FIGHT LOOMS ON AID TO ANGOLAN REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200720011-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: July 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

,STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200720011-2
pIIITtr1_F A??EA ED
ON PASE I- r WASHINGTON TIMES
8 July 1985
Fight looms on aid
to
Angolan rebels
By Thomas D. Brandt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
House conservatives are e -
pected to move this week to li t t e
1976 congressional sanction against
CIA aid to rebels seeking _the over-
throw of ngola's_-Marxist gpvel7t.
ment in southern Africa.
The action, expected as an
amendment to the 1986 foreign aid
bill, could polarize the House as
much as last month's debate over
resumption of aid to Nicaraguan
resistance fighters opposing that
Central American country's
Marxist-led government.
Key votes are expected to be on
repeal of the Clark amendment
-
whic an life as the 'Minn y
Amendment in 1975 and was modi-
fied again in 1980 - that bans any
U.S. 11 covert ' aid to factions fighting
in Angola.
The Republican-led Senate voted
63-34 June 11 to repeal the Clark
amendment, named after former
Sen. Dick Clark, D-Iowa, who served
from 1973 to 1979. Like Sen. John
lbnney of California, Mr. Clark was
one of the era's leading foreign-
policy liberals.
This week is thought to be the first
time the full House has debated
repeal of the Clark amendment
since 1981. Then it rejected one of
the earliest foreign policy initiatives
of President Reagan's first term.
The Senate had approved his
request, 66-29.
This action has not been stim-
ulated by the White House, House
officials said.
Leaders behind the latest push
are conservative groups such as the
House Republican Study Group, the
-American Conservative Union and
Citizens for America, who are hold-
ing a strategy planning session on
Capitol Hill today.
CFA is led by New York business-
man Lew Lehrman. He organized a
well-publicized meeting at rebel
headquarters in Angola early in
June of anti-communist fighters
from Angola, Nicaragua, Afghan-
istan and Cambodia.
Since his narrow loss of the New
York gubernatorial race in 1982 to
Mario Cuomo, Mr. Lehrman has
used his considerable wealth to sup-
port conservative causes.
One argument expected in the
House this week is that lifting the aid
ban in Angola adds consistency to
U.S. foreign policy, which now pro-
vides hundreds of millions of dollars
to resistance fighters in Afghan-
istan.
Legislation is moving through
Congress to resume the aid program
to Nicaraguan rebels who have
received more than $80 million from
the United States since 1981. For the
first time this year, the House for-
eign aid bill has $5 million for anti-
communist fighters in Cambodia.
"'Ib me, the fights in Angola,
Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Cambo-
dia are all the same fight, but some
people don't see it that way," said Dan
Fisk, a foreign policy specialist at
the Republican Study Group.
Liberals such as Rep. Stephen
Solarz, D-N.Y., who proposed the
Cambodian aid this year and sup-
ports the Afghan program, said that
these two countries are fighting
armies of occupation, while Nicara-
gua and Angola are torn by internal
political factions.
Afghanistan has been occupied
by Soviet forces since 1979, while
Cambodia is occupied by Vietnam-
ese troops.
The State Department opposed
repealing the Clark amendment
when it was sponsored in the Senate
by Sen. Steve Symms, R-Idaho, but
they are now neutral, Mr. Fisk said.
"The majority of support of the
Senate took them by surprise," he
said.
Administration officials have said
that even if Congress repeals the
Clark amendment, no aid to the
Angolan rebels would be imrpedi-
ately forthcoming, he said.
Republicans have no plans to add
other amendments designating
funds for Angola even if they suc-
ceed in repealing the amendment,
Mr. Fisk said.
wrien r. Lehrman was in
Angola, the leader of the resistance,
Jonas Savimbi, asked him to work
for a simple repeal, according to Mi:
Fisk.
That would allow e CIA to use
its secret contingency th funds to aid
ME savim i s orc --Rr- own as
FTowev -i,1 -r F sk sat-EtF6
Reagan administration probably
would use the repeal of the Clark
amendment as an negotiating tool
with Angola.
One goal of U.S. diplomacy in
southern Africa is withdrawal of
more than 20,000 Cuban troops from
Angola. They are there at the invita-
tion of the government to provide
protection against Mr. Savimbi's
forces.
Further complicating the political
picture for U.S. policy-makers is
Gulf Oil Co., which has a cooperative
venture with the Angolan govern-
ment to produce the nation's oil.
Jeremias Chitunda, UNITA's sec-
retary of state, said in a recent
column in The Washington Times
that Gulf accounts for nearly all of
Angola's foreign earnings.
House Republican leader Robert
Michel of Illinois led efforts that
resulted in the House decision to
resume providing non-lethal aid to
Nicaraguan resistance fighters, but
Mr. Fisk said Rep. Michel is not play-
ing a leadership role in the Angolan
fight.
Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif., is
prepared to offer the Clark repeal.
amendment, but they are also talk-
ing to several conservative Demo-
crats of the boll-weevil faction who
sometimes support Republican ini-
tiatives, Don Morrisey of the ACU
said.
A Democratic sponsor would bet-
ter help them build bipartisan sup-
port, while Rep. Dornan is seen as a
controversial figure because of his
combative style, Mr. Fisk and Mr.
Morrisey said.
"It's something we should be able
to win on," Mr. Morrisey said,
although no party whip counts have
been made.
"Only the hardcore left - the
Downeys [Rep. Ibm Downey D-N. Y.I
and that type - are going to openly
oppose it," he said.
Continued
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There are tactical considerations
because the Senate action was an
amendment to the State Department
authorization bill, whereas they
hope to repeal the Clark amendment
in the House as an amendment to the
foreign aid bill, Mr. Fisk said.
At least three of the five Senate
conferees appointed for the State
Department bill are thought to
oppose repealing the Clark
amendment, Mr. Fisk said.
House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill
Jr., D-Mass., is expected to name
conferees opposed to repealing the
amendment, he said. Therefore, it is
important that the full House calls
for repeal before the conference
begins.
In a column in The Times, Mr.
Chitunda said the Clark amendment
had effectively isolated UNITA "in
the international community."
Angola "has been exploiting the
Clark amendment to promote the
idea that UNITAs cause actually has
been so unworthy that even the
greatest Democratic nation on earth
refuses the recognize it," he said.
2,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200720011-2