Kissinger backed "dirty war against left in Argentina

Catholic New Times, Sept 26, 2004

BUENOS AIRES -- According to London's Guardian Newspaper, Henry Kissinger gave Argentina's military junta the green light to suppress political opposition at the start of the "dirty war" in 1976, telling the country's foreign minister: "If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly," according to newly-declassified documents published yesterday.

According to U.S. documents, the former Secretary of State Kissinger knew of and did not try to stop Argentine military dictators from violating human rights in 1976.

According to newly declassified U.S. documents. "We won't cause you unnecessary difficulties. If you can finish before Congress gets back, the better," Mr. Kissinger told Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti, the Foreign Minister, according to the State Department's transcript.

Carlos Osorio, an analyst at the National Security Archive, a U.S. lobby group which published the transcript, said it was likely to be seen by historians as "a smoking gun."

It is likely to be seized on by Mr. Kissinger's critics, who have been calling for him to face charges for abetting war crimes and human rights abuses in Cambodia, Chile and Argentina.

The Argentine junta formed a secret pact in 1976 known as the Condor Plan with other South American dictatorships in Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil for the eradication of "terrorists." According to official figures, nearly 9,000 people disappeared in Argentina alone, but human rights organizations put the figure nearer to 30,000.