Washington's "Project X" clandestine terror program was first exposed in 1997 by the Washington Post, as shown here. The Project X materials were illegally destroyed by the Department of Defense, so it's existence has been virtually sanitized from history. EL SALVADOR. San Salvador. Relatives come to seek victims of the death squads. From 1962-1992, the United States created and managed the system of terror and misery in Central America and elsewhere in accordance with maintaining dominance over the world. The reasons the program targeted civilians were rational: But with Free Trade Agreements death squads are no longer needed. No more threat of democracy to US corporate and power interests.