
Salvador as part of the U.S. re-
sponse to the murder of 13 people,
including six Americans, in a San
Salvador cafe Wednesday night.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes called the killings "an act of
indiscriminate terrorism." He ruled
out any direct U.S. military retal-
iation, but pointedly did not rule out
such an effort by El Salvador.
"That's the only purpose and ob-
vious purpose" of beefed-up U.S.
aid, Speakes told reporters at a
briefing. "We have confidence in El
Salvador to deal with this problem."
Later in the day, he said, "We are
prepared ... to provide them with
the assistance they need to do the
job themselves."
Speakes said he "strongly sus-
pects" that the attackers were left-
ist guerrillas dressed as Salvadoran
soldiers. He said the administration
had dismissed the possibility that
they might have been members of
the Salvadoran security forces,
which have been involved in terror-
ist attacks in the past.
Pentagon spokesman Michael I.
Burch said the cafe killings were an
"act of barbarism" that apparently
reflects a decision by Salvadoran
rebels to step up urban attacks af-
ter suffering military setbacks in
rural areas.
"Although no one has yet claimed
responsibility for this act," Burch
said, "it has all the appearance of
leftist terrorism that has been on
the increase in recent months as a
reaction to the guerrillas' military
reversals in the countryside."
Both men said, and other sources
confirmed, that the attackers shot
first at two tables of Marines and
then sprayed bullets in every direc-
tion.
John C. Kelly, deputy director of
Agency for International Develop-
ment's office of information re-
source management, who has
worked on computerizing Salvador-
an elections since 1981, said here
that five of the dead, including the
two American civilians, were all
employes of Wang Laboratories
Inc., of Lowell, Mass., and its Sal-
vadoran subsidiary, which was do-
ing work for AID, and that the five
were at a table next to the Marines.
"A survivor, Mario Lopez, also
with Wang, told me [by telephone]
it was clear to him that the target
was the Marines," Kelly said. "He
said they [the attackers] looked at
the other table and when they saw
Americans there, they went for
them as well."
Kelly said the Cafe Mediter-
ranee, one of a string along the
street, was a popular hangout for
the Marines and AID people and
that the Marines had been sitting at
outdoor tables for nearly two hours
when the attack occurred.
State Department spokesman
Bernard Kalb told reporters that
the U.S. Embassy had a policy "pro-
hibiting employes from eating at
outdoor cafes" and all personnel had
been briefed on it.
Speaker read a statement by
President Reagan promising to 'im-
mediately provide whatever assist.
ance is necessary" to the govern.
ment of Salvadoran President Jose
Napoleon Duarte "to find and pun-
ish the terrorists who perpetrated
this act."
Reagan promised expedited de-
livery of aid now in the pipeline and
said he would use his emergency
authority if necessary to provide
"additional military assets."
Congress approved $128.2 mil-
lion in military aid for El Salvador in
fiscal 1985 and is considering an ad-
ministration request for $132.6 mil-
lion for fiscal 1986. Reagan's state-
ment said he would consult with
Congress an the next steps, which
are expected to include a supple-
mental appropriation request for
this fiscal year. Congressional staff
members said no request had yet
been submitted.
Speakes said the FBI might pro-
.vide technical help in determining
responsibility for the attack, as well
as unspecified increases in intelli-
gence capability. Burch said he
knew of no plans to increase the
number of U.S. military trainers in
the Central American country be-
yond the administration's self-im-
posed ceiling of 55.
"The business of intellionm and
technical asantaine wi be ine in
b le that there would more ter-
rorist a
Asked whether the off-duty Ma-
rines had been armed, Burch said
off-duty Marines stationed outside
San Salvador have permission to
carry personal weapons for self-
defense, but Marines in the capital,
including the four killed Wednes-
day, cannot.
Burch said the U.S. ambassador
has discretion to permit sidearms
and restrict movement of military
personnel in risky areas of El Sal-
vador, although the area where the
shooting occurred, near the U.S.
ambassador's residence, was
thought to be "relatively safe."
House Minority Leader Robert
H. Michel (R-Ill.) said in a speech to
the House that the killings were
part of "the inevitable terror" of
communism.
"The trigger was pulled by the
Sandinista leadership in Managua,"
he said, referring to the leftist gov-
ernment of neighboring Nicaragua,
which the Reagan administration
has repeatedly called the chief arms
supplier to the Salvadoran guerril-
las.
Gfinu
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870062-3
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870062-3
CL
Elliott Abrams, at a Senate For-
eign Relations Committee hearing
on his nomination to be assistant
secretary of'-state for inter-Amer-
ican affairs, said the slayings iron-
ically indicated that U.S. Policy in El
Salvador had been successful be-
cause the guerrilla left has given up
trying to win the five-year-old civil
war in the countryside.
"They know they cannot win the
war, and so they are pushed into
this kind of barbaric terrorist act,"
Abrams said. "El Salvador is really a
great success story."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870062-3