6474: evidence of CIA involvement (reply Driver, Chamberlain) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Neil Elliott <ee4@uswest.net>

Greg Chamberlain asks the ostensibly reasonable question, what
evidence do we have of CIA covert operations in the 1991 coup?

"Ostensibly" reasonable, unless one remembers that if there were
hard and clear evidence they wouldn't be covert ops, would they.
"Plausible deniability" IS a matter of policy.

Meanwhile, anyone interested in hard, fast documentary evidence
for CIA and other U.S. involvement in the coup period should simply
look to the largest relevant mass of documents--the 60,000 plus
FRAPH files (160,000+ pages) in Justice Department hands.
Or do we have to play this blind-man's-bluff game and pretend
that neither they nor the Department's withholding of them are in
any way inculpatory?

The presumption of innocence is a firm principle of U.S. criminal
law. It does not mean that the willful withholding of potentially
damning evidence is fair game. Only the malicious abuse of U.S.
power keeps us from a clear panorama of the CIA's involvement.

Neil Elliott