CONGRESS/SALVADORAN AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505050001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505050001-7
PBS MacidEll,/LEHRER
9 August 1984
CONGRESS/ LEHRER: President Reagan said in a writt~
SALVADORAN AID today, his Central American aid package with a $117
million in military aid to El Salvador is vitally urgent.
He urged Congress to authorize it without further delay.
But since Congress breaks for it's summer recess tomorrow
that doesn't leave much time. And the division between
the House and Senate on the El Salvador issue is a wide
one. The House having passed a version with the special
$117 million out, last night the Senate passing one with
it in. Judy Woodruff reports on the administration's
efforts to win final passage and the debate about it.
Judy.
WOODRUFF: Jim, a joint House-Senate conference committee
is just now sitting down to work to resolve the issue.
And in preparation for that the administration has pulled
out all the stops to help make the case that El Salvador
needs extra military aid. The U.S. Ambassador to
Salvador, Thomas Pickering, and the top U.S. general in
Central America, Paul Gorman, have both been up on Capitol
Hill, trying to persuade legislators that the Salvadoran
government is fighting rebels armed by Nicaragua. To back
up those contentions, the State Department yesterday
released, for the first time publicly, what it has been
talking about for months privately. Intelligence films,
taken at night, by planes using night-seeing photographic
equipment. As one example, on the night of July 10, U.S.
intelligence agents, flying in a AC-130 aircraft,
photographed a large shrimp boat and two small boats 10
miles off the coast of El Salvador. The videotape and
narration of that incident-that we will show you now were
prepared by the State Department. UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER:
You are now observing the shrimper and the two boats on
low-light television. The shrimper, which is 75 feet in
length, has a smaller boat in tow. It has it's outriggers
extended on both sides, as if to give the appearance of
fishing. It is running with lights on, also to avoid
suspicion. The two smaller boats, both 18 feet in length,
have square-shaped sterns. It is likely that the shrimper
had completed a transfer of material to the two 18 foot
boats just prior to the arrival of the *'bill kirk.' When
the shrimper realized that the *'bill kirk' aircraft was
overhead, it began to move away from the smaller boats in
a southwesterly direction, towards open seas. The
shrimper quickly attained high speed, again, not
indicative of normal shrimping procedure. For the time
being, the two 18-foot boats remained in place. Upon the
arrival of the *'bill kirk', the two boats pushed apart
and began to move toward the Salvadoran coast. The boats
quickly attained high speed, estimated at between 20 and
25 knots. On three occasions during the boat's movement
toward shore one of the boats stopped, apparently to check
Continue.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505050001-7