CIA - NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440056-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: November 15, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440056-6
ASSOCIATED PRESS
15 November 1984
CIA - NICARAGUA
BY ROBERT PARRY
WASHINGTON
A senior Senate Democrat and a branch of the America
are calling for an investigation of the CIA's reported
rebels on how to lobby members of Congress, an action th
an illegal domestic covert operation.
In a letter to CIA Director William J. Casey, Sen.
D-N.Y., vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, asks
of Congress "targeted" for lobbying and "the characteriz.1-.w.,-
members."
Moynihan said that "if substantially accurate, these charges reflect an
invasion of the privacy of members of Congress and improper conduct about which
the intelligence oversight committees of the Congress have to inquire."
In coaching rebel leaders on dealing with Congress, one CIA officer
reportedly described Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., as "very, very liberal" and
"impressionable on religious issues."
The contents of Moynihan's letter, dated Nov. 9, were disclosed Thursday by a
Senate aide, who spoke only on condition that he not be identified.
Meanwhile, in letters to the oversight committees and the CIA, the ACLU's
Center for National Security Studies said Thursday that the alleged coaching
would violate President Reagan's 1981 executive order on intelligence activities
and a law requiring that Congress be notified of "significant" CIA actions.
The Reagan executive order bars the CIA from engaging in covert. activities
"intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion,
policies or media."
CIA spokeswoman Kathy Pherson said the agency had no comment.
The CIA already is under congressional investigation for its role in
producing a manual that advises Nicaraguan rebels in the "selective use of
violence" to "neutralize" officials of the leftist Sandinista government.
According to one congressional source, House Intelligence Committee
investigators began on Wednesday interviewin the mid-level CIA personnel who
were disciplined by the spy agency in connection with the 90-page manual,
entitled "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla War."
Several of the six punished officials-have refused to sign papers accepting
the discipline, claiming they are being made "scapegoats" to protect senior
CIA officials, sources within the Reagan administration and Congress said.
Three of the officials were given letters of reprimand, two were suspended
without pay and the manual's author, identified by the pseudonym John
Kirkpatrick, was allowed to resign from his CIA contract.
The letters from Moynihan and the ACLU center cited a Nov. 1 New York Times
article based on an interview with Edgar Chamorro, propaganda chief for the
CIA -backed Nicaraguan Democratic Force, known by its Spanish initials FDN.
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440056-6