High Crimes

make the following free and voluntary statement to JOHN F. DAWKINS, whom I know to be a Criminal Investigator for the United States Armed Forces. I make this statement of my own free will and without any threat or promises extended to me.

On 22JUN85 my unit, Detachment 27 of the Special Forces, a top-secret combat unit, was based at Ilopango, El Salvador. I am the unit’s XO. Our mission was to conduct operations regarding the antigovernment forces in El Salvador. Our CO, Colonel William MARKS, received intelligence from a reliable source that a splinter group of the leftist, antigovernment guerrilla organization FMLN, which had killed four off-duty marines and two American businessmen several days before at the Zona Rosa in San Salvador, had gone to ground in a tiny village outside San Salvador. The village, which was called La Colina, was the birthplace of several of the guerrillas. They were said to be in hiding there.

In the middle of the night, early on 22JUN85, we located the village. The unit split in half to approach the village from two directions. We had silencers on our weapons to prolong the element of surprise, to shoot dogs or geese or whatever animals we might encounter. Both teams moved in and took control of the village, going from house to house, waking inhabitants and rousting them from their huts. We took this approach to ensure that the inhabitants had no firearms.

All of the inhabitants, who numbered eighty-seven individuals, were assembled in an open area that was presumably the town square. They were all civilians, old men and women and children and infants. They were interrogated in Spanish but claimed no knowledge of the whereabouts of the guerrillas. Col MARKS, who remained behind at headquarters, was informed by radio our determination that the intelligence lead was wrong and there were no commandos in hiding in La Colina at that present time. Col MARKS then directed us to leave. There was an exchange between several of the villagers and Sgt KUBIK. Suddenly Sgt KUBIK leveled his M-60 machine gun at the villagers. I noticed he had linked two ammo belts together on his shoulder so he had two hundred rounds. Sgt KUBIK began firing directly at the inhabitants and in a few minutes he had killed them all.

The following questions were asked by J. F. DAWKINS and answered by myself.

Q: Was an attempt made to restrain KUBIK?

A: Yes, but no one could approach him, because he was firing wildly.

Q: Were the civilians checked for weapons?

A: No, because Col MARKS thought we had lost control of the situation and ordered us to move out of there immediately.

Q: Did Sgt KUBIK have any comment after he finished killing the eighty-seven civilians?

A: No, he just said, “Well, now, that takes care of that.”