U.S. CITIES AID TO SALVADOR GUERRILLAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700006-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: March 21, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700006-9
12R: IcL BAR .17
0NPaG:
By John MI. Goshko;
They State Department; yesterday;
made. public :I1- pages .9f nonclassi
fied information whose .."cumulative
weight" was cited by the; department
as proof. that. Nicaiagua and Cuba
are supplying`and directing,the left-;:
-ist guerrillas in El Salvador -K
The department, however,did not
include any of the classified' intelli
gence.material that -US officials say
was. the basia'for,,the secretary. of
state's: contention-.- thatc the-. United
States' lie'"o'verwhelnainand'irre-
mand and contrpr over the guerrillas.
iIstea'cf,. Tdeartment :spokesman
Dean Fiscl~rer said:"We. cannot-. ands
will not make-this.intelligence;avail.:
able ~publicly. Were it to.be?released;:
the United States government'would
lose access, to .. critical-ainformation.
and might, well'risk the lives of'some :
brave people who. believe it is iriipor=:
tent that the .?government f of the'
United States".know what is. going-
on,"'
He added-- .%,- government-that
ceive them" '
As a= result] =the informatiort` re
leased yesterday consisted Largely-of
assertiosthaty in. most cases;. cpn=`
tamed ?no. backup.,details about how.
it was':. obtained and',nofgatage for,
'evaluating its'rel ability or; suthen
ticrty. s s 'fix ~ .;"tcV A+Yl f9+s ~'`'
Some of the material . was-new _ t
contained, the names .ot'Nicaraguan.
'ships and the location'of airfields in
Nicaragua allegedly used;' n smug-
gling arms into-;El_ Salvador-, and it'
also described a numberrof incidents.,in recen. 'months that.the"depart
:ment cites as evidence ofthese arms
THE WASHINGTON POST
21 March 1982
turning up in the hands of guerrillas
in El Salvador and Guatemala: -
The rest was a- repeat of informa
tion originally contained'-. ?in the
"white paper"' on Nicaraguan in-
volvement made public by the ,de-
partment a year ago, ; or .of material
that has been described in testimony
before Congress by such officials as
Secretary of State.jAlexander M.,
Haig Jr. and Thomas- 0..Enders, as=:.
sistant secretary for inter-American'.
"The purpose of. this paper is thus:;
not to produce new'revelations,' but.'
to describe the general pattern of
outside support: for. El Salvador's
guerrillas," Fischer'said
But it did not seem likely that the
document will prove sufficient to
still the demands for proof from .crit-.
"acs. 'of President'_Reagan's Central
American policies:since Haig"made
his charges of "overwhelming and
irrefutable" evidence ' to the Hous
Foreign Affairs Committee on Marc
3.
In an attempt to answer the crit
ics, the administration has countered.
holding briefings on ita'sensitive
gress and for prominent; former; of
ficials Two weeks 'ago, it also invited
reporters to?an: intelligence briefing
on aeriat reconnaissance photographs
that it said proved, a majormilitary
buildup- in Nicaragua-. ,... .
However, the controversy has con-
tinned. In part, it was fueled by. the
backfiring ofd they' administration;
'arranged,; interview, ori:.iMarch . V!
with a 1?=year-oldNicar
aguan guet
,rilla captured last? 'in" El Sal-
vador.-?Instead_of'backing up the:
,U-S. charges as expected, the captive?j
'said his earlier confessions had been
.'obtained through threats:.,..: . ?=4i
t6v*uiir'Ey Iia rs=cos eerned' about
rof. intelligence officials at face -value-;
andthe:resistaiice1,f-the-intel i enee:
skeptic aL,about-accepting . the word
public__ h t_has-become increasingly
.'stemmed from inability to reconcile::
To- an even greater, degree,.rthe,
It is an open secret that much-of
the intelligence on which the admin-
'istration has-,based, its, judgments:
comes from intercepts of radio com-,
munications between Nicaragua and
El Salvador. While that can be as--.
certained easily- : by reading the
.American- press, ::.the ::intelligence
community, up to now, has prevailed
in its insistence that ahigh degree of
secrecy be maintained about the na-
Aure'and source of the information.
the disclosures made yesterday. The
documents included a description. of
the organization and key personnel
of the leftist forces fighting the U.S.-
backed Salvadoran government and-
a list of comments from members of-
Congress-.-.and former officials ::who .
saw some:of-the classified informa-
tion and pronounced it convincing
But the main part_was? devoted to
"Cuban and Nicaraguan Support for
the Salvadoran Insu gency:"'Among
its highlights were-these-charges:
Beginning last December,
Cuban President Fidel Castro or-
dered a. boost in arms shipments to
El Salvador in an attempt to disrupt
tithe elections 'cheduled to take place
there next Sunday,' and in the ensu-
ing three months,. these' shipments
have reached `unprecedented peaks."
Since 1980i,- Salvadoran- guerril-
las have been. trained in Nicaragua
and have traveled between Managua
and Havana on a daily ' air shuttle
,whose passenger. load is. so heavy
that; "a_ ticketing system- is'-now -re
quired "
? Last April and July, Guate-
malan forces in Guatemala City cap-
tured caches - of guerrilla. weapons,
'including some American M-16AR-?
15s originafy.shipped to'U.S. units]
.,.during the Vietnam . war-' Some of.i
the vehicles captured with the weap-
ons bore recent customs markings
tfrom Nicaragua.;.,>a3:;::s.t:,,:'.~1t.ti7,iJ4:sc.l
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700006-9