CIA PARACHUTING OF CONTRA SABOTEURS REPORTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 2, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080003-1
ARTICLE APP
nN PAGE
Nation/world
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
2 April 1987
CIA parachuting of contra
saboteurs reported
By Alfonso Chardy
and Sam Dillon
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON-The CIA is
parachuting specially trained con-
tra commandos deep inside Nica-
raguan territory to carry out sa-
notage missions, according to
administration, congressional and
rebel sources.
Armed with CIA-supplied intelli-
gence data and old maps and
blueprints of Nicaraguan installa-
tions culled from U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers files, the com-
mandos have struck at several
electrical power pylons, blacking
out major portions of Nicaragua
over the last two weeks, the sourc-
es said.
The contra paratroopers are
being dropped inside Nicaragua
from aircraft piloted by Nicara-
guan, Belgian, Rhodesian and
American crewmen working under
contract for the Central Intelli-
gence Agency, administration
sources said. CIA officials direct
the missions from command cen-
ters in Honduras and El Salvador
and from ships stationed off the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Nic-
aragua, the sources said.
Congressional intelligence over-
sight -committees have been in-
formed about the operations and
have been assured that no CIA or
U.S. government employees are
involved in operations inside Nica-
ragua. Under U.S. law, govern-
ment employees may not partici-
pate in military or paramilitary
missions inside Nicaragua.
The idea of the contra parachute
units was suggested by retired Maj.
Gen. John Singlaub, a key contra
supporter, to former CIA director f4
W' _according to a
tnglaub spokesman and an intelli-
gence official.
U.S.-trained commando units
have knocked out at least seven
high-tension electric towers, tem-
porarily blacking out several Nica-
raguan provinces, reliable sources
in Nicaragua said.
In a protest note to Washington
released Tuesday by the Nicara-
guan Foreign Ministry in
Managua, Nicaragua labeled the
most recent sabotage-two strikes
Sunday on electrical towers near
Nicaragua's southern border with
Costa Rica-as "open terrorism
designed to appear as propaganda
strikes."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080003-1