Conversations that other people are not having, and i feel like this is one of those. I would like to give you an little overview. If you have cell phones, please take photos, but dont make the flash happen. We are filming tonight, as you can see, and that is distracting. We will have the book for sale. We have them for sale currently. If you want to, i emplore you to look through it and have alan sign it as well. We have a wonderful server who will be here all night, so please take care of her as she will take care of you. I will now turn it on over to alan for the talk of ghosts of Sheridan Circle for the talk. [applause] dr. Mcpherson thank you very much, olivia. Thank you to busboys and poets for hosting this. I want to thank my publisher for putting this together, the few institutions, also, who made this happen in washington. Im so happy to be presenting this in washington, which is , you know, literally the scene of this crime. The institute for policy studies is very important in letting me interview them and keep the memory of this book alive for 40plus years. Also, the embassy of chile was very helpful. So let me begin with the first words from this book. And these are the people talking. Isabel, i have a surprise for you. Have lunch with me. Today will be difficult. I have work. But you will love the surprise, Orlando Letelier insisted. Come and get me at 2 30 and have lunch for the afternoon. Isabel letelier acceded. After all, her husband was a charmer. It was time for Orlando Letelier 9 30 a. M. , to go to work in d. C. s dupont circle. He had been at a leftist think tank for years, using a platform that undermined the ironfisted pinochet, whoto had overthrown the government of president salvador allende. As a private citizen now, he exposed pinochets human rights atrocities, incited boycotts, and discouraged investment. Two of his colleagues happen to ride with him that day. Michael and Ronni Moffitt, both 25, and recently married. Whileffitts waited letelier showered and dressed and rushed out the door. Isabel barely had time to kiss him goodbye. Orlando took the wheel of his 1975 chevelle malibu classic. Michael opened the front passenger door for ronni and plopped himself in the backseat. It was a drizzly morning in the nations capital. In less than an hour, orlando and ronni would be dead. Michael would be traumatized for life. This is the actual car after the bombing. On Sheridan Circle. I never learned what the surprise was, isabel recalled when i interviewed her over 40 years after the event. To this day, the killing of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt remains the only assassination of a foreign diplomat on u. S. Soil. It is also the only state sponsored assassination in washington, and the most important in u. S. History. The leteliermoffitt assassinations constituted the most brazen act of International Terrorism ever committed in the capital of the United States. The only statesponsored such act and the only car bomb. The twodecadeslong resolution of the case would hold implications for chile, the United States, terrorism, human rights, and the state of democracy everywhere. My book literally argues it was crucial in taking down the entire pinochet government, but today, i want to explore a subtheme of the book. Two opposing forces fascism on one side and human rights on the other. They clashed during these decades, and they outlive the capitalist communist ideological struggle of the cold war. These forces are still with us today, and leteliers assassination brought them into open conflict. On the cover, you have, on top here you have the car on the bottom, but on the top, you have Orlando Letelier on the right and Ronni Moffitt on the left. The order to assassinate letelier was not simply an overreaction by an anticommunist regime, although it was that. It was also rooted in the fascism that lurked inside postwar latin american political culture. In chile, that fascism partly came from germany. In the 19th century, southern chile attracted 30,000 settlers from the german states. A military mission from prussia shaped up chiles troops, resulting in the gray uniforms and goosestepping of the daunting chilean army. In the 20th century, the mostly fairskinned, welltodo germans southern germans filled the ranks of far right parties. They cheered and marched when hitler came to power. The nazis of chile boasted 60,000 members, electing three to the national legislature. In 1938, they attempted a failed putsch in santiago. After world war ii, it became a favorite destination for nazi officers, fearing persecution. Throughout, not only did they adopt nazi tenants but also added their own. State control of the economy, transnational leadership, anticommunism, but also added its own, a love of all things , the tradition of catholicism, a rejection of empires, and the championing of latin american unity made this among the most potent totalitarianisms in latin america. The man on the left gave the , contreras, the man on the right, was the head of the secret police who gave the order to kill letelier. After world war ii, he admired spanish dictator francisco franco. When pinochet and his allies carried out their plan a colonel, contreras is no answer to no general, minister, or judge, only to pinochet. He dominated all other intelligence agencies. Its 9300 employees could raid homes and jail suspects without charges, and its 20,000 to 30,000 informants spread fear throughout other chilean government agencies. Its logo featuring an iron glove, d. I. N. A. Was responsible for about 1200 of the 3200 executions under pinochet. The association between d. I. N. A. And fascism were legion. It was alleged that if employees engaged the use of rhone and ancient germanic alchemy and the celebration of solstices and equinoxes to revive naziism. D. I. N. A. Members addressed each other as pharaohs, priests, and slaves, denoting their status within the hierarchy. Contreras is even allied with former nazi Paul Schaefer of colony of dignity. The u. S. Department of defense compared d. I. N. A. To hitlers gestapo. Franco supporters lined up on the avenue from the airport and gave the chileans motorcade the stiff armed fascist salute. In my book, i call contreras the himmler of the andes. There and in other Detention Centers he would remain for a year, never charged with a crime, psychologically tortured and there until the venezuelan government obtained his freedom. For his relief, letelier was told in no uncertain words general pinochet will not and does not tolerate any activity against his government. Still, letelier ended up working against pinochet in washington. His work coincided with a golden age of human rights activism in the 1990s. The mid1970s. More than 200 groups in the United States worked on human rights. Over 50 lobbied congress and about 15 concentrated on latin america. Civil rights icon Patricia Derian became the First Assistant for democracy, human rights, and labor under the jimmy carter administration. Just a few months after the letelier assassination, mark schneider, who had worked for kennedy in massachusetts on several issues. In congress, representative don fraser chaired the first congressional hearings on human rights in 1973. Helping him were, among others, tom harkin, michael harrington,. These were all democrats. On china, congresss greatest achievement was the 1975 harkin amendment, which cut off aid to any government that grossly violated human rights. Unless the president determine such aid would directly benefit the needy. The following year, Teddy Kennedy directly targeted chile. One chilean magazine called kennedy the most dangerous foreign adversary of the pinochet regime. Letelier, helped by ronni and michael moffitt, worked for one ,he institute of policy studies one of the most influential human rights, and a station in the country. He talked with american universities, he lunched with senators. Angela davis once came to his house. Joan baez was his friend. He became a unifier for chilean exiles, numbering in the hundreds of thousands worldwide. He also convinced dockworker federations to boycott the handling of chilean goods and therefore won the cancellation of a planned 62 million Mining Investment in chile. These two things seem to have convinced pinochet to order leteliers assassination. From roughly 1975 to 1983, contreras and his allies killed hundreds of people. Henry kissinger became an expert. One month before letelier was killed, kissingers office prepared a report demonstrating washingtons deep concern over their plan for the assassination of subversives in prominent and prominent figures, both within the National Border of certain southern countries and abroad. In other words, the state department was supposed to tell south american dictators not to kill people outside of south america, but for one month, none of the ambassadors who received this cable from washington did anything about it. It is very rare in diplomacy. Usually youre given an order, you do it. The ambassador in uruguay feared for his life if he wagged his finger at the generals. The envoy to chile feared pinochet might well take as an insult any inference that he was connected to any assassination plots. Five days before the letelier assassination, kissinger ordered , quote, but no further action be taken on the matter. Back in chile in the same summer of 1976, contreras, acting secretary, acting entrusted the hit on letelier, an american chilean explosive expert. This is Michael Townley with his wife. During the allende years, townley worked with shock troops called fatherland and freedom. Recruits received training in coding and code breaking, weapons handling, explosives, and martial arts with nunchucks. Later, Paolo Rodriguez would regularly line of his troops, as he called them, and review them with his right arm crossed against his chest remember, these are teenagers, not right . They are not soldiers. They wore black uniforms and white armbands adorned with a swastikalike emblem that united chainlinks and resembled a spider. Hitlers brownshirts would have approved. Allende followers called fatherland and freedom a bunch of fascists. Paid for by the cia. And it turns out they were correct. Out, in fall 1970, kissinger requested and received 38,000 for support of this fascist organization. Others in the group admitted receiving no funds and added that an extra 5000 per month filtered in. Back to townley, the bomb maker. He embraced the rhetoric and the actions of fatherland and freedom and started making bombs for them. The masses are not ready to govern themselves, he said. Democracy leads only to mass government ruled by the herd. Power should be reserved by the few, the intellectuals. , the philosopher kings. In the United States, townley connected with about five cubanamericans, also protofascists. They called themselves the Cuban Nationalist Movement, headquartered in a new jersey newly cubanized since Fidel Castros 1959 revolution. They were also disenchanted with the u. S. Government. Heres a picture of a few of them in their headquarters in new jersey, along with their logo, which has the island of cuba with a number three, which means not communist, not capitalism, but a third way, and a Lightning Strike against communism, which essentially meant violence against cuba. Like contreras, these cuban americans had decided to kill opponents throughout the world. Soon, bombs went off in montreal, new york, and elsewhere. Between 1974 and 1976, u. S. Authorities tied 202 major bombings in 22 countries to cuban exiles. One every five days on average , and 113 of them in the United States. In 1974, cuban exiles accounted for 45 of all terrorist bombings on the planet. The Cuban Nationalist Movement the Cuban Nationalist Movement motto, cuba before all, phrase, de german eutschland uber alles. Pamphlets outline and ideology of a capitalism similar to hitlers. One of these cubans once asked Michael Townley and his wife during a dinner, what do you think about the world jewish conspiracy . Remember, they are trying to fight communism. Townley says, i beg your pardon, what . The jewish conspiracy, he repeats. It seems to me, she told him, you got sidetracked on purpose. Fidel castro is too difficult to target. Naturally, it is easier to fight the jews than the cubans. Still, these cubanamericans help townley build a car bomb and install it under leteliers car. One cuban drove behind him while another pushed the button on the detonator. For washington, the challenge the assassination posed was enabling fascism to infiltrate the chilean government. Those such as Teddy Kennedy, who champion human rights, and the vast majority in the middle who needed the car bombing to prompt them to care enough. Early on, mainstream u. S. Observers tended towards absolving the chilean regime. The New York Times editor concluded it is hard to believe that even as hamhanded a regime as chiles would order the murder of an opponent as mr. Letelier in the United States. The National Security council. The National Security council admitted that rightwing chileans are the obvious candidates and could be too obvious. Thankfully, the investigation was not up to them. It was the job of the fbi and attorney generals office. The amendment were not only anticommunist but also gifted technocrats, dedicated to solving the murder wherever it took them. For almost 18 months, the fbi had no solid lead on this case. It had heard of a mysterious gringo amongst chileans but had no name. Right . It turns out it was Michael Townley. It had heard rumors from cuban americans, a grand jury subpoena them, but they kept mum, and the investigation kept getting threats, just as orlando and isabel had before the assassination. I will give you a few examples of these threats. On october 4, an unknown male called Orlando Leteliers aunt, maria. He said,aria, maria, condescendingly, talking to the fbi will not help you. Your legs will be spread in washington, d. C. , just like orlandos. And then he hung up. In november, a Flight Attendant wast to join her crew standing at kennedy airport, rifling through her purse for her keys. Suddenly, a man grabbed her arm and yanked her around. You tell your little friend keep his fucking nose out of our chiles business, or you wont be so pretty anymore. Boom boom. You know what i mean . These kinds of things happened over and over again in the investigation, to the fbi, to the lawyers, and of course to anyone who talked to the fbi. If they can do this and get away with it under the nose of the cia and fbi, said president elect jimmy carter, in november of 1976, then no president can govern. He was talking about the letelier assassination. On the one hand, carter meant that such a brazen attack was of a u. S. Citizen on american soil was unacceptable, making whether republican or democrat, and made the United States look unable to police its own borders. They made the cold war seem out of control. On the other hand, foreign policymakers were careful about pushing a cold war ally too hard. A u. S. Political officer in chile explained they are not against a chilean government but hadt against what they done, meaning the overthrow of we were against the abuse and terrorism performed in its name. It was offered up to regular people to pressure carter officials against the chileans. First to expel townley from chile, which prove successful, and second, expedite contreras, which proved a failure. Carter part of his determination to get to the bottom of the crime. Pinochet nodded and promised cooperation, but my book reveals how behind the scenes, the dictator orchestrated a coverup. Letelier and moffitt, therefore, being the widow and widower, were aghast. Moffitt asked at a press conference, if carter is serious about human rights, why doesnt he welcome isabel and me like he , just like he welcomes pinochet . Brezinski denied them. Brezinski did not help at all, letelier told me. We could never get through to him, never. And she remembered this in her late 80s. College and local newspapers covered her, as did local radio and television. This is the human rights network. When the rightwing media in the u. S. Tried to smear orlando as a tool of fidel castro, isabel debunked their lies. The dam finally burst when in march 1978, when investigators published photos of the two men whose name they ignored, but whom they accused of being involved. They have their passport photos , but they did not have the names. They just knew these men had come to washington during the assassination or at least before it. Within days, chileans identified townley and his friend, armando fernandez, as the two men from chile who were in the United States during the assassination. Santiagoed in sa the following morning, rising conspiracies among officials. Was he a hippie, a jew . The americans saw no trace of a chilean manhunt for townley. Just as the chileans were pretending to look for him. They were certain that instead, chileans were prevaricating while hiding townley. There were also consummate professionals among the diplomats. U. S. Ambassador george landau, for instance, a man who had been demanding a meeting with the chilean foreign minister. He dropped all the diplomatic politics he had practiced throughout his career and threatened that if townley was not made to answer the u. S. Governments questions, all u. S. Activity with chile would be in danger. Trade, investment, diplomatic relat