EXILE TIPPED REAGAN ON CUBAN WEAPONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404330002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 26, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

~STAT
~~
26 May 1984
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21 :CIA-RDP90-005528000404330002-7
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
EXILE TIPPED REAGAN ON CUBAN WEAPONS
MIAMI
A Ba_y of Pigs veteran and alleged CIA informant said he gave Ron id
Rea m ai n aides "extremel ex losive~~ata on Cuba's nuclear arrd
chemical weapons in 1980 because he thought resident Carter would ignore it,
Raymond Molina, a wealthy 48-year-old real estate developer, said he went to
Key West as a volunteer in 1980 to translate for and "orient" arriving Mariel
refugees.
He said three refugees, one of whom claimed to have been an official
translator for Fidel Castro during Castro's trips to tt~e Soviet Union, gave him
information about Cuba's alleged possession of nuclear weapons and chemical
warfare equipment.
Molina said he gave the information the CIA then turned it over to
Reagan c aign o icia s ecause he f~
going to do anything. "
He said he did not necessarily believe the information, but recommended the
Reagan people "authenticate " it and use it " as an expose of Carter's weakness
in foreign policy, " espcially toward Cuba.
He said he "wanted to make sure the material was in ttie hands of somebody
who could... make use of this. "
The incident has stirred up controversy in Washington where it recently came
to the attention of a House subcommittee investigating the passing of inside
information from the Carter White House to the 1980 Reagan campaign.
A 2,40D-page report issued by the subcommittee includes a memo written by
Reagan campaign aide Belden Belle partially describing the information received
from Molina.
Two other Reagan campaign aides, Richard Allen and Roger Fontaine, also were
aware of the information, according to the subcommittee's documents. Molina said
he had .met Belle and Fontaine in Washington in the 1970s while serving as a
registered representative of Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza.
Allen later became Reagan's national security adviser and Fontaine served as
a Latin American analyst on the National Security Council. Neither is still with
the Reagan administration.
The subcommittee concluded that although it appeared Reagan campaign aides
" did not trust" Molina, they had not "discouraged Molina from providing
sensitive intelligence to the campaign, even though he may have had access to
government intelligence sources."
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21 :CIA-RDP90-005528000404330002-7