The Pinochet files (declassified US documents reveal US role in coup)

[Khephra]

The Pinochet files

A series of declassified US documents have revealed the extent of America's role in the Chilean coup, says Jonathan Franklin

Wednesday September 10, 2003


September 11 1973 was a day of terror and bloodshed in Chile. After months of rising tension, army troops stormed the presidential palace, leaving President Salvador Allende dead and thousands prisoners throughout this previously democratic nation.

Now, on the 30th anniversary of the coup, professors, journalists and citizen activists around the world are continuing to expose the full role of the US government in financing and promoting this bloody coup, which ushered in the 17-year military dictatorship headed by General Augusto Pinochet.

Thousands of top secret documents which were declassified over the past five years have now been synthesized in a new book, The Pinochet File, by investigative reporter Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archives, a Washington-based investigative centre. "The US created a climate of a coup in Chile, a situation of chaos and agitation," said Kornbluh. "The CIA and state department were worried that the military ... were not ready for a coup."

The top secret documents accumulatively detail the crude workings of Washington during the Cold War. "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup," reads a CIA document from October 1970. "It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG and American hand be well hidden."

Two days after this document was written, top CIA officials proposed a terrorist campaign to stun the Chilean people into accepting a military regime.


more.....................

http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,13755,1038615,00.html

[gandalf]

1. Another element...

... of an already quite revealing mosaic that shows how the CIA uses covert operations and terror to reach political objectives.
But everyone who claims that these covert actions were possibly not confined to the seventies or to foreign or enemy countries is called a conspiracy theorist. Amazing.

[Capt_Nemo]

2. "Why do they hate us?"

There you have the answer.

[sujan]

3. nothing new

American government promoting American values overseas.

[bluestateguy]

4. Celebration at my place when Pinochet dies

It takes forever for these people to die! Geesh!

[0007]

5. National Holiday when Henry A. Kissinger croaks

........and the pukes still look up to this repugnant piece of shit. Jim Lehrer had Kissinger on his News Hour last night.
Henry was promoting his new book, "Crisis" - Couldn't watch.

[LynneSin]

15. National? Try Worldwide

People across the globe will be celebrating the death of Kissinger. I guess 9/11 has more signifigance in this world than what happened in 2001.

To be honest, I think our government was no better than Al-Qaeda with what we did in Chile some 30 years ago.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Gee, I was thinking the same thing

Here - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=106094#106539

[izzie]

6. We will be there if their in 2 dollars to rub together, I swear.

n/t

[pinerow]

7. At one time , there were a number of people talking not only

about what happened in Chile, but also the the Arbenz affair, the attacks on Dominican democracy (they had the temerity to vote a socialist as president). There were unprecedented attacks on the domestic front as well.
The attempt to railroad Angela Davis in '71, the infiltration of government agents into groups like the Black Panthers, Young Lords Party, Stidents for a Democratic Society and not to mention SNCC, NAACP, and the continuing demonization of Martin Luther King.

They claimed we were all tin-foil conspiracy freaks; I guess the truth will out, no matter how long it may take.

[noonwitch]

10. Nixon was the conspiracy freak

It's too bad, really, because he was pretty intelligent. He was just paranoid and delusional, which interfered with his domestic agenda, his ability to relate to the times and his view of leaders of other countries who were to the left of him. He did open relations with China, which is one of the good things he did.

[dArKeR]

8. Friendly Dictators usually grow rich, while their countries' economies

go down the drain. U.S. tax dollars and U.S. backed loans have made billionaires of some; others are international drug dealers who also collect CIA paychecks. Rarely are they called to account for their crimes.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/SouthAmerica.html

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/Cards_Index.html

[TacticalPeek]

9. Another candidate for content of the 18.5 minute gap.

[scarletwoman]

11. Related article -- "A Tale of Two Septembers"

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16712

<snip>

Our involvement in this unsavory affair is now widely recognized. As Secretary of State Colin Powell himself recently acknowledged, "It is not a part of our country's history that we are proud of."

Powell's comment implies a feeling of contrition that I doubt his colleagues in this Administration share. For the ties are remarkably intimate between those who planned the attacks on Chile's White House and those in charge of responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld worked in the Nixon cabinet. And in a most telling demonstration of continuity, President Bush appointed Henry Kissinger, the central player in the overthrow of the Chilean government, to chair the Committee investigating the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. (Kissinger withdrew in the face of ferocious worldwide criticism.)

<snip>

The United States rewarded Chile by dramatically increasing both grants and loans. On June 8, 1976, at the height of Pinochet's repression, Kissinger met in private with the dictator and told him, "We are sympathetic to what you are trying to do here".

Having thwarted the possibility that Chile would become a model of democratic socialism, the United States made Chile a model of dictatorial capitalism. Under the hands-on guidance of University of Chicago economists, the Chilean economy was restructured. Unions were outlawed. Real wages plunged. Social spending was slashed. Of 507 public enterprises in l973 only l5 remained in government hands by l980. Chile privatized its social security system.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

thread in GD

sw

[Gin]

12. This reminds me of home....since 2001...chaos and agitation..

"The US created a climate of a coup in Chile, a situation of chaos and agitation," said Kornbluh.

[scarletwoman]

13. Yes, and our own coupsters are just getting started...

If the bush* junta remains in power, we can ultimately look forward to the same kind of "economic restructuring" in the U.S. as went on in Chile.

The reference to the University of Chicago in the article I posted caught my eye. U of C is also home to those Staussian neocons that infest the bush* maladministration. Makes me go hmmmmmm...

sw

[bvar22]

16. This is also a ....

....blueprint for the current disruptions in Venezuela.

[prolesunited]

19. The situation is very similar

to what is taking place in Venezuela. What they haven't overcome yet is the power of the Internet. People on the inside were getting information about what was taking place to the outside world. If I remember correctly, it also had the U.S. fingerprints all over it — the rush to embrace the new leader to give him legitimacy and then spiriting him away afterward.

I'm sure they're not through with Venezuela yet and a working on something new behind the scenes.

[scarletwoman]

22. Oh you BET -- they are VERY hard at work at "regime change" in Venezuela!

I don't have any links at hand just now, but I know there are usually fairly current posts about the Venezuelan situation somewhere around DU.

Good places for accurate information on Venezuela are ZNet/ZMag, and GregPalast.com . I haven't checked out NarcoNews.com recently, but they update their Venezuela coverage fairly regularly. Another good source is VHeadline.com .

sw

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Whackjob here in Brazil

Says Allende was "legally" ousted by the Chilean Congress and the Army was only called when he "illegally" bunkered himself in the presidential palace. Any links to such a version, and to rebuttals thereof?

[scarletwoman]

21. I've never heard that version -- but,

it seems to me that with all the links provided in this thread, you have plenty of ammunition for a rebuttal.

sw

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. Ha! I have one in The Guardian's 1973 archives:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,13755,1029639,00.html

"The demand for the president's resignation came in a document read over an opposition radio station and apparently signed by four senior officers: General Augusto Pinochet, the commander-in-chief of the Army; General Gustave Leigh, the recently appointed commander-in-chief of the air force; Admiral Jorge Toribio Merino, described as the head of the navy; and General Cesar Mendoza, described as the head of the police force."

The key words here being "demand", "resignation", and "armed forces".

Americans, take heart: Coulters and Savages are not an USA-only thing. :(

[Junkdrawer]

18. Any suggestion the CIA was involved is a Conspiracy Theory...

After all, two or more people would have had to conspire to make this illegal event happen. And we all know conspiracy theories are automatically false.

[scarletwoman]

20. Yesterday's "Fresh Air" program is about the Chile coup

Interview with Peter Kornbluh is the Tuesday, Sept. 9 program:

Peter Kornbluh is director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project. He led the campaign to declassify official documents of the secret history of the United States government support for the Pinochet dictatorship. That information has now been collected in the new book, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability. The book chronicles 20 years of policy in Chile from 1970 to 1990. This September 11th marks the 30th anniversary of the bloody coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende and led to the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

This is a MUST LISTEN! -- go to: http://freshair.npr.org/week_fa.jhtml -- right now it's under "current program" since today's interview with Paul Krugman (another must listen!) hasn't started yet.

Also on the program is Former CIA agent, Jack Devine -- so far, acting as something of an apologist for the CIA actions back then.

Jack Devine was stationed in Chile during the coup as part of the agency's Chile task force. He is now a crisis management consultant in New York with the firm The Arkin Group.

(hmmm... time to google Arkin Group, methinks...)

sw