MANUAL 2)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301420012-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: October 18, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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MACNEIL/LEHRER NEWSHOUR
18 October 1984
MACNEIL: We focus now on today's lead story, the uproar <
>MANJAL 2>over the CIA manual reportedly distributed to the contras
fighting-in Nicaragua. President Reagan today asked the
CIA to investigate the possibility of improper conduct in
the publication of the manual, which gives detailed advice
on how to wage war against the Nicaraguan government. The
manual was clear as to its goal: 'When infiltration and
internal subjective control have developed in a manner
parallel to other guerrilla activities, a commandante of
ours will literally be able to shake up the Sandinista
structure and replace it.' While most of the manual
instructs on the use of psychological tools, it does
recognize the need for more direct action: 'It is
possible to neutralize carefully selected and planned
targets, such as court judges, police and state security
officials. For psychological purposes, it is necessary to
take extreme precautions.' What caused much of the uproar
on Capitol Hill was the document's apparent advocacy of
assassination. In calling for a complete report today,
Sen. Goldwater, chairman of the Senate Intelligence
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Committee,. said it might violate rules against U.S.
participation in assassinations. One of the Democrats
reacting strongly to the manual was Congressman James
Shannon of Massachusetts. Congressman, you called today
for Mr. Casey's dismissal by the president. Why should he
be dismissed? REP. JAMES SHANNON (D.-Mass.): Well, it's
clear that Mr. Casey and the CIA have been deceiving the
Congress. Now, they've come to the Congress time and time
again and said that the purpose of our operations in
Nicaragua are the contras, or support of the contras, is
not to overthrow the Sandinista and yet, as you just
pointed out, this document indicates that the purpose is
to replace the Sandinista government. He's been lying to
the Congress. Secondly, I think that there are real
questions as to whether or not the executive order, which
was issued by this president and his two predecessors,
which said that the CIA shall not participate in acts of
political assassination or shall not encourage those acts
of political assassination have been violated by this
document.
MACNEIL: Let's take these points one at a time. First of
all, how are you sure that this document was actually
written by the CIA and distributed to the contras in
Nicaragua. SHANNON: Well, they have not denied that it
was written by them, nor have they denied that it was
distributed to the contras. Now whether or not it was
distributed to the-contras, we're supposed to be-the
greatest democracy in the history of the planet and does
neutralizing of the public officials, inciting mob_
violence,..creating martyrs and sending people out-to get
killed so that you can have martyrs for the contra.
revolutionary-cause, does that respect-the values of the
American people? I don't think so, and I think that
there's a real question raised here, either as to whether
.or not this administration has been going around
prescriptions of the Congress in deceiving the American
people or as to the competence of this president to
continue in office.
MACNEIL: Now are you saying that Mr. Casey deceived the
Congress or are you also saying that Mr. Casey deceived
the.president or are you alleging that President Reagan
also shared in this purpose? SHANNON: Well, something
has to be held accountable. Now if the president didn't
know about these activities and if the CIA is once again a
rogue elephant running off doing things without
permission, then Casey should be fired summarily, and
perhaps others as well. If not, if the president of the
.United States knew of the activities and encouraged them
and supported them, then I think that raises a very
serious question about whether or not he's been coming
clean with the American people.
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MACtiEIL: Well, both the White House and U.N. Ambassador
Kirkpatrick, we heard her earlier on our program, said
today that assassination is definitely not a part of U.S.
policy. Are you not satisfied with those declarations?
SHANNON: It's nice of them to say that, however, the
document which we have obtained indicates that
assassination was in fact contemplated in this manual
prepared by the CIA for the contras in Nicaragua. So if
they're saying one thing and if in fact they're producing
manuals calling for another thing, I think an explanation
is deserved and I think it's deserved very quickly, as
Sen. Goldwater said.
MACNEIL: Are you satisfied with the president's call for
an investigation today? SHANNON: I am not satisfied with
his call for an investigation. I think the American
people deserve an answer before the election and I think
we deserve an answer that comes from someone other than
those within the Central Intelligence Agency. And I'd
like to see him go further and very quickly state his case
to the American. people as to what this manual is all
about. It's abhorrent. It is, as Congressman Bolin, it
espouses the doctrine of Lenin, not Jefferson, and we
deserve an answer as to what goes-on here.
MACNEIL: Thank you, we'll come back. Jim.
LEHRER: For a different view of it, Ray Cline, firmer CIA
deputy director. He also served from '69 to 173~s
director of the State Department's bureau of intelligence
and research. He.is now a senior associate at the
Georgetown Center for Strategic and Internationa_1_Studies
here in Washington. Mr. Cline, is this the kind &f thing
the CIA ought to be doing? RAY CLINE (former CIA deputy
director): You know, I'm not very clear what the CIA has
done with respect to this document. The congressmen seem
to be very wrought up about it, but I've seen an awful lot
of guerrilla handbooks of this sort which tend to be of
the same kind. They're written mostly by Che Guevara and
Ho Chi Minh and various communist revolutionaries. Uh, I
think we should find out how the contras got the document,
what use it was, I don't see it as a very clear form of
instruction by anybody in the American government to do
anything. We all know the contras are working against the
Sandinista government. We know that the president, within
his constitutional authorities, has been giving some
assistance through the CIA, perhaps for other. purposes, to
the contras. I, I must say I'm particularly surprised
that the congressman's statement is again a rogue
elephant. I never though I'd hear the Intelligence
Committee people say that after Frank Church said it when
he began his investigation and then retracted it in his
formal investigation of the CIA. So let's find out what
has been happening before we have impeachments and Casey
bounod
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dismissals. I suspect this is not a very sinister
document nor will it have very much to do with CIA.
LEHRER: You don't think it will have anything to do with
the CIA? CLINE: I think the fact that the contras have
such a document or that CIA may have helped them get their
hands on such a document does not mean the CIA has asked
them to do anything specific in the book. And I am sure
the CIA would not ask them to commit an assassination.
LEHRER: Why are you so sure? CLINE: Because the
guidelines of the CIA, since 1976, have made clear that
they should not do so. And in fact CIA never did commit
an assassination, despite all the speculation about it and
the fact that two presidents once suggested that they
undertake to do so.
LEHRER: You do not believe then, that the, Congressman
Shannon, one of Congressman Shannon's alternatives here,
scenarios, was that the CIA did, is doing it all on its
own, not telling Congress, or even possibly the president?
CLINE: I think that's preposterous. I don't, I think
that Frank Church. was right, after a two-year
investigation which Walter Mondale sat in on, when they
said that if anything, CIA was guilty of not following its
instructions from presidents who wanted them to commit
assassinations. In fact they failed even to carry out
those orders. I don't think CIA has ever been irr the
assassination business and I'm very sure that they didn't
instruct the San... the contras to commit assassinations.
LEHRER: But back to my first question, that is,-rthis
.document or this handbook on guerrilla warfare included,
and there's no question it includes the words, that if CIA
just did what you said, possibly helped get it to the
contras that we're supporting, you do not find that as
reprehensible? CLINE: I don't think so. I, I, would, as
I say, I can find such a handbook on any library shelf
here in Washington. I can find a lot of it in Spanish. I
suspect that the contras did in fact ask somebody, perhaps
the CIA, for the classical literature on how to run a
guerrilla operation and the book included these statements
which are characteristic of the way the Viet Cong in
Vietnam and other places ran operations. But I don't see
that as a CIA order to do anything.
LEHRER: Do you smell any U.S. presidential politics?
CLINE: I smell a lot and I also smell the fact that, as
we all know, the House of Representatives Intelligence
Committee has been against any support for the contras in
Nicaragua or any attack on the Sandanistas. And I am
really surprised that that very careful Intelligence
Committee has released a document of this size, kind,
which is being quoted out of context, as far as I can see.
JA
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LEHRER: Thank you. Robin.
MACNEIL: Congressman, why has your very intelligent, very
careful committee done that? SHANNON: Well, first of
all, let me say that it wasn't released by the
Intelligence Committee. It was released, as I understand
it, by the Associated Press. But secondly let me say I an
astounded that Mr. Klein would equate the leaders of our
country to Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. That's the
essential point; we aren't a communist country. We're an
open society. We've been respected for our values around
the world for 200 years because we have respect for human
life and liberties. And here we go, and I know Mr. Cline
you haven't read this document, but I'll be glad to give
you my copy of it because I have another copy. CLINE: I
hope you will so we can be sure what we're talking about.
SHANNON: This calls for assassination, and if it was
published by the CIA and if it was distributed by the CIA,
I think it's in violation of the law and I think the
American people have a right to know why it is that the
law was violated. CLINE: If I gave you a book on birth
control, would I be ordering you to use some particular
form of contraception? I think you're taking a very
routine document in the guerrilla'business and pretending
that it's an American order. SHANNON: Well, let me
suggest that before you characterize this document, that
you read it. I've read it, you haven't. And when you
read it Ithink you'll come to the-same conclusion that I
and others that have read it have come to. This balls for
illegal acts and it is not... CLINE:. But by whom? By
whom? Who calls for them? SHANNON: By whoever=wrote the
document. CLINE: It says *Tat Ti Yond on the front., who
is TatTi-Yond? SHANNON: We have'had no denial from the
CIA. As a matter of fact, the CIA has confirmed that this
document was written by the CIA. The question is whether
or not it was distributed.
MACNEIL: Congressman, what about Mr. Cline's other point?
He was sure the CIA would never ask the.contras to commit
assassination because assassination is against the
guidelines and the CIA has been obeying them. SHANNON:
Well, Iguess the question is, have they been obeying them
and does the distribution of this pamphlet, this manual,
if was distributed, violate that executive order? I think
that is a question that is legitimately raised and which
the CIA and the president of the United States should
respond to.
MACNEIL: Isn't that a legitimate question to raise, Mr.
Cline? CLINE: I have no objection to raising the
question. I just object to having what, all I've been
able to see has been the allegations in the press,
obviously coming from the House Intelligence Committee,
that it is already a case proved against the CIA.
QRntinneu
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SHANNON: Well, no one on the Intelligence Committee said
that. CLINE: I suggest that that's just not true. Well,
you.just said it, you said it was a rogue elephant, which
,it never has been. SHANNON: I'm not on the Intelligence
Committee, Mr. Cline. But nobody on the Intelligence
Committee... CLINE: Well, all right, I don't like this
allegation. SHANNON: Nobody on the Intelligence
Committee has made this allegation. CLINE: I don't like
to see any congressman making such allegation without
having some evidence.
MACNEIL: Congressman, what about Mr. Cline's further
point that it is 'preposterous,' to use his words, that
the CIA would be operating on its own, deceiving the
Congress or even the White House? SHANNON: Well, then I
think that raised questions about the White House and
about the leadership of this country. I'd like to believe
that the president of the United States would never allow
such a document to be produced by our intelligence agency.
But there is a question raised here. If he knew about it,
if he knew the CIA was in fact counseling these kinds of
activities, killings, then there are real questions about
the leadership of the country. If he didn't know about
it, I think there are real questions about his competence
to control the administration and government in the
Central Intelligence Agency.
MACNEIL: I know you don't speak for the White House, Mr.
Cline, but do you have any observation on the relationship
between the CIA and the White House or the presidency that
could be relevant to what you've just heard? CLINE: I
feel that the White House is establishing the guidelines
and the operational instructions for the CIA, thaTL'the CIA
is following them very carefully. I am struck by the fact
that the front page of this manual, which is all I've
seen, says 'Psychological Operations,' it doesn't say 'A
Manual for Murdering People.' The fact that it does in a
kind of iffy way, according to the quotations, discuss the
possibility of neutralizing and, uh, uh, neutralizing
officials and using some of the jargon of what is
essentially Leninist literature doesn't impress me as
being a serious act by the CIA authorized by the
president, or carried out in defiance of their
instructions.
MACNEIL: What about Mr. Cline's point, Congressman, that
there's a strong smell of presidential politics about
this? SHANNON: Well, I think this is a legitimate issue.
I think our policy in Central America should be squarely
on the table before this election and we should have the
.facts. And I don't think there's anything wrong with
that. We are a democracy here, Mr. MacNeil, and people
can decide on the basis of the facts whether they want
these policies to continue. These are very, very serious
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statement that are made in this manual. If in fact it is
a CIA document, then I think the president has some
explaining to do.
MACNEIL: Is it naive to think, Mr. Cline, that all
protestations to the contrary, that assassination and
other uses of force like this are never part of American
policy? CLINE: I, no I don't think that's naive. Uh, I
think the flirtation with assassination in the late 'S0s
and early '60s which was brought out in the Church
committee inquiry and, as I say, did not result in any
real assassinations, were (sic) an aberration in our
national behavior. I think it was decided very clearly in
the mid-'70s that we would not authorize such operations
and that they, therefore I think it is logical not naive
to believe that they have been avoided ever since that
time. And I do not believe that a manual about murders or
assassinations means that the CIA or the president has
instructed anybody to carry them out. SHANNON: Well, I
will just say that we've had some real concerns about the
operations in Nicaragua. There's been a raging debate in
this country for the last four years. There have been
allegations of failure to disclose essential facts to the
Congress in the past. And as to the question of whether
or not this is a partisan effort going one, you know, I
think we can cite Sen. Goldwater, who is clearly not a
liberal Democrat, who wants to see this matter cleared up.
That's what I'm asking for too and that's what others on
Capitol Hill are asking for, some answers and some answers
quickly. .1 -
...MACNEIL: Well, Congressman Shannon and Ray Cling,--thank
you both for joining us. Jim.
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