THE LETELIER CASE: MURDER AND DIPLOMACY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050048-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 27, 2007
• Sequence Number: 48
• Publication Date: May 21, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/11/27: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050048-7
THE WASHINGTON POST
ARTICLE APPEARED 21 May 1978
ON PAGE A-4
e-LeAelk r"'.
er
any.
f By Timothy 9. Robinson . , s
wsat=tai pest salt wrstu!
`One of the?first police officers to ar',
rive at : the ; scene, of the.- explosion
watched the ?- debris Still - floating
through the-damp' ,air to the ground
like ash from a campfire. He looked at
his watch and ' noted the, time 9:38
a.m. on Sept 21,,1976.
Stately Sheridan Circle on Embassym.
Row was soon filled with investigator*
from the D.C. 'police; the FBI, the Ex-
ecutive _ Protective Service;::.;- whi
guards diplomats and embassies here,
and the U.S. Treasury's Alcohol, To-
bacco and Firearms unit, which inves-1
tigates crimes involving explosives. As }
smoke continued ?to: rise from the i
mangled Cheveile on the roadway of
the circle, the Investigators scur'ried'
to collect every ' possible bit of: evi-
dence from the debris around it
They shooki itiny particles-;down,
'from tree leaves; drained a rain pud-
dle and strained Its contents, vacu-l
umed debris from. the 'grass, and un-i
ceremoniously put ladders up against!
embassy walls to search rooftops. By
the end of the gray, rainy day, tbou-11
sands of tiny plastic bags had been
filled with fragments that Were taken
to -an FBI laboratory for analysis.
Painstaking work In the laboratoryi
produced the first clues to the nature
of the crime. The bomb had been
strapped with precision above the I-,
beam of the Chevelle's -'frame so the l
driver would-be hit with the full force
of the blast The high power of the ex-
pertly- constructed explosive was
clearly intended to kill: And the' fact
that it had- apparently been detonated
by remote, control was further ' evi-
dence of the' sophistication of the
crime.
. ' The next clue was the Identity of
the target of the crime: Orlando Lete?
Iier, a former -'ambassador to the
United States from the Chilean gov-
ernment of Marxist president Salva-
dor Allende and, an outspoken oppo-
nent in exile of the current Chilean
president, Gen. Augusta Pinochet,
who overthrew Allende in 1973. '
'Letelier had been working here at
the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal "think tank that gave him a plat-
-form for speeches and writings cri
ical of Pinochet's government and the.
Chilean secret police, then known as
C
Approved For
Two colleagues of Letelier's were in
his, Chevell&_when.it_was blown..ap
on. Sheridan. Circle.. One of, .the
Ronni Moffett, who was riding along
side Letelier- in'.the front .seat,- di
quickly of- a severed- artery:: Her: hus?
band;.M1chsel, - who was In the-back
seat, was thrown clear of the car. and
slmvtved. y
Leteller's colleagues it IP3, which
itself had been infiltrated and spied i~- uced arrests of a number of 'suspects
ing the anti Vietnam war. years,.
diately decided that -DINA had. i-M
dered Letelier to shut him up.. And,-
because of'disclosures of CIA involved
went against: Allende in Chile, they]
doubted the U.S. government's deter.
urination to find and bring Letelier's'
killers to justice if it meant embar?I
rassing, the' Pinochet. government.i
Their suspicions and anger grew
when they discovered that investiga-
tors, checking out every possible mo-
tive, were asking whether anything in
Letelier's and . the Moffitts' private
lives might be connected to the kill-
Assistant U.S.* Attorney Eugene?M.
Propper of the ? major crimes -division
was sitting in the cafeteria in the fed-
appointment could not show ':UV be-
sors came by and asked him to work
on the Letelier case.:
this one seemed. particularly likely to
But Propper, a nonestablfshment pros-?
ing of -leaving the US._ Attorney's of?
take the case anyway.
A few. blocks away In the' Washing-
his recent transfer from Puerto Rico.
When the Letelier bombing occurred,
Cornick was selected by FBI agent-in-
charge-Nick F. Starnes for the job be-
cause of Cornick's availability,.: his
.knowledge of Spanish, and his investi?'
gations of other bombings in Puerto.
Cornick ie an outgoingT mail de=
scended from, several generations of
Virginians who. is frequently given to
humor-traits not often ,expected' in'
the dry sterotype of FBF agents, ' ?"
Propper ? and Cornick, who had
never' met before;-- would, spend ' the
next . 18 months . on' the .unusually
painstaking. and'. often frustrating in-
and word'- that federal:.- prosecutors
here knew .the details of the 'crime'
and had traced -its' origins, to DINAi
and the Chilean government.:-r-) .. _?,..
Unknown to'.:the; 'victims' friends
and colleagues at the-Institute for
Policy Studies,. the FBI, investigation
already. had turned toward Chile.
Agents in the nation's -Cuban- exile.
communities, aware- of , A. growing af,
finity between some very militant
anti-Castro Cubans ' and the rightist
Pinochet government in Chile, began
checking Cuban informants.
The FBI and the Justice Depart-
r i nt-soon realized that this part of
the investigation necessarily would in
volve '-intelligence information here
,,and abroad, so they began laying-deli
`state groundwork. j?roppgr,,ssistant
Attorney General Ss ev pot inner.
and CIA Director George Bush met to
determine to wextent- that agency
could top in the lnyesti?gaatio
carefully worded agreement- placing
the Letelier case in a "national sec
rity" status allowed that cooperation..'-
.The investigation quickly. focused
on 'the, Cuban exile connection after,
`Venezuelan authorities infortned ? the
United States that- Cuban exile. leader
Orlando Bosch-who was being held
in that country for the-bombing of a
Cuban -coamnerical .airliner^-1u-which
73 persons died--had implicated "the
Novo brothers" in the- Letelier case,.
By the end of October 1977; thee. Novos
and other Cuban.'exiles were being
brought before a federal grand jury
here for questioning.- : ' _
The Novo brothers-lgroado Novo
Sampol and Guillermo Novo Sampol
.munity and to federal agents as lead.
ers of the Cuban Nationalist Move-
ment, a group that wants. to regain its
homeland without-_:help "'from 'the
United States:
In 1964, they -had fired a-bazooka.
from across the East River toward the'
,United: Nations while-Cbs. Gueva .
Comm