MEDIA STATEMENTS VS, INTELLIGENCE ON CUBAN ROLE IN ZAIRE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81B00401R002100030003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 7, 2002
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 1, 1978
• Content Type: TRANS

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MEDIA STATEMtNTS VS, INTELLIGENCE ON CUBAN ROLE IN ZAIRE
Media
15 Ma 1978: "Carter Administration officials in
lad shington expressed concern over reports that Kol-
wezi had fallen to rebel forces who had crossed
into Zaire and were being aided by Cubans based in
Angola." /SOURCE: Washington Post: Reuters?
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18 May 1978: "There were continuing reports yes-
terday that some officials of the Carter admin-
istrationare anxiously seeking a way to make a
show of force against the major Cuban military
presence in Africa, supported by Soviet weaponry."
"There is no tangible evidence, U.S. ofticials
concede, that Cuban troops are among the so-called
'Katanga gendarmes' who are the attackers in
,Jhaba Province, although U.S. officials say they
believe these troops were trained by Cubans in
Angola." /SOURCE: Washington Post: Murray
Marder7
19 May 1978: "Cuban Presiaent Fidel Castro called 19 May 1978: "Castro's clalmt.hat no Cubans are
in Lyle Lane, he chief u,S, diplomat in Cuba, witn the Katan an
d r
t
g nva ems in Shaha is prob-
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Wednesday to assert that Cuba has no military p ably true. There has been no evidence of
sonr1el operating in Zaire's embattled Shaba province," Cuban forces operating with the Katangans,
"U.S. officials noted chat the u.5. nas not Similarly, there was no credible evidence
charged that Cuban persuni,ei were operating inside that any Cubans fought alongside the Katan-
Zaire, although there have beeli reports chat the 25X1Xgans who invaded Zaire Shaba insurgents have been aided by Cuban training
and perhaps logistical support across the border
in Angola." /SOURCE: Washington Post: William
Claiborne G Don Oberdor er
"The United States, although highly critical
of the estimated 20,000 Cuban troops in Angola, did
not endorseZaire's charge that Cubans were involved
in the fighting in Zaire, centering on the copper
center of Kolwezi. But some high officials were
willing to believe the charge, especially since
Cuban forces have been active in other parts of
Africa and in Southern Yemen."
"According to of.ficia.ls., it was impossible to
tell whether Mr. Castro was being completely candid
since it has been assumed here for some time that
Cuban forces in Angola had at least some advisory
role with the Katangans, who have lived in Angola
since leaving Zaire, then known as the Congo, in
the mid-1960s."
"Tom Reson, a State Department spokesman,
said that 'there are no Cuban troops we know of''
in Zaire." LSOURCE: NY Times: Bernard Gwertzman7
20 May 1978: "Nevertheless, State Department spokes-,
man Reston said, it is 'our understanding' that the
'insurgents have been trained recently by Cubans in
Angola and are using Soviet weapons.' When asked
why he was making the statement, Reston 'replied,
'I ask you to draw your own conclusions,"'''.-
"At the White house yesterday /Tody7 Powell
said: "i can say we have no confirmation of Cubans
being involved in military operations in Zaire.
However, I should also add that we do know that the
20 May 1978: '"Local residents /of Kolw
to t e that a motorized' c
ompan
'non-Africans' was with the Katangans until
til
yesterday morning. Some of the residents
said the foreigners were Cubans, but I
sources believe they may have been Portugues
speaking Angolans, Zaire claims it inter-
cepted a radio communication on 17 May in
which rebels in Kolwezi asked for assistance
from Cuban or Angolan combat units. There
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Cubans did
train and equip the Katangans who are
engaged in those military operations, and they
are fighting with Soviet and Eastern European
weapons supplied to them by Cubans in An ola.'"
/SOURCE: Washington Post: Murray Marderf
26 May 1978: From transcript of President
Carter's press conference remarks of 25 May:
"%re believe that Cuba had known of the Katangan
plans to invade and obviously did nothing to
restrain them from crossing the border. We
also know that the Cubans have played a key role
in training and equipping the Katangans who
attacked," /SOURCE: Washington Post]
27 May 1978: "At a Chicago press conference, the
Press ent asserted that Cuba had helped to train and
equip the Angola~based rebels who invaded lair e's
Shaba province."
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is no confirmation that any Angolan or Cuban
troops were with the 1els," /SOURCE:
items, 2
23 May 1978: "We have few details about the
planning t at went into the Katangan attack,
Its execution, however, suggests that it was
not done on the spur of the moment. The
rebels apparently had predetermined targets
and enough supplies to get to them.''
"There may well have been an Angolan
and or Cuban role in the lanning," /S :
items,
26 May 1978: "We believe that the Cubans
Have he1pe train and advise Katangan exiles
...at bases in Angola since 1975. Cuban
advisers doubtless assisted the rebels in
preparing for this month's incursion and that
of 1977. We believe Cuba and the USSR have
supplied the FNLC with some weapons and equip
ment, but reporting on this point is infre-
quent. There have been several unconfirmed
reports of Cuban personnel accompanying the
insurgents in the most recent incursion.
Similar claims during the 1977 invasion were
never proved, We therefore believe that Pres
ident Castro's denials about Cuban involvemen
with the Katangans are, one PY option,
incorrect," /SOURCE: T 26 MaMX1
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"Administration officials have said Carter's
charges were based on new intelligence received by
the White House on Wednesday. However, during the
past few days, different administration sources
have given conflicting versions of the Cuban role
in the Zaire invasion."
"The State Department's official position,
wiiich it publicly reiterated yesterday, is that
Cuba helped train the rebels, However, it is
known that some factions within the department
contend that this assertion is grounded in inade-
quate and unreliable intelligence."
"On Wednesday night, a senior department
official in a background briefing for reporters
wno accompanied Secretary of state Cyrus R. Vance
to New York, said he was not aware of any recent
training provided the rebels by Cuba."
"In response to questions yesterday about
whether that contradicted the President's charges,
a department spokesman, Tom Reston, said the
official had not seen the new information in
the po-session of the White House when he spoke to
reporters Wednesday night."
"Reston said this fresh intelligence backed
up the department's earlier public assertion that
the rebels were given Cuban training and Soviet
weapons. Asked when the training took place,
Reston said,'The time frame was directly leading
up to the invasion.'"
"However, some department uffi.,ials are known
to still have doubts about the reliability of the
administration's evidence."
"Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.) said afterward
that Fie called attention to official Cuban gov-- '
ernment denials of involvement in Zaire and asked
Vance about the Carter charges,"
"Vance referred to 'new evidence,' McGovern said,
But in response to a motion asking for a written
Int~ence
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report on this evidence, according to McGovern
and other committee sources, Vance broke in to
say that the new intelligence had originated,
with the CIA and added; 'I'd prefer that you
get the information from Admiral Turner."'
/SOURCE; Washington Post: John M. Goshko7
(Bernard Gwertzman in the NY Times printed a
similar story on the same day,)
1June 1978: "One high-level administration
official who disagrees with the pressure on
Cuba on grounds that the evidence of Cuban
invovement is inconclusive admitted yesterday
his side had lost the internal debate with
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the presidential national
security affairs adviser, on the heated African
policy dispute."
"A high administration source shown new
intelligence material which White House officials
contend implicates the Cubans said yesterday that
'nothing about this is ever going to be conclu-
sive.' He said those senators disposed to believe
,the 'evidence' would find it sufficient, while
those who object to the policy will remain
unconvinced." /SOURCE: Washington Post;
Karen DeYounA7
2 June~1978; "Intercepted coded messages to Fidel
Castro's Africa Corps in Angola 'covering a period
of several days' before the invasion of Zaire's
Shaba province make up part of the evidence to
support President Carter's charge of Cuban com-
plicity in the invasion,"
"In addition, the CIA has possession of 'human
intelligence' reports--possibly from Cuba, possibly
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Media
from Angolan sources--that corroborate the
interce ts," /SOURCE; Washington Post; Evans
F Novak j
5 June 1978: "Defense Secretary Harold Brown
said -day to /T June' that evidence linking Cuban
forces to the recent invasion of Zaire by Kat-
angan rebels had come from prisoners, diplomatic
channels, and neighboring countries."
"At the same time, Mr. Brown said that al-
though there were indications that Cubans had
accompanied the Katangans, there was 'no con-
vincing evidence that Cubans actually accompanied
the invading forces into Zaire,"
"Mr. Brown's comments today strongly defended
the Administration's case,"
"'As.a scientist by training I am accustomed
to evaluating evidence,' Mr. Brown said, 'This
of course is not the kind of evidence that a
scientist is accustomed to seeing, It consists
of reports, statements, some of them eyewitness
reports, and it's of various kinds, Some of it
Intelligence
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Media
comes from prisoners who were held by the invaders.
Some of it comes through diplomatic channels."'
"Some of it comes from the Zairian Government,'
he said, 'Of course we tend to discount that because
they're an interested party, But some of it comes
from people in surrounding African countries who
don't have that same degree of bias.'"
"'What it says to me, having looked at it,
is that the Cubans and the Angolans were clearly engaged
in the training and equipping and supplying logistics
for the forces that invaded Zaire not once but twice "?
I'Mr. Brown, in an apparent reference to information received
in March 1977, when rebel Katangan forces based in Angola
first invaded Zaire, said: 'Some of the intelligence we got
said there was going to be a second incursion, and rather
soon, And when it happened, that gives added weight to
the other things,'', LSOURCE: NY Times, Bernard WeintraubT
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