LITTLE EVIDENCE SEEN IN SALVADOR CERTIFICATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100680001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 22, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100680001-7
ASSOCIATED PRESS
22 October 1982
LITTLE EVIDENCE SEEN IN SALVADOR CERTIFICATIONS
By ROBERT PARRY
WASHINGTON
The .ag an administration has little investigative evidence to support its
car tent_en that El Salvador's government is making a "concerted and significant
effort" to respect human rights, according to U.S. officials and a House report.
These sources say U.S. Intelligence agencies, which dug up volumes of
Information on leftist guerrilla activity, have paid scant attention to the
government's alleged role In rightist death squads or to charges that Salvadoran
troops fire on non-combatants.
CIA defenders say the reason for the lack of information on the right was
the shortage of intelligence "assets" and the need to devote them to study the
leftist insurgency.
"You go back to the '79-80 time frame, the answer is that there were almost
no assets, and then as the assets were built up, they were concentrated on what
was judged to be the highest priority problem," the leftist revolt, said retired
Adm. Bobby R. Inman, who stepped down as deputy CIA director in June.
Others cited rules that bar U.S. military advisers from going with Salvadoran
troops into combat areas where killing of non-combatants has allegedly occurred.
In various interviews, Green Beret advisers said their knowledge was based on
what the Salvadoran troops told them.
But a House intelligence committee staff report Issued last month suggests
the "dearth of firm information" on El Salvador's right-wing death squads stems
from a lack of interest among U.S. policymakers and intelligence analysts.
The report said that when documents on rightist activity were captured from
former Maj. Roberto D'Aubuisson in 1980, they were "virtually ignored not only
by policymakers ... but more importantly by the intelligence community."
The documents, including arms lists and a log of meetings, were seized when
D'Aubuisson and other rightists were arrested and charged with plotting a coup.
The House report said that after the documents were turned over to the CIA,
"their whereabouts is unknown."
The CIA has refused comment an the House report. D'Aubuisson is now head of
El Salvador's Constituent Assembly.
About 38,000 people _ mostly unarmed civilians - have died in the political
violence that has ravaged El Salvador the past three years. Some human rights
groups blame government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups for up to 80
percent of the killings. Few of the murders are investigated.
.C.O"JU
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100680001-7