ANGOLA REBEL AID IS PUSHED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900067-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: November 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900067-3
ARTICLE AeEAR
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ON. PAGE ~~ / WASHINGTON POST
1 November 1985
Angola
Rebel Aid
Is Pushed
avid' .Ott wav
Washington--Post Staff Wi ter
The Defense Department
and__Ce_n_t_ra7_ Intelligence
Agency are urging the
White House to approve-
before t e U.S.-Soviet sum-
mit-a large covert mf itary
operation to aE noncommu-
nist rebels fighting the
-Marxist Angolan govern-
ment, congressional and in-
te ieence sources said yes-
terday.
One source said the mon-
ey proposed is in the range
of "two to three hundred
million dollars," a figure
eight to 10 times higher
than any proposed aid pack-
ages for Angolan rebels be-
ing considered by Congress.
Top Pentagon officials
reportedly are particularly
anxious to have the admin-
istration reach a decision
before the Nov. 19-20 sum-
mit in order to strengthen
President Reagan's hand in
any negotiations with Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev
about regional conflicts in
which the two superpowers
are engaged.
Whether the United
States should become rein-
volved in the Angolan con-
flict by providing assistance
to the Union for the Total
Independence of Angola
NITA which the CIA
aided during the 1975-76
war there, has created
gharp internal divisions in
various agencies and apart-
ments. Congress appears
iust as divided.
Meanwhile, the adminis-
tration was reported yester-
day to have given "private
assurances" to House Rules
Committee Chairman P
Claud P r+* fn-Fla 1 that
it will back the bill he is co-
sponsoring with Rep. Jack Kemp
(R-N.Y.) to provide $27 million in
nonlethal aid to UNITA, led by
Jonas Savimbi.
A Pepper aide said administration
officials, who he said asked not to
be identified, had given these assur-
ances "very recently" and an-
nouncement of the decision is "a
question of timing."
If true, this would represent a
major policy shift over the last
three weeks. On Oct. 12, Secretary
of State George P. Shultz wrote
House Minority Leader. Robert H.
Michel (R-I11.), saying the admin-
istration thinks the Pepper-Kemp
bill is "ill-timed" and urging him to
oppose it.
Various proposals to provide
UNITA with aid-either covert or
overt and humanitarian or mili-
tary-have been discussed within
the administration and Congress for
a month, with some principal policy-
makers shifting positions on the
issue.
CIA Director William J. Casey"
recen y switched trom supporting
only humanitarian aid to favoring a
covert military program, according
to one source in the intelligence
committee.
The sharp controversy emerged
clearly yesterday during testimony
before the House Foreign Affairs
subcommittee on Africa.
Rep. Mark D. Siljander (R-Mich.)
introduced with 41 co-sponsors a
proposal to provide $27 million in
overt military aid to UNITA, saying
U.S. ambivalence toward the An-
golan conflict has helped prolong
"Cuban and Soviet occupation" of
that country.
Subcommittee Chairman Howard
E. Wolpe (D-Mich.) said he strongly
opposes U.S. intervention of any
kind, saying, "There is probably no
better way to play into the hands of
the Soviets and Cubans."
Wolpe predicted that U.S. aid to
UNITA would increase Angolan
government dependence on Cuba
and the Soviet Union, allow the So-
viets to discredit the United States
in black Africa as an ally of white-
ruled South Africa, and lead to U.S.
aid to Savimbi, whom he described
as an "avowed Marxist" and a "Ma-
oist."
Also arguing strongly against re-
newed U.S. involvement in Angola
was David D. Newsom, a former
U.S. ambassador to several nations
and assistant secretary of state for
African affairs during the Nixon
adminstration.
Newsom questioned whether
there is a sufficient public consen-
sus to sustain a prolonged U.S.
commitment to Savimbi.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900067-3