REAGAN'S NEW CIA: SECRETS SLIP OUT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100040008-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 3, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST"DeT
classified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100040008-9
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
3 DECEMBER 1982
Reagan's new CIA: secrets slip out
First in a three-part series on US secret operations
By Daniel Southerland
Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Washington
As recent history has shown, it is no easy task for a relatively open society to carry out
secret actions.
The Reagan administration came to office determined to strengthen the.US Central
Intelligence Agency's,ability to carry out, if need be, covertactions - secret operations
aimed at influencing events abroad.
But in three notable cases already, the administration's cover has been blown. Its
covert actions have been exposed to the harsh glare of publicity:
? In Africa, where the United States has been trying to counter the influence of Libya.
? In Central America, where the administration is trying to exert pressure on the
Sandinista regime of Nicaragua and "raise the cost" the Nicaraguans must pay to "ex-
port revolution" to other parts of the region.
? In Afghanistan. where the Carter administration was already reportedly involved in
helping to coordinate assistance to the Afghan freedom fighters.
.The press reporting about US involvement in Afghanistan - though not extensive -
seems to have caused the administration the least trouble, probably because so many
people seem to think that the assistance is justified. It is also clear that the US is not on its
own there, but is participating in what might be called a consortium of nations, including
at least three in the region itself. The late the American-suPported secret operation
President Anwar Sadat of Egypt disclosed threatened to destabilize Honduras instead
last year that Egypt was helping to supply of Nicaragua; to fortify the Marxists in
weapons to the Afghan insurgents. Nicaragua: and to '`waste US prestige
In the case of Nicaragua, press reports along the tangled banks of the Coco River
describing a CIA "secret war" have between Honduras and Nicaragua."
clearly embarrassed the administration. Administration officials say the
Indications from sources inside and out- Newsweek article exaggerated the magni-
side the administration are that reports tude of the operations. On Nov. 1, a senior
the US is attempting to overthrow the left- national security official told the New
ist-led Sandinista regime are incorrect. In- York Times the clandestine operations.
stead, the US is engaged in supporting and were limited to hit-and-run raids into Nica-.
financing a campaign of harassment and ragua by small paramilitary units based in
pressure on the Sandinistas in retaliation Honduras, skirmishes along the border,
for the support Nicaragua has given to the and financial support for political vppo-
insurgents in El Salvador. Given the his- rents of the Sandinistas. No Americans
tory of past US interventions in the region, were directly involved, but the CIA was
however, many Latin Americans are pre- providing money, equipment,
pared to believe the worst. Among them sometraining of Miskito Indians.
are Honduran civilians who fear the US Despite the adverse publicity, some ad-
wdi gthen right-wing military forces ministration officials seem to think the
there and weaken civilian moderates. C3 Abarked operations are having an im-
.. The most dramatic story appeared in pact. One source noted that apparently as
Newsweek magazine in early November. a result of American that pressure, ere
The magazine asserted a secret campaign of acquiring were wring
to cut the urban-Nicaraguan arms pipe- , off the possibility
line to El Salvador had:escalated farbe-_MIGfighterplanesanytimesoon
yond Washington's original intentions:=it: Some American intelligence,-experts
- said the US ambassador in'Bonduras. John- are.ooncerned that continuingbar'assnent
D. Negroponte, under pressure _ from of Nicaragua will merely 'serve to rally
Washington to -produce- results. had ."im-_ support behind the Sandinistas.'
provised" and gone beyond his original or- Next: US threats and reports of US
ders to forge an alliance with guardsmen plots may have had a boomerang effect -
from the Somoza regime, now exiled from causing Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi
Nicaragua. As a_result,_ said Newsweek, to threaten the lite of President Reagan. -
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100040008-9