Reply #25: Why was a British journalist murdered in Chile?

[Snazzy]

Why was a British journalist murdered in Chile?
Date: Thursday, November 26 1998
Topic: South America news

By Dominic Hipkins and Richard Powell
The news focus on Chile concerning the detainment of General Pinochet in London has until now paid no attention to the fate of the British defence journalist Jonathan Moyle, who was found hanged in his Santiago hotel room on April 1st, 1990.

...

On the night of his death Moyle was seen arguing with a man identified as Raul Monteciros, the public relations officer to the immensely influential Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen, an associate of Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Cardoen was using Chile as a conduit to get the arms to Iraq that Britain was secretly supplying to Saddam Hussein, namely re-exporting prohibited weapons including equipment supplied by Matrix Churchill Ltd., the British tool-maker whose Chairman was Iraq's procurement leader, Safa al Habobi.

Perhaps key to the puzzle of Jonathan Moyle's death is the Marconi 'Stonefish' smart mine. It seems possible Cardoen had secretly acquired the plans to the anti-ship mine (used by NATO forces) and had manufactured a sizeable quantity to be exported to Iraq. Iraq's rejuvenated underwater defence system would consequently pose a real hazard to American warships patrolling in the Gulf.

Moyle's father, Tony, was visited by Naval Intelligence officials five days after his son's death, asking if Jonathan had ever mentioned 'Stonefish'. Shortly after, a smear story apparently with its origins in the Foreign Office, was circulated suggesting that Moyle's death was not an assassination but a self-inflicted consequence of a sado- masochistic sexual act. No evidence was given to support this theory and Tony Moyle later received a written apology from the Foreign Office.

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It seems most likely he was killed by the CNI - the Chilean Paramilitary Secret Police Force - better know by its previous initials, DINA. It appears equally likely, with Chile on the eve of parliamentary rule in 1990, that CNI's deadly efficient skills would only have been used with at least a wink of complicity from either the Chilean authorities or the Thatcher government, or both.

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http://www.greatreporter.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=28

Freaky, full circle huh?