US move on Argentina dictatorship fails in Congress

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

US move on Argentina dictatorship fails in Congress
May 15, 2011 Print Send to Friend


BUENOS AIRES: An effort to declassify US documents on Argentina’s dictatorship failed on Friday in the US Congress, disappointing rights activists in the Argentine capital who believe the secret files could help them identify young people stolen as babies by the military junta.

The amendment by Republican Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat from New York, was rejected by a vote of 214-194. It would have compelled US intelligence agencies to declassify their files on the 1976-1983 dictatorship, which was closely monitored by US security and intelligence forces.

A similar amendment by Hinchey in 1999 resulted in the Chile declassification project under President Bill Clinton, which led to the publication of more than 24,000 documents that helped prosecute crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

Most of the US files on Argentina still remain secret, and some of those voting against the measure said it’s best they stay that way.





Read more: http://gulftoday.ae/portal/4762bfeb-5aa8-4b22-aab0-d5a65d952d05.aspx

[Igel]

1. "The amendment by Republican Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat from New York, was rejected..."

Is "Republican" his first name? (In which case all I can say is, "Ouch!")

Or was this written by a committee?

"Republican Hinchey, a Democrat." Indeed.

(Back to my bok choy.)

[Zorra]

3. Probably a typo. I think it they meant Rep. Like representative. He's a Dem. nt

[Judi Lynn]

6. Right! Someone was asleep at the wheel. Or editing while intoxicated. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Earlier article on records which DID get de-classified:

Published on Thursday, December 4, 2003 by the Miami Herald
Transcript: U.S. OK'd 'Dirty War'

New evidence suggests that Henry Kissinger gave the Argentine military 'a green light' in its 1970s-80s campaign against leftists.

by Daniel A. Grech

BUENOS AIRES - At the height of the Argentine military junta's bloody ''dirty war'' against leftists in the 1970s, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told the Argentine foreign minister that ''we would like you to succeed,'' a newly declassified U.S. document reveals.

The transcript of the meeting between Kissinger and Navy Adm. César Augusto Guzzetti in New York on Oct. 7, 1976, is the first documentary evidence that the Gerald Ford administration approved of the junta's harsh tactics, which led to the deaths or ''disappearance'' of some 30,000 people from 1975 to 1983.

The document is also certain to further complicate Kissinger's legacy, which has been questioned in recent years as new evidence has emerged on his connection to human-rights violations around the world -- including in Chile, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

~snip~
''This document is a devastating indictment of Kissinger's policy toward Latin America,'' said John Dinges, an assistant professor at Columbia Journalism School and author of The Condor Years, a book on military dictatorships in the Southern Cone due out in February. ``Kissinger actually encourages human-rights violations in full consciousness of what was going on.''

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1204-01.htm

[classysassy]

7. Protecting the war criminals

We wonder why most countries see America as a bunch of blood thirsty hypocrites.We protect the likes of Kissinger and the Bush family who committed crimes against humanity and we will not admit their crimes.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Argentine police held in 1977 death of French nun

Argentine police held in 1977 death of French nun
(AFP) – 4 days ago

BUENOS AIRES — Three former Argentine police officers were arrested Tuesday on charges of killing a French-born nun and four other women during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, a court official told AFP.

All five women including Sister Leonie Duquet were allegedly thrown alive from an airplane in late 1977 as it flew high above the South Atlantic.

The officers, members of Argentina's police Coast Guard, were allegedly the crew aboard the flight, the court official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One of the suspects currently pilots passenger jets on international routes for Aerolineas Argentinas, the national airline, the official said.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5igyUxDZVMsGT6KVcKd4-wq6NIZPA?docId=CNG.7666cf41808dc7d84a13a2cd4ccc112e.fe1

~~~~~
Argentina makes arrests in 'flights of death' killings

Argentine authorities have arrested three former policemen in connection with what became known as flights of death during military rule.

They are accused of being the crew when French nun Leonie Duquet and rights activist Azucena Villaflor were thrown from a plane in 1977.

Their bodies washed ashore and were buried in an unmarked grave until their remains were identified in 2005.

Hundreds of political prisoners are known to have died this way.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13357301

Posted earlier this week by Dipsydoodle.

[plumbob]

5. Hide? Hide? We got nothing to hide!

Hey, get away from the records!




C-O-R-R-U-P-T to the bone.


Hopefully, I'll be dead before the final collapse.

[dipsydoodle]

11. That unfortunatley

is the considered opinion of the majority of the public in the USA who as such they have no understanding whatsoever of blowback as and when it occurs.

[Blue_Tires]

8. I'm pretty sure some interesting names of people who lent a 'helping hand'

to the dictatorship would come out...(Rumsfeld? Bush Sr.?)

[dipsydoodle]

9. Exactly

Just gotta keep the extent of interference secret.

[dipsydoodle]

10. From 11 years ago

August 15, 2000
Web posted at: 6:38 PM EDT (2238 GMT)

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -- Argentine human rights groups hope Wednesday's visit by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will spur Washington to declassify U.S. documents about Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship.

Albright invited representatives of human rights groups to meet at the U.S. embassy residence early on Wednesday during her one-day visit to Buenos Aires while on a five-country Latin American tour.

Among them will be the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, which tracks down the children believed stolen from pregnant women killed during the dictatorship. The activists believe the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has kept secret vital information.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/08/15/albright.argentina.reut/

and back in 1981 :

Dr. Jeanne Kirkpatrick, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a noted apologist for supporting rightwing dictators, arrived in Buenos Aires on August 1, 1981 on the second leg of her tour of Latin America. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo-a domestically notorious human rights group of brave women who demonstrated publicly for information on the disappearance of their loved ones-had prepared a long letter for her, and they asked for an interview. They were not accorded an interview by Kirkpatrick, nor did they receive a response to their letter.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/Argentina_STATUS.html

[Judi Lynn]

18. Both your links are very helpful. I need to mention the second one, particularly.

From the book quoted in the Third World Traveller, some material I posted below without the astonishing, monstrous paragraph, which I HAD heard many times before, which still hits a person as hard as the first time I saw it. Simply beyond imagination itself:

p96
The Commission found that the vast majority of the 8,960 victims were not only innocent of acts of terrorism, but even of belonging to guerrilla organizations. They were trade union leaders struggling for higher wages for workers; youngsters who belonged to student organizations; journalists who did not support the military regime; professionals who belonged to suspicious organizations; young pacifists, nuns, and priests who were inspired by the teachings of Christ and who took this message to the poor; friends of these people; or others whose names were given to the security forces out of vengeance or by the kidnapped under torture.
As impressive as the combined size of the groups targeted for direct attack may seem, the reader is reminded that state terrorism in Argentina sought to intimidate and coerce a much larger audience, namely those sectors of society that longed for social change. Furthermore, a quantitative breakdown of the victims points to the class nature of this case of state terrorism and to the prominence of students as victims. The largest percentage (30.2 percent) were blue collar workers; the third largest (17.9 percent) white collar workers; and the seventh largest (3.8 percent) maids. Students were second, accounting for 21 percent of the victims and one-third of these were also employed.
p97
Despite the fact that Jews constitute only one percent of the population of Argentina, an estimated ten percent of the victims of the dirty war were Jews. That this war had an anti-Semitic side is attested to by CONADEP, which devoted a section to illustrate this point. It is illustrated, to quote the report, by the "particular brutality in the treatment of prisoners of Jewish origin .1117 Jews were not only tortured, but the torture often took on an anti-Semitic form. The torturers painted swastikas on one Jewish prisoner's back with a sharp pointed marker. Another torturer who called himself the "great fuehrer" made Jewish prisoners shout "Hell Hitler." A Jewish woman on her way to an excursion in Israel was called by her abductors "a Yid," and subjected to the cattle prod. They wanted information from her and from her files on Jews. She was told that the Jewish problem was second only to the problem of subversion. Later, they told her that her abduction was a mistake and to forget it. In one torture center Jews were made to raise one hand and to shout "I love Hitler." One prisoner remembered the ordeal of another prisoner, a Jew nicknamed "Chango," at the hands of his torturer called "Julian the Turk." Julian always carried a key ring with a swastika and wore a crucifix around his neck. He made Chango bark like a dog, wag as though he were a dog wagging his tail, and lick his boots. Chango did very well at this. If he didn't, Julian would beat him. CONADEP concluded that:

The rest must be read at the link, from page #97. It would take a level of criminality, evil far beyond anything human to assist this torture.

Later, in the material, please see this:

p102
WASHINGTON'S SUPPORT FOR STATE TERRORISM IN ARGENTINA
Aid Replacement and Increased Trade
... the attempt of the Reagan administration to repair the diplomatic damage inflicted on the junta by the world communitias recorded.) What was presented was mainly the comings and goings of junta members and of Ambassador Kirkpatrick as they were feted and honored in each others' capitals. This was a type of diplomatic support given by the Reagan administration to the junta as it engaged in state terrorism. The Carter administration did not engage in this activity, and thus did not support state terrorism in this way.
p102
In 1976, backing the Humphrey-Kennedy amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1976, the Carter administration placed an embargo on the sale of arms and spare parts to Argentina and on the training of its military personnel. This resulted in the absence of military aid contracted by Washington in the period of the dirty war, including the Reagan years. Upon assuming office, the Reagan administration did not think the political climate was such that it could resume military aid. It did reverse the negative voting policy in multinational development banks of the Carter administration. And it continued with the "symbolic gestures" that helped to lessen the junta's diplomatic isolation
Before too much is made of Washington's cutting off military aid and maintaining nonmilitary aid at modest levels during the dirty war, aid replacement by its allies must be considered. The absence of aid from Washington was compensated for by its allies, no doubt at least in the Reagan years with encouragement from that administration. From 1978 to the early eighties these allies sold an estimated two billion in arms to Argentina. Notable among the suppliers was Israel. Argentina became Israel's largest South American customer, accounting for over 30 percent of Israeli weapons.

As you know, it was the Bush family's friend, Argentina's President Carlos Saul Menem, who extended immunity to all the Dirty War officials, and that ruling stood until Argentina's people elected Nestor Kirchner, himself a torture victim and prisoner of the Dirty War rescended it, and initiated the process that started hauling in their sadistic asses for trial, a process still in motion, thank goodness.

Thank you for these eye-opening links, dipsydoodle. There's so much Americans need to find out about what their government has done in their names, with their tax dollars.

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

[blueclown]

13. Somebody check Milton Friedman's house.

Or did he burn everything before he died?

[No Elephants]

14. Classification and de-classification should be solely Executive Branch functions.

Don't know why Congress is even involved.

[Mr. Jefferson]

15. Yes, these types of decisions should be made by a King, not the People's representatives.

[No Elephants]

16. Under whom are the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, Secret Service, D of D and the like?

Who is CIC?

Who deals with foreign nations?

What does the Constitution empower Congress to do that should be secret?

Who can keep a secret better, the President or almost 600 members of Congress and their staffs?

Who can act quickly to classify or declassify?


Historically, the President has classified and de-classified without Congressional involvement and, given the way the Constitution breaks down their respective duties, that would seem entirely appropriate.

Oh, and kings aren't elected every four years.

[Mr. Jefferson]

17. The same argument was used when they employed Albert Hakim to facilitate

the arms for hostages deal.