Beginning in 1983, the Reagan administration in the U.S. made a concerted effort, supported by the Anti-Defamation League, to increase domestic support for their Nicaragua policy by persuading American Jews that the Sandinista government was anti-Semitic. According to Contra leader Edgar Chamorro, CIA officers told him of this plan in a 1983 meeting, justifying it with the anti-Semitic argument that Jews controlled the media and winning them over would be key to a public relations success. Investigations by New Jewish Agenda, "Moment", the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, the Milwaukee Jewish Council, the American Jewish Committee, the World Jewish Congress and the Council on Hemispheric Affairs all found that there was no evidence to support the U.S. charge of government anti-Semitism. Anthony Quainton, U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, also reported no evidence of government anti-Semitism after an investigation by embassy staff. While many Nicaraguan Jews who had left the country supported Reagan's charge of anti-Semitism, Jews who remained in Nicaragua denied their accuracy.