By George Gedda Associated Press Writer Friday, Oct. 8, 1999; 1:50 p.m. EDT WASHINGTON ?? U.S. intelligence may have played an "unfortunate part" in the death of an American journalist at the hands of Chilean security forces in the days following a 1973 military coup in Chile, according to a declassified State Department document released today.
The document was made public just hours after a British magistrate in London ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet be extradited to Spain to stand trial on charges of torture and human rights offenses during his rule.
Talking to reporters, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the United States had condemned actions by Pinochet's government when it was in power and supports efforts to achieve justice and "accountability." But she said the legal process is likely to be a lengthy one and she would not comment specifically on today's ruling.
The 23-year-old State Department document is part of a larger release of 1,100 U.S. government records today related to the 1973 coup. The CIA has been accused of withholding some records on its covert activities in Chile.
At a news conference in Ottawa, President Clinton said he supports the release of other U.S. documents concerning America's actions at the time. "I think you're entitled to know what happened back then and how it happened," Clinton said.
The document released today relates to the killing of freelance journalist Charles Horman. He was apprehended at his home about a week after the Sept. 11, 1973, coup and transported to a stadium where suspected leftists were harbored in the chaotic aftermath of the coup that landed Pinochet in power.
"U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death," the document said.
It said that at best, the U.S. intelligence community's role in Horman's death "was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the government of Chile.
"At worst, U.S. intelligence was aware the government of Chile saw Horman in a rather serious light and U.S. officials did nothing to discourage the logical outcome of the government of Chile's paranoia."
Horman was the subject of a 1982 movie, "Missing," which suggested American complicity in his death and drew vigorous objections from State Department officials, including Nathaniel Davis, U.S. ambassaodr to Chile at the time of the coup.
Horman's widow, Joyce Horman of New York City, received the two-page document today from the National Security Archive, a research group at George Washington University. It was written Aug. 25, 1976, by the head of the State Department's office of Chilean affairs, Rudy Fimbres along with R.S. Driscoll and W.V. Robertson, two other State Department officials who were not further identified.
"This case remains bothersome," the State Department document said. "The connotations for the executive (branch) are not good. "In the Hill (Congress), academic community, the press and the Horman family, the intimations are of negligence on our part, or worse, complicity in Horman's death."
Mrs. Horman appeared at a news conference here along with human rights advocates, researchers and Juan Garces, a Spanish lawyer who initiated the case against Pinochet in 1995. Garces said he received the news about the British magistrate's ruling this morning in London with "great satisfaction" and that it proves that dictators "can't find refuge in any part of the world."
Pinochet and his military officers in 1973 overthrew Salvador Allende, a Marxist who had been chosen to lead Chile in a democratic election ? an election that caused the Nixon administration to fear that Chile could become a communist foothold in South America.
After Pinochet was arrested in London last October, Clinton ordered government agencies to declassify documents relating to human rights abuses, terrorism and other acts of political violence in Chile between 1968 and 1990. Nearly 6,000 records were released in June.
Although Henry Kissinger, then Nixon's national security adviser, has insisted the United States had no direct involvement in the coup, Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive, claims the CIA is withholding information on its own covert activities in Chile.
"We adamantly believe that all U.S. records regarding the planning and actual efforts to block, undermine and overthrow the Allende government, which include kidnapping, coup plotting and other acts of political violence between 1970 to 1973" should be released, he wrote Monday in a letter to the National Security Council.
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the CIA is cooperating with the declassification project and will be searching files related to its own operations in Chile, including covert activities,and declassifying some of them in time for a third release of documents planned for next year.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press