disinfozone/The_Info_Web
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions

vault backup: 2026-10-15 11:55:05

Browse source
This commit is contained in:
disinfo.zone 2026-10-15 11:55:05 -04:00
parent de84622565
commit 70fb85249f
No known key found for this signature in database
55 changed files with 2213 additions and 364 deletions
Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

4
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Carter Cornick.md
View file

@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ relations:
role: "co-founder of Counter Terrorism Consultants"
fn: 5
created: 2026-10-01
updated: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-14
---
L. Carter Cornick Jr. was a special agent of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] from 1967 to 1988.[^1] He was a former Marine,[^2] described in 1978 as "descended from several generations of Virginians,"[^3] and held a bachelor's degree in Asian history from the [[University of Virginia]].[^4] He spent sixteen of his twenty-one bureau years on terrorism.[^5] In San Juan in 1972 and 1973 he received informant reports for the bureau's file on the [[Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño]]; from September 1976 he was case agent of the investigation code-named Chilbom into the murders of [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]]; in the 1980s he worked in the counterterrorism section at FBI headquarters; and in August 1988 he and the case's prosecutor, [[Eugene Propper]], formed [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]][^1][^5][^6]
@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ Propper brought [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Ignacio Novo]] of the [[Cuban Nationali
The Chilean foreign ministry announced that it would answer only formal letters rogatory. The letters were sent with only the questions sealed, and Propper told courthouse reporters that they might find something in the clerk's office; the next day's front pages reported that the investigation was focused on members of the Chilean government. Cornick wrote that within several days the Chilean press identified "the individual with blond hair" as an American, [[Michael Townley]], "who also worked for the CIA," and the second man as a DINA captain, [[Armando Fernandez Larios]].[^1] Propper and Cornick arrived in [[Santiago]] on March 19, 1978.[^2] At the headquarters of DINA's successor, the [[Central Nacional de Informaciones|CNI]], Cornick saw two soldiers feeding books into a fire in an oil drum; inside, the general in charge admitted for the first time that Townley had worked for DINA.[^1]
Propper, Cornick and the legal attaché [[Robert Scherrer]] questioned two Chilean army captains that month about their roles. One said under questioning on March 24 that the purpose of their August 1976 mission to the United States had been to see [[Vernon Walters]]. Walters gave the FBI a deposition in June 1978 denying any knowledge of the case or contact with the officers.[^9] One evening members of the [[Carabineros de Chile|Chilean National Police]] told Cornick and Scherrer that a warrant required them to appear before a magistrate; Cornick wrote that both held diplomatic passports accrediting them to Chile, cited immunity, and that the police backed down.[^1] Chile expelled Townley on April 8, 1978, and Cornick escorted him to the United States; the [[Federal Aviation Administration|FAA]] ordered the plane to land at [[Baltimore]] short of New York.[^1][^10] On May 9 Ambassador [[George Landau]] cabled from Santiago that Chilean courts were investigating the expulsion, that the press had named Scherrer and Cornick as Townley's escorts, and that lawyers for Townley and his wife wanted them called before the investigating judge. Scherrer held a diplomatic passport; "in order to preserve same option with respect to Carter Cornick," Landau recommended "strongly" that Cornick be issued one for future visits, and likewise Propper.[^10]
Propper, Cornick and the legal attaché [[Robert Scherrer]] questioned two Chilean army captains that month about their roles. One said under questioning on March 24 that the purpose of their August 1976 mission to the United States had been to see [[Vernon Walters]]. Walters gave the FBI a deposition in June 1978 denying any knowledge of the case or contact with the officers.[^9] One evening members of the [[Carabineros de Chile|Chilean National Police]] told Cornick and Scherrer that a warrant required them to appear before a magistrate; Cornick wrote that both held diplomatic passports accrediting them to Chile, cited immunity, and that the police backed down.[^1] Chile expelled Townley on April 8, 1978, and Cornick escorted him to the United States; the [[Federal Aviation Administration|FAA]] ordered the plane to land at [[Baltimore]] short of New York.[^1] On May 9 Ambassador [[George Landau]] cabled from Santiago that Chilean courts were investigating the expulsion, that the press had named Scherrer and Cornick as Townley's escorts, and that lawyers for Townley and his wife wanted them called before the investigating judge. Scherrer held a diplomatic passport; "in order to preserve same option with respect to Carter Cornick," Landau recommended "strongly" that Cornick be issued one for future visits, and likewise Propper.[^10]
Townley's plea agreement, signed on April 18, 1978, capped his sentence at ten years. "We did not have, in my opinion, a prosecutable case," Cornick told Dorfman. "So what we did was we made a deal with the worst possible guy."[^1][^2] Townley implicated DINA's commander, [[Manuel Contreras]], its chief of operations, [[Pedro Espinoza]], and Fernandez Larios, and told the investigators that President [[Augusto Pinochet]] began every working day with a briefing from Contreras.[^1] A CIA report dated April 28, 1978, while Cornick was working in Santiago, stated that "Contreras told a confidant he authorized the assassination of Letelier on orders from Pinochet." Shown that report and others in 2015 by John Dinges, Cornick said: "As you may suspect, none of this was new to us at the time." He called the information hearsay from people who would never testify, and said that "the interests of the U.S., according to [the Department of] State, were that Chile was a non-Communist country in [[Latin America]] and therefore no further punitive action against them was warranted."[^11]