U.S./HONDURAS/EXERCISE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200960004-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 27, 2008
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: November 23, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200960004-9
CBS EVENING NEWS
23 November 1983
U.S./HONDURAS/ RATHER: There'll be no football games or home cooking, either,
EXERCISE for the 5,000 U.S. servicemen who'll spend Thanksgiving in
Honduras as part of the Big Pine 2 joint maneuvers there. It's
been widely reported that some of these U.S. troops are
actively
advising the contra rebels in Nicaragua. But Jane Wallace has
discovered that the U.S. involvement..goes deeper.
WALLACE: When the Nicaraguan port of Corinto was bombed in
October, it was the contras who took the credit. But CBS News
has learned it was Americans who led the raid. Military
sources
confirm it was Americans who took two boatloads of Honduran
commandos from the Salvadoran coast to Corinto to place time
bombs in the port--Americans from the CIA and Americans from
regular military service. The American military buildup in
this
country means there's thousands.of American men and tons of
American machinery brought here for the Big Pine 2 maneuvers
that make an easy mask for other military actions. Publicly,
the Pentagon won't talk about those actions, and privately the
American military just keeps doing them. This is the airstrip
at *Aguacate, commonly used to train contra pilots and,
according to military sources, the place the contra pilot took
off from when he bombed the Managua airport in September. Now
the Americans have moved in military equipment and men to make
Aguacate a better airstrip. CBS News has also learned that
Americans are using C-130s like this, brought in for the
maneuvers, to make supply drops to the contras as often as
twice
a week. Those drops are made inside the Hondruan border. But
military and diplomatic sources confirm the C-130s also extend
the trips into frequent spy flights over Nicaragua. For more
than a year, the United States has funded the contras .
not-so-secret missions into Nicaragua. It's the act of
American
military involvement that's new. And it may be one of the
reasons the Americans are so anxious to keep the maneuvers
going
here. Jane Wallace, CBS News, Tegulcigalpa, Honduras.
Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200960004-9