COVERT AID SALVAGE TRY UNDER WAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807600016-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: April 16, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

0 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807600016-7
Covert Aid
Salvage Trip
v
Under JT'aiv
AF'71CLE
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L'I.i< PAGE
Cuban uniforms and been in-
tegrated into many units of
the regular Sandinista army.
The president' cited sim-'
Ear, but slightly ''lower, fig-
ures on the - Soviet-Cuban
presence in Nicaragua in a
kASHIINGION POST
16 Apr.,-i 19S4 '
Administration officials made
themselves available to reporters
over the weekend as part of the new
public relations offensive; and for-
mer secretary of state Henry A.
Kissinger and U.N. Ambassador
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, also appearing
on ABC, urged the president to be
more forceful in telling the public
about the importance of U.S. inter-
ests in Central America.
Kissinger criticized Reagan for let,
ting the debate "degenerate into S50
million increments" and added that,.
,at the present level of effort, pro-
duced in large part by our domestic
division. the policy] is a recipe for
disaster." -
Kirkpatrick echoed the need for
more aid to head off what might be.
come a "really maior threat" to U.S.
national security. She said the big-
gest threat was not combat troops on
U.S. borders.
It is in fact nuclear missiles, it's
chemical weapons, which are another
really important. threat looming on
the horizon." Kirkpatrick said. She
said she did not have evidence that
the Soviets planned to use chemical
weapons in Central America but said
there had been no warning that they
would use them in Southeast Asia,
as the administration has alleged.
Casey told U.S. News & World
Report in an interview u lisped
today. "I think that eonle in t e
long run are less concerne about
reports of mining Nicaraguan har-
bors than they are about t e danger
of creating a wave of immigration
into this country if Central America
or any part of it. fall under Soviet-
Cuban
tio
Last week's mining controversy
clearly damaged the administration's
support in Congress for the covert
war, however. Sources said, for in-
stance. that Casey acknowledged to
a group of senators last Tuesday
that the mining was not an integral
part of the U.S. effort in opposing
Nicaragua. This distressed some in-
telligence committee members who
had voted the week before to ap-
prove. 821 million in additional fund-
ing for covert . operations in Central
America without realizing the extent
of the U.S. role in the mining.
~;'yF?Rncr1
radio address Saturday in
By Charles R Babcock which he said, "We cannot
and -Bob Woodward turn our backs on this crisis'
W'Wir4lonP.:stz.rrwriter, at our doorstep."
The Reagan adminstra Others in and out of the admin-
tion is trying to salvage fal stration are skeptical of the CIA fig-
tering congressional andpub 'ures. One congressional source famil-'
lit support for its secret war iar with the -intelligence estimates
against Nicarragua by at- said yesterday, "Mv fear is that in
tempting to focus new atten- she effort to save the program they
tion on the size of the Soviet xill overstate their case and under-
and Cuban miLtarv buildup :nine the truth, which is that there
in Central America and play- has been a ver substantial buildup"
in? dovn the controversy by Soviets and Cubans.
over U.S.-directed mining of This source noted that the Soviets
'Nicaraguan ~ort t thao reortescue S21 2~1 have sent new generations of air de-
hi an e
.,
m ,~ ,? Sense missiles, planes and maritime
~on in f?~n_in~._or ,pgS:o- to Cuba.
Vert oerations. CDirector equipment
Willi . Sen. David F. Durenberger (R-
Senate last week that- the Minn.), a member of the Senate in-
controversial CI_A-directed xelligence committee who has sup.
minir.F of Nicara:-uan ,1 Ported the administration's requests
hers was not an integraLnart for covert funding, said yesterday
of the program. President that he questioned the Soviet-Cuban
Reagan and intRiigence o - troop numbers being used by sdmin-
5ciais also began, giving istration officials.
stronger emphasis to specific "The Sandinistas are supposed to
figures about the !goof the be moving -Cubans out," he said.
threat thev see in the region. There are probably substantially
Ifficials have said ; fewer there than there were six
that their intelligence collet- - months ago."
tion s ows: - Durenberger also criticized the ad-
The Soviet Union is ' ministration for making no real at-
spending between S4 billion tempt "to sell" Congress or the pub-
and $4.5 billion each-year in lic on the Kissinger commission's
Cuba and ?250 million to recommendations to fund long-term
.5300 million elsewhere in economic growth in the region.
Central America. "The really frustrating thing is the
? The Soviets have about president has got to lift this out of
10,000 personnel. in Cuba; mining and covert operations, and
5.000 of these are technicians lift it into the larger context and get
and 2,000 are military. About it out to the American people," he
100 Soviets are in Nicaragua said.
? The Cubans have be- Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), an
tween 7,000 and 10,000 per-
sonnel in Nicaragua, of
whom between 2,500 and
3,500 are military. Casey has
said that the Cuban military
personnel in Nicaragua have
shaved their Castro-style
beards, discarded their
'intelligence committee member who
voted against the $21 million in co-
vert aid, said yesterday that the ad-
ministration has been trying "to sub-
stitute a covert operation for a for-
eign policy." He said on ABC-TV's
"This WVeek With David Brinkley"
that "there is no real militan, solu-
tion short of sending in U.S. troops."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807600016-7