HOUSE LOOSENS RULES ON NICARAGUAN REBEL AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605040052-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 52
• Publication Date: November 19, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release. 2012/_05/0.4 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605040052-3
19 November 19851
HOUSE LOOSENS RULES ON NICARAGUAN REBEL AID
BY ROBERT PARRY
WASHINGTON
The House an Tuesday approved a compromise -bill that allows the Reagan
administration to send aircraft and ground -vehicles to Nicaraguan rebels as long
as the equipment is not egraipped "to inflict serious bodily harm ar death."
The bill, approved 387-21, also would provide sophisticated radios to the
rebels. but would continue a ban against the CIA advising or trainir- ~-'--~-t
xheir 4-year-old war against Nicaragua's leftist government..
The Senate is expected to give the bill final approval-later this week. It
will then go to President Reagan for his signature.
l.ast_s~immer, Congress agreed to resume $27 million in non-lethal aid to the
s and permitted the CIA to share intelligence with the rebels, but barred
additional U.S, support.
The bill approved Tuesday clarifies those provisions and slightly loosens
constraints on U.S. -aid. ~t allows the CIA to-give the rebels special secure
radios and train them in transmitting CIA -supplied intelligence about
Nicaraguan government forces to rebel base camps.
The.bill also states that the X27 million can be spent to buy "transportation
equipment ... so long as no modifications are made ... designed to be used to
inflict serious bodily harm or death."
Congressional sources said that provision clears the way-for the
administration to send planes, helicopters, ambulances and trucks to the. rebels
even if-the vehicles are used Later to transport military equipment or troops.
Until now, a special State Department office established to distribute that
aid has refused to spend the money to buy vehicles for the rebels, using the.
funds mostly for food, medicine and clothing.
Although supporting the compromise. bill, House Republicans said they hoped
Congress would remove all restrictions on U.S. aid to tt~e rebels if Reagan, as
expected, proposes a resumption of direct, military assistance early next year.
Denouncing. the Nicaraguan government as a Soviet satellite, Rep. Dick Cheney,
R-Wyo., a House Intelli ence Committee member, urged Congress to "remove the
restrictions Wh1Ch hobb~e the president in protecting U.S, interests in Central
America."
But Rep. Ted Weiss, D-N.Y., said he feared that repeated steps toward easing
limits on Nicaraguan rebel aid are "taking us closer and closer to direct
military involvement."
verall, the debate of the 1986 intelligence authorization bill was much less
heated than previous battles over Reagan's policy of using the CIA to train
and supply the rebels. The CIA backed the guerrillas covertly from 1981 until
1984, when Congress cut off the assistance.
The intelligence authorization bill also sets levels for worldwide U.S.
sending on the CIA and other intelligence agencies, but those figures are
kept secret.
Rep. i_oufs Stokes, D-Ohio, said that in the new bill,. the substantial growth
in intelligence spending that has occurred during the 198Ds is "substantially
slowed."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/04 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605040052-3