Democratic Palestine : 4 (ص 39)
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- Democratic Palestine : 4 (ص 39)
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Israel Picks Up the Slack
Arming the Contras in Nicaragua
In July 1983 the New York Times reported the Reagan administration was preparing an alternative supply
line to the contras in case the U.S. Congress cut off American support. That supply line was to be Israel.
Congressional reaction to the mining of Nicaraguan harbors by the CIA has resulted in a cutoff of U.S.
funds for the contras. The transcript which follows demonstrates that the Israeli arms pipeline is in full
operation.
NBC News Nightly Broadcast
Anchorman: Tom Brokaw
Reporter: Fred Francis on assignment in
Honduras/Nicaragua
Date of Report: April 23, 1984, 5:30 p.m.
TB: Tom Brokaw
FF: Fred Francis
EB: Enrique Bermudez, Commander of the Rebel Forces
TB: We have learned that those American-backed rebels
fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua are getting lots of
weapons from one of America’s closest allies—Israel. As
Francis reports, however, it’s a dangerous business all the
way around.
FF: Soviet machine guns are used by the American-
backed rebels in the war for Nicaragua. NBC News has
learned that the state of Israel, at Washington’s urging, has
armed a quarter of the rebel army.
[Background of gunfire]
The rebels want Soviet weapons because they can cap-
ture ammunition from the Soviet-supplied Nicaraguan
enemy.
EB: We received sOme weapons from the, the, that Is-
raeli government took from PLO in Lebanon.
FF: Israe!’s Ariel Sharon, after two trips to Honduras,
offered the spoils of the 1982 Lebanese invasion to the so-
called covert war.
[Scene of clandestine airbase built by CIA]
The rebels store the weapons and ammunition here at this
clandestine airfield. We are not permitted to tell you where
we are, but it is from this field that the 47-year-old cargo
plane, supplied by Washington, flies its air-drop mission
deep into Nicaragua.
Crates of guns inventoried by the CIA. The agency must
approve every air drop into Nicaragua. Every one. Rebels
complain that they don’t get enough to arm all of their
volunteers, so they can only harass, not topple, the regime
in Managua.
Administration officials admit that they keep the rebels
on a tight leash. As a result, for instance, this is the only
cargo plane they are allowed to have.
CIA agents control this American-built airstrip and sev-
eral administration sources say those agents get their orders
from a special planning group at the White House. That’s
who controls this supply line to Nicaragua’s rebels.
It is a dangerous supply route. The C-47 is very slow.
Two others have gone down.
Four men and a door gunner protect it with automatic
weapons. The drop zone is 110 miles from Managua. Com-
mander Bermudez says 64 peasants are waiting for guns.
The rebel camp is sighted. The plane groans in a tight cir-
cle below a thousand feet. The men await a signal.
[Scene of the air drop from the plane]
The 64 volunteers stand fast in an L formation for orders
to uncrate 64 rifles, 22,000 bullets, and a medical kit.
Again, this is 110 miles from Managua.
[Scene of main rebel war room]
Bermudez offers a frustrated laugh at the White House
policy which won’t allow him to win.
FF: It’s not working is it?
EB: It is not working. There is a conflict between an
open war and with covert support.
FF: The rebels covert support could soon end. Many
congressmen now believe that the president’s policy is con-
fusing and immoral. So 13,000 rebels could be abandoned,
forced to turn again to Israel and others to save themselves
from becoming refugees of a war lost in a divided
Washington.
Fred Francis, NBC News, Honduras
November 29th Committee for Palestine
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