Pinochet Death Renews Calls for CIA Files

Augusto Pinochet, second right, is seen with other members of the four-men military junta that seized power in Chile on Sept. 11, 1973 in a bloody coup against President Salvador Allende, as they salute during Independence Day celebrations in this Sept. 18, 1973 file photo. Pinochet, who ruled Chile after a military coup from 1973 to 1990, died Sunday from heart complications. He was 91. From left are: Air Force Commander Gen. Gustavo Leigth; Pinochet, Navy chief Adm. Jose Toribio Merino, and Police Director Gen. Cesar Mendoza. (AP Photo) (AP)

SANTIAGO, Chile -- The blast rocked Washington's Embassy Row on Sept. 21, 1976, ripping through the car of one of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's most outspoken critics.

The assassination of Orlando Letelier and his American assistant two miles from the White House prompted demands for explanations and helped expose what President Nixon, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and a series of CIA officials tried for years to conceal: U.S support for a military dictatorship that was killing thousands of its own citizens.

In the wake of the former leader's Sunday death, officials at the think tank where Letelier and Ronni Moffitt worked said they are sending U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a letter asking for the release of the remaining information.

In 1998, the Clinton administration declassified more than 16,000 documents related to Chile, but withheld documents on the Letelier bombing, citing an ongoing investigation.

"With the prime suspect no longer here, there is no reason to keep those documents secret," said Sarah Anderson of the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

Former Chilean secret police chief Manuel Contreras, who served seven years in a Chilean prison for the assassination, claimed his orders came directly from Pinochet.

"The documents related to the Letelier case definitely could include embarrassing information about the relationship between the U.S. government and the Pinochet dictatorship," Anderson said. "But that shouldn't outweigh the public's right to know about that history, especially if it gives consolation to the victims' families."

Congressional investigations, CIA reports and the declassified documents have already revealed much about the relationship between Pinochet and the U.S.

Declassified transcripts portray Kissinger downplaying concern over Chile's human rights record, even as the dictatorship was torturing and killing thousands of opponents. The death toll would eventually reach at least 3,197.

Meeting with Chile's ambassador in September 1975, Kissinger joked that U.S. officials focusing on human rights violations had "a vocation for the ministry." And in a June 1976 meeting with Pinochet himself, Kissinger gently encouraged the dictator to release more prisoners while stressing that "we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here."

Peter Kornbluh, who helped win declassification of many files on Chile as a senior analyst at George Washington University's National Security Archive, said the transcripts of Kissinger's meetings "paint a pretty stunning picture of gross insensitivity to human rights atrocities."

Kornbluh believes some of the most important U.S. documents on Chile remain classified _ he's still seeking CIA cable traffic between Santiago and Washington, reports on Contreras' visits to the United States and more information about a young American, Charles Horman, who was killed shortly after the coup.