Having, and i feel like this is one of those so im excited for him to speak about it. Im going to give you a little kind of overview. If a cell phone, please take photos, but dont make the flash happen. We are filming tonight, as you probably can see. Its a little distracting. We will have the books for sale. We have them for sale currently and if you would like to, i really implore you to look through it and have alan sign it. Hell be signing afterwards as well. We have a wonderful server in the room. She will be here all night. So please take care of her as she will take care of you. I will now turn it on over to alan for the talk of ghosts of Sheridan Circle. Thanks. [ applause ] thank you very much, olivia. Thank you to busboys and poets for hosting this. I also want to thank my publisher for putting this together, the two institutions who made this book happen in washington. Im so happy to be presenting this in washington which is, you know, literally the scene of this crime. The institute for policy studying is very important in letting me interview them and keep the memory of this book alive for 40plus years. Also the embassy of chile was very helpful. So let me begin with the first words from this book. And these are the people talking. Isabelle, i have a surprise for you. Have lunch with me. Today will be difficult. I have work. But you will love this surprise, Orlando Letelier insisted. Come and get me at 12 30 and leave your work for the afternoon. Isabella letelier agreed. After all, her husband was a charmer. Besides, there was no time to argue. It was 9 00 a. M. Time for orlando to go to work at the institute for policy studies in washington, d. C. ,s dupont circle. He had been at the leftist think tank for nearly two years using ips as a platform to undermine general pinochet, the ironfisted dictator, who had overthrown the government of the president of chile. Letelier had been an ambassador to the United States. Then as minister with three portfolios. Now as a private citizen, he exposed pinochets human rights atrocities, incited boycotts and discouraged investment. Two of orlandos colleagues happened to ride with him that day. Michael and Ronni Moffitt, both 25 and recently married. The moffitt waited while letelier showered and dressed, skipped breakfast, and rushed out the door. Isabelle barely had time to kiss him goodbye. Orlando took the wheel of his 1975 chevrolet chevelle malibu classic. Michael moffitt opened the front passenger door for ronni. He plopped himself on the backseat. That september 21st, 1976, was a drizzly morning in the nations capital. In less than an hour, orlando and ronni would be dead, michael would be traumatized for life. This is the actual car after the bombing on Sheridan Circle. I never learned what the surprise was, isabelle recalled when i interviewed 40 years after this event. To this day, the killing of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt remains the only assassination of a foreign diplomat on u. S. Soil. Its also the only statesponsored assassination ever in washington and the most important in u. S. History. Until osama bin laden, the leteliermoffitt assassinations constituted the most brazen act of International Terrorism ever committed in the capital of the United States. It is still the only statesponsored such act and the only car bomb. The twodecadelong resolution of this case would hold implications for chile, the United States, terrorism, human rights, and the fate of democracy everywhere. My book notably argues that it was crucial in taking down the entire pinochet government. But today i want to explore a sub theme of the book. Two opposing forces, fascism on one side, and human rights on the other. The clash during these decades that outlived the ideological struggle of the cold war. These forces are still with us today and leteliers assassination brought them into open conflict. And so on the cover you have on top here, youve got the car on the bottom, but on top youve got Orlando Letelier on the right and Ronni Moffitt on the left. The order to assassinate letelier was not simply an overreaction by an anticommunist regime, although it was that, it was also rooted in the fascism that lurked inside post war latin american political culture. In chile, that fascism partly came from germany. In the 19th century, southern chile attracted 30,000 settlers from the german states. A military mission from prussia shaped up chiles troops resulting in the gray uniforms and the goosestepping of the daunting chilean army. In the 20th century, the mostly fairskinned, welltodo germans of southern chile filled the ranks of farright parties. They cheered and marched when hitler came to power. The nazis of chile boasted 60,000 members, electing three to the national legislature. In 1938, they attempted a failed putsch in santiago. After world war ii, southern communities became favored destinations for former nazi officers fleeing persecution. Throughout fascism in chile not only dared to all of nazi germanys tenants, antisemitism, anticommunism, stay in control of the economy, hierarchical leadership and intense nationalism, but also added its own. A love of all things spain. The traditions of catholicism, a rejection of empire, and the championing of latin american unity made this among the most potent totalitarianisms in latin america. Manuel contreras, the man on the right here, was the head of the secret police who gave the order to kill letelier. He grew up in this germanized south of chile. After world war ii, he admired the spanish dictator francesco franco. When pinochet and his allies overthrew the president on september 11th, 1973, contreras was in on it. On september 10th, his son fretted over an english examine the next day. Contreras looked at him and smiled, dont worry, youre not going to school tomorrow. Right after the coup, pinochet made contreras the head of the National Intelligence directorate known as dina. A colonel, contreras answered to no general, minister or judge. Only to pinochet. Dina dominated all other intelligence agencies. Its 9,300 employees could raid homes and jail suspects without charges and its 20 to 30,000 informants spread fear throughout other chilean government agencies. Its logo featuring an iron glove, dina was responsible for about 1,200 of the 3,200 executions under pinochet. The association between dina and fascism were it was alleged that its employees engaged in rituals harking back to bygone warrior myths. The use of ruins and an ancient alphabet and the celebration of solstices and equinoxes to revive nazism. Dina addressed each other as pharaohs, priests and slaves, denoting their status within the hierarchy. Contreras allied with Paul Schaefer by using schaefers enclave as a detention and torture center. The u. S. Department of defense compared dina to hitlers gestapo. When franco died in 1975, pinochet flew to madrid for the funeral. Franco supporters lined up on the avenue from the airport and gave the chileans motorcade the stiffarmed fascist salute. In my book, i call contreras the hitler of the andes. On september 11th, Orlando Letelier served as chiles minister of defense. When he showed up to his ministry after hearing rumors of a coup, plotters took him prisoner and shipped him to a nazistyle concentration camp in the south of chile. And somebody luckily took a photo of his being arrested by his own men. There and in other Detention Centers he would remain for a year, never charged with a crime, psychologically tortured until the venezuelan government obtained his freedom. Before his release, letelier was told in no uncertain words general pinochet will not and does not tolerate any activity against his government. Still letelier ended up working against pinochet in washington. His work coincided with a golden age of human rights activism in the 1970s. More than 200 groups in the United States worked on human rights. Over 50 lobbied congress and about 15 concentrated on latin america. Civil rights icon darian became the First Assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor under the jimmy carter administration. Just a few months after the letelier assassination, mark schneider, her deputy, who had worked for kennedy in massachusetts on several u. S. Latin american issues. In congress, representative don frazier chaired the first hearings on human rights in 1976, helping him were tom harkin, michael harington, George Miller in the house and kennedy, and George Mcgovern in the senate. These were all democrats. Congresss greatest achievement was the 1975 harkin amendment which cut off aid to any country who grossly ignored human rights. The following year, Teddy Kennedy targeted chile marking the first time the congress ended military aid because of human rights. One magazine called kennedy the most dangerous foreign adversary of the regime. Letelier, worked at this environment at the institute for policy studies, one of the most infuneral human rights institutions in the world. He lunched with senators, angela davis, was photographed. He became a unifier for chilean exiles. He also convinced workers to boycott the handling of chilean goods and one the cancellation of a Mining Investment in chile. This convinced pinochet to order leteliers assassination. From 1975 to 1983, contreras and his allies killed several hundred people outside chile. At looking away from such brutalities, secretary of state Henry Kissinger became an expert. One month before letelier was killed, kissingers state department prepared a memo that instructed ambassadors to express the deep concern over their plans for the assassination of politicians and predominant figures both within the National Borders of certain countries and abroad. In other words, the state department was supposed to south american dictators not to kill people outside of south america. None of the ambassadors who received this cable from washington did anything about it which is very rare in diplomacy. The ambassador to uruguay feared for his life if he wagged his finger at the generals, chile worried that pinochet might take as an insult any interference that he was contacted with such plots. Five days before the assassination, kissinger ordered that no further action be taken on this matter. Back in chilly in the same summer of 1976, contreras, acting through his chief of operations, entrusted the hit on letelier to michael townly, an americanchilean explosives expert. And this is michael townly with his wife. Townly worked with troops. Recruits received training in coding and code breaking, weapons handling, explosives and martial arts. Later the troops would be lined up and review them with his right arm crossed against his chest. These are teenagers. They wore black uniforms with white arm bands. Hitlers brown shirts would have approved. His followers called them a bunch of fascists paid by the cia. Their leader denied accepting cia funding but in fall of 1970 kissinger requested money for the support of this fascist organization. Others in the group admitted receiving those funds and added that an extra 5,000 per month filtered in. So back to townly, the bomb maker, he embraced the rhetoric and the actions of father land and freedom and started making bombs for them. The masses are not ready to governor themselves he said. Democracy leads only to mass government ruled by the herd. Power should be reserved for the qualified few, the intellectuals. In the United States, townly connected with about five cubanamericans. They call themselves the Cuban Nationalist Movement headquartered in a new jersey area. By the 1970s, these cubanamericans were disenchanted with the u. S. Government which had dropped them as assets against castro. Heres a picture of a few of them in new jersey along with their logo which has the island of cuba with a number three which means not communism, not capitalism, but a third way and a Lightning Strike against communism which meant violence against cuba. Like contreras, these cubanamericans had decided to kill opponents throughout the world, bombs exploded in mexico city, madrid, london, new york city and paris. U. S. Authorities tied 202 major bombings in 23 countries to cuban exiles, one every five days and 113 of them in the United States. In 1974, cuban exiles accounted for 45 of all terrorist bombings on the planet. The cuban Nationalists Movement motto recalled nazi germany. One cuban member of an organization dismissed this as rightwing extremists. Michael townly was asked during a dinner, what do you think about the world jewish conspiracy. I beg your pardon . Its going to destroy the world if we dont fight it. We must destroy the jews. It seems to me that youve gotten sidetracked on purpose. Fidel castro is too difficult to target. Naturally its easier to fight the jews than the cubans. They helped him build the car bomb and install it. One cuban drove behind him while another pushed the detonator on the bomb. So the assassination was clarifying the divisions those such as Teddy Kennedy who championed human rights, and the vast majority in the middle who needed the car bombing to prompt them to care enough. Early on, mainstream u. S. Observers tended toward absolving the regime. The New York Times editor concluded that it is hard to believe that a regime like kill lee would order the murder of letelier in the United States. The National Security council, writing the day of the assassination admitted that rightwing chileans are the obvious candidates b but they seem to be too obvious. Thankfully, investigation was not up to the ncs. It was the job of the fbi and the attorney generals office. These men led by eugene proper were communists but gifted te technochats. This is eugene proper. For almost 18 months the fbi had no solid lead on this case. They had no name. It turns out it was michael townly. They heard rumors that cubanamericans, a grand jury subpoenaed them, but they kept mum. And the investigation kept getting threats just as orlando and isabelle had before the assassination. Ill give you a few examples of these threats. On october 4, an unknown male called leteliers aunt. Maria, maria, maria, maria he said, talking to the fbimaria, condescendingly, talking to the fbi wont help you. Your legs have been spread lewis like orlandos. Then he hung up. In late november, a fight answer the ant was standing at Kennedy Airport rifling through her purse for a key to an airlines office. Suddenly a man grab her arm and yanked her around. You tell your friend larry to keep his nose out of chiles business or you wont be so pretty anymore. Boom boom, do you know what i mean . This happened over and over again in the investigation. Two of the fbi, the lawyers, to the uj js and everybody who would talk to the fbi. If they could do this and gotaway with it under the easy no of the cia and the fbi said president elect jimmy carter, then no president can govern. He was talking about the assassination. On the one hand it made the United States make unable to police its own borders. It made the cold war seem out of control. On the other hand Foreign Policy makers were careful about pushing a cold war ally too hard. A u. S. Political officer in chile explained that we were not against the chilean government. We are not against what the military had done, which means the overtloef aende. He were against the bufs and it the terrorism that had been performed in its name. So it was often up to regular people likis beale, la tellier,ic moole a move at and organizations to pressure carter officials against the chileans. First to he can pole townley from chile, which proves successful and extradite other chileans, which was unsuccessful. Penne cher nodded, but my book reveals how behind the scenes the dictator orchestrated a cover oup. La tellier and move at, therefore, to be named the widow and the widower were aghast. Move at asked at a press conference, if carter is serious about human rights why dont he welcome isabelle and me just like he is welcoming panachee. Brezin ski didnt help at all, la tellier told me. We could never get through to him. Never. She remembered this in her late 80s. In her activism she focused on his responsible for the assassination. When the right wing media in the u. S. Tried to smear orlando as a tool of fidel castro, he is bell debunked their i loose. The dam finally burst in march of 198, investigators published photos of the two men whose name they ignored but who they suspected of being involved. They had the passport photo but not the names. They knew these men came to washington days before the assassination. They were identified as the two men from chile who were in the United States during the as as nation. Gene proper and coinvestigator carter coal knick landed on friday morning. He and his beard rouse suspicion, was he a hippie . A jew . The americans saw no trace of a chilean manhunt as they portended they were looking for him. It was success spectaculared they prevaricated by hiding townley. There were also consummate officials among the diplomats. George lando demanded a meeting with the chilean foreign minister. He dropped all the politics he practiced over his career and threatened that if he was not made to answer the u. S. Governments questions all u. S. Relations with chile would be endang endangered. Trade, loans, investment, diplomatic relations frankly i dont believe your people are trying very hard he blurted, a rare thing for an ambassador to say. Shortly after, on the 15th floor of the building out of which he ruled opinion shays Political Team met setting about its task of keeping townley in chile. Suddenly the french doors of the meeting roo