SPEAKES CONFIRMS SANDINISTA ARMS INCREASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050022-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: November 5, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050022-1
ATCLEAP
ON PAGE "N
WASHINGTON TIMES
5 November 1985
Speakes confirms Sandinista
arms increase
By Roger Fontaine
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The White House confirmed yes-
terday that Soviets have recently in-
creased arms aid to Nicaragua as
reported by The Washington Times
yesterday.
Spokesman Larry Speakes told re-
porters in a morning briefing that
U.S. intelligence had uncovered "a
serious increase in the amount of
armament being provided to the
Sandinista government" in the "the
last month or so." In a later briefing,
however, he declined to give any spe-
cifics on what the reconnaissance
photos taken by an SR-71 spy plane
Thursday night revealed.
"The Nicaraguan government is
carrying on a military buildup that
is far in excess of all its neighbors
combined and far in excess of any
defensive needs," Mr. Speakes said.
Mr. Speakes also noted that the
intended shipment to Nicaragua "co-
incides with the Sandinista govern-
ment's crackdown on civil liberties
and a military offensive against the
democratic resistance in Nicara-
gua."
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman also noted yester-
day "a significant increase in Soviet
arms shipments to Nicaragua, many
of which are transshipped through
Cuba," but hinted that such
transshipments are nothing new.
"I think it has been established in
fact that Cuba has been a staging
point for Soviet and other bloc arms
shipments for quite some time," he
said.
Other officials have said that al-
though Cuba has served as a transfer
point for arms destined elsewhere,
Soviet bloc vessels in the past have
delivered heavy arms directly to
Nicaraguan ports without using the
intermediary Nicaraguan
freighters.
U.S. officials contacted by The
Times indicated that the new ship-
ments were part of a recent increase
in Soviet heavy arms assistance to
Nicaragua after ending such deliv-
eries late last year. With the excep-
tion of tanks, however, they could not
identify any other type of weapon in
the current shipment.
In early November 1984, a Soviet
freighter at Nicaragua's Pacific port
of Corinto was thought to be carry-
ing MiG aircraft among other arms.
Direct deliveries of Soviet heavy
arms apparently stopped in the
glare of that highly publicized stop-
over, although shipments of ammu-
nition and other equipment contin-
ued.
[The Associated Press, quoting
unidentified U.S. officials, reported
reconnaissance photos revealed that
35 to 40 Soviet T54 and T55 medium
tanks and other military equipment
have arrived at the Cuban port of
Marie!.
[The equipment was transported
by a Soviet freighter and a second
vessel thought to be Bulgarian, the
AP reported, adding that the cargo
from both ships was being loaded
onto a Nicaraguan freighter.
[The AP also quoted U.S. officials
as saying that surface-to-air missiles
had been fired during the flight of
the SR-71, but that the plane was not
the target.]
Mr. Speakes refused to identify
the weapons in the arms shipment or
confirm that the SR-71 reconnais-
sance plane that photographed the
equipment in Mariel had been fired
on by Soviet-built SAMs.
The SR-71 returned safely
Thursday night to Beale Air Force
Base, home of the Ninth Strategic
Reconnaissance Wing, located ap-
proximately 60 miles north of Sacra-
mento, Calif.
The SR-71 can fly more than 2,000
miles per hour at an altitude of more
than 80,000 feet.
One State Department official
said yesterday that the arms have
not yet been sent to Nicaragua, and
the two Nicaraguan coastal
freighters remain in Cuban waters.
Another State Department offi-
cial who declined to be identified
also said that the SR-71 reconnais-
sance flight was meant to show the
Soviets "we were not backing down
in any way" at a time when Soviet
and U.S. officials were discussing
Central America in Washington.
Those meetings, which were held
Thursday and Friday last week, were
part of a series of Soviet-American
exchanges on regional problems. Al-
though the Russians did not mention
the SR-71 flight, one U.S. participant
called the discussions "totally
unproductive" with the Soviets act-
ing "very nasty" during the meet-
ings.
Previous talks have centered on
the Middle East, East Asia and
Afghanistan.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050022-1