THE BUSH CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404380005-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: April 1, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404380005-9
SWANK
April 1981
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lemma. Bush hda een or er y
Ford to cooperate with the Justice De-
partment's investigation into the mur-
der of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean'
Foreign Minister under Salvador Al.
lende. Letelier, a leftist, had been head
of the Chilean exile movement in the
United States and had been disliked by
the American-backed Chilean military
junta. There was the rub for Bush. He
had been ordered to investigate the
murder, but he had intelligence "as-
sets" to protect. And in his estimation,.
the "assets' were more important than
the investigation.
Seven ,weeks earlier a radio-con-
trolled bomb was placed under the eye.
beam of Letelier's car. It exploded on
Washington's embassy row, killing Le-
teller and a female passenger, Ronni
Karpen Moffitt. The assassination came
as a shock to a nation that thought such
things could happen only in Beirut or
Belfast ... and the nation demanded
an explanation.
Eighteen months after Letelier's
death the case was pronounced
"solved." Michael Vernon Townley, an
American expatriate who worked as a
professional assassin for Chilean intel-
ligence and whose testimony convicted
three Cuban exiles from New Jersey,
was arrested. Two Chilean intelligence
officials were charged with aiding in
the murder but were not extradited:-
Two other exile terrorists were indicted,
but never arrested. And the U.S. ac-
cepted at face value the statement of
Chilean President Augusto Pinochet,
who said that his intelligence agency
acted alone, without presidential ap-
proval, in the Letelier murder.
An investigation of Bush's activities
after Letelier's death turned up many
peculiarities and much deception. In-
vestigation showed that:
? Three months before his death the
FBI knew that Letelier had been tar-
geted for assassination .. , but did
nothing to stop it.
? Though it took almost two years be.
fore indictments were returned
against the conspirators, the FBI had
the names of most of them no more
than 72 hours after Letelier was mur-
-t~derec~..
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404380005-9