CIA CITED AS SUPPLIER FOR PLANES TO NICARAGUAN REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500064-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: September 15, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500064-5
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE --
WASHINGTON POST
15 September 1981i.
CIA Cited as supplier fo
Planes to Nicaraguan Nebel
By Blaine Harden and Joe Pichirallo
Washington Post Staff Writers
A raid by U.S.-backed rebels in
Nicaragua two weeks 'ago was ex-
ecuted with three rocket-equipped
aircraft supplied by the Central In-
telligence Agency as part of what
congressional critics charge may be
an administration effort to circum-
vent strict spending limits on its
"secret war" in Central America.
The assault on a Nicaraguan mil-
itary school near the Honduran bor-
der gained notice in the United
States because two Americans par-
ticipating with the rebels were
killed. The two, who had traveled to
Central America to "fight commu-
nism," died when Nicaraguan troops.
shot down a rebel helicopter in
which the pair was riding.
Although the helicopter crash
and the dead Americans drew wide-
spread attention in this country, the
attack was possibly more notable as
the first known instance of rebel
use of multiple aircraft in coordina-
tion with attacking ground troops.
Moreover, the previously unkngwn
guerrilla possession of the three
aircraft, all Cessna 02A observation
The nature of these transactions
has raised questions about possible
cooperation between the Defense
Department and the CIA to circum-
vent an explicit congressional ban
on supplying arms and equipment
beyond the $24 million specifically
appropriated to the CIA for aiding
the rebels during this fiscal year.
A senior administration official,
who could not comment on the spe-
cific aircraft used in the Sept. 1
raid, said yesterday that several
-other small noncombatant military
:aircraft have been transferred from
? the Air Force to the contras thru
the CIA.
In letters sent Thursday to Sec-
. retary of Defense Caspar W. Wein-
berger and CIA Director William'
,-Casey, Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.)
requested an explanation of what
happened to three Air Force Cessna
02As that disappeared from gov-
emment records after being de-
-clared "excess" last December. He
"charged that "transfer of surplus
military equipment at no cost to
support contra operations would
.. represent an outlay in excess of
the CIA legal spending limit ...."
senior Cu~
Sandinist
this, saying the contras' rockets
killed three children and a cook at
the: training school.
An account of how these three
Cessnas apparently were secretly
transferred from the New York Air
National Guard to Central Amer-
ica-with a stopover for arma-
ments at a private airfield tucked
away in the cornfields of rural Del-
aware-is a case study in the con-
duct of one aspect of the "secret
war" that has been financed by the
CIA since December of 1981, when
President Reagan first approved
covert assistance to the contras.
About $80 million in covert as-
sistance has been provided formally
to the rebels since the program be-
gan. Members of the House Intel-
ligence Committee, however, have
been concerned for several months
that the CIA has developed back-
door mechanisms to supply addi-
tional materiel to the rebels.
Large amounts of equipment
have been transferred from De-
fense to the CIA for the rebels, ac-
cording to Richard C. Lawrence,
who until last fall was director of
Central American affairs in the of-
fice of Nestor Sanchez, deputy as-
sistant secretary for Inter-Amer
ican affairs.
"We gave ' the agency pretty
much anything they wanted. In war
they're a fourth branch of the ser-
vice. There is a terrible gray area
about what -to do in semi-declared
wars [such as the "secret war" be-
tween U.S.-supported rebels and
Nicaragua). It helps to have the
[Defense Department] and CIA
working together in this situation,"
Lawrence said yesterday in a tele-
phone interview from his home in
Santa Fe, N.M. He was repeating
comments he made in a magazine
interview this summer.
Lawrence added that the transfer
of equipment between Defense and
the CIA was done under a "strict
accounting procedure."
planes specially outfitted with rock- The Defense Department re-
et pods, marks a significant esca- sponded to Sasser's letter yester-
lation in firepower for the rebels day by informing his office that top-
Both the CIA and the contras, as
the rebels are known, declined com-
ment on where the planes came
from or how they ended up flying
over the northern Nicaraguan jun-
gle. But information gathered
through sources in Congress, fed-
eral agencies, the aircraft industry
and through public documents in-
dicate that the three planes trav-
eled a long and circuitous route that
began last December at a National
Guard airport beside the Hudson
River in New York State.
in less than four months, custody
of the planes moved from the U.S.
Air Force, to a top-secret Joint
Chiefs of Staff operation code-
named "Elephant Herd," to the CIA,
..were transferred to the Joint
'..Chiefs'
Chiefs' "Elephant Herd" operation.
said the papers will be made
`'available Monday to him and to the
House and Senate intelligence. com-
mittees.
Congress refused administration
'requests for additional funding* for
the contras this fiscal year. Both
'the CIA and the contras have said
that current funds were exhausted
last May.
In the much publicized contra
,raid two weeks ago in Nicaragua,
the three 02As escaped without
being downed by Sandinista ground
fire. The Reagan administration,
which charges the leftist Sandinista
government with exporting com-
pany where they were armed, and : munism in Central America, says
ultimately to the contras, the rebel attack killed at least four
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500064-5