CONTRA AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301560003-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO N REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM Morning Edition
DATE January 22, 1985 6:40 A.M.
SUBJECT Contra Aid
STATION WAMU-FM
NPR Network
Washington, D.C.
BOB EDWARDS: With the inauguration over, Congress will
be getting back to work soon. And one of the key issues on its
agenda will be the question of funding for the so-called Contras,
the anti-Sandinista Nicaraguan rebels that the Administration
calls freedom fighters. U.S. aid to the rebels has been funneled
through the CIA since 1981, but those funds ran out last Septem-
ber. The Administration would like to renew that aid.
One of the most important congressional figures in the
upcoming Contra aid debate will be the new Chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, Minnesota Republican David Durenberger.
NPR's Bill Buzenberg has more.
BILL BUZENBERG: David Durenberger is a Republican
moderate, both in tone and political philosophy. A former
corporate lawyer, he was first elected to the Senate in 1978 to
complete Senator Hubert Humphrey's term. Durenberger becomes the
new Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee because of
something called the eight-year rule. That rule requires the
Senate to rotate membership on the Intelligence Committee so no
senator will get too close to the CIA. Under the rule, the
former committee chairman, Senator Barry Goldwater, and four
other conservative Republicans had to step down after serving
their eight years. Durenberger was next in line.
Conservatives worry that, as chairman, Durenberger will
torpedo the President's plans to aid the Contras. Well, he will
and he won't. Durenberger says he supports assistance to the
so-called Nicaraguan freedom fighters. What he doesn't support
is covert assistance to the Contras because it's no longer really
covert.
OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
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SENATOR DAVID DURENBERGER: I happen to think that
covert action is a very important part of the implementation of
national security policy. I think as long as it's that im-
portant, that every effort be made to be sure that we never run
covert actions that are not covert action.
BUZENBERG: That's exactly what the Administration is
trying to do now, Durenberger says. They want an overt or open
covert action. But it won't wash, he says, because an openly
acknowledged covert action erodes confidence in the CIA, tends to
become a substitute for a real policy, undermines legitimate
covert actions, and confuses people.
SENATOR DURENBERGER: I'll bet you there isn't two
percent of the people in this country that understand exactly
what the U . S . policy is in Nicaragua. And it has been confused
by manuals, by mining of harbors, by alleged atrocities. I mean
there's no way that you'd understand what it is that we are doing
there and what we expect to come out of it. And that is simply
because we've confused the policy with the implementation
mechanism, which is the CIA.
BUZENBERG: So, while there are plenty of congressional
critics of Ameican aid to anti-Sandinista rebels, Durenberger is
not one of them. He'd like to see that aid made strictly overt,
and not channeled through the CIA.
That kind of policy, instead of covert action, may have
more support on Capitol Hill from moderates, such as Durenberger.
The Administration is now consulting with key congressional
leaders and considering what kind of request it will make to
Congress on behalf of the Contras.
SENATOR DURENBERGER: I think now the process starts of
what should we be doing. And from State, from NSC, from Defense,
from a variety of sources, including my own contribution here,
opinions are being gathered about where that policy ought to go
and how it ought to be implemented.
BUZENBERG: In just the last week, the Administration
has made three moves that suggest it's clearing the decks
specifically for a new policy toward Nicaragua.
Move number one: National Security Adviser Robert
McFarlane just returned from a quiet high-level trip to every
Central American capital except Managua.
Move number two: On Friday the Administration announced
it was boycotting further World Court consideration of Nicara-
gua's suit against the United States.
And move number three: Again on Friday, the Administra-
tion suspended direct negotiations with Nicaragua.
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Senator Durenberger supports all of those moves, and he
hopes the Administration is coming up with something new for
Nicaragua. Because if officials try to sell the old policy of
more covert aid, Durenberger warns that will undoubtedly require
an Intelligence investigation into allegations involving past
Contra practices.
Democrats on the Intelligence Committee would like such
an investigation to consider the kinds of charges made by groups
such as Witness for Peace.
Yvonne Dilling is director of that organization's
Washington office, which is compiling a report on what they found
in Nicaragua.
YVONNE DILLING: Witness for Peace has found that, in
fact, the U.S. is funding what we would term international
terrorists, and they are committing acts of terrorism against the
common people of Nicaragua, against the people's businesses and
against their farms and against their schools and hospitals. The
Contras have killed children, they've killed grandparents. They
have kidnapped many, many people. They have targeted teachers,
doctors, nurses, agricultural technicians.
BUZENBERG: When Senator Durenberger was asked if these
are the kinds of things his Intelligence Committee should
investigate, his answer was noncommittal.
SENATOR DURENBERGER: Well, frankly, we are all much
better off looking ahead than looking back. To the degree that
past practices, proven, are an indication of what the future is
going to bring, it is appropriate to look back. Whether it is
productive for us to analyze the activities of the Contras, I
will leave to the judgment of the committee as we start into the
process of setting an agenda. They have enough to do without
making themselves a judge and jury.
BUZENBERG: Republican David Durenberger, the new
Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who favors overt
instead of covert assistance to rebels in Nicaragua.
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