OCR Text |
Show CIA spends $250,000 a month on Nicaraguan rebel war j Washington What is the CIA's ! guerrilla campaign in Nicaragua costing the American taxpayer? No ! one will say for sure. But we sent our j associate Jon Anderson to ; Nicaragua to talk with rebel comuiauu-; comuiauu-; ers who are leading the fight against the Sandinista forces. For the first j time, some of the guerrillas talked ac-' ac-' tual dollars and cents to an American ! reporter. j The people our associate inter-I inter-I viewed were leaders of the Miskito In-j In-j dian forces. There are 2,000 of these i Indians fighting the Sandinista govern-! govern-! ment's troops in the swamps and 1 bayous of Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, j The Miskitos said the CIA offered j rebel forces an initial sum of $80,000 j but they say they never saw a dime of j it. They get their money and supplies j through the CIA's favorite rebel group, j the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, J known as the FDN. The Miskitos say the FDN kept the whole $80,000. For a while, they said, they also got $50,000 a month. But now they complain com-plain that "the gringos" the CIA have cut their allowance back to $35,000 a month. This does not include arms and ammunition just food, transportation and other supplies. The FDN numbers about 13,000 men, almost seven times as large as the Miskito rebel army. It's a sate assumption assump-tion that the CIA is paying its favorite guerrillas at least as much per man as it pays the Indians. A little arithmetic shows that the bill for the CIA's not-so-secret war is more than a quarter of a million dollars a month. And that's not counting weapons and ammunition. In fact, the FDN guerrillas are probably getting a lot more per capita than the Miskito Indians. Miskito leaders complained that while their men are going hungry, the FDN rebel leaders are living in luxury at the CIA's expense. The Indians said the FDN commanders are paid $3,500 a month and have houses and expenses paid by the CIA that is, by American taxpayers. Other officers get $2,000 a month, the Indians claimed. Good place to work: Congress has been considering whether to increase the U.S. allocation to the Internationa Monetary Fund, a lending institution designed primarily to help poor nations with their economic problems. But we have swn international documents docu-ments which show that new money would not be enough to save the IMF. One reason: Too much of the organization's organiza-tion's funds are spent to support the lavish lifestyles of a few individuals. Twenty percent of the IMF's 1,500 employees make more than $100,000 a year in salaries and benefits. The average upper-echelon official makes $139,000 annually. He or she is also entitled en-titled to 14 percent of that figure in future pension benefits. In addition, top IMF officials are offered home loans at 8 percent below current mortgage mort-gage rates. Unenforced rules: Hazardous waste has become one of the country's biggest health problems, and new regulations have been proposed to reduce the menace. But a major reason for toxic dumping, spills and other mishaps is that the existing regulations simply aren't working. Current laws require that detailed shipping manifests must accompany hazardous waste shipments at all times. If the manifest system is properly used, it would almost guarantee guaran-tee proper waste disposal. But the rules are sloppily enforced. Forged manifests, mislabeled containers con-tainers and improper packaging of waste are commonplace. When violations are found, little is done to correct them. Congress has now taken up legislation that would force small businesses, currently exempt from the manifest system, to be more accountable accoun-table for the hazardous waste they produce. But no matter how the system is tightened, it won't work unless the rules are enforced. Intelligence digest: According to intelligence in-telligence sources, Saudi Arabian officials of-ficials have been cleaning house by eliminating some of the enemies they fear the most. Among those most hated are Shiite fundamentalists such as those who rule Iran. Several dozen have been charged with attempting to set up a Shiite state in eastern Saudi Arabia. At least half a dozen have been executed by being tossed out of airplanes air-planes flying over the desert. By supporting Syria, the Soviet Union may have established a new strategic toehold. Since being kicked out of Albania over two decades ago, the Russians have been seeking a permanent aircraft carrier berth in the Mediterranean. The Kremlin now expects Syria to provide it. ' Intelligence sources say the Soviets continue to give the Scandinavian Scan-dinavian nations tons of trouble. A few months ago, Russian submarines were lurking in Swedish waters. Now a Soviet diplomat has been thrown out of Norway tor trying to buy secrets from a military officer. Sources say the officer of-ficer was offered $28,000 for the secrets twice as much bait as the Russians usually dangle. 1 1 (c) 1983 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. |