For some odd reason, the CIA steadfastly refuses to disclose all of its records relating to the 1973 Chilean coup, which the CIA ardently supported. The CIA says that “national security” will be jeopardized if its records are disclosed to the American people.
That’s ridiculous. What do they think will happen — that the United States will fall into the ocean or be taken over by the communists, the terrorists, the Muslims, or some other scary boogeyman?
The disclosure issue is more relevant than ever, given that September 21 was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Orlando Letelier and his assistant Ronni Moffitt on the streets of Washington, D.C.
Letelier had served in the administration of Salvador Allende, a socialist who was democratically elected president of Chile in 1970. U.S. officials, especially those in the U.S. national-security establishment, concluded that Allende posed a grave threat to U.S. “national security.” Therefore they set into motion the events that would ultimately lead to the violent 1973 coup, which resulted in one of the most brutal military tyrannies in history — one supported by the U.S. government.
Letelier and Moffitt were driving to work that September 21 morning when a car bomb exploded and killed them both. Moffitt’s husband, who was also in the car, survived. It was a knowing, deliberate, intentional act of murder and terrorism here in the United States.
It was ultimately determined that the person in charge of planting the bomb was a man named Michael Townley. He confessed to traveling from Chile to the United States and organizing a team of Cuban exiles that assisted him in planting the car bomb.
It has always been assumed that Pinochet ordered the bombing, in large part because the CIA conducted an investigation that concluded that Pinochet did, in fact, order the bombing. That conclusion has become an important part of the historical case against Pinochet. In fact, some people are demanding the release of the CIA’s long-secret Chile records to help establish that Pinochet did, in fact, order the bombing.
That’s, of course, a distinct possibility. Letelier was living here in the United States and working for a think tank that was actively working in opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship, including trying to convince Congress to cut off aid to the Pinochet regime. Thus, it stands to reason that Pinochet certainly had a motive to kill Letelier.
However, there is something else to consider. Pinochet was not a dumb man. He had to realize that if a major terrorist attack on American soil could be traced to his regime, his good, solid relationship with the U.S. government, including foreign aid to Chile, would be finished. It is very difficult to believe that he would have been willing to take that chance just to silence a prominent critic of his regime.
There is another possibility, one that the U.S. officials and the U.S. mainstream press are loathe to consider. That possibility is that it was the CIA, rather than Pinochet, that ordered the hit on Letelier.
Yes, I know what U.S. supporters of the CIA will respond. They’ll point to that CIA investigation that concluded that it was Pinochet who ordered the hit. But isn’t that sort of like saying that the Gestapo investigated one of its murders and concluded that someone else did it? If the hypothesis being investigated is CIA involvement in the assassination, how can the CIA’s own official conclusions be treated as dispositive, especially given the CIA’s longtime expertise in covering up its assassinations?
Let’s consider some other unusual factors:
1. As part of its effort to prevent Allende from taking office, the CIA supported and encouraged Chilean military conspirators seeking to remove Gen. René Schneider, including through kidnapping. Schneider was subsequently shot during a kidnapping attempt and died three days later.
What does that have to do with Letelier? Well, if they’re willing to violently remove Schneider from office, why would they be reluctant to terminate a critic of the man who they helped install into power, Augusto Pinochet? After all, don’t forget that Letelier was a dyed-in-the-wool socialist, one who had actually served in the administration of the socialist president who was considered to be a grave threat to U.S. national security. Therefore, CIA officials would have considered it to be no big deal to terminate the life of such a man through a state-orchestrated assassination. Moreover, the CIA would have known that it would never be punished for assassinating someone it deemed to be a threat to “national security.”
2. Manuel Contreras served as Pinochet’s director of its brutal internal security force — DINA. Townley implicated Contreras as the DINA official responsible for ordering the operation, and Contreras was ultimately convicted in Chile for the Letelier assassination. Contreras maintained that the CIA, rather than Pinochet, was behind the assassination.
3. While serving as director of DINA, Contreras maintained an intelligence relationship with the CIA and even received a cash payment from the agency.
4. It’s worth mentioning that Townley had contacted the CIA before the Letelier assassination. The CIA has maintained that Townley initiated those contacts and that it never recruited him.
5. Townley was given what can only be described as one of the sweetest sweetheart deals in the history of U.S. criminal jurisprudence. After all, don’t forget — he was the person who was in charge of the operation that planted the bomb in Letelier’s car. There was no question but that this was a premeditated act of brutal murder of two totally innocent people. Anyone else would have been given nothing less than a life sentence.
Yet, Townley was permitted to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to murder and given only a 10-year sentence — with parole eligibility after only 3 years 4 months. The government also agreed to protect Townley (an admitted murderer) and his family. Interestingly, he would not be required to testify concerning other crimes committed outside U.S. jurisdiction.
This cold-blooded murderer was released from prison after serving only five years in prison.
It gets better.
Townley was permitted to enter the federal witness protection program. In fact, given that he was in this program during his five years of incarceration, we don’t really know where his “incarceration” took place — or even if it was inside a penitentiary, especially given his plea bargain guaranteed him with parole eligibility after only 3 years 4 months. To this day, Townley is presumably living the good life under a secret identity, being fully protected by the U.S. government.
How do U.S. officials justify this extraordinary treatment of an admitted cold-blooded murderer? They say that he was used to build a case against his DINA superiors, including Contreras. Really? Then why not keep him in prison until such time that Contreras or any other Chilean officials are brought to the United States to stand trial? Why agree to release him before that? Contreras was never extradited to the United States to stand trial and, as I state below, Chilean official Armando Fernández Lario was prosecuted and convicted and was forced to serve only 5 months in jail. In other words, Townley got a free pass.
Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that prior to the Letelier assassination, Townley traveled to the United States, where he met with CIA officials. The CIA says that nothing came out of that meeting. Of course, the CIA, as everyone knows, would never lie.
Oh, U.S. officials also justify the sweetheart treatment of cold-blooded murderer Townley by saying that he helped them secure convictions of the Cuban exiles that were part of his bomb team. What? Isn’t the standard procedure to offer sweetheart deals to the little people in a murder in order to get the people at the top? Why not offer the sweetheart deals to the Cuban exiles in order to secure a conviction and life sentence for Townley, the man who recruited and organized them?
While we are on the subject of Cuban exiles, need I mention the CIA’s longtime close relationship with Cuban exiles? Wasn’t it Cuban exiles that the CIA used in its fiasco invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961?
6. Let’s do a quick examination of the sentences that the Cuban exiles on Townley’s team received for having helped to assassinate two innocent people on the streets of Washington, D.C.
José Dionisio Suárez Esquivel. 12-year sentence. Released after serving only 7-8 years.
Virgilio Paz Romero. 12-year sentence. Released after serving only 6-7 years.
Alvin Ross Díaz. Initially received life sentence. Convictions reversed on appeal. On retrial, acquitted of murder-related charges because the jury didn’t believe Townley.
Guillermo Novo Sampol. Initially received life sentence. Convictions reversed on appeal. On retrial, acquitted of murder-related charges because the jury didn’t believe Townley.
7. Chilean official Armando Fernández Larios. Sentenced to 27 months to 7 years. Served only 5 months before being released because of his cooperation.
Whether the CIA’s still-secret records contain evidence bearing on CIA involvement in the Letelier/Moffitt assassinations is impossible to know. Regardless, after 50 years, the American people should not have to take the CIA’s word for what its remaining Chile records do or do not show. And, no, America will not fall into the ocean or be taken over by the Reds, the terrorists, the Muslims, or anyone else if the CIA is forced to divulge all of its 50-year-old records relating to Chile.
Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.
