PANEL VOTES HALT OF COVERT AID FOR NICARAGUA REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100620033-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: May 4, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100620033-8
ARTICLE APPEARED THE WASHINGTON POST
.011, PAGE / 4 May 1983
Panel Votes Halt
Of Covert Aid for
icaragua Rebels
By Patrick E. Tyler
w;ubutgwn PostStatf Writer
The- House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence yesterday
-defied the Reagan administration
and voted along party lines to stop
financing and to prohibit by law any
U.S. involvement with guerrilla:'
forces fighting the leftist government
.of Nicaragua.
The vote of nine Democrats
against five Republicans followed
five hours of closed committee de-
liberations and a last-minute warn-
ing from CIA Director William J.
'Casey that forcing the CIA to stop
supporting the guerrillas aside Nic-
aragua could lead to a "bloodbath."
Republican and Democratic com-
mittee members said later that.
Casey offered no evidence to support
.his warning. Rep. Wyche Fowler Jr.
(D-Ga.), chairman of the panel's
oversight subcommittee, said the
committee took great care to give
the administration time to provide
for an "orderly disengagement" from
about 3,000 to 4.000 guerrillas cur-
rently making hit-and-run raids
against targets inside Nicaragua.
At a reception for the diplomatic
corps last night, Reagan told report-
ers: "What we're doing is. perfectly
proper. We'll ? keep right on fighting.
If they [the committee -members]
want to be irresponsible, that's their
business."
The legislation would amend the
1983 budget bill "to prohibit United
States .support Tor military -or para-
military operations in Nicaragua and
to authorize assistance, to be openly
provided. W- governments of coun- I
tries in Central America, to interdict
the supply to military equipment
from Nicaragua and -Cuba to indi-
viduals, groups, organizations, or
movements seeking to overthrow
governments of countries in Central
America."
The intention, according to Dem-
ocratic committee members, is to
provide El Salvador and Honduras
with open assistance to stop any il-
licit flow of arms to leftist insurgents.
from Nicaragua while ending .covert
support ? for the guerrilla campaign
against Nicaragua's Sandinista govern-
iinent.
The CIA has claimed the covert oper-
.ation is succeeding. But critics said it is
,driving the Nicaraguan government to-
ward greater repression and,is harming
-U.S. credibility in the region.
? The Senate Select Committee on In-
-}telligence met for two* hours yesterday
-i fternoon to consider similiar legislation,
abut recessed without taking action. Corn-
anittee -sources said that the administra-
rtion appears to have enough support
tthere to defeat the measure; which could
;leave Congress split over .one of the ad-
ministration's most sensitive foreign ?pol-
,.icy ventures.
As introduced last week, the bill After. the House committee vote, chair- .
would have cut off funds for the CIA- -man Edward -P. Boland (D-Mass.) said,
operation 45 days after passage of ~' What this committee -has done, what the
the legislation.
But it was amended yesterday to
substitute a period slightly longer
than 45 days, which would remain
secret to prevent the guerrillas from
,. ..,
being router) h,. ~T
ver
carag
'nugonty of the members -believed had to
,be done, was to cut off covert operations
in Nicaragua."
Boland said CIA pressure on the San- -
-dinista regime to stop supporting the
? leftist insurgency in El Salvador had be-
-The legislation, :sponsored by= Boland.
and_ House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairman Clement3.2ablocki (D-Wis.),
now will -be referred ?to :Zablocki's panel,
.which would have -jurisdiction over ,the
."'overt" arms -interdiction assistance pro-.
r,vided in the bill,-amounting to.$30 mil-
.lion in this budget year and $50 million .
in the budget year beginning pct. 1.
Boland said he expects. quick action in
the Foreign Affairs -Committee, which
i ?would put the bill_ next week on.. the
'House floor, -where a $ecret session has
been authorized by. House Speaker
'homes P. (Tip) O'Neill Jr. (D-Mass:).
At a meeting 'with-reporters- yesterday,
O'Neill endorsed-the=$eland-Zablocki
.proposal
In reporting the bill,'the House intel-
ligence committee rejected an amend-
ment by Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.)
that would cut off covert funding for the
anti-Sandinista guerrillas only after - it
could be determined that -the Sandinistas
have stopped supporting the rebels fight-
ing the Salvadoran government.
Young said enactment of the legisla-
tion would bring about tan exciting day
for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua ... and
would give the Sandinista-backed insur-
gency in El Salvador a real morale boost."
- No Reagan administration offer of
compromise surfaced during the five-
hour -committee session. - yesterday, al-
though Young said.-Casey brought a
"complete rewrite" -of -the Boland bill
ready for introduction. The rewrite would
allow the covert operations to continue,
Young said. ?
-Casey and Thomas 0. Enders, assist-
-ant secretary of state for inter-American
affairs, 'spent most of the morning- with
`the committee and then caucused with
its five Republicans during a. luncheon
recess..
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100620033-8
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