De-Classed Papers Show Kissinger Chose Terror

Secretary of State Reversed U.S. Policy On "Condor" Ops

As the sedan entered Sheridan Circle on Massachusetts Avenue
in Washington, D.C., a bomb ripped it in half, instantly
incinerating two of the people inside.

The date was September 21, 1976, just five days after
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reversed a U.S. demarche
that would have called for U.S. Ambassadors to warn the
military governments of such "Condor" states as Chile,
Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil against all such acts of
international terror.

Instead, Mr. Kissinger ordered ambassadors not to interfere
in the affairs of the nations so affected, an act which
allegedly led to literally hundreds of such political
assassinations worldwide, according to documents
declassified under the Freedom of Information Act on
Saturday.

The implication is that Mr. Kissinger complied in a course
of U.S. actions that condoned terrorism by right wing
military juntas who sought to remove former left wing
antagonists hiding in the U.S. and other nations.

The bombing killed Orlando Letelier, former Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Interior and Defense during the Salvador
Allende Administration of Chile, and his U.S. Assistant,
Ronni Moffitt. Her husband, Michael, survived.

Mr. Letelier, an economist by training with extensive
experience in the international economics of copper
production, was operating in exile from the troubled nation
of Chile following the coup d'etat that resulted in the
violent death of Mr. Allende as the Presidential Palace and
the "disappearances" of thousands upon thousands of
socialists following the military takeover by General
Augusto Pinochet.

Authorities prosecuted and convicted several people for the
murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, among them
Michael Townley, who formerly worked for the CIA.

On August 30, Mr. Harry Schlaudeman, assistant secretary for
Inter-American Affairs, wrote a memo stating, in part, "What
we are trying to head off is a series of international
murders that could do serious damage to the international
status and reputation of the countries involved."

Mr. Kissinger replied on September 16, in a cable that
stated he "has instructed that no further action be taken on
this matter."

According to Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst of the
National Security Archives and author of "The Pinochet File:
A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability," the
cable, which had been missing for years, gives scholars and
historians a smoking gun at which to point for proof of U.S.
complicity in the matter.

"We know now what hapened: The State Department initiated a
timely effort to thwart a 'Murder Inc.' in the Southern
Cone, and Kissinger, without explanation, aborted it...The
Kissinger cancellation on warning the Condor nations
prevented the delivery of a diplomatic protest that
conceivably could have deterred an act of terrorism in
Washington, D.C."

Many experts consider the bombing of Mr. Letelier's
automobile to have been the single worst act of domestic
terror prior to the attacks of 9/11, 2001, on the World
Trade Center and The Pentagon.

Documentation of the entire affair is to be found at
http://www.nsarchive.org

The National Security Archive is a non-governmental research
center and library located at George Washington University
in Washington, D.C. It files thousands of FOIA requests and
often files suit against various government departments for
the public release of historic documents.