Ban on Private Aid to Contras Asked : 2 Congressmen Hope to Toughen U.S. Neutrality Act

Two congressmen introduced legislation Tuesday that would prohibit aid by private individuals or groups to counterrevolutionary forces in Nicaragua or any other country where Congress has barred covert assistance by the U.S. government.

Reps. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) and Jim Leach (R-Iowa) said at a news conference that their bill is aimed at toughening the Neutrality Act, which already forbids military aid by private parties to any foreign group and subjects offenders to $250,000 fines and three-year jail terms.

Levine said the legislation could single out individuals such as former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon, who Levine said has been named in press reports along with W.R. Grace & Co. Chairman J. Peter Grace and Prescott Bush, brother of Vice President George Bush, as having given aid to Nicaraguan contras, as the rebels are commonly called .

Simon, reached by telephone, reacted angrily, saying: “Nothing ever surprises me at what some of those jackasses in Washington will say.” He said he, Grace and Bush are members of the board of Americare, an organization that he said ships food and medical supplies around the world. Some of the supplies reportedly have gone to families of anti-Sandinista guerrillas in Honduras and Nicaragua.

“And nobody’s going to have anything to do with what food we send where,” Simon added. “Least of all the Levines and the Leaches, who seem to have been behind the door when the brains were passed out.”

Fred Bona, a spokesman for Grace, said he was surprised that the congressmen had not checked with Americare or Grace before making the charges against them. He confirmed that the relief agency has sent food and medicine--but no military supplies--to El Salvador and Guatemala. He said that nothing had been earmarked for the contras.

‘Clear Foreign Policy’

Levine told reporters that the bill he and Leach are sponsoring seeks to ensure that “once Congress enacts clear foreign policy legislation, it must not be undermined by private citizens conducting a contrary foreign policy.”

Both congressmen denied that the change in the law would restrict freedom of speech. Leach said that it “is not the citizen’s right to declare war--the citizen’s right to declare war implies anarchy and that is what we are trying to prevent.”

Levine said the proposal would not apply to private aid for anti-Communist rebels in Afghanistan or for the Irish Republican Army, which is trying to gain the ouster of British authority from Northern Ireland. The U.S. government has tried to stop the channeling of funds to the outlawed IRA.

The restriction, the congressman said, would apply only to countries where a specific congressional ban on covert activity exists, currently Nicaragua and Angola.

In a related development Tuesday, the leader of the largest contra group, Adolfo Calero of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, refused at a news conference to identify those who contribute to his group.

“I will describe them for you,” he said with a smile. “They are people who put their money where their mouth is.”

Other contra officials have said the rebels are maintaining their forces with a combination of private funding and help from Honduras and El Salvador. Diplomats in Central America have also said that Israel is providing weapons to one rebel faction.

Calero said the contras have extended their deadline to April 20 for the Sandinista regime to accept a cease-fire and peace negotiations. Originally, the ultimatum had called on the leftist government to open talks with the rebels by today.