vault backup: 2026-10-15 14:01:13

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Frank Teruggi.md

@@ -14,14 +14,16 @@ summary: "American student in Santiago, the subject of an FBI subversive file th
 died: 1973-09
 location: "Santiago, Chile"
 created: 2026-09-21
-updated: 2026-09-21
+updated: 2026-10-15
 ---
 
 Frank Teruggi was an American student living in [[Santiago]] who was detained by the Chilean military in the days after the coup of September 11, 1973, held at the [[Estadio Nacional (Chile)|National Stadium]], and executed. His case was joined in Chilean and American inquiries with that of [[Charles Horman]].[^1]
 
 ### The FBI File
 
-In 1972 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] opened a "Security Matter Subversive" file on Teruggi after the interception of his correspondence with activists in [[West Germany]] who were assisting [[Resisters Inside the Armed Forces]] and other groups the bureau called "deserter organizations," which supported American soldiers absent without leave from European bases in protest against the war in [[Vietnam]]. [[United States Army Intelligence]] was monitoring those groups with the help of German intelligence. The intercepted letters gave Teruggi's address on Hernán Cortés street in Santiago, and the bureau's summary recorded it. Whether any American agency gave the address to Chilean authorities, before or after the coup, has not been established.[^1]
+In 1972 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] opened a "Security Matter Subversive" file on Teruggi after the interception of his correspondence with activists in [[West Germany]] who were assisting [[Resisters Inside the Armed Forces]] and other groups the bureau called "deserter organizations," which supported American soldiers absent without leave from European bases in protest against the war in [[Vietnam]]. [[United States Army Intelligence]] was monitoring those groups with the help of German intelligence. The intercepted letters gave Teruggi's address on Hernán Cortés street in Santiago, and the bureau's summary recorded it. The National Security Archive notes that the report raises the question whether any American agency gave the address to Chilean authorities, before or after the coup.[^1]
+
+An FBI report of December 14, 1972 recorded Teruggi's attendance at a 1971 conference of the Committee of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and his membership in the Chicago Area Group on the Liberation of the Americas.[^2] The National Security Archive notes that the report raises the question whether the information was shared with the Chilean military.[^2]
 
 After four months in [[Chile]] he wrote to his sister Janice: "Being down here is the best thing that could have happened to me as far as my political formation. I'm with revolutionaries from all over the continent and learning theory and practice in a way that is probably not available anywhere in the States."[^1]
 
@@ -29,14 +31,19 @@ After four months in [[Chile]] he wrote to his sister Janice: "Being down here i
 
 Teruggi was taken from his house, which was known in the neighborhood for its connection to the [[Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)|Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria]]. Four others who lived there were active in the party's clandestine work, one of them in its military wing. His housemate [[David Hathaway]] was detained with him, held with him at the stadium, and saw him taken away for interrogation. The junta later told the [[United States]] embassy that both Teruggi and Horman had been killed by leftists wearing stolen army uniforms.[^1]
 
+A State Department review of December 10, 1976, prepared by [[Frederick Smith Jr.]], found little information in the files on Teruggi's activities in Chile. It stated that the evidence in the files strongly indicated that both men were deliberately killed by the Chilean government.[^3]
+
 ### The Father
 
 [[Frank Teruggi Sr.]] went to Santiago in February 1974. He told consular officers, among them Vice Consul [[James Anderson (CIA)|James Anderson]], a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officer under diplomatic cover, that "he was not happy with Embassy action to protect his son," and asked to see "all the files that you have on the case." The interior minister, General [[Oscar Bonilla]], had given him the military's account the day before. Teruggi handed him Hathaway's letter. Bonilla said he had not known the details, promised to reopen the inquiry, and said: "Mr. Teruggi, if your son died in the hands of the Chilean military, I am terribly sorry."[^1]
 
 A [[State Department]] officer, [[Rudy Fimbres]], wrote in 1976 that the department had "'withheld' for almost two years any reference to a Chilean memorandum which accused Teruggi, and Horman, of leftist activities," and had "failed to pursue the basis" for the accusation. The department's internal review that year concluded that the Chilean military had "deliberately killed" both men.[^1]
 
-Judge [[Jorge Zepeda]] found in his 2011 indictment of Navy Captain [[Ray Davis]], former head of the [[United States Military Group]], that Davis had known of the detentions and had not prevented the deaths. Davis died in a Santiago nursing home in 2013. In 2015 Zepeda convicted [[Pedro Espinoza]], who had been in charge of interrogations at the stadium. A review of the 6,976-page court record by the journalist [[John Dinges]] found no evidence that American officials took part in either killing.[^1]
+Judge [[Jorge Zepeda]] found in his 2011 indictment of Navy Captain [[Ray Davis]], former head of the [[United States Military Group]], that Davis had known of the detentions and had not prevented the deaths. Davis died in a Santiago nursing home in 2013. In 2015 Zepeda convicted [[Pedro Espinoza]], who had been in charge of interrogations at the stadium, and on July 21, 2016 the Supreme Court sentenced Espinoza to fifteen years for both killings, as their author.[^4] A review of the 6,976-page court record by the journalist [[John Dinges]] found no evidence that American officials took part in either killing.[^1]
 
 ### Footnotes
 
 [^1]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "Chile in Their Hearts," National Security Archive, May 7, 2025, with the FBI summary on Teruggi, his letters to Janice Teruggi, and the embassy memorandum of conversation with Frank Teruggi Sr., February 1974; summarizing Dinges, John. *Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup*. 2025. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2025-05-07/chile-their-hearts
+[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Frank Teruggi," December 14, 1972, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33, document 1. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB33/index.html
+[^3]: Smith, Frederick, Jr., report on the Horman case, State Department, December 10, 1976, NSA Chile in Their Hearts, document 10. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Dinges10Smithrpt-ocr.pdf
+[^4]: "Chile eleva penas a militares por morte de dois americanos na ditadura," Swissinfo, July 21, 2016. https://www.swissinfo.ch/por/chile-eleva-penas-a-militares-por-morte-de-dois-americanos-na-ditadura/42317540

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mordecai Vanunu.md

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ tags:
 summary: "Technician at Israel's Dimona reprocessing plant from 1977 to 1985 who gave photographs of it to the Sunday Times, was lured from London to Rome by the Mossad in 1986, and served eighteen years."
 born: 1954-10-14
 location: "Marrakech, Morocco"
-updated: 2026-09-22
+updated: 2026-10-15
 ---
 
 [[Mordecai Vanunu]] was a former technician at a nuclear facility near [[Dimona]], [[Israel]], who became a whistleblower, exposing details of Israel's nuclear program to the _London Sunday Times_ in 1986.[^1][^2]
@@ -74,6 +74,8 @@ In the Commons the Conservative members [[Dennis Walters]] and [[Anthony Beaumon
 ### Rome
 The Roman magistrate [[Domenico Sica]] traced a van hired by the Israeli embassy on the day of the abduction whose mileage matched a journey to [[La Spezia]], and an Israeli cargo ship that had declared a false itinerary. Vanunu's brother [[Meir Vanunu|Meir]], who had learned the details by speaking Moroccan Arabic to him in prison, testified twice. An Israeli court issued a warrant for Meir's arrest, and the [[Home Office|British Home Office]] refused him asylum on the ground that he "faced prosecution, not persecution." An official of the Israeli foreign ministry said: "If Dr. Sica comes it would be very, very embarrassing for our government." Sica closed the inquiry in June 1988 with the finding that Vanunu had been working with the Mossad and that "the whole affair had been a disinformation exercise." He reasoned that no one could be found who had seen Vanunu arrive in Rome, that professionals would not have used a flat in a crowded district, that the message Vanunu wrote on his palm was in better English than he commanded, and that the photographs showed no staff. Meir Vanunu replied: "If this is a disinformation exercise, release my brother." Peter Hounam of The Sunday Times wrote: "I made six visits to Rome to brief Sica and provide him with every scrap of evidence of the abduction. He never once advanced the view that The Sunday Times was the victim of a hoax, as his report intimates." The woman, he pointed out, had not used her real name, as Sica supposed, but that of her sister-in-law.[^4][^5]
 
+In November 1999 the Israeli daily [[Yedioth Ahronoth]] published documents from the closed trial. The published material included Vanunu's statement that he had exposed the secrets of Israel's nuclear program to force the government to bring it under closer scrutiny.[^6]
+
 ### Bentov
 Cheryl Hanin was born in [[Orlando, Florida]], in 1960, went to Israel in the late 1970s, served in a [[Nahal]] unit, and in March 1985 married [[Ofer Bentov]], a major in military intelligence and a general's son. Hounam and [[David Connett]], who had seen her with Vanunu in London, found her at an address in [[Netanya]] in July 1987. She asked, "Are you going to publish this?" and then said: "I deny this, I deny everything." A family friend recalled her telling her mother that "there were other things that I did for the Israeli government which were even more pertinent and involved than this." The CIA and the FBI examined her records at [[Edgewater High School]] in Orlando, and the CIA's London station asked the British services whether Israel had given warning of the operation. The Sunday Times photographed her in [[Florida]] in January 1998.[^4]
 
@@ -85,5 +87,6 @@ In April 1987 British police found an arms cache kept by [[Ismail Sowan]], a Pal
 [^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
 [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Faber and Faber, 1991, pp. 313-314.
 [^3]: United Press International, report on the dismissal of Nicholas Davies, October 29, 1991.
-[^4]: Cohen, Yoel. *The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Vanunu, and the Bomb*. 2003. https://archive.org/details/the-whistleblower-of-dimona-israel-vanunu-and-the-bomb
+[^4]: Cohen, Yoel. *The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Vanunu, and the Bomb*. Holmes & Meier, 2003. https://archive.org/details/whistleblowerofd0000cohe
 [^5]: Hounam, Peter. *The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu and the Israeli Nuclear Program*. Vision Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 74, 127.
+[^6]: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, report of November 24, 1999 (Yedioth Ahronoth publication of trial documents). https://jta.org/?p=400503

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Videnieks.md

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ relations:
     start: 1991
     fn: 26
 created: 2024-04-25
-updated: 2026-10-09
+updated: 2026-10-15
 ---
 [[Peter Videnieks]] was a contracting officer in the [[Justice Management Division]] of the [[Department of Justice]] who administered the 1982 implementation contract between the [[Executive Office for United States Attorneys]] and [[INSLAW]] for the [[PROMIS]] case management software. His handling of that contract, his statements about [[Earl Brian]] and [[Hadron]], and his alleged contacts with [[Michael Riconosciuto]] made him a central figure in the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]]. The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that he was never charged with any wrongdoing.[^1] Before he entered the Justice Department he worked as a supervising contracting officer in the [[U.S. Customs]] Service.[^2]
 
@@ -110,6 +110,8 @@ The Justice Department's review of the Bua report, dated September 27, 1994, add
 
 Joseph Cuellar, an Army Reserve major, met Casolaro by chance at a bar in Arlington, Virginia, in May 1991. Cuellar talked of his exploits in the Army special forces. He told investigators that he knew Videnieks because a former fiancée had worked with Videnieks' wife in Byrd's Capitol Hill office, and Cuellar and Videnieks each said their relationship was social.[^36] Casolaro asked Cuellar repeatedly to arrange a meeting with Videnieks so that he could ask about Riconosciuto's March 1991 affidavit. Cuellar called Videnieks, who refused.[^37]
 
+Casolaro's notes, a Justice Department memorandum records, reflect a telephone call he made to Videnieks on June 13, 1991. Videnieks refused to talk and referred him to his lawyer, Charles Ruff. Videnieks recalled a call from a reporter whose name sounded like "Kessler," which he said could have been "Casolaro," and said he could not remember whether he had ever spoken with Casolaro.[^38]
+
 The review recorded that Videnieks denied any involvement in Casolaro's death and said he had been at a summer cottage in New York state from August 5 to August 11, 1991. His personnel records showed leave in that period, a credit card receipt showed a purchase at a bookstore in Oneonta, New York, on August 9, and his telephone records showed a call from the cottage to his brother on August 9 at 8:35 p.m. The review found no reason to question his account that he was in New York on August 10, 1991, and was unaware of evidence linking him to the death.[^35] The review also recorded that a Kentucky salvage dealer told Martinsburg police that Videnieks and Brian had played a high-stakes poker game at a Sheraton in Martinsburg around the time of Casolaro's death. The police could not corroborate the account, and the review found the witness lacked credibility.[^35]
 
 ### Trial testimony and later accounts
@@ -157,3 +159,4 @@ Seymour wrote that Videnieks offered rewards for non-cooperation with the House
 [^35]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, pp. 159-160. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
 [^36]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 161. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
 [^37]: U.S. Department of Justice. Review of the *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua*, September 27, 1994, p. 162. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
+[^38]: U.S. Department of Justice, memorandum on the BCCI and INSLAW special prosecutor contacts, undated, [1994], release p. 42 (printed p. 26), DOCID 70002067. https://archive.org/details/INSLAW-Casolaro