CAMILION ATTACKS TIMERMAN - 1981/06/29

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06626789
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: June 29, 1981

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MALIET GAMMON ATTACKS TIMERMAN
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CONFIDENTIAL Buenos Aires
Lifil 1
(U)
1./INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. Foreign Minister Oscar
Camilion publicly charged that an anti-Argentine campaign
is being conducted in the United States with Jacobo
Timerman as its agent. Camilion, who sought the press out
to make his charges June 26, reportedly stated that
"the campaign against Argentina is built around
Mk. Timerman, who is its agent and at the same time the
center of an operation that has overshot its original
objectives, the Argentine Government, and now attacks the
Argentine nation." END INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.
2. (U) Camilion expressed particular concern about a U.S.
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CONTENTS AND CLASSIFICATION APPROVED BY
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CLASSIFICATION
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OPTIONAL FORM 153
(Formerly PS 413)
January 1975
Dino of Skit�
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r-Tri broadcast of June 25 which "overstepped the bounds-1
of the reasonable and the tolerable...mention of
concentration camps is worthy of comparison to the
techniques of Goebbels." Camilion, who reportedly was
visibly angry, went on to say thaAhe reiteration of
such charges can have a serious impact on US public
opinion, although the US Government has all the
elements for knowing the truth:*lat is being done
in the United States is an attack on the Argentine
nation...the grotesque and slippery technique being
used is totalitarian...and was the venom that was
injected into the peoples of the West and
(holocaust)
produced a hecatombin
3. (U) Camilion reportedly also stated that "We accept
the rules of the game of America's democracy but
nobody can stop us from expressing our concern and
protest in the exercise of the most legitimate right
of self-defense."
4. (U) The press reports that Foreign Ministry sources
stated that the Foreign Minister had called in the
US Charge to discuss these same concerns earlier that
day.
5. (U) Only one paper, thus far, has probed the
issues raised by Timerman and his allies in any depth.
Prensa" accompanied its report of Camilion's
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OPTIONAL FORM 163A
(Formerly FS-413A)
January 1975
Dept of State
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[�remarks with, among other things, comments from
different members of the local Jewish community.
DAIA,
Mario Gorenstein, the President of/NXI� for example,
stated that, "the opinions of Timerman have not been
well received by the Jewish community, in general,
We are convinced that the origin of his detention was
not in the fact he is a Jew. Some incidents during
his detention had the flavor of anti-semitism, but
this is all." On the other hand, American Rabbi
Marshall Meyer, a long-time resident of Buenos Aires
to whom Timerman dedicates his book, told the paper,
"Why don't we focus on real issues. Who is befouling
Argentina's image? Those who tortured Timerman or
Timerman?"
6. (C) COMMENT. It was-Jimmismiip inevitable that
the US debate on the Argentine human rights situation
and on the condition of the Argentine Jewish community
would become ensnared with Argentine nationalism,
Camilion has made this connection explicit, but he
did not invent it. More likely, the Foreign Minister
made his private demarche and his public comments
with his eye carefully fixed on the Argentine military.
He may hope to slow down the reaction to Timerman's
and/ more pragmatically
charges in those quartiii-Tor,/kmmtAgammilqx to show
Llgmilitary that he and his Ministry are on J
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OPTIONAL FORM 153A
(Formerly FS413A)
January 1975
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Ethe right side mf in this issue.
7. (C) The comments of Gorenstein reflect generalized
attitudes in the leadership of the Argentine Jewish
community. Though that leadership is sometimes
accused by foreigners of being intimidated, we note
that the June 28 issue of "La Prensa" carries a DAIA
message of support for the paper in its current
embroglio with the government, as well as for its
assaulted columnist, Manfred Shoenfeld.
RUSER
CONFIDENTIAL
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OPTIONAL FORM 153A
(Formerly FS413A)
January 1975
Dept of State
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Timerman Shows That
'Authoritarian Generals'
Are Keepers, Captives
Of a 'Totalitarian Beast'
By Robert Cox
CAMBRIDGE. Mass � Jacobo
Tlmerman, expelled from Argentina
and stripped of his citizenship and
most of his property by the military
gime, is demmstrating that writing
well Is the best revenge.
In a searing document, his book
"Prisoner Without a Name. Cell With-
out a Number." he has revealed the se-
cret world of terror in Argentina. The
book is so powerful that he has
achieved something I thought impossi-
ble: He has made the people of the
United States care about Argentina.
Etching in blood, sweat, and tears
the torture be underwent in mind,
body, and soul, through a year's im-
prisonment and subsequent house ar-
rest bra total period in captivity of 30
months, he has grabbed public opinion
by the scruff of its neck and taken ft to
where the totalitarian beast lives.
Mr. Tfteerman has torn off the
flimsy veil of respectability with
which the upholders of the new ortho-
doxy in United States foreign policy
hoped to dress up the Argentine re�
gime. The moiling authoritarian
=tahave been revealed in his
d in a series of dramatic news.
media encounters, as the keepers and
the captives of the totalitarian beast
that lusts in the darkness of the se-
coney forces where Nazism lived on
after World War IL
It is anew kind of totalitarianism. It
does not smut. It BUM& There are no
swastikas on armbands for public'
view. No mass rallies or ranting
speeches. The dreaded symbols � the
portraits of Hider � are kept for the
torture chambers and cell blocks,
where only the prisoners, victims of
the new fascism, can see them.
Mr. 11merman has revealed the as-
true of the regime. Can a regime that
has sent at least 0.000, probably 10,000,
and maybe more people through m-
ain death camps be described as au-
thoritarian? When the torturer turns
up the voltage because be has a Jew on
the tedsprings, or a guard gives an-
other Jew a methodical kick every
time he passes his bound form, are
these acts merely characteristics of
"a moderately repressive regime?"
Clearly, Mr. Timerman must be dis-
credited. Otherwise, the pretty little
theory that, for foreign policy pur-
poses, the world can be divided up into
clear categories, goes by the board.
The new orthdoxy under which tyrail.
ales that appear to be anti-Communist
can be euphemistically described as
authoritarian is dangerous for the
United States and the world because it
demands witting or unwitting gelid&
caption.
To consider the Argentine Govern-
ment authoritarian denies reality. If
labels must be applied, Argentina
could best be described as feudalistic
and anarchic; it b divided by the rival-
ries of the separate fiefdoms rem-
seined by the armed forces, with their
various free-wheeling intelligence
services and the beleaguered, power-
less Presidency. The tragedy stems
from the fact that central authority,
and the responsibility that goes with it,
has never been established by the
moderates in the military who have
held nominal power since the March
NM coup.
Self-delusion in Argentina is under-
standable. In a country cowed by justi-
fied fear, it is safer to hope for the best
and to -pray that the moderates will
eventually win out and establish the
moderately repressive regime that the
new United States foreign policy ortho.
dozy would like to penuade us already
exists.
It is immeshed reality, not mislead-
bw Jargon, that United States foreign
policy must address�this is the mos-
sage that public opinion has extracted
from Mr. Timerman's testimony. The
reservations expressed about Mr.
Timerman by defenders of the doe.
trim that would make the distinction
between totalitarian and authoritarian
regimes crucial to the Administra-
tion's human rights policy are irrele-
vant to the central issue of Mr. Timer'
man's revealed truth. But if some lob-
byist seems to be working up a cam-
paign of character assassination by
feeding understandable doubts. I
would like to try to clear up some of
these peripheral questions.
Like most people with more than a
passing aquaintance with Argentina, I
too was astonished that in his book
Jacobo Thurman made no mention of
David Gratver, who was his friend and
financial backer at La Opinifin, the
daily newpaper that Mr. Timerman
published. Mr. Greyer, who is re-
ported to have died in a plane crash in
Mexico in 1976, has been accused of act-
ing as a financial agent for the left-wing
terrorists called the Montoneros, and
most of his close relatives are still in
Jail in Argentina. The military _has
never revealed what has been proved
against Mr. Gravier and the charge
against him remains in the realms of
�
THE NEW YORK TIMES
June 9, 1981
supposition, no more reliable nor dam-
aging than the rumor that the current
President, Mut. Gen. Roberto Viola,
was given a gold watch by Mr. Grever.
If the military would make public the
results of its investigations into Mr.
Gravier's activities, the sewer of dan-
der and libel that has sullied many
prominent Argentines would be cleared
up and the country "'fluid be healthier.
The truth is that the allegation that Mr.
Graiver handled the terrorists' blood
money led the Nazi-minded hardliners
in the military to the conviction that
there was a Jewish-Marzist-liberal (in
the Argentine sense, a liberal is a did-
Heed conservative) conspiracy linldng
all their enemies. Mr. Timerman was
kidnapped when this collective psycho-
sis was at its height, and scones of com-
pletely ftmocent and some very emi-
nent people disappeared for a short
time. Mr. ilmerman, although all
charges against him were dropped, re.
manned in prison, where he was prob-
ably unaware of the intensity of the
I smear campaign latmched against him
because of Ids perfectly legidmate rela-
tionship with Mr. Graiver.
Another charge against Mr. Timer.
' man is that he exaggerates. His antics
call his torturers thugs, as though they
' were unrepresentative. Yet, he says be
saw Gen. Cairo Suarez Mason, then
the commander of the most powerful
military garrison, watching a torture
sessioL I can vouch for the lunatic for.
vor with which Mr. Timerman's tor-
' mentors pursued their anti-Semitic
quest for proof of the Jewish-consphu
acy theory because I was close to his
fondly throughout his ordeal and what
they told me then coincides completely
with the account in the book.
Mr. Timerman's political views,
which have always been "parlor pink,"
seem to be as annoying to the right as
Aleksandr I. Solzenhitsyn's majestic
moralizing is to the left. But Mr. Mer-
man emerges as a committed demo.
ant and as a profound humani.st. He is
a man who has always, as far as I
know, had an equal loathing for all
, forms of totalitarianism. I have never
heard him call any left-wing totalitar-
'fan regime authoritarian, for example.
The totalitarian nature of the mili-
tary regime will prevent his bpok and
his message, which is that the respect
for human rights transcends ideology,
from reaching the Argentine people.
The worst term of censorship � self.
suppression � has been imposed by
state terrorism for fhe years. So the
Argentine people will remain ignorant
of the fact that the true rulers are the
men who nm the clandestine jails and
operate torture machines. Even the de-
cent but weak military leaders at the
top seem to live in fear of the creatures
' of the Argentine netherworld.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1981
A few days ago. I received a letter
roses couple whose son was kidnapped
by security forces in August MM. About
a dozen young people disappeared then,
but this was a case with a difference.
The rams people were allowed to tele.
phone from their secret jails from time
to time and to write letters to their
families. Two young mothers among
the kidnapped were allowed one day to
visit their children. These communica-
tions continued tmtil March 1980, and
then stopped abruptly. Before I left Ar-
gentina. at the end of 1919,! tried tome
quiet diplomacy on behalf of the miss-
ing young people. I spoke to the interior
minister, the army's secretary general.
even the President, Lieut. Gen. Jorge
Rafael Videla. I left lists of their
names and the circumstances of their
abductions with top Government of&
dais. I published nothing because the
families believed that the Government
and military leaders would transfer
their children from the secret death
camps to the law courts, military or
civil, if they were allowed 41 do so
without publicity. One couple con-
cluded that their son has been mur-
dered. Now they have asked me to
publicize the case. I will not name
them became! fear that they might be
driven from Argentina or murdered by
the real totalitarian rulers.
Can Washington afford to support a
mime that�three years after the de.
teat of left-wing terrorism, in a coun-
try that has not suffered a major left-
wing terrorist attack since late Ma�
bee the built-in instability of secret
killers loose in its security err"".-
If an authoritarian Government is es-
tablished, the pros and cons of the "IC'
Doctrine" (tor Jenne J. Kirkpatrick. its
- originator) can be debated. Mr. lima%
man's ideology of concern for human
rights and opposition to both leftist and
� rightist totalitarianism is, after all,
based on a compelling experience of
evil whose very horror Iles in the fact
that no authority in Argentina will even
aclmowledge its existence.
Robert Car, on leave of absence as edi.
tor in chief of The Buenos Aires Her.
aid, has just completed a Nieman fel-
lowship at Harvard University.
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