ACLU DISPUTES REAGAN ASSESSMENT OF CONDITIONS IN EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302470025-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: July 9, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302470025-0
r i r ~-?PEAsRED
01i FA A:L_
THE WASHINGTON POST
9 July 1982
ACLU Disputes Reagan A~thieiito
Conditions in El Salvador~
By Ruth Marcus
.wuhtngton Post Staff Writer
President Reagan's finding in Jan-
uary that El Salvador's progress on
human rights entitled the country to
continued military aid was a "sham"
unsupported by any research, the
American Civil Liberties Union,
charged yesterday.
The ACLU said documents re-
leased under the Freedom o Infor-
mation Act disclosed no research or
analysis by anU.S. intelligence
agency backing that finding.
Instead, the ACLU said, the doc-
uments show that the Reagan ad-
ministration merely relied on unver-
ified statements by the Salvadoran
government and on Salvadoran press
reports to certify, as required by
Congress, that El Salvador was mak-
ing a "concerted and significant ef-
fort to comply 'with internationally
recognized human rights."
The ACLU also released "letters
asking the chairmen of the -House
Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign
Relations committees to require the
_administration to have intelligence
agencies prepare an "independent
assessment" of the human rights sit-
uation in El ' va or before making
its next certification later this
month.
A State Department official said
yesterday Reagan would certify con-
tinued improvement by the July 28
deadline.
"The administration has not taken
the process of certification seriously
... and we have every reason to
think that the same thing is going on ,
now," said Morton Halperin, director
of the ACLU's Center for National
Security Studies.
"If the intelligence community
was asked to do a study, it wo o
u y,
an honest, straightforward st
and -I think that's- s_ the reason they
have been asked not to do a study,
Halperin said.
"It knows w at everybody knows:
namely that these conditions have
not been met, were not met. six
months ago and will not be met
now."
The Reagan administration has a
"need .not to know" the actual
human rights situation in : El Sal-
vador in order to be able to certify
improvement and continue sending
aid there, Halperin charged.
"In order not to, tell us what's
going on, they're not going to. find
out what's going on, and didn't find
gut the last time, because they don't
want to know," he said.
The United States sent $81 mil-
lion in military aid to El Salvador
this year and has asked Congress for
$61.3 million in military. aid for the
next fiscal year, according to the
State Department.
Halperin dismissed 'a State De-
partment cable sent to the embassy
in El Salvador outlining an ambi-
tious program of human rights im-
provements the United States wants
put into effect there. ?
The cable, Halperin paid, "in ef-
fect tells them to produce informs.
tion which can justify. the certifica-
tion." %
Under a law passed by Congress
last year, the president must certify
twice yearly, as a condition for con-
tinuing military aid, that El Sal-
vador is improving human rights,
controlling , its armed forces and
making continued progress on land
and other economic and political
reform.
But the law merely requires the
president to make that finding and
contains no provision under which
Congress can override his assess-
ment.
Halperin ! urged Congress to cut
off funds to. El Salvador for the next
fiscal year 'aori the basis of our find-
ing that the certification conditions
were not met." If funding isn't ter-
minated, Halperin said, Congress
ought to change the , certification
process and require the president to
submit his report to Congress for its
independent approval.
Halperin said the freedo ' -in-
formation request disclosed that ho
intelligence agencies-including the
Defense Intelligence Agency and the.
State Department's bureau of intej~
ligence and research-prepared aiiy
documents or did any research sup- .
porting certification.
The CIA has not yet responded to
the request, but his sources there
indicated that the agency also didn't
participate, said Halperin, a former
National Security Council member.
The ACLU released its own report
on El Salvador before the January
certification, charging the ' govein.
ment there with responsibility for ari
estimated 12,501 murders during
1981 and detailing charges of tor-
ture, arbitrary arrests and denial of.
rights. The group said it will release'
an updated report later this month:'
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302470025-0