United States / "Operation Condor"

Cable Ties Kissinger to Chile Controversy
Associated Press dispatch in The New York Times, April 10, 2010
"As secretary of state, Henry Kissinger canceled a U.S. warning against carrying out international political assassinations that was to have gone to Chile and two neighboring nations just days before a former ambassador was killed by Chilean agents on Washington's Embassy Row in 1976, a newly released State Department cable shows. Whether Kissinger played a role in blocking the delivery of the warning against assassination to the governments of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay has long been a topic of controversy. Discovered in recent weeks by the National Security Archive, a non-profit research organization, the Sept. 16, 1976 cable is among tens of thousands of declassified State Department documents recently made available to the public. In 1976, the South American nations of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay were engaged in a program of repression code-named Operation Condor that targeted those governments' political opponents throughout Latin America, Europe and even the United States.
Based on information from the CIA, the U.S. State Department became concerned that Condor included plans for political assassination around the world. The State Department drafted a plan to deliver a stern message to the three governments not to engage in such murders. In the Sept. 16, 1976 cable, the topic of one paragraph is listed as 'Operation Condor,' preceded by the words '(KISSINGER, HENRY A.) SUBJECT: ACTIONS TAKEN.' The cable states that 'secretary declined to approve message to Montevideo' Uruguay 'and has instructed that no further action be taken on this matter.' 'The Sept. 16 cable is the missing piece of the historical puzzle on Kissinger's role in the action, and inaction, of the U.S. government after learning of Condor assassination plots,' Peter Kornbluh, the National Security Archive's senior analyst on Chile, said Saturday. Kornbluh is the author of 'The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability.' [...]"