Spanish judge indicts 7 for UN diplomat's slaying

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Spanish judge indicts 7 for UN diplomat's slaying
Published: October 30, 2012

MADRID (AP) — Six Chileans and an American accused of the 1976 kidnapping, torture and murder of a Spanish U.N. official in Chile were indicted Tuesday by a Spanish judge who issued international arrest warrants for them to be tried in Spain.

Judge Pablo Ruz charged the seven with genocide linked to the former regime of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and with the killing of Carmelo Soria, the Spanish diplomat who was working for the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America. The suspects were never tried for murder or torture in Chile because they were covered by an amnesty law put in place two years after Soria's murder.

All worked for DINA, Pinochet's secret police agency, and targeted Soria because they were convinced he had been helping Communists in Chile, the judge said in the National Court indictment released Thursday.

The American named is Michael Townley, who served five years in a U.S. prison for complicity in the 1976 assassination in Washington of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and his assistant. Townley was in the U.S. Witness Protection Program as recently as 2010.

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[ck4829]

1. Michael Townley is a terrorist, why is he protected by the government?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Apparently right-wing terrorists are national treasures!

For anyone who hasn't run into this monster's name, here's a short bio.:

Michael Vernon Townley was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1942. His father, Vernon Townley, was appointed head of the Ford Motor Company in Chile. As a result, the family moved to Santiago. Vernon Townley, who had developed links with the CIA while working in the Philippines, became involved in politics and helped fund the 1958 presidential campaign of conservative candidate, Jorge Alessandri who narrowly managed to defeat Salvador Allende in the election.

Michael Townley went to work for Investors Overseas Services, the company owned by Bernard Cornfeld and Robert Vesco. In 1961 Townley married Mariana Callejas. Although active in the Socialist Party of Chile, she was actually working as an informer for Chilean military intelligence. Soon afterwards Townley began working for the CIA. He became associated with a Cuban group called the Chicago Junta. This group included Frank Sturgis, Orlando Bosch, Antonio Veciana and Aldo Vera Serafin. According to Peter Dale Scott, this operational hit team was disbanded on 21st November, 1963, the day before John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

In 1967 Townley moved to Miami. According to Donald Freed (Death in Washington: The Murder of Orlando Letelier) Towney was now being sponsored by Frank Sturgis and the Secret Army Organization (SAO). "Townley began an intensive study of electronics and explosives under the tutelage of several former CIA men who were in the process of taking over an electronics operation in the Fort Lauderdale area." One of Townley's tasks was to plant bombs under the cars of people living in Miami.

More:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKtownleyM.htm