CONGRESS RESISTS CONTRA ARMS AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940041-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: December 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

3 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940041-8
, RI!',L N W YORK TIMES
ON W:k E ._. 24 December 1985
CONGRESS RESISTS
CONTRA ARMS AID
Administration Soundings on
Renewal Are Said to Draw
a Negative Response
By SHIRLEY CHRISTIAN
Spy to no MW York Ttmr
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - The Rea-
gan tration's efforts to sound
out Congress about the prospects for
restoring military aid to Nicaraguan
rebels have drawn negative responses
over the last several weeks, according
to some key legislators.
"My perception is that at this stage it
would be very difficult for them to get
military assistance," Representative
Dave McCurdy, Democrat of Oklaho-
ma, said today.
Mr. McCurdy, who played a leading
role in fashioning the $27 million non-
military aid package approved last
July, added, "I think there could be a
continuance of humanitarian aid."
Dave Durenberger, Republican of
Minnesota and chairman of the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, said
in an interview last week that he was
not ruling out military aid but thought
it was "premature for the Administra-
tion to think of escalating or changing
the compact."
Spending authority for the $27 million
runs out on March 31, and the Adminis-
tration has said it will formally bring
up the issue in Congress in the first
months of 1986.
Abrams Meets Legislators
President Reagan began the cam-
paign in his radio address on Dec. 14
with a tough attack on the Sandinista
regime.
"If Nicaragua can get material sup-
port from Communist states and ter-
rorist regimes and prop up a hated
Communist dictatorship, should not the
forces fighting for liberty, now num-
bering over 20,000, be entitled to more
effective help?" he asked.
Elliott Abrams, the Ass
tary of State for Inter-Ame
fairs, talked privately in the last two
weeks with a number of senators and
representatives, both Democrats and
Republicans, in an effort to determine
what kind of new aid program could
count with a Congressional majority.
According to various legislators and
staff aides, he asked about attitudes to-
ward overt military aid, a return to a
program run by the Central Intelli-
ence cy, or renewal of tea
that now covers food, medicine, boots,
clothing and other nonlethal supplies.
Mr. Abrams concentrated his efforts
among members of Congress who had
voted for the $27 million last summer.
"They need to get a reading of how
far they can go in their request," said a
spokesman for Representative Michael
D. Barnes, the Maryland Democrat
who is chairman of the Western Hemi-
sphere Affairs Subcommittee in the
House.
'Diplomatic ApprsSah' Favored
Mr. Barnes, who was not visited by
Mr. Abrams, continues to prefer "to do
away with the whole contra oriented
policy and try a diplomatic approach,"
the spokesman said. The Nicarguan
rebels are generally known as contras.
"Whether we have the votes to beat
what they ask for depends upon what
they ask for," Mr.- Barnes added.
One of the arguments the Adminis-
tration has made for resuming a pro-
gram directed by the C.I.A. is that it
would help to resolve the problems en-
countered in getting the aid through
Honduras to the rebel camps on the
border and inside Nicaragua.
The Honduran Government, which
publicly maintains the position that it
is not aware of the use of its border as a
rebel rest and supply area, began to
block shipments from landing there
after a television crew arrived on a
supply flight on Oct. 10.
The Administration has implied that
the C.I.A. could make the necessary
transport arrangements privately and
without the press attention given to the
present aid disbursement, which is di-
I rested by the State Department.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940041-8