The mining of harbors in Nicaragua is — frankly speaking — an act of war. The United States’ part in the mining is — without a doubt — the action of a belligerent aggressor.
There really are no two ways about it. The Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement with the mining of Nicaraguan harbors is a reprehensible action on par with Iraq and the Soviet Union’s use of chemical warfare.
However, the Senate, by a 6 to 1 margin, approved a resolution Tuesday calling for the end to CIA funding of the mining operation. That may pull the CIA up short.
According to reports, the CIA decision to mine Nicaraguan harbors was approved on the recommendation of Robert McFarlane, White house national security adviser, the Pentagon and President Ronald Reagan. Apparently, the only member of the Reagan administration who had “misgivings” about the mining was Secretary of State George Schultz.
The Reagan administration has refused to accept the jurisdiction of the World Court to express an opinion on the United States involvement in Central America. It seems that the Reagan administration would prefer to use the opinion of the World Court only when it serves their end and does not criticize their actions.
But there is some dissention inside the White House over the administration’s decision to circumvent the World Court’s opinion. Fred Fielding, White House counsel, and James Baker, White House chief of staff, questioned the administration action regarding the World Court.
Senator Edward Kennedy and the Democratic (and some Republican) members of the Congress are loudly criticizing this latest aberration in Reagan’s Central American policy.
Kennedy told the media that it “is time to call a halt to the secret war in Nicaragua. If the rubber-stamp Republican Senate will not halt it, I am very hopeful the House of Representatives will.”
Seven Democrats in the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere wrote a letter to Schultz asking for an end to the U.S. role in the mining and for a reversal of the administration’s position on the World Court.
The reason behind the Reagan administration’s refusal to accept any comment from the World Court on its Central American policy is obvious. The Reagan administration is escalating its secret war in Nicaragua. But that war is no longer secret and U.S. involvement in Central America is increasingly coming under the censure it deserves.