U.S. journalist's death in Chile

By: Jim Moscou DECLASSIFIED documents reveal Washington may have given clearance to the execution of charles Horman

For the American citizen, the 1973 coup in Chile hardly registered on one's consciousness. At the time, the country was facing its own war in Southeast Asia.
But for the American journalist, the violent overthrow of Chile's democratically elected, Marxist President Salvador Allende by Gen. Augusto Pinochet was always eyed with particular suspicion: It was during the coup that a young reporter named Charles Horman was killed by Pinochet's secret police. And questions have swirled for decades about whether the U.S. government ? which aided the general in his grab for power?could have stopped Horman's execution.
Now, journalists know for sure.
"U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death," wrote Harry Shlaudeman, former assistant secretary of inter-American affairs for President Gerald Ford, in a 1976 memo. "At best, it was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the GOC [Government of Chile]."
Those words were made public for the first time Oct. 8 when the U.S. State Department declassified records accounting for what it knew regarding Horman's execution and the U.S. role in Chile's politics. The release marked the second time the Clinton administration made good on a promise to open the government's files on its operations in Chile during Allende's rise in 1968, and up to 1990 ? when Pinochet relinquished control.
President Clinton issued the directive earlier this year after Pinochet was arrested in Great Britain at the request of a Spanish judge who accused the dictator of the torture and murder of Spanish civilians. Last week, a British court gave final approval for Pinochet's extradition to the Spain.
Horman was picked up days after the coup by Chilean secret police and taken to Santiago's national soccer stadium where thousands of pro-Allende supporters were tortured and some were executed. That was where Horman was reportedly killed, his body later dumped on Santiago's streets Sept. 18, 1973. His death, and his father's search for the truth, ultimately became the basis for the Academy-Award winning movie, "Missing."
Shlaudeman's memo was actually released a decade ago after a Freedom of Information Act request was filed. But government censors blackened nearly a third of its content, including some of the damning quotes visible in the picture above. Also revealed from behind the black about Horman's murder: "? At worst, U.S. Intelligence was aware the GOC saw Horman in a rather serious light, and U.S. officials did nothing to discourage the logical outcome of this paranoia."
Mark Mansfield, a CIA spokesman, told Reuters that "the CIA played no role in the death of Charles Horman."
Horman's widow, Joyce Horman, did not return E&P's telephone calls, but has said she believed Charles was killed because he knew of the CIA's involvement.
Meanwhile, the Clinton administration said it will release the remaining documents pertaining to the U.S. involvement in Chile sometime in early 2000.

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