REGULAS VISITS MADE ASSASSINS' TASK EASIER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201560022-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: September 10, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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WASHINGTON TIMES
10 September 1985
Regular visits made assassins'
task easier
By Tom Diaz
THE VASHINGTON TIMES
A U.S. Navy officer killed by Salva-
doran guerrillas in 1983 made himself a
target for assassination by regular visits
to a local university, a top-ranking defec-
tor has told authorities.
Lt. Cmdr. Albert A. Schaufelberger III,
the first U.S. adviser killed in El Salvador,
was shot in the head several times on May
25, 1983, as he waited in his car for a
friend in front of the University of Cen-
tral America in San Salvador.
The defector Napoleon Romero Gar-
cia. has told intelligence officers in Ei
Salvador that leaders of the Popular Lib-
eration Forces (FPL) did not know
exactly who Cmdr. Schaufelber er was
or whathis official duties were when they
ordered him killed.
A detailed description of information
Mr. Romero has provided over the last
several months has been made available
to The Washington Times by an informed
source.
But, Mr. Romero said, Cmdr. Schaufel-
berger's "regular visits to the university
... made him vulnerable." He said the
FPL military high command ordered the
assassination as "an act of political pro-
paganda aimed at the U.S. policy of inter-
vention in El Salvador."
Mr. Romero's version of the slaying
apparently rebuts suggestions made at
the time by some U.S. officials that Cmdr.
Schaufelberger had drawn attention to
himself by interviews he had given the
U.S. press, including one in which he said
military advisers were "perfect targets"
for assassination.
A Pentagon spokesman said yesterday
that "there has always been the policy"
for defense department officials on duty
in foreign countries where "hostile
actions have been known to take place" to
"avoid patterns"
"The policy is the avoidance of pat-
terns - not frequenting the same restau-
rant ... changing church services ..
changing taverns, and not frequenting
those places where actions have taken
place;" the spokesman said. "Personnel
are pretty well briefed about the types of
places to avoid, but definitely [you would]
alter patterns, just as a military unit
going on patrol would alter its patterns so
that you wouldn't offer yourself up as a
target"
The spokesman said he did not know
whether Cmdr. Schaufelberger's visits to
the university were frequent enough to
have established a pattern, but said
"three or four trips to the same place
would be a pattern.'
Mr. Romero - who is also known by
his nom de guerre of Miguel Castellanos
- was a highly respected "comandante;'
or commander, of the FPL before his cap- .
ture last April. Since then, he has will-
ingly given officials an extensive picture
of guerrilla operations, including details
on so-called urban commando operations
and left-wing death squads.
The FPL is considered to be one of the
more radical of the left-wing rebel
groups allied under the umbrella of the
Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front [FLMN]. Its leadership has
denounced Mr. Romero as a turncoat and
rejected his charges as lies.
"The most difficult aspect" of plan-
ning an assassination or kidnapping is
"obtain' enough information" on the
otentia target, according to r.
po o. In addition to putting potential
targets under sur illance, he said, rebel
groups also develop contacts at places
frequented by the targets and try to turn
their female companions into informers
Mr. Romero said he doesn't know who
actually carried out the Schaufelberger
murder, but he named at least 10 FPL
officials as having been involved either in
planning or support for the murder. He
said the FPL military commanders con-
sidered the assassination to be a "select"
operation, and implemented it without
informing their political counterparts.
According to Mr. Romero, Salvadoran
Air Force pilots have the highest priority
as targets for assassination. Foreign mili-
tary advisers have a lower priority but
are nevertheless designated as "perma-
nent" potential targets, along with Salva-
doran government officials, military
officers and members of the security
forces. He said U.S. diplomats and
Agency for International Development
officials have not been designated as
such targets.
Mr. Romero said that earlier this year
the FLMN adopted a policy of kidnapping.
or assassinating the newly elected may-
ors of Salvadoran towns who refuse to
cooperate. He said the procedure is for
the FLMN to send a letter to a mayor first,
asking for money or permission for guer-
rillas to enter town. If the mayor refuses,
he may be kidnapped or murdered.
Mr. Romero said he disagreed with the
policy because the mayors aren't mili-
tary personnel, and frequently aren't
members of the upper or middle class,
but lower-class party operatives with
wide local followings.
Other actions carried out by FPL
"urban guerrillas" include sabotage of
electrical and telephone facilities,
ambushes of military and security
patrols, robberies and kidnappings. Mr.
Romero said a shortage of trained per-
sonnel bars most sophisticated oper-
ations, and that the guerrillas
concentrate on destroying telephone
junction boxes so that the armed forces
will be forced to use radio communica-
tions, which the rebels can intercept.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201560022-7