WHITE HOUSE DIDN'T PROMPT CISPES PROBE, FBI AIDE TELLS SENATE PANEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M00005R000800050003-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 28, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 24, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/28: CIA-RDP90M00005R000800050003-1
Office oi current rroauction and Analytic Supporta,
CIA Operations Center
News Bulletin ,
THE WASHINGTON POST
PAGE : 8
24 FEB 1988
ITEM N5. 2
White House Didn't Prompt CISPES robe,
FBI Aide Tells Se ate Panel
By Jim McGee
%stemma Pat Staff Writer
A top FBI official told the Senate intel-
ligence committee yesterday that no one in
the White House prompted or encouraged
an FBI investigation of a group that was
publicly opposed to Reagan administration
policy toward El Salvador.
Testifying under oath before a panel that
was openly skeptical at times, Oliver B.
Revell, executive assistant director of in-
vestigation, offered a spirited defense of.the
FBI's probe of the Committee in Solidarity
With the People of El Salvador (CISPES),
rejecting any suggestion that the invest).
vice's purpose WRS political spying. -
'Nothing could be further from the truth,"
Pe%ell taith-He-said the Federal Bureau of
InvfEtigiticn has probed "a number of groups
on :he other side of the political spectr_ne
The FBI's conduct in the CISPES case is
under ...Twiny by two congressional com-
mittees and by FBI inspectors. Yesterday's
hearing was prompted by the release Jan.
27 of 1,200 pages of FBI files, which
showed that field agents had collected the
names of church groups, college student
organizations and unions that the bureau
said were involved with CISPES. Agents
also had photographed participants in public
gatherings involving the group.
Acknowledging that "we may have seen ?
some wavering over that line" between a le-
gitimate investigation and political spying,
Revell testified that there was a legal basis
for the probe: circumstantial evidence in
1983?which the FBI never documented.....
thatCISPES members were sending money
to the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front
(FMLN), the main insurgent group trying to
overthrow the government of El Salvador.
The FBI classified the FMLN as a terrorist
group in El Salvador and suspected that
FMLN members were involved with bomb-
ings in Washington in 1983-84. Because of
CISPES' professed support for the FMLN,
Revel asserted, It was important to gather
intelligence about the two organizations.
"Althoughour two-year counterterrorism
investigation failed to lead to indictments of
CISPES members, we did find indications
that some CISPES members were at least
discussing and planning violence," he testi-
fiecL .?
He listed several examples, based on in-
formation he said was provided by FBI
sources: One CISPES member was "tasked
to determine response times of emergency
services in a major American city"; another
member "stated he had developed a system
to shut down a public utility in a major mid-
western city, as well as plans to violently
disrupt the 1984 Republican convention."
Revell did not elaborate.
* After Revell's prepared statement, some
panel members questioned whether the FBI's
decision to conduct the probe under foreign
counterintelligence /guidelines gave the bu-
reau too much latitude. "There is a real
straining to justify your investigation," said
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), asserting that
the agency should have proceeded "on tan-
gible evidence," not unconfirmed allegations.
In June 1985, the Justice Department
determined during a required annual review
that the investigation had not produced
enough evidence to warrant its continua-
tion. It was closed two weeks later.
Revell said the bureau had acted prop-
erly. "Those in the FBI responsible for au-
thorizing the counterterrorism investiga-
tion believed information which had been
brought to their attention that CISPES v..as
acting as the agent of [the FMLNI
The predication for the investigation was
based upon what was known at the time.'
But Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Maine),
vice chairman of the Select Committee on.
Intelligence, said the effect of the CISPES
investigation was to impinge on the rights
of U.S. citizens: "Whatever the rationale
... it resulted in the FBI subjecting many
Americans and U.S. organizations to var-
ious types of scrutiny without any basis oth-
er than the exercise of their First Amend-
ment rights.' ?
Among the 1,200 pages of documents re-
leased so far are several that show FBI head-
quarters attempting to curtail the flow of in-
formation about CISPES' political activity.
A July 26, 1984, teletype sent to field of--
fices said: "Political activities or political lob-
bying by CISPES ... are not, repeat not, tar-
gets of this investigation and should not be
monitored.' Some field offices, however, con-
tinued to supply such information. On Oct.
17, 1984, a second teletype laid out specific
guidelines for gathering information.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/28: CIA-RDP90M00005R000800050003-1