Priest Says U.S. Is Hindering Jesuit Slayings Case

The United States is withholding secret intelligence documents that could shed light on the November, 1989, slaying of six Jesuit priests, sources close to the case said Saturday.

“The Defense Intelligence Agency admits it has 21 documents dealing with the case, but (DIA officials) refuse to hand them over because they say it could hurt U.S. national security,” said Father Pedro Armada. “We find that very strange.”

Armada, a priest who works with the Jesuit’s regional office for Central America, said: “At least on the part of the Defense Department, there is very little willingness to cooperate.”

U.S. Embassy spokesman Jefferson Brown denied the accusations, saying: “Any information that could be helpful in this case is being shared with Salvadoran authorities,” but he added that “it would be totally inappropriate” for the U.S. government to release confidential information while a trial was under way.

Col. Guillermo Alfredo Benavides, three lieutenants and five lower-ranking soldiers are being held on murder charges, but the Jesuits claim that the “intellectual authors” of the crime have not been investigated.

The Nov. 16 slaying of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teen-age daughter by members of the Salvadoran military has brought on a major political crisis for President Alfredo Cristiani’s government, which is struggling under the weight of a decade-old insurgency by leftist rebels and a near-bankrupt economy.

The brutal killings have focused attention on the need for reform of El Salvador’s powerful military and prompted serious debate in Washington over the wisdom of continued military aid to the small Central American country--now receiving $85 million a year.

A lawyer close to the case said the U.S. government is trying to protect the Cristiani government and has given “mixed signals” to judicial authorities.