ACCESSION NUMBER:385884
FILE ID:PPO401
DATE:03/30/95
TITLE:CLINTON ORDERS PROBE ON DEATHS OF AMERICANS IN GUATEMALA (03/30/95)
TEXT:*PPO401 03/30/95 POGUATLD pmk/djm
CLINTON ORDERS PROBE ON DEATHS OF AMERICANS IN GUATEMALA
(To study possible complicity by U.S. agencies) (440)
By Alexander M. Sullivan
USIA White House Correspondent
Washington -- President Clinton March 30 ordered a broad investigation of
possible complicity by U.S. agencies in the deaths of Americans in
Guatemala.
The spreading tale of possible abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), the U.S. Army and other American agencies was fueled by a new charge
lodged by a Defense Department consultant -- that his free-lance journalist
brother and another American were killed by the Guatemalan military in
1985. Samuel Blake said in a New York Times article that State Department
and CIA officials helped Guatemala cover up facts about the deaths of Nick
Blake and photographer Griffin Davis.
Clinton ordered the Intelligence Oversight Board to look into their deaths
and the murders of Michael Devine and Efrain Bamaca Valesquez, as well as
the torture of a nun, Sister Dianna Ortiz, in 1989. White House Press
Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton had ordered the board to review "any
and all aspects" of all five cases.
McCurry said Clinton "is concerned about recent allegations surrounding
these incidents and is committed to determining all related facts." Upon
completion of the review, he said, the president "intends to take any and
all appropriate action." He will also, McCurry said, make public "as much
information about the review as possible."
Investigations of the Devine and Bamaca deaths were already underway by the
Defense Department, the State Department, the CIA, the Justice Department,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency
(NSA). The Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled a public hearing on
the matter April 5.
The activities of American agencies in Guatemala came to renewed public
attention last week when Representative Robert Torricelli wrote Clinton
asserting that Bamaca's widow, Jennifer Harbury, had been misled by U.S.
officials who withheld knowledge of her husband's death. Torricelli later
said documents pertaining to the deaths of Bamaca and Devine were being
shredded by the NSA and the Army. Torricelli is a member of the House
Committee on Intelligence.
McCurry told reporters in Tallahassee, Florida, where Clinton is traveling,
that the president had ordered steps taken to prevent further shredding of
documents. The FBI is looking into the possibility such records may have
been destroyed, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick said in Washington.
Questioned about a news report stating U.S. funds continued to flow
clandestinely to the Guatemalan military after the Bush administration had
publicly cut off financial assistance, McCurry said, "I don't have any
information I can share on that."
NNNN
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
