DEMOCRATS ASK ANSWERS ON ATTACK IN NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570097-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 97
• Publication Date: September 6, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570097-9
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE M
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
6 September 1984
Democrats ask answers
on attack in Nicaragua
From Inquirer Wire Services
WASHINGTON - Democrats in
both houses of Congress yesterday
demanded to know whether the U.S.
government was involved directly or
indirectly in a weekend helicopter
and plane attack in Nicaragua in
which two Americans were killed.
The Sandinista government, accus-
ing the United States of "state terror-
ism," yesterday made public a pro-
test letter to Secretary of State
George P. Shultz from Nicaragua's
acting foreign minister, Jose Leon
Talavera, alleging that the United
States had provided the helicopter
involved in the air attack. Tuesday
night, Nicaragua called for a U.N.
Security Council meeting to address
what it called a "fresh escalation of
aggression."
In Washington, in a letter to CIA
ITirector t Itam 7. ~asee Rep. .Ted
Weiss7l5, N Y.~ said, "I consider it
your responsibility... to provide the
Am erican_ublicw -ffi a -run- account
of direct or indirect CIA involve
ment with the Americans particjpat-
ing in lhisweekenn 's
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) said he
would ask the Senate Select Commit-
tee on Intelligence to look into
whether the two Americans took off
from Honduran airstrips built or
controlled by the U.S. government.
Senate minority leader Robert C.
Byrd (D., W.Va.), when asked wheth-
er he was satisfied with administra-
tion explanations that the U.S. gov-
ernment had nothing to do with the
mission of the two Americans, said,
"I have no way of knowing except
from news reports,"
Leahy, a member of the intelli-
gence panel and a critic of the Rea-
gan administration's Central Ameri-
can policy, said administration
officials have repeatedly assured the
committee that no Americans were
being sent into combat in Nicaragua.
"I think it is legitimate to ask some
questions to make sure they are tell-
ing the truth," Leahy said. "I want to
make sure that there was not any
connection, either formal or infor-
mal." -
Talavera's protest letter to Shultz
sa13 `ITndes~resd use of aircraft
supplied by the Central Inteliigency
AgengL to mercenary groups repre-
sents a new huh in the intensifica-
non of the overt war being waged by
tie ntted-Statesovernment
a atnst m coun
"With these actions, the policy of
state terrorism pursued by the Unit-
ed States government has added new
civilian victims to the hundreds of
Nicaraguans murdered as a result of
the war of aggression waged by the
United States government against
Nicaragua."
Dana Herbert Parker Jr., a Hunts-
ville, Ala., police officer on leave,
and James Powell 3d, of Memphis,
Tenn., were killed Saturday when a
helicopter crashed during a flight
inside Nicaragua from a base In Hon-
duras, the State Department said.
Department spokesman John
Hughes has said Parker and Powell
had no connection with the US. gov-
ernment.
Nicaraguan officials in Managua
said maps recovered from the crash
site indicated that the helicopter
flew into Nicaragua from Jamastran
or El Aguacate, Honduras. El Agua-
cate is the site of a major US. air;
strip; the Reagan administration re-
quested funds from Congress last
year to improve a dirt airstrip at
Jamastran. Spokesmen for anti-gov-
ernment rebels denied the aircraft
new from Jamastran.
Leahy said that if Americans were
being allowed to launch combat op-
erations into Nicaragua from US,
controlled bases in Honduras, the
action would be contrary to assur-
ances given to Congress.
He said he would seek to determine
whether the TA or some of FUS,
government agencj as assist
Americans to o into combatin hica-
ragua.
Parker and Powell, both 36, were
members of a group called Civilian
Military Assistance, described by its
leader, Tommy Posey of Huntsville,
as a volunteer organization operat-
ing on funds provided by its mem-
bers to help supply food, clothing
and other supplies to rebels fighting
the leftist government in Nicaragua.
In Managua, Nicaragua said it
would arrange to return to the Unit-
ed States the bodies of the Ameri-
cans, the ofeicial newspaper Barri-
cada said yesterday.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570097-9