Terror on Embassy Row: The assassination of Orlando Letelier

[Judi Lynn]

Sun Sep 21, 2014 at 06:00 AM PDT.

Terror on Embassy Row: The assassination of Orlando Letelier

by Denise Oliver Velez
for Daily Kos.

~snip~

Those who escaped being massacred, disappeared, or tortured in Chile became part of a global resistance and protest movement. One major center of that resistance was the Chilean ex-pat community in Washington, D.C., home to former members of the Allende regime and their families.
I was living in D.C. in the mid-'70s, working on building a Pacifica radio station, WPFW-FM. Pacifica already had a Washington News Bureau there, and the bureau head was a Chilean-American, Paz Cohen. One of the volunteers at the bureau, who was helping to build the new station was José, a young Chilean, son of the former ambassador to the U.S., Orlando Letelier, one of the most vocal and visible leaders of the resistance.

On the morning of September 21, 1976, Pacifica staff and volunteers were already at work. Paz had planned to catch a ride into downtown from Adams Morgan, with her friend Orlando, but stayed home with a head cold.

At 9:35 AM the car, driven by Orlando Letelier, carrying his co-worker Ronni Moffitt and her husband, Michael, blew up at Sheridan Circle, in the city's Embassy Row. Orlando and Ronni were killed, and Michael was injured. It was a political assassination.

We got the news right away and listened in pain, horror and disbelief. The rest is part of history, a history with a story that continues up to this day and beyond.

More:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/21/1329464/-Terror-on-Embassy-Row-The-assassination-of-Orlando-Letelier?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

[Judi Lynn]

1. For anyone interested in what happened to assassin Michael Townley, see this from the above article:

~snip~

Michael Vernon Townley (born December 5, 1942 in Waterloo, Iowa) is an American professional assassin currently living under terms of the US federal witness protection program. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and operative of the Chilean secret police, known as the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), Townley confessed, was convicted, and served 62 months in prison in the United States for the 1976 Washington, D.C., assassination of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the United States. As part of his plea bargain, Townley received immunity from further prosecution and was therefore not extradited to Argentina to stand trial for the assassination of Chilean general Carlos Prats and his wife. Townley has also been convicted (1993), in absentia, by an Italian court for carrying out the 1975 Rome murder attempt on Bernardo Leighton. Townley worked in producing chemical weapons for Chilean dictator General Pinochet's use against political opponents along with Colonel Gerardo Huber and the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berríos. His father, John Vernon Townley, was also a CIA agent in Chile and Venezuela.

[PeoViejo]

2. The System wouldn't protect Townley unless he was acting under Orders

The rule is that, if you are acting under Orders, you're good. This also protects the more senior operatives from exposure and criminal charges.
Another device they use is to tell the operative a false narrative of the purpose of their assignment, thus, the operative can fall back on the narrative he was given in order to achieve plausible deniability in the case of exposure. Townley was also a US Naval Officer and represented himself as such while on assignment in Chile. During the run-up to the Pinochet Coup, he caused the death of two US Citizens that were investigating the connection between the US Military and the Chilean Military. The ruse of having him protected under the Witness Protection Program is a cynical farce, perpetrated in order to protect the identities of senior US officials who issued him the orders for his activities.

[Louisiana1976]

3. That disgusting character should have gotten the death penalty or at least life in prison

without parole. He was a fucking serial killer.