UW settles suit against CIA over 'top secret' data on Salvadoran Army officer

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Seattle Times

Originally published May 30, 2018 at 6:15 am Updated May 30, 2018 at 7:34 am

To settle a lawsuit, the CIA has released 139 formerly “secret” or “top-secret” documents relating to America’s relationship with a brutal El Salvadoran army officer during that country’s civil war.

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter




The University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights has settled its 2015 Freedom-of-Information lawsuit against the CIA, receiving new information in its quest to reveal alleged abuses by U.S.-backed troops during El Salvador’s civil war.

The settlement, reached last week, resulted in the release of 139 CIA documents formerly designated “secret “ or “top secret,” some of which have never been seen outside the agency, said center Director Angelina Snodgrass Godoy, who holds the Helen H. Jackson Chair in Human Rights at the UW.

. . .

One thing the agreement does not do is resolve or address the suspicious theft of a computer and hard drive from Godoy’s office shortly after the lawsuit was filed that contained much of the information the center had gathered on El Salvador and the target of the Freedom of Information Act requests, former El Salvadoran Col. Sigifredo Ochoa Pérez, and his alleged ties to the U.S. The theft coincided with a visit to the UW campus by then-CIA director John Brennan.

. . .

The lawsuit was filed in 2015 by a fellow at the Center for Human Rights and alleged the spy agency withheld records regarding Ochoa Pérez and his ties to the agency and U.S. military.

Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/uw-settles-suit-against-cia-over-data-on-salvadoran-army-officer/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news

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Col. Sigifredo Ochoa Pérez

[LuckyLib]

1. The computer and hard drive

"contained much of the information the center had gathered on El Salvador and the target of the Freedom of Information Act requests, former El Salvadoran Col. Sigifredo Ochoa Pérez, and his alleged ties to the U.S." Not saved elsewhere? The iCloud? Your mother-in-law's file cabinet?

A building burned this week in our town, an old building housing a number of artists. They lost everything -- computer files of their art work going back years. Keep a backup.