CIA CHIEF ASKS CONTINUED FUNDING OF 'SECRET WAR' IN CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302520006-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: February 16, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

I
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302520006-5
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
THE MIAMI HERALD
16 February 1983
~A chei asks continue
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By ALFONSO CHARDY
Heruid R'a ki::rfort Bureau
WASHINGTON - Central Intel-
ligence Agency Director William
Casey has asked Congress to con-
tinue funding into 1984 the contro-
versial covert operation against the
Sandinista government of Nicara-
gua, according to congressional
sources.
In a closed-door appearance
Thursday. Casey reiterated assur-
ances that the Reagan Administra-
tion will honor congressional guide-
lines and restrictions on the scope
of the operations, the sources said.
They said Casey noted before the
House Appropriations Committee's
subcommittee on defense that the
restrictions prohibit involvement in
any attempt to overthrow the Man-
agua regime or to provoke war be-
tween Nicaragua and Honduras.
Casey was reported to have as-
sured the panel members that the
U.S. role remains limited to advice
and financial aid for anti-Sandinista
forces mounting harassment raids
into Nicaragua from Honduras.
The sources said Casey told the
subcommitee that the U.S.-backed
operation has three major goals:
e Retaliation for Nicaraguan
help to guerrillas in El Salvador.
e Interdiction of Nicaraguan
arms shipments to the guerrillas.
*Pressure on the Sandinista
government to negotiate with its in-
ternal opposition, with its Central
American neighbors Honduras and
Costa Rica and with the United
States on reducing regional ten-
sions. i
Casey went to Capitol Hill to re-
view, explain and defend the ad-
ministration's budgetary requests
for the Nicaraguan operations and
for other intelligence activities
around the world.
Both the CIA and the subcommit-
tee said that they could not com-
ment on Casey's appearance.
The appearance constituted Ca-
sey's most recent effort to justify a
less-than-secret war - an increas-
ingly controversial operation which
has touched off mounting dissen-
sion within the Congress.
Central America
The American role, which goes
back to December 1981, is under
fire from liberals who oppose it and
moderates who distrust it.
On the other side, conservatives
say that Congress is tying the ad-
ministration's . hands in Central
America.
Liberals are drafting legislation
designed to stop the operation.
"We are just waiting for the ap-
propriate bill to come along to do
it," said an aide to Rep. Tom Harkin
(D., Iowa), author of last year's first
legislative attempt to interrupt the
Covert action.
Harkin's effort failed, but the
House approved an amendment
offered by Rep. Edward Boland (D.,
Mass.), chairman of the House Intel-
ligence Committee, with language
specifically prohibiting U.S. support
for the overthrow of the Sandinis-
tas or for provoking a regional war.
The language was lifted from
classified, explicit instructions that
the Intelligence Committees gave
the CIA when it went to Congress
in 1981 with its original plan for
the anti-Sandinista operations, the
sonrre c2id
"What I can say is that (the) In-
telligence Committee is as con-
cerned about the substance of the
allegations concerning paramilitary
activities in Nicaragua and Central
America as anybody," Boland said
last week.
"That concern led to the lan-
guage in the classified annex Ito the
CIA's secret 1983 budget] ... that
expresses the sense ... that no
funds ... should be used to over-
throw the government of Nicara-
gua, or to provoke a military ex-
change between Nicaragua and
Honduras," Boland said.
He said the Reagan Administra-
tion did not like the restrictions,
"but had to agree to them."
The exact amount of the CIA
budget request for the Nicaragua
operation during fiscal 1984, which
begins Oct. 1, remains a secret.
Congressional sources not conne[_
ed to the intelligence committees
speculated that it might be slightly
higher than the 1983 funding,
which also remains classified.
The sources say they believe the
administration wants additional
money because the operation has
been essentially unsuccessful in dis-
rupting the flow of guerrilla weap-
ons into El Salvador. .
According to the sources, the ad-
ministration claims that the anti-
Sandinista commandos may have
crippled overland supply lines, but
not the air supply routes seen as re-
sponsible for stepped up guerrilla
activity in El Salvador. Nicaragua
denies giving any assistance to the
Salvadoran leftists.
Liberal Democrats say that until
now, congressional moderates have
continued to support the adminis-
tration's stance on Nicaragua be-
cause they believe that the Sandi-
nistas appear headed toward a
Cuban-styled dictatorship and. are
indeeed helping the Salvadoran
guerrillas.
Liberals now believe that the
only way to persuade moderates of
the necessity to stop the covert op-
erations is to offer an alternative to
the attacks on the Sandinistas.
One group of liberals is working
on the possibility of persuading the
Sandinistas and "progressive" Ni-
caraguan exiles to open negotia-
tions toward a reconciliation.
Their efforts center on Eden Pas-
tora, the famed Commander Zero
who fought with the Sandinistas to,
topple President Anastasio Somo- I
za's national guard in 1979.
Disillusioned with the revolution.
Pastora left Nicaragua in 1981, set-
ting up an exile movemwent in
Costa Rica and refusing to join the
former guardsmen who make up a
sizable portion of the leadership
among the counterrevolutionary
forces in Honduras.
PWYTTVUED
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302520006-5