Gen Pinochet 'fit to stand trial'

[Say_What]

Excellent news!!! Next up, Kissinger.

<clips>

Chile's ex-leader, Augusto Pinochet, is fit to stand trial on human rights charges, a prosecutor has said.

Hernan Quezada said court-appointed psychiatrists concluded Gen Pinochet "simulated" to exaggerate his mental health problems.

Gen Pinochet, who no longer has legal immunity, can now be indicted over the deaths of dissidents during his regime.

He has so far avoided trial on several charges including fraud and tax evasion because of ill health.

Transcripts have also emerged of General Pinochet's answers during a recent interrogation.

He is quoted as dedicating everything he did during military rule to God and saying that he did not believe there had been any excesses.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4444258.stm

[malaise]

1. Expect him to keel over

and die before the trial ever starts. This crap has been going on for years.

[Say_What]

2. Related: Condor legacy haunts South America

<clips>

Of all the unresolved issues from the dark days of military rule in Latin America, Operation Condor is among the most sinister.

As many as six South American regimes took part in the joint campaign to hunt down and kill their left-wing opponents.

Although the conspiracy now dates back nearly 30 years, the consequences continue to cast a shadow over the present-day governments of the region.

A Chilean court has now ruled that former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet is not mentally fit to be prosecuted over the operation.

But two other ex-leaders in the region are still being pursued by judges on related charges, as efforts continue to find out exactly who was responsible.

Operation Condor was founded in secret and remained a mystery until after democracy had returned to South America.

According to documents later discovered in Paraguay, it was established at a military intelligence meeting in Chile on 25 November 1975 - Gen Pinochet's 60th birthday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3720724.stm

[SHRED]

3. I hate to say it but...

I'd like to see him hung by his nads and slowly dipped in boiling oil.

[Stockholm]

4. I disagree torture is always wrong

It is enough if he is tried and convicted and spend the rest of his life in prison.

[SHRED]

5. I really agree with you...

but had a "visceral" moment there.
:)

[Say_What]

6. His entire family is being investigated for fraud, and wife and son Marcos

have already been indicted (photos). What goes around is coming around for Pinochet.
<clips>

...Prosecutors say Pinochet and his family stashed millions of dollars in more than 100 bank accounts outside Chile. At least some of the money came from kickbacks from European weapons manufacturers, prosecutors have said.

The Pinochet accounts have had repercussions for at least two banks so far.

Washington-based Riggs Bank pleaded guilty to a criminal violation of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money laundering law, and agreed to pay $16 million for failing to report suspicious activity in Pinochet's accounts. Riggs was subsequently acquired by another bank.

And the New York and Miami branches of Banco de Chile, Chile's No. 2 bank, were fined $3 million for inadequate anti-money laundering programs.

Pinochet's wife and youngest son have both been indicted as accomplices in the tax evasion case. They are accused of using false documents and passports to help move the money among the accounts.

Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart, was briefly detained, and his son Marco Antonio Pinochet was jailed for a few weeks in August until he was released on bail.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/10/19/Pinochet.reut/

[PDJane]

7. What's with the bulldog

expressions? Is he related to Cheney?

Lord and Lady, that's hard on the eyes......especially before coffee.

[Say_What]

11. Augusto Pinochet Hiriart--eldest son of Bush lover and Dictator Pinochet

a piece of work, huh? In 2005 he was reported to be involved in the purchase and sale of stolen vehicle. Kinda like TortureBoy, thinks nobody has the right to question him about stolen vehicles or fraud through the falsification of invoices.

Lucía Pinochet Hiriart, Augusto Pinochet's eldest daughter, said the use of torture during his 1973–90 regime was "barbaric and without justification", after seeing the Valech Report. Seems there was at least one kid out of five that could be truthful about the father.

Somehow I don't think Pinochet's *golden years* are turning out as he might have imagined.

The Bushies don't have a corner on the phrase: The Family that Preys Together

[Judi Lynn]

12. Wow! Every question I could have about the son and mom is answered

by those photos! Excellent.

Typical friends of U.S. Republicans.

[enigma000]

8. Is the trial in the Hague? n/t

[Bridget Burke]

9. Let the sick old man alone? Pablo Neruda did not have that chance.

Pablo Neruda's Nobel Prize winning poetry reflected his complex life. He was a diplomat, politician, communist & (sometime) political exile. A friend of Garcia Lorca, he fought for the Spanish Republic. His early works show a surreal side. And he wrote much wonderful love poetry.

In 1970, he ran for President of Chile. But he left the race & threw his support to his friend, Salvador Allende. Allende appointed him Ambassador to France, but he returned to Chile, ill with cancer. Pinochet overthrew Allende's government on September 11, 1973--with US assistance. Allende "committed suicide." Neruda died 12 days later in a Santiago clinic.

There are many English translations of Neruda's poems--particularly published by City Lights Books. His Memoirs (again, in translation) are a wonderful introduction to this fascinating man. If you can read even a bit of Spanish, check out this site:
www.uchile.cl/neruda/

Let Old Man Pinochet know with his last breath that his evil is remembered. But poetry is a better legacy.

[PDJane]

10. Pablo Neruda

is one of my favourite poets, and I have several of his volumes on my shelves.

Yes, Pinochet should be tried for war crimes. Yes, he is sick and old, but I don't see that exempts him from the things that he has done.

[Judi Lynn]

13. One can only imagine how sick and helpless all of those thousands

of people tortured, tortured to death, thrown out of airplanes and helicopters, or simply shot or stabbed to death felt during Pinochet's reign of terror. He also set attack dogs upon them. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

Good U.S. Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger ally in Chile. They gave him a whole lot of U.S. taxpayer dollars to destabilize and kill Salvador Allende. We own a piece of employee Pinochet.

[emad]

14. Pinochet says God will forgive rights abuses

Pinochet says God will forgive rights abuses

Jonathan Franklin
Thursday November 17, 2005
The Guardian


Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, has declared that God will pardon him for human rights abuses committed during his 17-year rule, according to newly released court documents.

Asked by Chilean judge Victor Montiglio about the killing of 3,000 Chilean civilians during the military government, Mr Pinochet, 89, said: "I suffer for these losses, but God does the deeds; he will pardon me if I exceeded in some, which I don't think."

Extracts of court documents, released to human rights lawyers on Monday, show Mr Pinochet to be coherent and precise in his answers. When questioned about his decision to take power in the coup of September 11, 1973, against then-president Salvador Allende, Mr Pinochet said: "Everything that I did, all that I carried out, all the problems I had, I dedicate to God, all this I dedicate to Chile because this permitted that the country was not communist and arose as it is today."

It is being interpreted by Pinochet critics as proof of his mental acuity. Manuel Cabieses, editor of Punto Final, a Santiago weekly newspaper, said: "This shows what we all know, he is an old fox and that he can find the exact words to justify what he did."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,13755,1644405,00.html

[emad]

15. In your dreams, Generalissimo....

In your dreams...

[Turbineguy]

16. Well....... he just might

but you'll have to spend a long time in hell first!

[daleo]

17. A good Christian, who would fit in nicely with the Christian Right

I bet he could teach Dobson a thing or two about how to treat rebellious dogs and children, too.

[emad]

18. Maybe he and Pat Robertson should debate this on prime-time

coast-to-coast.....

[UpInArms]

19. Kissinger should be on trial with Pinochet

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/KissingerDeclassified.html

I recently got hold of a declassified memorandum about Henry Kissinger's only meeting with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The meeting occurred on June 8, 1976, in Santiago, and the internal State Department memorandum shows how hard Kissinger tried to shield the Chilean general from criticism and assure him that his human rights violations were not a serious problem as far as the U.S . government was concerned.

I had been trying since 1995 to get the memorandum, which was stamped SECRET/ NODIS (No Distribution). My initial request was refused, but suddenly, to my surprise, the State Department "memorandum of conversation" arrived in the mail in October, shortly after Pinochet's arrest, with a note explaining that, on re-review, it had been opened in full.

The memo describes how Secretary of State Kissinger stroked and bolstered Pinochet, how-with hundreds of political prisoners still being jailed and tortured- Kissinger told Pinochet that the Ford Administration would not hold those human rights violations against him. At a time when Pinochet was the target of international censure for state-sponsored torture, disappearances, and murders, Kissinger assured him that he was a victim of communist propaganda and urged him not to pay too much attention to American critics.

The meeting occurred at a gathering of the Organization of American States (OAS). Against the advice of most of the State Department's Latin America staff; Kissinger decided to go to Chile for the opening of the OAS general assembly. He and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs William Rogers flew into Santiago June 7 and met with Pinochet the next day. The site of the meeting was the presidential suite in Diego Portales, an office building used during repairs on La Moneda, the presidential palace Pinochet had bombed on September 11, 1973, when he overthrew Salvador Allende. Chilean Foreign Minister Patricio Carvajal and Ambassador to the United States Manuel Trucco were also there. (I've interviewed Rogers, Carvajal, and Trucco, but not Kissinger, who has refused requests.)

Kissinger was dogged by charges he had promoted the military coup against an elected Allende government, and he sought to maintain a cool public distance from Pinochet. But at his confidential meeting, he promised warm support.

...more...

[emad]

21. Their former Riggs Bank offshore accounts tell quite a story.

And those same accounts got Pino busted, and showed that he'd been paid by the Saudis for years and years via the UK's No1 armsdealing company BAe systems.

[mitchum]

27. He certainly should

[DBoon]

20. That must be the same god that told Bush to invade Iraq

nt

[pennylane100]

22. I think he should worry more about his jailers forgiving him

if he ever ends up in prison where he belongs. He better pray to the god he thinks is so forgiving that none of them lost relatives during his reign of terror.

[JHB]

23. He would if Pinochet were actually sorry for them...

...but he's not, so when the day comes ol' Augusto will be joining the Cloven-hoof Club.

[Judi Lynn]

24. His reverence for gawd is late in coming, after a lifetime of being gawd

himself.

Pinochet liked to say that no blade of grass moved in Chile without his order.

(Henry Kissinger) U.S. Secretary of State at the time of the coup, he was widely quoted as saying: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people."

http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020701-265371,00.html

With Nixon and Kissinger's help, Pinochet was able to defeat the will of the Chilean elections, as has happened throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Republicans love to boast that socialism has simply collapsed of its own weight, because it's such a poor idea. Uh huh.

[soda]

25. dictator

Now he´s dictating to GOD too?

[mitchum]

26. But he's not fit to live