[ This September 28, 1976 cable is from the FBI's legal attaché
in Buenos Aires, Robert Scherrer. For more than two decades, it was
almost the only released U.S. document that mentions Condor, and
has been widely quoted in books and articles. ]
P 28??30 SEP 76
FM BUENOS AIRES (109-2) (189-9)
TO DIRECTOR (1?9-12-201) (1?9-12-2?7) PRIORITY 204-28
BRASILIA PRIORITY ?26-28
MADRID PRIORITY ??7-28
PARIS PRIORITY 6?1-28
S E C R E T
FOREIGN POLITICAL MATTERS - ARGENTINA; IS - ARGENTINA;
FOREIGN POLITICAL MATTERS - CHILE; IS - CHILE.
On September 28, 1976, a confidential source abroad [one line
deleted] provided the following information:
"Operation Condor" is the code name for the collection, exchange
and storage of intelligence data concerning socalled "leftists,"
communists and Marxists, which was recently established between
cooperating intelligence services in South America in order to
eliminate Marxist terrorist activities in the area. In addition,
"Operation Condor" provides for joint operations against terrorist
targets in member countries of "Operation Condor." Chile is the
center for "Operation Condor" and in addition to Chile its members
include Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Brazil also has
tentatively agreed to supply intelligence input for "Operation
Condor." Members of "Operation Condor" showing the most enthusiasm
to date have been Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. The latter three
countries have engaged in joint operations, primarily in Argentina,
against the terrorist target. During the week of September 20,
1976, the [two lines deleted] with respect to "Operation Condor."
A third and most secret phase of "Operation Condor" involves the
formation of special teams from member countries who are to travel
anywhere in the world to non-member countries to carry out
sanctions up to assassination against terrorists or supporters of
terrorist organizations from "Operation Condor" member countries.
For example, should a terrorist or a supporter of a terrorist
organization from a member country of "Operation Condor" be located
in a European country, a special team from "Operation Condor"
would be dispatched to locate and surveil the target. When the
location and surveillance operation has terminated, a second team
from "Operation Condor" would be dispatched to carry out the actual
sanction against the target. Special teams would be issued false
documentation from member countries of "Operation Condor" and may
be composed exclusively of individuals from one member nation of
"Operation Condor" or may be composed [of a] mixed group from
various "Operation Condor" member nations. European countries,
specifically mentioned for possible operations under the third
phase of "Operation Condor" were France and Portugal.
A special team has been organized [two lines deleted] which are
being prepared for possible future action under the third phase of
"Operation Condor."
[three lines deleted]
coordinated locally.
It should be noted that no information has been developed
indicating that sanctions under the third phase of "Operation
Condor" have been planned to be carried out in the United States;
however, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the recent
assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. may have been
carried out as a third phase action of "Operation Condor." As noted
above, information available [from] the source indicates that
particular emphasis was placed on the third phase actions of
"Operation Condor" in Europe, specifically France and Portugal.
This office will remain alert for any information indicating that
the assassination of Letelier may be [part] of "Operation Condor"
action.
[ The Defense Intelligence Agency recently declassified a more
complete version of the above information, reproduced here as
page 1 and
page 2. The additional
lines are added below. The fact that the Pentagon was interested in Condor
in 1976 may be relevant to the communications network mentioned in
Document 2, below. The Pentagon's Special Operations Forces were
frequently assigned to CIA officers during the Vietnam war, particularly
for special missions. This is only a few years later, so the same
arrangement may have existed in Latin America. ]
Country: Argentina
Subject: (U) Special Operations Forces (U)
Date of information: 1976, Sep 28
Date of report: 1976, Oct 1
This IR provides information on joint counterinsurgency operations
by several countries in South America. Information was provided by
US Embassy Legal Attache who has excellent contacts within the
State Secretariat for Information and Federal Police Force.
This IR partially fulfills requirement of ICR A-TAC-44396.
...
During the week of 20 September 1976, the Director of the Argentine
Army Intelligence Service traveled to Santiago to consult with his
Chilean counterparts on Operation Condor (This travel is similar to
trip reported in IR b 804 0309 76.)
2. ------------- During the period 24-27 September 1976, members of
the Argentine State Secretariat for Information (SIDE), operating
with officers of the Uruguayan Military Intelligence Service
carried out operations against the Uruguayan Terrorist
organization, the OPR-33 in Buenos Aires. As a result of this joint
operation, SIDE officials claimed that the entire OPR-33
infrastructure in Argentina has been eliminated. A large volume of
US currency was seized during the combined operation.
...
4. ------------- A special team has apparently been organized in
Argentina for use in "Operation Condor." They are members of the
Argentine Army Intelligence Service and the State Secretariat for
Information. They are reportedly structured much like a US Special
Forces Team with a medic (doctor), demolition expert, etc. They are
apparently being prepared for action in phase three.
COMMENT: ------------ More and more is being heard about "Operation
Condor" in the southern cone. Military officers who, heretofore,
had been mum on the subject have begun to talk openly about it. A
favorite remark is that "one of their colleagues is out of the
country because he is flying like [a] condor."
[ State Department cable from U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay Robert White,
to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, October 13, 1978. This document
was discovered by Prof. J. Patrice McSherry of Long Island
University, who has published several articles on Condor. It was
reported in the March 6, 2001 New York Times. McSherry
described this cable, with its reference to U.S. communication
facilities in Panama as participating in Condor, as "another piece
of increasingly weighty evidence suggesting that U.S. military and
intelligence officials supported and collaborated with Condor as a
secret partner or sponsor." ]
O 1319?5Z OCT 78
C O N F I D E N T I A L ASUNCION ????
ROGER CHANNEL
I.D. 11??2: GDS
REF: ASUNCION ?375
1. On October 11 I called again on chief of staff General Alejandro
Fretes Davalos. After preliminary courtesies, he read me the ACTA(?)
or summary minutes resulting from the visit of General Orozco,
chief of Chilean intelligence, to Asuncion. The document itself
makes no direct reference to the Letelier case. Fretes said the
president had authorized him to brief me on the ACTA but he
preferred to read it verbatim.
2. The document is basically an agreement to coordinate all
intelligence resources in order to control and eliminate
subversion. It speaks of exchange of information, prompt use of
communication facilities, monitoring of subversives and their
detention and informal hand over from one country to the other. It
repeats over and over the need for full cooperation and mutually
facilitative acts in the context of a fight to the death against
subversion.
3. In response to my questions, Fretes Davalos gave the following
account of the meeting between Chile and Paraguay. It was simply
another in a regular series of meeting which take place annually
among the chiefs of intelligence of the countries of the southern
cone. This system of consultations came into being mainly as a
defense against the threat of Argentine subversion spreading to
other countries. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and
Uruguay make up the net, although Uruguay is now almost on the
inactive list. Fretes Davalos said the meetings are not
particularly useful anymore, in his judgment, because the main
threat (from Argentina) has been eliminated. They keep in touch
with one another through a U.S. communications installation in the
Panama Canal Zone which covers all of Latin America. This U.S.
communications facility is used mainly by student officers to call
home to Latin America but it is also employed to co-ordinate
intelligence information among the southern cone countries. They
maintain the confidentiality of their communication throu[gh] the
U.S. facility in Panama by using bilateral codes. In his view the
whole network is practically useless and serves mainly to permit
chiefs of intelligence to exaggerate their own diminishing
importance.
4. COMMENT: Obviously this is the Condor network which all of us
have heard about over the last few years. Although Fretes Davalos
told me he had only mentioned to President Stroessner that we were
going to talk about the meeting, I suspect the President vetoed
Fretes' stated intention of providing me with a copy of the ACTA
and instead told him to read it to me. Either I misunderstood or
Fretes misspoke in our previous meeting (REFTEL) when he said
Argentina had also attended. Apparently two bilateral meetings with
Chile and Argentina took place one after the other and some
sessions may even have overlapped.
5. RECOMMENDATION: The two FBI agents here tell me there is
likelihood Condor will surface during Letelier trial in the U.S. If
General Fretes Davalos is accurate in describing the communications
it uses as an encrypted system within U.S. communications net (and
I have no knowledge whether this is true), it would seem advisable
to review this arrangement to insure that its continuation is in
U.S. interest.
WHITE
FM AMEMBASSY ASUNCION
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 426?
TAGS: ?GOV, S?UM
SUBJECT: SECOND MEETING WITH CHIEF OF STAFF RE LETELIER CASE
