BUENOS AIRES EMBASSY REPORT[SANITIZED] - 1981/06/18

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06626850
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: June 18, 1981

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EMBASSY OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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EO 13526
3.3(b)(1)>25Yrs
I have now been through what purport to be copies of
interrogation reports of Jacobo TIMERMAN following his
arrest April 15, 1979 These reports are dated April 15,
16, 17, 18, 26 and 30. There is also a report that is
missing its first page, and thus cannot be dated. The
reports consist of a combination of detailed summaries of
the Q's and A's and direct, verbatim transcripts. In
several, other people detained at the same time as
TIMERMAN also appear and answer questions. All the trans-
cripts are signed, by the police officers who are supposed
to have been present during the interrogations as well as
by TIMERMAN. The April 16 report states the interrogation
was conducted at Campo de Mayo. The others state they
took place in La Plata.
Though classified "SECRET" by the GOA, these trans-
cripts were supplied to ICA by La Prensa. I believe
that these are the transcripts at were leaked to
La Prensa at the time of TIMERMAN's arrest. The paper
published extracts of them at the time.
Reading these documents was no pleasure. TIMERMAN
writes in his book that he was heavily tortured. Luis
Enrique JARA, TIMERMAN's number two at La Opinion, was
also arrested April 15 and appears in the- transcripts
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giving testimony with TIMERMAN. JARA was later released.
He told the Embassy that he was tortured with a cattle
prod and he believed that TIMERMAN probably received
similar treatment. He also said he heard the guards
yelling "dirty Jew" at TIMERMAN. TIMERMAN himself is
quoted in the April 26 transcripts as stating he was in
"a very diminished mental and physical state." On the
other hand, on April 28 TIMERMAN's son told the Embassy
that the family understood from JARA and another man who
was present during the cross-examination of TIMERMAN
that TIMERMAN did not appear to have been tortured though
he was in a bad mental state.
TIMERMAN, as he is told the first day of his deten-
tion, was arrested on the orders of the Army. He was
formally detained by the Buenos Aires Provincial Police,
however. The interrogator at at least one of these
cross-examinations seems to be the B.A. Police Chief,
then Col. Ram6n CAMPS.,
In preparing what follows, I have refrained from
using the words "reportedly," "allegedly" and the like to
keep from exhausting whoever might read this. Given the
origins of the texts, the reader should assume that these
caveats appear at what would be the appropriate places
throughout my summary.
The transcripts give the following impressions:
(A) TIMERMAN was arrested, in part, because of the
Army's interest in his connection with David GRAIVER.
The first thing he is asked about on April 15 is his
connection to GRAIVER. This theme continues throughout
the transcripts. GRAIVER provided the money to get
La Opinion started in 1971 and had 45% of the paper's
stock until his death or disappearance August 7, 1976.
TIMERMAN had 457 and Jorge RUTEMBERG, his life-long
friend, had 10%. The GRAIVER tie takes up a great deal
of the interrogations. The questions seemed to be aimed
at finding out what influence GRAIVER had at La Opinion.
GRAIVER was a financial wheeler-dealer whose opera-
tions brought down many people in Argentina, as well as
two banks in the United States. The GRAIVER scandal
began to take on larger and larger dimensions following
his death/disappearance in Mexico in August 1976. One
aspect of the GRAIVER scandal was his alleged role in
laundering money for the Montoneros that the latter
derived from their robberies, kidnapping and blackmail
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operations, The Embassy (State, FBI, at the time
seemed to believe that this charge against GRAIVER was,
at best, "not proven" and probably without foundation.
However, it was at the time widely rumored. Far more
certain were the fraudulent and corrupt practices that
GRAIVER engaged in to build his financial network.
GRAIVER's money got La Opinion started. He and
TIMERMAN had worked together in other operations. He
was also suspected, at least, of being a man who laun-
dered Montonero money. Finally, the Montoneros had
at one time a very significant presence on the paper.
Thus, the interest of the interrogators in learning more
about GRAIVER's connection with La Opinion and its
publisher does not seem terribly unnatural.
In fact, at one point TIMERMAN states that after the
GRAIVER scandal began to break, many people advised him,
TIMERMAN, to leave the country because he was sure to
be arrested, TIMERMAN says he did not follow the advice
because he wanted to make clear that he, not GRAIVER,
ran the paper. Throughout the interrogation TIMERMAN
maintains, plausibly to me, that GRAIVER had no influence
on La Opinion's editorial policy. I wonder though what
GRATVER got out of the paper for his money.
(B) TIMERMAN never told anybody at the paper about
GRAIVER's La Opinion connection, however. The unfor-
tunate JART�finds out about this during the cross-
examination of TIMERMAN, as does another La Opinion
editor, Ramiro de CASASBELLAS, who was also detained
with TIMERMAN, In fact, both say that TIMERMAN speci-
fically denied this connection to them when they asked
him about it before.
3.3(b)(1)
(C) TIMERMAN's arrest may also have been connected
with La Opinion's publication of reports about habeas
corpus petitions filed on behalf of disappeared persons.
(Bob COX of the Herald was also detained at about the
same time, for this reason and at the behest of Army
hardliners.) At one point TIMERMAN's interrogator
asks him if he wasn't told to stop printing news about
habeas corpus petitions. TIMERMAN answers that
Interior Minister Harguindeguy had warned him, and he
had cut way back after this conversation. However, he
said, he thought Harguindeguy gave him the go-ahead to
publish a story on disappearances every once in a while.
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(D) TIMERMAN's jewishness and his zionism are subjects
of some interest to his interrogators. They do not came
across in these documents as central to the purpose of
the questioning. Perhaps at one point when TIMERMAN
tells them he is a "leftist" and a "zionist" that is all
the confirmation they need for their assumption about
the connection between the two. To the man or the men
asking the question, leftist is the same as marxist, as
he (they) makes clear to TIMERMAN at another point.
TIMERMAN resists this identification -- but the questioner
insists that La Opinion and TIMERMAN are "leftist,
zionist, pro-marxist." JARA, who is present at the
interrogation when TIMERMAN states that his ideology and
the ideology of Opinion are leftist-zionist, expresses
surprise, stating that when TIMERMAN hired him he,
TIMERMAN, stated that the paper was "democratic and
pluralist." TIMERMAN states at several points that he
founded Opinion with the purpose of following the model
of Le Monde. But he also says that he intended to give
the paper a leftist-zionist orientation to fill an
important gap in the market place. Intellectuals and
young people, he states, were the particular target
audiences of the paper. As noted above, JARA told the
Embassy after he was freed that he heard the guards
yelling anti-semitic abuse at TIMERMAN. JARA also felt
that some of the questioning of TIMERMAN reflected anti-
semitic attitudes, (I would agree. And CAMPS is
notorious as an anti-semite.)
(E) Montoneros and leftists were among the first
staffers hired by TIMERMAN. He makes the point,
several times, that material representing the viewpoint
of this sector did not dominate the paper's coverage.
However, he recognizes that the paper did publish
some articles which aided and abetted the Montonero
cause. In 1973 he brought in JARA with the expressed
purpose of getting rid of the Montoneros -- a task that
was apparently accomplished over the next two years.
TIMERMAN also makes the point that the Montoneros
dominated La Opinion's union and through that domina-
tion causea�him a great deal of trouble until he (he
claims he was the first publisher to do so) broke the
union's control over the paper's employees.
(F) There is much interest in former President
LANUSSE and his connections with GRAIVER. GRAIVER
comes across as a man who spread contamination far and
wide. A portion of the interrogation centers on
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TIMERMAN's relationship to Edgardo SAJON. SAJON was
LANUSSE's press secretary, a close associate of
GRAIVER and manager of the printing operation at
Opinion. He disappeared in April 1977 shortly before
TIMERMAN was detained. He probably died soon after.
The transcripts also reveal that LANUSSE's son and
daughter both worked in GRAIVER's private office, which
I have learned was well known at the time.
(G) TIMERMAN, like GRAIVER, also had close connec-
tions with Jose GELBARD, Finance Minister in the last
Peron government and a wheeler-dealer of major propor-
tions. GELBARD and GRAIVER were involved in the
establishment of such major investments as Papel Prensa
and Aluar, operations that always had a touch of scandal
about them. GELBARD's business and/or political ties
ran to people like Frondizi, the Frigerios and
Martinez de Hoz's family. TIMERMAN admits in the tapes
to taking $100,000 consultant's fee from GELBARD and
having the money deposited in his Swiss account.
According to JARA and CASASBELLAS, TIMERMAN gave strict
marching orders that La Opinion was to support GELBARD's
policies while Finance Minister and also the establish-
ment of the Aluar plant. It takes no imagination to
believe that the consultant fee helped purchase the
good coverage. (In fact, JARA later told the Embassy
that this is precisely what happened.)
(H) TIMERMAN comes across as a man of checkered cre-
dentials. He states that he founded the magazine
Confirmado in 1964(?) at the request of Army General
VILLEGAS. The purpose of Confirmado was to support
Ongania and undermine the elected democratic government
of President Illia, he says. He makes this point on
two separate occasions. He also states that he
accepted $200,000 from the German firm Siemen's when the
latter was competing with ITT. The money was paid to
his Swiss account.
(I) After GRAIVER's death or disappearance, TIMERMAN
maneuvered to get his share of the paper away from his
survivors -- principally his wife. This story comes
out in the interrogation in which GRAIVER's widow --
also a detainee -- appears. According to the widow,
who also appears in the transcripts, TIMERMAN first told
her that hanging on to the shares placed her life in
jeopardy. When that didn't work, TIMERMAN played
another card, technically legal but in spirit, perhaps,
fraudulent. He published an advertisement in a local
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paper announcing a stockholders meeting. The ad followed
the letter of Argentine law but was so obscurely placed
that the GRAIVERS never saw it. TIMERMAN and RUTEMBERG
met and voted a new stock split, so that the GRAIVER
family wound up with 27, TIMERMAN with 687 and RUTEMBERG
with 387g. (Actually, there were two firms -- one owned
the paper and the other owned its printing plant. The
stock shuffling was more complicated than described here.
But the picture, if simplified, is accurate.) TIMERMAN
maintains that GRAIVER never put more money in the paper
after 1971, thus justifying the split. GRAIVER's widow
says that on the contrary, her husband put in substantial
money and she has the documents to prove it.
COMMENT. I have attached fiveEmbassy cables from
April/May 1977 that give indispensable background on the
whole TIMERMAN affair. They should be read. Notable
are JARA's statement to the Embassy which corroborate
what he and TIMERMAN are reported in the transcripts to
have said.
My own conclusions after plowing through the trans-
cripts and the cables are:
(1) TIMERMAN was no subversive. He opposed terror-
ism. Nor was he the tool of the Montoneros. He was an
opportunist who propitiated this sector when many Argen-
tines were doing the same. And he challenged them
in 1973, before many others were willing to do so; this
was JARA's assignment.
(2) TIMERMAN was not arrested because he was a Jew or
because he was publishing news about disappearances.
He was arrested because of his connections with GRAIVER.
Once in jail, he was subject to anti-semitic abuse, of
some sort, and probably was tortured.
(3) TIMERMAN's arrest, finally, was connected to
something much larger; an attempt by the "hardliners" in
the Army in an effort to destroy the moderates, including
then President VIDELA. The GRAIVER scandal was to be the
weapon in the hardliners' assault. The authors and
executors of this war plan were then First Army
Commander SUAREZ MASON and Buenos Aires Governor SAINT
JEAN. The vile Col. CAMPS was the main executor, at
least as far as TIMERMAN was concerned. VIDELA was
finally able to block these efforts. VIOLA, who was
then Army Chief of Staff, was certainly an important
ally. Interestingly, VIDELA took the GRAIVER investiga-
tion away from CAMPS and the hardliners, entrusting it
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to the Army G-4 who was Gen. GALLINO, now Governor of
Buenos Aires Province.
The whole saga painted in these transcripts and cables
goes far beyond TIMERMAN. It is the story of political,
economic and moral debasement of Argentina's political,
economic and labor leaders, and, it must be concluded,
important elements of Argentina's upper and middle classes.
They all play in the same park, and by the same rules or
lack of rules. Torture and corruption -- violence and
degradation -- seem finally to be at the heart of Argen-
tine political life. The military, the terrorists, the
politicians, the industrial leaders and the journalists
are all aware of this condition and accept it. The excep-
tions to this blanket indictment are many -- but they have
not written the sad tale known as Argentine history.
The TIMERMAN story; the GRAIVER story; the LANUSSE story;
the SUAREZ MASON story; the MASSERA story; the PERON story;
are not exceptions. They are illustrations, Together
they make it virtually impossible to be anything but
pessimistic about this country's future.
The conversion of TIMERMAN into a human rights hero
does nothing to loosen the grip of such pessimism. To the
contrary. Major human rights violations took place here.
The nation turned its back on the fundamental achievement
of Western civilization -- the rule of law. And that
message need to be understood, especially in Argentina.
But there could not be a more unfortunate messenger than
TIMERMAN. Human rights issues inevitably became mixed up
with him -- and his shady, disreputable reputation. The
people who most need to be made to listen to the message --
that civilized nations do not behave the way Argentina
did -- turn off when TIMERMAN speaks. More importantly,
they conclude that if TIMERMAN is considered a human
rights hero, then the human rights issues, like TIMERMAN,
are phony political issues. However unjust such a
conclusion, the fact is that rather than serving human
rights in Argentina, TIMERMAN's identification with the
issue has damaged them.
Attachments:
1.
77 Buenos Aires
2820
2.
77 Buenos Aires
3052
3.
77 Buenos Aires
3133
4.
77 Buenos Aires
3260
5.
77 Buenos Aires
3293
Drafted:POL:TBFr n:gbm
6/18/81
Cleared:POLCOUNS:JF
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