ANTI-SANDINIST AID SPLITS HOUSE PANEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940048-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 48
• Publication Date: April 23, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

tjTln~ ,, Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940048-1
f :. Pr'EARt hE ' YORK ?'DA's
C~ PAFE ~ 23 A.PRI. 1983
ANTI-SANDINIST AID
'Just Further Evidence'
The President said, "The episode
with the Brazilians' holding the planes
horn Libya the other day, when the as-
pirins they were supposed to be carry-
ing turned out to be hand grenades and
things, is just further evidence of what
we have said all the time - that there
Dodd Seeks Closed Senate Session
In a related development, Senator
Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Con-
necticut, has told the leadership that be
will move to have the Senate go into a
closed session on Tuesday to discuss
United States operations in Nicaragua.
A high-ranking Nicaraguan official,
meanwhile, told reporters that although
he lacked proof that the purpose of
United States support of insurgents was
to overthrow the Nicaraguan Govern.
merit `for us th
e
SPLITS HOUSE PANEL
Decision Is Delayed on Funds' are outside forces, all of them princi-
Pa11Y aligned with or sympathetic to the
Communist bloc, who are in there and
-Cutoff - 5 Congressmen intervening in the legitimate affairs of'
Plan to Tour the Region
re no doubt about
- In another development, 65 House it. ' '
members, all but ' one of them Demo-' - The remark b
R
f
l
y
a
ae
Solis Secrc~
,, qa - , called for either an end to United tary General of Ni
caragua's Council of
By Rte. TO~~ Stales support for covert military ac- I I State, was made at a news conference
- SD 1toZLsNewYoLC lion against Nicaragua or atchance to; 'sponsored by Representative John !
vote directly on the matter. The lone' Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan.
WASHINGTON, April 22 - The Republican was Representative Jim Mr. Solis acknowledged that the Li
badly s Intelligence
mostl ong party Leach o Iowa, a former Foreign Serv. aircraft were beaded for racara nt
lines, about whether to recommend cut- ~st Democrats an the House Intelli- but denied that Nicaragua intended '
ting off tundt for covert support of Pence committee support the the weapons m salnaaa~ gueril-
k
o
e
-e
?
o?
.... - non of its chairman, Representative:
ist Government of Nicaragua. Edward P. Boland of Massachusetts,'
Five members of the committee, that the united States is in "apparent:
Democrats and Republicans, accepted violation" of a prohibition against coy.
the invitation of William J. Casey, the ert action "for the
Director of Central Inte purpose f ica
Iligence, to tour thr`pvving the Sandinist regime in Nica.
.
the region this weekend. ragua. A House Foreign Affairs sub-
The committee has delayed a deci- committee voted last week to ban any, cirri until after Pre A- M----
ad
Nicaragua Wants Directs Talks
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, April 22
(Reuters) - Nicaragua demanded di-
rect talks with the United States and
Honduras today before considering
wider discussions on the oreblPmc of
dresses a joint session of Congress on F ~. Sk tycaT' The u e t ca.
'Wednesday on the problems of Central i Being ep request came in a Foreign Miais-
America. "W a decided to put things on Representative Norman Y. Mineta !try communique a day after foreign
note until the President comes before
Congress," Representative Robert H.
Michel of Illinois, the Republican
leader and a committee member, said
in a telephone interview from Peoria.
Democrats-Ready to Cut Aid
Most committee Democrats favor
cutting off the covert aid on the ground '`We're overtly carrying on a covert
that it is now an open secret. They con- operation
which is screw
" M
,
y
,.
r
tend that Congress should debate and Mineta said in a telephone interview
vote on whether to make the aid overt. from San Francisco. "You could cut off
Most committee Republicans, on the the covert operation and ask, `Should
other hand, favor continuing the aid as this be done as an overt operation?' The
as ef.or: to counter Communist influ- Democrats think that this is the issue
ence in the region. we ought to be debating."
President Reagan, meanwhile, un. , To Mr. Michel, on the other hand, the
derscored a Government allegation Brazilian interception of the Libyan air-
that the Palestine Liberation Organiza.' craft was "a gift from God" that under-
.lion has provided aid to the Sandinist, scored the correctness of the Adminis-
Government. "I can tellyou that the re-
port is true," Mr. Reagan said at a news
conference. "They, like the others from
the Communist states, have been in
there and are in there."
The President also cited Brazil's in-
-terception of four Libyan aircraft des-:
tined for Nicaragua, with a cargo that
the Administration said was headed for
the rebels in El Salvador, as further evi.
dence of the international aspect of the
'conflict. The aircraft, ostensibly carry.
ing medicine, turned out to be laden
with military equipment.
Democrat of California, a member of ! mini tern from nine Latin American
the Intelligence Committee, said the states ended talks in Panama City.
Democrats had demonstrated "a firm- , The communique said,- "The funds.
ness about being skeptical about the Ad. 1 mental premise for a lasting solution of
ministration's policy and implementa- the -conflict with Honduras - and the
Lion, which has spilled over into another United States is a dialogue between
area: the Administration's relationship Nicaraguath and the United States to end
e ---- -
nation's position.
"I happen to think the Administration
is moving along in the right direction
and making some progress," Mr.
Michel said.
He added that the C.I.A. might spon-
sor a second tour of the region neat
weekend, because many of the commit-
tee members were unable to reschedule
commitments for this weekend. Those
going on' the initial C.I.A. tour are Mr.
Mineta and Dave McCurdy, Democrat
of Oklahoma, and three Republicans -
Bob Stump of Arizona, Bill Young of
Florida and G. William Whitehurst of
Virvinia_ They will IPAVP wavhi,,n,w,
ence which conform to internationals
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403940048-1