U.S. SENDS NEW ARMS TO REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900045-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: March 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0604900045-7
U.S. Sends
New Arms
To Rebels
Afghans, Angolans
Get Stinger Missiles
In Change of Policy
By David B. Ottaway
and Patrick E. Tyler
Washington Post Staff Writers
The Reagan administration, after
hesitating for years to send so his-
ticate U.S. weapons to insurgent
forces in the Third World- has
begun supplying several hundred
Stinger missiles covertly to anti-
communist rebels in Angola and Af-
ghanistan, informed sources said
yesterday.
e decision, which has been
closely held among the president's
national security affairs advisers
since it was made earlier this
month, marks a major shift in U.S.
policy. Shipments of top-of-the-line
American arms to such insurgents
had been barred in favor of furnish-
ing largely Soviet- and Chinese-
made weapons bought on the inter-
national arms market or from U.S.
allies.
The change in policy is certain to
broaden involvement oTJtFe Central
Intelligence Agency in Third World
conflicts and appears likely to es-
calate the -fighting in Afghanistan
and Ango where Soviet helico -
ter gunships have inflicted heavy
casualties on rebels forces in the
past year.
shift occurred after activists
in the Pentagon- and the CTT
hacked by conservatives in the Sen-
ate and elsewhere, overcame o -
position o cials in the State De-
partment, as well as some in t e
CI Opponents of the change long
have argued that introduction of
U.S.-made weapons into Th-ir-d
World conflicts escalates those
struggles into U.S. oviet con ron-
tations. Those si ua ions p
touchy problems for neighboring
fates attempting to maintain a neu-
tral diplomatic posture while pro-
viding a route for U.S.-backed arms
n s.
Introduction of such weapons
also makes it more difficult for the
U.S. government to maintain a pos-
ture of "plausible deniability" of its
involvement in such conflicts.
A White House spokesman said
the administration had no comment
on whether Stinger heat-seeking
antiaircraft missiles have been pro-
vided to rebels in the two countries.
Nor would he comment on reports
that Stingers might also be sent to
the U.S.-backed contras, or coun-
terrevolutionaries, fighting the San-
ta government in Nicaragua.
The S' r decision followed the
Feb. 25 recommen ation o an in-
teragency committee made up of
senior representatives from the
fate Department, CIA, Defense
Veemtment and the National Se-
curity Council staff. The commit-
tee, which meets peno ca in t e
to House situation in or in
Room of the Old Executive
Of-
fice Building, is c arg wit nine and coordinating all CIA
paramilitary operations.
Over the past year, the inter-
agency review of U.S. covert para-
military operations concluded that
S7oviet-backed forces were employ-
ing more lethal weaponry and more
aggressive tactics against mula-
ha n re s in g anis an an
against the guerrilla army of Jonas
Savun i in Angola.
One intelligence estimate indi-
cates t t roug y one-t n . -
viet special forces units, trained for
coun ennsurgency an nig t com-
bat roles, have been deployed to_
anistan
w ere they have in-
flicte heavy casualties.
In Angla a large column of So-
viet-made tanks and armored ve-
hicles backed by helicopter gun-
ships and MiG21 and MiG23 jet
_fighters are poised for an offensive
expected in the next 60 days to rid
the Marxist central government of
Savimbi's 10-year-old insurgency.
Rebels in both countries have
been opposing the increased air
threat with Soviet-made, shoulder-
fired SA7 missiles and have com-
plained that their range-less than
two miles-is not sufficient to
thwart "stand-off' attacks by heavi-
ly armored Soviet gunships. The
rebels also have complained a ut
the reliability of Soviet SA7s, whose
battery-driven electronics appar-
ently are subject to frequent failure.
The Stinger, a state-of-the-art
antiaircraft missile made by Gen-
eral Dynamics Corp. and supplied to
only a few U.S. allies, is a far more
lethal weapon than the SA7 the
United States has been supplying to
the Afghan rebels. The Stinger has
a range of up to five miles and em-
ploys a supercooled sensor to lock
on to aircraft heat emissions and is
not easily fooled by decoy flares
fired by Soviet helicopters.
In a letter to Reagan last month,
a group of conservative senators
estimated that Stingers could im-
prove the "kill" capabilities of rebel
forces facing Soviet military aircraft
by three to ten times.
The CIA's clandestine service
chief Clair George, was described
by sources as a strong proponent of
_
the Stinger decision. George, who
has been credited Director
William -Casey with rebuilding ing the
agency's paramilitary arm, repre-
sgnt the CIA in the interagency
deliberations. Casey visited Africa
LUIS month to meet wi avim i
and assure him that "effective" an-
tiaircraft weapons were on the way,
sources said.
'The stration has been un-
der pressure for months from con-
servative senators and political ac-
tion groups to provide U. S. weap-
ons to the anticommunist insur-
gents. The CIA an tate~epart-
ment have been criticized by these
groups for dragging their feet.
A key event in the Stinger deci-
sion, according to sources, was a
meeting on March 5 between Sec-
retary of State George P. Shultz
and a group of mostly conservative
senators led by Senate Majority
Leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.).
During the 70-minute meeting in
Dole's office, Shultz was pressed
four different times to move quickly
.to provide Stingers to Angolan reb-
el leader Savimbi and to the Afghan
mujahadeen resistance. Each time,
according to sources, Shultz asked
the senators: "Are you sure you
want me to go back to Bill Casey,
and tell him you want Stingers?"
All nodded and said, "Yes," the
sources said.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0604900045-7
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900045-7
In the week following this meet-
ing, top-secret presidential author-
ity was given to ship several hun-
dred Stingers to Angola and Af-
ghanistan, according to sources.
These shipments arrived during the
past week, a source said.
Some conservatives have voiced
private criticism of the Stinger de-
cision, saying that the original pro-
posal to help "freedom fighters"
with American weapons called for
thousands of U.S. antiair and anti-
tank missiles to be provided to
U.S.-backed insurgents in Nicara-
gua and Cambodia as well as Af-
ghanistan and Angola.
An administration official said the
House and Senate intelligence over-
sight committees were notified-of
the Stinger d ecision late last week.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900045-7