'FRONTLINE' EXAMINES NICARAGUA'S CONTRAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201300001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 18, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201300001-8
ON PAGE
TV Reviews
'JE4 YORK TIMES
18 March 1986
`Frontline'Examines
Nicaragua's Contras
CREDIT "Frontline," public
television's weekly documen-
tary series, with staying on
top of the news. "Who's Run-
ning This War?" looks at the Nicara-
guan rebels, the contras. Tomorrow
the House of Representatives debates
whether to give the contras $100 mil-
lion in aid, and on Thursday it is
scheduled to vote on the issue. Repre-
sentatives swayed by "Frontline"
are likely to vote no. "Frontline," on
Channel 13 at 10 o'clock tonight,
knows which side it favors.
The one-hour program looks specif-
ically at the Nicaraguan Democratic
Front, the largest rebel group fight-
ing the Sandinistas. "Frontline" finds
it to be an ineffectual fighting force,
with "a notoriously bad record on
human rights." Its leaders all seem
to be former followers of the dictator
Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and any
legitimacy, or moral purpose, is not
apparent. Meanwhile, its United
States supporters, some of whom
may act illegally, are all rich right
wingers.
?
What's wrong with these findings is
that there is nothing wholly right with
them. The context is askew. The pro-
ducer, Martin Smith, has taken a
political position, and then selected
facts to uphold the position. Journal-
ism is supposed to work the other way
around.
Consider, for example, the charge,
or insinuation, that the leaders of the
Nicaraguan Democratic Front are all
former Somocistas. The State De-
partment. trying to rebut charges like
that, said last month that only 27 per-
cent of the 153 "most senior military
leaders" of the front were once mem-
bers of Mr. Somoza's National guard,
while 20 percent were former mem-
bers of Sandinista security forces; 5.3
percent, it said, were civilians with
no military background at all.
The State Department figures may
be questioned. In citing so many
''senior military leaders," the State
Department seemed to be reaching
down to sergeant and corporal. On the
other hand, "Frontline" recognizes
no front leader who was not a Soma
cista. It is walking a very thin line.
Thus it presents Col. Enrique
Bermudez and Adolfo Calero as the
two principal leaders of the front.
Colonel Bermudez did, in fact, sup-
port Mr. Somoza; he was his last mili-
tary attache in Washington. "Front-
line" shows him as unrepentant,
which, presumably, he is. Then it
gives us Mr. Calero, a burly man in
fatigues, whom it identifies only as
the former Coca-Cola distributor in
Managua. It neglects to mention that
Mr. Calero opposed Mr. Somoza, who
then threw him in jail.
We get a selective vision here.
Facts that do not fit the political posi-
tion are ignored, or else brushed off in
asides. Clever film editing helps. A
former rebel supporter, for instance,
denounces the contras. Then Presi-
dent Reagan, fatuously, given the
context, says of the contras: "They
are our brothers - these freedom
fighters."
This is followed by a quick aside by
the narrator, presumably because it
is not important: Since 1979, he says,
the Sandinista Army has grown from
8,000 to 65,000 soldiers, equipped with
Soviet tanks and helicopters, and
trained by Cuban advisers; there is
also a militia of 200,000.
Then back to the main argument: A
contra in fatigues shouts, "War! Kill!
Blood! Die!" The camera lingers; ob-
viously, the contra is crazed. The
narrator tells us then that the con-
tras, managed by the Central Intelli-
e e enc were never a mi its
rest to e d ini to were
not mostly for "cruelt ' and ine ti-
tt e." In 1984, therefore, Congress
cut off aid. Then, another aside:
"Despite their lack of military suc-
cess," the narrator says, ''problems
inside Nicaragua led to a swelling of
contra ranks."
The "problems" are not described;
apparently they're not important ei-
ther. In fact it was widely reported
that the swelling of contra ranks was
caused largely by Roman Catholic
peasants from northern Nicaragua,
who fled the Sandinistas. "Frontline"
also fails to mention that, inept as the
contras may have been in 19254, they
still operated in one-third of Nicara-
gua. They withdrew after United
States aid was withdrawn.
"Frontline" does note the existence
of anti-Sandinista groups other than
the Nicaragua Democratic Front, but
declines to say anything about them.
Eden Pastora Gomez, the leader of
the Democratic Revolutionary Al-
liance, who has rejected the front, is
not mentioned. The attempt by Al-
fonso Robelo and Arturo Cruz, both
former Sandinistas, to introduce a
contra code of conduct is dismissed as
inconsequential. Human rights
abuses by Sandinistas, meanwhile,
are mentioned in only a single sen-
tence.
Indeed, the program reserves most
of its scorn for Americans who sup-
port the contras, 'particularly John
Singlaub, a retired major general,
who raises financial support . He does
this, "Frontline" indicates, chiefly
among rich Texans and Arizona reti-
rees. The retirees sing "Hail, Hail,
the Gang's All Here." One rich
Texan, who gave $65,000 to buy a heli-
copter (a very small, second-hand
helicopter, presumably) says that
General Singlaub was "undoubtedly
sent by the Lord." Contra supporters
look foolish.
"Frontline" also explores, correct-
ly, the White House connection to
General Singlaub. It identifies Lieut.
Col. Oliver L. North, a member of the
National Security Council, as the man
he dealt with. In its zeal, however,
"Frontline" then indicates that a
White House request that photo-
graphs of Colonel North not be pub-
lished was part of a cover-up. In fact,
when The New York Times first pub-
lished reports on Colonel North's ac-
tivities, it withheld his name because
the White House said Colonel North's
life would be endangered if he were
identified. This doesn't suggest a
cover-up. There may be a case to be
made against financing the contras,
but it's not being made here.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201300001-8