ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95033001.PPO
DATE:03/30/95
TITLE:CLINTON ORDERS PROBE ON DEATHS OF AMERICANS IN GUATEMALA
TEXT:
(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."
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