Klippenstein writes: "With Henry Kissinger's name back in the news, so are
the facts of his ghoulish tenure as national security advisor and secretary
of state under the Nixon and Ford administrations. Among the most infamous
was the role Kissinger played in supporting the brutal military dictator of
Chile, General Augusto Pinochet, whom Kissinger once told: 'We are
sympathetic with what you are trying to do here.'"
Former Sec. of State Henry Kissinger. (photo: AP)
Kissinger's Corpses: A Look at Pinochet's FBI File
By Ken Klippenstein, Reader Supported News
08 September 16
With Henry Kissinger's name back in the news, so are the facts of his
ghoulish tenure as national security advisor and secretary of state under
the Nixon and Ford administrations. Among the most infamous was the role
Kissinger played in supporting the brutal military dictator of Chile,
General Augusto Pinochet, whom Kissinger once told: "We are sympathetic with
what you are trying to do here."
What Pinochet's regime did was overthrow Chile's democratically elected
leader, kill at least 10,000 Chileans, torture 29,000, and drive into exile
over 200,000. However, Pinochet's crimes were not confined to Chile. In
September of 1976, a car bomb went off in Washington DC's Embassy Row,
killing passengers Orlando Letelier, a former top official to the Chilean
government, and Ronni Moffitt, his American assistant.
The deaths were gruesome, neither one instantaneous. (Letelier's legs were
blown off and Moffitt drowned in her own blood.) Pinochet personally ordered
the murders, a fact that the CIA had known but would not declassify until
just last year, in 2015. Letelier was a prominent official in the Chilean
Socialist Party, which Pinochet overthrew in a military coup in 1973.
Letelier had been speaking out against Pinochet's regime and lobbying
governments against doing business with it, which is why Pinochet sought to
have him murdered.
I recently obtained Pinochet's FBI file as a result of a Freedom of
Information request I filed. The majority of records deemed responsive to my
request were deleted in their entirety, many on "national security" grounds.
The remaining pages - those actually provided to me - were heavily redacted.
Many FBI files pertaining to government officials contain little more than
tedious procedural minutiae (e.g. background checks, security reports about
locations for public appearances, and the like). In stark contrast, just a
few pages into Pinochet's file, there is a document covered in tape labeled
"EVIDENCE." It refers to photographs of Chilean officials travelling with
Pinochet to the US. Though it is impossible to be certain, this suggests
that the FBI regarded the Pinochet regime as a culprit very early on
(considering when the document is dated).
The date on this document (above), 9/5/77, is significant: the car bomb that
killed Letelier took place less than a year prior. Astonishingly, not only
had the US permitted entry to Pinochet just months after a car bomb on US
soil that was widely attributed to his regime, President Jimmy Carter met
with him personally at the White House.
Another record in Pinochet's file (above) mentions "DINA," the abbreviation
for Pinochet's secret police. DINA agents were later found to have carried
out Letelier's assassination on behalf of Pinochet.
Pinochet's file contains a number of photographs of other Chilean officials
- presumably including DINA - accompanying him, though all are redacted.
So what does this all have to do with Kissinger? Before Letelier's murder,
the State Department received CIA intelligence suggesting that the Pinochet
regime was considering international assassinations of his political
opponents. As a result, the State Department drafted a forceful warning
against such an operation to be sent to the Pinochet government. However,
the warning never made it to Chile: just five days before Letelier's
assassination, Kissinger intervened and ordered the State Department to
cancel its intended warning.
Then Letelier was, of course, murdered.
You can view Pinochet's FBI file here:
________________________________________
Ken Klippenstein is an American journalist who can be reached on twitter
@kenklippenstein or via email: kenneth.klippenstein@xxxxxxxxx
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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Former Sec. of State Henry Kissinger. (photo: AP)
http://readersupportednews.org/http://readersupportednews.org/
Kissinger's Corpses: A Look at Pinochet's FBI File
By Ken Klippenstein, Reader Supported News
08 September 16
ith Henry Kissinger's name back in the news, so are the facts of his
ghoulish tenure as national security advisor and secretary of state under
the Nixon and Ford administrations. Among the most infamous was the role
Kissinger played in supporting the brutal military dictator of Chile,
General Augusto Pinochet, whom Kissinger once told: "We are sympathetic with
what you are trying to do here."
What Pinochet's regime did was overthrow Chile's democratically elected
leader, kill at least 10,000 Chileans, torture 29,000, and drive into exile
over 200,000. However, Pinochet's crimes were not confined to Chile. In
September of 1976, a car bomb went off in Washington DC's Embassy Row,
killing passengers Orlando Letelier, a former top official to the Chilean
government, and Ronni Moffitt, his American assistant.
The deaths were gruesome, neither one instantaneous. (Letelier's legs were
blown off and Moffitt drowned in her own blood.) Pinochet personally ordered
the murders, a fact that the CIA had known but would not declassify until
just last year, in 2015. Letelier was a prominent official in the Chilean
Socialist Party, which Pinochet overthrew in a military coup in 1973.
Letelier had been speaking out against Pinochet's regime and lobbying
governments against doing business with it, which is why Pinochet sought to
have him murdered.
I recently obtained Pinochet's FBI file as a result of a Freedom of
Information request I filed. The majority of records deemed responsive to my
request were deleted in their entirety, many on "national security" grounds.
The remaining pages - those actually provided to me - were heavily redacted.
Many FBI files pertaining to government officials contain little more than
tedious procedural minutiae (e.g. background checks, security reports about
locations for public appearances, and the like). In stark contrast, just a
few pages into Pinochet's file, there is a document covered in tape labeled
"EVIDENCE." It refers to photographs of Chilean officials travelling with
Pinochet to the US. Though it is impossible to be certain, this suggests
that the FBI regarded the Pinochet regime as a culprit very early on
(considering when the document is dated).
The date on this document (above), 9/5/77, is significant: the car bomb that
killed Letelier took place less than a year prior. Astonishingly, not only
had the US permitted entry to Pinochet just months after a car bomb on US
soil that was widely attributed to his regime, President Jimmy Carter met
with him personally at the White House.
Another record in Pinochet's file (above) mentions "DINA," the abbreviation
for Pinochet's secret police. DINA agents were later found to have carried
out Letelier's assassination on behalf of Pinochet.
Pinochet's file contains a number of photographs of other Chilean officials
- presumably including DINA - accompanying him, though all are redacted.
So what does this all have to do with Kissinger? Before Letelier's murder,
the State Department received CIA intelligence suggesting that the Pinochet
regime was considering international assassinations of his political
opponents. As a result, the State Department drafted a forceful warning
against such an operation to be sent to the Pinochet government. However,
the warning never made it to Chile: just five days before Letelier's
assassination, Kissinger intervened and ordered the State Department to
cancel its intended warning.
Then Letelier was, of course, murdered.
You can view Pinochet's FBI file here:
Ken Klippenstein is an American journalist who can be reached on twitter
@kenklippenstein or via email: kenneth.klippenstein@xxxxxxxxx
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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