PANEL SAYS THERE'S NO EVIDENCE OF CIA LINKS TO DEATH SQUADS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606070002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 26, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0606070002-2
ASSOCIATED PRESS
20 April 1984
PANEL SAYS THERE'S NO EVIDENCE OF CIA LINKS TO DEATH SQUAD
BY W. DALE NELSON
NASHINGTON
The House Intelligence Committee turned thumbs down T
Massachusetts congressman's bid to obtain intelligence documen s Itlat trie
congressman said would show whether the CIA is involved in death squad
activity in El Salvador.
The committee, in a report on a resolution of inquiry introduced by Rep.
James Shannon, D-Mass., said that after a "rigorous review of intelligence
documents and records" it had "found no evidence of any agency complicity in
death squad activities."
The panel recommended that the House reject Shannon's resolution, which would
call upon the president to turn the documents over to Congress.
Instead, the committee said, it had asked the CIA :o conduct "a review of
all agency relationships with the aim of providing a reliable and comprehensive
report on the subject of death squad activity ... and any possible improper
CIA involvement therein."
It said CIA Director William J. Casey agreed to undertake such a review.
Shannon, saying the committee's decision "leaves the American people in the
dark about how far the CIA has gone in El Salvador," asked the panel to
conduct an investigation of its own. Shannon is not a member of the committee.
In the resolution, Shannon asked whether either Col. Nicholas Caranza, chief
of the Treasury Police of El Salvador, or Roberto D'Aubuisson, a former
Salvadoran army officer and now a presidential candidate, had receit d any
remUn eration of any kind from the CIA.
The resolution was introduced after reports linking Caranza and D'Aubuisson
to death squads which have been blamed for political murders in El Salvador and
saying the two men may have had a clandestine relationship with the CIA.
Both men have denied any involvement with death squads.
The committee, in its report, cited a presidential order providing that, "no
person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States government shall
engage in or conspire to engage in assassination,"
The order also states, "No agency of the intelligence community shall
participate in or request any person to undertake activities forbidden by this
order."
"Both provisions act to prohibit absolutely U.S. participation in activities
engaged in by the death squads in El Salvador," the committee said.
The report went on to say:
Continued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0606070002-2