vault backup: 2026-09-21 20:24:41

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edward Wegmann.md

@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ The defense "hired not one, but two top-notch private detective services," the [
 
 In September 1967 the defense, "confused by the smoke-screen Garrison was raising" about the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], asked the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] for someone "who could steer them as to the true facts and circumstances." The agency and the department declined, since "if Garrison learned of federal assistance to Shaw's lawyers, he'd play it to the hilt." Through the contact the department learned that Shaw had not told his own lawyers that from 1948 to 1956 he had reported to the agency's [[Domestic Contact Service]] on 33 occasions. The agency's general counsel, [[Lawrence Houston]], wrote on October 2, 1967, that if Shaw were to "be convicted on information that could be refuted by CIA," then "we may be in for some difficult decisions." At the trial Dymond asked Shaw whether he had ever worked for the agency, and Shaw answered: "No, I have not."[^4]
 
+The approach went through [[Herbert J. Miller Jr.|Jack Miller]], the former head of the criminal division, who was also the lawyer of the NBC man [[Walter Sheridan]], then under subpoena from Garrison. Houston reported on September 18 that Miller "has been approached by the lawyers for Clay Shaw, Mr. Irving Diamond and Mr. FNU Wakeman. They told Miller they felt Shaw was leveling with them but that they were so confused by the smoke screen Garrison was raising they would like to talk to someone in Government who could steer them as to the true facts and circumstances." Houston told Miller that Justice would claim executive privilege for any agency witness. [[Nathaniel Kossack]] of the criminal division "agrees it is tempting to try to do something, such as talk to Shaw's lawyers, but he feels it is rather dangerous unless we know that we can trust them absolutely."[^5]
+
 Wegmann's daughter gave his files to the review board in 1995. They include the diary of [[Tom Bethell]], a member of Garrison's staff.[^2][^4]
 
 ### Footnotes
@@ -36,3 +38,4 @@ Wegmann's daughter gave his files to the review board in 1995. They include the
 [^2]: DiEugenio, James. "The Wegmann Files," *Probe,* vol. 4, no. 4, May-June 1997, pp. 8-9; National Archives and Records Administration, finding aid to the Papers of Edward F. Wegmann.
 [^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Intelligence Division, informative note, April 14, 1967, JFK record 124-10369-10048; Assassination Records Review Board, letters to Southern Research Company, electronic files of Philip G. Golrick.
 [^4]: Holland, Max. "The Lie That Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination," *Studies in Intelligence,* vol. 45, no. 5, 2001. https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Lie-That-Linked-CIA.pdf
+[^5]: Houston, Lawrence R. Memorandum for the Executive Director-Comptroller, "Garrison Investigation," OGC 67-1787, September 18, 1967, JFK record 104-10428-10024.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/José Zara.md

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+---
+category: "Intelligence & Government"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - JoseZara
+  - DINA
+  - CarlosPrats
+  - RonniMoffitt
+  - OperationCondor
+  - PuntaPeuco
+alias:
+  - José Zara Holger
+  - Jose Zara Holger
+  - Jose Zara
+summary: "DINA exterior department officer sentenced to fifteen years for the Prats murders, released from Punta Peuco on August 25, 2025, rearrested within two days for the killing of Ronni Moffitt, and convicted in June 2026."
+location: "Santiago, Chile"
+created: 2026-09-21
+updated: 2026-09-21
+---
+
+José Zara Holger, a retired brigadier of the Chilean army, served in the exterior department of [[DINA]], which Judge [[Paola Plaza]] found to consist of one group for international policy and another for operations abroad.[^1]
+
+### Prats
+
+In 2010 the Chilean courts convicted him, with [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Pedro Espinoza]], and [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann|Raúl Iturriaga]], of the murders of General [[Carlos Prats]] and [[Sofía Cuthbert]] in [[Buenos Aires]] on September 30, 1974, and sentenced him to fifteen years. He served them at [[Punta Peuco]] and was released on Monday, August 25, 2025.[^1][^2]
+
+### Moffitt
+
+He had been charged, with Iturriaga, as an author of the killing of [[Ronni Moffitt]], the 25-year-old colleague of [[Orlando Letelier]] who died in the same car on September 21, 1976, on complaints brought by the [[Agrupación de Familiares de Ejecutados Políticos]] and the former interior under-secretary Rodrigo Ubilla. Until then the only Chilean convictions in the case, those of Contreras and Espinoza by Judge Adolfo Bañados, concerned Letelier alone. Zara had been left at liberty in that case because he was serving the Prats sentence. On August 27, 2025, on the order of Judge Alejandro Aguilar, standing in for Plaza, the investigative police's human rights brigade arrested him and returned him to custody; his appeal was rejected. "No tengo que pedirle perdón a nadie," he told an interviewer that October. "Yo no tuve ninguna participación." On June 15, 2026, Plaza sentenced Zara, Iturriaga, and Espinoza to fifteen years each for Moffitt's death.[^1][^3]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Basso Prieto, Carlos. "José Zara Holger fue detenido de nuevo: esta vez por crimen de Ronni Moffitt," *El Mostrador,* August 27, 2025.
+[^2]: Chilean press reports of the 2010 judgments of Judge Alejandro Solís and the Supreme Court (La Tercera, El Mostrador), not read in full.
+[^3]: Kornbluh, Peter. "A Modicum of Justice for Ronni Karpen Moffitt," *The Nation,* September 2026.; The Clinic, interview of October 15, 2025, as quoted in press summaries.