Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

1075.0. "Guatemala and US CIA morality" by CSC32::J_CHRISTIE (Unquenchable fire) Mon Apr 17 1995 14:58

Subj:	NAIRN: THE CIA & GUATEMALA'S DEATH SQUADS

C.I.A. Death Squad, by ALLAN NAIRN appears in The Nation, April 17, 1995
(c) 1995 The Nation Co., L.P.

Allan Nairn has written extensively on Guatemala and its military since
1980.  Last fall in The Nation he broke the story of U.S. intelligence
collaboration with Haiti's FRAPH.

What follows are selected excerpts from "Charlie Rose," March 31, 1995.  Rose's
guests: Rep. Robert Torricelli, Elliot Abrams, and Allan Nairn.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rose: Tell me what you have found out, Allan.  You've got a
story in the Nation magazine thats called "CIA Death Squad:
Americans Have Been Directly Involved in Guatemalan Army
Killings."  What can you add to this story...?

Nairn: Alpirez is one Colonel on the CIA payroll who
committed two murders.  From talking to both Guatemalan and US
operatives involved in this, it's clear that there are many,
perhaps dozens of Guatemalan military officers on the CIA payroll
who've been involved in thousands of killings.  The G-2, the
military intelligence service which coordinates tha assinations
and disappearances -- their top officials have for years been
paid by the CIA.  I was able to learn the names of three of them
who've been on the payroll, as well as General Hector Gramajo,
General Roberto Matta, two of the top officers, closest US
proteges, who've been directly involved in commanding massacres
in the Northwest Highlands.  Furthermore, there are actual US CIA
agents who work directly inside the G-2.  I was able to learn the
names of two of them, Joe Jacarino and Randy Capister.  They
provide what's called technical assistance and advice. I was able
to reach colonel Alpirez on the phone in Guatemala.  He denied
being involved in the Devine and Bamaca killings, said the CIA
wasn't paying him, but he talked rather extensively about how the
CIA essentially helps to run the G-2 with ongoing advice and
American advisers right there inside this systematic killing
operation...And it's not just the CIA.  It's the Pentagon, the State
Department, and the White House as well. For example, here are some
internal State Department records which indicate that during both the
Bush and Clinton administrations after there was a supposed cutoff of
military aid to Guatemala, the State Department authorized at least 114
separate sales of pistols and rifles to Guatemala.  The US
military has been planning joint maneuvers with the Guatemalan
military this spring.  This is an across the board policy and you
have to hold the President accountable for that....

Nairn: In fact, we have the historical record.  We can see how he
and the other Reagan and Bush and Clinton officials have reacted.

Rose: In the State Department, or in the CIA, or both?

Nairn: Across the board.  And in the face of this systematic
policy of slaughter by the Guatemalan military, more than 110,000
civilians killed by that military since 1978, what Amnesty
International has called a "government program of political
murder," the US has continued to provide covert assistance to the
G-2 and they have continued, especially during the time of Mr.
Abrams, to provide political aid and comfort.  For example,...
during the Northwest Highland massacres of the [early]
'80s when the Catholic Church said: "never in our history has it
come to such grave extremes.  It has reached the point of
genocide," President Reagan went down, embraced Rios Montt, the
dictator who was staging these massacres, and said he was getting
"a bum rap on human rights."  In '85 when human rights leader
Rosario Godoy was abducted by the army, raped and mutilated, her
baby had his fingernails torn out,  the Guatemalan military said:
"Oh, they died in a traffic accident."  Human rights groups
contacted Mr. Abrams, asked him about it, he wrote back -- this
is his letter of reply -- he said: Yes, "there's no evidence
other than that they died in a traffic accident."  Now this is a
woman raped and mutilated, a baby with his fingernails torn out.
This is longstanding policy...

Abrams:  Wait a minute.  Wait a minute.  Wait a minute.  Wait a
minute.  We're not here to refight the Cold War.  We're here to
talk about, I thought, a specific case in which an allegation is
being made that the husband of an American, in another case an
American citizen, were killed and there was a CIA connection
with, allegedly, with the person allegedly involved in it. Now
I'm happy to talk about that kind of thing.  If Mr. Nairn thinks
we should have been on the other side in Guatemala, that is, we
should have been in favor of a guerrilla victory, I disagree with
him.

Nairn: So you're then admitting that you were on the side of the
Guatemalan military!

Abrams: I am admitting that it was the policy of the United
States, under Democrats and Republicans, approved by Congress
repeatedly to oppose a Communist guerrilla victory anywhere in
Central America including in Guatemala.

Nairn: 'A Communist guerrilla victory!!'  Ninety-five percent
of these victims are civilians -- peasant organizers, human
rights leaders, priests -- assassinated by the US - backed
Guatemalan army....

Nairn: Let's look at reality here.  In reality we're not
talking about two murders, one Colonel.  We're talking about more
than a hundred thousand murders, an entire army, many of its top
officers employees of the US government.  We're talking about
crimes and we're also talking about criminals; not just people
like the Guatemalan Colonels but also the US agents who've been
working with them, and the higher level US officials.  I mean, I
think you have to apply uniform standards. President Bush once
talked about putting Saddam Hussein on trial for crimes against
humanity -- Nuremberg style tribunal.  I think that's a good
idea.  But if you're serious, you have to be even-handed.  If you
look at a case like this, I think we have to start talking about
putting Guatemalan and US officials on trial. I think someone
like Mr. Abrams would be a fit subject for such a Nuremberg-style
inquiry,...

Nairn: But I agree with Mr. Abrams that Democrats would have to
be in the dock with him....

Nairn: The Congress has been in on this.  The Congress approved
the sale of 16,000 M-16s to Guatemala.  In '87 and '88...
They voted more military aid than the Republicans asked
for....

Nairn: Mr. Abrams, you were on the wrong side in supporting the
massacre of peasants and organizers and anyone who dared to
speak.  Absolutely.  And that's a crime.  That's a crime, Mr.
Abrams, for which people should be tried.  It's against the law....

Nairn:  Well, it's Mr. Abrams' right to say whatever he wants, but
the facts speak for themselves.  And in the case of Guatemala you
have this ongoing pattern of murder which has been public record --
the Catholic Church in Guatemala has documented it, all the human rights
groups have documented it.  And on the public level, not even talking
about the covert level, year after year the US has continued to provide all
different kinds of aid to the Guatemalan miitary.  Right now it's
the Clinton administration that's talking about a joint maneuver
with the Guatemalan army, it's the State Department that was
licensing these 114 pistol and rifle sales.  The idea of a rogue
operation is really preposterous when you have this kind of
systematic, ongoing program that stretches back over years over
both Democratic and Republican administrations....

Nairn:  This is mass murder.  This country should not be
supporting it.  If Americans knew about it, they wouldn't stand
for it.