A HOUSE LEADER SAYS HE ACCEPTS DATA ON CUBANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600250058-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2004
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: June 6, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

ARTICLE AP
ON, PAGE
ARED NEW YORK TIMES
approved For Release 600/19}TZIA-RDP81 M00980R000600250058-6
leaders have denied anj -recent involve.
. merit with the .rebels, who had fled to
Angola from Shaba Province, formerly
,A House Leader... caned Katanga.
? - , Whether Cubans played an. active role
in aiding the Katangans is important, be-
~,~ Sakse A cce p #s j i cause much of the Administration's Afri.
can policy in recent weeks has been
based on the assumption that the Cubans
..-? ^'? 0 ' 6 1 1 Zaire.
C 'd
t
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Speed M T , N.w Yon TSm,,
WASHINGTON, June 5-Adfn.,?Stans-
field Turner, the Director of Central Intel-
ligence, presented evidence to the House
;Intelligence Committee today. that ap-
peared to have satisfied its chairman_ that
:President Carter was justified in assert-
: ing that 'Cuba had.trained and equipped
Katangan, .rebels; and knew in, advance
'of their attack on Zaire from Angola- last
:'month. The charge has repeatedly been
denied by Cuban leaders.
Representative,;' Edward .P.". Boland,
Democrat of Massachusetts, the, commit-
:.tee chairman, told reporters after a two-
'.hour, closed-door briefing: "Pm satisfied,
:and the committee itself is satisfied, that
`the President's,. statement.. was , correct.'.'
The` Administration has not yet made
public its purported data, but instead has
begun' a campaign of ;briefing. key mem-
bers and committees ' of Congress "on Its
contents. Mr. Boland said that Admiral
.Turner had presented evidence 'from
"prisoners, diplomats and persons sur-
rounding Zaire Itself."
'We Have Sufficient Evidence'
Meanwhile, representatives of the Unit-
ed States, France, Britain, West Germany
and Belgium argued late into the night
in Parts over the. best way to. stabilize
Zaire withaut becoming involved in.Afri-
can rivalries or generating a new East-
West confrontation. [Page A7] And King.
Hassan It. of Morocco;.. who sent peace-
keeping troops: toZaire? last right, vowed
.to ".'intervene' ia',ZaiM again - and . even
a third: and a fourth tine"' to help protect
it''-front further~?.attacks by insurgents,
based in Angola. [Page A81
Admiral Turner; speaking to reporters,
was cautious in describing the evidence.
"It is my, considered 'opinion," he said,
"that we have sufficient evidence to draw
the conclusioir that there.must;have.:been
Cuban -involvement in'the training and
equipping,of these'insurgent forces which
attacked' the. Government of Zaire last
May 13."
"We made a careful ; objective evalua-
tion' oil' this-no : intelligence conclusion
is ever: absolutelybiack and.: absolutely
white,' Admiral Turner said. "But when
you have a preponderance of.evidence
as we -do in this case. from a variety
of sources: 'over :`a period. of time, one
can: only' come to the. kind of conclusion'
that we did'
President FIdel_Castro and other Cuban-
r ar
er sal at a aeovs conference
in` Chicago.on May 25 that Angola had
to bear. a heavy responsibility for the
"deadly attack" on Shaba, "and it is a
burden and a responsibility shared by
Cuba
"We believe," the President said at that
time, "that Cuba. has known of ': the
Katangan plans to invade and obviously
did.nothing torestrain them from cross-
ing the border. We also know that the
Cubans have played a key role in training
and equipping the Katangans who at-
tacked."
McGovern Tells Cuban Version
Senator George S. McGovern, Democrat
of South Dakota, who has publicly drawn
attention to the discrepancy between Mr.
Carter's and Mr. Castro's statements, said
today that be had been told by the
Cubans that their involvement with the
Katangans ended two years ago. '
Mr. McGovern said-the Cubans asserted
that they had trained and equipped the
Katangans only to help them. fight on
the . side : of. the winning forces in the
Angolan civil war, led by President Agos-
tinho. Neto.According to.. Mr. McGovern,
the Cubans said that since then they had
had nothing,. to- do with . the- Katangese.
But Mr. Boland said the.,-information
provided to the committee showed that
the Cubans' training had taken. place as
,recently as the past year.. ; ?_
I Mr.. McGovern, who has' not yet. been
briefed on the Administration's data, said
that if he was convinced the Cubans were
lying, he would regard it as a "personal
insult." -
Some Administration officials are not
satisfied with the, quality ..of'the intelli-
gence. They have said privately that- the
reliability of many-of the informants was
dubious, and that much of ' the data was
"circumstantia)w"
`Proof Is There; O'Neill Says,';
An Administration- official said, that it
had been decided to brief the Senate For-
eign Relations -Committee last, ow, the
ground that that group - would. be the
most critical. The first briefing was at
the White House last Friday and involved'
Congressional leaders such as the Hous
Speaker, Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., Democrat
of Massachusetts, who commented today:
'I would -say that the proof is there. that
Cubans participated. in Zaire!'. He also
said he understood that the Central Intel
ligence :.:Agency had . photographs of
Cubans with Katangans...
But. the Administration -has never as-
serted that. Cubans actually crossed over
into 'Zaire ?. from Angola, and Admiral
Turner, when asked - about Mr. O'Neill's
comment, said: "This. Government made
no.'such' statement-that Cubans were in
Zaire' or .they' were not. The"evidence, is
not that clear one way- or.' the other.":
? President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire
Approved For Release 2004/08/19: CIA-RDP81 ?OQ0-g> 12d
ble. for the attack.