2 CIA Officers Ousted Over Guatemala Scandal

WASHINGTON —  In the first major test of his leadership of the nation’s spy service, Director of Central Intelligence John M. Deutch on Friday dismissed two senior CIA officials and punished eight others for their involvement in a scandal surrounding the agency’s operations in Guatemala.

Deutch’s decision to impose stern punishments in the messy controversy appeared to represent a conscious effort by the new director to distance himself from his predecessor, R. James Woolsey, who lost his job after he refused to mete out tough discipline to CIA officials in the wake of the Aldrich H. Ames spy scandal.

Deutch told Congress in classified briefings that he is dismissing Terry Ward, former chief of the CIA’s Latin America division, and Fred Brugger, former chief of the CIA’s station in Guatemala, and has demoted and reduced the pay of Dan Donahue, another former Guatemalan station chief. Ward and Brugger are being forced to retire but will be allowed to receive pension benefits.

Six other current or former CIA officers also were reprimanded, including a retired chief of the CIA’s clandestine arm and another former chief of the Latin America division, who also has retired. An 11th official slated for a reprimand won a last-minute reprieve from Deutch, who will decide later whether to impose that punishment.

The action, based on recommendations from a seven-member review panel chaired by CIA Executive Director Nora Slatkin, comes in the wake of a series of U.S. government investigations, including an internal inquiry at the CIA. The investigations have focused on charges that a Guatemalan army officer who was on the CIA’s payroll was implicated in the 1990 murder of an American innkeeper in rural Guatemala and might have played a role in the 1992 torture-killing of a Guatemalan rebel who was married to an American woman.

CIA officials allegedly were told about their paid agent’s involvement in the human rights abuses but did not notify Congress for more than three years. CIA officials in Guatemala allegedly did not keep two successive U.S. ambassadors informed of the matter either. As recently as January, Donahue still had not notified State Department officials of the Guatemalan officer’s possible complicity.

*

The CIA continued to pay its informant, Guatemalan army Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, even after agency officers were told of his possible involvement in the murders. The CIA paid him $44,000 in 1992 after receiving reports of his complicity in the cover-up of the killing of American innkeeper Michael DeVine. Alpirez also has been implicated in the torture-slaying of Guatemalan rebel leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, who was married to U.S. citizen Jennifer Harbury.

Of all of the charges leveled in the Guatemalan scandal, congressional leaders on the House and Senate Intelligence committees are most concerned about the CIA’s failure to notify them of its informant’s possible complicity. The CIA, many lawmakers believe, purposely did not report on its agent’s role in the killings in a congressionally mandated 1992 report on human rights abuses.

On Friday, Deutch made it clear that he is leveling much of the punishment against those responsible for the lapse in notification.

“A common theme is a lack of candor,” Deutch told Congress. “There is no evidence that there was a conspiracy not to inform Congress [but] the essential facts are that Congress was not kept informed as required by law.”

Virtually all of those punished are from the CIA’s Latin America division, which has played a role in some of the agency’s most controversial operations over the past decade, including the Iran-contra scandal of the Ronald Reagan Administration. A separate investigation of past agency activities in Honduras is under way.

“There is a pattern, over a considerable period of time, of inadequate management control of the Directorate of Operations’ Latin America division,” Deutch said.

Deutch had been under considerable political pressure to take stern action. But he also faced internal pressure not to undermine morale within the agency by appearing too harsh.

Congressional leaders quickly praised Deutch’s handling of the controversy and approved the get-tough measures at the agency.

“I think it is a decisive step in the right direction. . . . These two forced resignations and the letters of discipline are historic in terms of forceful action,” said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), vice chairman of the intelligence panel, said that the discipline is justified because “there was a violation of U.S. law . . . an intentional effort to withhold information from and to mislead the Congress.”

Specter said the committee could seek a criminal referral to the Justice Department to investigate whether CIA officials lied to Congress. “We are going to pursue this up the line,” he said.

*

Deutch’s tough measures seem to represent something of a rebuke to CIA Inspector General Fred Hitz, who advised against any firings in a report issued in July. Hitz said it appeared that the failure to notify Congress was inadvertent, noting that the reports CIA officials received about their informant’s involvement in the murders were of questionable quality.

Hitz’s report had been widely dismissed by lawmakers of both parties, giving Deutch little choice but to move aggressively.