Please spread the word any way possible. Post this on message boards, keep this thread kicked, send it in emails to everybody you know, and tell your family and friends. This won't make the Right-Wing look like War Criminals, it will expose them as War Criminals.
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After years of characterizing the human rights violations that occurred in Chile under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet as "excesses" by individual officers rather than a deliberate government policy, the Chilean Army reversed course on Friday and acknowledged that it must bear collective "institutional" blame for such abuses.
"The Army of Chile has taken the difficult but irreversible decision to assume the responsibility for all punishable and morally unacceptable acts in the past that fall on it as an institution," the current army commander, Gen. Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinosa, wrote in an essay published by La Tercera, a daily newspaper in Santiago, the capital. "Never and for no one can there be any ethical justification for human rights violations," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/international/americas/06chile.html- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Honduran President Ricardo Maduro has broken a long official silence
and apologized for the deaths and forced disappearance of hundreds of
left-wing opponents at the hands of the U.S.-trained military during
the 1980s.
It was the first time a leader of this Central American nation has
acknowledged the political repression led by death squads made up of
army soldiers and police.
"I must painfully recognize the responsibility of the state and ask
the families to forgive these reprehensible actions," Maduro said in
a speech on Thursday night. He added that such repression
should "never happen again".
Central America was a Cold War battleground during the 1980s, with
civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, and U.S. advisers
gave extensive training to the Honduran military.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N0560110.htm----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Right-Wing, Central American, and South American 'Democracy'
In 1987, the Free Congress Foundation wrote that they had 'contributed a balanced perspective and essential new information much needed in volatile public discussions over Chile's efforts--in the face of Marxist terrorism and violence to reestablish democratic government...' The FCF says that in 1986, Paul Weyrich, William Kling and other conservatives conducted a seminar on 'political technology' in Santiago for nearly one hundred activists.
"A July 1988 forum in Santiago, Chile, sponsored by Weyrich's International Policy Forum, was one of three trips William Kling made to Chile in 1988. The forum was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) through the Republican Party. The NED was established to give U.S. government funds to groups conducting activities identical to those which were historically funded covertly by the Central Intelligence Agency. A similar forum in Argentina was also NED-funded through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Free Congress materials were distributed there in Spanish."
What is an especially interesting coincidence is that in 1976 an FBI attaché, in Buenos Aires, sent a cable which echoes the FCF's wording. The FBI attaché, Robert Scherrer, summarized intelligence data provided by information sources regarding Operation Condor, a South American five-nation collective intelligence effort which was designed to "eliminate Marxist terrorist activities in the area." Operation Condor, a joint "anti-leftist" project, was a five-nation intelligence databank which facilitated the tracking, monitoring, abduction, torture and murder of citizens in the nations: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.
http://politicalamazon.com/fcf.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
According to reputable international monitoring groups, the Contras, in an effort to sabotage the Nicaraguan people's support of their government, conducted a campaign of terror, murder and torture of thousands of peasants, slaughtering of livestock, and destroying of villages. It is well known that Oliver North and his superiors created a covert financial funding system for the Contras. In addition, John Singlaub organized a funding operation for the Contras, and this system was tied to the Reagan White House. Reagan wanted to circumvent Congressional and public opposition to supporting the Contras. This financial support system involved the sale of arms to Iran.
These private Contra financial backers, largely because the media and prosecutors focused on trying to tie the Contras to the Reagan administration, mostly escaped punishment. Their network remained intact following the Contragate investigation, and some have gone on to create huge empires of conservative political influence.
Paul Weyrich and his operatives had tremendous power in the Reagan Administration. Weyrich's Heritage Foundation published a book called Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Management to guide the Reagan administration as it assumed control of the White House. Fully two-thirds of the recommendations in the book were adopted by the Reagan administration.
So it is interesting to note that the origins of the Contra private financial support apparatus goes back to September 1982 when Charles Moser, Secretary-Treasurer of the Free Congress & Education Foundation, came up with the idea to form a committee, in the style of the Committee for a Free Afghanistan, to provide financial funding to the Contras. He recommended that the Nicaragua Committee include Enrique Rueda of the Free Congress Foundation, and others, including Reed Irvine of the Accuracy in Media.
The Free Congress Foundation is one of the groups that actively supported the Contras, along with The Heritage Foundation and the Conservative Caucus.
In addition to the FCF's Contra funding, The Heritage Foundation (founded and heavily influenced by Paul Weyrich) was involved in covert Contra funding schemes. In 1985, Heritage "donated" $100,000 to the Institute for North-South Issues, a conduit to the Contras, connected to Oliver North. The $100,000 came from Roy Godson, a consultant with the National Security Council, and director of the National Strategy Information Center.
http://politicalamazon.com/fcf.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Pat Robertson used his tax-exempt broadcast license to hold a fundraising telethon in the United States for the Guatemalan military and the Nicaraguan contras. On "The 700 Club," Robertson has interviewed Adolfo Calero and Steadman Fagoth, contra leaders; Efrain Rios Montt, then-president of Guatemala known for massive human rights abuses; Jeremias Chitunda, an Angolan guerrilla leader. One of his campaign pledges during his brief run for the presidency was to withdraw diplomatic recognition from Nicaragua and recognize the contras as a "government in exile." Robertson also interviewed a former president of El Salvador, Alvaro Magana, and individuals connected with the Salvadoran death squads. He praised death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson of the ARENA party as a "very nice fellow."
www.peopleunitedforreligiousfreedom.org/cbn_tangled_web.htm
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The U.S. operation of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network was considered one of the top private funders of the contras.
http://www.peopleunitedforreligiousfreedom.org/cbn_tangled_web.htmA refugee worker said that in 1985, a CBN film team came to a World Relief refugee camp asking for gasoline. "I told them I would give them the fuel, but not if their vehicle belonged to the contras. They said it didn't. But when they came back a few days later, they admitted they had lied. The jeep belonged to Misura
. CBN went down to do a story on freedom fighters.
They weren't interested in refugees."
http://www.peopleunitedforreligiousfreedom.org/cbn_tangled_web.htm
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Oliver North has utilized his "Project Democracy" to channel private funds to the Contras. Part of the lure to obtain funding was to set up meetings with President Reagan for select people so that the president could personally thank them for their support for "Democracy in Central America." In these operations, the same cast of characters was involved on both ends of the Iran-Contra connection, both the arms sale and funding of the Contras, according to the Tower Commission Report.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0OBW/is_1_44/ai_114478913
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"Efrain Rios Montt has been supported by Pat Robertson (Christian Broadcasting Network), Jerry Falwell (Moral Majority, Thomas Road Baptist Church, Liberty Federation), and Loren Cunningham (Youth with a Mission). . .Jimmy Swaggart Ministries has provided financial support for the schools of El Verbo in Guatemala. This is done under the "Programa Ayuda Infantile," a branch of the Swaggart ministry."
http://www.franz-lee.org/files/pandemonium00490.html
(It has also been said that Efrain Rios Montt is responisble for the deaths of about 70,000 Mayan peasants and political dissidents.
http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/montt.htm )
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Many in the Council for National Policy were active in the covert efforts on behalf of the Nicaraguan contras. At least some CNP meetings featured fellow CNP member Oliver North explaining the needs for the contras. Among the CNP members who helped them was Alan Dye, a Washington, D.C., attorney who set up various organizations to assist the contras. Dye continues as an attorney for North's Freedom Alliance and the CNP.
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/library/OPPOSITION/vol1num2/art5.htm
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