MOYNIHAN FINDS REPORT MISSES MARK ON SOVIET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440105-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 105
• Publication Date: January 13, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440105-1
ARTICLE APPEARED 1' E 7 YORK TIMES
0.1; PAGE 13 January 1984
Moynihan Finds Rep'ui~
Misses Mark on Soviet
By JANE PERLEZ
Special toTLe New York Tim..
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - Senator tee he has to hP circnrn spect. AP has
Daniel Patrick Moynihan said today said that military aid to El Salvador .
that he found no evidence in the report s ou d econtingent upon s m
of the commission on Central America human nehts.
to support its position that a Soviet- He said he voted in the last session of_.
Cuban challenge in the region repre- Con ess to RMjde mop for covert
sented a serious threat to United States aid to icara_re a os to
security interests. Sandinista Government 2M after
his first official visit to four Cep l the overthrow of the
American countries last month since eminent to stoppingttle flow
becetti_ tinny vice chairman of the Senate from Nicaragua to neighboring cots-?
Select Committee on Intelligence, tries.
said: "I'm not saving there is no evi- 1'he Senator, who met with church
dance. But if you Qo to all this effort. :and labor leaders in El Salvador, as,,,
Jactsnlease." well as Provisional President Alvaro..
Instead, he said, in an interview in Magaiia and United States Em
his Senate office, the commission had officials, said "informed observ
resorted to a "doctrinal position." there told him the insurgents w
Mr. Moynihan said he had come -self sustaining" and "on their own."
away from the region persuaded that "They said that at a minimum,
the insurgents in El Salvador and the percent of the American military aid
Sandinista Government in Nicaragua 'landed in the hands of the insurgents;
had reached a point where they under- the Senator reported.
stood the "necessity of an accommoda- Mr. Moynihan said that he met iii.-
lion with the United States." Nicaragua with Tomas Borge, the -
He added, "That is a possibility that Minister of Interior, and Sergio Rami
has to be exploited; there are many rez Mercado, another member of the.'
ways to do it." He declined to be spe- junta, and that the two men went so
cific. I great lengths, without condeding that
Catholic Church Criticism { the Salvadoran guerrillas had ever op-?
l grated from their territory, to point.,
The Senator, describing the report by that there was no need for the insur-
the commission headed by former Sec- { gents to use it as a base now.
retary of State Henry A. Kissinger as The Senator said he had encountered
"not the kind. of report I would have concern in Nicaragua that the United:.
written," took pains to point out the States invasion of Grenada might lead -
quick criticism of it by the the Roman to similar action by the United States is
Catholic Church in El Salvador. Nicaragua.
.`The Archbisbop. here, Msgr. Ar- "I said to them that I didn't~>> w any
turo Rivera y Damas, withwhom I met disposition to behave that way"to"
last month, has stated the commission Nicaragua, the Senator said.
has erred completely in its emphasis Mr. Moynihan called El Salvador a^:
on military aid," Mr. Moynihan said. country "filled with rich Catholics" ~!
"The church knows that American and went on, "If anyone wanted toteSs I '
military aid ends up more or less the uselessness , of the oligarchy, they
equally in the hands of the insurgents should see the cathedral, the grimmest-.
and the Government. They fear that thing, not even whitewash inside."
more of such aid will simply increase "it is so selfish," he said of the oli
the level of violence and reduce the pos- gar cby, "that it wouldn't even decorate
sibility of a settlement." the cathedral in which they murdered
Mr. Moynihan has been reluctant in the Archbishop." The. Senator was.'
the Dast to talk about lice in Central referring to the assassination in Mardi
America. saying that be is not an ex- 1990 of Archbishop Oscar Arntrlto'.
pert on t_he region and that as vice Romero, the country's most outspoken"
chairman of the intelligence commit- human rights advocate.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440105-1