AID TO CONTRAS EXPANDS U.S. NICARAGUA ROLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504130047-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 47
• Publication Date: November 16, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504130047-1
ARTIC_E AP ED
.,N PAGE
Aid to Contras
Expands U.S.
Nicaragua Role
By DOYLE McMANUS,
Timer Staff Writer
WASHINGTON-After a slow
and sometimes rocky start, the
Reagan Administration's aid to
Nicaragua's anti-Sandinista rebels
this year has reached $5.5 million,
will soon- hit $ll.&jWon and is
quietly expanding the U.S. role in
the jungle war, officials said Fri-
day.
A growing number of the rebels,
known as contras, are wearing
U.S.-made boots, belts and can-
teens supplied under a U.S. law
that permits "humanitarian" aid.
The CIA has increased its pres-
ence in the contra camps, congres-
sional sources said, both monitor-
ing the rebels' activities and giving
them U.S. military intelligence
about the Sandinistas. And soon,
officials said, the CIA will be giving
the contras new radio equipment to
help them act on tactical intelli-
gence.
But despite the renewed flow of
U.S. funds and optimistic reports of
swelling rebel ranks, the contras'
war has yet to get off the ground,
Administration officials say. The
rebels have mounted no serious
military offensive against the San-
dinistas since August.
Debating Goals
Politically, the contra leaders are
still debating the fine points of a
basic statement of their goals.
Their attempts to raise private
contributions for arms purchases
have bogged down. And some of
their new American aid is being
lost to corruption in Honduras,
their main supply base-perhaps as
much as 20%, one aide suggested.
"They still don't have their act
together," a State Department offi-
cial said. "They have not been easy
people to work with."
Contra leader Adolfo Calero ac-
knowledged that progress has been
slow. "You don't put these things
together overnight," he said in a
telephone interview from his base
in Miami.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
16 November 1985
But he rejected any suggestion
that corruption or inefficiency has
handicapped his guerrilla army of
17,000.
"That's not true; it's crap," he
said. "We are lean, efficient and
honest. That's how we managed to
stay alive and grow when we had,
no money."
The United States has been help-
ing the contras since 1981, when.
President Reagan first authorized
secret aid to the rebels in their fight
against Nicaragua's Marxist re-
gime. That program escalated until
1984, when Congress discovered
that the CIA had mined Nicara-
gua's harbors. In the furor that
resulted, the rebels' U.S. funds
were cut off.
New Vote In March
But last spring, Congress ap-
proved renewed aid, although the
funds cannot be used for weapons
or ammunition. That compromise.
however, was passed narrowly and
the issue is scheduled to come to
another vote in March.
Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Okla. ),
one of the key Democrats who
fashioned last summer's compro-
mise, said he has been disappointed
by the contras' inability to present
a coherent political program asl
well as their lack of military suc-
cess.
"If they're going to pose a real
alternative to the Sandinistas, they
have to develop something other
than a war machine; they have to
develop a clear political identity,"
he said. 'They haven't been able to
do it."
Contra officials say negotiations
on a common political program
have been slowed by disputes
among their leaders. "We're going
to have a detailed political pro-
gram, but it will be, maybe, another
month or so," Calero said.
On the military front, Calero said
that the Sandinistas' increased use
of Soviet-supplied Mi-24 helicop-
ters has forced the rebels to shift
their main operations eastward lience committees have approved
from Nicaragua's populated Pacific a secret provision in this year's
seaboard-their strategic target
earlier this year-into the lea
strategic but well-covered jungles
of the Atlantic coast. But he insist-
ed: "We're doing well.... We're saii
congressional sources
data
going to drive the Sandinistas cra-
zy."
ReaffirsesSuppert
President Reagan, in a 26-page
report to Congress on the opera-
tions of the rebel aid program this
week, reaffirmed his commitment
to their fight.
As of Oct. 31, the report said, the
State Department's Nicaraguan
Humanitarian Assistance Office
had granted $6.5 million to the
contras' umbrella organization, the
United Nicaraguan Opposition. An
official familiar with the program
said additional grants would soon
11 ado to bring the total up to
Contra leaders and some Admin-
istration officials have complained
that the State Department has been
slow in disbursing the funds. But
Robert W. Duemling, the former
ambassador'who runs the program,
said he believes his caution has
been in order.
"I want to keep this thing beyond
reproach,'. he said. "We are ...
not skating close to the edge."
Another official familiar with the
program said that roughly 65% of
the fund's payments have gone
directly to U.S. gupplidrs whom
bc. But
shipments are easily
in the case of food and other
supplies that are purchased in
Honduras or other countries, offi-
cials said, guarding against corrup-
tion is more difficult.
Another official said that as
much as 20% of the contras' local
expenditures may be skimmed by
officials in the countries they deal
with but warned that the figure "is
only a guess."
The CIA has quietly moved back
into a more active role in the
contras' war after Congress agffed
that it could provide U.S_ . intelli-
gence tote rebels, congressional
sources said, ivm the contras
information about Sandinista !!9W
movements based on U.S. surv -
ance flights and radio intercepts.
-intelligence authorization bill that
will allow the CIA tosupp y the
contras wito sophisticated os
for sending ' anreceiving uch
,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504130047-1