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It would be impossible to NOT want to know as much as possible about this effort to write it all down. Here's the place where I found a copy: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0292704844/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=booksTorture in Brazil: A Shocking Report on the Pervasive Use of Torture by Brazilian Military Governments, 1964-1979, Secretly Prepared by the Archiodese of São Paulo (ILAS Special Publication) (Paperback) by Brazil Archdiocese of São Paulo (Author), Joan Dassin (Contributor, Editor), Jaime Wright (Translator) Amazon.com In the military regime that ruled Brazil for 21 years, beginning in 1964, torture was so common a tactic of repression that military personnel were instructed in how to conduct it, with political prisoners used as "guinea pigs" for class exercises. In this grim book, originally published in Portuguese as Brazil: Nunca Mais (Brazil: Never Again) in 1985, human-rights activists published evidence--surreptitiously collected documents of actual military court trials--that showed not only the extent of torture, but the complicity of the judicial branch, which knew that many confessions were falsely obtained under duress. With relentless detail, the documents discuss who was tortured, what instruments were used to exact pain, and the physical, psychological, and moral consequences of brutal abuse, with the aim of forcing acknowledgment of the atrocities and creating an environment where reform and progress can be achieved, where people feel represented by their government rather than live in fear of it. As the man who at the time was archbishop of São Paulo writes in his preface, "This entire book is written in blood and with much love for our country." Review Choice : This is the most important book to come out of Brazil in this decade, perhaps in the last 30 years. Book Description "This is the most important book to come out of Brazil in this decade, perhaps in the last 30 years." —Choice From 1964 until 1985, Brazil was ruled by a military regime that sanctioned the systematic use of torture in dealing with its political opponents. The catalog of what went on during that grim period was originally published in Portuguese as Brasil: Nunca Mais (Brazil: Never Again) in 1985. The volume was based on the official documentation kept by the very military that perpetrated the horrific acts. These extensive documents include military court proceedings of actual trials, secretly photocopied by lawyers associated with the Catholic Church and analyzed by a team of researchers. Their daring project—known as BNM for Brasil: Nunca Mais—compiled more than 2,700 pages of testimony by political prisoners documenting close to three hundred forms of torture. The BNM project proves conclusively that torture was an essential part of the military justice system and that judicial authorities were clearly aware of the use of torture to extract confessions. Still, it took more than a decade after the publication of Brasil: Nunca Mais for the armed forces to admit publicly that such torture had ever taken place. Torture in Brazil, the English version of the book re-edited here, serves as a timely reminder of the role of Brazil's military in past repression. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan MitrioneThis was the time and place American torturer, former police chief from Richmond, Indiana, Dan Mitrione, entered the torture business "big time." He worked in Brazil first, then in Uruguay. When he died, (murdered, not surprisingly) Richard M. Nixon sent his Press Secretary, and his son-in-law, David Eisenhower to the funeral, and Frank Sinatra and someone else like him held a benefit to raise money for his family. He was hailed as a "hero!" Assassination Attempts: Dan A. Mitrione Government Agent Part 1
About the assassination of Dan A. Mitrione a U.S. government agent, his biography and history in Uruguay. The Victim: DAN A. MITRIONE. Mitrione was a U.S. Government agent who was dispatched to Latin America as part of the U.S. Government's attempt to maintain totalitarian puppet-allies. He supposedly advised local officials on traffic safety, but his real job was to create sophisticated police states in order to minimize the possibility of popular rebellion against dictatorial regimes.
Dan Mitrione started as a cop in Richmond, Ind., in 1945. He became police chief in 1955 and joined the FBI in 1957. In 1960, under the State Department's International Cooperation Administration (predecessor of the Agency for International Development-AID), he went to Brazil to train police there in advanced counterinsurgency techniques. During his 7 "Public Safety" years in Brazil, the use of torture against opponents of the military regime became virtually routine. In addition, the Brazilian police, many of whom were trained by Mitrione, formed a vigilante "Death Squad" which disposed of over 100 "undesirables" without arrest or trial.
Documentation of Mitrione's activities has been compiled by a wide range of investigators, from religious groups to Hollywood film makers. NARMIC, a research/action arm of the American Friends Service Committee, reported that:
. . . after training such a police force, Mitrione returned to the U.S. as a Latin America expert. In 1967 he trained foreign officers in the techniques of counterguerrilla warfare at the AID-Public Safety Police Academy in Washington, D.C. In July of 1969, Mitrione headed for South America again, this time to Uruguay for AID. He was the leader of a 4-man team of Public Safety advisors that trained 1,000 Uruguayan police in police management, patrolling, use of scientific and technical aids, antiguerrilla operations and border control. These trainees have in turn instructed an untold number of police in more outlying regions of the country.
Mitrione himself, during his year-long stay, trained personnel in transportation techniques, established a police training facility and a radio network for Montevideo police, and set up a joint operations center of communications to facilitate cooperation between the police and the army.
To accomplish what he called "Uruguay's total penetration," Mitrione designed and initiated the following measures according to Costa-Gavras and Franco Solinas, authors of State of Siege:
A network of spies and infiltrators in high schools and universities.
Hidden cameras in terminals, etc., to photograph all persons traveling to socialist countries.
An increase in the size of the city militia from 600 to 1,000 men.
New gases, new .45-caliber machine guns, an increase in the use of shotguns. Inspection of all mail and publications coming from socialist countries.
Inauguration of police training courses in the recruitment of informers, interrogation techniques, use of explosives, etc. More: http://www.trivia-library.com/a/assassination-attempts-dan-a-mitrione-government-agent-part-1.htm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1979 A19
Torture’s Teachers
By A.J. Langguth
~snip~ Mr. Mitrione has become notorious throughout Latin America. But few men ever had the chance to sit with him and discuss his rationale for torture. Mr. Hevia had once.
Now, reading Mr. Hevia’s version, which I believe to be accurate, I see that I too had resisted acknowledging how drastically a man’s career can deform him. I was aware that Mr. Mitrione knew of the tortures and condoned them. That was bad enough. I could not believe even worse of a family man. A Midwesterner. An American.
Thanks to Mr. Hevia, I was finally hearing Mr. Mitrione’s true voice:
"When you receive a subject, the first thing to do is to determine his physical state, his degree of resistance, through a medical examination. A premature death means a failure by the technician.
"Another important thing to know is exactly how far you can go given the political situation and the personality of the prisoner. It is very important to know beforehand whether we have the luxury of letting the subject die…
"Before all else, you must be efficient. You must cause only the damage that is strictly necessary, not a bit more. We must control our tempers in any case. You have to act with the efficiency and cleanliness of a surgeon and with the perfection of an artist…
A few months later, Mr. Mitrione paid with his life for those excesses. Five years late, thanks to the effort of such men as former Senator James Abourezk, the police advisory program was finally abolished.
But few of the accomplices in torture have ever been called to account. Years ago in open hearings, Senator Frank church tried to force some admissions but his witnesses sidestepped his staff’s sketchy allegations. Given the willingness of congress to accept the C.I.A.’s alibis about national security, I don’t think any other public hearings would fare better. More: http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/langguthleaf.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~ Daniel A. Mitrione, Sr. was never an FBI man; he was a small-town Indiana police chief who helped lead a covert war against leftist groups in Latin America.
In the late Fifties, Mitrione, Sr. was officially employed by the U.S. State Department, though the CIA was deeply involved in his work. He was first sent to Brazil and then Uruguay to teach what the State Department termed "public safety" to police. Traveling with him were his wife Henrietta and nine children, including young Dan, who was born in 1947 and basically grew up in South America, learning Spanish and idolizing his father.
But in 1970, after more than a decade in foreign lands, disaster struck the Mitrione clan. Dan, Sr. was kidnapped by the Tupamaro guerrilla group in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. As the family -- and America -- anxiously waited and watched the national news reports on the ordeal, he was held for eleven days. The group demanded the release of numerous political prisoners, but the Uruguayan government refused to negotiate. On August 10, Mitrione's bound and gagged body was discovered in the trunk of a stolen 1948 Buick convertible on a Montevideo street. He'd been shot twice in the head.
In the United States, the fallen father was hailed as a hero and martyr for freedom. President Richard Nixon sent his son-in-law, David Eisenhower; Secretary of State William Rogers; and a red, white, and blue commemorative wreath to the funeral in Mitrione's hometown of Richmond, Indiana.
"Mr. Mitrione's devoted service to the cause of peaceful progress in an orderly world will remain as an example for free men everywhere," White House spokesman Ron Ziegler announced.
Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis flew to Richmond and put on a benefit concert that raised $20,000 for the family. "I never met Richmond's son, Dan Mitrione," Sinatra said to the crowd after Lewis warmed them up. "Yet he was my brother ... as all of us in America are brothers."
What the general public didn't know was that Mitrione, Sr. had been doing far more than teaching helpful police tactics in South America. Former Uruguayan police officials and CIA operatives claimed Mitrione had taught brutal, deadly techniques of torture in the cellar of his Montevideo home. They alleged he electrically shocked his victims' mouths and genitals, among other ghastly things. In one of the most disturbing revelations, reported by a CIA operative from Cuba named Manuel Hevia Conculluela, Mitrione was said to have practiced on beggars picked up from the capital's streets, four of whom reportedly died while serving as human guinea pigs. More: http://bestof.miaminewtimes.com/2005-08-11/news/forever-missing-part-2/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~ Dan Mitrione did not introduce the practice of torturing political prisoners to Uruguay It had been perpetrated by the police at times from at least the early 1960s. However, in surprising interview given to a leading Brazilian newspaper in 1970, the former Uruguayan Chief of Police Intelligence, Alejandro Otero, declared that US advisers, and in particular Mitrione, had instituted torture as a more routine measure; to the means of inflicting pain they had added scientific refinement; and to that a psychology to create despair, such as playing a tape in the next room of women and children screaming and telling the prisoners that it was his family being tortured. "The violent methods which were beginning to be employed," said Otero, "caused an escalation in Tupamaro activity. Before then their attitude showed that they would use violence only as a last resort." The newspaper interview greatly upset American officials in South America and Washington. Byron Engle later tried to explain it all away by asserting: "The three Brazilian reporters in Montevideo all denied filing that story. We found out later that it was slipped into the paper by someone in the composing room at the Jornal do Brasil." Otero had been a willing agent of the CIA, a student at their International Police Services school in Washington, a recipient of their cash over the years, but he was not a torturer. What finally drove him to speak out was perhaps the torture of a woman who, while a Tupamaro sympathizer, was also a friend of his. When she told him that Mitrione had watched and assisted in her torture, Otero complained to him, about this particular incident as well as his general methods of extracting information. The only outcome of the encounter was Otero's demotion. William Cantrell was a CIA operations officer stationed in Montevideo and ostensibly a member of the OPS team. In the mid-1960s he was instrumental in setting up a Department of Information and Intelligence (DII), and providing it with funds and equipment. Some the equipment, innovated by the CIA's Technical Services Division, was for the purpose torture, for this was one of the functions carried out by the DII. "One of the pieces of equipment that was found useful," former New York Times correspondent A. J. Langguth learned, "was a wire so very thin that it could be fitted into the mouth between the teeth and by pressing against the gum increase the electrical charge. it was through the diplomatic pouch that Mitrione got some of the equipment he needed in interrogations, including these fine wires.'' More: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Uruguay_KH.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Thanks for posting the information on "Nunca Mais." I was not aware this existed at all, and am looking forward so much to getting this book in the next few days. Really appreciate it.
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