NICARAGUAN MINING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100550007-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: April 29, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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NBC MEET THE PRESS
29 April 1984
KALE: Good day from Washington. I am Marvin Kalb inviting you to Meet the
Press with Sen. Joseph Biden, a strong critic of the president's foreign policy.
PJNOUNCER: Meet the Press, an unrehearsed press conference, is a public affairs
presentation of NBC News.
KALB: Our guest today on Meet the Press is Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware who
was first elected to the U.S. Senate 12 years ago, when he was 29. Sen. Biden
is now the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. -;He is also a member of
the Foreign Relations, Budget and Intelligence Committees, and with this
background he challenges administration policy across the board. Our reporters
today are Morton\Kondracke of The New Republic, Gloria\Barger of Newsweek,
Robert\Novak of The Chicago Sun-Times, and to open the questioning, our regular
panelist, Bill\Monroe of NBC News.
NOVAK: Sen. Biden, there's been a lot of noise from Democrats in the Senate
about being... information being withheld from you by the CIA on the mining of
the Nicaraguan harbors by the contras. Isn't it a fact that you were well aware.
cf that operation, you personally, were well aware of that operation when the
debate in the Senate took place? BIDEN: We were well aware of it from news
accounts. I quite frankly find myself in a bit of a bind answering that
question because I was the only person voting against that operation from the
aid to the contras since the changing of the so-called presidential finding, the
second finding. I think the admini...that the committee's almost as much at
fault here as in fact, the agency is. The agency did not level. The agency did
not tell us the extent of their involvement. And they did not tell us the
extent of the president's involvement. But we did not ask the right questions.
NOVAK: But sir, isn't it true that you were personally, quite apart from news
accounts, that personally you were briefed by the CIA on the mining operations
before the debate in the Senate? BIDEN: No. That's not true. What we were in
fact briefed about, on two occasions, about two months after the fact, was that
in a compendium of a number of things that were occurring, dropped in as number
17, was, and by the way, there are mines there. They never told us though, the
degree to which there was direct U.S. involvement in that process.
NOVAK: Well, aren't the mines a red herring, sir? Isn't it a fact that you're
opposed to the contras being financed to U.S. funds to overthrow the Sandinista
regime? BIDEN: Me, personally?
NOVAK: Yes, sir. BIDEN: Yes. I am personally opposed to the way in.which we
are going about that.
NOVAK: Can I ask you one other thing, sir? BIDEN: Sure, you can ask me...
NOVAK: Who would you prefer running the government of Nicaragua, the communists
who are in power there now, or the people who are trying for a democratic regime
and fighting with the contras? BIDEN: I'd prefer the people trying for the
democratic regime.
Continued
STAT
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KALB: Miss Borger?
BORGER: Now that the CIA has ensured (sic) the Senate Intelligence Committee
that the mining has stopped and the CIA Director Bill Casey has apologized to
the committee, do you think that the CIA will approve money for covert actions
in Nicaragua? BIDEN: Possibly, but unlikely. It will depend a lot on the, how
closely proscribed those operations are. My opposition, to go back, to answer
your question and part of the last question, to elaborate on it.... My
opposition was that the stated goals that the administration said it had were
inconsistent with the actions the administration was taking. I am prepared to,
and was for the first five months, prepared to vote for and did vote for funding
for the contras, to allow the contras to be involved in activities that were
disrupting the flow of arms into El Salvador. When that presidential memorandum
changed, so that it gave broad discretion to do much more than that, in my view,
to overthrow the government, to in fact get us deeply involved in the process,
that's when I decided that the nature of the operation had changed and I could
no longer support it.
BORGER: But didn't Ronald Reagan send a letter to the Senate a few weeks ago
when the Senate was debating this, saying that it was not the administration's
objective to overthrow or destabilize the government in Nicaragua..? BIDEN:
Yes, he did, and I don't believe it.
BORDER: ...is there still confusion? You don't believe it? BIDEN: He said
it. Director Casey said it. But, I know, Mr. Novak knows and everybody knows
that the intention is different from that.
BORGER: I want to ask a question about congressional oversight of the Central
Intelligence Agency.' Is the lack of direct communication that your committee
has been complaining about lately due in particular to CIA Director Bill Casey?
Or is oversight of the CIA essentially a mission impossible? BIDEN: Oversight.
of the CIA is not a mission impossible. But it requires an adoption of an
attitude on the part of the committee that you all have adopted toward us. We
have.. .you do not trust us in public office, nor should you. You, we have a
relationship which is based upon respect, but one that you don't accept anything
I say from the mere fact I said it. It's an adversarial relationship. That
should be the relationship between the committee and the agency to which we're
to oversee. We should not be co-opted by it. And when the agency comes forward
and says we are doing A and not B, we should ask for concrete proof that they in
fact are doing only A and not B. We should hold them to a very close standard.
We have not done that.
BORDER: Is this director, is this director a particular problem for this
committee? BIDEN: This director is a particular problem. He is a an who
does not have a great deal of trust in the minds of many of the members of the
committee. I would say almost all.
Cnntinuvd
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BORGER: Presumably the White House also has oversight functions when it comes
to the CIA. Do you get the sense that Ronald Reagan is in close contact with
Casey or that he is operating on his own? BIDEN: Let me make it clear. I
don't believe Mr. Casey's out on his own. I don't believe the agency is out on
its own. I don't think this is a case of the agency run amok. I think this is
a case of the agency following up directly on administration policy and, on
occasion, refusing to outline to us or failing to outline to us what the extent
of that administration policy that they in fact are fulfilling is.
MONROE: Sen. Biden, the Pentagon says that at rare intervals, it sounds as if
they're talking about every two or three weeks, they send a reconnaissance plane
over Nicaragua to take some photographs. The Washington Post, quoting a
military source, American source in Honduras, says we're sending planes over
Nicaragua every couple of days, CIA, Army planes,. Air Force planes. What can
you tell us about the facts of American recon planes over Nicaragua and your
attitude toward our flying any of those flights? BIDEN: It's classified. I
can't tell you anything about it. But I can tell you, in terms of general
policy, whether or not I would support the notion, assuming they are taking
place of reconnaissance flights over Nicaragua. The answer is yes.
MONROE: Do you have any problem with frequency of flights? BIDEN: I have no
problem with frequency of flights. I have no problem with reconnaissance
generally.
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