CIA PLAN REVEALED: MINE 3 NICARAGUA HARBORS TO HALT THE FLOW OF ARMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403750002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 17, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403750002-2
U,y
CIA plan revealed:
'Mine 3 Nicaragua
hCarbors to half
the flow of arms
By John P. Wallach
Examiner Washington Bureau
VASHfNGTON - The CIA reportedly asked for de-
rafted maps of three Nicaraguan ports as part of a covert
plan to mine the harbors and intercept Soviet and Cuban
weapons and supplies.
The agency may have planned to give the mines to anti.
Sandinista rebels who intended to sabotage one of the
ports In May when four Soviet ships were docked there.
A senior administration. official said the maps, which
induded detailed information on "depths and channels"
were urgently requested from the Defense Mapping Agen-
cy in early March.
Several xxrces said the rebels had planned the sabo
mg-- operation for mid-May but at the last minute the
United States re?used to provide the mines.
Intelligence sources and Pentagon.. State Department'
and White.House officials corr9borated the account.
The so;irces disagreed.over bow far the planning had
gone-
&rt they ,said there .xas little doubt that the CIA,
psohted 15, law from doing anything directly to over.
Lras~' :fie Saadirtisza regime, is broadly interpreting the
lv. The , permits covert acts aimed at interdicting
arms shipped from Nicaragua to leftist rebels in El
-sa 26M.
A -State Department officia sat
the CIA had been approached by one
arm of the "Contras," or Nicaraguan
counterrevolutionaries based in Hop-
auras and Costa Rica, to obtain under-
water explosives to mine one of the
harbors.
According to this official, the CIA
operation was called off when it Pen-
tagon employee tipped Rep. Clarence
Long, D~Md., of the plan. Long is a
strong opponent of administration
policy in Central America.
Long reportedly conferred with
CIA Director William Casey, warning
that such a plan would violate the law
and Jeopardize the CIA' hopes to
avoid a .showdown with Congress
over cutting off all money for covert
activities in this hemisphere.
Long, chairman of the foreign op'
erations subcommittee of the House
Appropriations Committee,, refused
direct coma tt
A Honduran who told the New
York Times in April that he was
There also is strong evidence that the CIA_ possibly with
heir, oof the Army's ultra-secret Intelligence Support
c;ivity QS.4 . has far more plans than previously disclosed
to supply L the rapidly growing "secret army" of 12000 to
:5.ii zntiSandinista rebels in Nicaragua and neighboring
Honduras.
.A, Pentagon source said that in late February and again
in Mlarch, a CIA-Defense Department team asked for
urgent delivery of the maps for Bluefields, Puerto Cabezas -
and Corutto, the three ports where Soviet ships regularly_.
unloaded military supplies.
?1 didn't know whether they needed them for eontn
teary plans to land (rebel) troops or whethe: they intend-
ed to mine the harbors to keep Soviet and Cuban ships
the official said.
The Soviets, according to U.S. offi-
cials, have stepped up delivery of
armored personnel carriers, multiple
rocket launchers, anti-tank guns, East
German trucks and field kitchens.
T,,e officials said the arms supplies
are courting in at about 20,0070 tons a
yea:, or double the rate of 1981 and
1fE
involved in planning covert U.S. activ-
ities disclosed that the United States
was providing underwater equip.
ment and explosives to Argentine
trained sabotage teams that had infil?
traced Nicaragua early this year.
The teams reportedly have had
limited success in blowing up facili-
ties in Puerto Cabezas. As a prelude to
seizing the port, the Honduran defec-
tor reported.,, a team of Miskito Indi-
ans trained as frogmen had sabotaged
some harbor installations in January.
The Honduran also disclosed that
the Miiskitos, who have turned strong-
h, antiSandini-cta and claim that the
Nicaraguan government has tried to
exterminate them, were trained in
underwater demolition at Vivorillo
Island off the east coast of Honduras.
He said the Miskitos had been
trained by the Argentines and the
equipment and explosives used for
the sabotage operation were supplied
by the United States The CIA and the
Pentagon refused comment on the
alleged operation.
U.S. officials disclosed in recent
inter views that contrary to reports at
the time, Argentina, after it invaded
the Falkland Islands, did not with.
draw many of its military advisers
from Honduras, where it was training
insurgents in guerrilla warfare.
The House Intelligence Committee
said in May:
'"There has been a hidden pro-
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403750002-2