High-Altitude Handbooks

Ever since its existence became known last October, the CIA'S how-to book for Nicaraguan rebels, Psychological Operations in Guerrilla War, has been high profile. When it was being distributed in Nicaragua, however, it seems the manual was also highflying. Congressional investigators revealed last week that packets of the controversial booklets were attached to about 100 specially designed balloons and floated from neighboring Honduras to Nicaragua last March to scare the leftist Sandinista government by creating the impression that the Washington-backed rebel effort was more widespread than it was. The airborne handbooks, coated in plastic to make them water-resistant, were among 3,000 printed at CIA headquarters. But only a fraction were ever sent aloft, because the agency was short of money and the balloon blitz had no discernible effect on the Sandinistas.

In its final report on the entire handbook operation, the House Intelligence Committee last week concluded that the manual, which advised rebels to "neutralize" opponents, violated a 1982 law barring efforts to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. But the panel blamed the illegal action on "negligence, not intent to violate the law." That may not be the end of the matter, however. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, promised that his panel will "take a much harder look at overall CIA management."