By Way of Deception

218 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONLetelier, but they certainly used Mossad know-how, taught tothem as part of the deal Contreras made to supply the missile.In August 1978, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted Contreras,along with DINA operations director, Pedro Espinoza Bravo; DINAagent, Armando Fernandez Larios; and four Cuban exiles whowere members of a fanatical anti-Castro organization in the UnitedStates. All seven were charged with murder.The key evidence for the 15-page indictment came from U.S.-bornMichael Vernon Townley, who had moved to Chile with his parentsat age 15, stayed on as an auto mechanic, and been recruited byDINA. He was named an unindicted co-conspirator andcooperated with the prosecution in return for a light sentence ofthree years and four months. The Pinochet regime turned over theChileans to U.S. prosecutors -- the Cuban exiles escaped,although one was arrested April 11, 1990, while living in St.Petersburg, Florida — but Chile steadfastly refused to give themContreras, the man who had orchestrated the assassination ofLetelier. Contreras was never tried for the crime, although inOctober 1977, he was forced by Pinochet to resign his post, in aneffort to improve the military junta's battered international image.* * *Once a year, all the military intelligence organizations in Israel gettogether to plan upcoming events, one of which is the annualmeeting of all intelligence agencies in the country, both militaryand civilian, called Tsorech Yediot Hasuvot, or Tsiach for short,meaning simply "necessary information." At the meeting, theinformation customers — for example AMAN, the prime minister'soffice, and military intelligence units — go over the quality ofinformation received during the past year and what is required forthe next year, in order of importance. The document that flowsfrom this meeting is also called Tsiach, and amounts to apurchase order to the Mossad and the other suppliers — forexample, the military intelligence corps — for intelligence over thenext year.