America And Genocide: The Good, THE BAD, And The Ugly

Back to the nasty, aka, government, politics, and fascism ... by any other name, it's still the same. In the checkered, dastardly history of U.S. support for genocidal dictators, none is more craven than U.S. involvement in the destruction of Chilean democracy culminating in the 1973 military coup that toppled socialist president Salvador Allende and installed in his place the fascist monster, General Augusto Pinochet. New revelations have surfaced: A tape of Nixon and Kissinger openly discussing political assassination, a reference to Chile's senior military commander, General Rene Schneider, who was loyal to President Allende in that he was a constitutionalist and a patriot who believed in civilian rule. General Schneider was murdered in a botched CIA-backed kidnapping. Here's an excerpt from the tape:

Kissinger: CIA’s too incompetent to do it. You remember—
Nixon: Sure, but that’s the best thing. [Unclear].
Kissinger: —when they did try to assassinate somebody, it took three attempts—
Nixon: Yeah.
Kissinger: —and he lived for three weeks afterwards.

 Kissinger effectively is a prisoner within his own country; small consolation for those of us who believe he should be charged and tried for crimes against humanity — but should he travel to any country that is a signatory to extradition treaties, he will risk immediate arrest and indictment for war crimes and may well end up a defendant in a Spanish Court (whose citizens were murdered by Pinochet) or the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

Now we learn there was a bit of a counting error concerning the extent and enormity of Pinochet's crimes. This is from the BBC:

A Chilean commission investigating human rights abuses under the former military leader Gen. Augusto Pinochet says there are many more victims than previously documented.

Commission director Maria Luisa Sepulveda said they had identified another 9,800 people who had been held as political prisoners and tortured [between 11 September 1973 and 10 March 1990, when Gen Pinochet was in power].

The new figures bring the total of recognised victims to 40,018.

The survivors will get lifetime pensions of about $260 (£157) a month.

An earlier report by the commission recognised 27,153 people who suffered human rights violations under military rule.

The official number of those killed or forcibly disappeared now stands at 3,065.

Chile has placed a price for the torture inflicted on its citizens by Pinochet: $260 monthly. That's $260 more than the U.S. compensates innocent victims of waterboarding, as both the Bush and Obama administrations have declined to own up to the international crime of torture committed in our name. It would explain why Kissinger, Cheney, and Bush are protected from criminal investigation and litigation.

Consider these sobering statistics: The number of Chileans murdered by Pinochet stands at a conservative 3,065. The number of people killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is 2,753. On the day democracy died in Chile, September 11, 1973, a date which will live in infamy in Chilean history, Chile's population was barely larger than New York City's, fewer than 10 million people.