kerry, kissinger and the other sept. 11

7/29/2019 Kerry, Kissinger and the Other Sept. 11

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By Amy Goodman

As President Barack Obamas attack on Syria appears to have been

delayed for the moment, it is remarkable that Secretary of State John

Kerry was meeting, on Sept. 11, with one of his predecessors, Henry

Kissinger, reportedly to discuss strategy on forthcoming negotiationson Syria with Russian officials. The Kerry-Kissinger meeting, and the

public outcry against the proposed attack on Syria to which both men

are publicly committed, should be viewed through the lens of another

Sept. 11 ... 1973.

On that day, 40 years ago, the democratically elected president of

Chile, Salvador Allende, was violently overthrown in a U.S.-backed

coup. Gen. Augusto Pinochet took control and began a 17-year

dictatorial reign of terror, during which more than 3,000 Chileans weremurdered and disappearedabout the same number killed on that

later, fateful 9/11, 2001. Allende, a socialist, was immensely popular

with his people. But his policies were anathema to the elites of Chile

and the U.S., so President Richard Nixon and his secretary of state and

national-security adviser, Henry Kissinger, supported efforts to

overthrow him.

Kissingers role in plotting and supporting the 1973 coup in Chile

becomes clearer as the years pass and the documents emerge,

documents that Kissinger has personally fought hard to keep secret.Peter Kornbluh of the nonprofit National Security Archive has been

uncovering the evidence for years, and has recently updated his book,

The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and

Accountability. Kornbluh told me that Kissinger was the singular most

important figure in engineering a policy to overthrow Allende and then,

even more, to embrace Pinochet and the human-rights violations thatfollowed. He said that Kissinger pushed Nixon forward to as

aggressive but covert a policy as possible to make Allende fail, to

destabilize Allendes ability to govern, to create what Kissinger called a

coup climate.

The Pinochet regime was violent, repressive and a close ally of the

United States. Pinochet formed alliances with other military regimes in

South America, and they created Operation Condor, a campaign of

coordinated terror and assassinations throughout Argentina, Chile,

Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil. Operation Condor even reached
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onto the streets of Washington, D.C., when, on Sep. 21, 1976, a

former Chilean ambassador to the U.S. during the Allendegovernment, Orlando Letelier, along with his assistant, a U.S. citizen

named Ronni Moffitt, were killed by a car bomb planted by Pinochets

secret police on Embassy Row, just blocks from the White House.

Eventually, under increasing global condemnation and growing

internal, nonviolent resistance, the Pinochet regime was forced to hold

a plebiscite, a national vote, on whether Pinochet would continue as

Chiles dictator. With a resounding No! the public rejected him,

ushering in the modern, democratic era in Chile.

At least two U.S. citizens were murdered during the 1973 coup.

Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi were in Chile to observe the

democratic experience there, working as writers and journalists. Theirabduction and murder by Pinochets forces, with the likely collaboration

by the U.S. government, is depicted movingly in the 1982 Oscar-

winning film Missing, directed by Costa Gavras, starring Jack

Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. On the week of the coups 40th

anniversary, Charles Hormans widow, Joyce Horman, held a

commemoration. The event, hosted in New York City by the CharlesHorman Truth Foundation, attracted hundreds, many who were

personally involved with the Allende government or who were forced

into exile from Chile during those terrible years.

Among those in attendance was Juan Garces, a Spanish citizen who

was President Allendes closest adviser. Garces was with Allende in the

presidential palace on Sept. 11, 1973. Just before the palace was

bombed by the air force, Allende led Garces to the door of the palace

and told him to go out and tell the world what had happened that day.

Allende died during the coup. Garces narrowly escaped Chile with his

life. He led the global legal pursuit of Pinochet, finally securing hisarrest in Britain in 1998, where Pinochet was held for 504 days. While

Pinochet was eventually allowed to return to Chile, he was later

indicted there and, facing trial and prison, died under house arrest in

2006, at the age of 91.

Today, Garces sees alarming similarities between the repression in

Chile and U.S. policies today: You have extraordinary renditions. You

have extrajudicial killings. You have secret centers of detentions. I am


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very concerned that those methods ... were applied in Chile with the

knowledge and the backing of the Nixon-Kissinger administration inthis period. The same methods are being applied now in many

countries with the backing of the United States. That is very dangerous

for everyone.

Rather than meeting with Kissinger for advice, John Kerry would better

serve the cause of peace by consulting with those like Garces who

have spent their lives pursuing peace. The only reason Henry Kissinger

should be pursued is to be held accountable, like Pinochet, in a court

of law.

This article appeared in Truthdig.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.Amy Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, a daily international

TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,000 stations in North

America. She is the co-author of The Silenced Majority, a New York

Times best-seller.

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