SALVADOR ARMS-AID CHARGES DETAILED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202320012-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: August 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202320012-1
ARTICLE APPEARED NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE__ 9 August 1984
Salvador Arms-Aid Charges Detailed
By CHARLES MOHR
Special to The Ni'. York Tlmee
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - Govern-
ment officials made public today pho-
.tographic and other evidence that they
,said strongly supported contentions
'that leftist guerrillas in El Salvador get
most of their weapons, ammunition
.and equipment from Communist bloc
,'nations that funnel the material
.through Nicaragua.
Gen. Paul F. Gorman, commander
of the United States. Southern Com-
mand in Panama, said the evidence
.showed that El Salvador was "the vic-
:tim of a pernicious form of aggression
by Nicaragua." General Gorman con-
:ducted a press briefing with Thomas
Pickering, the United States Ambassa-
dor to El Salvador.
Mr. Pickering said the press briefing
today contained about 95 percent of the
material the two officials had been
? using in recent weeks in secret brief-
ings for members of Congress.
The guerrilla coalition in Salvador
has argued that it captures or buys on
the black market most of is weapons,
but General Gorman said that ship-
ments from the left-wing Nicaraguan
Government were the mainstay of the
guerrillas.
Aerial Photography Cited
port routes. He also said that serial
numbers on United States AR-15 and
M-16 rifles captured from the guerril-
las recently showed that in one batch
more 73 percent of the rifles involved
had been sent to Vietnam during the
war there and had presumably fallen
into Communist hands then.
'Accumulation of Evidence'
Ambassador Pickering said that "as
in most cases it is the accumulation of
evidence, not a single incident alone,
that provides the basis for the conclu-
sions."
He added that "no single piece of evi-
dence presented here could in anyq
sense be called a smoking gun or a sil-
ver bullet." But he urged journalists to
believe that the case for Nicaraguan
logistical support of the Salvadoran
rebels also rested on a "great deal of
additional sensitive information," that
could not be made public now.
In most cases the television tapes
and still photographs displayed today
were too blurry for journalists to detect
clearly the offloading of equipment
from "mother ships" to smaller sea-
going canoes. But in one piece of high-
For instance, photo caption material
prepared by United States military
officers described some of the depicted
scenes as "suspicious activities" and
"probable logistics infiltration."
More U.S. Aid Sought
General Gorman also used the, dis-
cussion of possible Communist aid to
the Salvadoran guerrillas to stress the
view that more and faster United
States assistance was needed for the
Government in that nation.
A House subcommittee today ap-
proved most of what the, Administra-
tion has asked for fiscal year 1985,
which does not begin until Oct. 1, but
supplemental aid requests for summer
and early fall have been bogged down.
General Gorman asserted that "a
guerrilla offensive is imminent" and
that some additional military aid was
needed before "the summer is out."
Assistance given in "dribs and drabs"
made systematic planning difficult and
threatened to stifle what he said were
increased tactical boldness and better
fighting ability by government forces.
Mr. Pickering added that the ability
of the small Salvadoran Navy to inter-
dict-waterborne supply routes was "a
function" of more aid to the navy.
General Gorman contended that the
Salvadoran Army had performed well
recently and had captured some of the
arms displayed today because it had
begun to receive more intelligence
from guerrilla defectors and peasants.
"That wasn't happening last year," he
said.
The officials asserted that of about
36,000 M-18 rifles sent to the Salvado-
ran Government only about 2,000 had
been lost, adding that this would arm
only about one-fifth of the guerrilla
forces.
'The press briefing today leaned
heavily on a number of recent incidents
in which United States AC-130 recon-
naissance aircraft sighted trawlers or
shrimp boats apparently discharging
cargo into smaller boats near the Sal-
vadoran coast and in which the smaller
craft ran into the beach.
In one case, television tape showed
what seemed to be pack animals, such
as mules, then being led into the
coastal forest.
The AC-130's are-tour-engined air-
craft that fly frequent intelligence pa_
.,.rots over~r._naaL. L alva ori_from
Howard Air Force Base in Panama.
The aircraft are equipped with cam-
eras that can detect faint infra-red heat
ve f n~r?, _t inet and._azu
D1~`.~14k'_1iCir Sei?~'tsion carneras-,ang
night vision.s_copes manned b}mew
members.
Genera! Gorman said that in at least
one incident a Salvadoran Army unit
captured a number of weapons. at a
guerrillh bats near where the beach
landings had taken place He cited cap-
tured maps that seemed to mark trans-
resolution video tape a crate appeared
to have been landed by one of the
canoes.
General Gorman asserted that over-
land shipments of weapons also took
place. Nicaragua does not have a com-
mon border with El Salvador, since a
portion of Honduras intervenes. But
Salvadoran guerrillas' influence has
been strong in that rugged portion of
Honduras.
Seaborne Supply Routes
The Gulf of Fonseca is one possible
route for sea-borne infiltration, but the
location of the reconnaissance photos
shown today would seem to indicate
that the ships involved stood out to sea
and sailed a considerable distance
along the Salvadoran coast beyond the
Gulf, in one case as far as the mouth of
the Lempa River.
. The "furtive" maritime activity was
said to have occurred, mostly in June
and early July, in such beach areas as
Espino, Cuco and Icacal and at Ju-
cuilico Bay.
The charges of Nicaraguan involve-
ment in the Salvadoran insurgency
were more sweeping when General
Gorman spoke than in some of the writ-
ten material provided, which took a
more neutral line.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202320012-1