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."



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