PRIVATE GROUPS REPORT SURGE IN AID TO CONTRAS

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200008-1
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RIFPUB
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K
Document Page Count: 
2
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
August 23, 2010
Sequence Number: 
8
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Publication Date: 
May 8, 1985
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OPEN SOURCE
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Approved For Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200008-1 LOS ANGELES TIMES ` ARTICLE APPEARED 8 May 1985 00 1, F,'Iaa'id r~esdaY.that=the-Ad- 1 We have raised in the neigh- '.,Spafir. ~ Private Groups , nlstratioq,,has*no~g to dory' borhood of $10 million in the last r th'pr19_atefund.raisingefforts. nine months," Matamoros said. ? I:ij Still, senior officialss, speaking on "That is certainly not sufficient. R e rt Surge in p. condition' that. they not be?.identi- i But it has enabled us to survive and fled,=said;.they: are delighted that - to continue fighting." Md Reagan's campaign for public aid to Nicaraguan Democratic Force to Contras the :contras last month~;'andrthe chairman Adolfo Calero has said ,congressional:' rejection,,! have that he needs $50 million a year to By DOYLE McM , ' lines 3WJJ writer l ihelped,to ptimulate private contra-. sustain his guerrillas and to absorb new recruits. The force says it has "Obviously, we are pleased to see 15,000 men, plus 4,000 recruits who private donors come into the still need training and equipment. breach which Congress left," one Matamoros, Singlaub and others official said. "We may end up involved in the fund-raising efforts winning both ways on this thing, if, all declined to provide any specific Congress reverses itself and pro- figures for their. receipts . or to vides some aid, as well as the identify their major donors. How- increased level of private contribu- ever, they said that Congress' re- tions." jection of. Reagan's- request, fol- . The fund-raising organizations lowed by,"Nicaraguan. _ President all said that they are providing only .:Daniel Ortega's visit to Moscow in non-lethal supplies to the contras. ;.search of.Soviet.aid, had sparked a Aid used for weapons or ammuni- wave 7 of new: contributions . and tion might violate the Neutrality ;,inquiries:-c Act, which prohibits promoting It also inspired the editor of the war against a country with which ;Washington _ Times, `Arnaud de. the United States is officially at Borchgrave, to launch a new or- peace. ganization to try to replace. the At the same time, some acknowl- money Congress turned down. De edged that a major purpose of their Borchgrave persuaded the presi- efforts is to provide non-military ;,.dent of the Washington Times' supplies so the contras can raise parent company, Moon aide Col. Bo money for weapons outside the -Hi Pak, to contribute $100,000 in United States.... . +start-up money. ` . "We get them, weapons and i The newspaper announced the ammunition, but only from our new "Nicaraguan Freedom; Fund" chapters overseas," said Singlaub, ,'in a front-page editorial Monday. whose -World Anti-Communist ,By Tuesday, De Borchgrave had League has members representing 'assembled a board of, directors 98 countries. .including Simon, Kirkpatrick and . conservative scholars Midge Dec- Previous Contributions Small ter and Michael Novak, and said The contras have solicited ri- contributions were already coming vale fundin since the e an ' in to the newspaper's offices. ht'ng the Sandinistas in 198 . ~ The American people do not . fighting Until last year, though. contribu- 'want to see another Cuba in this tions were small; the rebels de- hemisphere. De Borchgrave said Rended almost entire on the CIA in an interview. "This is a, vital for major supplies and inancial issue." s~ De Borchgrave and Simon said ., Last spring, Democrats in Con- the new group will be run inde- gress began blocking the Reagan pendently of both the Washington Administration's requests for fur- Times and the UnificatioU Church, ther government funding and, after and will send human ntar n aid to several lean months, the contras the contras and their families. were forced to find sources of "Those people are seeing free- support elsewhere. dom. They are in the pfpcess of At first, contra officials have , being destroyed. They,., are op- .said, they relied on help from other pressed. They deserve o 9r friendly countries, including the said Simon, who served in the pro-American governments of El -Cabinets of Presidents Richard M. Salvador and Honduras. Gradually, , Nixon and Gerald R. Ford:. ' WASHINGTON=In a conserva- tive backlash against Congress' rejection of U.S. aid for Nicaraguan rebels, private campaigns to fund the contras appear to be gaining momentum-with tacit encourage- ment from the Reagan Administra- tion. Organizations raising monei for the rebels against Nicaragua's left ist regime say that contributions have jumped noticeably since the - Democratic-controlled House turned down President..Reagan's , request for $14 million in aid two weeks ago. = And a newspaper affiliated with the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon announced Tues- day that it has formed a new group, led by former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon and former U.N. Ambassador Jeane.J. Kirkpatrick, to raise $14 million to undo what Simon called "Congress' cowardly act." Nonstop Phone Calls "The telephone has been ringing almost nonstop for a week," said Bosco Matamoros, Washington, representative of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest con- tra group. "The mail has been full of checks. People want to do some- thing for us. After what Congress did, they feel betrayed and de- - ceived." . ; , "We have - seen an increased response ever since Congress vot- ed." said retired Maj. Gen. John K. Sin lau chairman of the conser- vative World Anti-Communist.. League and a major private . "The ?fund-raiser. for the contras. :American people believe Congress t.made''a'imistake to come down on ?ithe side of the Sandinistas."' ?_ r .i ,Officially,- Reagan'- Administra "_tion;,'spokesmen' say! they. neither 1encourage -nor. discourage , private .,contributions to the contras. White House' spokesman, Larry Speakes, traveling. with President Reagan in though, they built a network that tapped into conservative organiza- tions and donors in the United States and elsewhere. . - Approved For Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200008-1 Approved For Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200008-1 " I, believe very strongly that Congress behaved in a very cow- ardly fashion. Whatever happened to the Monroe Doctrine that' I learned about as a kid?" Simon said the new fund would provide supplies 'directly to the Nicaraguan Democratic Force and acknowledged that it was born of both political and humanitarian' concerns. "We support the freedom;, fighters' struggle," he said. "If we are able even to provide support to the refugees, this takes pressure off . the fighting men," Singlaub said. "Many (of the refu- gees) are families of the freedom fighters. It is a morale factor. So I'm encouraging all humanitarian ef- forts." He said his organization also has provided small boats, outboard mo- tors and boots from the United States, as well as money for weap- ons and ammunition from overseas donors. The Sandinista government, not surprisingly, opposes the new ef- forts to aid the contras. "We believe. it'.'is unlawful for- private individuals in this country to finance military' acts against Nicaragua," said; Paul Reichier, a Washington lawyer who advises the Managua rggime on legal is- sues. "It is a criminal law violation of the Neutrality. Act . . . and in terms of sending money or supplies for logistical purposes, these people are plainly subject tc the possibility of civil lawsuits from the victims, which include the government of Nicaragua, individuals and compa- nies which sustain damage." Reichier, however, said that the Reagan Administration is unlikely to invoke the Neutrality Act and conceded that a civil suit could be difficult to win. . "It depends on the nature of the aid," he said. "And you could run into some problems '. . proving that Jeane Kirkpatrick's contribu- tion caused a specific piece of damage." Approved For Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606200008-1