SECRECY DISPUTE STALLS U.S. ARMS AID POLICY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860016-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: April 4, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860016-5
ARTICLE APPEARED I
~N ____ WASHINGTON TIMES
3~ 4 April 1986
Secrecy dispute stalls
U.S. arms aid policy
By Jeremiah O'Leary and Thomas
'D Brandt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Reagan administration con-
siders Rev. Lee Hamilton, chairman
of the House Intelligence Commit-
te to be its major hurdle to supply-
7Fg arms to resistance forces in
Nicaragua, Angola and Afghanistan.
A senior administration official
ssaid yesterday the White House is
prepared to provide effective sup-
port to the Nicaraguan resistance
fighters and Jonas Savimbi in An-
gola.
"The problem is that Lee is
,uncomfortable with carrying this
support out through the normal co-
vert channels;' a Reagan official
said.
A bill sponsored by Mr. Hamilton,
Indiana Democrat, would require
that each case of support for free-
dom fighters be submitted to Con-
gress in the form of a joint res-
olution, subject to open debate and
vote in the both chambers. The bill
has been approved by the House In-
telligence Committee and is pending
in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
"We don't agree with that but it's
the next hurdle on all of our freedom
fighter projects," the administration
official said. "I don't think it will suc-
ceed in the Senate but that is his
approach"
In the Senate, David Durenber-
per, chairman of the Senate Intel-
ligence Committee, has also ex-
pressed reservations about covert
programs.
Mr. Hamilton's bill would end all
covert aid to Angola, and allow at to
Mr. Savimbt "only if the provision of
that support is the open y ac-
knowledged Policy of the nited
States.'
Senate Majority Leader Robert
Dole and Sen. Richard Lugar,
chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, are two leading Repub-
licans thought to oppose the Ham-
ilton language.
Earlier this year, Mr. Dole offered
a resolution of support for aid to Mr.
Savimbi. But proponents of the mea-
sure could not get it out of the For-
eign Relations Committee - where
they did not have the votes - to the
Senate floor, where its passage was
more optimistically viewed.
Rather that have on record a neg-
ative vote for aid, Mr. Dole and sev-
eral senators sent a letter of support
for Mr. Savimbi to the administra-
tion. That letter was taken as an un-
official endorsement of the Angolan
covert aid program and a counter-
balance to the views of Mr. Ham-
ilton.
The problem for the Reagan ad-
ministration is not so much one of
simply exporting arms and supplies
to resistance fighters, but of the best
means to help them and how to get
third countries to assist the United
States in putting the aid in the hands
of rebels. Usually, countries that
help don't want to be exposed as aid-
ing the Americans.
Thus, the administration is insist-
ing that on-going support of insur-
gencies should be settled in the
secrecy of the committee room.
The need for secrecy makes it dif-
ficult for the White House to fully
argue in public the question of what
kind of arms the resistance forces
need to fight effectively.
For example, the White House has
refused to say publicly if the Nicara-
guan resistance forces will be sup-
plied with U.S.-made Stingers or
Redeye missiles. But many military
analysts say the contras can't sur-
vive without supplies of one or the
other of the missiles.
One of the major weapons used by
the Sandinista army against the re-
sistance forces is the Soviet Hind
M-24 helicopter gunship which is
next to impossible to shoot down or
turn away with small arms fire, but
would be a ready target for either
the new Stingers or the older
Redeyes.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860016-5