KEEPING CONTRA AID WITHIN LIMITS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605730003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 27, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
~ Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/27 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605730003-1
ORI PAGE ...La~..~
BOSTON GLOBE
27 September 1986
Keeping c~Mtra,~aid ,witriin limits.
"
de- :jouncing it off the backs of tJS
RANpOL~N RYAN " ` money voted -for neighboring
- mocracies," such as Honduras trucks on Honduran roads 'into
Since_;the Senate debate. on
Nicaragua in August, almost
nothing has been heard on the
subject; either from the adminis-
tration or from ,Congress.` House
Speaker O'Neill and about half the
members of. the Senate have not
and El Salvadpr. bushes full of contras. -
One huriil'ied million dollars. White House jawboning is like-.
over five months is not enough to ly to peak by Tuesday. The task
be decisive. After contra graft ac-~ for O'Neill and the others is to?in-
counts have been fattened',. sist -that the damage-control:;pro-
enough may remain to cause a few visions remain. in the CR, whidh
thousand more casualties -some Reagan will have to sign to .}seep
Sandinista and some contra -end writing
checks, and fo build ~
~~e-
,
.
quit~tryfitg,.however, to square US. with the.ClA openly in charge,. the cord of votes that will haunt the
policy with, the old belief that., mayhem wi more e c ently pro-war faction.
America- is; not -__at least should, managed. Sluicing half a billion ~ The administration thinks ~6e
not be - an~ aggressor. nat'iori;;` dollars into the war, though, could',, lesson of Vietnam is that Tl~lyd
They aim to limit the damage', ignite something serious. , World wars,can be wa ed if ~b~
done when the House and Senate" That issue should reemer e" g y
harrowl a ~ oved contra aid. ~ ` ~ -- ~ ~ g , .are farmed out to proxies so t}iat
N? .; .
y I?P~'., ... ., . ,. now because the summer's votes' 'no US casualties are incurred.
The administration has been`'; have not 'yet been`translated_ into But Congress, too, ought to 15ave
quietly preparing to nurture a ma= 'law-. O'N~tll' refused to name-- learned? a lesson from Vietri~ih:
jor war between early October, House me'ihbers of a conference belligerent administrations must
when Congress recesses so that committee that would have recon- be kept on a short leash. -
its members can campaign, and cited differences with the Senate. If O'Neill and Co. stick to their
sometime after Washington's That meant President Regan guns, lots of people win. Voters'get
Birthday, when the legislators re- never got a bill to sign. Contra aid a choice in Ndvember instead=,of
sume serious business.. was dumped into the mammoth tweedledee-tweedledum. Given
The "$100 million" voted for continuifig resolution (the "CR," such a choice, on this issue, Rea-
tfie contras is a misnomer. The in governmentese) covering spend- gap loses. Taxpayers save money.
administration is actually on the ing in the-'new fiscal year. American parents and children
verge of achieving a 10-fold-to-20- The task of those try' ing fo curb save: blood... Central America, -in-
fold increase in the subsidy for the the Nicaraguan war is damage eluding Nicaragua's. "democratic"
war in Nicaragua. control: to ensure that the CR con- neighbors,- wins by not being
In 1986,' the administration
'won $27 million in "humanitar-
tan aid," .but supplemented that
with money slipped to the contras
through CIA and Defense Depart-
ment subterfuges. The 1986 total
is uncertain, but $50 million is a.
conservative estimate.
Now.,. the administration is
about to acquire .rights to up to
three-quarters of a billion dollars
tams $100 million, period -not dragged into a maelstrom. ' '
"$100 milll~n" and much, much .Odd as it may seem, contrafoot
more, as has been planned. soldiers win because they a~~n't
The stopper is an amendment seduced into serving. as Reagan
offered by Sen. Robert Byrd that Doctrine cannon fodder.~Fven the
lost narrowly in August but will CIA comes out ahead. As it begins
be reinserted in the CR. It caps to refocus on the worthwhile work
contra aid at $100 million, stipti- of intelligence, it disentangles
lating that "no funds may be ex- from the stupid, immoral business
pended" except as specifically au- of creating gratuitous wars
thorized. That rules out CIA con- against the will
f
t
f"
th
o
mos
o
~
e
in mostly military _aid -along- tangency funds ,and comp icates American public. *4~
with the $100 million, up to $400 t e standard. Pentagon boondog- r,.
million from CIA contingency. "esl~as~ -.`Teasing"equipment, Ran~glph Ryan is a. m~miier
funds, and $300 million in hush lending it after maneuvers, or of the obe staff:
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/27 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605730003-1