U.S. CITIES AID TO SALVADOR GUERRILLAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450032-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: March 21, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450032-6
.LFIT CL.7 APPEARED
ON PAGE, L
U.S.
THE WASHINGTON POST
21 March 1982
-
By john M. Goshio;
?Vashington Post Stall Wriier ; , ?
The. State Departmentoetterday
-
made. public 11 pages 'of nonclassi-
fled information whose "cumulative
weight" was cited hyr,the...department
as proof that Nicaragua and Cuba
are supplying`and directing?the left-;
ist guerrillas in El Salvador.
The department, hoWevii;did not
include any of th.,,clasaified
intelli-
gence Material that U.S. officials say
was the basis'forl_the"."?kecretary of
state's. contention that the- United-
States has'"Overwliel?Mirikand-irrei!.
?
3
futable"',4`Yidenc4 outside'.
com-
mand and, einitibl over the guerrillas:
thStead,;;...cleOartment spokesman:
Dean Fischer'said::"We cannot and
will not make this intelligence avail-
able publicly. Were it to. beieleased,.
the United States government would
lose access to critical information
and might well-risk the lives brsome
brave people who believe it is fnipor,.
tent that .the ,,governmenti; of the
United States knoy, what :is going
;
He added,' government that
does not keep. secrets does not re-
ceive them ?
. As a- resilltf:the information' re-
leased yesterday Conaisidlatgely of
assertionsthe; ill'inoat,Oes;c9n-.-
tanied no backup details about _how
?
it was, obtained. and.':ho.'?genge2for:
evaluating, its 'reliability .or . ?
ticity. AT*
Some of the material was new. It
contained the names of-Nicaraguan
ships and the location of 'airfields in
Nicaragua allegedly used itf.''Sinug-
gling arms into El Salvador and
also described a numberof incidents
in recent mgnths that-Abe, depart- ,
ment cites as evidence these eirns
to
4# I +,1 ?
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:Alexander , M.
Haig Jr. 'and Thomas 0. Enders-, as-
sistant secretary for inter-American
affairs.
? "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 seemi likely' that the
document will proVe sufficient to
still the demands for proof from crit-
ics of President Reagan's Central
American policies since Haig made
? his charges of "overwhelming and
irrefutable" evidence to the Hou.se
Foreign Affairs Committee on March
3. .
In an attempt to answer the' Crit-
ics, the administration has countered
by holding briefings On its 'Sensitive
intelligence for select groups in Con-
gress and for prominent former'. of-
ficials. Two weeks ago, it also invited
reporters tcran intelligence briefing
on aerial reconnaissance photographs
that it said, proYed'a Major 'military
buildup in Nicaragua.
However, the controversy has C'on-
firmed. In part it was fueled. by the
backfirine --61`;' the administration
arranied.. interview.. ort.kMarCh
with a 19-Steer:old Nicaraguan guei:
rilla captured ,last yearin El Sal-
vador. Instead .of backing up the
U.S. charges as expected, the captive
said his earlier confessions had been
obtained through threats.
To an even greater degree? the
administration's problem has,
stemmed from inability to reconcile
the needato...give.information 'to a
'fon6lic that. has-beCome increasingly
..skepticaLabout. accepting . the , Wordy
of intelligen4officiaLi- at face:value
and,the:resirstanthe- intelligence'endangering it&sour''.
etiiiirnerabOU
It is an open secret that mach-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 n6w, has prevailed
in its insistence that a high degree of
secrecy be maintained about the na-
ture' and source of the information.
That practice was maintained in
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
Congresi and former officials who
saw some.of the classified informa-
? tion and pronounced it convincing,:
But the main part wa.s.devoted to
"Cuban and Nicaraguan Support for
the Salvadoran Insurgency." Among
its highlights. were thesePharges:
? Beginning last December,
Cuban President Fidel Castro or-
dered a? boost in arms shipments to
El Salvador in an attempt to disrupt
the elections Scheduled to take place
. there next Sunday, and in the ensu-
ing three months, these- shipments
have reached "unprecedented peaks."
?
Since '1980,- 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,'t
including some American M-16AR--
15s originally shipped to U.S. units
during the. Vietnam war. Some of
`. the vehicles captured with the weap-
ons bore recent customs markings
ifrom Nicaragua .: ..loo
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450032-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450032-6
? Three Nicaraguan ships?the
Monimbo, the Aracely and the Ni-
. carao--frequently. transport . arms
and ammunition from Cuba to Nic-
aragua, where they ,remain stock-
piled until arrangements are made
for their transfer to El Salvador.
? The Unified Revolutionary Di-
rectorate- (DRU) of the Salvadoran
guerrilla groups has its command
headquarters near Managua and
. guides planning and operations with-
in El. Salvador with "Cuban and Ni-
caraguan officers involved'An .com-
mand and control??
f Santo Salome Morales, a. Salva-
doran guerrilla who defected to Hon-
duras last September,inid'he and 12
others had gone from El Salvador to
Nicaragua in May, 1.980;,, and from
there, "They proceeded:4.1i ? Cuba
where they received extensive- mil-
itary training, together with 'over 900
Salvadorans."
Papalonal Airfield, a'.cOm-
mercially inaccesSible. airstrip in
area 23 miles from,. Managua; was
improved 'and "lengthened and 'used
for a time to fly cargo planes loaded
with weapons into El Salvador. .
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450032-6