Breaking CNN: Pinochet dead

no link yet... please feel free to add link whenever it first comes up...

Just announced by Wolf Blitzer 12:45pm EST Sunday 12/10/06

EDIT: link: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-12-10T175421Z_01_N10462307_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHILE-PINOCHET.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C1-TopStories-newsOne-2

will find a link

Lay. Bastards.

Why do men like this NEVER pay for their crimes. I don't think we are going to see Bush and his gang of thugs pay either. They'll just fade off into the sunset, or Paraguay or something.

People DON'T live forever. He was in poor health for a long, long time.

I don't get the Ken Lay conspiracy... People DO die of heart attacks. It happens everyday!

He should have died in prison.

fact that so many evil men seem to escape justice, even if it is through death - natural or not.

time of torturous vomiting, excruciating body pain and uncontrollable migraines? Cuz he deserved that.

He was 91 and in poor health, and even dictators aren't immortal.

he is dead...waiting for story.

:hi:

Chile's Pinochet dead - television
Sun Dec 10, 2006 12:48pm ET

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973-1990 and spent his old age fighting human rights, fraud and corruption charges, died on Sunday a week after suffering a heart attack, Chilean television reported. He was 91.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-12-10T174826Z_01_N10462307_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHILE-PINOCHET.xml

:hi:

a few more of their 'friends' won't be far behind them. Anyone see Henry lately?

flesh. Their only immortality being the lessons they leave for others. Those lesson can be a warning to the wise, or inspiration for the foolish.

:spray:

Interestingly a DUer said the other day in a thread about Kirkpatrick's death that Pinochet will join her soon...although considering his poor health that's a pretty easy prediction to make.

Another asshole bites the dust.

Protected right to the end by his gringo co-conspirators. Kissinger belongs in jail for this alone.

Maybe we can send Kissinger down to Chile to take his place.

Keep a spot in hell warm for your old pal Henry.

I notice CNN isn't sugar-coating the fact that Kissinger was behind the coup

They've been so right-wing for so long, it didn't seem likely they'd ever admit a simple truth like that one.

a "great patriot" :crazy:

Fuck them all.

Pinochet shows signs of recovery

Sunday, December 10, 2006 (Santiago):

The family of General Augusto Pinochet said on Saturday that the former dictator showed signs of further recovery but was still in intensive care.

Pinochet's daughter, Lucia, said after visiting her father at Santiago's Military Hospital, that she expected him to remain in hospital for five to seven more days.

The former Chilean leader has been in hospital since he suffered a heart attack on December 3.

Pinochet's son, Antonio, said he was confident his father would be home for Christmas.

"He is recovering, he is feeling a little bit better, he is tired. His recovery is going to take some time. I think the doctors will determine when he can return home but clearly he will continue to be monitored", he added.
(snip/...)

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Pinochet+shows+signs+of+recovery&id=97679

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yep, he has probably joined Ken Lay at the _Bush family's huge property in Paraguay, home also to Rev. Sung Myung Moon, and previous home to murderous right-wing U.S.-favored dictator Stroessner, AND his lovely foreign friend, Dr. Mengele.

on the TV crying now :cry:

It is a Sept. 16, 1973, chat between Kissinger and Nixon, discussing
the anti-Allende coup that occurred five days earlier.

The actual telephone transcript reads:

Nixon: "Well, we didn't -- as you know -- our hand doesn't show on this one though."

Kissinger: "We didn't do it. I mean we helped them. ________ created the
conditions as great as possible."

But we all know how likely that is don't we?

He could outrun the law of men but not the law of karma.

that he didn't spend any time in prison for his crimes against humanity.

...it's that the bastard lived long enough to see "his" country once again led by a Socialist government.

All that blood for nothing, eh, Generalissimo?

:spank:

Another evil leader from the dirty war still trolling the Earth is probably the most brutal of all. Former Argentinian dictator Jorge Videla. Anyone know who HE is doing or the other surviving Argentinian junta leader, Reynaldo Bignone.

n/t

I'm going to have a drink in celebration now.

Good riddance, asshole.

Shame he didn't rot and die in a cramped prison cell like many of his adversaries, that is.

Pinochet was a relic of a shameful past of American governments conspiring with thugs like him to overthrow elected leaders. Must've been tough for him lately to see all the leftists once again coming to power in, again, democratic elections. No Operation Condors to insert his kind into office again.

...So should we start a Kissinger Dead Pool here at DU to guess when these three will finally get a fourth to play bridge with?

She did pick her pals!

Another dead Thug!

Give a common thug power and this is what they turn into.

Good Riddance to the Arrogant Shit!!

Don't cry for me Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance....




EDIT: BBC coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6167237.stm

Good riddance to the motherfucker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_X_gzhWfw

THEY DANCE ALONE



Why are there women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
Their faces fixed like stone?
I can't see what it is that they dispise
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone



It's the only form of protest they're allowed
I've seen their silent faces scream so loud
If they were to speak these words they'd go missing too
Another woman on a torture table what else can they do
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone



One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance



Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos
Ellas danzan con los muertos
Ellas danzan con amores invisibles
Ellas danzan con silenciosa angustia
Danzan con sus pardres
Danzan con sus hijos
Danzan con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas



Hey Mr. Pinochet
You've sown a bitter crop
It's foreign money that supports you
One day the money's going to stop
No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns



Can you think of your own mother
Dancin' with her invisible son
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
They're anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone

STING

Bet some right-wing collaborators are very relieved at this news.

seems there is a villain's retirement community in the works there.

dp

Here's hoping people line up to piss on his grave.

Why was he allowed to live as long as he did?

2000 Police and Older women gathering at the hospital to plead that the flag be brought down to half mast. Bachelet so far silent (11:45am PDT)

La Tercera: Early poll says 55% of the people don't want state honors/burial for him...

The crowd of 3000 in the Plaza Italia are dancing Cueca and drinking Champagne.

Happy Birthday, Lucia!!

Now she and their kids will be tried and convicted for the embezzlement, fraud, and other charges that have been brought against them. They give new meaning to the phrase "The family that preys together."

Happy brithday you worthless, poor excuse for a human beeeee...ing...Happy Birthday to you!!!
May you got to jail and rot in helllllll!

All those souls lost in that soccer stadium, Victor among them, thanks to that piece of filth.

tortured and shot in the stadium and then the US covered it up.

Like Milosevic, I would have liked to have seen Pinochet held responsible for his crimes rather than dying in prison un-convicted of anything, and waiting for an endlessly delayed trial...

:nopity:

when backed up by a regime that throws its opponents out of helicopters.

:sarcasm:

So long you murderous bastard...

Get another "all access" laminate ready.

:grr:

I hope it was a very painful death.

But sometimes you have to make exceptions. Rot in hell, Gus.

He would be forced to listen to the Music and Poems of Victor Jara for eternity. And also for justice that the Name of Victor Jara and the others who died in the reign of Pinochet live longer than the bastard!
Here is a wikipedia article on Victor Jara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Jara

I'm sure scrub, elmer fudd and maggie are devastated.
As for me...I'm up for a little dancing...
a...one...and...a...two

I only regret he never faced justice while still alive.

I applaud those Chileans that are demonstrating in opposition to having the flags fly at half-staff for this monster.

It's a shame I don't believe in Hell.

Or someplace even worse.

Otherwise the publicly known location of his final resting place will attract mountains of feces for generations.

good riddance...
:puke:

It's too bad there isn't a hell.

No wait, there is -- it's called Chile from 1973 to 1990! Some few of us neither receive nor deserve redemption or forgiveness. This man was one of these.

Goodbye, evil fuck.

Left-leaning graduate students and academics who never owned a gun or threatened violence against his brutal state. They were taken away under cover of darkness, and never had a chance to defend themselves. Pinochet openly derided human rights as "an invention of the Communists", yet self-proclaimed defenders of freedom like Reagan and Thatcher praised him.


In memory of the disappeared.

http://www.memoriaviva.com/english.htm

Cheney and Chimpy will likely live to be 100.

But that's okay, I'll still get to tap dance on their graves in my life time.

a bunch of Pinochet's death squad got hired by our beloved right wing mercenaries and have been sent over to Iraq.

I know you are in the seats reserved for the maldito hijos de putas.

...but can't avoid the eternal variety.

Hot enough for you, Augusto? :grr:

And I'm sure it was breaking news over 12 hours ago personally but, the thought counts, thank you.

...so I can piss on his grave.

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061211/ts_afp/chilepinochet_061211082136

Nevertheless: good riddance asshole.

author of a book about Pinochet and those events. I hope the author manages to survive.

(Todays email from MR. Palast one of the best in the business IMO)


by Greg Palast
Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse. (Signed copies available for the holidays at www.palastinvestigativefund.org

Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006
Chile’s former military dictator General Augusto Pinochet
died today at the age of 91.


Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, Tinker Bell and General Augusto Pinochet had much in common.

All three performed magical good deeds. In the case of Pinochet, he was universally credited with the Miracle of Chile, the wildly successful experiment in free markets, privatization, de-regulation and union-free economic expansion whose laissez-faire seeds spread from Valparaiso to Virginia.

But Cinderella’s pumpkin did not really turn into a coach. The Miracle of Chile, too, was just another fairy tale. The claim that General Pinochet begat an economic powerhouse was one of those utterances whose truth rested entirely on its repetition.

Chile could boast some economic success. But that was the work of Salvador Allende - who saved his nation, miraculously, a decade after his death.

In 1973, the year General Pinochet brutally seized the government, Chile’s unemployment rate was 4.3%. In 1983, after ten years of free-market modernization, unemployment reached 22%. Real wages declined by 40% under military rule.

In 1970, 20% of Chile’s population lived in poverty. By 1990, the year “President” Pinochet left office, the number of destitute had doubled to 40%. Quite a miracle.

Pinochet did not destroy Chile’s economy all alone. It took nine years of hard work by the most brilliant minds in world academia, a gaggle of Milton Friedman’s trainees, the Chicago Boys. Under the spell of their theories, the General abolished the minimum wage, outlawed trade union bargaining rights, privatized the pension system, abolished all taxes on wealth and on business profits, slashed public employment, privatized 212 state industries and 66 banks and ran a fiscal surplus.

Freed of the dead hand of bureaucracy, taxes and union rules, the country took a giant leap forward … into bankruptcy and depression. After nine years of economics Chicago style, Chile’s industry keeled over and died. In 1982 and 1983, GDP dropped 19%. The free-market experiment was kaput, the test tubes shattered. Blood and glass littered the laboratory floor. Yet, with remarkable chutzpah, the mad scientists of Chicago declared success. In the US, President Ronald Reagan’s State Department issued a report concluding, “Chile is a casebook study in sound economic management.” Milton Friedman himself coined the phrase, “The Miracle of Chile.” Friedman’s sidekick, economist Art Laffer, preened that Pinochet’s Chile was, “a showcase of what supply-side economics can do.”

It certainly was. More exactly, Chile was a showcase of de-regulation gone berserk.

The Chicago Boys persuaded the junta that removing restrictions on the nation’s banks would free them to attract foreign capital to fund industrial expansion.

Pinochet sold off the state banks - at a 40% discount from book value - and they quickly fell into the hands of two conglomerate empires controlled by speculators Javier Vial and Manuel Cruzat. From their captive banks, Vial and Cruzat siphoned cash to buy up manufacturers - then leveraged these assets with loans from foreign investors panting to get their piece of the state giveaways.

The bank’s reserves filled with hollow securities from connected enterprises. Pinochet let the good times roll for the speculators. He was persuaded that Governments should not hinder the logic of the market.

By 1982, the pyramid finance game was up. The Vial and Cruzat “Grupos” defaulted. Industry shut down, private pensions were worthless, the currency swooned. Riots and strikes by a population too hungry and desperate to fear bullets forced Pinochet to reverse course. He booted his beloved Chicago experimentalists. Reluctantly, the General restored the minimum wage and unions’ collective bargaining rights. Pinochet, who had previously decimated government ranks, authorized a program to create 500,000 jobs. In other words, Chile was pulled from depression by dull old Keynesian remedies, all Franklin Roosevelt, zero Reagan/Thatcher. New Deal tactics rescued Chile from the Panic of 1983, but the nation’s long-term recovery and growth since then is the result of - cover the children’s ears - a large dose of socialism.

To save the nation’s pension system, Pinochet nationalized banks and industry on a scale unimagined by Communist Allende. The General expropriated at will, offering little or no compensation. While most of these businesses were eventually re-privatized, the state retained ownership of one industry: copper.

For nearly a century, copper has meant Chile and Chile copper. University of Montana metals expert Dr. Janet Finn notes, “Its absurd to describe a nation as a miracle of free enterprise when the engine of the economy remains in government hands.” Copper has provided 30% to 70% of the nation’s export earnings. This is the hard currency which has built today’s Chile, the proceeds from the mines seized from Anaconda and Kennecott in 1973 - Allende’s posthumous gift to his nation.

Agribusiness is the second locomotive of Chile’s economic growth. This also is a legacy of the Allende years. According to Professor Arturo Vasquez of Georgetown University, Washington DC, Allende’s land reform, the break-up of feudal estates (which Pinochet could not fully reverse), created a new class of productive tiller-owners, along with corporate and cooperative operators, who now bring in a stream of export earnings to rival copper. “In order to have an economic miracle,” says Dr. Vasquez, “maybe you need a socialist government first to commit agrarian reform.”

So there we have it. Keynes and Marx, not Friedman, saved Chile.

But the myth of the free-market Miracle persists because it serves a quasi-religious function. Within the faith of the Reaganauts and Thatcherites, Chile provides the necessary genesis fable, the ersatz Eden from which laissez-faire dogma sprang successful and shining.

In 1998, the international finance Gang of Four - the World Bank, the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Bank for Settlements - offered a $41.5 billion line of credit to Brazil. But before the agencies handed the drowning nation a life preserver, they demanded Brazil commit to swallow the economic medicine that nearly killed Chile. You know the list: fire-sale privatizations, flexible labor markets (i.e. union demolition) and deficit reduction through savage cuts in government services and social security.

In Sao Paulo, the public was assured these cruel measures would ultimately benefit the average Brazilian. What looked like financial colonialism was sold as the cure-all tested in Chile with miraculous results.

But that miracle was in fact a hoax, a fraud, a fairy tale in which everyone did not live happily ever after.

******

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Armed Madhouse”. Read his reports at www.GregPalast.com

Absolutely wonderful.

This is what DU'ers will find useful the very next time another Freep Nazi shows up with the news Chile's economy is truly the Eighth Wonder of the World. (You may remember it took a day or two to get the smell outta here after the last pro-Pinochet freeper vacationed here at D.U. expense.)

"(You may remember it took a day or two to get the smell outta here after the last pro-Pinochet freeper vacationed here at D.U. expense.)" Tombstoned no doubt :)

"Superior review" Yes Greg Palast is a stand out investigative Journalist imo.

"And now Weekend Update would like to present news for the hard of hearing."

"In tonight's top story..."

"IN TONIGHT'S TOP STORY..."

Great article from The Independent:

<snip>....
To give an idea of what the military coup was like, you have to imagine how a citizen of the United States or Great Britain would feel if the army rolled up in full battle gear to attack the White House or Buckingham Palace, and in the process caused the deaths of thousands of citizens, among them the President of the US or the Queen and Prime Minister of Great Britain, then indefinitely suspended Congress or Parliament, disbanded the Supreme Court, abrogated individual liberties and political parties, declared absolute censorship of the media, and finally, over time, strove mercilessly to extinguish every dissident voice.

Now, imagine that these same military men, possessed with Messianic fanaticism, installed themselves in power for years, prepared to root out every last ideological adversary. That is what happened in Chile.
.....<snip>

Full article here.....


Isabel Allende: Chile under the gun