ARGENTINA MUST WAIT TO TRY MIKE TOWNLEY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606730002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 16, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 :CIA-RDP90-005528000606730002-9
APt~~
AR : I CZ-~
Olr P AG~$-1, -=~ ,
~TASHII~TGTON TIMES
16 June 1983
Argentina must wait,
to try Mike Townley
By Jeremiah O'Leary
YMSMINGTON TIMES STAFF
For the space of maybe two min-
uteslast month, Michael V. Townley,
the convicted car-bombingassassin
of former Chilean Ambassador
Orlando Letelierand Ronni K Mof-
fitt, was a free man.
?But no sooner was he handed his
parole at an unnamed .federal
prison than U.S. marshals arrested
him, this time for almost certain
extradition to Argentina. 'There,
the 41-year-old American expatri-
ate and former hit-man for the
Chilean military intelligence ser-
~~ce, will be tried for putting outthe
contract for the 1974 murder-of
Chilean Gen. Carlos Prats and his
wife. ? ~ ?
The next act in the cloak-and-
dagger life of, Mike Townley was to
have taken place ir. Alexandria fed-
eral court tomorrow, but will be
delayed until July because the
death of Judge Oreni.ewis has the
courthouse closed for the day.
Townley, after five years and one
month in U.S. prisons, now faces a
life-sentence in Argentina for the
mtirder of the Prats family.
But Townley, some officials .
believe, might well be safer in an
Argentine. jail than he would be
walking any street in the United
States where the anti-Castro
Omega 7 organization would kill
him on sight, or in Chile, where he
is hated by former members of the
DINA intelligence organization for
unveiling.so much about those vio-
lent organizations.
He'is'now more than a convicted
assassin. 1tililce Townley, the elec-
tronics wizard who becaare an
expert maker of bottfti~s, has
become a pawn in the foreign-policy
relationships of the United States
with Argentina and Chile.
R'h}? is Argentina, where thou-
sands disappeared in the so-called
"dirty war" waged by the military
government against the leftist
A1ortoneros .and perceived. oppo-
nents of an}~ stripe, so interested in
tr}?ing a Chilean assassin for mur-
dering aChilean general%.:
U.S. officials believe there are
three reasons:
? There isfiad blood and consid-
erable tension. between; the two
neighboring Southern Cone?repub-
lics.Chile fears a sLdden Argentine
? attack,aswa&madeonthe?Falkiand.
Islands; somuch~so that the~armed
forcesoflbeatfcountriesweatAnred
alert ~ast;week when an Argentine
.helicopter made a forced landing on
~tbe Chilean :.side of the.. Andes. "
Argentina _would like to see .Chile
c, .~n+barrass~......,rk,'..~._:-
~ights-gsounds. "'" '""`?''`"t""."s'.
- ? The Argentine military. about
to give up power in October elec-
tions that will bring the Peronists
back into control, are well aware
that Prats and his wife?were killed
when the Peronists were running
.things in Buenos Aires in 1474..The
present government wants no new
Peronist president in a position to
go seeking culprits for the
desaparecidos (disappeared onesl
now that the internal strife -has
ceased.
? Argentina places a high prior- .
itv on receiving U.S. certification
tttar?iris?~observing new and `ltigh?-
standards of human rights,and the
public trial of a ~Chileaniied
-American would help ~ ensure'thaf '
the Reagan administration issues
the certification after the October
elections. ? .
Townley seems to have more
strikes- against him than ;anyone
imaginable.
~= He went to Chile as aw2een-ager
with his .family and became an
ardent supporter of .the military
government which had taken over
in the revolution of 1973.
He and his wife, Mariana,
became agents of -DINA. His
assignments became Letelier,
killed in Washington in September
1916; Prats, slain in Buenos Aires;
the failed effort to kill exiled politi-
clans Volodia Teitelboim and Carlos
. Alfamirano in Alexico in,1975: and
a gunshot attack on politician Ber-
nardo Leighton in Italy the same
year.
When the Washington Star
printed Townley's photo, enabling
the FBI to discover his identity,
.,,ilean,.PrESidsnt..$ugusto.. Pino-
~~chet ordered him handed over to the
United States.
. Townley, either feeling betrayed
- or acting on orders, made a deal
.with the prosecutors that laid bare
? much about the heinous work of
-'DIVA --now disbanded -and
'about the~Cuban Omega .7. group
`which had helped him place and .
`: ignitethebombunderLetelier'scar
here.
. , - In return for hiscooperation, the
prosecutors agreed to ask that he be
set free after serc-ing 40 months,
but U.S. District Judge Barrington
Parker said this deal was not bind-
ing. His release came on May 6, in
_ ~ the undisclosed prison where
Townley was entering the sixth year
- of -his imprisonment. The new
arrest swiftly followed.
Townley has lost the use of his
own name, because federal authori-
ties gave him a new identity under
the witness.protection program to
save him from assassination in jail.
He also has lost his wife in .what
sources describe as a separation.
She was last reported in Spain.
There is every reason to expect
U:S. Magistrate Ross Grimsley in
Alexandria to order his extradition
to Argentina, based on the evi-
dence.The finding will be reviewed
by a federal judgeand if extradition
is upheld, Tbwnley's attorneys can
appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals. The last step is for Sec-
retary of State George P. Shultz to
givehis approval of the extradition.
No later than sia months from
now Mike Townley will be on his
way back to a culture he long ago
found preferable to his own
American background.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 :CIA-RDP90-005528000606730002-9