EN DEBATE

“DECEPTIVE DECLASSIFICATION”

The delivery to the Argentine government of some 40,000 declassified documents of the DIA and other US federal agencies are relevant to clarify the facts of the political violence of the late seventies in Argentina?

By Tennet Reader

I was sitting comfortably in my favorite coffee bar "Compass" not far from the Capitol in Washington DC, relaxing after a long night and part of the early morning working on some research articles when my mobile phone rings and seeing its number I know that it is "Harry" my errand boy who usually goes there to where it causes me fatigue to tell me that the State Department had declassified a series of documents from the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency regarding the activities of the CIA in the military coup of 1976 in Argentina and then almost burning myself with coffee in my tongue I said "What the hell is happening now?"

As soon as I finished my coffee, I shot out to the meeting point so that I could complete the novelty and if it was possible, I would illustrate with documents this strange novelty. I was not sure what I expected to find but it was clear that I was very intrigued by the intrigue. As in the old times of the cold war, outdoor and public environments are still the best places for a moderately private chat, although in reality many of them are monitored with infrared cameras and outdoor microphones. Courtesy of "security patriotic "built by Bush. Likewise, our talk did not have any question against national security, but it bothers that certain ears pay attention to you.

When we got there I could see it and as always we gave each other a handshake and as a casual meeting of two friends we exchanged greetings and questions as if we did not see each other a decade ago, we continued to sit down and the exchange begins and it is there that I say with a smile in the mouth "What the hell goes on?; Trump opening intelligence documents on the years of lead in the Southern Cone and in particular on Argentina ?, very strange ". It is certainly very strange or at least suggestive since currently his old business colleague Mauricio Macri seems to be losing economic and financial control of the situation in his country.

Harry as a good student did not come with empty hands and brought me a detail of the documents that had been sent on CD to Buenos Aires. 

Apparently the same detail a series of incidents of the so-called "disappeared" of which the US Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1976 collected information on the operations of the "task forces" of the Argentine military intelligence that was linked to abducted and summary executions of subjects linked to the armed groups of Marxist tendency But why now the White House was turning this information to the government of Mauricio Macri? 

There is no doubt that it is not a gesture of legality or with intentions to shed light on such a heavy story; quite the opposite. It is a trick to try to improve the face of a government with very good sympathy with Washington and get win the sympathy of Argentine human rights groups highly politicized to the left, linked to CFK.

Although previously during the Clinton administration and that of George W. Bush himself at the request of an Argentine organization such as CELS, about 4,500 documents linked to intelligence operations and repressive counterinsurgency were censored, focusing the focus on "Battalion 601", but always keeping off the stage (censored with black ink) the activities and agents of the American intelligence in the advice that was provided to the "Operation Condor" that coordinated with the military governments of Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil.

It seems deliberate to overlook this. If the situation of the events of that time is contextualized, Washington could not explain with convincing reasons its role within all this sinister mechanics called "dirty war" which should not be forgotten was closely linked authorizing in many cases the activity of groups of CIA advisers to carry out many deadly operations and human rights violations, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are some examples of this. There is a clear tactic here in undoing its past implications by blaming individualities and misunderstandings of field chiefs in operations in South America.

This is a legislative and political tactic by which the US manages to escape responsibility for its war crimes and crimes against humanity committed throughout its contemporary history. During the Vietnam War the implementation of the most brutal counter-insurgency programs against the Vietcong among those who carried out -among other dirty practices- terrorist attacks against bars and public places full of innocent civilians in the middle of Saigon to generate the political excuses of Washington of the need to expand the intervention and justify before the public and global public the sending of a greater number of military contingents. Even today declassification of many dark facts of that war are very doubtful to achieve by clear pressure from the most conservative sectors within the intelligence community.

Coinciding with the same period, the declassification of crimes against humanity in Central America committed by death squads organized and directed by the CIA planned by a guy like John Negroponte have been more intelligible roles for censorship with black ink than another thing.

It sounds trite to say so, but who would believe that the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency was going to ignore what was happening in South America in those years and now present itself as a casual witness of the operations of the Argentine military? In addition, a compilation of highly censored documents rather than documents are ink-stained papers. This is very similar to that saying "pretend to cover the sun with your hand". Possibly the new "millennials" (mostly apathetic) can be deceived or camouflaged with some cosmetic arrangements, but these declassifications have nothing revealing.