It’s official: US supported Argentine death squads

2006-03-29

Richard Moore

--------------------------------------------------------
Date:         Thu, 23 Mar 2006 15:57:08 -0500
Reply-To: National Security Archive <•••@••.•••>
Sender: The National Security Archive <•••@••.•••>
From: National Security Archive <•••@••.•••>
Subject:      On 30th Anniversary of Argentine Coup: New Declassified Details
                    on Repression and U.S. Support for Military Dictatorship
To: •••@••.•••

National Security Archive Update, March 23, 2006

ON 30th ANNIVERSARY OF ARGENTINE COUP: NEW DECLASSIFIED
DETAILS ON REPRESSION AND U.S. SUPPORT FOR MILITARY
DICTATORSHIP

Kissinger sought immediate support for the new military
regime in spite of staff warnings on bloodshed

22,000 people murdered or disappeared by military between
1975 and 1978 according to secret Chilean intelligence
report

Secret Argentine documents record Operation Condor
kidnappings and disappearances carried out by military
intelligence Battalion 601.

For more information:
Carlos Osorio - 202/994-7000

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, D.C., 23 March 2006 - On the eve of the 30th
anniversary of the military coup in Argentina, the National
Security Archive posted a series of declassified U.S.
documents and, for the first time, secret documents from
Southern Cone intelligence agencies, recording detailed
evidence of atrocities committed by the military regime in
Argentina.

The documents include a formerly secret transcript of
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's first staff meeting
after the coup during which he ordered the immediate support
of the U.S. government for the new military regime. Told by
his staff that there would be "a good deal of blood in
Argentina before too long" and that Washington should delay
embracing the new junta, according to the declassified
transcript posted today, Kissinger stated: "I do want to
encourage them. I don't want to give the sense that they're
harassed by the United States."

The Archive also posted actual internal records from the
infamous Argentina intelligence unit, Battalion 601, as well
as a document from the Chilean secret police agency, known
as DINA, which was secretly collaborating with the military
in Buenos Aires and which provided an internal military
account of the number of dead and disappeared at the hands
of the Argentine security forces.

The DINA document, based on secret body count lists put
together by Battalion 601, put the number at 22,000 people
between 1975 and mid 1978. Other Argentine and declassified
U.S. documents illuminated the repression of "Operation
Condor" -- a collaborative effort among the Southern Cone
secret police services to track down and eliminate opponents
of their regimes in the mid and late 1970s. Several
documents highlight the case of an Uruguayan couple who were
disappeared in September 1976, as part of a Condor operation
to wipe out an Uruguayan resistance group known as OPR-33.

The Archive's posting on Argentina coincides with a decision
made public today by the Argentine Defense Ministry to open
its still secret archives to researchers and victims of
repression during the eight year military dictatorship.
Carlos Osorio, director of the National Security Archive's
Argentina project, hailed the decision as "a major step
toward accountability for the past" that would "help clarify
massive human rights violations during the dictatorship."
But Osorio urged that intelligence documents, such as the
one from Battalion 601 included in this posting, be released
as well. For this new policy of openness to succeed,
according to Marcos Novaro who directs the Political History
Project at the University of Buenos Aires, "it is important
that the relevant archives of the State Intelligence
Secretariat be included."

http://www.nsarchive.org

__________________________________________
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent
non-governmental research institute and library located at
The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The
Archive collects and publishes declassified documents
acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A
tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S.
government funding; its budget is supported by publication
royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.
__________________________________________

-- 

--------------------------------------------------------
Escaping the Matrix website     http://escapingthematrix.org/
cyberjournal website            http://cyberjournal.org
blog:   cyberjournal forum      http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/
blog:   Achieving real democracy        http://harmonization.blogspot.com/
blog:   for readers of ETM      http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/
blog:   Community Empowerment   http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/
Blogger made easy               http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html

subscribe cyberjournal list     mailto:•••@••.•••
Posting archives
http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog