CONTRA WANTS 'NONLETHAL AID' TO INCLUDE PLANES, TRUCKS, BOATS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504870053-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: August 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504870053-3 STAT
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WASHINGTON POST
18 August 1985
contra Wants `Nonlethal Aid'
To Include Planes, Trucks, Boats
U.S. Has Yet to Define $27 Million Humanitarian Program
Joanne Omang
w Po.~ swr w~
The $21 million that the United States has agreed to
provide in "nonlethal aid" to the rebels fighting the Ni-
caraguan government will be spent not just for food,
medicine and clothing but for small airplanes, trucks,
jeeps, boats, outboazd motors, parachutes and commu-
nications equipment, if Adolfo Cakro has his way.
Calero, head of the Nicaraguan Democratic Forces,
the largest group of counterrevolutionaries, or contras,
acknowledged in an interview here last week that his
wish list might become controversial in Congress,
where debate over the aid focused on how to defime
"humanitarian assistance "President Reagan signed the
appropriations bill containing the $27 million on Friday
in California.
Calera said he is only seeking what his forces need. "I
would love to have some helicopters " he added.
The defurition of the "humanitarian aid" Congress
approved has not been determined. State Department
officials have said they do not plan to go beyond the
intent of Congress, but Congress was divided on the
issue. Also, the legislation prohibits the Central Intel-
ligence Agency and the Defense Department from ad-
ministering the aid program but does not say how it
could be run.
An aide to Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.), head of
the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Western
Hemisphere affairs, said the items on Calero's list "do
not fall within the parameters of human assistance as
we define it. Barnes' view is that it means food, clothing
and medicine, period," the aide said.
House and Senate debate on the issue was heated. In
an April 24 exchange with House Republican Leader
Robert H. Michel Jr. (R-III.), Barnes warned that the aid
could be "logistical support for an army" and wondered
whether it would include "airplanes, helicopters, uni-
forms, construction equipment, trucks, helmets, dyna-
mite?"
Michel said it was "a bald-faced lie to characterize it"
as military aid
An aide to Re .Dave McCurdy (D-0kla.), chairman
of the oversi ht subcommittee o t e ouse ermanent
3e ect mmittee on Inte Ggence, said t e aw "ex-
cludes vehicles or materials that can be used to inflict
serious bodil harm or death. We're oin to watch that
ve closet .. if there's an indication t e mone is
being used for military purposes, the coalition that
passed it] would fall apart," the aide said.
ro sad he and other leaders of the United Ni-
~caraguan Opposition, Arturo Cruz and Alfonso Robelo,
plan to meet in Miami this week to agree on a final list
of their needs to be given the State Department.
State Department officials said an interagency group
will decide whether the items can legally be provided to
the counterrevolutionaries. "Nobody intends to go
azound what Congress wants. That would just be stu-
pid," one official said.
He added that a memo outlining a new "Office of Hu-
manitarian Assistance" in the State Department to ad-
minister the program was awaiting the return from Cal-
ifornia of Robert C. McFarlane, Reagan's national se-
curity affairs adviser, who is expected to approve the
proposal.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504870053-3
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-0096580005048700w53~-3
~'G.. .
Adolfo Calera: "I would love to have some helicopters."
Calero said he would like the planes to be DC3 trans-
ports. Aused Hughes 500 helicopter that can carry
more than a dozen people can be purchased on the in-
ternational market for about $150,000, he said, and
parachutes would be used to drop food and medical sup-
plies to troops in remote areas. t
Calero again predicted that his troops will be in Ma-
nagua in 10 to 12 months, without having to hold ter-
ritory permanently or declare a shadow government.
Constant defections to the rebel side, continual Sandi-
nista military losses and rising public unrest will cause
the Sandinista leaders "just to get on a plane and leave,
like Somoza did," he said, referring to the departure
from Nicaragua in July 1979 of former dictator Anas-
tasio Somoza just before the Sandinistas took power.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504870053-3