U.S. KNEW OF PERU SPY'S TROUBLE

LIMA, Peru ---- U.S. officials continued working closely with
Peruvian spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos in the anti-drug fight
despite an army officer's tip that he was involved with death squad
killings, newly declassified documents show.

The officer, a self-described member of a military death squad,
offered in 1993 to provide U.S. officials with information linking
Montesinos to the group, according to a U.S. Embassy cable released
Tuesday. The latest declassified reports provide the clearest
indication yet that U.S. officials were aware early on that
Montesinos, a key American ally in the drug war, was involved with a
death squad.

Montesinos was former President Alberto Fujimori's right-hand man for
a decade, until a corruption scandal involving the spy chief ended
Fujimori's 10 years in power in November 2000. Montesinos is now in a
navy prison awaiting trial on dozens of charges involving corruption,
arms smuggling, drug trafficking and directing a death squad.
Peruvian authorities say a group called Colina, made up of members of
military intelligence, was responsible for several massacres in the
early 1990s of suspected collaborators of the Mao-inspired Shining
Path insurgency.

They said that in November 1991 its members shot to death 15 people
in what's become known as the Barrios Altos massacre. In July 1992
the Colina group killed nine students and a professor at La Cantuta
University.

A U.S. Embassy document dated January 1993 states: "An army officer
who allegedly belonged to an army intelligence/National Intelligence
Service (SIN) group that carried out the November 1991 Barrios Altos
massacre is willing to speak out."

The paper said an intermediary "who is well known to us" told the
embassy that "the officer, who claims he did none of the actual
shooting, wants U.S. help in resettling in a third country."

"Reportedly he can identify officers who belonged to the special
group, testify about the group's ... killings and link SIN adviser
(and Fujimori's closest adviser) Vladimiro Montesinos ... to the
Barrios Altos and other killings."

The testimony could have been devastating to the Fujimori regime,
which had denied it was involved in death squad activity.

Release of the document will likely draw heavy criticism from
political leaders, who have complained that the U.S. government could
have done more to protect Peru from Montesinos.

The embassy document, signed by Charles Brayshaw, then deputy chief
of mission, goes on to caution that a U.S. role "in assisting the
officer to speak out would become a major sore point in bilateral
relations. It would, however, contribute significantly to our human
rights goals." In the document Brayshaw requests that "Washington
advise us on what we can tell the officer." Neither the 1993 document
nor others released Tuesday indicate what position the State
Department took. "Cables go up from here and they often don't get
responses, or cable responses, maybe just a phone call to talk about
it," embassy spokesman Douglas Barnes said.

He said he could not comment on the specific cable because he was not
familiar with its contents.

In May 1993 the army's third-ranking officer, Gen. Rodolfo Robles,
publicly disclosed the existence of the Colina death squad and
Montesinos' involvement with it. He took refuge in the U.S. Embassy,
then fled to exile in Argentina.

In February 1994, a military court sentenced nine soldiers for the La
Cantuta killings. Among the convicted was Army Maj. Santiago Martin
Rivas, the alleged leader of Colina.

But in June 1995 Fujimori signed an amnesty law that freed the nine
and protected other human rights violators in the security forces
from prosecution.

The 41 documents made available Tuesday were declassified in response
to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the National Security
Archive in Washington.

In early January, other declassified U.S. documents said embassy
officials had received a report from an unidentified former military
intelligence officer only days after Fujimori took office in 1990
that Montesinos was organizing paramilitary death squads to fight
leftist rebels. The cable noted that the embassy could not
independently confirm the secret plan.

Those documents, declassified at the request of a Peruvian
congressional committee investigating Montesinos, also showed that
U.S. officials considered Montesinos a "close collaborator" in
fighting drugs but were concerned that he had "a significant amount
of negative baggage." In response to the release of those documents,
U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton said U.S. officials' hands were tied
since Fujimori had designated Montesinos as the official liaison for
intelligence and anti-drug matters.

"He was there. We had to deal with him. He was a reality," Hamilton said