THE ADMINISTRATION KNOWS ABOUT NICARAGUA-BUT ISN T TELLING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100390020-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: March 31, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100390020-8
__ r -, WASHINGTON POST
31 MARCH 1983
The Administration Kno
Nicaragua but Isn't Telling
MM _ VlcGro
Nobody is absolutely sure what-is going 'o'nce one ngnung -cegan-ana tnescope~ dike the flowering of, the plot;`thoe'admin
on at the Nicaragua-Honduras border, ex- like everything else, is in doubt- 11 queries: istration says, that our purpos the' not to
have been shrugged off. Secretary"of State:
ceps ents y the CIA, which is said to have George P. Shultz put his brick n the tone. overthrow the Sandinistas but- .merely to
f give them a hard time. (heir real rationale,
200 agents there. On your nightly news you wall whe
h
i
il
ld
t
on
n
e .a
r
y
o
a c
gr siona
f
can see wounded peasants-some are dead. course, is that if Nicaragiizi sends arms
committee that it was a secret; iatterfor to the rebels in'FI Salvador, it must expect
But don't expect to find out from anybody the Intelligence committees:
to get some back.
in this government if the -United States is The administration's me8saooW.-Ixrtin
involved. America is quite stark- even brutal '{;d left, .Kirkpatrick is ever ready to air her well-
It's no wonder the Reagan administra- and we'll get von Remember Chile; :._ I known view that any right-wing dictator-
ship is preferable to the left-wing kind.
tion, beginning with the president, thinks Besides, if the president admits -that .we
no comment" will suffice about events are subsidizing the raids,'he could admit-ti) Most recently, she told the American
breaking the law. The so-called- Boland legion that the only difference that counts
which, to the rest of the world, look.suspi- between the Somocistas and the Sandinis-
ciously like a U.S.-backed armed assault on j Amendment,. passed last December, forbids
.
tas, by whom the Somocistas were over-
him to supply military trainin _or advice
the Sandinista government. -., g'
... ,_ thrown, is that ~omoza was friendly to the
They've gotten away with so much so or support for the "purpose of over Linked States while the Sandinistas' tna-
throwing the government of Nicaragua." bona{ they would be silly to be self-con anthem has a line calling the United
scions nn?. After all, no Americans are dy. But the only member of the administra States the enemies of mankind." The pus-
-tion.to,be challenged directly on the point;
inn. sibihty that 40 years' of American support.
-?U.N. Ambassador .lean J. Kirkpatrick, might have
Fifteen months ago, when The Washing appearing on the "McNeil-Lehrer Nepcirt," the egciation aided the lyricistn~ is left out of
um Post published an article about a X19 told Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-IVid.), one
million covert campaign to destabilize the g But at a meeting of the National Seca-
_of few congressmen still in town during the r.ity Institute for Women at Dort McNair,
Marxist regime in Nicaragua, the admin- ~':F,aster recess and the only one so far to Kirkpatrick limited- herself to -a -disembw-
istration did not trouble to deny it. It was ohject,.that "absolutely that no law is being waling remark. about the U.N. Sear
-not then the taxpayers' business to know if,
they were providing arms, -training .and lo- .1 'broken." In her most withering manner, she Council debate-during which several
_ reproached him for even stggesting it ' friendly nations voiced skepticism that the
gistical support to anti-Sandinista rebels Like a lot of people, however, Barnes is military actions:, now taking place -were
Nor is it now that what is officially called t not convinced. If sire are not. breaking do- ?spontaneous-" She likened wit to "gang
"a spontaneous uprising" seems to- be in mestic law, - he says, we are violating the ra}n which may .have jarred ?some' mem-
progress. ,'Organization of American States treaty, her o#' her audience, but..probably `nobody
overn-
n
f
i
y g
a
on o
at the Whiite.House, where they like strong
Reagan's only deference to possibly ad= which forbids the subvers
"whatever reason
f
or
verse public opinion about sponsoring more ment in the area,
' stufY.
oks
t h
h
i
o
a
n w
bloodshed in an area that has more than its When it bothers to expla
share was the postponement, during his
December visit to Latin America, of joint
Honduran-U.S. military maneuvers along
the Nicaraguan border. The exercises were
held last month. -
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100390020-8