NICARAGUA/CIA)JENNINGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301420007-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: October 18, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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18 October 1984
NICARAGUA/CIA>JENNINGS: Good evening. The White House tonight is
MANUAL>trying to contain a growing controversy having to do with
the CIA. It has to do specifically with that manual
prepared by someone at the CIA, a how-to manual of
guerrilla warfare being used by CIA-supported
antigovernment forces in Nicaragua. And it contains
advice on political assassinations. President Reagan has
asked the agency to investigate improper conduct. We
begin with the document itself. Here's ABC's John
McWethy.
MCWETHY: The document that is creating such controversy
is called 'Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare.'
Written in Spanish, it is a primer on how to overthrow a
government using tactics ranging from winning hearts and
minds of the people to more extreme approaches of
blackmail and assassination. Several U.S. officials have
confirmed the document was written by the CIA more than a
year ago and was distributed to the CIA-backed army called
contras, who seek to overthrow the leftist Sandinista
government of Nicaragua. The document talks about how to
selectively 'neutralize' public officials who are not
cooperating, that such people should be eliminated... in a
rapid and effective manner.' It is a violation of U.S.
law for any person employed by the government or who is
acting in behalf of the U.S. government".to have anything
to do with assassinations, even if it is just encouraging
someone else to do the dirty work. President Reagan
signed an executive order to that effect in 1981. In
Congress, which is not even in session, the guerrilla
handbook has touched off a political firestorm, with both
Democrats and Republicans demanding answers.
REP. MICHAEL BARNES (D=Md.): Well, there's no question
that this document raises very serious questions about
violation of the law of the United States and regulations
of the CIA. SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D-Mass.): The real
question is, what did President Reagan know about this
document, when did he know it and what did he do about it?
MCWETHY: Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater called on CIA
director William Casey for an immediate explanation. And
investigations were being called for by members of the
House and Senate. House Speaker Tip O'Neill demanded CIA
Director Casey's resignation. REP. THOMAS O'NEILL
(D-Mass.): I want him to get out of there. That's what I
want him to do. I think it's a disgraceful situation.
MCWETHY: But is the question of assassination by
CIA-backed rebels really new? ABC News has learned that
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z.
the U.S. intelligence community was well aware that the
contras were conducting assassinations in Nicaragua as
long as two years ago. In a Defense Intelligence Agency,
or DIA, weekly summary from the summer of 1982, the
document runs through a long list of successful contra
activities, including, quote, '...the assassination of
minor government officials and a Cuban adviser.' There is
no indication in this classified intelligence summary who
directed the contras to conduct these assassinations, but
the.CIA was paying their bills and training them. It is
not clear if,President Reagan ever saw the intelligence
summary that detailed the assassinations. But it should
have been mandatory reading for the CIA director, for the
secretaries of state and defense and for the president's
top White House advisers. Intelligence sources say these
men should have known and should have told the president.
John McWethy, ABC News, Washington. <
AP02>CAMPAIGN '824/>DONALDSON: This is Sam Donaldson. President Reagan
>REAGAN>arrived in New York City for tonight's Al Smith dinner,
well aware that a full-scale political flap has developed
over the question of the administration's policy toward
assassination. Inside the Waldorf, the president was
asked if the CIA is out of control. PRESIDENT RONALD
REAGAN: Not at all.
DONALDSON: Aides say the president learned about the
CIA's contra manual from the newspaper. Mr. Meagan today
ordered two investigations, one by the CIA inspector
general, one by the president's'Intelligence Oversight
Board. And Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes said the
administration has 'not advocated or condoned-political
assassination, nor will we.' Speakes said the appropriate
congressional committees will be briefed promptly. Adding
to that, a senior official, who declined to be identified,
said it appears the manual in question was prepared by a
low-level CIA employee who had had previous Vietnam
experience. The manual had never been approved by the
intelligence community, said the official. But how high
its approval had gone, and where the funds came from to
print it, were facts yet to be determined, said the
official. In Washington, Walter Mondale was quick to
offer his own advice to the president. WALTER MONDALE
(Democratic presidential candidate): I think what he
ought to do is ask himself whether this illegal war in
Nicaragua, which has been nothing but an embarrassment
from the beginning, has actually strengthened our
opposition, embarrassed us before the World Court and
given high ground to the Sandinistas they don't deserve, I
think he-should end that war. That's why the Congress has
voted to terminate it.
DONALDSON: This latest flap over Central America couldn't
have come at a worse time for the president, just"three
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days before his second and final debate with Walter
Mondale on foreign policy. It enables Mondale to sharpen
the attack on the policy and, more importantly, to raise
the question of administration duplicity in attempting to
carry it out. Sam Donaldson, ABC News, New York. <
AP03>NICARAGUA/CIA>JENNINGS: Well if the CIA was encouraging political
>MANUAL 2>assassination in Nicaragua even indirectly, the agency is
obliged by law to tell the congressional intelligence
committees. Earlier this week those committees formally
asked CIA Director William Casey for a full explanation.
Just a short while ago I talked to Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan. He is the vice chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee. Why do you think the CIA delayed
wanting to give you that decision? Did it have something
to do with the debate on Sunday? SEN. DANIEL MOYNIHAN
D-N.Y.): It has to do, Peter... I'm sorry. If this
doesn't stop, the White House doesn't get out of this,
they're gonna wreck the intelligence community. They have
brought it, dragged it into politics, and got it into the
worse kind of situations, then disavow it when, basically,
an administration policy gets caught.
JENNINGS: What does this phrase 'neutralizing
politicians' mean to you on the intelligence committee?
MOYNIHAN: The phrase is the selective use of violence for
propagandistic purposes. It's got to mean killing people.
It's exactly what we said we would never do.. I'm sorry.
I just hate it, because I just hate to see our
intelligence community go back into that tank.
JENNINGS: We have reported earlier in this broadcast this
evening that the Defense Intelligence Agency knew in 1982
that there were political assassinations going on in
Nicaragua. Did you know that? MOYNIHAN: No. No. and
had we known we were... It was the responsibility of the
DIA to tell our committee. No such information of any
kind has ever come to a Senate committee that I am aware
of. And that would be a grievous thing indeed.
JENNINGS: If the Defense Intelligence Agency knows it,
who else has got to know about it? MOYNIHAN: The whole
government. The Defense Intelligence Agency is the
Associated Press, is ABC. They collect information, it
spreads through the government, not everywhere, but
certainly to the top.
JENNINGS: Do you think, in view of these pieces of
information today, that a full investigation of the CIA is
warranted again, under its present leadership? MOYNIHAN:
It should lead to a. complete statement of what they have
been involved with in Central America. If they don't do
that, if they keep stonewalling, which they have been,
only now does the White House blame somebody below.
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They've been saying they can't find out. It will lead to
a general inquiry and it will only be to the disadvantage
of the intelligence community and to the people in there
who need our support and on whom we depend.
JENNINGS: What is the responsibility here of the director
of the CIA, Bill Casey? NOYNIHAN: He needs to have been
up front with us and, at minimum, when this thing did
happen, immediately tell us what we needed to know and not
wait for something to dribble out from the White House
about 'It must have been a low-level official.' There
have, as you know, been calls for his resignation. Would
you support them? MOYNIHAN: I think his four years have
been sufficient. I'm sorry to have to say that.
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