NICARAGUA: WHAT 'EVERYBODY KNOWS' IS NOT INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200740002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200740002-9
ARTICLE APPEARED WASHINGTON POST
ON PACE A-,'- t- 8 November 1986
Nicaragua: What `Everybody Knows' Is Not Intelligence
For some reason The Post continues to defend the
Reagan administration's aggression against Nicaragua
by insisting that, somehow, the victim deserved it.
When the shooting down of the C123 transport plane
revealed the United States as the arms runner, The
Post editorialized that while this was bad, Nicaragua's
shipments of arms to the Salvadoran insurgents were
just as bad, and so there. After Paul Reichler, Nicara-
gua's American attorney, pointed out that the Interna-
tional Court of Justice had considered the evidence for
this and declared it "insufficient" to support the charge,
The Post gave space to a letter by Patrick Rogers
(Free for All, Nov. 11. Rogers insists he had the proof
and that those, like Sen. Tom Harkin, who say other-
wise are guilty of "the big lie."
Rogers lists six "specifics . . . gleaned from press
reports and a Defense Department white paper." Leav-
ing aside the credibility of "white papers" at a time
when high administration spokesmen resign to protest
blatant official disinformation and the secretary of state
speaks of the need to surround official truth "with a
bodyguard of lies," Rogers' "specifics" are peculiar, not
to mention irrelevant.
? In 1985 a Nicaraguan intelligence patrol is captured
in El Paraiso, Honduras, where the main contra camps
are located. No mention is made of arms shipments to
El Salvador.
^ In 1984 the Salvadoran. army captured an FMLN
map showing trails from the coast to the interior of El
Salvador. The map has no reference to Nicaragua. The
captured canoes Rogers mentions were not traced to
Nicaragua.
a In 1982 Costa Rican authorities raided a house in San
Jose filled with arms allegedly destined for the FMLN.
People of five different nationalities (including Costa
Ricans) were captured. How one can draw from this
the conclusion that the Nicaraguan government is
culpable escapes me.
a In attacking the claim that there has been no evi-
dence of Nicaraguan gunrunning since very early 1981,
Rogers cites a 1980 document. The document has been
suspect both in terms of its genuineness and the State
Department analysis of its contents. In fact, the analyst
responsible admitted to The Wall Street Journal in June
1981 that he had relied too much on guesswork and
that his analysis was faulty.
^ The Honduran guerrilla affair of 1983 obviously has
nothing to do with gunrunning to El Salvador. Hondu-
ras, willing and cooperative host to thousands of
U.S.-financed contras attacking Nicaragua since 1979,
hardly can claim to be an aggrieved and guiltless party.
? Finally, the refrigerated truck episode again refers to
an event of very early 1981. The period after that, as
Rogers himself stated, is the one in question.
Contrary to his belief, the World Court did review
precisely these examples and a great deal more be-
sides. It did not find them convincing.
Nor have others. Prof. Richard Gardner, in a New York
Times op-ed column of July 2, even while defending the
Reagan policy, declared the U.S. claim that it couldn't
show its proof of Nicaragua arms trafficking for fear of
exposing intelligence sources and methods "simply not
credible." CIA public affairs director George V. Lauder, in
a letter to The Post Jan. 11, could say only that agency
evidence "indicated a Nicaraguan government role," a
statement as remarkable for its ambiguity as for its
weakness. Soldier of Fortune magazine technical editor
Peters Kokalis, writing in August 1986 on FMLN weap-
onry, concluded that "no concrete proof exists of arms STAT
shipments from Nicaragua...... He goes on predictably to
say, though, that there is "overwhelming ... circumstan-
tial evidence...... (This reminds me of a CIA colleague
who, in 1982, waved aside as unimportant the scantiness
and unreliability of intelligence information on the arms
shipments and told me, "Of course we don't have the kind
of evidence that would satisfy the ACLU, but everybody
knows the Sandinistas are sending weapons.")
What "everybody knows" is neither valid intelligence
nor legal proof. Simple-minded repetition of unsupport-
ed charges by The Post or, as in publication of Rogers'
letter, confusing the issue by presenting irrelevant
examples, not one of which demonstrates Nicaraguan
government involvement in arms shipments (the point
at issue, after all), is hardly responsible journalism.
-David MacMichael
The writer, a former CIA estimates officer, testified in
behalf of Nicaragua in its case against the United States
in the World Court.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200740002-9