SECURITY EXPERTS DIFFER ON EFFECTS OF CIA'S MINING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605890002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 21, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23 :CIA-RDP90-005528000605890002-3
WASHINGTOfJ POST
21 April 1984
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- By Joanne Omang -- -
and Walter Pincus -
ww~u,awn rose watt wpeeia
Former national security affairs
ad~~iser Brent Scowcrofx said yester-
day that the CI___A's mining of harbors
in Nicaragua "is hurting the, CIA,"
harming Reagan administzat~on ef-
forts to deal with the leftist Sandi-
nista government in Nicaragua and
reducing the ability of the United
States to use covert action as a pol-
icy tool -
In addition, Adm. Bobby R.
Inman, former deputy director of the
CIA and dsector of the National
~ecarity Agency, said that, with few
exceptions, such covert operations
are a bad idea because they seldom
are supported by the American pub-
lic.
Another senior intelligence com-
munity figure, former CIA director
~i'illiam E. Colby, said t~Fie degree of
agency involvement. in the mining of
NICEragUBP. waters was no different
from its participation in other covert
paramilitary operations worldwide.
Scowcroft, a retired general who
has served over the past two years as
a part-time .adviser to President
Reagan on arms control and strate-
gic weapons, told reporters at a
Brea];..?ast meeting that the mining
controversy has "got in the way of a
serious debate over Nicaragua" and
that something must be done to
limit the Sandinista regime's appar-
ent desire t,o export revolution.
However, covert action "will be
less available in the future" as a pol-
icy instrument because of the cur-
rent debate, he said.
"I think the recent furor is hurting
the CL4, and that's too bad," be-
causeihe agency is just recovering
from criticism during the ]ate 1970s
of its ea.*lier covert operations, Scow-
croft said. He was a national security
adviser .to presidents _ Nixon and
fiord. ~; -- _ _- - --
- `In fact, -he.edded, if the mining
was done "as an act to convince Nic-
aragua? to stop exporting arms, per-
haps "we should have done it overt-
ly" in order to be .more effective.
Other possible open actions might
.include "a blockade or a quarantine,"
he said.
Scowcroft-said covert. operations
should be small in order to avoid
discovery. "You employ covert op-
erations to disassociate the United
States fmm the activities," he told
reporters. "When they get as massive
as this seems to 'be, then they are
more difficult" to keep secret and
"tend to be counterproductive," he
said.- -- - ----- --
Inman expressed similar views.
"I'm not prepared to cast an absolute
vote, but if you are going to decide i
you've got to do something beyond i
diplomacy and trade,T he said, "do it
overtly. Do it large. Do it fast. And
get out fast. Don't get involved in
one that's going to have along-term
commitment. If it does, that's not ;
going to be sustainable."
Inman, interviewed at the com-
puter research consortium he heads ~
in Austin, said most covert opera-
tions start because of frustration
with diplomacy and overt action, or ;
for domestic political reasons, not ,'
because covert action is the best way
to deal with an international prob-
lem.
' But' public consensus that a ac-
tion is appropriate is essential to its
success, Lzman said "If you caru~ot
build a consensus that holds, the
policy is in trouble," he said.
Colby, in an appearance taped for
broadcast today on Cable News Net-
work's "Newsmaker Saturday," said
that, in actions during the 1~J60s in
Laos and Cuba's Bay of Pigs, agents
'were providing :logistics, communi-
cations, ..air .transportti training,
things of that nature, and liaison,
coordination, but not going ovt to
the patrols and in the fights"
In Nicaragua, "it was consistent
with what I said: ,~1,Q offioera were
more than 12 miles offshore in the
boats, providing support for the ac-
tual operation going m as distinct
from the CIA officer being on the
boat" gouig m to lay the mines,
Colby said.
Colby, who was C.~d director from
1973 to 1976, said members of the
intelligence committees in Congress
understand the degree of CIA par-
ticipation in covert actions and that
he would have briefed them on the
mining "the way I understand it was
done on this occasion."
Some committee members, in-
cluding Senate Intelligence Commit-
tee chairman Barry Goldwater (P.-
Ariz), said they were not properly
briefed in advance. Both houses of
Congress last week approved non-
binding resolutions condemning the
mmmg.
Serious questions about White
House staff coordination and re~lew
of CI,~ covert operations in Nicara-
gua also were raised yesterday by a
former Nizon aide who asked not to
be identified.
This former official, said he be-
lieved that the "international impli?
cations" of the CIA mining operation
had not been adequately reviewed
"and probably fell through the
cracks" in the White House staff.
Internal competition and conflicts
among presidential ad~*isers and
Cabinet members, this former aide
said, had led to a breakdown in the
re~~iew process that had worked in
previous administrations.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23 :CIA-RDP90-005528000605890002-3