NICARAGUAN CONTRAS DESCRIBED AS A CREATION AND TOOL OF CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000201100006-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: September 19, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17: CIA-RDP91-00587R000201100006-4
STAT
LEWISTON TRIBUNE(ID)
19 September 1986
Ni4~rata.h Contras described
as~a creation and tool of CIA
By JohmUcCarthy,
of ten mmliw
MOSCOW - An ax-CIA operative says the
secret agency leads a policy of "gang
the Contrasein Nicaraggua.and murder" through
Jobs lbdtweU, who says he was the com-
mander of the CIA secret war in~la in the
1,inow belre-VIN-1he e agency be abo-
lished
Stockwell was at the University of Idaho
Thursday to give a lecture on the secret wars of
the CIA.
In the CIA "we've got an organization that
has a 40-year tradition of working with facist
thieves," Stockwell said at an afternoon news
conference.
"The CIA, by definition, they are set up above
the laws of God and above'the laws of man."
Under the Reagan administration and CIA
Director William Casey, the agency has been
more blatant about lobbying Congress to sup-
port its activities, such as support to the Con-
tras, Stockwell said.
The CIA gave from $30 to 5150 million to the
right-leaning Contra forces fighting the left-
leaning Sandinista government during the time"
Congress had banned any U.S. support, he said.
Although Congress approved $100 million in
support this summer, the total amount will be
more than $800 million for the next year includ-
ing covert aid from the CIA, Stockwell said.
From the beginning the Contras have been a
CIA creation, not a rebel force with any popular
support in Nicaragua, he said. "There was no
Contra force in 1980, until 1981 when the CIA
started to give them money."
The Contras have brutalized the people for
whose rights they are supposedly fighting,
Stockwell said, saying Contra soldiers have
committed "gang rape, mutilation and mur-
der" while under the CIA's- direction: He
claimed such brutality has been documented by
independent groups of observers.
Reagan "has committed his presidency, to
getting rid of the Sandinistas." CIA activiies
are designed to that end, the former operative
said.
But the Contras have at best one chance in
100 of driving out the Sandinistas, he said.
"We've never yet been able to buy a revolu-
tion."
The ultimate direction of Reagan policy will
be to send in U.S. troops to fight against the
Sandinistas, Stockwell claimed. ?
The entire anti-Sandinista campaign is mis-
guided and unneeded, he said.
After the overthrow of Somoza (a former Ni-
caraguan leader) in 1979 by the Sandinistas "it
w 't have been very difficult for us to go,
down there and- join hands with them t.. We
could have had the most
healthy country in Central
America in Nicaragua," he
said.
Stockwell said the Sandinis-
tas did not break off relations
with the United States, they
abolished the death sentence,
they began a literacy cam-
paign that is used as a model
in El Salvador, they instituted
land reform and they im-
proved health care.
The Sandinista government
also made a lot of mistakes
and acted immature in some
international relations. But
the U.S. policy pushed the
Sandinistas toward the Cu-
bans and it could have been
the opposite, Stockwell said.
In Nicaragua, Cuba, Chile,
Iran, Vietnam, the Phil-
ippines, and Pakistan the CIA
has supported dictators "who
steal billions of dollars from
their countries while the peo-
ple starve," he said.
Stockwell was in Vietnam
with the CIA during the April
1975 evacuation of Saigon. He
called the abandonment of
documents and people by the
United States "a violation of
every principle of integrity
that I had ever heard of."
Although he was "deeply
troubled" by the agency poli-
cies at the time, he made a
"deal with the devil" to see
how it operated from the in-
side as the commander in An-
gola.
After Angola, he said he lis-
tened to then-CIA director
William Colby "perjure him-
self" before a Congressional
sub-committee to cover up the
covert war in Africa.
STAT
Stockwell later left the CIA
and testified before the same
sub-committee to for what he
thought would be "five days
giving them irrefutable, abso-
lute evidence to put Henry
Kissinger and Bill Colby in
jail" for what he called their
perjury. _on CIA activities in
But he said
pened after the
ings..
hap-
hear-
The irony of the CIA,
according to Stockwell, is that
not only does it specialize in
"destablization and covert
war," it also doesn't provide
reliable intelligence informa-
tion.
Its emphasis is promote vi-
olence and covert action - not
diplomatic solutions, he said.
"I am very skeptical that a
great country like the United
States needs to have a policy
to brutalize people of small
nations ... this great powerful
nation does not need to feed on
the blood of these people." I
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17: CIA-RDP91-00587R000201100006-4