The Condor Years.
June 1, 2006 10:44 PM Subscribe
"This is the underground history of the international Dirty Wars by U.S. allies in South America. It is the first "War on Terrorism" (.pdf) and the parallels to the current wars are a cautionary tale. For much of a decade, six allied military governments engaged in secret warfare intended to wipe out their enemies, kidnapping and murdering up to 30,000 people. At the initiative of Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet, and with initial encouragement from the CIA, they set up a multinational terrorist organization, Operation Condor, to pursue those who escaped to other Latin American countries, Europe and the United States."
The Condor accord formally took effect on January 30, 1976, the same day George H.W. Bush was sworn in as CIA director. Robert Parry did some reporting on this.
posted by hortense at 11:46 PM on June 1, 2006
posted by hortense at 11:46 PM on June 1, 2006
Sorry for the snarkfulness. You can't seriously talk about this stuff without talking about Kissinger though. Isn't he still wanted for war crimes in much of the world?[danger - pdf]
posted by mullingitover at 11:51 PM on June 1, 2006
posted by mullingitover at 11:51 PM on June 1, 2006
It's not terrorism when it's approved by Washington. Duh.
posted by pompomtom at 11:51 PM on June 1, 2006
posted by pompomtom at 11:51 PM on June 1, 2006
Don't forget these:
It happened, they're dead. GET OVER IT!
and
Clinton did it too!
posted by hattifattener at 11:55 PM on June 1, 2006
It happened, they're dead. GET OVER IT!
and
Clinton did it too!
posted by hattifattener at 11:55 PM on June 1, 2006
Commie propoganda.
posted by twistedonion at 1:46 AM on June 2, 2006
posted by twistedonion at 1:46 AM on June 2, 2006
hattifattener wins the stupidest response. The following two come very close indeed.
posted by acrobat at 4:43 AM on June 2, 2006
posted by acrobat at 4:43 AM on June 2, 2006
Chilean actual president, Michelle Bachelet,
http://www.presidencia.cl/view/homepage.asp
Her father, Alberto Bachelet, was an Air Force general who supported Salvador Allende's. And never betrayed his country .
He died of a heart attack in a prison camp where he had been tortured, after the 9/11/1973 coup.
posted by luis huiton at 5:19 AM on June 2, 2006
http://www.presidencia.cl/view/homepage.asp
Her father, Alberto Bachelet, was an Air Force general who supported Salvador Allende's. And never betrayed his country .
He died of a heart attack in a prison camp where he had been tortured, after the 9/11/1973 coup.
posted by luis huiton at 5:19 AM on June 2, 2006
luis huiton: she and her mom where also tortured, and later exiled. She later became the Minister of Defense (under Lagos), and led the same military that killed her father and abused her family.
posted by signal at 8:09 AM on June 2, 2006
posted by signal at 8:09 AM on June 2, 2006
You can't seriously talk about this stuff without talking about Kissinger though.
Of course, but this is not a post about Henry Kissinger, instead Operation Condor. I would suggest The Trail of Henry Kissinger (book) or The Trials of Henry Kissinger (movie) for starters. Henry Kissingers duplicity extends across the world (Cyprus, East Timor, Cambodia, and Vietnam among others).
posted by j-urb at 8:58 AM on June 2, 2006
Of course, but this is not a post about Henry Kissinger, instead Operation Condor. I would suggest The Trail of Henry Kissinger (book) or The Trials of Henry Kissinger (movie) for starters. Henry Kissingers duplicity extends across the world (Cyprus, East Timor, Cambodia, and Vietnam among others).
posted by j-urb at 8:58 AM on June 2, 2006
Another McSherry article on Operation Condor, on the Crimes of War website.
posted by russilwvong at 12:03 PM on June 2, 2006
posted by russilwvong at 12:03 PM on June 2, 2006
I thought it was only three days....?
Seriously, nifty bunch of links, thanks.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:39 PM on June 2, 2006
Seriously, nifty bunch of links, thanks.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:39 PM on June 2, 2006
Allende is an excellent example of the East-West tit-for-tat that was going on. And like it or not, and knowing it or not, Allende was a tool, a puppet, for the Soviet Union. Or at least the KGB thought so.
So the situation was a country pretty well split by the two superpowers, both of which making payoffs to buy the elections, with the Communists ready to send in mercenaries and the Chilean Germans being the wrong people to do to what Mugabe did to his white farmers.
A mess of a situation, to say the least.
That being said, I suspect that Kissinger's interpretation was basically correct: that the US tried to upset the elections, and tried everything they could to create conditions ripe for revolution, but had few "boots on the ground" and didn't initiate anything.
What other real support would Pinochet have needed to have a coup? The Chilean Germans were a large, wealthy and powerful community more than willing to support him to protect their interests. And even though most had migrated there in the WWI period, they still despised communists.
Once they had power, Pinochet and crew would have no problem at all dispatching as many communists as they could. They wouldn't need US help for that. But known agents who fled Chile would be out of their reach.
And this is probably where Condor came in. It didn't want them setting up shop in any other countries in the hemisphere, backing some other Soviet stooge.
posted by kablam at 11:47 AM on June 3, 2006
So the situation was a country pretty well split by the two superpowers, both of which making payoffs to buy the elections, with the Communists ready to send in mercenaries and the Chilean Germans being the wrong people to do to what Mugabe did to his white farmers.
A mess of a situation, to say the least.
That being said, I suspect that Kissinger's interpretation was basically correct: that the US tried to upset the elections, and tried everything they could to create conditions ripe for revolution, but had few "boots on the ground" and didn't initiate anything.
What other real support would Pinochet have needed to have a coup? The Chilean Germans were a large, wealthy and powerful community more than willing to support him to protect their interests. And even though most had migrated there in the WWI period, they still despised communists.
Once they had power, Pinochet and crew would have no problem at all dispatching as many communists as they could. They wouldn't need US help for that. But known agents who fled Chile would be out of their reach.
And this is probably where Condor came in. It didn't want them setting up shop in any other countries in the hemisphere, backing some other Soviet stooge.
posted by kablam at 11:47 AM on June 3, 2006
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ah, fuck it.
posted by mullingitover at 11:37 PM on June 1, 2006