Reagan ‘Worst Terrorist’--Castro : Cuba Joins Libya and Nicaragua in Retorts to President

Officials of Libya and Nicaragua--two of five countries that President Reagan accused of being members of a confederation of terrorist states--charged today that their nations are victims of U.S. terrorism, and President Fidel Castro of Cuba denounced Reagan as “the worst terrorist in the history of mankind.”

Reagan told the annual convention of the American Bar Assn. in Washington on Monday that the growth in terrorism was a result of increasing involvement by Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba and Nicaragua.

“And we are especially not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states run by the strangest collection of misfits, Looney Tunes and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich,” Reagan said.

Ageli Raini, spokesman at the Libyan People’s Bureau, or embassy, in Rome, said: “As we have said before, it is the United States that is committing terrorism, not us.”

Libyan radio said the countries Reagan mentioned were “the only states that oppose the orientations of American policies that seek to contain the world . . . guaranteeing U.S. superiority in the future nuclear confrontation with the opposite side.”

‘Era of Buffalo Bill’

The Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington issued a response that said the Sandinista government “condemns any and all forms of terrorism, among other reasons because our people are suffering the scourge of U.S. state terrorism, openly promoted by the (Reagan) Administration, and executed through the CIA and the U.S.-created contra groups.”

Fidel Castro today called Reagan “the worst terrorist in the history of mankind” and said his ideas are from “the era of Buffalo Bill, not the Nuclear Age.”

The Cuban leader told a press conference: “It is Reagan who supports the genocidal army of El Salvador, the rapists of American nuns.

“Reagan ordered the mining of the harbors in Nicaragua. It was Reagan who sent troops to invade little Grenada.”

The Soviet Union today also denied Reagan’s charges that it has a close relationship with terrorist states and attacked Washington for sponsoring “state terrorism worldwide.”

Blast From Pravda

The Communist Party newspaper Pravda accused the United States of sponsoring terrorism in Central America, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Pravda said Reagan tried during the speech “to attach the tag of international terrorism” to all nations that the newspaper said are fighting for political and economic self-determination.

He “described the Soviet Union’s solidarity with this struggle as support for terrorist organizations,” the newspaper said.

Pravda said Washington supports “anti-people regimes” in Central America, backs Israeli aggression in the Middle East and supports the South African regime that has “unleashed bloody terror against the country’s black majority.”

The United States also “sowed death and destruction” in Vietnam for 10 years, Pravda said.

There was no immediate comment from Iran or North Korea.