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.
