News In Brief
| Washington
House unit says CIA manual a violation out of negligence
The House Intelligence Committee concluded Wednesday that the CIA's manual for Nicaraguan rebels violated a 1982 law barring US efforts to overthrow that nation's leftist government and revealed a lack of ''command and control of the entire Nicaraguan covert action.'' But the panel added that ''negligence, not intent to violate the law, marked the manual's history.''
Meanwhile, citing affidavits from Nicaraguans who say they have witnessed abuses by US-backed rebels, a civil liberties group is charging that the CIA's covert war and its controversial rebel manual have led to ''wholesale violations'' of US law and human rights. In testimony submitted to the House Intelligence Committee for its hearing on the manual, the Center for Constitutional Rights cited dozens of cases in which rebels allegedly raped, tortured, and murdered civilians.
