WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE WILL WE BE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100400002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

g~ Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100400002-8
pRT I CLB iPF~'~~
0>r PAQE A~
LOS AIQGELES TIMES
24 March 1985
JACK BEATTY ,
? ~ le vcrill we be?
~~hat kind of peop
s
s
r
d
is America
of Reagan, it
Wat h, in the age
igna Barreda de Ubeda si ari ri htsdyro phAmerica's
knows something about m g g
the men Presi aes called lion is seek-ng to drum up supporttfor dally when they are as small as Nica-
ave t ~e
id Reagan h
~
o
l
a
hemisphere.
our
in
"the moral equals of onr tarts atStat 4Department officiate con- cheek to be
Founding Fathers," the rebels seek g P While the America's Watch report
to overthrow the Nicaraguan govern- ceded that the congas have been run- makes clear that the Sandinistas are
ment. Ms. de Ubeda, 29, and her hus- ning amok. "'fhe have aq roblem not the moral equals oC the Founding
band were visiting a relative in the with young girls," he was noted ap Fathers either, it does not portray
Nicaraguan border town of Sapote saying: in othep words, they .kidna Nicaragua as a Communist totalitar-
when they were abducted by rebel sol- and rape for s ort, these Franklins ian state. But even if it were, by subsi-
diers. "There were 50 or 60 of them in and Washingtons of freedom. dizing the contras' terrorism, the Ad-
the group," she told a reporter for the arLlisres onsible f o~ these outrages. ministration would be giving anticom-
New York Times, "and over five days, p Y p munism a bad name. For our anticom-
they took turns raping me until each More than $80 million of our taY mon- munism is not an end in itself. We
had his chance." While they were rap- ~y has flowed to the contra arm since -
ing her, these avatars of Jefferson and the Reagan Administration began its hate communism because its essence
Madison stabbed her with bayonets in program of covert aid in 1981: and if is concentrated in what George Orwell
the legs and side. And they forced her Congress goes along with Reagan in a called the central image of totalitar-
Husband to watch. vote expected later this month, the ianism: a jackboot crashing down on a
aid, which it cut off last year, will re- human face, the face of a woman like
Santos Roger Briones, 16, has also sume. Digna Barreda de Ubeda, or that of a
had a glimpse of the contras' terror- The Administration has been boy like Santos Briones. We hate com-
e ism. Along with 30 other unarmed ci- prodigal with rationales for aiding the munism because of what it does to de-
vilian volunteers assigned to pick cof- contras. It has argued that since Nica- cent people like them: because it is
!fee beans, he was riding in a govern- ragua is supplying the Salvadoran cruel, because it is based not on law or
ment-owned dump truck when it was' guerrillas, we are justified in loosing consent but on terror. In short, the
ambushed by the contras. Thrown off guerrillas against Nicaragua. But a values and repugnances that make us
the truck by the force of an explosion, CIA operative who spent two years loathe communism must make us
~ Santos Briones feigned death as men lookin:s for evidence to back up the Ad- loathe the contras, too. For in the end,
in blue uniforms stole his boots and ministration's claim said last year it is what we hold dear that divides us
wallet: he then listened, horrified, as that, in the words of the Americas from the Communists: That they have
they cut the throats of the people who Watch report " 'it simpiy is not missiles pointing at us does not give us
stayed on the truck. Next, they set the ere.' " The Adm~nistrat~on has ar- the moral warrant to hate their sys-
truck on fire. "From where I was ly- gued that the Sandinista regime of tem, not when we have missiles point-
ing," he told a reporter, "I could hear Nicaragua violates the human rights .ing at them.
the groans and screams of those who of its people in the most wanton way. One test for the morality oC possible
were being burned alive." Twenty-one and that for humanitarian reasons it action, John Dewey wrote, is to ask
civilians were killed in that attack, must be removed. But America's yourself: What kind of -person do I
some as young as 5, others as old as Watch concludes that ''the Adminis- want to be? And to reject actions that
60. tration has used human rights argu- would sully your idea of yourself. That
These and other atrocities were the ments with a profound cynicism and is the question of national morality
subject of a recent report by a three- disregard for truth." Finally, it has raised by Reagan's plan to resume aid
~ member team led by Reed Brody, afor- cited the swollen size of Nicaragua s to the contras. Do we.want to be a na-
mer New York State assistant attor- army as an ominous sign of her ag- ~ -lion that rents killers by the pound to
g fight dirty little wars, yr do we want to
E ney genera]. The repot'C;Iisted 28 jnci= gressive desi ns on her neighbors - as
dents that tt says resulted in the assa- " if the Administration itself had not be that haven of hope of the Founding
~ sination, torture, rape, kidnapping provoked Nicaragua's heavy-handed Fathers' noblest dream? What kind of
and mutilation of civilians." (The New conscription by fielding an army- People do we want to be?
a ainst her. '~~~ '
York Times re-interviewed several w it- g Jack Beatt is a senior editor of
Drivin these at'guments is a primi- y
nesses cited in the report to confirm its tiveideolo ical antagonism: Nicaragua the Atlantic Monthly.
accuracy.) The Brody report, and a g
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100400002-8