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Thursday, 9 December, 1999, 06:48 GMT
FBI renews Pinochet probe
By Steve Bradshaw
Almost a quarter of a century after the worst terrorist outrage in Washington DC, the FBI has renewed its investigation into the alleged role of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, now held under house arrest outside London.
Last month, according to sources in a special Radio 4 documentary on the murder, the US Justice Department attached as many as 20 FBI agents and justice to the investigation full-time. The department has never formally closed its files on the case.
Sources quoted in the documentary, called Murder on Embassy Row, say the investigation is being "pursued aggressively" and that the only possible target "is General Pinochet himself".
An American citizen, Mr Letelier's colleague Ronni Moffitt, also died in the explosion, close to the Chilean Embassy in the heart of Washington's diplomatic quarter.
The notorious car-bombing has been a source of controversy and speculation for years, amid rumours that the American intelligence establishment could have prevented the killings and has covered up evidence that might reveal who bears the responsibility for despatching the bombers to the United States.
"I think the current US investigation could come up with enough evidence to prove Pinochet's responsibility for this crime. My hope is that the evidence will then be brought before a grand jury in Washington."
Orlando Letelier was working at a Washington think-tank, the Center for Policy Studies, when right-wing Cuban gangsters detonated a bomb taped under his Chevrolet in a cake tin.
The bomb had been planted by Michael Townley, an American citizen who was working as an international hitman for the Chilean secret police, Dina.
Documents cited in the programme show the State Department and CIA had both received warnings that Dina might be planning some kind of mission on American soil, and friends of Letelier say he was always the most likely target. But they say no special steps were taken to protect him or warn him of any specific danger.
Under a complex deal, Townley was expelled from Chile and found guilty in a Washington court. He was released after five years into a witness protection scheme.
Conteras has never said directly that General Pinochet ordered Mr Letelier's murder. But two years ago Conteras finally claimed in a written appeal for leniency that every act he carried out as the head of Dina was in essence directly imparted to him by his Commander-in-Chief General Pinochet.
Leading Washington attorney Larry Barcella, who led the state's case against Townley, is among those now pressing for the case against the General to be actively pursued.
"Logic always dictated ..." Mr Barcella tells the programme, "that this order to assassinate Orlando Letelier came from General Pinochet."
Declassified CIA documents
In an interview earlier this year General Pinochet claimed he had no responsibility for crimes against humanity and torture. He also denied that Dina always acted on his orders. His lawyer declined requests for an interview.
The paper is one of thousands on US-Chile relations in the 1970s recently made public on President Clinton's orders. The papers confirm suspicions that the Nixon administration knew of the Pinochet regime's human rights abuses.
Together with other declassified documents they reveal the administration was warned of rumours that Chile and other Latin American regimes were joining forces to murder opponents abroad in a project codenamed Operation Condor.
Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive, an independent research organisation, told the programme: "We have never seen the CIA documents on this case ... I believe that when these documents are declassified, and they absolutely must be declassified, we will know the essence of General Pinochet's role in authoring this extraordinary act of international terrorism."
Serious threat to Pinochet's liberty
The Justice Department has declined to give any further details of the investigation, but it is believed its agents have travelled both to Chile and to Florida where a Cuban criminal involved in the murder is in jail.
One cynical interpretation is that the renewal of the case is a political attempt by the Clinton administration to embarrass George Bush Junior, the Republican presidential candidate whose father George Bush was the director of the CIA at the time of the Washington car-bombing. It has never been known how much - if anything - the future president knew about Dina's clandestine operations abroad.
Orlando Letelier's widow Isabel tells Murder on Embassy Row she has been hopeful the mystery of her husband's death will finally be resolved ever since General Pinochet was arrested in Britain.
"When I heard the news I said that finally there may be a little bit of justice. I was exhilarated ... I don't want revenge, simply for the whole truth to be told at last."
Murder on Embassy Row is being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 20:30 GMT on 9 December
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