UNITA'S COVERT SUPPORT HOTLY DEBATED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320053-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: March 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320053-7
ART 1CL -. ,
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
14 March 1986
hotly debated
UNITA's covert support
'J a E vK"Ws
Supporters and opponents of mili-
tary aid to anti-Marxist rebels in An-
gola squared off yesterday as they
debated a bill that would force the
Reagan administration to turn co-
vert military support of Jonas
Savimbi's UNITA forces into overt
aid.
During a rare open session of the.
House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence. Democrats and Re-,
publicans questioned four e ,
who had erine views on the co-
vert paramilitary s
and the proposed Legislation.
The adtgittistration has begun
funneling up to $15 million in covert
military assistance to Angolan reb-
els, according to U.S. officials.
Chairman Lee Hamilton, Indiana
Democrat, who was among the eight
Democrats sponsoring the bill,
opened the session by asking the ex-
perts whether aid to Mr. Savimbi
should be open or secret and what
U.S. policy toward Angola should be.
The House bill, introduced jointly.
in the intelligence and foreign af-
fairs committees last month, calls
for "openly acknowledged" adminis-
tration military support to Angola in
fiscal years 1986 and 1987. It would
require any aid to be approved by a
joint resolution in Congress.
Ranking minority member Bob
Stump, Arizona Republican, said he
strongly opposes the bill since it
curbs executive branch authority to
initiate covert action.
"Just eight months ago, Congress
repealed the decade-old Clark
Amendment that prohibited covert
aid to groups in Angola," Mr. Stump
said. "The bill before us... is just the
Clark Amendment all over again,
and it would be a grave mistake for
Congress to enact it into law"
Richard E. Bissell, editor of the
Georgetown University Washington
Quarterly, testified before the panel
that he opposed the bill since "it has
the potential for damaging U.S. for-
eign policy."
"I am opposed to [the bill] not only
because I support U.S. aid to UNITA,
but because I'm also certain its pas-
sage would set back the U.S. search
for peace and progress in the region
for some years to come," said Mr.
Bissell, a former State Department
official who has written extensively
on southern Africa.
Ending aid to the Angolan rebels
would undermine U.S. policy since it
might be interpreted by pro-Western
African states as "one more major
case of American perfidy and inabil-
ity to stay the course," he said.
TWo of the experts opposing US.
aid to UNITA testified in favor of the
bill because it would limit aid to Mr.
Savimbi's forces.
Richard M. Moose, assistant sec-
retary of state for African affairs
during the Carter administration,
stated that he opposed aid to Mr.
Savimbi's forces because it provides
a pretext for further Soviet and Cu-
ban involvement in Angola.
He called South Africa the
"greatest source of instability" in
southern Africa and said that covert
action had been "abused" because
military deliveries to UNITA had not
been kept secret, thereby undermin-
ing U.S. prestige.
"A great deal of bad policy has
been made in secret," said Mr.
Moose, now a New York investment
banker.
Pressed by Rep. Dick Cheney, Wy-
oming Republican, as to whether he
favored U.S. covert action any place
on the African continent, Mr. Moose
said he favored covert action against
South Africa because of its
apartheid policies of racial segrega-
tion.
Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology Professor Robert Rotberg
testified in favor of the bill and
railed against South Africa's "hege-
mony" over the region.
"UNITA is a proxy force for South
Africa;' Mr. Rotberg stated.
He said U.S. support for Mr.
Savimbi's forces "enhances ... the
legitimacy and the prestige of a So-
viet Union that was faltering in
southern Africa."
Rep. Henry Hyde, Illinois Repub-
lican, challenged Mr. Rotberg's as-
sertion, noting that Carter adminis-
tration officials once said that "the
Russians can't last six months" in
Angola and that the Cuban troops
were "a stabilizing influence:'
Mr Hyde said that the Soviets
have supplied $2 billion worth of aid
to the Marxist regime in Luanda and
that since 1975 the number of Cuban
soldiers in Angola has risen from
9,000 to 45,000.
In questioning how long the
United States should withhold covert
aid in hopes of negotiating a Cuban
troop withdrawal, Mr. Hyde asked,
"Should we hold off until there are
100,000?"
Dimitri K. Simes, a Soviet emigre
who specializes in Soviet studies at
the Carnegie Endowment Institute
for International Peace, attributed
the idea of supporting UNITA to "the
genius of Ronald Reagan," who, he
said, has succeeded in forcing the
Soviet Union to re-evaluate its policy
of foreign adventurism.
The failure of Soviet leader Mi-
khail Gorbachev to speak out
forcefully in support of so-called na-
tional liberation movements during
the recent Moscow Party confer-
ence indicated a lessening of Soviet
support in such places as Africa, he
said.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320053-7