My long-time friend and veteran reporter/editor --
John Dinges-- has
a world-wide exclusive story up on
The Huffington Post. Based on U.S. diplomatic cables, he confirms that in 1985 then-congressman
John McCain held a private meeting with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
No preconditions. No nothing. No public announcement of the meeting. No denunciation of human rights violations. No meetings with the then-fledgling and very persecuted Chilean democratic opposition. Agreement that Communism was a big problem.
Who knew McCain was so prescient? Some 23 years later McCain is battling American Socialism.
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October 24th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Cudos to John Dinges — excellent piece of reporting. Look forward to hearing the McCain response after this story gets some bounce.
Maybe McCain & Palin will argue that salmon and trout fishing and riding horses are more than appropriate preconditions for a meeting with a terrorist dictator.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:01 am
I sympathize, but this is the very definition of a dog that won’t hunt. The problem is that though Pinochet was a dictator, he was a friendly dictator.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Then there’s this article that’s been up since yesterday. McCain Urged Reagan Admin To Meet Terror Groups Without Pre-Conditions is the title. In the comments section of that one, a McCain apologist made a very nice spin attempt by saying that that was 1) before 9/11 and 2) when McCain was a young, brash Senator that didn’t know any better. They went on to say that McCain has learned much in the past twenty years and that that is the sort of bad call a young Senator might make, like Obama is now. It’s b.s., but a very nice attempt indeed.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Thanks for this! I squealed. In the middle of the night.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Aside from David Letterman McCain’s association with Liddy hasn’t been exploited and it would be doubtful the Dems will exploit the meeting with Pinochet–though the ad almost makes itself.
I thought Allende’s fate was sealed by the CIA. So Pinochet–as Marc would know best–was installed to make sure no left leaning democracy would interfere with American interests.
Unless an interviewer can raise the issue on a major news program and rub his nose in his own poo about meeting boogeymen without preconditions it will just be another ball the Dems drop.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:33 am
I call for the immediate termination of this website on the basis of lies, slander, and making my head hurt. It goes against all conventional wisdom. Shame on the Matthew 25 Network!
October 24th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Here is their fact check website on Obama, Put Away Falsehood.
October 24th, 2008 at 4:04 am
It would be a shame if the Obama campaign or the press wasted any time discussing whom he met with decades ago.
The Pinochet meeting does add anecdote to the contradictions we can already see in McCain’s statements and positions, but dwelling on them distracts from the much more timely, effective and fair-minded examination of his policies, proposals and statements — all of which reveal exactly the same contradictions.
The Obama campaign is far better off staying on the high road and part of that is demonstrating that meetings with this or that person decades ago — unless they involved criminal or unethical behavior or appearances of same — are best left to historians and not directly relevant to a reasonable debate about the policy challenges and dilemmas America faces.
October 24th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Twenty-three years ago McCain was not President and did not have the benefit of hindsight. At least he’s grown.
Twenty-three years ago, Obama was being taught and trained by socialists. And, he’s grown into an even bigger one.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:20 am
C’mon. McCain totes would’ve sided w/ democracy, he just forgot his Iraq security detail!
>>>Senator Edward Kennedy arrived only 12 days after McCain in a highly public show of support for democracy. Demonstrators pelted his entourage with eggs and blocked the road from the airport, so that the Senator had to be transported by helicopter to the city, where he met with Catholic church and human rights leaders and large groups of opposition activists.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:29 am
(Of course, Kennedy had it easy).
October 24th, 2008 at 6:41 am
I love this, Marc. Thanks for the breakfast present.
Viejos huevones.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Turns out it can get very expensive putting lipstick on a pit bull…
http://tinyurl.com/5thhpg
October 24th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Another leaving the McCain bandwagon: New York Times endorses Obama for president. Who would have guessed?
October 24th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Twenty-three years ago McCain was not President and did not have the benefit of hindsight.
McCain should have known about the indictment of Manuel Contreras for an act of terrorism committed in Washington, DC. Contreras was the man that Pinochet had breakfast with every morning at La Moneda when Contreras was head of La DINA. He should have known of the other acts of terrorism: the shooting of Bernardo Leighton in Rome, the carbombing of Genral Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires as well as a plot to assassinate then Congresman Ed Koch as part of an Operation Condor plot; Operation Condor being the transnational terrorist organization cofounded by Pinochet.
MCain pals around with terrorists.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:51 am
And I call for the immediate termination of this website on the basis of lies, slander, and making my head hurt. It goes against all conventional wisdom. Shame on the Matthew 25 Network!
October 24th, 2008 at 7:53 am
BTW, a week ago Thursday marked the tenth anniversary of Pinochet’s arrest in London. Wonder what McCain thought of it. Bush’s father called it a “travesty of justice.’
October 24th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Wow,
I agree with Bunkbuster, even though this is a bombshell, I’m not sure how it can used without taking away from Obama’s momentum, seems like everyone had their finger in this one.
Also Woody, did you hear about your girl failing the lie detector test? She’s about to go down with Charles Stuart, Susan Smith etc….
October 24th, 2008 at 10:30 am
This story serves as a reminder why the whole outrage over Ayers is pure, fabricated BS. American politicians, both Dem and Repub, are not only connected to people like Pinochet with horendous records of state sanctioned abuse but American foriegn policy has and continues to aid and abbet all sorts of injustice across the globe. If Woody was interested in having a real, honest dialogue about American politicans “association with terrorist” it wouldn’t start with Ayers, whose opposition to the our barbaric war in Vietnam should be commended.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:02 am
“If Woody was interested in having a real, honest dialogue…”
And if pigs-in-lipstick could fly…
October 24th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Rssrx,
Apparently it is a hoax.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Great link, Reg.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:25 am
No one thinks this story is the centerpiece of the campaign, or is having some major effect on the outcome. But it is, like the clothes story, serving to keep them on the defensive, serving to make them think about how to respond, and serving to highlight the hypocrisy of the McCain campaign if only for a news cycle or two. And really, that’s all it has to do. Just another drop of sand in the growing pile.
The fact that they have to spend time talking about this (clothes) at all two weeks before the election is a giant waste of thier time, and a serious plus for Obama. This is the kind of defense it seemed Kerry had to constantly play. This time they get to play defense. Good.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:31 am
A friend of mine made an amusing trip to the store to give us a little perspective: http://tinyurl.com/6lkhuf
October 24th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Ahmed, good points, but you shouldn’t be surprised: Republicans don’t really care about democracy, they care about manipulating “free” markets and legislating morality. Some true conservatives (yes, a rare breed, but a few are still out there somewhere) care about democracy and individual liberties, which is what the Republicans need to embrace if they want to represent normal Americans again. I’m not holding my breath, but it will be interesting to watch the party wrangle (and strangle!) with itself in the years to come.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Marc — mildly curious about the photo you pasted on this thread.
Pinochet looks annoyed. Like he’s waiting for something to be done with. Just a photo shoot? What’s the reflective glint on Pinochet’s sunglasses? At what is he looking?
October 24th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Hey everybody, long time no post.
I don’t know how you’ll feel about it… but Patterico’s domain has been hijacked.,/a> (If any of you have a bookmark for him, you should change it to the address at the link.)
Marc, from what I’ve heard, you’ve been doing okay at the poker table… throw him a few bucks?
I intend to as well.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Oops. Sorry about the unclosed tag.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Rob,
This should answer your questions.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
“Also Woody, did you hear about your girl failing the lie detector…” test?
Ahmed…you give Woody credit for HAVING a girl. He doesn’t. The only thing he has is “issues”. We discovered this a few threads back.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Uh, Anna, not only does Woody have a wife, he has a woodchipper, too
October 24th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Speaking of the S word, this is too good not to share:
http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2202950
October 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Oh, neat. Bush is set to open a a diplomatic presence in Iran…after the election.
Fallujah, anyone?
October 24th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Whoops, the link:
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/davidcorn/
October 24th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
As I’ve been pointing out at every opportunity, Teddy Roosevelt was the first Presidential candidate to propose national health insurance. McCain is a phony, and possibly none too bright. He invokes Roosevelt because Mark Salter thought it would sound cool…
October 24th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
(That was in response to Rob G’s Teddy Roosevelt (The Progressive who bolted the Republican Party because it was too conservative) link…
October 24th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Uh, Anna, not only does Woody have a wife, he has a woodchipper, too.
Do you notice does he have to kick her when she starts to stutter when the hard drive wobbles…or does she have a funny hair do and dress like a K Mart version of someone on Little House on the Prairie.
If he has a woodchipper its only because he watched Fargo by mistake, but thought a woodchipper might come in handy…
October 24th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
reg — You’re right. Timothy Noah’s just got a longer groove on the little TR nuggets you’ve been posting here. Linked it just in case any of Marc’s readers might have missed your pearls of wisdom.
Btw, I finally figured out the DVR thingy… Apparently, Cooper alum from the Nation — Christopher Hitchens and Katrina Vander Groovin (Sp?) — on Larry King. About the election, I assume? Haven’t watched it yet. Any good?
October 24th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
This whole “meeting without preconditions” thing is an utterly inane construction by McCain. I understand why the inept and corrupt MSM never challenged it, but I wish Obama had said “That’s ridiculous, John; meeting with someone doesn’t validate their agenda — American Presidents met with Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev, but that doesn’t mean they blessed Communism”.
And this story doesn’t have any bearing on that, because McCain wasn’t President. But it does further reinforce what we already — or should already — know, that John McCain is elitist slime without any concern for the sufferers in this world (a more successful Woody, if you will).
October 24th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
A couple of rejoinders. I don’t get this stuff about this dog not hunting or this story not “counting” if it doesnt get picked up by major media. What’s that about? Either a news story is true or not. This one is true.
I will also note, in passing,this was headline story this morning on HuffPost (I was the editor on the story) and currently — according to the Nielsen ratings– HuffPost is amonf the 30 top news sites in the world. Those ratings give it a current viewership of about 7.5 million uniques per month. To put that in perspective, the MOST viewed news web site in the world, the NYTimes Online has about 20 million. By the way, this story was one of the single most viewed today on HuffPost with more than 150K uniques in 24 hours and was also featured on NBC’s First Note, and Olbermann’s MSNBC show.
Regarding the Pinochet picture, Rob. That photo is the iconic one of the Chilean dictator. I am not 100% sure — only about 95%– that it is the FIRST official government photo of Pinochet issued after the coup. Either on the first or second day of the dictatorship if I remember correctly. Anyone who poses like that is clearly, um, mentally ill. Just a tad Napoleonic. Or if u want to be more diplomatic, he looks like your typical insecure testosterone-driven punk with dark glasses at a low-end poker table. A thug.
To Woody: My friend, it would behoove you and your arguments to occasionally admit that one or one’s allies is simply in the wrong. People who concede such things– at least now and then– come off as more intellectually credible rather than as just crass propagandists. If u ever switch allegiances you’d be a perfect blogger for the DailyKos with your partisan inability to ever cede even the smallest but most glaring contradiction.
if CONGRESSMAN John McCain in 1985 did not know that Pinochet was a bloody tyrant and that operatives of his secret police were wanted (and eventually convicted) for setting of a fatal car bomb in downtown Washington D.C. than he either was an idiot or he voluntarily chose complicity with a pro-Nazi dictator. Suck it up, Woody and act like an adult. Anyone who met with Pinochet in that period, or any other time post 1973, who didn’t have the courage to lecture him on human rights is a moral coward. McCain put ideology before basic human decency. Shameful AND repugnant.
October 25th, 2008 at 12:44 am
you’d be a perfect blogger for the DailyKos with your partisan inability to ever cede even the smallest but most glaring contradiction.
That itself rivals Woody in its intellectually dishonest hyperbole.
October 25th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Just as one of many many pieces of evidence, I offer this, the first entry featured on the front page under “Diary Rescue”:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/24/53116/053
First thing that happened, our next-door neighbors (big McCain/Palin supporters, many yard signs) came by and expressed their outrage over what had happened. They said that everyone has a right to support the candidate they want, and when we got our new sign they’d keep their eyes open to make sure no one bothered it. Well, they are a very nice older couple, so I wasn’t at all surprised by this, but it made us feel good all the same.
Here’s where it gets kind of shocking. Next thing we know, on Wednesday, somebody is knocking on our front door. My son answered, and it was a couple of neighbors we didn’t know. They introduced themselves and said they lived down the street. They explained that were Republicans, but they had gotten so upset about what had happened that they went down to Obama headquarters and bought us a new sign. That’s right, they knowingly contributed money to Obama, and they explained that they wanted to make sure we knew that not all McCain supporters are jerks or thugs.
… We have a lot of respect for our neighbors, who are very decent people willing to do something about bullying and harassment. And I have remembered that, even though I strongly disagree with the political philosophies of my neighbors, they are mostly good people. Sometimes I forget that when I’m all wrapped up in the latest Republican outrage, but I’ll try to remember that the hate-filled right-wingers we hear about in the news and on the blogs are exceptions to the rule. At least they are in my neighborhood.
October 25th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Here’s another piece, from Markos himself:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/10/1102/20431
…
Regarding Clinton, I have no doubt she would’ve voted incorrectly were she the nominee. She’s shown over the past few years that on every controversial “national security” bill, she has voted incorrectly, whether it was the Iraq War authorization bill, the Kyl-Lieberman Iran bill, or plenty of war funding bills. It’s easy to vote the right way when you don’t have advisors telling you to “take issues off the table” by betraying things like, you know, the Constitution.
If this marks the end of the triangulating version of Clinton, so much the better. That’ll make her that much better a force in the Senate. (Which apparently is necessary given the new triangulating Obama now arrived on the political scene.)
But I also have no doubt that given Clinton’s high profile and massive platform, she could’ve agitated and campaigned against this bill before today, rather than issue a statement during the vote. Dodd and Feingold could’ve certainly used the support way back when.
Hillary is no hero in all of this. But to complain that her vote somehow undermines Obama? No one here has undermined Obama more than Obama.
He or his advisors (or both) decided that they’d rather capitulate on the issue than face GOP attack ads claiming Obama is weak on national security. They let fear of political attacks (that are inevitable anyway) override respect for the Constitution and even his prior promises to the American people. The press insists on calling it a “move to the center”, but really, it was a move borne out of fear. It wasn’t an ideological decision (i.e. a “move to the center”), but a tactical one. It was a strategic retreat…
October 25th, 2008 at 1:21 am
Oh, and as you say Marc, be sure to read the whole thing.
October 25th, 2008 at 5:20 am
“Ayers, whose opposition to the our barbaric war in Vietnam should be commended.”
Your honesty is to be commended also Ahmed. Now if only we could get the same honesty from Obama, this issue resolved.
Let the people decide if they agree…….or not. Obama is clearly betting they would believe both of you nuts.
October 25th, 2008 at 5:25 am
What is this affection leftist have for communism?
Would it have something to do with the shared idealogy of ‘spreading the wealth’?
October 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Jim R – crawl out of that corner. It’s okay. Really…
October 25th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Regarding the Pinochet picture, Rob. That photo is the iconic one of the Chilean dictator. I am not 100% sure — only about 95%– that it is the FIRST official government photo of Pinochet issued after the coup. Either on the first or second day of the dictatorship if I remember correctly. Anyone who poses like that is clearly, um, mentally ill. Just a tad Napoleonic. Or if u want to be more diplomatic, he looks like your typical insecure testosterone-driven punk with dark glasses at a low-end poker table. A thug.
Marc,
Agreed, but see the article I linked to here in which Pinochet explains the dark glasses in his own words:
Ten years ago he was under house arrest. That’s when this came out.
October 25th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Maybe if Pinochet had murdered Roque Dalton you’d help him get published in the Nation you piece of shit.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Marc, perhaps you are unaware that Pinochet went straight and, under an alias, had moderate success in show business and advertising in later years. Pinochet rocks!
February 28th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Some true conservatives (yes, a rare breed, but a few are still out there somewhere) care about democracy and individual liberties, which is what the Republicans need to embrace if they want to represent normal Americans again. I’m not holding my breath, but it will be interesting to watch the party wrangle (and strangle!) with itself in the years to come.
August 8th, 2010 at 5:38 am
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case. Amazing a big thumbs up for this one!
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