ACLU DISPUTES REAGAN ASSESSMENT OF CONDITIONS IN EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100060010-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: July 9, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100060010-3
I - r I.2PEARED
O'N, r:?a
~CL[J Disputes Reagan Assessment of
Conditions in El Salvador'
THE WASHINGTON POST
9 July 1982
By Ruth Marcus
Wuhutgton 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-
rteFr
mation Act disclosed no research or
analysis b any U.S. intelligence
agency ackin at t m .
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 12leased .'letters
asking the chairmen of the -House
Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign
Relations committees to require the
e ministration to Me intelligence
i encies pre are an "inde ndent
assessment" of the human rights sit-
uation in va or ore 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 too a study, it would o
an honest, straightforward study,
and think that's the reason they
have been asked not too a study,-
Halperin said.
"It knows what everybody knows:
namely that these conditions have
not been met; were not met. six
months ago and will not be met
riow" . ? .
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
Qut 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
$61.3 million in military. aid for the
next fiscal year, according to the
State Department.
Halperin dismissed 'a State De-
partment cable sent to the embassy
in El Salvador outlining an ambi-
tious program of human rights im-
provements the United States wants
put into effect there. ?
The cable, Halperin paid, "in ef-
fect tells them to produce informa-
tion which can justify. the certifica-
tion."
Under a law passed by Congress
last year, the president must certify
twice yearly, as a condition for con-
tinuing military aid, that. El Sal-
vador is improving human rights,
controlling .its armed forces and
makon$ continued progress on land
and other ;emnomie and political
reform.
But the law merely requires the
president to make that finding and'-
contains.po provision wilder which
Congress can override his assess-
ment.
Halperin! urged Congress to cut
off funds to', El Salvador for the next
fiscal year 'on' 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 freedord-of-in-
formation request disclosed that ho
intelligence agencies-including the
Defense Intelligence Agency and thw
State Departments bureau of iatee
ligence and research-prepared an
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
cipate, said Halperin, a former.
National Security cil member.
The ACLU released its own report
on El Salvador before the January
certification, charging the *govern,
ment there with responsibility for ai
estimated 12,501 murders during
1981 and detailing charges of tor-
ture, arbitrary arrests and denial of.
rights. The group said it will releale'
an updated report later this month:'
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/18: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100060010-3