Chile judge orders hunt for poet's alleged killer

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Chile judge orders hunt for poet's alleged killer
Published: June 1, 2013
The Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Chile — Forty years after the death of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, a judge has issued an order for police to make a portrait of and find the man who prosecutors allege may have poisoned him.

Neruda's death was attributed at the time to prostate cancer but the case's plaintiff lawyer, Eduardo Contreras, says there is new evidence showing he was likely murdered by agents of dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Contreras said Dr. Sergio Draper, who originally testified that he was with Neruda at the time of his death on Sept. 23, 1973, is now saying there was another doctor named "Price" with the poet.

But Price did not appear in any of the hospital's records as a treating doctor and Draper said he never saw him again after the day he left him with Neruda. Moreover Price's description of a blond, blue eyed, tall man, matches Michael Townley, the CIA double agent who worked with Chilean secret police under Pinochet.

Townley was taken into the U.S. witness protection program after acknowledging having killed prominent Pinochet critics in Washington and Buenos Aires.

Read more: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/06/01/2527332/chile-judge-orders-hunt-for-poets.html#storylink=cpy

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[center]

Michael Townley [/center]

[BainsBane]

1. a CIA agent, perhaps?

Or asset?

[Judi Lynn]

2. He hasn't been God's gift to the world, not by a long shot!

Here's Townley's Wikipedia, and it's superficial, (whitewashed?) no doubt about it:

Michael Vernon Townley is a US citizen currently living in the United States under terms of the federal witness protection program. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and operative of the Chilean secret police, DINA, Townley confessed, was convicted, and served 62 months in prison in the United States for the 1976 Washington, D.C., assassination of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the United States. As part of his plea bargain, Townley received immunity from further prosecution and was therefore not extradited to Argentina to stand trial for the assassination of Chilean general Carlos Prats and his wife.[1] Townley has also been convicted (1993), in absentia, by an Italian court for carrying out the 1975 Rome murder attempt on Bernardo Leighton.[2] Townley worked in producing chemical weapons for Chilean dictator, General Pinochet's, use against political opponents along with Colonel Gerardo Huber[3] and the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berríos.[4]

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Townley

[Octafish]

3. Yout tax dollars at work.

The guy even poses like Allen Dulles.

[malthaussen]

5. Wow, the dude's a saint!

I like how he gets "immunity from further prosecution" and therefore no government in the world can indict him. Presumably we should be thankful that Argentina does not have drones... yet.

-- Mal

[ck4829]

4. Whoever let Townley stay in Witness Protection is protecting a state sponsored terrorist

So much for our war on terror, right?

[Voice for Peace]

6. maybe the ghost of neruda has been haunting him, wherever he is.

[Judi Lynn]

7. "Experts" to the rescue!

Jun 3, 2:11 PM EDT
US experts: Townley could not have killed Neruda
By MARIANELA JARROUD
Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- U.S. experts on human rights violations before and during Chile's dictatorship say an investigation into the death of poet Pablo Neruda risks going off track by looking at Michael Townley, an American who later worked as a spy for Chile.

Townley is an admitted assassin who tried to undermine Neruda's great friend Salvador Allende. But the researchers say there's a long paper trail that proves he was in Florida during the coup that toppled Allende and when Neruda died in September 1973.

They say Townley had fled Chile months earlier, fearing arrest in a killing, and didn't return until November 1973.

Townley later spied for Chile's intelligence agency, but "Pinochet File" author Peter Kornbluh and journalist John Dinges said Monday he was never a CIA agent, despite misinformation in Chile.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_CHILE_NERUDAS_DEATH?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

(Short article, no more at link.)