Secrets of the CIA

12 April 1993 DRAFT Letter to The Editor The New York Times 229 W. 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 To the Editor: On April 2, you ran an article by Anthony Lewis ("Fear of the Truth"). In the body of that piece, Lewis stated that CIA knew who had killed San Salvador's Archbishop Romero. Lewis stated categorically that at the direction of Robert Gates, the information had been withheld from our intelligence oversight committees. Lewis is categorically wrong. Over the years, US intelligence has contributed substantially to our governments' understanding of human rights violations in El Salvador and elsewhere. In the Romero matter, we can document that when we acquired information about the assassination and the alleged assassin, we promptly sent it to appropriate policy agencies, to two other US intelligence agencies, and to both of our Congressional oversight committees. It is important that the US public understand that neither the CIA nor Robert Gates suppressed infor...

13 April 1993 NOTE FOR: DDO FROM: D/PAI I request your concurrence on this draft letter to The New York Times . On 2 April 1993, Anthony Lewis wrote a column (attached) alleging that the Agency withheld intelligence from Congress concerning the assassination of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador in 1980. This draft has been coordinated with DD/OCA [...]. He accompanied me to the SSCI on 12 April, when we showed staffers that the intelligence acquired on the assassination, referred to by Lewis, was provided to the committee (in fact, probably within two weeks after the Field reported it). [...] the staffers said they would not object to our stating that the intelligence was provided to the committee. I am also asking for the DDCI's concurrence on the draft. Then I will give it back to [...] to run by the SSCI before we send it to The New York Times later this week. [...] Att CONCUR: Deputy Director for Operations 16 APR 1993