NICARAGUA VISITORS QUESTIONED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706740001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
9 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706740001-0
Nicaragua
Visitors
Questioned
Webster Says FBI
Interviewed 100
To Collect Data
By Loretta Tofani
Washington Post Staff Writer
al rights grew out of complaints constructive at all. They're just murderers. vve
FBI Director William H. Webster
yesterday acknowledged that
agents have interviewed U.S. cit-
izens returning from visits to ic-
aragua, but said the interviews
were for legitimate "foreign coun-
terintelligence' and not to harass
oooonents of administration suooort
for "contra" rebels.
Webster told a House subcom
mittee that there were approxi-
mately 100 interviews and that
they were not intended to "prevent
people from going to Nicaragua or
make them sorry they went to Nic-
aragua."
But Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-
Mich.) suggested that the FBI visits
were intimidating. And Jerry Ber-
man, an American ? Civil Liberties
Union lawyer, suggested that the
real purpose of the visits was to
"chill speech" using "down-and-dirty
political games."
Berman said Webster's reasons
are subject to challenge because
many of those interviewed oppose-
administration policy, and therefore
are not likely to provide the FBI
with useful intelligence.
The hearing by the House sub-
committee on civil and constitution-
contacted the Center for Constitu-
tignal Rights in New York after be--
ing questioned by FBI agents. The
center then contacted the subcom-
mitted.. `Y1
from travelers to Nicaragua who
WASHINGTON POST
18 April 1985
About a dozen of those contacted
by the FBI are members of the Cen-
tral American Solidarity Coalition, a
group that works closely with the
Sanctuary Movement, which smug-
gles Central American refugees
into the United States. Members
regularly travel to Nicaragua on
"fact-finding missions" and attempt
to "mobilize public support against
the administration's policies in Nic-
aragua," Thomas Cannon, an attor-
ney for the group, said in an inter-
view.
Daisy Cubias of Milwaukee, a member of the
group, said in an interview that FBI agents vis-
ited her once at her place of employment and
twice at her home after she visited Nicaragua.
During the- first visit-on Jan. 3 at her
home-Cubias said she was asked whether any
members of her group were "involved in terror-
ism." Cubias said she told them her group was
"concerned with peace, not terrorism."
According to Cubias, the agents told her that a
number of members of her group were being in-
vestigated. The agents mentioned names, Cubias
said, and "I told them to go talk to those people
then. They said that they couldn't because those
people wanted to see their lawyers."
Cannon said another group member refused to
speak to an agent without a lawyer, and was
~.- warned by the agent that certain members of the.
;'group might be sympathetic to the Soviet Union.
Social worker Amy Good, another group mem-
ber, said she went home March 19 and found a
note in her mailbox. It said, "Amy, could you con-
tact me at this phone number?" The note was
signed, "John T. Andrews."
Good said that she dialed the number and that
a voice answered, "FBI."
"I hung up," she said.
Good said she went to Nicaragua in October
for 12 days as a volunteer member of the Wit-
ness for Peace program. There, she said, she
`talked to people and tried to learn as much as I
mould about life in Nicaragua."
When she returned, she said, she gave numer-
bus talks and slide shows on college campuses
and at church organizations. Her message, she
said, was that contra rebels supported by the
Meagan administration and fighting the Ni-
t "brutally attack civilians
_ ___.
e
rnm
n
shouldn't be supporting them at au.
Qf Webster's statement that the FBI is"gath-
ering foreign counterintelligence she said, "Any-
thing they wanted to know all they had to do
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706740001-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706740001-0ez
was come to one of the meetings where I speak.
I feel like it's harassment, a the re t ,,. to
get people to stop doing t e work that they're
doin "
But at least one of those contacted by the FBI
did not visit Nicaragua, according to the Center
for Constitutional Rights. David Rostan, a law
student in New York, found a business card in his
mailbox in March. The card said, "Please call me
about Nicaragua. This will be a friendly chat." It
i was signed by an FBI agent.
Rostan did not call the agent. He has said that
he might have been contacted because he at-
tended a meeting about Nicaragua at City Uni-
versity of New York.
Webster said yesterday that he had "difficulty
understanding" those who suggest that the FBI
should not interview persons who had traveled to
Nicaragua. "We're carrying out an important
function for the U.S. government," Webster said,
adding that his agents-had not threatened or in-
timidated anyone.
Conyers replied, "That's the most amazing
thing I've heard this morning, Judge Webster
. For you to tell me that no one should be
intimidated by a little friendly visit from a polite,
FBI agent who left his card ..... "
Webster said he did not think Conyers was
speaking "to the point," adding, "I never grew up
in an atmosphere where a visit from an
FBI agent in and of. itself was some kind of
threat .... "
"I grew up in Detroit," Conyers replied. "An
FBI visit to a job, sir, can destroy a person's ca-
reer .. It's not the kind of.thing that makes a
person popular in his job or at home. Let's get
real this morning: Friendly visits from the FBI
are no good. They're not welcome in our soci-
ety."
Later Webster testified that FBI agents were
asked to perform the interviews by the Central:
Intelligence Agency and the National Security
Council.
"From time to time we will receive requests
from the director-67 counterintelligence or e
National Security Council expressing an interest
i~ certain thine s that may to ng J) ace that
affect our national security," Webster said.
e have gotten no instigation from anybody
to make life miserable for people trafficking back'
and forth to Nicaragua," he added.
Webster said FBI agents also routinely inter-
i view U.S. citizens who travel to other countries.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706740001-0