Fresh Wikileaks reveal Vatican called reports of Pinochet’s killings ‘propaganda’

[Judi Lynn]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by NancyBlueINOklahoma (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Agence France-Presse/Raw Story

Fresh Wikileaks reveal Vatican called reports of Pinochet’s killings ‘propaganda’
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, April 8, 2013 8:55 EDT

ROME — The Vatican once dismissed reports of massacres by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as “Communist propaganda”, according to US diplomatic and intelligence documents from the 1970s leaked on Monday.

One cable dated October 18, 1973 sent to Washington by the US embassy to the Holy See relayed a conversation with the Vatican’s then deputy Secretary of State, Giovanni Benelli, the leak by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks showed.

Benelli expressed “his and the pope’s grave concern over successful international leftist campaign to misconstrue completely realities of Chilean situation,” read the cable to then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

“Benelli labelled exaggerated coverage of events as possibly greatest success of Communist propaganda,” it said, adding that the Italian monsignor said this showed “how Communists can influence free world media in future”.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/08/fresh-wikileaks-reveal-vatican-called-reports-of-pinochets-killings-propaganda/

[SamKnause]

1. Wikileaks

Thanks Judi Lynn.

Some information pertaining to India was discussed on Democracy Now today.

I imagine there will be quite a few interesting facts coming forth.

[JoeBlowToo]

2. Fucking child fuckers...

They are about as close to Jesus as Hitler was.

[Judi Lynn]

3. One of Pinochet's merry helpers in the "mopping up" process,

mentioned by Bertolli, from the article above:

“As is unfortunately natural following coup d’etat, Benelli observed, there has admittedly been bloodshed during mopping up procedures in Chile,” it said.

[center]

Osvaldo Romo, notorious Pinochet torturer



Sec. of State, Kissinger, left, with
Pinochet, center, facing forward. [/center]
Romo Wikipedia:

Osvaldo Romo

Osvaldo Romo Mena (c. 1938 – July 4, 2007) was an agent of the Chilean Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) from 1973 to 1990, during the rule of Augusto Pinochet. Involved in the forced disappearance of more than a hundred persons (among which the Spanish priest Antonio Llidó Mengual, member of Cristianos por el socialismo (Christians for Socialism) and MIR members Diana Aron Svigilsky, Manuel Cortez Joo and Ofelio Lazo), he was sentenced to life imprisonment, but several of these sentences were suspended by the Chilean Supreme Court.[1]

~snip~
Known as Guatón Romo ("Fatso Romo&quot or Comandante Raúl, he was one of DINA's most important torturers, operating among others centers in Villa Grimaldi.[1] On April 11, 1995, in an interview televised by Univisión, he commented in great detail, and evidently without remorse, on the techniques that had been used. These included the application of electricity to women's nipples and genitals, the use of dogs, and the insertion of rats into women's vaginas.[1]

—Would you do it again? Would you do it the same way?
—Sure, I'd do the same and more. I wouldn't leave anybody alive (...) That was one of DINA's mistakes. I was always arguing with my general: don't leave that person alive, don't let that person go free. There are consequences.
—As for throwing the corpses of the prisoners into the sea...
—I think it could have happened. (...) Throwing them into the crater of a volcano would be better... (...) Who'd go looking for them in a volcano? Nobody.
—On the day you die... what would your epitaph say? "Here lies the hangman, the torturer, the murderer..."
—Logical, logical. I accept that. But for me it was a positive thing. (...) I am at peace with my conscience and my beliefs.

— Extract from the interview, [2]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/08/fresh-wikileaks-reveal-vatican-called-reports-of-pinochets-killings-propaganda/

[ellie]

4. Of course they did!

I would not expect anything less from the fascist enablers of the Catholic Church. Bastards.

[struggle4progress]

5. These are not new releases and they are not leaks: Wikileaks has simply provided a search

engine for a number of US documents that were already freely available from the US government.

[leveymg]

7. Thanks for letting us know that they aren't new. I'll go take a look around. Duh. ;-)

[struggle4progress]

8. Here are some links:

... The data, which has not been leaked, comprises diplomatic records from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, covering a variety of diplomatic traffic including cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence. Julian Assange said WikiLeaks had been working for the past year to analyse and assess a vast amount of data held at the US national archives before releasing it in a searchable form ...
WikiLeaks publishes 1.7m US diplomatic records
Julian Assange says 1973-76 reports, including many by Henry Kissinger, show vast range and scope of US activity
guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 April 2013 04.30 EDT

... The collection published on Monday has not been leaked, but Mr Assange said WikiLeaks had been working for the past year to analyse and assess a vast amount of data held at the US national archives before releasing it in a searchable form ...
More WikiLeaks material published
08 April 2013

... “The government can’t be trusted with its own archives,” explains WikiLeaks spokesperson, Kristinn Hrafnsson, justifying the shift from contemporary leaked cables to declassified (but obscure) documents .... the documents .. were obtained from the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) ...
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/07/wikileaks-goes-google-develops-searchable-database-for-millions-of-kissinger-cables/
WikiLeaks Goes Google, Develops Searchable Database For Millions Of ‘Kissinger Cables’
Gregory Ferenstein

[struggle4progress]

9. Why should we regard a long-declassified 1973 cable as "breaking news"?

It was already readily available from the US government. That's how Assange got it.

[leveymg]

11. Have you seen those cables before? Was Kissinger Assoc's or DOS indexing and abstracting them?

The cables may not be news or even new, but the fact that someone's finally making them readily available, with a meaningful index, is.

Quit quibbling.

[leveymg]

6. That was likely their response to reports about the Dirty War in Argentina, as well.

Gives one a peak inside the heads of those who order the promotions within that organization.

[struggle4progress]

10. dupe. There's already an LBN thread on Assange's heroic "release" of declassified documents

he obtained without any difficulty from the US national archives: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=447587

[leveymg]

12. Tantrum much?

[OKNancy]

13. duplicate topic - locking

this is basically a dupe of: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=447587

Wikileaks has simply republished a number of US documents already long available to the public, together with a search engine, as discussed in this post from another LBN thread on the "release": http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=447766.

And on top of that, rawstory has repackaged this story with misleading information. This is not new information.