SENATE REPORT SAYS CIA CREATED TIES TO SALVADORAN DEATH-SQUAD FIRGURES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: September 28, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: Cl
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
28 September 19(.+
A-RDP90-00965R000201090008-5
Senate report says CIA
created ties to Salvadoran
.death-squad figures
policies. It was completed this week
and is circulating among panel mem-
bers and within the CIA for comment
before a declassified version is made
public, the congressional sources
said
er's Washington bureau - names The report is the result of the first
some of the senior Salvadoran offi- substantive congressional investiga-
cers who US. officials believe have tion into the Salvadoran death
directed the death squads and have squads and allegations of links be-
close contacts with the CIA or have tween them and the CIA. It contains
received payments from it. data from top-secret CIA files as well
itary officers responsible for the vio-
lence, according to a Senate Intelli-
gence Committee staff report.
Congressional sources spid yester-
day that the report - excerpts of
which were obtained by The Inquir-
By Alfonso Chardy The long and detailed report was
r",aa. wwhinSeue a??? = commissioned by Sen. Barry Goldwa-
WASHINGTON - The CIA, al? ter (R, Ariz.), the committee chair-
though not directly involved in the man, at the request of Sen. Edward
Salvadoran death-squad violence, did M. Kennedy (D., Mass.), who opposes
develop relationships with some mil- President Reagan 's Central America
that "there is no evidence to support ....... U1aUUU UV V UyVU U)' WHIMIL-
the allegation that elements of the tee staff members who visited El
United States have deliberately sup. Salvador, the sources said,
ported, encouraged or acquiesced in The congressional sources did not
acts of political violence in El Salva? disclose those portions of the report
dor, particularly extreme right-wing that specifically cited the CIA con-
tacts involved.
death squad activity." ; They said one of the most promi-
It also says that all contacts be- nent names cited in the investiga-
tween the CIA and Salvadorans in. tion is that of Col. Nicolas Carranza,
volved in the violence "were man- former chief of the Salvadoran
aged satisfactorily," but it adds that Treasury Police, who reportedly be-
there were "several instances of con- gan receiving a CIA retainer of more
cern" regarding "particular relation- than $90,000 a year in the late 1970s.
ships" the agency had with some of The sources said the report indicat-
those responsible for the killings. ed that, in return for the money,
The report, more than five months Carranza and other security officers
provided the CIA with information
in preparation, says that to obtain about Salvadoran guerrillas, nation-
The victims generally were Salva-
dorans suspected of being leftist reb-
els, their supporters or opponents of
the right-wing regime. The Salvador.
an and U.S. governments acknowl-
edge that the squads killed thou-
sands of people. The killings have
subsided since President Napoleon
Duarte took office and pledged to
crack down on the assassinations.
information, CIA agents paid thou-
sands of dollars to some Salvadoran
intelligence officers who had been
responsible for creating and direct-
ing the death squads and for select-
ing victims.
al political developments and squab-
bles within the Salvadoran military
forces. '
The report apparently indicates
that the CIA's effort to obtain infor-
mation from these sources about the
right-wing death squads is a recent
one and that it attempted little or
nothing earlier., '
Although portions of the report
dealing with this problem were not
revealed, the sources indicated the
committee staff learned from U.S.
intelligence officers that at first they
did not consider the rightist vio-
lence as a target for intelligence
gathering.
One reason, the sources said, was
that the CIA's priority in El Salvador
was to develop data on tae leftist
insurgency, and it 'did i+ot have
enough personnel there to investi.
gate thoroughly or infiltrate violent
rightist groups. Moreover, the
sources said, the report notes that
"physical dangers" were involved in
penetrating the death squads and
that it was difficult to gather infor-
mation on the killings through
.,open sources."
Nevertheless, the sources said, the
report finds that after the death
squads became an issue of US. "pub.
lic concern" in 1983, the CIA devoted
more resources to the issue and 'the
Reagan administration began put-
ting pressure on the Salvadoran gov-
ernment to stop the killers.
The report notes that as a result,
rightist political violence has de-
creased considerably.
Among recommendations Included
in the report, the sources said, is one
proposing a series of guidelines CIA
officers should follow in the future
when dealing with a similar situa-
tions in El Salvador or elsewhere.
These guidelines, the sources, are
aimed at ensuring that the U.S. gov-
ernment does not become associated
with any type of official violence or
terrorist actions. ,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090008-5