THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Tallahassee, Florida)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release March 30, 1995
PRESS BRIEFING BY
MIKE MCCURRY
The State Capitol
Tallahassee, Florida
9:45 A.M. EST
MR. MCCURRY: What's going on? What do you guys want to know
about?
Q Guatemala and Haiti.
MR. MCCURRY: Guatemala. We're going to have, before we depart here
we'll have a statement by the White House Press Secretary that will say,
among other things, that the President, upon arrival in Tallahassee last
night asked the Intelligence Oversight Board to conduct a government-wide
review of any and all aspects of the allegations surrounding the 1990
death of Michael Devine, and the 1992 disapperance of Ephraim Bamaca
Velasquez, and may make some reference to additional Americans who are
believed to have been murdered in Guatemala.
Q How many?
MR. MCCURRY: He has asked the board to consult with the CIA and Justice
Department Inspectors General who are now conducting an inquiry into
these matters; we've told you about that on a prior occasion. The State
Deparment's Executive Secretary has also been reviewing State Department
documents and information related to these matters.
The President has asked the Intelligence Oversight Board to determine the
facts surrounding these cases and make recommendations based on its
findings. The President is concerned about allegations surrounding these
incidents, and he's committed to determining all related facts. Once the
findings are complete, the President intends to take any and all
appropriate action and to provide to the American public as much
information about the review as possible. The statement that we'll have
will have a little more background on the IOB and how it's -- I think, if
I'm not mistaken, is a subcommittee of PFIAB, which is the Intelligence
Advisory Board.
Q What about the allegations of document-shredding and documents being
destroyed?
MR. MCCURRY: There are allegations that have been raised by Congressman
Torricelli, as some of you know, and among other things, the President is
obviously very concerned about those allegations. The President has
taken appropriate steps to secure documents and information relating to
these incidents, and the Justice Department is pursuing the allegations
that have been raised by the Congressman.
Q What about these other murders? We're about to have a speech; I don't
think we can wait for the paper. Can you --
MR. MCCURRY: I don't have further details on that now. We'll see how
that --
Q Do you have any numbers?
MR. MCCURRY: No. There was a -- for those of you who got copies of The
New York Times, there's an op-ed piece in The New York Times that walks
through some of that.
Q Walks through the other murders?
MR. MCCURRY: Just one other additional case.
Q What do you know about it?
MR. MCCURRY: Nothing.
Q Has there been any order from the President about agencies stopping any
document destruction?
MR. MCCURRY: The President instructed the National Security Advisor to
inform all relevant agencies that they were to take immediate steps to
secure any documents and information related to these allegations and to
the incidents that are subject to the review now being conducted by the
Inspectors General.
Q Mike, is it the case that the U.S. does believe that there were other
Americans, or there is just the possibility that that might --
MR. MCCURRY: Just allegations raised that the President would like to
get additional information on. These are all --
Q By who, Mike?
MR. MCCURRY: Just take a look at the op-ed piece in The New York Times;
you'll get a good idea.
Q Mike, what about military spending? Has it been definitely stopped to
Guatemala, or did that continue in --
MR. MCCURRY: We've -- most military assistance training through the IMET
program, which is how we provide military assistance programs, had been
cut. We cut the additional remaining amounts in March after the State
Department issued its statement.
Q What about liaison expenses to the Guatemalan military from the CIA?
MR. MCCURRY: I don't have any information I can share on that.
Q Mike, did the President act after he heard about the Torricelli letter
on NSH stationery?
MR. MCCURRY: White House officials met with Congressman Torricelli
yesterday and reviewed the substance of the allegations and then
developed a plan of action that they reviewed with the President last
night, which the President approved.
Q Who met with Torricelli?
MR. MCCURRY: I believe the Chief of Staff did. There were others, too.
I think Tony Lake did, and there may have been some other White House --
Q Who is the head of the Oversight Board?
MR. MCCURRY: We're checking on that right now. Former Secretary Aspin
is head of PFIAB, I think, but I don't
is the head of this subunit, which is the Intelligence Oversight Board.
Q Did you say in this op-ed piece they talk about murders or another
murder?
MR. MCCURRY: There was another case described in that, and that just is
cause of some concern at the White House today.
Q Is it about one murder, or --
MR. MCCURRY: Just take at the -- I haven't seen it myself; just take a
look at it.
Q Mike, on the Haiti murder, the assassination of Durocher Bertin, what is
the status of that now? The FBI is investigating and it's --
MR. MCCURRY: Jill's question is about the murder of Ms. Bertin in Haiti.
I can confirm that information was developed by U.S. forces
participating in a multinational force that led to the arrest and
apprehension of several individuals in Haiti. The Haitian government,
based on the information provided by the multinational force informed Ms.
Bertin that she was the target of an assassination plot, and I think as
you know, as a result of her murder, President Aristide requested from
the United States law enforcement assistance in responding to that
request. The Attorney General Directed an FBI team to go to Haiti. That
team is, I believe, now in Haiti, cooperating with Haitian law
enforcement officials.
Q She was a Cedras supporter, and so the allegation is that this was
Aristide's own people who were carrying out this assassination.
MR. MCCURRY: The identity of those who committed the murder is unknown.
Q The people who were arrested, how many are they, and do they belong to
any particular group?
MR. MCCURRY: I don't know if they belong to any particular group. I
believe -- I'd have to check and see how many. It was several. I
believe it was three, but I'm not entirely certain it was three.
Q Are they known to be close to some political groups or some factions?
MR. MCCURRY: They have a variety of associations which are now being
examined by Haitian law enforcement officials in cooperation with the
FBI.
Q There was one report that the people picked up by the Ameicans told the
Americans that there was an Aristide faction involved. Can you confirm
that?
MR. MCCCURRY: They made some allegations related to sponsorship of the
plot, and those allegations are now being investigated.
QAllegations that there were people involved --in the Aristide government
--
MR. MCCURRY: They made some allegations of that nature that are now
being examined.
Q Will Clinton talk about this with Aristide on Friday, Mike?
MR. MCCURRY: The general subject of violence and the need for national
reconciliation has been the constant theme with President Aristide, and
has been a constant subject of dialogue between our two governments.
Q What's the intent of the speech?
MR. MCCURRY: This is a great opportunity for the President to review
both the economic progress that's been made in the South, summarizing
some of the results of the conference yesterday, and then also look ahead
to the need to reinvent government, to provide states with the type of
flexibility that they need to reform welfare, to address both economic
and social concerns, and the President will be reviewing those subjects,
and maybe even in a speech that we might get a text of.
Q And how did the choice of Florida, this state house come up?
MR. MCCURRY: He was invited after the Governor had discussions with the
legislative leadership, the invitation was extended by the Governor to
address the Legislature, and that seemed like a dandy idea to the
President.
Q Is that his word, "dandy"?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, it might be something like that.
What else is going on?
Q Are we on background?
MR. MCCURRY: No, I want to put this -- I think you all know the wires
are moving stuff attributed to a Senior White House Official. I'd like
to move it over and put it on the record on my name, and we'll have a
statement coming out shortly.
QOn the Guatemalan --
MR. MCCURRY: Just on the Guatemalan stuff, yes. And all this is on the
record.
Q On the Guatemala stuff, are you on background or on the record?
MR. MCCURRY: I'm on the record.
Q Any word on the Americans shot in Haiti?
MR. MCCURRY: The two missionaries? No. They are looking into that now.
The multinational force has been cooperating with law enforcement
officials. There's nothing that would suggest that - - nothing at this
point that would suggest that this should be within the province of the
work that the FBI team is doing.
Q Mike, this -- just to clarify, this Intelligence Oversight Board? Is
this a presidentially-appointed board?
MR. MCCURRY: The Intelligence Oversight Board, we're getting more
information on that. I believe it's a standing committee of the
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, PFIAB. And the Board is
charged with a lot of things, but it reports -- makes recommendations on
intelligence matters referred to by the President. It is sort of the
oversight board for the intelligence community -- and the conduct of
intelligence- gathering activities. They've looked at a variety of
issues in past years related to U.S. intelligence activity.
Q Is the FBI involved in the investigation of this -- already address
that?
MR. MCCURRY: They have been at the -- the President asked the
Justice Department to look into allegations that have been raised by
Congressman Torricelli, and I believe as a result of that, the Attorney
General has instructed the FBI to look into those issues.
Q What else?
MR. MCCURRY: As soon as we can get a speech. Baer was out with the
President working on the speech this morning. I think it's a
TelePrompTer speech. We're hoping we're going to actually get a true
text of this since we've got to bolt out of here pretty quickly, so stay
tuned.
END 9:52 A.M. EST
#42-03/30
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