CIA Reportedly Told Justice About Killings

The CIA, concerned that a Guatemalan army colonel was responsible for the slaying of a U.S. citizen, turned their suspicions over to federal attorneys four years ago to determine whether the officer should be prosecuted for murder, sources said here Monday.

But, the sources added, the Justice Department concluded that Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez could not be prosecuted under U.S. law because the death of Michael Devine, a hotelier in Guatemala, was not politically motivated against the United States.

As it turned out, Alpirez would later be implicated in the murder of a second man, Efrain Bamaca Valesquez, a leftist guerrilla married to a U.S. lawyer--and both deaths are now at the center of a series of government investigations to determine why he was not stopped, whether he had at one time been a paid government informant for the CIA and whether U.S. government officials misled Congress and the White House about the situation.

“Because the CIA had information related to the murder of an American citizen, it brought the matter to the attention of the Department of Justice for their review,” a U.S. intelligence source said Monday.

A Justice Department official said that the CIA referred the matter to federal prosecutors in November, 1991, a year after Devine was killed. The case was reviewed for several months before federal prosecutors concluded that Alpirez, who reportedly ordered the murders, could not be held accountable in U.S. courts.

The deaths and accusations that Alpirez was involved and was a CIA informant are under investigation by the White House, the CIA and the Justice Department. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) joined the debate Monday when he declared that if any U.S. official acted improperly in the matter, he should “be investigated and, if necessary, prosecuted.”