HOUSE REPORT CRITICIZES INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605570009-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 23, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT. -- ---
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605570009-1
. ARTICLE AP1'ZAR.t D
ON PAGE__ A-
By DAVID BURNHAM
Syeettl to7Le stew York7lme
WASHINGTON, Sept 22 - The House
Intelligence Committee approved a
staff report today that criticized the
performance of United States intelli-
gence agencies in Central America in
the last few years.
"The basic concern is that tenden-
tious rhetoric, Including occasional
oversimplification and misstatement,
can drive out some of the needed collec-
tion and analysis,.' the report conclud.
ed.
Representative Charles Rose, chair.
.man of the Subcommittee on Oversight
NEW YORK TIMES
23 sEnr m 1982
House Report Criticizes Intelligence A encies'
g 1
and agencies had argued said .the intelligence potf saris; suggests "that'a-ztermtautg
argued against making { the perpetrators and any others respon-
the report public because it might sible for authorizing specific instances
lessen public confidence. He said the of 'rightist terrorism has not been con-
decision to release the report was made sidered a suitable task for intelli-
by a majority vote of the full committee gene."
along party lines. After President Reagan certified last'
. "At this time, I am not accusing the January that El Salvador was "achiev-
intelligence community of having given ing substantial control over its armed
into the pressure that the policy makers -forces," .the report said, the C.IA. ac.
have applied," be said. "But there has knowledged that it had only "fragmen-,
been sloppiness, inaccuracies and over- tary evidence" on this subject and that
statements that if not corrected logi. the only sources for the statement were
caiiy could lead to the intelligence com- reports by the Salvadoran Ministry of
munity being manipulated by Adminis. Defense.
tration policy rather than poll being And in Feb ?t d
nulfo Romero of San Salvador was as- of the event "were disregarded byda
sassinated the same year. This, the re- State Department analyst in explaining
what had happened."
quid --
pro-perly evaluated jntelli- when the State Department challenged
gence." 1 news reports of a massacre in the Sal-
Several cases were cited in the staff vadoran village of El Mozote, contend-
report to support its contention that mg that no evidence could be found tof
there had been occasions when the Intel. confirm Government troops bad sys-
ligence agencies did not perform well in tematicaliy massacred "733 or 926 via
Central America. - tims as variously cited in 'press rem
Among them was what it said was the pow," only in the last paragraph of the
lack of analysis of documents captured embassy report on the matfer was it
whet} former Maj. Roberto d'Aubuis- noted that the State Department inves-
son, a Salvadoran rightist who is now tigators "never reached the towns
president of the Constituent Assemby, where the alleged events occurred."
was arrested in 1380 and a similar lack Furthermore, reservations and ques.
of analysis when Archbishop Oscar Ar lions found in a second e
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605570009-1