John McCain has spent much of the general election campaign speaking of how irresponsible and dangerous it is to meet with tyrannical rulers of foreign nations unconditionally. There appears to be a time however, when he apparently thought it to be okay.
Yet another issue, which paints John McCain as hypocritical or serves to re-enforce him as a double talker has surfaced.
The Huffington Post is reporting that in 1985, then Congressman John McCain traveled to Chile to meet with that country’s dictator,
General Augusto Pinochet.
According to a declassified
U.S. Embassy cable about the meeting, McCain described the meeting with Pinochet
"as friendly and at times warm, but noted that Pinochet does seem obsessed with the threat of communism." McCain, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the time, made no public or private statements critical of the dictatorship. A
second State Department cable describes the content of the 30 minute meeting. What makes the visit with Pinochet more curious, is the fact that McCain, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the time, did not meet with members of the democratic opposition in Chile.
There were other U.S. congressional leaders who visited Chile also. The difference being they made public statements against the dictatorship and in support of a return to democracy, becoming the target of violent pro-Pinochet demonstrations. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy arrived 12 days after McCain, and displayed a public show of support for democracy. Demonstrators blocked the road from the airport, so that Kennedy had to be transported by helicopter to the city, in order to meet with Catholic church officials, human rights leaders and opposition activists.
A foreign policy aide to the Massachusetts Senator and former State Department human rights official Mark Schneider, who organized Kennedy's trip, said he had no idea McCain had been there only days before:
"It would be very surprising and disappointing if Senator McCain went to Chile to meet with a dictator and did not forcefully demand a return to democracy and then to publicly call for a return to democracy."
Three years after McCain's visit, Pinochet was
defeated by referendum, and free elections to restore a democratic government occurred a year later. Many U.S. congressmen traveled to Chile in support of the transition to democracy, including Republican Senator Richard Lugar. John McCain however, by then a first term senator, did not return to Chile.
So essentially, John McCain felt it was alright to meet with one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights, who's credited with killing more than 3,000 of his countries civilians as well as sanctioning an assassination by bombing on US soil, as long as he was against socialism? McCain's presence in Chile was apparently kept as quiet as possible, and the private meeting between McCain and dictator Pinochet has gone previously un-reported anywhere.
On September 11, 1973, Pinochet, twenty days after being appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, led a bloody coup that overthrew the democratically elected Socialist government of President Salvador Allende. Pinochet and his military partners seized power, bombed the presidential palace, padlocked the congress, outlawed all political activity and actively persecuted its opponents. Pinochet remained in power for 17 years. He was eventually charged with 36 counts of kidnapping, 23 counts of torture and one count of murder, but was spared trial for health reasons and died at age 91 in December 2006.
At the time of the meeting, the U.S. Justice Department was seeking the extradition of two close Pinochet associates for an act of terrorism in Washington DC: the 1976 assassination of former ambassador to the U.S. and former Chilean Foreign Minister
Orlando Letelier by a car bombing on Sheridan Circle in Washington, DC. This incident was considered one of the most egregious act of international terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil by a foreign power. It also occurred when the Chilean strongman wielded unrestricted dictatorial power and any public democratic demonstrators were exposed to great risk.
Throughout the general election campaign, John McCain has said his presidential opponents willingness to meet with foreign dictators was dangerous, but his past meeting with Pinochet strikes of hypocrisy. He may actually have a little wiggle room with Pinochet because the Chilean dictator's government was not hostile towards the US. However, they had committed acts of terrorism on US soil.
The McCain campaign press office said no one was available to comment on the story. The campaign may just leave this topic alone with only 10 days left until Election Day. Until then, the 'Double Talk Express' rides on.
