REPORTS OF ANTI-SANDINIST AID WORRY SENATORS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100290007-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: April 6, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100290007-4
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THE NEW YORK TINES
C April 1983
Reports of Anti--Sandinist Aid W
By ]NitaRT IN TOLCHIN
Sped-' t*7b@NwYwt7bm
-WASHINGTON, April 5- Senator
-Howard H. Baker Jr., the majority
deader, said today that many of his Sen-
-ate colleagues were deeply worried.,
about reports the Reagan Administra.
"lion is actively supporting a guerrilla
movement :against she Government of
Nicaragua
Mr. Baker said be planned -tn-discuss
-theseports with the bipartisan leader-
ship-.of the Intelligence committee in
order"to hear from them on a confiden-
tial -basis about what's going on." The
committee-has scheduled a closed ses-
-sion on Nicaragua next Tuesday.
..There's a great-concern about it,"'
the Tennessee Republican. said of the
Senate reaction to the reports. -
in another development, two mem-
bers of the Select Committee oa .Intelli-
gence warned the -Senate that United
States involvement inNicaragua, overt
or covert, would be .a violation of both
United States law and the charter of the=
Organization of American 'States.
On the Senate floor Senator Patrick J.
Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said: "If
one is to believe the detailed accounts
! seen in the press-In recent days, the Ad-
ministration is actively supporting, and
i perhaps even, guiding, a large-scale
,anti Sandinista guerrilla movement
!now involved in open combat inside
Nicaragua. From reported statements
{ of some anti-Sandinista leaders, the un-
i disguised aim of their military cam-
, paign is to overthrow the present Gov-
i ernment of Nicaragua:"
{ The Senator said afterward that be-
cause the White House had failed to
deny reports of Administration involve-
ment, he assumed the reports to be ac-
curate. _
Last September, Congress adopted
the Boland amendment to the fiscal 1983
intelligence authorization. The amend-
ment provided that "none of the funds
provided in this act maybe used by the
;Central Intelligence Agency or the De-
partment of Defense to
equipment, military training or advice,
or other support for military activities,
to any group or individual, not part of a
country's armed forces, for the purpose
,.of overthrowing the Government of
Nicaragua or provoking a military ex-
change . between ? Nicaragua and Ron--I
Seaatoi Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
;Democrat of New York, the deputy
chairman of the intelligence commit-
tee, said in a:Senate speech that the
O.A.S. charter provided. that "no state
or group of states has'-the right to inter-
vene, directly or indirectly, for any rea-
son whatever, in the internal or exter-
nal affairs of any otberstate."
Senator Moynihan said the Govern-
ment in Managua was quickly going the
way of other totalitarian regimes. "No-
one who saw how- the Sandinistas
treated the Pope on his recent trip to .
that land can doubt otherwise," he said.
"Indeed, just this past week, the Gov-
?ernment refused to allow the church to
.broadcast, over the church's own sta-
r tion, Easter week services without
,Prior censorship.
"Nevertheless," Mr. Moynihan said,
"Ithe law is the law."
The Senator declined afterward to
sav whether he had independent confir-
mation of the press reports of United
States involvement.
Senator Leahy visited Central Amer-
ica in January and prepared a classi-
fied report to the committee on that
trip. After his statement on the Senate
floor, Mr. Leahy declined to say
whether his report confirmed press re-
ports of United States involvement in
Nicaragua, except to say that it bore di-
rectly on the question. of whether the
!Adminstration was complying "with
both the letter-and-the spirit" of the Bo-
land amendment. .
"Based on what I've seen in the pub-
lic press," he said, "and lack of White
House denial, I have to assume that the
intent of Congress is not being fol-
lowed.,'
His major concern, be said, is main- .
tatom the credibility of the intell i-
gene committee. - -
"You may not like the law," the Sena-
tor told his colleagues. "You may not
agree with the law. But it is the duty of
the executive to enforce it, and the-duty
of the Congress to see that it is being en-
forced."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100290007-4