I have never heard Michael Vernon Townley's name mentioned in relation to the JFK assassination. He was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1942. His father, Vernon Townley, was appointed head of the Ford Motor Company in Chile. As a result, the family moved to Santiago. Vernon Townley, who had developed links with the CIA while working in the Philippines, became involved in politics and helped fund the 1958 presidential campaign of conservative candidate, Jorge Alessandri who narrowly managed to defeat Salvador Allende in the election.
Michael Townley went to work for Investors Overseas Services, the company owned by Bernard Cornfeld and Robert Vesco. In 1961 Townley married Mariana Callejas. Although active in the Socialist Party, she was actually working as an informer for Chilean military intelligence. Soon afterwards Townley began working for the CIA.
Townley became associated with a Cuban group called the Chicago Junta. This group included Frank Sturgis, Orlando Bosch, Antonio Veciana and Aldo Vera Serafin. According to Peter Dale Scott, this operational hit team was disbanded on 21st November, 1963, the day before JFK was assassinated.
Does anyone know anything about the Chicago Junta?
Full Version: Michael Vernon Townley
Does anyone know anything about the Chicago Junta? (John Simkin)
John,
Is this junta the one headed by Paulino Sierra and ultimately designed to create an environment where autonomous operations against Cuba could flourish?
James
John,
Is this junta the one headed by Paulino Sierra and ultimately designed to create an environment where autonomous operations against Cuba could flourish?
James
At the moment I don't have anything concrete to add. However there is here a pattern which repeats in other contexts. If anyone sees reason to mention J Venable and also Central American aid groupings (CIA guises) please do so.
In 1967 Townley moved from Chile to Miami. According to Donald Freed (Death in Washington: The Murder of Orlando Letelier) Towney was now being sponsored by Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organization (SAO). "Townley began an intensive study of electronics and explosives under the tutelage of several former CIA men who were in the process of taking over an electronics operation in the Fort Lauderdale area." One of Townley's tasks was to plant bombs under the cars of people living in Miami.
In 1969 the CIA arranged for Townley to be sent to Chile under the alias of Kenneth W. Enyart. He was accompanied by Aldo Vera Serafin of the SAO. Townley now came under the control of David Atlee Phillips who had been asked to lead a special task force assigned to prevent the election of Salvador Allende as President of Chile. This campaign was unsuccessful and Allende gained power in 1970. He therefore became the first Marxist to gain power in a free democratic election.
The CIA attempted to persuade Chile's Chief of Staff General Rene Schneider, to overthrow Allende. He refused and on 22nd October, 1970, his car was ambushed. Schneider drew a gun to defend himself, and was shot point-blank several times. He was rushed to hospital, but he died three days later. Military courts in Chile found that Schneider's death was caused by two military groups, one led by Roberto Viaux and the other by Camilo Valenzuela. It was claimed that the CIA was providing support for both groups.
David Atlee Phillips set Townley the task of organizing two paramilitary action groups Orden y Libertad (Order and Freedom) and Protecion Comunal y Soberania (Common Protection and Sovereignty). Townley also established an arson squad that started several fires in Santiago. Townley also mounted a smear campaign against General Carlos Prats, the head of the Chilean Army. Prats resigned on 21st August, 1973. His replacement as Commander in Chief was General Augusto Pinochet.
On 11th September, 1973, a military coup removed Allende's government from power. Salvador Allende died in the fighting in the presidential palace in Santiago. General Augusto Pinochet replaced Allende as president. Soon afterwards Townley was recruited by General Juan Manuel Contreras, the head of DINA, the new secret police.
Townley's main task was to deal with those dissents who had fled Chile after General Augusto Pinochet had gained power. This included General Carlos Prats who was writing his memoirs in Argentina. Donald Freed argues in "Death in Washington: The Murder of Orlando Letelier" that: "On September 30, 1974, shortly after the first anniversary of the violent overthrow of the Allende government, Townley and a team of assassins murdered Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires. Their auto was exploded by a bomb."
Promoted to the rank of major by General Juan Manuel Contreras Townley made regular visits to the United States in 1975 to meet with Rolando Otero and other members of the White Hand group. In September 1975, Townley's death squad struck again. Former Chilean vice-president Bernardo Leighton and his wife were gunned down in Rome by local fascists working with DINA.
Donald Freed claims that on 29th June, 1976, Townley had a meeting with Bernardo De Torres, Armando Lopez Estrada, Hector Duran and General Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda. The following month Frank Castro, Luis Posada, Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo established Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU). CORU was partly financed by Guillermo Hernández Cartaya, another Bay of Pigs veteran closely linked to the CIA. He was later charged with money laundering, drugs & arms trafficking and embezzlement. The federal prosecutor told Pete Brewton that he had been approached by a CIA officer who explained that "Cartaya had done a bunch of things that the government was indebted to him for, and he asked me to drop the charges against him."
One Miami police veteran told the authors of Assassination on Embassy Row (1980): "The Cubans held the CORU meeting at the request of the CIA. The Cuban groups... were running amok in the mid-1970s, and the United States had lost control of them. So the United States backed the meeting to get them all going in the same direction again, under United States control." It has been pointed out that George H. W. Bush was director of the CIA when this meeting took place.
Frank Castro told the Miami Herald why he had helped establish CORU: "I believe that the United States has betrayed freedom fighters around the world. They trained us to fight, brainwashed us how to fight and now they put Cuban exiles in jail for what they had been taught to do in the early years."
On 18th September, 1976, Orlando Letelier, who served as foreign minister under Salvador Allende, was traveling to work at the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington when a bomb was ignited under his car. Letelier and Ronni Moffitt both died of their injuries.
The director of the CIA, George H. W. Bush, was quickly told that DINA and several of his contract agents were involved in the assassination. However, he asked members of Operation Mockingbird to cover-up the role that the CIA and DINA had played in the killings. Jeremiah O'Leary in the Washington Star (8th October, 1976) wrote: "The right-wing Chilean junta had nothing to gain and everything to lose by the assassination of a peaceful and popular socialist leader." Newsweek added: "The CIA has concluded that the Chilean secret police was not involved." (11th October).
William F. Buckley also took part in this disinformation campaign and on 25th October wrote: "U.S. investigators think it unlikely that Chile would risk with an action of this kind the respect it has won with great difficulty during the past year in many Western countries, which before were hostile to its policies." According to Donald Freed, Buckley had been providing disinformation for the General Augusto Pinochet government since October 1974. He also unearthed information that William Buckley's brother, James Buckley, had met with Michael Townley and Guillermo Novo Sampol in New York City just a week before Orlando Letelier was assassinated.
The FBI eventually became convinced that Michael Townley was organized the assassination of Letelier. In 1978 Chile agreed to extradite him to the United States. Townley confessed he had hired five anti-Castro Cubans exiles to booby-trap Letelier's car. Guillermo Novo Sampol, Ignacio Novo Sampol, Virgilio Paz Romero, Dionisio Suárez, and Alvin Ross Díaz are indicted for the crime.
Townley agreed to provide evidence against these men in exchange for a deal that involved him pleading guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit murder and being given a ten-year sentence. His wife, Mariana Townley also agrees to testify, in exchange for not being prosecuted.
On the 9th January, 1979, the trial of Guillermo Novo Sampol, Ignacio Novo Sampol and Alvin Ross Díaz began in Washington. General Augusto Pinochet refused to allow Virgilio Paz Romero and Dionisio Suárez, two DINA officers, to be extradited. All three were found guilty of murder. Guillermo Novo and Alvin Ross were sentenced to life imprisonment. Ignacio Novo received eighty years. Soon after the trial Michael Townley was freed under the Witness Protection Program.
In 1969 the CIA arranged for Townley to be sent to Chile under the alias of Kenneth W. Enyart. He was accompanied by Aldo Vera Serafin of the SAO. Townley now came under the control of David Atlee Phillips who had been asked to lead a special task force assigned to prevent the election of Salvador Allende as President of Chile. This campaign was unsuccessful and Allende gained power in 1970. He therefore became the first Marxist to gain power in a free democratic election.
The CIA attempted to persuade Chile's Chief of Staff General Rene Schneider, to overthrow Allende. He refused and on 22nd October, 1970, his car was ambushed. Schneider drew a gun to defend himself, and was shot point-blank several times. He was rushed to hospital, but he died three days later. Military courts in Chile found that Schneider's death was caused by two military groups, one led by Roberto Viaux and the other by Camilo Valenzuela. It was claimed that the CIA was providing support for both groups.
David Atlee Phillips set Townley the task of organizing two paramilitary action groups Orden y Libertad (Order and Freedom) and Protecion Comunal y Soberania (Common Protection and Sovereignty). Townley also established an arson squad that started several fires in Santiago. Townley also mounted a smear campaign against General Carlos Prats, the head of the Chilean Army. Prats resigned on 21st August, 1973. His replacement as Commander in Chief was General Augusto Pinochet.
On 11th September, 1973, a military coup removed Allende's government from power. Salvador Allende died in the fighting in the presidential palace in Santiago. General Augusto Pinochet replaced Allende as president. Soon afterwards Townley was recruited by General Juan Manuel Contreras, the head of DINA, the new secret police.
Townley's main task was to deal with those dissents who had fled Chile after General Augusto Pinochet had gained power. This included General Carlos Prats who was writing his memoirs in Argentina. Donald Freed argues in "Death in Washington: The Murder of Orlando Letelier" that: "On September 30, 1974, shortly after the first anniversary of the violent overthrow of the Allende government, Townley and a team of assassins murdered Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires. Their auto was exploded by a bomb."
Promoted to the rank of major by General Juan Manuel Contreras Townley made regular visits to the United States in 1975 to meet with Rolando Otero and other members of the White Hand group. In September 1975, Townley's death squad struck again. Former Chilean vice-president Bernardo Leighton and his wife were gunned down in Rome by local fascists working with DINA.
Donald Freed claims that on 29th June, 1976, Townley had a meeting with Bernardo De Torres, Armando Lopez Estrada, Hector Duran and General Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda. The following month Frank Castro, Luis Posada, Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo established Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU). CORU was partly financed by Guillermo Hernández Cartaya, another Bay of Pigs veteran closely linked to the CIA. He was later charged with money laundering, drugs & arms trafficking and embezzlement. The federal prosecutor told Pete Brewton that he had been approached by a CIA officer who explained that "Cartaya had done a bunch of things that the government was indebted to him for, and he asked me to drop the charges against him."
One Miami police veteran told the authors of Assassination on Embassy Row (1980): "The Cubans held the CORU meeting at the request of the CIA. The Cuban groups... were running amok in the mid-1970s, and the United States had lost control of them. So the United States backed the meeting to get them all going in the same direction again, under United States control." It has been pointed out that George H. W. Bush was director of the CIA when this meeting took place.
Frank Castro told the Miami Herald why he had helped establish CORU: "I believe that the United States has betrayed freedom fighters around the world. They trained us to fight, brainwashed us how to fight and now they put Cuban exiles in jail for what they had been taught to do in the early years."
On 18th September, 1976, Orlando Letelier, who served as foreign minister under Salvador Allende, was traveling to work at the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington when a bomb was ignited under his car. Letelier and Ronni Moffitt both died of their injuries.
The director of the CIA, George H. W. Bush, was quickly told that DINA and several of his contract agents were involved in the assassination. However, he asked members of Operation Mockingbird to cover-up the role that the CIA and DINA had played in the killings. Jeremiah O'Leary in the Washington Star (8th October, 1976) wrote: "The right-wing Chilean junta had nothing to gain and everything to lose by the assassination of a peaceful and popular socialist leader." Newsweek added: "The CIA has concluded that the Chilean secret police was not involved." (11th October).
William F. Buckley also took part in this disinformation campaign and on 25th October wrote: "U.S. investigators think it unlikely that Chile would risk with an action of this kind the respect it has won with great difficulty during the past year in many Western countries, which before were hostile to its policies." According to Donald Freed, Buckley had been providing disinformation for the General Augusto Pinochet government since October 1974. He also unearthed information that William Buckley's brother, James Buckley, had met with Michael Townley and Guillermo Novo Sampol in New York City just a week before Orlando Letelier was assassinated.
The FBI eventually became convinced that Michael Townley was organized the assassination of Letelier. In 1978 Chile agreed to extradite him to the United States. Townley confessed he had hired five anti-Castro Cubans exiles to booby-trap Letelier's car. Guillermo Novo Sampol, Ignacio Novo Sampol, Virgilio Paz Romero, Dionisio Suárez, and Alvin Ross Díaz are indicted for the crime.
Townley agreed to provide evidence against these men in exchange for a deal that involved him pleading guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit murder and being given a ten-year sentence. His wife, Mariana Townley also agrees to testify, in exchange for not being prosecuted.
On the 9th January, 1979, the trial of Guillermo Novo Sampol, Ignacio Novo Sampol and Alvin Ross Díaz began in Washington. General Augusto Pinochet refused to allow Virgilio Paz Romero and Dionisio Suárez, two DINA officers, to be extradited. All three were found guilty of murder. Guillermo Novo and Alvin Ross were sentenced to life imprisonment. Ignacio Novo received eighty years. Soon after the trial Michael Townley was freed under the Witness Protection Program.
This is extrememely interesting, John Simkin.
I have been googling for a long time to find a connection between Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organisation (SAO). I couldn't find it. I don't even know what it is. First time I heard it was in the 2003 interview with James Files. He says he knew Sturgis from the SAO. I have heard of the french OAS (which means the same in french. But is that the same thing? All Google matches refer to the french organisation. Was there an American branch, or was the SAO something else than the OAS? And what was Sturgis position in it?
By the way, Michael Townley and James Files worked together.
Files has stated that Michael Townley could confirm him. He also said that Townley’s wife is named Mary Ann and they have two kids (I checked that with Saul Landau).
The two documents below are of interest. The originals are here:
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/blackops.htm
1 – 179 – 4328
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Associate Director
Sept. 16, 1983
Office of Enforcement Operations
Director, FBI
JAMES E. FILES.
Attached is a copy of a communication which furnishes information concerning a current investigation.
Subject: Sutton, James E. aka Files, James E. aka Castillo, Sergio A.
25 SEPT. 1976. During an interview with Aldo Vera he stated he had been expelled from accion Cuba in June of 1976 because of his informant activity. But in early July he had been at a meeting in Bonao in the Dominican Republic at the executive lodge of the Falcondo Mining Company to help plan an assassination and a bombing. The assassination was Orlando Letelier, and the bombing was a Cuban airliner.
Aldo Vera did not know everyone at the meeting but gave the names of: Michael Townley, Sergio Castillo, Sacha Volman, Frank Castro, and Jose Suarez. Three unknown subjects were also present. Aldo Vera stated he had never seen those three subjects before.
OCT. 6, 1976. A Cuban airliner was blown up killing ( 73 ) seventy-three people aboard.
AUG. 1978. Jose Suarez was released after serving ( 11 ) eleven months on contempt of court charges for refusing to answer questions ask by the Grand Jury.
Upon his release he disappeared. Presumed; deceased.
NOTE: x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x Washington D.C. Supervisor x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x was
advised by FBIHQ Supervisor x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x.
Agent : A J Stokely
1 – 646 – 1072
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Associate Director
FEB. 23, 1984
Office of Enforcement Operation
Director, FBI
JAMES E. FILES:
Attached is a copy of a communication which furnishes information concerning a current investigation.
Jan. 16, 19, 23, 27, 1984: During this time ( 4 ) four subjects have been interviewed in Bonao, Paraguay. The ( 4 ) four subjects have all identified the picture of Sergio Castillo as that of Sutton, James E. aka Files, James E. And state that they remember him being in Bonao, Paraguay in July of 1976 with Sacha Volman. Sacha Volman was a forman employed by Falcondo Mining Company which is a part of Gulf and Western. The subjects all stated they remembered him because they were in the store room where the explosives were kept when Sacha Volman and a stranger (Sutton aka Files aka Castillo) walked in and Sacha Volman requisitioned two ( 2 ) cases of explosives and six
( 6 ) detonators. They thought this was strange but they were afraid to question Sacha Volman as they were afraid they would loose their jobs.
All four ( 4 ) subjects have volunteered to appear before a Grand Jury Hearing, and to answer questions and to identify subject Files aka Sutton aka Castillo.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Agent: AJ Stokely
There are some other references to Townley in my book:
THE UMBRELLA SYSTEM: PRELUDE TO AN ASSASSINATION
by Richard E. Sprague and Robert Cutler
Page two I’ve highlighted. If someone, (like whoever wrote that article) would have checked the weather, they would have found out it had been drizzling rain that morning in Dallas, Texas. The sun came out just prior to the arrival of the motorcade. What were the people with umbrellas supposed to do, just toss them in the trash? But, back to the umbrella and the world of intrigue. Yes, we do have weapons like that and more in similar style. There is a walking cane that shoots the same round. Some are solid-state fuel and others operate off compressed air, like the old Daisy B.B. gun. These things have been built into cameras, like when we were going to do “Castro” in Santiago that time. We had a gun mounted inside a camera. They even discussed using a lethal dart at that time, but Townley (Michael) and me preferred to use live ammo. Nothing like the real stuff to get the job done right. But there were plenty of people that could get the use of weapons like that, even back in sixty-three. The “Umbrella Weapon” was not something brand new. It had been around even during the OSS years, the prelude to the CIA.
*****************************
Back to the other point that I want to clear up. Bob Vernon had all of my papers, including the original manuscript and my notes for “To Kill A Country,” and he gave them to at that time, “warden Godinez” who is now the D.D. for the D.O.C. And in writing, I had it plainly stated the Orlando Letelier was killed by a bomb, that had the explosives transported by me, to Buckley, and Michael Townley put the bomb in his car, a Chevy Nova, if my memory is correct and the car exploded in front of the Chilean Embassy on Sheridan Circle, better known as Embassy Row. The explosives came from the Falcondo Mining Co. and they were 60 per-cent strength dynamite, that is referred to as “engineering explosives.” The man that I shot was sitting in the back seat of the limo when I pulled my .45 and shot the S.O.B. and yes, I ticked off a lot of people. But he was Russian, he was not a Chilean. Bob had all of the paperwork on all of this. Bob knows what I had down in writing and I even had the route that he, Orlando Letelier, took to work that morning. Ronnie Moffit and Michael Moffit were in the car with him. She was killed, but Michael survived it. Please tell them to get their facts straight. I know what I said.
I have been googling for a long time to find a connection between Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organisation (SAO). I couldn't find it. I don't even know what it is. First time I heard it was in the 2003 interview with James Files. He says he knew Sturgis from the SAO. I have heard of the french OAS (which means the same in french. But is that the same thing? All Google matches refer to the french organisation. Was there an American branch, or was the SAO something else than the OAS? And what was Sturgis position in it?
By the way, Michael Townley and James Files worked together.
Files has stated that Michael Townley could confirm him. He also said that Townley’s wife is named Mary Ann and they have two kids (I checked that with Saul Landau).
The two documents below are of interest. The originals are here:
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/blackops.htm
1 – 179 – 4328
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Associate Director
Sept. 16, 1983
Office of Enforcement Operations
Director, FBI
JAMES E. FILES.
Attached is a copy of a communication which furnishes information concerning a current investigation.
Subject: Sutton, James E. aka Files, James E. aka Castillo, Sergio A.
25 SEPT. 1976. During an interview with Aldo Vera he stated he had been expelled from accion Cuba in June of 1976 because of his informant activity. But in early July he had been at a meeting in Bonao in the Dominican Republic at the executive lodge of the Falcondo Mining Company to help plan an assassination and a bombing. The assassination was Orlando Letelier, and the bombing was a Cuban airliner.
Aldo Vera did not know everyone at the meeting but gave the names of: Michael Townley, Sergio Castillo, Sacha Volman, Frank Castro, and Jose Suarez. Three unknown subjects were also present. Aldo Vera stated he had never seen those three subjects before.
OCT. 6, 1976. A Cuban airliner was blown up killing ( 73 ) seventy-three people aboard.
AUG. 1978. Jose Suarez was released after serving ( 11 ) eleven months on contempt of court charges for refusing to answer questions ask by the Grand Jury.
Upon his release he disappeared. Presumed; deceased.
NOTE: x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x Washington D.C. Supervisor x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x was
advised by FBIHQ Supervisor x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x.
Agent : A J Stokely
1 – 646 – 1072
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Associate Director
FEB. 23, 1984
Office of Enforcement Operation
Director, FBI
JAMES E. FILES:
Attached is a copy of a communication which furnishes information concerning a current investigation.
Jan. 16, 19, 23, 27, 1984: During this time ( 4 ) four subjects have been interviewed in Bonao, Paraguay. The ( 4 ) four subjects have all identified the picture of Sergio Castillo as that of Sutton, James E. aka Files, James E. And state that they remember him being in Bonao, Paraguay in July of 1976 with Sacha Volman. Sacha Volman was a forman employed by Falcondo Mining Company which is a part of Gulf and Western. The subjects all stated they remembered him because they were in the store room where the explosives were kept when Sacha Volman and a stranger (Sutton aka Files aka Castillo) walked in and Sacha Volman requisitioned two ( 2 ) cases of explosives and six
( 6 ) detonators. They thought this was strange but they were afraid to question Sacha Volman as they were afraid they would loose their jobs.
All four ( 4 ) subjects have volunteered to appear before a Grand Jury Hearing, and to answer questions and to identify subject Files aka Sutton aka Castillo.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Agent: AJ Stokely
There are some other references to Townley in my book:
THE UMBRELLA SYSTEM: PRELUDE TO AN ASSASSINATION
by Richard E. Sprague and Robert Cutler
Page two I’ve highlighted. If someone, (like whoever wrote that article) would have checked the weather, they would have found out it had been drizzling rain that morning in Dallas, Texas. The sun came out just prior to the arrival of the motorcade. What were the people with umbrellas supposed to do, just toss them in the trash? But, back to the umbrella and the world of intrigue. Yes, we do have weapons like that and more in similar style. There is a walking cane that shoots the same round. Some are solid-state fuel and others operate off compressed air, like the old Daisy B.B. gun. These things have been built into cameras, like when we were going to do “Castro” in Santiago that time. We had a gun mounted inside a camera. They even discussed using a lethal dart at that time, but Townley (Michael) and me preferred to use live ammo. Nothing like the real stuff to get the job done right. But there were plenty of people that could get the use of weapons like that, even back in sixty-three. The “Umbrella Weapon” was not something brand new. It had been around even during the OSS years, the prelude to the CIA.
*****************************
Back to the other point that I want to clear up. Bob Vernon had all of my papers, including the original manuscript and my notes for “To Kill A Country,” and he gave them to at that time, “warden Godinez” who is now the D.D. for the D.O.C. And in writing, I had it plainly stated the Orlando Letelier was killed by a bomb, that had the explosives transported by me, to Buckley, and Michael Townley put the bomb in his car, a Chevy Nova, if my memory is correct and the car exploded in front of the Chilean Embassy on Sheridan Circle, better known as Embassy Row. The explosives came from the Falcondo Mining Co. and they were 60 per-cent strength dynamite, that is referred to as “engineering explosives.” The man that I shot was sitting in the back seat of the limo when I pulled my .45 and shot the S.O.B. and yes, I ticked off a lot of people. But he was Russian, he was not a Chilean. Bob had all of the paperwork on all of this. Bob knows what I had down in writing and I even had the route that he, Orlando Letelier, took to work that morning. Ronnie Moffit and Michael Moffit were in the car with him. She was killed, but Michael survived it. Please tell them to get their facts straight. I know what I said.
I have been googling for a long time to find a connection between Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organisation (SAO). I couldn't find it. I don't even know what it is. First time I heard it was in the 2003 interview with James Files. He says he knew Sturgis from the SAO. I have heard of the french OAS (which means the same in french. But is that the same thing? All Google matches refer to the french organisation. Was there an American branch, or was the SAO something else than the OAS? And what was Sturgis position in it?
By the way, Michael Townley and James Files worked together.
Files has stated that Michael Townley could confirm him. He also said that Townley’s wife is named Mary Ann and they have two kids (I checked that with Saul Landau). (Wim Dankbaar)
Wim,
There is another Secret Army Organization (a paramilitary group) which was set up in California by ex Minutemen. The guy running the show was ex FBI man Howard Godfrey. Basically Godfrey was an informer for the Feds and his contact agent was Steve Christiansen.
One of the SAO's goals was to assassinate Richard Nixon.
If you looking to connect Sturgis, it might come through a guy by the name of Jerry Lynn Davis who was a member of the SAO and is a most interesting individual.
Townley and his wife below.
FWIW.
James
By the way, Michael Townley and James Files worked together.
Files has stated that Michael Townley could confirm him. He also said that Townley’s wife is named Mary Ann and they have two kids (I checked that with Saul Landau). (Wim Dankbaar)
Wim,
There is another Secret Army Organization (a paramilitary group) which was set up in California by ex Minutemen. The guy running the show was ex FBI man Howard Godfrey. Basically Godfrey was an informer for the Feds and his contact agent was Steve Christiansen.
One of the SAO's goals was to assassinate Richard Nixon.
If you looking to connect Sturgis, it might come through a guy by the name of Jerry Lynn Davis who was a member of the SAO and is a most interesting individual.
Townley and his wife below.
FWIW.
James
QUOTE
Wim Dankbaar Posted Today, 07:30 AM
This is extrememely interesting, John Simkin.
I have been googling for a long time to find a connection between Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organisation (SAO). I couldn't find it. I don't even know what it is. First time I heard it was in the 2003 interview with James Files. He says he knew Sturgis from the SAO. I have heard of the french OAS (which means the same in french. But is that the same thing? All Google matches refer to the french organisation. Was there an American branch, or was the SAO something else than the OAS? And what was Sturgis position in it?
By the way, Michael Townley and James Files worked together.
Files has stated that Michael Townley could confirm him. He also said that Townley’s wife is named Mary Ann and they have two kids (I checked that with Saul Landau).
The two documents below are of interest. The originals are here:
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/blackops.htm
1 – 179 – 4328
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Associate Director
Sept. 16, 1983
Office of Enforcement Operations
Director, FBI
JAMES E. FILES.
Attached is a copy of a communication which furnishes information concerning a current investigation.
Subject: Sutton, James E. aka Files, James E. aka Castillo, Sergio A.
25 SEPT. 1976. During an interview with Aldo Vera he stated he had been expelled from accion Cuba in June of 1976 because of his informant activity. But in early July he had been at a meeting in Bonao in the Dominican Republic at the executive lodge of the Falcondo Mining Company to help plan an assassination and a bombing. The assassination was Orlando Letelier, and the bombing was a Cuban airliner.
Aldo Vera did not know everyone at the meeting but gave the names of: Michael Townley, Sergio Castillo, Sacha Volman, Frank Castro, and Jose Suarez. Three unknown subjects were also present. Aldo Vera stated he had never seen those three subjects before.
OCT. 6, 1976. A Cuban airliner was blown up killing ( 73 ) seventy-three people aboard.
AUG. 1978. Jose Suarez was released after serving ( 11 ) eleven months on contempt of court charges for refusing to answer questions ask by the Grand Jury.
Upon his release he disappeared. Presumed; deceased.
NOTE: x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x Washington D.C. Supervisor x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x was
advised by FBIHQ Supervisor x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x.
Agent : A J Stokely
1 – 646 – 1072
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Associate Director
FEB. 23, 1984
Office of Enforcement Operation
Director, FBI
JAMES E. FILES:
Attached is a copy of a communication which furnishes information concerning a current investigation.
Jan. 16, 19, 23, 27, 1984: During this time ( 4 ) four subjects have been interviewed in Bonao, Paraguay. The ( 4 ) four subjects have all identified the picture of Sergio Castillo as that of Sutton, James E. aka Files, James E. And state that they remember him being in Bonao, Paraguay in July of 1976 with Sacha Volman. Sacha Volman was a forman employed by Falcondo Mining Company which is a part of Gulf and Western. The subjects all stated they remembered him because they were in the store room where the explosives were kept when Sacha Volman and a stranger (Sutton aka Files aka Castillo) walked in and Sacha Volman requisitioned two ( 2 ) cases of explosives and six
( 6 ) detonators. They thought this was strange but they were afraid to question Sacha Volman as they were afraid they would loose their jobs.
All four ( 4 ) subjects have volunteered to appear before a Grand Jury Hearing, and to answer questions and to identify subject Files aka Sutton aka Castillo.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Agent: AJ Stokely
There are some other references to Townley in my book:
THE UMBRELLA SYSTEM: PRELUDE TO AN ASSASSINATION
by Richard E. Sprague and Robert Cutler
Page two I’ve highlighted. If someone, (like whoever wrote that article) would have checked the weather, they would have found out it had been drizzling rain that morning in Dallas, Texas. The sun came out just prior to the arrival of the motorcade. What were the people with umbrellas supposed to do, just toss them in the trash? But, back to the umbrella and the world of intrigue. Yes, we do have weapons like that and more in similar style. There is a walking cane that shoots the same round. Some are solid-state fuel and others operate off compressed air, like the old Daisy B.B. gun. These things have been built into cameras, like when we were going to do “Castro” in Santiago that time. We had a gun mounted inside a camera. They even discussed using a lethal dart at that time, but Townley (Michael) and me preferred to use live ammo. Nothing like the real stuff to get the job done right. But there were plenty of people that could get the use of weapons like that, even back in sixty-three. The “Umbrella Weapon” was not something brand new. It had been around even during the OSS years, the prelude to the CIA.
*****************************
Back to the other point that I want to clear up. Bob Vernon had all of my papers, including the original manuscript and my notes for “To Kill A Country,” and he gave them to at that time, “warden Godinez” who is now the D.D. for the D.O.C. And in writing, I had it plainly stated the Orlando Letelier was killed by a bomb, that had the explosives transported by me, to Buckley, and Michael Townley put the bomb in his car, a Chevy Nova, if my memory is correct and the car exploded in front of the Chilean Embassy on Sheridan Circle, better known as Embassy Row. The explosives came from the Falcondo Mining Co. and they were 60 per-cent strength dynamite, that is referred to as “engineering explosives.” The man that I shot was sitting in the back seat of the limo when I pulled my .45 and shot the S.O.B. and yes, I ticked off a lot of people. But he was Russian, he was not a Chilean. Bob had all of the paperwork on all of this. Bob knows what I had down in writing and I even had the route that he, Orlando Letelier, took to work that morning. Ronnie Moffit and Michael Moffit were in the car with him. She was killed, but Michael survived it. Please tell them to get their facts straight. I know what I said.
This is extrememely interesting, John Simkin.
I have been googling for a long time to find a connection between Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organisation (SAO). I couldn't find it. I don't even know what it is. First time I heard it was in the 2003 interview with James Files. He says he knew Sturgis from the SAO. I have heard of the french OAS (which means the same in french. But is that the same thing? All Google matches refer to the french organisation. Was there an American branch, or was the SAO something else than the OAS? And what was Sturgis position in it?
By the way, Michael Townley and James Files worked together.
Files has stated that Michael Townley could confirm him. He also said that Townley’s wife is named Mary Ann and they have two kids (I checked that with Saul Landau).
The two documents below are of interest. The originals are here:
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/blackops.htm
1 – 179 – 4328
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Associate Director
Sept. 16, 1983
Office of Enforcement Operations
Director, FBI
JAMES E. FILES.
Attached is a copy of a communication which furnishes information concerning a current investigation.
Subject: Sutton, James E. aka Files, James E. aka Castillo, Sergio A.
25 SEPT. 1976. During an interview with Aldo Vera he stated he had been expelled from accion Cuba in June of 1976 because of his informant activity. But in early July he had been at a meeting in Bonao in the Dominican Republic at the executive lodge of the Falcondo Mining Company to help plan an assassination and a bombing. The assassination was Orlando Letelier, and the bombing was a Cuban airliner.
Aldo Vera did not know everyone at the meeting but gave the names of: Michael Townley, Sergio Castillo, Sacha Volman, Frank Castro, and Jose Suarez. Three unknown subjects were also present. Aldo Vera stated he had never seen those three subjects before.
OCT. 6, 1976. A Cuban airliner was blown up killing ( 73 ) seventy-three people aboard.
AUG. 1978. Jose Suarez was released after serving ( 11 ) eleven months on contempt of court charges for refusing to answer questions ask by the Grand Jury.
Upon his release he disappeared. Presumed; deceased.
NOTE: x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x Washington D.C. Supervisor x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x was
advised by FBIHQ Supervisor x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x.
Agent : A J Stokely
1 – 646 – 1072
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Associate Director
FEB. 23, 1984
Office of Enforcement Operation
Director, FBI
JAMES E. FILES:
Attached is a copy of a communication which furnishes information concerning a current investigation.
Jan. 16, 19, 23, 27, 1984: During this time ( 4 ) four subjects have been interviewed in Bonao, Paraguay. The ( 4 ) four subjects have all identified the picture of Sergio Castillo as that of Sutton, James E. aka Files, James E. And state that they remember him being in Bonao, Paraguay in July of 1976 with Sacha Volman. Sacha Volman was a forman employed by Falcondo Mining Company which is a part of Gulf and Western. The subjects all stated they remembered him because they were in the store room where the explosives were kept when Sacha Volman and a stranger (Sutton aka Files aka Castillo) walked in and Sacha Volman requisitioned two ( 2 ) cases of explosives and six
( 6 ) detonators. They thought this was strange but they were afraid to question Sacha Volman as they were afraid they would loose their jobs.
All four ( 4 ) subjects have volunteered to appear before a Grand Jury Hearing, and to answer questions and to identify subject Files aka Sutton aka Castillo.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Agent: AJ Stokely
There are some other references to Townley in my book:
THE UMBRELLA SYSTEM: PRELUDE TO AN ASSASSINATION
by Richard E. Sprague and Robert Cutler
Page two I’ve highlighted. If someone, (like whoever wrote that article) would have checked the weather, they would have found out it had been drizzling rain that morning in Dallas, Texas. The sun came out just prior to the arrival of the motorcade. What were the people with umbrellas supposed to do, just toss them in the trash? But, back to the umbrella and the world of intrigue. Yes, we do have weapons like that and more in similar style. There is a walking cane that shoots the same round. Some are solid-state fuel and others operate off compressed air, like the old Daisy B.B. gun. These things have been built into cameras, like when we were going to do “Castro” in Santiago that time. We had a gun mounted inside a camera. They even discussed using a lethal dart at that time, but Townley (Michael) and me preferred to use live ammo. Nothing like the real stuff to get the job done right. But there were plenty of people that could get the use of weapons like that, even back in sixty-three. The “Umbrella Weapon” was not something brand new. It had been around even during the OSS years, the prelude to the CIA.
*****************************
Back to the other point that I want to clear up. Bob Vernon had all of my papers, including the original manuscript and my notes for “To Kill A Country,” and he gave them to at that time, “warden Godinez” who is now the D.D. for the D.O.C. And in writing, I had it plainly stated the Orlando Letelier was killed by a bomb, that had the explosives transported by me, to Buckley, and Michael Townley put the bomb in his car, a Chevy Nova, if my memory is correct and the car exploded in front of the Chilean Embassy on Sheridan Circle, better known as Embassy Row. The explosives came from the Falcondo Mining Co. and they were 60 per-cent strength dynamite, that is referred to as “engineering explosives.” The man that I shot was sitting in the back seat of the limo when I pulled my .45 and shot the S.O.B. and yes, I ticked off a lot of people. But he was Russian, he was not a Chilean. Bob had all of the paperwork on all of this. Bob knows what I had down in writing and I even had the route that he, Orlando Letelier, took to work that morning. Ronnie Moffit and Michael Moffit were in the car with him. She was killed, but Michael survived it. Please tell them to get their facts straight. I know what I said.
Wim,
Tosh Plumlee names "Sergio" as someone who was with him on the flight to Dallas that day 11/22/63, and went with him to the South knoll of DP.
Just wondering if this reference of "Sergio", could in anyway, be a reference to Jimmy Files? Trying to connect some dots...
By the way, welcome back!
Antti,
No Sergio of Tosh was Sergio Soccares. James sent me this picture of him.
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/images/sergio1.JPG
The other one comes from Tosh.
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/images/sergio.jpg
Sergio Castillo was an existing person from Chile, whose identity was used by Files in the seventies with approval from David Atlee Phillips.
Wim
No Sergio of Tosh was Sergio Soccares. James sent me this picture of him.
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/images/sergio1.JPG
The other one comes from Tosh.
http://jfkmurdersolved.com/images/sergio.jpg
Sergio Castillo was an existing person from Chile, whose identity was used by Files in the seventies with approval from David Atlee Phillips.
Wim
Ok, thanks for clearing that up.
Antti
Antti
Annti, Do you know fellow countryman Timo Mikkonen?
QUOTE
Wim Dankbaar Posted Today, 11:21 AM
Annti, Do you know fellow countryman Timo Mikkonen?
Annti, Do you know fellow countryman Timo Mikkonen?
Wim, yes I know of him but don't know him personally.
I have sent you an e-mail regarding this.
Kind regards,
Antti
QUOTE (Wim Dankbaar @ Sep 8 2006, 08:30 AM) 
I have been googling for a long time to find a connection between Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organisation (SAO). I couldn't find it. I don't even know what it is. First time I heard it was in the 2003 interview with James Files. He says he knew Sturgis from the SAO. I have heard of the french OAS (which means the same in french. But is that the same thing? All Google matches refer to the french organisation. Was there an American branch, or was the SAO something else than the OAS? And what was Sturgis position in it?
My information on the SAO came from Donald Freed's excellent book, The Murder of Orlando Letelier: Death in Washington (1980). You might be interested in this passage from Donald Freed's article, Gemstone - the Bottom Line (1974)
On May 15, 1972, Arthur Bremer was arrested for the attempted assassination of George Wallace. The question is the classic cui bono, who benefits? The answer, Operation Gemstone.
From the media the American people learned that Wallace's would-be assassin Arthur Bremer was a disturbed twenty-oneyear-old, an unemployed ex-busboy and janitor's helper. He had been laid off his janitorial job in Wisconsin in January 1972 and had no record of any income from that time until his arrest in Maryland in May. His tax return for 1971 shows earnings of $1,611. His automobile, purchased in September 1971, cost some eight hundred dollars, half of his total income for the year. Where, then, did Bremer get the money for his "mad scheme" to kill George Wallace, by far the most heavily guarded of all the presidential candidates, with a double set of body guards and a bullet-proof speakers' podium?
It is relatively, easy to compute the minimum amount that Bremer would have needed from January to May. Setting to one side the cash outlay for stopping at expensive hotels (the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the Lord Elgin in Ottawa); automobile repairs for a machine driven constantly for weeks at speeds up to seventy-five miles per hour in order to keep pace with presidential candidates who flew to their destinations; any miscellaneous expenses such as his records, specially constructed ammunition found in his car, and the expensive clothes Bremer wore into court when he pled not guilty; setting aside all these and any other contingency costs, Bremer could not have spent less than five thousand dollars on his eighteen-week, ten-state odyssey. The figure is conservative. It includes the price of the guns he purchased, court fines for speeding and carrying a gun, and the $135-a-month rent for his occasionally used Milwaukee apartment.
On May 15, 1972, Arthur Bremer stepped from a crowd in a shopping center in Laurel, Maryland, and gunned down George Wallace. To this day no one has explained how Bremer could have known weeks in advance where in Laurel Wallace would speak. Nor has the FBI been able to identify the bullets used as coming from Bremer's gun, since they were special and had no rifling marks. Somehow the "lone fanatic" had gotten advance intelligence for what appeared to be a thoroughly professional job...
The full story remains to be told. But during 1972-73, our research group, the Citizens Research and Investigation Committee (CRIC), receive several bits of unconfirmed information which are worthy of note:
* On July 13, 1973 Roger Gordon, fifty-three, a member of the right-wing Secret Army Organization (SAO) fled from a hiding place in Australia to beg asylum in Suva, Fiji. According to the Associated Press, Gordon "had secret information concerning Watergate" and feared for his life. His information: that the heavy-set man with the "Joisey brogue" seen giving orders to Bremer on an Ohio ferry was Anthony Ulasewicz, a White House operation.
* Secret Army Organization (SAO) and FBI sources in the San Diego area reported that White House agent Donald Segretti gave moriey to Bremer.
* During 1970 Tom Huston, a Nixon aide, prepared a series of memoranda which attempted to tighten White House control of the FBI, CIA, etc., and intensify the use of electronic surveillance, "penetration agents," and illegal break-ins. According to a staff member of the Ervin Committee, White House files contain a still undivulged memo in which Huston justifies selective assassination.
* On May 18, 1972, three days after the Wallace shooting, Charles Colson staged a "Victory in Vietnam" march and rally in Washington, under the auspices of the right-wing preacher Carl McIntire. Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Fox of the Secret Army Organization drove from San Diego to attend, passing en route near the site of the Wallace shooting. Sources in San Diego reported that while the Foxes were away, FBI Special Agent Steve Christianson entered Mr. Fox's office files and planted documents which could implicate him in the assassination attempt. A group of Washington-based former intelligence agents have since confirmed this.
With Wallace out and the election assured, most of Nixon's politicos signed off the Gemstone plan. The hardliners under Colson did not. Moving into the temporary vacuum, they stepped up their drive for power. Their immediate object-to implicate the opposition in the violence planned for the GOP convention.
How? By planting forged documents, a second specialty of Howard Hunt.
Where? In the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Complex.
It wasn't difficult. Once inside the complex, the contract team moved into the office of Dorothy V. Bush, which was located next to that of Lawrence O'Brien, the Democratic National Chairman. It was their third raiding party and they moved with a familiarity of the surroundings. They carried with them the necessary tools: false documents prepared by the CIA, lockpicks and door jimmies, a shortwave receiver, gas guns, two cameras and forty rolls of film, a walkie-talkie, and an assortment of electronic surveillance equipment.
The team had several objectives. One was to install a bugging device to monitor O'Brien's telephone conversations. Another was to search for evidence of contribution's from foreign governments. A third grew out of an earlier break-in over the Memorial Day weekend. The team had discovered that the Democrats had nothing in their files which could later be used to link them to the "violent, left-wing militants," or to justify emergency measures against the party in the name of "national security." So, while McCord checked listening devices, and one of the Cubans handed the security plans for the Democratic Convention to a compatriot to photograph, Frank Sturgis prepared to put several forged documents deep in a filing drawer where no one would be likely to find them before the time was ripe. According to a source close to some of the men arrested that night, Sturgis was planning to plant something which purported to tie the upcoming convention violence to the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), the Black Panther Party, the antiwar movement, and the presidential campaign of Senator George McGovern. Sturgis was Hunt's man, and he was acting without the knowledge of McCord, Barker, and the others.
Mmm, yes that's interesting. Not everything is on Google.
I guess you know that when Sturgis was caught in Watergate, he carried the ID of Edward J Hamilton.
- The gentleman we are interviewing is Chauncey Marvin Holt.
Holt: My true name is Chauncey Marvin Holt. Throughout the years I have used many, as many as 25, perhaps 30 aliases, I don't remember them all. Starting with the first ones that I do remember, that were prominent in operations, there was Robert Ralston, Jack Hall, Jack Moon, Kearney Sigler, William Dean Rutz...John Moon...
Those were the main alias that we used throughout the years. We did use other aliases, which are called, "floating identities", one time things, that you just sign your name on, which was used not only by me, but others as well. The best known one, I suppose, was Edward Joe Hamilton, which was used by a number of people. And I used that also, from time to time.
****************
Have you ever encountered the name "Willard Galbraith"?
I would like to know if that name can be connected with David Atlee Phillips , and if he was in Mexico City at the time of Oswald's visit there.
Wim
I guess you know that when Sturgis was caught in Watergate, he carried the ID of Edward J Hamilton.
- The gentleman we are interviewing is Chauncey Marvin Holt.
Holt: My true name is Chauncey Marvin Holt. Throughout the years I have used many, as many as 25, perhaps 30 aliases, I don't remember them all. Starting with the first ones that I do remember, that were prominent in operations, there was Robert Ralston, Jack Hall, Jack Moon, Kearney Sigler, William Dean Rutz...John Moon...
Those were the main alias that we used throughout the years. We did use other aliases, which are called, "floating identities", one time things, that you just sign your name on, which was used not only by me, but others as well. The best known one, I suppose, was Edward Joe Hamilton, which was used by a number of people. And I used that also, from time to time.
****************
Have you ever encountered the name "Willard Galbraith"?
I would like to know if that name can be connected with David Atlee Phillips , and if he was in Mexico City at the time of Oswald's visit there.
Wim
QUOTE (Wim Dankbaar @ Sep 8 2006, 08:30 AM)
By the way, Michael Townley and James Files worked together.
Files has stated that Michael Townley could confirm him. He also said that Townley’s wife is named Mary Ann and they have two kids (I checked that with Saul Landau).
Files has stated that Michael Townley could confirm him. He also said that Townley’s wife is named Mary Ann and they have two kids (I checked that with Saul Landau).
Michael Townley married Mariana Callejas in 1961. Her father was a right-wing politician in Chile. Although active in the Socialist Party of Chile, she was actually working as an informer for Chilean military intelligence.
She was involved in Operation Condor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor
See my web page on Townley:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKtownleyM.htm
See Namebase entry for her:
http://www.namebase.org/main3/Mariana-Ines-Callejas.html
Chile 1974-1978
Branch,T. Propper,E. Labyrinth. 1983 (302-3, 483-503)
Christie,S. Stefano Delle Chiaie. 1984 (85)
Dinges,J. Landau,S. Assassination on Embassy Row. 1981 (95-102, 104, 130)
Dinges,J. The Condor Years. 2004 (76-7, 129)
Freed,D. Death in Washington. 1980 (5, 29-30, 35, 55-6, 78)
Intelligence (Paris) 1999-01-25 (22)
Intelligence (Paris) 2003-04-07 (26)
Kruger,H. The Great Heroin Coup. 1980 (10)
Schmidt,O. The Intelligence Files. 2005 (105)
http://www.terrorfileonline.org/en/index.p...Suarez_Esquivel
This page says Arrested in April 1990 in Florida for the assassination of the former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier.
Is that year 1990 correct or a mistake?
Wim
This page says Arrested in April 1990 in Florida for the assassination of the former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier.
Is that year 1990 correct or a mistake?
Wim
QUOTE (Wim Dankbaar @ Sep 12 2006, 08:43 AM)
http://www.terrorfileonline.org/en/index.p...Suarez_Esquivel
This page says Arrested in April 1990 in Florida for the assassination of the former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier.
Is that year 1990 correct or a mistake?
Wim
This page says Arrested in April 1990 in Florida for the assassination of the former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier.
Is that year 1990 correct or a mistake?
Wim
I assume this is true. 1990 is the year Pinochet lost power. Does anyone know what happened to him? Or did he also join the US Witness Protection Program.
Have you ever encountered the name "Willard Galbraith"? (Wim Dankbaar)
FWIW.
James
FWIW.
James
Those were the main alias that we used throughout the years. We did use other aliases, which are called, "floating identities", one time things, that you just sign your name on, which was used not only by me, but others as well. The best known one, I suppose, was Edward Joe Hamilton, which was used by a number of people. And I used that also, from time to time. (Wim Dankbaar)
Another person who used the Edward J. Hamilton identification was E. Howard Hunt. On the 27th of September 1960, documents were provided to Howard Hunt in the name of Edward J. Hamilton. These documents comprised of a District of Columbia driver's permit and a residential address. In June of 1963, a post office box in Washington D.C. was issued to Hunt under the name Edward J. Hamilton.
FWIW.
James
Another person who used the Edward J. Hamilton identification was E. Howard Hunt. On the 27th of September 1960, documents were provided to Howard Hunt in the name of Edward J. Hamilton. These documents comprised of a District of Columbia driver's permit and a residential address. In June of 1963, a post office box in Washington D.C. was issued to Hunt under the name Edward J. Hamilton.
FWIW.
James
[quote] James Richards Posted Today, 09:21 AM
Have you ever encountered the name "Willard Galbraith"? (Wim Dankbaar)
FWIW.
James
[quote]
I wonder if this is the same Willard Galbraith (on the right hand side, middle of the page)? Was he also the consul and vice consul of the USA in South America in the 1930's?
For a picture of Galbraith at age 16-17, see below:
http://www.thirdstbooks.com/oakharborhs/oakhs22p8.html
Have you ever encountered the name "Willard Galbraith"? (Wim Dankbaar)
FWIW.
James
[quote]
I wonder if this is the same Willard Galbraith (on the right hand side, middle of the page)? Was he also the consul and vice consul of the USA in South America in the 1930's?
For a picture of Galbraith at age 16-17, see below:
http://www.thirdstbooks.com/oakharborhs/oakhs22p8.html
James, Thanks for that document. That was what I was looking for. Hidalgo must be mistaken, right?
Or could Phillips have used Galbraith's name?
Wim
Or could Phillips have used Galbraith's name?
Wim
QUOTE (Wim Dankbaar @ Sep 13 2006, 09:14 PM)
James, Thanks for that document. That was what I was looking for. Hidalgo must be mistaken, right?
Or could Phillips have used Galbraith's name?
Wim
Or could Phillips have used Galbraith's name?
Wim
Wim,
Name swapping seemed like a pretty common practice so I guess anything is possible. It might be worth pondering that Maurice Bishop was another shared name, much like Edward J. Hamilton.
James
Yes, name swapping is a possibility, as they tend to use identities from existing persons, dead or alive.
And a consul for the US smelss like a CIA asset.
BTW, don't go swimming with the stingrays!
Wim
And a consul for the US smelss like a CIA asset.
BTW, don't go swimming with the stingrays!
Wim
Stingrays can be CIA assets too. 
Yes, name swapping is a possibility, as they tend to use identities from existing persons, dead or alive. (Wim Dankbaar)
The Edward J. Hamilton alias is certainly a curious one especially since both Chauncey Holt and E. Howard Hunt appear to have used it. Now given the debate regarding the possibility that both of these men are candidates for the Old Tramp, maybe researchers can now finally agree that the Old Tramp was Edward J. Hamilton.
James
The Edward J. Hamilton alias is certainly a curious one especially since both Chauncey Holt and E. Howard Hunt appear to have used it. Now given the debate regarding the possibility that both of these men are candidates for the Old Tramp, maybe researchers can now finally agree that the Old Tramp was Edward J. Hamilton.
James
Article in New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/world/am...as/21chile.html
Chile Seeks U.S. Files on 1976 Assassination
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: September 21, 2006
SANTIAGO, Chile — Thirty years after a Chilean-organized hit squad assassinated former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and an American colleague on the streets of Washington, investigators here are drawing closer to implicating this country’s former dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, in the killings.
But they say their efforts are being hindered by a parallel investigation in the United States that has been stalled since President Bush took office and that is withholding potentially important documents.
Mr. Letelier, one of the most visible leaders of the opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt were killed on Sept. 21, 1976, when a bomb planted under his car exploded as they were riding to work.
Even after 9/11, the Letelier assassination remains the most audacious act of state-sponsored terrorism committed on American soil.
“Every day it is clearer that Pinochet ordered my brother’s death,” said Fabiola Letelier, a prominent human rights lawyer here. “But for a proper and complete investigation to take place we need access to the appropriate records and evidence.”
General Pinochet was detained in London in 1998 by prosecutors seeking to bring him to justice for abuses committed during his 17-year rule.
Afterward, the Clinton administration came under new pressure from the Letelier and Moffitt families, and it released more than 24,000 declassified diplomatic and intelligence cables. It also reopened an investigation of the assassination, sending an F.B.I. team to Chile in 2000 to interview more than 40 witnesses.
That mission resulted in a recommendation that the United States indict General Pinochet, but Attorney General Janet Reno decided to leave the decision to her successors in the Bush administration.
The case remains politically delicate in Washington, where previous Republican administrations supported the Pinochet dictatorship as a bulwark against leftist encroachment in Latin America during the cold war.
Though President Bush, whose father was director of central intelligence at the time of the assassination, promised to “direct every resource at our command” to defeating terrorism, the American investigation continues to languish, Ms. Letelier and Chilean officials say.
They and others complain that hundreds of secret documents are being kept out of Chilean hands.
“It’s been six years, three times longer than the original investigation that fingered the hit team, and nothing has happened,” said Peter Kornbluh, a Chile specialist at the National Security Archive, which obtained the release of the original trove of documents. “I’ve filed Freedom of Information Act requests, but the documents that come closest to Pinochet are still being withheld, ostensibly as evidence.”
No one in the Bush administration would comment on the case. William Blier, head of the unit in the office of the United States Attorney in Washington that is in charge of the case, declined a request for information on the status of the investigation. He referred the question to a press spokesman, Channing Phillips, who also would not discuss any aspect of the case.
Other lawyers involved in the case on the victims’ side said the Bush administration’s performance contrasted with promises made after Sept. 11 to put pressure on states that sponsored terrorism.
“It is stunning to me that with all the energy being put into the war on terror,” the Bush administration “has been completely unresponsive to our queries,” said Sam Buffone, a Washington lawyer representing Ms. Moffitt’s husband, Michael Moffitt.
“The most basic lesson of that war is that anyone responsible for an act of domestic terrorism will never get away with it, no matter how long it takes,” Mr. Buffone said. “But that rule seems to have been honored in the breach for Augusto Pinochet.”
General Pinochet, now 90, ailing and discredited here, ruled Chile from Sept. 11, 1973, to March 1990. Since mid-2004, investigations in the United States and in Chile have uncovered an illicit fortune of more than $27 million that he hid abroad.
He is now facing tax fraud and forgery charges, two indictments for human rights violations and several other investigations of murders, kidnappings and disappearances that occurred during his rule.
John Dinges, co-author of “Assassination on Embassy Row” and a professor at Alberto Hurtado University here, said, “The evidence against Pinochet is as strong in the Letelier case as any of the other cases he is facing.”
He noted that the dossier now included damning testimony from central officials. Among them are Gen. Manuel Contreras, the former chief of the National Intelligence Directorate, or DINA, General Pinochet’s secret police, and Michael Townley, an American-born former DINA agent.
Facing intense diplomatic pressure, the Pinochet government handed Mr. Townley over to the United States in 1978. He admitted organizing and carrying out the assassination with Cuban exiles recruited for the task. He served a short prison term and was enrolled in the witness protection program.
General Pinochet refused to extradite other officials of the intelligence directorate who were Chilean citizens. But in 1995 General Contreras was convicted here of the Letelier assassination and sentenced to seven years in prison.
In interviews, including one with The New York Times in November 2004, General Contreras, currently serving a prison term here for the disappearance and torture of political prisoners, said General Pinochet had known and approved of all the actions he took.
But he has not specifically said that General Pinochet, whom American diplomatic cables show as irate about Mr. Letelier’s activities in exile, ordered the killing.
Most recently, Chilean courts agreed to consider a request that General Pinochet be stripped of his immunity in a related case: the murder of Eugenio Berrios, a DINA agent nicknamed Pinochet’s Mad Scientist, whose headless body was found on a beach in Uruguay in 1995.
Mr. Berrios had been spirited into exile there in 1992, in anticipation that he would soon be called to testify in an investigation of the Letelier and other assassinations.
In March, Chile asked that three senior Uruguayan military officers said to be involved in the Berrios killing be extradited here. Uruguayan courts complied, and the men were recently interrogated by a Chilean investigative judge, Alejandro Madrid, whose inquiry into the Berrios case inevitably led him to the Letelier assassination.
“The Chileans have been remarkable, exemplary, in going forward on Pinochet,” E. Lawrence Barcella, the lead prosecutor in the original trial of Mr. Letelier’s assassins in 1980, said in a telephone interview from Washington. “In my view, outliving those you kill is not a defense, and I hope nobody stops trying” to build the case against General Pinochet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/world/am...as/21chile.html
Chile Seeks U.S. Files on 1976 Assassination
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: September 21, 2006
SANTIAGO, Chile — Thirty years after a Chilean-organized hit squad assassinated former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and an American colleague on the streets of Washington, investigators here are drawing closer to implicating this country’s former dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, in the killings.
But they say their efforts are being hindered by a parallel investigation in the United States that has been stalled since President Bush took office and that is withholding potentially important documents.
Mr. Letelier, one of the most visible leaders of the opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt were killed on Sept. 21, 1976, when a bomb planted under his car exploded as they were riding to work.
Even after 9/11, the Letelier assassination remains the most audacious act of state-sponsored terrorism committed on American soil.
“Every day it is clearer that Pinochet ordered my brother’s death,” said Fabiola Letelier, a prominent human rights lawyer here. “But for a proper and complete investigation to take place we need access to the appropriate records and evidence.”
General Pinochet was detained in London in 1998 by prosecutors seeking to bring him to justice for abuses committed during his 17-year rule.
Afterward, the Clinton administration came under new pressure from the Letelier and Moffitt families, and it released more than 24,000 declassified diplomatic and intelligence cables. It also reopened an investigation of the assassination, sending an F.B.I. team to Chile in 2000 to interview more than 40 witnesses.
That mission resulted in a recommendation that the United States indict General Pinochet, but Attorney General Janet Reno decided to leave the decision to her successors in the Bush administration.
The case remains politically delicate in Washington, where previous Republican administrations supported the Pinochet dictatorship as a bulwark against leftist encroachment in Latin America during the cold war.
Though President Bush, whose father was director of central intelligence at the time of the assassination, promised to “direct every resource at our command” to defeating terrorism, the American investigation continues to languish, Ms. Letelier and Chilean officials say.
They and others complain that hundreds of secret documents are being kept out of Chilean hands.
“It’s been six years, three times longer than the original investigation that fingered the hit team, and nothing has happened,” said Peter Kornbluh, a Chile specialist at the National Security Archive, which obtained the release of the original trove of documents. “I’ve filed Freedom of Information Act requests, but the documents that come closest to Pinochet are still being withheld, ostensibly as evidence.”
No one in the Bush administration would comment on the case. William Blier, head of the unit in the office of the United States Attorney in Washington that is in charge of the case, declined a request for information on the status of the investigation. He referred the question to a press spokesman, Channing Phillips, who also would not discuss any aspect of the case.
Other lawyers involved in the case on the victims’ side said the Bush administration’s performance contrasted with promises made after Sept. 11 to put pressure on states that sponsored terrorism.
“It is stunning to me that with all the energy being put into the war on terror,” the Bush administration “has been completely unresponsive to our queries,” said Sam Buffone, a Washington lawyer representing Ms. Moffitt’s husband, Michael Moffitt.
“The most basic lesson of that war is that anyone responsible for an act of domestic terrorism will never get away with it, no matter how long it takes,” Mr. Buffone said. “But that rule seems to have been honored in the breach for Augusto Pinochet.”
General Pinochet, now 90, ailing and discredited here, ruled Chile from Sept. 11, 1973, to March 1990. Since mid-2004, investigations in the United States and in Chile have uncovered an illicit fortune of more than $27 million that he hid abroad.
He is now facing tax fraud and forgery charges, two indictments for human rights violations and several other investigations of murders, kidnappings and disappearances that occurred during his rule.
John Dinges, co-author of “Assassination on Embassy Row” and a professor at Alberto Hurtado University here, said, “The evidence against Pinochet is as strong in the Letelier case as any of the other cases he is facing.”
He noted that the dossier now included damning testimony from central officials. Among them are Gen. Manuel Contreras, the former chief of the National Intelligence Directorate, or DINA, General Pinochet’s secret police, and Michael Townley, an American-born former DINA agent.
Facing intense diplomatic pressure, the Pinochet government handed Mr. Townley over to the United States in 1978. He admitted organizing and carrying out the assassination with Cuban exiles recruited for the task. He served a short prison term and was enrolled in the witness protection program.
General Pinochet refused to extradite other officials of the intelligence directorate who were Chilean citizens. But in 1995 General Contreras was convicted here of the Letelier assassination and sentenced to seven years in prison.
In interviews, including one with The New York Times in November 2004, General Contreras, currently serving a prison term here for the disappearance and torture of political prisoners, said General Pinochet had known and approved of all the actions he took.
But he has not specifically said that General Pinochet, whom American diplomatic cables show as irate about Mr. Letelier’s activities in exile, ordered the killing.
Most recently, Chilean courts agreed to consider a request that General Pinochet be stripped of his immunity in a related case: the murder of Eugenio Berrios, a DINA agent nicknamed Pinochet’s Mad Scientist, whose headless body was found on a beach in Uruguay in 1995.
Mr. Berrios had been spirited into exile there in 1992, in anticipation that he would soon be called to testify in an investigation of the Letelier and other assassinations.
In March, Chile asked that three senior Uruguayan military officers said to be involved in the Berrios killing be extradited here. Uruguayan courts complied, and the men were recently interrogated by a Chilean investigative judge, Alejandro Madrid, whose inquiry into the Berrios case inevitably led him to the Letelier assassination.
“The Chileans have been remarkable, exemplary, in going forward on Pinochet,” E. Lawrence Barcella, the lead prosecutor in the original trial of Mr. Letelier’s assassins in 1980, said in a telephone interview from Washington. “In my view, outliving those you kill is not a defense, and I hope nobody stops trying” to build the case against General Pinochet.
Michael Vernon Townley made a full confession to the murder of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt. The authors, John Dinges & Saul Landau, used this confession for their book Assassination on Embassy Row (1980):
Townley added the final touches to the bomb as Paz held the parts in place for him. Suarez read and talked. Townley planned to place the bomb under the driver's seat; he molded the plastique to blow the full explosive force directly upward.
At about midnight he felt satisfied with his handiwork. The three left the motel in Paz's Volvo and stopped by the train station; Townley went to the ticket window to find out if there were any trains leaving for the New York area in the early morning hours. There were none.
"During the ride to Letelier's house," he wrote, "I was informed by Paz and Suarez that they expected me to place the device on the car as they wished to have a DINA agent, namely myself, directly tied to the placing of the device."
Townley kept quiet. He carried the bomb under his dark blue sweatshirt and wore corduroy pants. He hadn't planned on getting his pants dirty, but he had weighed the alternatives and decided he would have to tape the bomb himself.
Paz drove into the street parallel to Ogden Court. Townley walked from behind two houses into the turn-around area of the cul-de-sac and surveyed the block. People were entering a neighboring house, "so I turned around, returning to the parallel street, and walked up the hill on this parallel street, until I met Paz and Suarez, at which time we drove around to take up some time and then returned to the entrance of Letelier's street, where I was dropped off at the top of the hill."
On one side of the Leteliers lived an FBI agent; on the other, a Foreign Service officer. As Townley walked down the hill, some dogs barked, then stopped. Television screens glowed greyly through windows.
Letelier's car was parked in the driveway, nose in. Townley walked directly to the car, lay down on his back on the driver's side, pulled up his blue sweatshirt to expose the bomb, put his tools in accessible positions, and slid under the car. The space was small, Townley large. Moving as little as possible, he attached the bomb to the crossbeam with black electrical tape, occasionally flicking on a pencil flashlight to check its position.
Footsteps. Townley froze, trying to control his breathing. Not more than two inches separated him from the car chassis. The footsteps faded. He began to run tape from the speedometer cable to the explosive. What had seemed like an ample supply of tape now appeared scanty. He didn't want the bomb to slip or fall off.
He heard the sound of an engine: a car was approaching with its radio on. He stopped again, perspiration now pouring down his face and soaking his hands and body. The radio became louder; it was a police band. Townley fought to stay calm. The radio got still louder; now he could see the tires from the corner of his eye. But the car moved on, turned around in the cul-de-sac, and picking up speed, left the block. Townley flicked the flashlight on. The bomb was firmly attached, even though he would have preferred to run more tape around the crossbeam. He began to slide out. But had he taped the slide switch into the "on" position? He might have covered it in the "off" or "safety" position. He slid back under and felt, trying to remember which side was on and which off. He found the nub; it was off. He pushed it until it clicked, then pressed the tape into the groove with his finger to prevent the switch from falling back. But electrical tape is pliant and may not hold the switch, he thought.
Lack of time could lead to mistakes. Paz and Suarez had insisted that he place the bomb personally and that he do it that night. Townley felt a chill enter his sweat-laden body as he walked up the hill out of Ogden Court.
The Cubans picked him up on the deserted corner and headed slowly onto River Road. Townley told them of his uncertainty about the switch being in the correct position.
Townley added the final touches to the bomb as Paz held the parts in place for him. Suarez read and talked. Townley planned to place the bomb under the driver's seat; he molded the plastique to blow the full explosive force directly upward.
At about midnight he felt satisfied with his handiwork. The three left the motel in Paz's Volvo and stopped by the train station; Townley went to the ticket window to find out if there were any trains leaving for the New York area in the early morning hours. There were none.
"During the ride to Letelier's house," he wrote, "I was informed by Paz and Suarez that they expected me to place the device on the car as they wished to have a DINA agent, namely myself, directly tied to the placing of the device."
Townley kept quiet. He carried the bomb under his dark blue sweatshirt and wore corduroy pants. He hadn't planned on getting his pants dirty, but he had weighed the alternatives and decided he would have to tape the bomb himself.
Paz drove into the street parallel to Ogden Court. Townley walked from behind two houses into the turn-around area of the cul-de-sac and surveyed the block. People were entering a neighboring house, "so I turned around, returning to the parallel street, and walked up the hill on this parallel street, until I met Paz and Suarez, at which time we drove around to take up some time and then returned to the entrance of Letelier's street, where I was dropped off at the top of the hill."
On one side of the Leteliers lived an FBI agent; on the other, a Foreign Service officer. As Townley walked down the hill, some dogs barked, then stopped. Television screens glowed greyly through windows.
Letelier's car was parked in the driveway, nose in. Townley walked directly to the car, lay down on his back on the driver's side, pulled up his blue sweatshirt to expose the bomb, put his tools in accessible positions, and slid under the car. The space was small, Townley large. Moving as little as possible, he attached the bomb to the crossbeam with black electrical tape, occasionally flicking on a pencil flashlight to check its position.
Footsteps. Townley froze, trying to control his breathing. Not more than two inches separated him from the car chassis. The footsteps faded. He began to run tape from the speedometer cable to the explosive. What had seemed like an ample supply of tape now appeared scanty. He didn't want the bomb to slip or fall off.
He heard the sound of an engine: a car was approaching with its radio on. He stopped again, perspiration now pouring down his face and soaking his hands and body. The radio became louder; it was a police band. Townley fought to stay calm. The radio got still louder; now he could see the tires from the corner of his eye. But the car moved on, turned around in the cul-de-sac, and picking up speed, left the block. Townley flicked the flashlight on. The bomb was firmly attached, even though he would have preferred to run more tape around the crossbeam. He began to slide out. But had he taped the slide switch into the "on" position? He might have covered it in the "off" or "safety" position. He slid back under and felt, trying to remember which side was on and which off. He found the nub; it was off. He pushed it until it clicked, then pressed the tape into the groove with his finger to prevent the switch from falling back. But electrical tape is pliant and may not hold the switch, he thought.
Lack of time could lead to mistakes. Paz and Suarez had insisted that he place the bomb personally and that he do it that night. Townley felt a chill enter his sweat-laden body as he walked up the hill out of Ogden Court.
The Cubans picked him up on the deserted corner and headed slowly onto River Road. Townley told them of his uncertainty about the switch being in the correct position.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1977388,00.html
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday December 22, 2006
The Guardian
Some secrets, it turns out, are too old or too big to keep - even for the Bush administration, which has made a crusade of rooting out leaks and clamping down on information on the inner workings of government.
In the new year, the CIA, FBI, state department and more than 80 other government agencies that handle state secrets will declassify hundreds of millions of pages of documents under a new policy that institutes an automatic release of material after 25 years.
Within those documents lie the most turbulent episodes of the 20th century: the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Vietnam war, the CIA's unauthorised experiments with LSD and its internal thinking on a raft of investigations into coups and assassinations overseas, and the FBI's hunt for communist sympathisers on US soil.
The release, awaited by scholars and journalists, goes against the grain for the president, George Bush, and the vice-president, Dick Cheney, who has argued that the disclosure of information from the White House erodes presidential power.
The decision to release documents after 25 years was made in 1995 under President Bill Clinton, although the Bush administration managed to delay it. "I was pleasantly surprised," said Steven Aftergood, who runs a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "I could have easily imagined this administration saying: 'Oh, no we can't possibly adopt an automatic declassification policy. That will only assist the terrorists'."
Until now, material could remain secret indefinitely unless researchers lodged a specific request under freedom of information regulations. But declassification does not guarantee documents will be made public. Government agencies can withhold them on privacy grounds, to protect an intelligence source, or to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation.
The FBI has been notoriously stringent about exercising that prerogative, refusing to release documents on the assassination in Washington of the Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier by agents of the Pinochet regime on the grounds that investigators were still pursuing leads.
However, advocates of greater government accountability say an automatic release of documents remains an important step forward.
I see Bush is still protecting his daddy over the Orlando Letelier case.
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday December 22, 2006
The Guardian
Some secrets, it turns out, are too old or too big to keep - even for the Bush administration, which has made a crusade of rooting out leaks and clamping down on information on the inner workings of government.
In the new year, the CIA, FBI, state department and more than 80 other government agencies that handle state secrets will declassify hundreds of millions of pages of documents under a new policy that institutes an automatic release of material after 25 years.
Within those documents lie the most turbulent episodes of the 20th century: the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Vietnam war, the CIA's unauthorised experiments with LSD and its internal thinking on a raft of investigations into coups and assassinations overseas, and the FBI's hunt for communist sympathisers on US soil.
The release, awaited by scholars and journalists, goes against the grain for the president, George Bush, and the vice-president, Dick Cheney, who has argued that the disclosure of information from the White House erodes presidential power.
The decision to release documents after 25 years was made in 1995 under President Bill Clinton, although the Bush administration managed to delay it. "I was pleasantly surprised," said Steven Aftergood, who runs a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "I could have easily imagined this administration saying: 'Oh, no we can't possibly adopt an automatic declassification policy. That will only assist the terrorists'."
Until now, material could remain secret indefinitely unless researchers lodged a specific request under freedom of information regulations. But declassification does not guarantee documents will be made public. Government agencies can withhold them on privacy grounds, to protect an intelligence source, or to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation.
The FBI has been notoriously stringent about exercising that prerogative, refusing to release documents on the assassination in Washington of the Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier by agents of the Pinochet regime on the grounds that investigators were still pursuing leads.
However, advocates of greater government accountability say an automatic release of documents remains an important step forward.
I see Bush is still protecting his daddy over the Orlando Letelier case.
QUOTE (John Simkin @ Dec 22 2006, 06:00 PM)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1977388,00.html
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday December 22, 2006
The Guardian
Some secrets, it turns out, are too old or too big to keep - even for the Bush administration, which has made a crusade of rooting out leaks and clamping down on information on the inner workings of government.
In the new year, the CIA, FBI, state department and more than 80 other government agencies that handle state secrets will declassify hundreds of millions of pages of documents under a new policy that institutes an automatic release of material after 25 years.
Within those documents lie the most turbulent episodes of the 20th century: the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Vietnam war, the CIA's unauthorised experiments with LSD and its internal thinking on a raft of investigations into coups and assassinations overseas, and the FBI's hunt for communist sympathisers on US soil.
The release, awaited by scholars and journalists, goes against the grain for the president, George Bush, and the vice-president, Dick Cheney, who has argued that the disclosure of information from the White House erodes presidential power.
The decision to release documents after 25 years was made in 1995 under President Bill Clinton, although the Bush administration managed to delay it. "I was pleasantly surprised," said Steven Aftergood, who runs a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "I could have easily imagined this administration saying: 'Oh, no we can't possibly adopt an automatic declassification policy. That will only assist the terrorists'."
Until now, material could remain secret indefinitely unless researchers lodged a specific request under freedom of information regulations. But declassification does not guarantee documents will be made public. Government agencies can withhold them on privacy grounds, to protect an intelligence source, or to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation.
The FBI has been notoriously stringent about exercising that prerogative, refusing to release documents on the assassination in Washington of the Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier by agents of the Pinochet regime on the grounds that investigators were still pursuing leads.
However, advocates of greater government accountability say an automatic release of documents remains an important step forward.
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday December 22, 2006
The Guardian
Some secrets, it turns out, are too old or too big to keep - even for the Bush administration, which has made a crusade of rooting out leaks and clamping down on information on the inner workings of government.
In the new year, the CIA, FBI, state department and more than 80 other government agencies that handle state secrets will declassify hundreds of millions of pages of documents under a new policy that institutes an automatic release of material after 25 years.
Within those documents lie the most turbulent episodes of the 20th century: the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Vietnam war, the CIA's unauthorised experiments with LSD and its internal thinking on a raft of investigations into coups and assassinations overseas, and the FBI's hunt for communist sympathisers on US soil.
The release, awaited by scholars and journalists, goes against the grain for the president, George Bush, and the vice-president, Dick Cheney, who has argued that the disclosure of information from the White House erodes presidential power.
The decision to release documents after 25 years was made in 1995 under President Bill Clinton, although the Bush administration managed to delay it. "I was pleasantly surprised," said Steven Aftergood, who runs a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "I could have easily imagined this administration saying: 'Oh, no we can't possibly adopt an automatic declassification policy. That will only assist the terrorists'."
Until now, material could remain secret indefinitely unless researchers lodged a specific request under freedom of information regulations. But declassification does not guarantee documents will be made public. Government agencies can withhold them on privacy grounds, to protect an intelligence source, or to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation.
The FBI has been notoriously stringent about exercising that prerogative, refusing to release documents on the assassination in Washington of the Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier by agents of the Pinochet regime on the grounds that investigators were still pursuing leads.
However, advocates of greater government accountability say an automatic release of documents remains an important step forward.
Has the media in the US picked up on this story?
QUOTE (John Simkin @ Dec 26 2006, 10:50 AM)
Has the media in the US picked up on this story?
Coverage has been almost nonexistent, although there was a story in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/washingt...amp;oref=slogin
The story was reproduced in several local newspapers:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll...NYT02/612210861
QUOTE (Robert Charles-Dunne @ Feb 28 2008, 12:09 AM)
UPDATE:
As you read the following, recall that Michael Townley was run by David Atlee Phillips. From:
http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/20...-operation.html
Death Squad International: New Operation Condor Revelations
An Italian judicial investigation into the transnational snatch-and kill program known as Operation Condor has brought to light new evidence of U.S. government foreknowledge and probable complicity in these murderous operations.
According to information posted last Friday by the National Security Archive, newly declassified documents,
... show that the U.S. government had detailed knowledge of collaboration between the Peruvian, Bolivian and Argentine secret police forces to kidnap, torture and "permanently disappear" three militants in a Cold War rendition operation in Lima in June 1980--but took insufficient action to save the victims.
The new documents,
... address what has become known as "the case of the missing Montoneros," a covert operation by a death squad unit of Argentina's feared Battalion 601 to kidnap three members of a militant group living in Lima, Peru, on June 12, 1980, and render them through Bolivia back to Argentina. (A fourth member, previously captured, was brought to Lima to identify his colleagues and then disappeared with them.) "The present situation is that the four Argentines will be held in Peru and then expelled to Bolivia where they will be expelled to Argentina," a U.S. official reported from Buenos Aires four days after Esther Gianetti de Molfino, María Inés Raverta and Julio César Ramírez were kidnapped in broad daylight in downtown Lima. "Once in Argentina they will be interrogated and then permanently disappeared."
Operation Condor, the brainchild of Chile's murderous Pinochet regime was launched in 1975 as a covert program that targeted leftists for elimination; a planned political genocide that claimed tens of thousands of lives. By the time of its official launch, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay Peru and Uruguay were collaborating in the project.
The program became infamous for its terrorist operations when Chilean agents and anti-Castro exiles affiliated with Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles' fascist group CORU (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations), planted a bomb under the car of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and detonated it in September 1976 on Washington's Embassy Row, killing the outspoken Pinochet opponent and his colleague, Ronni Moffitt.
The Chilean Condor operative, Michael Vernon Townley, an American ex-pat with links to the Chilean fascist group Patria y Libertad and long-suspected of being a CIA asset, was later apprehended by the FBI as the organizer and bomb maker for the attack. Though convicted for the murders in federal court Townley was freed by authorities and remains to this day, in a U.S. Witness Protection Program.
Shortly after Letelier's assassination, Bosch and Posada conspired to blow up Cubana Airline Flight 455 on October 6, 1976, killing all 73 passengers on board.
Operation Condor drew from a seemingly inexhaustible pool of neofascists, anti-Castro terrorists, drug traffickers and military/intelligence operatives, many of whom were trained by the Pentagon at its infamous School of the Americas, and by the CIA at the Agency's Camp Peary facility near Williamsburg, Virginia. As such, Condor bears a striking resemblance to today's "extraordinary rendition" program and, similarly, utilized an unaccountable network of paramilitary "specialists," corporate cut-outs and dodgy characters to do the dirty work.
According to the Archive's latest revelations,
Peru's former military ruler, General Enrique Morales Bermudez, has admitted authorizing the Montonero kidnappings but continues to deny that Peru was a member of Operation Condor. But a secret CIA report, dated August 22, 1978, and titled "A Brief Look at Operation Condor" described Condor as "a cooperative effort by intelligence/security services in several South American countries to combat terrorism and subversion. The original members included services from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia. Peru and Ecuador recently became members." (Emphasis added) A Chilean intelligence document confirms that Peru formally joined Operation Condor in March 1978.
A State Department cable dated several weeks after the kidnapping stated that "there seems to be little doubt that the Peruvian army, acting in concert with its Argentine counterpart, resorted to the kinds of illegal repressive measures more familiar in the Southern Cone" than Peru.
Italian judge Luisianna Figliolia, issued a 250-page court filing last December, indicting Morales, his military deputy Pedro Richter Prada as well as 138 other military officers from Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay involved the kidnapping, torture and "disappearance" of 25 Latin Americans who had dual Italian citizenship. The indictments followed a six-year probe by investigative magistrate Giancarlo Capaldo who referenced hundreds of declassified documents provided by the Archive's Southern Cone project.
"These documents provide hard evidence of Condor crimes," according to project director Carlos Osorio, "that almost 30 years later still demand the resolution of justice."
Battalion 601: The CIA's Handmaid
Argentina's Battalion 601 was tasked by the ruling junta to "internationalize" the battle against Marxism beyond national borders. A Foreign Task Force (GTE) coordinated through the State Intelligence Agency (SIDE), was created for this express purpose. Commanded by Gen. Carlos Guillermo Suárez Mason, a graduate of the U.S. Army's School of the Americas and a hard-line Nazi with links to Operation Gladio, Suárez Mason was later tied to international narcotrafficking networks throughout Europe and Latin America.
Suárez Mason was a key proponent of the crusade to "fight the first battle of World War III" in Central America. Indeed, much of the funding that flowed into the coffers of the so-called Nicaraguan "resistance" from Southern cone "dirty warriors" were derived from illicit narco-profits; a by-product of Argentina's involvement in the 1980 Bolivian putsch that installed Gen. Luis Garcia Mesa as president in La Paz. The coup had been financed by drug lord Roberto Suárez. (see "The CIA, Paramilitarism & Narcotrafficking: The Colombian Connection," for details of Bolivia's "Cocaine Coup.")
At the Fourth Congress of the Latin American Anti-Communist League in 1980, an affiliate of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), Suárez Mason argued for the need to develop the anticommunist struggle in Central America, especially in light of the 1979 overthrow of the corrupt Somoza dictatorship by the Sandinistas.
During the early 1980s WACL was directed by former U.S. Gen. John Singlaub, a key figure in the illegal arming of the Contra network. During Singlaub's watch WACL provided some $8 million for the initial cost of stationing Argentine advisors in Central America. According to Uruguayan journalist Samuel Blixen, the money may have come from secret funds managed by the CIA. A strong argument in favor of this scenario stems from the fact that years before the U.S. was publicly committed to overthrowing the Sandinistas, Argentine GTE operatives had created an extensive financial- and money-laundering network inside the United States. Blixen reports:
Leandro Sánchez Reisse is the only member of the External Task Force of Batallion 601 who has confessed the link between the Argentine advisors and drug trafficking to finance undercover operations. ...
Sánchez Reisse revealed that General Suárez Masón and the section of the army under his command received drug money...to fund counterinsurgency efforts in Central America. He explained that two businesses in Miami, one called Argenshow, dedicated to contracting singers for Latin American tours, and another called Silver Dollar, in reality a pawn shop, managed by Raúl Guglielminetti, were the two locations for transferring money. He admitted that Silver Dollar and Argenshow had channelled US$30mn in drug money sent via Panama to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. The money, he said, ended up in the hands of the Nicaraguan contras. He also revealed that since the mid-80s the CIA was fully informed of the two Florida businesses and that it gave its approval to the money laundering operations. ("The Double Role of Drug Trafficking in State Terrorism and Militarized Democracy," in Democracy, Human Rights, and Militarism in the War on Drugs in Latin America, TNI, Cedib and Inforpress Centroamericana, Guatemala, April 1997)
Yet despite overwhelming evidence of Peru's participation in Operation Condor, the program's links to international narcotics syndicates during General Morales' collaboration with Suárez Mason, President Alan García, a staunch U.S. ally in the "war on drugs," denounced the Italian indictments as an "affront to Peru's sovereignty."
The U.S. State Department has not commented on the case.
As you read the following, recall that Michael Townley was run by David Atlee Phillips. From:
http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/20...-operation.html
Death Squad International: New Operation Condor Revelations
An Italian judicial investigation into the transnational snatch-and kill program known as Operation Condor has brought to light new evidence of U.S. government foreknowledge and probable complicity in these murderous operations.
According to information posted last Friday by the National Security Archive, newly declassified documents,
... show that the U.S. government had detailed knowledge of collaboration between the Peruvian, Bolivian and Argentine secret police forces to kidnap, torture and "permanently disappear" three militants in a Cold War rendition operation in Lima in June 1980--but took insufficient action to save the victims.
The new documents,
... address what has become known as "the case of the missing Montoneros," a covert operation by a death squad unit of Argentina's feared Battalion 601 to kidnap three members of a militant group living in Lima, Peru, on June 12, 1980, and render them through Bolivia back to Argentina. (A fourth member, previously captured, was brought to Lima to identify his colleagues and then disappeared with them.) "The present situation is that the four Argentines will be held in Peru and then expelled to Bolivia where they will be expelled to Argentina," a U.S. official reported from Buenos Aires four days after Esther Gianetti de Molfino, María Inés Raverta and Julio César Ramírez were kidnapped in broad daylight in downtown Lima. "Once in Argentina they will be interrogated and then permanently disappeared."
Operation Condor, the brainchild of Chile's murderous Pinochet regime was launched in 1975 as a covert program that targeted leftists for elimination; a planned political genocide that claimed tens of thousands of lives. By the time of its official launch, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay Peru and Uruguay were collaborating in the project.
The program became infamous for its terrorist operations when Chilean agents and anti-Castro exiles affiliated with Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles' fascist group CORU (Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations), planted a bomb under the car of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and detonated it in September 1976 on Washington's Embassy Row, killing the outspoken Pinochet opponent and his colleague, Ronni Moffitt.
The Chilean Condor operative, Michael Vernon Townley, an American ex-pat with links to the Chilean fascist group Patria y Libertad and long-suspected of being a CIA asset, was later apprehended by the FBI as the organizer and bomb maker for the attack. Though convicted for the murders in federal court Townley was freed by authorities and remains to this day, in a U.S. Witness Protection Program.
Shortly after Letelier's assassination, Bosch and Posada conspired to blow up Cubana Airline Flight 455 on October 6, 1976, killing all 73 passengers on board.
Operation Condor drew from a seemingly inexhaustible pool of neofascists, anti-Castro terrorists, drug traffickers and military/intelligence operatives, many of whom were trained by the Pentagon at its infamous School of the Americas, and by the CIA at the Agency's Camp Peary facility near Williamsburg, Virginia. As such, Condor bears a striking resemblance to today's "extraordinary rendition" program and, similarly, utilized an unaccountable network of paramilitary "specialists," corporate cut-outs and dodgy characters to do the dirty work.
According to the Archive's latest revelations,
Peru's former military ruler, General Enrique Morales Bermudez, has admitted authorizing the Montonero kidnappings but continues to deny that Peru was a member of Operation Condor. But a secret CIA report, dated August 22, 1978, and titled "A Brief Look at Operation Condor" described Condor as "a cooperative effort by intelligence/security services in several South American countries to combat terrorism and subversion. The original members included services from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia. Peru and Ecuador recently became members." (Emphasis added) A Chilean intelligence document confirms that Peru formally joined Operation Condor in March 1978.
A State Department cable dated several weeks after the kidnapping stated that "there seems to be little doubt that the Peruvian army, acting in concert with its Argentine counterpart, resorted to the kinds of illegal repressive measures more familiar in the Southern Cone" than Peru.
Italian judge Luisianna Figliolia, issued a 250-page court filing last December, indicting Morales, his military deputy Pedro Richter Prada as well as 138 other military officers from Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay involved the kidnapping, torture and "disappearance" of 25 Latin Americans who had dual Italian citizenship. The indictments followed a six-year probe by investigative magistrate Giancarlo Capaldo who referenced hundreds of declassified documents provided by the Archive's Southern Cone project.
"These documents provide hard evidence of Condor crimes," according to project director Carlos Osorio, "that almost 30 years later still demand the resolution of justice."
Battalion 601: The CIA's Handmaid
Argentina's Battalion 601 was tasked by the ruling junta to "internationalize" the battle against Marxism beyond national borders. A Foreign Task Force (GTE) coordinated through the State Intelligence Agency (SIDE), was created for this express purpose. Commanded by Gen. Carlos Guillermo Suárez Mason, a graduate of the U.S. Army's School of the Americas and a hard-line Nazi with links to Operation Gladio, Suárez Mason was later tied to international narcotrafficking networks throughout Europe and Latin America.
Suárez Mason was a key proponent of the crusade to "fight the first battle of World War III" in Central America. Indeed, much of the funding that flowed into the coffers of the so-called Nicaraguan "resistance" from Southern cone "dirty warriors" were derived from illicit narco-profits; a by-product of Argentina's involvement in the 1980 Bolivian putsch that installed Gen. Luis Garcia Mesa as president in La Paz. The coup had been financed by drug lord Roberto Suárez. (see "The CIA, Paramilitarism & Narcotrafficking: The Colombian Connection," for details of Bolivia's "Cocaine Coup.")
At the Fourth Congress of the Latin American Anti-Communist League in 1980, an affiliate of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), Suárez Mason argued for the need to develop the anticommunist struggle in Central America, especially in light of the 1979 overthrow of the corrupt Somoza dictatorship by the Sandinistas.
During the early 1980s WACL was directed by former U.S. Gen. John Singlaub, a key figure in the illegal arming of the Contra network. During Singlaub's watch WACL provided some $8 million for the initial cost of stationing Argentine advisors in Central America. According to Uruguayan journalist Samuel Blixen, the money may have come from secret funds managed by the CIA. A strong argument in favor of this scenario stems from the fact that years before the U.S. was publicly committed to overthrowing the Sandinistas, Argentine GTE operatives had created an extensive financial- and money-laundering network inside the United States. Blixen reports:
Leandro Sánchez Reisse is the only member of the External Task Force of Batallion 601 who has confessed the link between the Argentine advisors and drug trafficking to finance undercover operations. ...
Sánchez Reisse revealed that General Suárez Masón and the section of the army under his command received drug money...to fund counterinsurgency efforts in Central America. He explained that two businesses in Miami, one called Argenshow, dedicated to contracting singers for Latin American tours, and another called Silver Dollar, in reality a pawn shop, managed by Raúl Guglielminetti, were the two locations for transferring money. He admitted that Silver Dollar and Argenshow had channelled US$30mn in drug money sent via Panama to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. The money, he said, ended up in the hands of the Nicaraguan contras. He also revealed that since the mid-80s the CIA was fully informed of the two Florida businesses and that it gave its approval to the money laundering operations. ("The Double Role of Drug Trafficking in State Terrorism and Militarized Democracy," in Democracy, Human Rights, and Militarism in the War on Drugs in Latin America, TNI, Cedib and Inforpress Centroamericana, Guatemala, April 1997)
Yet despite overwhelming evidence of Peru's participation in Operation Condor, the program's links to international narcotics syndicates during General Morales' collaboration with Suárez Mason, President Alan García, a staunch U.S. ally in the "war on drugs," denounced the Italian indictments as an "affront to Peru's sovereignty."
The U.S. State Department has not commented on the case.
Thought that this should be added to this thread.
J - How about Frank Sturgis?
JF - Frank Sturgis, he was there.
J - How did you know Frank Sturgis?
JF - I knew Frank Sturgis from the Bay of Pigs and from the SAO. I also knew Orlando Bosch. He was on scene. Orlando Bosch, I don't know if you are familiar with his name or not, but he was also present. Ah . there was a few other faces I recognized, I just don't remember the names for them, because it's so long ago.
************************
J - Were you aware that Roselli was working together with the government in anti-Castro activities.
JF - Yes, I was well aware of that .
J - Make a statement.
JF - I was well aware that Johnny Roselli was involved in the government actions. He was like the liaison between CIA and organized crime. And he was heavily involved in the invasion of Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, Chianos Bay, whichever you prefer to call it. But he was also very tight with Frank Sturgis. Frank Sturgis headed up the S.A.O., which is the Secret Army Organization, what this is all about. And they had so many different codenames for wanting to kill Castro, I wouldn't even, I couldn't even name half of them. But every time you turned around, somebody had a new operation going.
***********************
3 years ago I asked in this thread about for evidence that Frank Sturgis was connected to the (rather unknown) SAO (Secret Army Organization). During my vacation I have been reading the excellent book Death in Washington (1980) by Donald Freed and was pleased to find the confirmation of what James Files said.
Page 34 reads:
Three weeks later, Callejeas was able to tell Michael about an exiting offer. The Townley family was to move to Miami. Michael was to study electronics and secret warfare skills with a Cuban exile group that would be in charge of their careers in Miami. Their sponsor, they were told, was the Secret Army Organization (SAO). Its chief was a flamboyant soldier of fortune named Frank Sturgis.
Wim
JF - Frank Sturgis, he was there.
J - How did you know Frank Sturgis?
JF - I knew Frank Sturgis from the Bay of Pigs and from the SAO. I also knew Orlando Bosch. He was on scene. Orlando Bosch, I don't know if you are familiar with his name or not, but he was also present. Ah . there was a few other faces I recognized, I just don't remember the names for them, because it's so long ago.
************************
J - Were you aware that Roselli was working together with the government in anti-Castro activities.
JF - Yes, I was well aware of that .
J - Make a statement.
JF - I was well aware that Johnny Roselli was involved in the government actions. He was like the liaison between CIA and organized crime. And he was heavily involved in the invasion of Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, Chianos Bay, whichever you prefer to call it. But he was also very tight with Frank Sturgis. Frank Sturgis headed up the S.A.O., which is the Secret Army Organization, what this is all about. And they had so many different codenames for wanting to kill Castro, I wouldn't even, I couldn't even name half of them. But every time you turned around, somebody had a new operation going.
***********************
3 years ago I asked in this thread about for evidence that Frank Sturgis was connected to the (rather unknown) SAO (Secret Army Organization). During my vacation I have been reading the excellent book Death in Washington (1980) by Donald Freed and was pleased to find the confirmation of what James Files said.
Page 34 reads:
Three weeks later, Callejeas was able to tell Michael about an exiting offer. The Townley family was to move to Miami. Michael was to study electronics and secret warfare skills with a Cuban exile group that would be in charge of their careers in Miami. Their sponsor, they were told, was the Secret Army Organization (SAO). Its chief was a flamboyant soldier of fortune named Frank Sturgis.
Wim
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