Lobbying Battle Over Contra Aid Intensifies : Movie Stars, Nobel Laureates Among Those Joining Debate Over $14 Million for Rebels

When members of Congress return today from their holiday recess, they will quickly be drawn into one of the most vigorous, emotional lobbying battles in recent history--the debate over President Reagan’s request for $14 million in aid to anti-government rebels in Nicaragua.

In addition to encountering the professional lobbyists who usually stalk the Capitol during a major legislative fight, the lawmakers can expect to be buttonholed by prominent figures ranging from Central American business leaders, victims of alleged atrocities and Hollywood movie stars to Nobel laureates, former government officials and church leaders.

They also will be subjected to a weeklong barrage of letter-writing campaigns, voluminous reports, lengthy conferences, speeches, radio and television ads, movies and street demonstrations unleashed after months of planning by groups on each side of the issue.

The goal of both sides is to provide the winning edge in what are expected to be close votes in the House and Senate before the end of the month.

Reagan, in formally requesting the money, said that the $14 million will be used only for humanitarian aid rather than military assistance if Nicaragua’s leftist government agrees to a cease-fire and peace talks.

Opponents of the funding will focus their arguments on the allegation that the rebels, known as contras, have committed atrocities.

On Thursday, members of Congress will be invited to watch a 14-minute movie, narrated by former “MASH” television star Mike Farrell, that includes footage of bodies allegedly mangled by the rebels. Accusations of contra abuses of civilians also will be detailed in radio and TV ads and in reports by recent visitors to Central America.

Like opponents of the contra aid, Reagan’s supporters will also rely heavily on firsthand accounts. A group called Citizens for Reagan, for example, has taped an interview with a Nicaraguan who says his ears were cut off by the Sandinistas.

Supporters of the aid proposal acknowledge they are trailing at present. “If the vote were held today, President Reagan would lose,” Citizens for Reagan advised its members in a memorandum mailed late last week. “The bottom line is that every single vote will count.”

Contra supporters claim that the President breathed new life into their cause on April 3 when he reformulated his request for aid as part of an overall “peace plan” designed to encourage the Sandinistas to negotiate a settlement.

Opposing the aid request is a coalition of more than 100 left-wing groups and mainstream church organizations that last year helped persuade Congress to cut off covert funding to the contras. Although they claim to be operating on “a shoestring,” a spokesman for these groups said the effort this year “marks a tremendous step-up in quality and combativeness” over previous years.

Lobbying on behalf of the request are a wide variety of well-funded right-wing and Latin refugee groups. Citizens for America, a conservative lobbying group headed by former New York gubernatorial candidate Lewis E. Lehrman, plans to invest about $300,000 in the fight. Citizens for Reagan says it is spending about $90,000 a month.

The conservatives, who contend that the contras are needed to help block the spread of communism in Central America, were disappointed last week when the White House let it be known that Reagan would not speak to an Orange Bowl rally to be attended by conservative Latin refugees. White House aides are said to be divided over what Reagan’s role will be in the lobbying drive.

The President is expected to attend a $250-a-plate dinner tonight that is designed to raise money to feed and clothe Nicaraguan refugees and that will serve as a kickoff event for the pro-contra lobbying drive. Critics claim that the dinner’s sponsor, the Nicaraguan Refugee Fund, is actually raising money for contras--an allegation that fund officials strongly deny.

Thousands of Reagan supporters from around the country will be bused to Washington next weekend for a demonstration of support for the contras in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. The American Security Council, a conservative group, is asking television stations to air a new movie critical of the Sandinistas titled “Crisis in the Americas.”

Several conservative groups are bringing Central Americans to the capital. Lehrman’s group, for example, is sponsoring the current visit of 19 rightist Central American businessmen--including Enrique Altamirano, who has been accused by former U.S. Ambassador Robert E. White of financing right-wing death squads in El Salvador.

Jack Abramhoff, executive director of Citizens for America, rejected as “ridiculous” the charge that Altamirano, publisher of El Salvador’s largest newspaper, has helped finance the death squads.

“We’ve checked them all out,” he said. “We’re not aware of anyone who’s dealt in anyway with death squads. They are all upstanding citizens.”

Some conservative groups have targeted about 75 members of Congress for a deluge of postcards and letters. However, aides to one of the targets, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), said the senator has received only “a trickle” of cards.

Opponents of contra aid scoff at the postcard drive. “I say wonderful,” said Cindy Buhl, spokeswoman for the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy. “Postcards are discounted by members of Congress.”

While contra supporters picket the Nicaraguan Embassy, a group of American veterans of the Spanish Civil War known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade will be showing support for the Sandinistas by presenting the embassy with the keys to seven new ambulances. The ambulances were purchased with $100,000 raised by brigade members.

Former Ambassador Sol M. Linowitz, former Atty. Gen. Elliot Richardson, former CIA Director Stansfield Turner and former White House national security adviser McGeorge Bundy and other leading opponents of contra aid will testify before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee chaired by Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.).

Barnes, a longtime vocal opponent of contra aid, has also set aside an entire day of hearings to focus on alleged contra atrocities. One scheduled witness is a Roman Catholic nun who says she was kidnaped by the rebels.

The anti-contra groups have asked their supporters to put pressure on Congress. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who has voted in the past to fund the contras, has been under so much heat in his home state that he has agreed to meet with constituents in an open forum Friday.

Not all of the competition is being waged in the corridors of Congress. Conservative groups contend that many of the anti-contra groups, particularly some with church ties, are violating their tax-exempt status by lobbying on this issue. As a result, Citizens for Reagan has filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service.