CIA chief backtracks on leaked war plans

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Led anti-government guerrillas in Government out of power. They News Bulletin No 20 May-June 1983 After unguarded statements on the American covert war in Nioramia looked mit from. I avalagua icantu vur mum secret testimony to a Congressional committee, the Director of the CIA has been forced to issue a hasty and embarrassed denial.

CIA chief William Casey had according to the New York Times - told congressional intelligence ommitees tal me vo-spunsur- thant th~ Nicaragua were planning a steady increase in fighting, culminating in a pincer assault on Managua later this year.

One Republican Senator echoed this, telling the NYT:

"We were told that there were 7,000 rebels and their numbers are -growing. The scenario they presented us has the rebels picking up more and more popular support, which will produce desertions in the Nicaraguan military, all setting the stage for a drio on Minnamin tint farnar tha El Salvador Solidarity Campaign: affiliation £5 for individual and £10 for orgagisations, from 29 Islington Park St., London N1. (01-359 2270) think it can work."

"They" refers to Casey and to Thomas Enders, Reagan's Assistant Secretary of. State for Inter-American Affairs, a leading spokesman on the Central American wars.

The New York Times also quotes "a senior national security official familiar with covert operations in Nicaragua "as saying that one force attacking Managua would come from the North in the CIA bases on the Honduran border; a second would be from the east, drawing forces from Miskito Indians, and a third "Southern Front" would be manned by forces led by Eden Pastora, the renegade Sandinista now in league with the US imperialists.

The NYT sensibly points out that Congressmen are sceptical about the feasibility of these plans and the actual numbers on the ground in the CIA's cobbled anti-Sandinista army of what Reagan. has called freedom fighters".

There is indeed no evidence that the murderous gangs of former Somocista * National Guardsmen and CIA mercenaries are securing any significant popular support inside Nicaragua: most of their bloody operations are in the least populated areas.

But Casey's plans are not only ill-conceived: they are also strictly speaking illegal under the terms of the "Boland amendment" passed last December which forbids the CIA from attempting to overthrow the Sandinistas.

This is why, as soon as the information on his secret testimony leaked to the press, Casey was forced to issue an immediate and unconvincing denial that any such prediction was made. But an indication of the mood of the far right of Reagan's Republican Party came in an outburst from Barry Goldwater, chair of the Senate Intelligence. ' Committee.

Reagan should declare that US troops will be used in El Salvador - and announce his willingness "if necessary" to invade Cuba, insisted Goldwater.

He claimed that the situation had changed substantially in El Salvador since a month ago -when Reagan won applause from both houses of Congress for his assurance that there were no plans to send US troops to Central "I would not oppose invading Cuba if it continues to try to Cubanise our friends in South America", declared Goldwater.

The problem which produces such extravagant statements is the failure of massive military and economic aid to "Americanise" El Salvador - where the guerrilla forces of the FMLN are gaining ground on the army of the puppet regime.

Solidarity with the workers and peasants of El Salvador and Nicaragua against the imperialist offensive will remain a central task for the workers' movement as the struggles unfold. Special issue on struggle in the unions: also contains articles on workers' politics and national liberation, and the Stalinist state 'unions' 70p (plus 16p p&p) from 135, London N1 ODD

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JOHN HARRIS WE SAC MAG

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