74
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECTi Briefing of the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Staff on the Central American Finding
1. Today, HPSCI staffers were briefed on the aboveby our Agency representatives. Following are lists of the HPSCI staffers and our briefers.
a. HPSCI staffers
irector BernieOiza
JamesAddington
Steven Berry
b. CIA personnel
Dewevompjj
hC/lAD/SAG/DDO
ld/ollJ
he purpose of this briefing was to provide the HPSCI staff with an overview of the activities under the Central America Presidential Finding since the last meeting with the staff which took place in This session would also serverebriefearing in front of the full Committee scheduled1 In view of the policy questions which were raised by he staffers during
represented during the full Committee hearing.
3. FDNi DeweyA/DDO, began the briefing with an overview of the activities of the FDN. P
In lateig FUN operation tookin ucotai where they seized temporary control of four or fiv. of the ten barrios in the town, held them for about two
November-early
December, tne FDN moved into Nueva Segobia in an attempt to choke off the main lines of communication.
1 Tne FDN nas been down as fari^guna wner* tneyank park. They were ableup one tank, but lost the element of surprise whenguided into the middle of Sandinista defenses, andto withdraw before they could do any additional
on* oc tne alnets> explodedatrol
boat, and we believe the other two were found and rendered
inert. The object of the exercise was an attempt to dis-
courage tankers from using the POL off-loading facility.
4. ARDEr
[along the river who
have rallied to ARDE and are crying tot support. Until
ecember, ARDE was conducting operations. As of that date, ARDE ran into supply problems which effectedand thereerceptible slackening of activity.
Approximately ten days ago, Pastoraomplete
stand-down on operationsf
bottom line is tnat Pastora wants the "whol. ball of wax" and wants to force us to recognise him as the unquestioned leader of the contra alliance. The Hiskito, although in an alliance with ARDE. are still fighting in spite of Pastora's orders.
KODP1 IO
was supposed to meet with Collero last
week, but this had to be postponedesult of Pastora's antics. Collero and Donald Castillo. ARDE's renrasentative in Mexico City, plans to contin
arde is interested in the individual groups maintaining their identities, but operating under the umbrella political organization.
figure
As far as strengths are concerned, our are very soft. I
6. ovementi A/DDO explained that thisroup which broke away from ARDE and is now operating in th< south. Apparently, this group became disenchanted with Pastora's dictates. Pastora saw this grouphreat and did all he could to marginalize their activities. The FDN didith some money for food,P
7. A/DDO spent some time explaining the background for recent problems with Pastora. The bottom line is that Pastora's underlings want to move north and get on with convergence. Pastora sees thishreat to his leadership
8., El Salvador i In the opinionA/DDO, the government of El Salvador is truly trying to do something about the right-wing death squads* When Avila was picked up by the civilians for suspected death squad activities and was released, the military re-arrested him. In addition to taking action on the death squads, the military is now appointing good people to key positions. We have now seen the first instance of meritorious promotions, whichramatic development. There have also been instances where commanders were fired for incompetence. Recently aColonel wasrigade command with two Colonels serving as subordinates. ot more needs to be done in the area of tactics, such as fighting at night. In order to improve dramatically, however, the Salvadorean Army needs assurances of constant military supplies. The on and off again supply system form*ebilitating affect.
e. We are now hearing that the Sandinistas realize they may have to get along without the Cubans, in the opinionA/DDO, the Sandinistas at this stage could not survivethe Cubans unless the exiles were allowed to return and activelyin the running of tha government
f. According to Secretary Schultz, the Mexicans have told the Sandinistas that the Soviet/Cuban presence in Nicaragua is unacceptable and the Americans would not leave the areathe Cubans were out. Mexico is an important player in the Central American situation.
n making an oblique reference to
lor this program and we depended on being alerted intime to procure what was needed. He went on to say weood idea of their usage rates and could usually plan ahead to fill their requirements.
im Bush also asked for projections on when we would run out of money, sinceillion was authorized for the program in
Ay UUU responded
that we would run out of money in May at current projections.
Original document.
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