U.S. FILES WEAPONS TO REBELS IN AFGHANISTAN, SADAT SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605720020-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: September 23, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-005
ARTICLE APPEARED THE WASHINGTON POST
Oil PAGE 3_- 23 September 1981
52R000605720020-1
U.Flles Weapons to rebels
iii. Afghanistan, Saar Says.
::wanlndioePaet~ore~gnsenk..' .: he said, "as. we have previously not-
The United>States has bought .ed,.the bulk of the arms in Afghan
weapons from
Egypt and has been nationalist hands have been ob-
shipping them to anti-Soviet rebels tained from;, indigenous sources.
in Afghanistan for almost two years, These include arms captured from.
President Anwar Sadat revealed in the Soviets, from defecting or coop-
an - interview:,- with --NBC-TV".. last erating Afghan Army- personnel and
nightexisting supplies-in local hands."
Sadat's comments, made- to NBC Miller= quoted a high Egyptian
correspondent Peter Miller in Cairo, government official as saying that
provide. the first confirmation of fre- the arms are being flown directly to.
.quent: Soviet charges that Washing- Pakistan. The-;arms which are now
.ton - was 'providing arms to Afghan being ',shipped"- are Egyptian-made
rebels, fighting. some 85,000 Soviet replicas of the Soviet. originals, the
troops-,as well as Afghan government. report said. But it: did not specify
troops. - ?j -. what kind of weapons were involved.
Iri the interview, broadcast. on.
:NBC's -Nightly The original arms were supplied
News, Sadat said:
"Let me reveal this secret. The first to Egypt by the Soviet Union at a
mnomentl the Afghani incident took time when Egypt was thought to be
place,' the U.S. contacted me here firmly in -.,the. Soviet camp. But
and- =the transport of armaments to Egypt expelled: 17,000 Soviet advis-
the-Afghanis started from Cairo on ers from the country in 1972, accus
U.S'. planes." ing Moscow of interference in Egy-
-The Soviet Union invaded Af- ptian affairs..
ghaniitan on?. Christmas Day 1979. Sadat, in -apparent -reference to
The' Egyptian president added U.S. aid to Egypt 'amounting to $1
that the shipments will continue billion annually, said in the inter-'
"until- [the] Afghanis get rid of the view that Washington had been
Soviets." "very generous" in paying for the
A State Department spokesman weapons taken from Egyptian mil-
declined comment on the report. But itary stocks.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605720020-1