LETTERS SAY CHILE AIDED LETELIER MURDER FIGURE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 23, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730003-8
THE WASHINGTON POST
23 February 1982
Say Chile'Aid, ed Lke
By Patrick-E- Tyler'
Washington Post 5tsff Writer'
The Chilean government paid
legal fees and family support during
1978 and 1979 for Michael V. Town-
ley, the man who was convicted of
plotting and helping to carry out the
car bombing assassination in--'' Wash
ington of exiled former Chilean.dip
lomat Orlando' Letelier; according to
private letters Townley wrote from
prison to officials in Chile.
Copies of 52 letters,' covering the
period from June 1978, two-months-.
after Townley was turned over to the
United' States by- the. Chilean-gov-
ernment, to October, 1979, were ob-
tained by The Washington Post and
authenticated by federal officials.
The letters - portray the still-
imprisoned Townley as frustrated
and despondent over efforts by the
Chilean government publicly -to
disassociate itself from him, and by
the slow payment of his bills: At thee)
'same time, the letters contain assur-
ances that Townley would conceal
additional information 'concerning
Chilean... intelligence .- activities-
including contacts with rightist; Eu-
ropean terrorists--from U.S;'. pros= ,
ecutors..:
During the Leteiier assassination
trials, federal ' prosecutors presented
extensive evidence that Townley, an
American citizen, was- a senior *agent I
in Chile's intelligence service, then
'known as DINA, and had carried out
the September 1976 assassination of
Letelier and an associate, Ronni K.
Moffitt, under direct DINA orders.
The Chilean government, which re-
fused to extradite three senior DINA.
officials who were indicted. in . the
case based on Townley's testimony,
at the time characterized Townley as-
low-level functionary inthe secret
police who never was authorized to
assassinate anyone.
Since then, Chile consistently has
'denied any, connection with Town-
ley, including payment of his legal
and personal expenses. In September
of 1978, for - example, Gen. Cesar
Ib1endoza Duran, a member of the
:Chilean junta," denounced Townley
as "an agent of the CIA, the KGB
and at the same time an agent of
Cuba." Asked yesterday about the
information contained in the Town-
ley letters, Juan Prado, a-spokesman
at the Chilean Embassy, said: "This,
is another lie: Every statement Mr.
Townley makes about Chile is false."
The letters originally - were ob-
tained from- an unidentified source
.by, Taylor Branch and Eugene M. .
,Dropper, a former assistant U.S. at-
.torney who headed. the prosecution
team. against Townley and- . two
Cuban. exiles,. who later were- ac
-quitted. Branch and Propper have
written a book about the Letelier
assassination due to be published in
.April. Last-September,- the authors
turned over copies of the letters to
the FBI, which has reviewed their
contents . and discussed them with
Townley,,who remains at an undis-
'closed prison serving the remainder
of his plea-bargained sentence for
,.conspiring to murder Letelier-
"The one thing you get from the
letters is that he [Townley] was any
thing, but low-level; " said Lawrence
Barcella, the assistant U.S. attorney
:now in charge of the Letelier inves-
tigation'.: "His knowledge of events
and other intelligence operations be-
' lies his being a low-level function-
ary,?
Based in part on leads taken from .
the letters, Branch and Propper as-
-sert in their book, titled "Labyrinth"
that DINA and Townley were in
volved with other terrorist, activities.
outside Chile' including an assassi-
nation attempt by Italian terrorists
i against : formez Chilean; vice presi
dent Bernardo Leighton,. who. along
;;with his wife, was critically, wounded
[inRome:on,Oct.,:6,.1975... =i.:., ;
Asked about these and related in-
formation contained , in the book,
Barcella said, "Townley has acknowl-
edged enough of those things that I
.believe them to be true."-
To date,' the only publicly released
information taken from the letters.
emerged last December, when fed=
eral officials confirmed a DINA plot'
in which Townley in 1976 smuggled
a small quantity of deadly nerve gas
into the United States for possible
use on Letelier. The vial of nerve
gas, disguised. as a bottle of Chanel.
No. 5. perfume, was shipped. back to,-
Chile before the ,Sept:' 21`.attack on'
Letelier.
This week, the FBI is expected to
turn over copies of the letters, or at
least a summary of their contents, to
members of Congress who have re-
quested them as part of an investi-
gation into Chile's human ' rights. I
record. The Reagan administration
last year persuaded: Congress to lift a
.ban on U.S. arms sales to Chile, pro-.
posed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
`(D-Mass.) and adopted by Congress
in 1976., But licensing for all such
arms exports was conditioned on ad='
ministration certification to Congress
that the _ government.- of Chilean
President Gen. Augusto Pinochet
has improved its ' human rights'
record and has made progress in its -
own investigation ofwthe Letelier- kil
ling..
So, far,. the administration has
made no such certification. But the
-matter has taken dn. increased ur
gency this month to several U.S.,
arms and aircraft-?.:manufacturers,
that are seeking government. licenses
to export their. wares for display in
`Chile during an international air,
show there next month.
David Kemp, the Chilean desk of-,
ficer at the -State -Department, said'
J hat some' firms.'havel-made. "over-
tures" to department officials.,"Some
companies' have" made it clear they .
'.would like- to- participate'. but -they
are-being- told :thatnoapplications
can be- approvect'until'.the certiftca-
- tion is sent'fo `ward-to.. the Hill," he
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730003-8