AFGHAN REBELS BACKERS BLAME CIA OFFICIAL FOR RESTRICTING COVERT AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330026-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: November 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330026-6
VI
WASHINGTON TIMES
1 November 1985
Afghan re
bets backers
blame CIA
official for
restrictin covert g aid
B I Gertz
nMEs
Representatives of three Afghan
resistance support groups yesterday
called for the ouster of Deputy CIA
__I= tnr .1nhn M` ~y o, t Fey
charged, has impeded the covert aid
program to Afghan guerrilla
fighters.
"We need to start hitting this ad-
ministration where it hurts, by nam-
ing names and helping to create a
justifiable outrage among the
American people that there is a
genocide going on [in Afghanistan];'
said Neal Blair, president of the con-
servative lobbying group Free the
Eagle.
The remarks were made at a
downtown press conference, where
Mr. Blair said U.S. aid was not
reaching Afghan freedom fighters
and he was not satisfied with the
response from many government
agencies.
The group's 265,000 members are
pressing the CIA's inspector general
to investigate "the botched oper-
ations under McMahon's supervi-
sion;' he said.
"We've undertaken the effort to
have our members write directly to
Donald Regan, White House chief of
staff, urging him to call John
McMahon to account for his per-
formance, Mr. Blair said.
"And unless or until McMahon is
able to do so, we are urging his im.
mediate dismissal from his position
at the CIA;' he said.
A CIA spokesman called the al-
legations against Mr. McMahon "asi-
nine" but would not comment fur-
ther.
Nabi Salehi, a college professor
who represents one of the Afghan
mujahideen guerrilla groups, said
"time is running out" for Afghan
fighters opposing Soviet forces in
Afghanistan.
Since the Soviet invasion in De-
cember 1979, more than 1 million
Afghans have died in the fighting, he
said.
"The war in Afghanistan is no
longer a battle of one armed force
against another," Mr. Salehi said. "It
is the systematic technological de-
struction of an entire population by
the army of a superpower."
He called on the United States to'
provide advanced anti-aircraft mis-
siles and ammunition.
Congressional sources said yes-
terday Mr. McMahon has opposed
supplying the Afghan guerrillas
with the advanced weapons needed
to knock down Soviet helicopter gun-
ships. He fears the U.S. weapons
would fall into Soviet hands and that
the Soviets would then develop coun-
termeasures against the arms, the
sources said.
Andrew L. Eiva, a former U.S. spe-
cial forces soldier and director of a
group called the Federation of
American Afghan Action, said Mr.
McMahon was singled out for doing
the most "in blocking effective aide
to the Afghans and misleading Con-
gress about it."
He provided reporters with a fi-
nancial analysis of CIA covert arms
deliveries to Afghan guerrillas,
which shows that last year less than
one-third of $122 million in weapons
appropriated by Congress had
reached the Afghan resistance. The
loss was attributed to "skimming"
by Pakistani-based Afghan rebels.
The conclusion reached by the
three groups resulted from an inves-
tigation that included information
supplied by Congress and the rebel
forces.
Mr. Eiva also distributed a "report
card" grading CIA Afghan oper.
ations that he said were limited by
an effort to provide only the Afghan
guerrillas with "enough to survive,"
but not enough to win any major bat-
tles.
Mr. Eiva estimates that since 1981
the Reagan administration has
appropriated a total of $342 million
in covert assistance to Afghanistan.
But since the aid was covert, U.S.
officials insisted on supplying out-
dated and militarily ineffective
weapons that could not be traced to
U.S. sources.
He called for ending covert assis-
tance and providing more modern
weapons, particularly advanced
shoulder-held Stinger and Redeye
surface-to-air missiles.
Mr. McMahon served as "point
man" for CIA efforts to curb legisla-
tion that would facilitate the flow of
advance weapons and briefed at
least three members of Congress in
an effort defend the CIAs efforts in
Afghanistan, Mr. Eiva said.
Indiana Republican Representa-
tive Dan Burton, a supporter of con-
gressional aid to the Afghan guerril-
las, said in an interview that he has
pressured the CIA to "get through to
those mujahideen people everything
that Congress sent."
"People are dying over there," Mr.
Burton said. "They are fighting for
freedom and, by gosh, we as a Con-
gress have made a commitment to
help them, and we ought to do it."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/10/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330026-6