New Transcripts Point to U.S. Role in Chile Coup

[Snellius]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Henry Kissinger told President Richard Nixon days after the 1973 coup in Chile the United States helped create the conditions for the ouster of socialist President Salvador Allende, newly declassified transcripts showed on Wednesday.

The transcripts show Nixon and Kissinger relieved about the toppling of Allende, who killed himself the day of the coup. The transcripts quote Kissinger, then national security adviser, as saying newspapers were "bleeding because a pro-communist government has been overthrown."

"I mean instead of celebrating - in the Eisenhower period we would be heroes," Kissinger told Nixon on Sept. 16, 1973, five days after the bloody coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. About 3,000 people were killed or disappeared under Pinochet's 17-year rule.

"Well we didn't - as you know - our hand doesn't show on this one, though," Nixon told Kissinger in the Sept. 16 transcript.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040526_462.html

[belle]

1. Oh fucking hell. Not that it's a surprise, but...jesus.

Pinochet was such a fucking evil bastard.

[struggle4progress]

3. Kissinger still is an evil facking bustard.

[papau]

2. Allende, who killed himself-MUST ABC lie like this- there wasn't a suicide

It is well known who pulled the trigger, and who told the killers that the US was on their side and who "possibly" helped arrange the actual killing.

Rewriting history over at the CIA I understand (Per the CIA On Sept. 11, 1973, amid the mounting chaos, Chile's military with US aid seized control of strategic sites throughout the country and cornered Allende in his presidential offices where he died in a firefight - per the CIA he "apparently shot himself in the head to avoid capture...." - and if you believe that one I have others ...)

- but why must ABC throw this lie out as if it was fact? Even the CIA last I looked was still using "apparently shot himself"

[bemildred]

4. Yeah, assholes, he refused to "resign" so they killed him. nt

[Dirk39]

7. I'm not sure...

AFAIK the former bodyguard of Allende, Pablo Zepeda, did report in interviews last year that Allende did commit suicide. I just have a link in german, but to me, it sounds credible.
The reason given for hiding this fact is, that the eyewitness were immigrating to Cuba and were financial and political dependent. And this fact didn't fit into the political image then.

http://www.taz.de/pt/2003/09/06/a0271.nf/text

I have lots of sympathy for Cuba and even more so for Allende - and to commit suicide in this situaton before getting killed: Does anybody really wants to judge? And is there any doubt that the fashist junta would have killed him or torture him or maybe push him to betray comrades?
Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[bemildred]

8. Hi Dirk.

It seems unclear whether he shot himself. It seems likely to
me. One story says he used a gun given him by Castro. It also
is clear he had the opportunity to "resign" and live, and
refused it, and chose to take a stand in the Palace. I think
that is what should be remembered, he chose to die to defend the
Chilean Constitution.

[papau]

9. 3 shots to the head - Allende dies - suicide -per 1999 testimony

The German link is due to the move "Betrayal in Santiago - who shot Salvador" A film of Wilfried Huismann, Editorship: Heribert Blondiau which is a movie based on the 1999 testimony below (please forgive the computer translation):

Chile: Detenidos-Desaparecidos of the GAP

Testimony of Pablo Manuel Zepeda Camillieri

Pablo Manuel Zepeda Camillieri , born in Santiago of Chile the 31 of January of 1951, with national document of identity Roll Only Tributary number 5.990.052-8.

HE DECLARES:

Day 11 of September of 1973 found me in the Palace of the Currency like escort of the constitutional president of the Republic of Chile, Salvador Beyond, and under its direct orders. I arrived at that place from the presidential residence from the Tomás street Moor like dowry from the unit number three approximately to the 0700 hours.<snip>

To 1045, approximately, Olive hours Augusto journalist came to take off the life by means of a shot in the head, generating the obvious commotion in the President and all those that at that moment we were present.

To the 1315 hours, approximately, the constitutional President of Chile ended his life by means of a burst of three firings of his gun, in a while in which he was seated in a contiguous room of rest to the official dining room and in the presence of approximately 12 people, between that found me.<snip>

In Madrid to fifteen of nine and ninety October thousands nine hundred.

Chile: Detenidos-Desaparecidos of the GAP

This document is published in the Internet by Equipment Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights

[Dirk39]

10. Hi,

according to the interview, the gun Allende used was the one, Castro gave to him as a present in 1971.

Castro did visit Chile in 1971 and was celebrated. Allende's daughter Isabel: "The cuban revolution had reached it's peak and many among us believed, an armed revolution would be the best for Chile. But my dad said: No. Real change and real reforms are only possible in a democratic process!"

There's still no Pinochet in Cuba and Castro is still alive...
Dirk

[papau]

11. Hi Dirk - Thanks for the info! :-)

:-)

[UpInArms]

5. 30+ years later, Kissinger still

walks freely.

He should be tried in the Hague and sentenced for his crimes.

Peter Kornbluh, Chile analyst for the National Security Archive, said the document was "damning proof, in Kissinger's own words, that the Nixon administration directly contributed to creating a coup climate in Chile which made the September 11, 1973, military takeover possible."

The coup against Allende would later become a symbol of U.S. Cold War intervention in Latin America.

Kissinger, appearing the week of the Sept. 16 conversations at Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination as secretary of state, denied any U.S. involvement in the coup.

[Judi Lynn]

13. This was very Republican.......

A year later, after the leak of details of a CIA destabilization program, Kissinger told senators: "The intent of the United States was not to destabilize or to subvert (Allende). ... Our concern was with the election of 1976 and not at all with a coup in 1973 about which we knew nothing and (with) which we had nothing to do," according to a National Security Archive statement.

In the Sept. 16 text, Nixon tells Kissinger, "As far as people are concerned let me say they aren't going to buy this crap from the liberals on this one."
(snip)

[Just Me]

6. OMG!!! Is Kissinger prepared to go down in history as a war criminal?

The timing of the release of this information is impeccable!!!!

The fascists and corporatists and criminals are being exposed!!!

This is so, so awesome.

Oh, yes,...let us "enlighten" the people about the fragments of corruption that have tenacles in our present clusterf*ck existence. Let the light shine on the truth!!!

[Democat]

12. Kissinger caught lying to congress, and helping the murder of 1000's

Kissinger, appearing the week of the Sept. 16 conversations at Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination as secretary of state, denied any U.S. involvement in the coup.

Saddam bad, Pinochet good? Maybe we should send Kissinger to Chile to face their legal system?

[keithyboy]

14. But we knew that, didn't we?

:shrug:

[Suspicious]

15. As if this is some sort of revelation.

:eyes:

Even when they tell a portion of the truth, it's disingenuous.

"I mean instead of celebrating - in the Eisenhower period we would be heroes," Kissinger told Nixon on Sept. 16, 1973, five days after the bloody coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

That statement, I think, exposes the heart of the problem with criminals like Kissinger. They truly believe the average human being (Americans, specifically) is a blithering idiot. They see themselves as being above us and believe they must coddle us along with lies and deception, because we're incapable of governing ourselves or knowing which end is up.