WHITE HOUSE SEEKS NEW CONTRA-AID STRATEGY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605070001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 20, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 18, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605070001-6
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WASHINGTON POST
18 April 1987
White House Seeks New Contra-Aid Strategy
Senior Reagan Officials See Need for Fresh Initiative to Win Congressional Approval
T-and-Dii-vid Hoffman
Washington Post Staff Writers
The Reagan administration is
seeking a new strategy to win con-
gressional approval for further aid
to the Nicaraguan rebels in the af-
termath of the Iran-contra affair,
senior officials said yesterday.
President Reagan has requested
$105 million in aid for the contras
for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1,
but the consensus among top White
House officials is that the contra
program remains in jeopardy in
Congress.
No final decision has been
reached on a specific revised plan,
but a senior White House official
said yesterday there will be "new
initiatives" on contra aid. The offi-
cial predicted that any new strategy
is likely to attempt to focus the de-
bate away from military objectives
and toward diplomatic efforts aimed
at persuading Nicaragua's Sandi-
nista government to allow free elec-
tions and a free press.
Some contra supporters within
the administration are advancing a
proposal under which Reagan would
ask Congress to extend contra aid
in the fall for 18 months, through
the 1988 presidential elections, ad-
ministration officials said.
Under this proposal, which has
not been formally considered by top
White House aides, Congress would
vote on an enlarged contra aid pack-
age this fall, and it would not have
to take up the issue again until after
a new president takes office in Jan-
uary 1989.
Proponents of this plan argue
that it would be in the interest of
both political parties not to take up
the controversial issue of contra aid
in the middle of a presidential elec-
tion campaign.
"If we have to vote again weeks
before the election, that seems to
me not to be sensible," said one of-
ficial, who asked not to be identi-
fied.
Officials said that if this plan is
approved by the White House, Rea-
gan will then ask Congress this fall
to approve an amount significantly
higher than the $105 million now
being sought and those funds would
cover the entire 18-month period.
However, one White House of-
ficial familiar with this plan said yes-
terday that it is "not realistic."
"It ain't going to happen," he said.
An aide to House Speaker Jim
Wright (D-Tex.) said yesterday that
since Wright does not expect Rea-
gan's current aid request to be ap-
proved, "we certainly do not antic-,
ipate approval of a greater amount
for a longer period of time."
The House voted last month to
block a final $40 million installment
of the $100 million in contra aid
approved for this year, but the
funds were released when the Sen.,
ate refused by a? narrow margin to
hold them up. Several senators who
opposed an immediate aid cutoff
warned, however, that they may
not back Reagan's $1.05 million re-
quest unless the administration fo-
cuses more on diplomatic peace ini-
tiatives in Central America.
Some House Republicans _ and
administration officials have argued
that despite the fallout from the
Iran-contra affair, which is likely to
grow in the wake of congressional
hearings on the subject this sum--
mer, Congress will be reluctant to
cut off all raid. r' -
"There's never going to be mean-
ingful negotiations without the
pressure of the contras," said Rep.
L(R-Wyo.), a contra'r
supporter and the ranking Repub-
lican on the House select commit-
tee investigating the Iran-contra
affair.
Assistant Secretary of State El-
liott Abrams, the administration's
point man on the contra program,
said yesterday, that he thinks that
Congress will distinguish between
revelations surrounding the Iran-
contra affair and the "serious na-
tional-security issue" posed by the
Sandinista government of Nicara-
gua.
"Regardless of what happens dur-
ing the 'hearings, that issue re-
mains," Abrams said.
Abrams said the administration is
studying how much the contras will
need over the next year or two and
does not regard the $105 million as
a final request. "From our prelim-
inary evidence, their needs will be
higher than that, but we do not
have a final figure yet," Abrams
said. "I suspect we will ask for more
than that certainly."
Abrams,,whose role in managing
the contra program over the last
two years is under scrutiny on Cap-
itol Hill, said he is confident that he
has done nothing wrong and that he
will continue in his job after the in-
vestigations are over.
He said he has retained a Wash-
ington lawyer, W. DeVier Pierson,
to represent him on Iran-contra
matters. Abrams said he hired a
lawyer because he does not have
time to keep track of all the affair's
developments, adding, "I am a law-
yer, and! think everybody should
have a, lawyer.!
Abrams said he has talked to of-
ficials on the select congressional
committees but that he has had no
contact with independent counsel
Lawrence E. Walsh, who is conduct-
ing a separate criminal investiga-
tion of the Iran-contra affair.
"I am very happy to talk to
[Walsh's staff)," Abrams said. "I
think it would be odd if they never
talked to me. I'm sure they will."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605070001-6