Colonia Dignidad: Chile's Nazi colony

[Peter Lemkin]

A fairly good report. Missing are the CIA & Condor links, plus a few others. Colonia Dignidad was not one of a kind, sadly - there were and are other such places dotted around the World where similar things have and do still go on.

[Ralf Anders]

A fairly good report. Missing are the CIA & Condor links, plus a few others. Colonia Dignidad was not one of a kind, sadly - there were and are other such places dotted around the World where similar things have and do still go on.

Yes, a good report. I found it very moving when the main interviewee lost his composure for just a moment remembering how alone he felt as a child after he had been separated from his parents by Schaefer.

The whole thing is utterly bizarre: Lederhosen, Dirndl, Eugenio Berríos' chemical weapons (which are probably still there), torture, murder and child abuse? WTF.

Berríos is a very interesting person, by the way, who also turns up with regard to allegations that Pinochet was a drug trafficker. He is said to have produced "black cocaine":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,...37,00.html

The Condor link is obvious. The links to the German CSU (Strauss), to Gerhard Mertins and his MEREX arms company (Mertins was one of the SS officers who liberated Mussolini alongside Skorzeny, later he founded MEREX, again with Skorzeny) and to various SS men/war criminals who found refuge in South America are also highly intriguing. Mertins founded the "Circle of Friends of the Colonia Dignidad" but is not mentioned in the report.

But which CIA links? Is it just because the CIA was involved in Condor, or is there something more tangible?

[Peter Lemkin]

But which CIA links? Is it just because the CIA was involved in Condor, or is there something more tangible?

Yes, primarily, that CIA was CENTRAL to the funding, coordination, communications and impetus for Condor....but there are some persons that CIA either wanted hidden there or tortured/disappeared there. I also think that the weapons/poison gasses stored there are similar to the Gladio stay-behind caches that were handled under NATO's secret arm, but had its genesis in discussions between Gehlin and Dulles and his friends in OSS/CIA. Gladio is usually thought of as 'European' and I was making the point that it really is a Worldwide network of related neo-fascist groups and enclaves/stashes of weapons to do the dirty work for a certain grouping. They often do their own dirty deeds, but they also take marching orders from Langley and other US entities, IMHO.

That the German Embassy in Chile [likely with some help/urging from BND] returned to C.D. those few who sought refuge from it in the Embassy in Santiago is especially chilling and tells a tale few know or speak about.....how certain entites in post-War Germany looked the other way [at best] and aided [at worst] some of the internal and external unreformed Nazis. Nothing like that could be done without, at least, the passive acquiescence of the CIA either.

U.S.A.: Hunter of Fascists Xa, Xa, Xa........

[Magda Hassan]

Berríos is a very interesting person, by the way, who also turns up with regard to allegations that Pinochet was a drug trafficker. He is said to have produced "black cocaine":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,...37,00.html

The Condor link is obvious. The links to the German CSU (Strauss), to Gerhard Mertins and his MEREX arms company (Mertins was one of the SS officers who liberated Mussolini alongside Skorzeny, later he founded MEREX, again with Skorzeny) and to various SS men/war criminals who found refuge in South America are also highly intriguing. Mertins founded the "Circle of Friends of the Colonia Dignidad" but is not mentioned in the report.

But which CIA links? Is it just because the CIA was involved in Condor, or is there something more tangible?

Yes, Berrios is a very interesting player. I'm interested in the links to German CSU, Mertins and MEREX if you have more Ralf.

I suppose the CIA links are related to the Rat Lines.

[Ralf Anders]

But which CIA links? Is it just because the CIA was involved in Condor, or is there something more tangible?

Yes, primarily, that CIA was CENTRAL to the funding, coordination, communications and impetus for Condor....but there are some persons that CIA either wanted hidden there or tortured/disappeared there.

Thank you. Do you have more information on these persons?

I also think that the weapons/poison gasses stored there are similar to the Gladio stay-behind caches that were handled under NATO's secret arm, but had its genesis in discussions between Gehlin and Dulles and his friends in OSS/CIA. Gladio is usually thought of as 'European' and I was making the point that it really is a Worldwide network of related neo-fascist groups and enclaves/stashes of weapons to do the dirty work for a certain grouping. They often do their own dirty deeds, but they also take marching orders from Langley and other US entities, IMHO.

I agree. If we do not stick to the meaning "stay-behind armies" but broaden our view exactly as you suggest, Operation Condor can be seen as part of Gladio or, more generally speaking, part of a internationally coordinated parallel foreign policy employing the fascist and neo-fascist underground in order to battle communism. Of course, various players from the European Gladio theater like Yves Guillou, Stefano delle Chiaie etc. also worked in Latin and South America during the 70s and 80s. In Bolivia, delle Chiaie collaborated with Klaus Barbie in the 1980 "Cocaine Coup" (excellent new ARTE documentary here: http://www.arte.tv/guide/de/051086-000/m...ei-altmann). Michael Townley on the other hand travelled to Europe in 1975 in order to "observe" Latin American exile organisations:

http://www.tageblatt.lu/nachrichten/stor...g-21007640

That the German Embassy in Chile [likely with some help/urging from BND] returned to C.D. those few who sought refuge from it in the Embassy in Santiago is especially chilling and tells a tale few know or speak about.....how certain entites in post-War Germany looked the other way [at best] and aided [at worst] some of the internal and external unreformed Nazis. Nothing like that could be done without, at least, the passive acquiescence of the CIA either.

Yes. I suggest that official Germany looked the other way and certain circles actively aided the Nazis. The key figure is Franz Josef Strauss who effectively conducted a parallel foreign policy (supported by a parallel secret service -- cf. the Langemann papers, Brian Crozier and Stefanie Waske, "Nach Lektüre vernichten!" ('Destroy After Reading!')). Strauss not only supported reactionary and fascist movements across the globe but at least at one point had direct links to the terrorist underground, supporting Aginter Presse with funds from German industrialists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMa3XDRE5SI

From the 50s to the 70s Munich was a hotbed for spies, exile organisations and fascists etc. People who resided there include Antoine Argoud, Jacques Soustelle and many other OAS members, Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko, founder of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and board member of the WACL (more information on Stetsko can be found in Simpson's "Blowback" and probably Russ Bellant's book on the subject).

Some more information off the top of my head which may be of interest:

Stuart Christie in his "Stefano delle Chiaie" claims that the main financier of neo-fascist terror organsations in Europe was the infamous Eberhard Taubert. This information probably stems from Patrice Chairoff's "B.... comme Barbouzes" and is therefore suspect (as Henrik Krueger found out to his surprise, Chairoff was not the left-winger he claimed to be but in reality a long-standing member of the fascist underground, cf. "The Great Heroin Coup") -- but it seems that most of what Chairoff says in his book is accurate. Taubert was recruited by the CIA at one point, served as an aide to Strauss and later worked for German industrialist and Strauss friend Fritz Ries. To quote Martin A. Lee on Ries and Taubert:

'But who was Ries, and where did he get his money? During the Third Reich, Ries made a fortune from expropriating "Aryanized" Jewish property and from slave labor in factories near the Auschwitz concentration camp. Not only was Ries never condemned for his Nazi-era crimes, he went on to become the patron of several conservative West German politicians, including Kohl, who was elected chancellor in 1982. As a token of his gratitude, Kohl awarded Ries West Germany's highest civil decoration, the Bundesverdienstkreuz or "Federal Cross of Merit."

It gets worse: Ries retained as his legal advisor and chief of staff Eberhard Taubert, another compromised Third Reich veteran. During World War II, Taubert served as a judge on the People's Tribunal, which handed down death sentences for such "crimes" as telling an anti-Hitler joke or sleeping with a Jew. Taubert was also employed by Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry. In this capacity, he wrote scripts for several horrendous Third Reich propaganda films, including "Der ewige Jude" ("The Eternal Jew"), which depicts Jews as rats and vermin. "Wherever rats turn up, they bring destruction with them. They destroy goods and foodstuffs and they spread disease . . . . Among animals, they represent an element of treacherous, subterranean destruction, just as Jews do among men," the film's narrator explained.'

http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jun/25/...n/op-44604

These are just two of the people in Strauss' inner circle. Of course, Strauss was also a member of Le Cercle.

And he visited Colonia Dignidad. As did other Bavarian politicians. The SPIEGEL quotes one Bavarian representative (my quick translation): '"They are conservative, hold Bavaria dear, show the flag with the lion and the [Raute]. Hope for Germany." (For the lion and the "Raute" see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Bavaria). In the central building of the settlement, a signed portrait of Strauss was hanging on the wall as late as the mid-90s. The German Embassy in Santiago had close contacts to Schaefer."

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/colonia-d...45888.html

[Ralf Anders]

Yes, Berrios is a very interesting player. I'm interested in the links to German CSU, Mertins and MEREX if you have more Ralf.

I suppose the CIA links are related to the Rat Lines.

I will try to provide some more background for the MEREX/Mertins connection later this week, Magda.

[Magda Hassan]

Yes, Berrios is a very interesting player. I'm interested in the links to German CSU, Mertins and MEREX if you have more Ralf.

I suppose the CIA links are related to the Rat Lines.

I will try to provide some more background for the MEREX/Mertins connection later this week, Magda.

Thank you and much gratitude Ralf

[Peter Lemkin]

I suppose the CIA links are related to the Rat Lines.

Not just the Rat Lines. Mengele was at and protected by people connected to C. D. and Mengele also had direct CIA connections. I would guess that many passed through C. D. when they needed a safe haven that were on various Nazi/neo-facscist/intelligence 'roles' of 'honor'. Not enough research has been done on the more direct CIA links to C.D., but as everyone they WERE connected to had direct links to CIA, it doesn't take rocket science to assume there also were direct links. As the NSA and CIA and FBI provided information about the whereabouts of persons to be captured by Condor and tortured or snuffed out [sometimes originating with USA and sometimes at the request of Condor countries who didn't have the technical means the USA did], this means that many of the persons that DINA and other Condor torture entities sent to C.D., the CIA may often have had a hand, even sometimes making the 'suggestion'. There are missing pieces to the C.D. puzzle for sure. One thing, there were these electronic bugging bunkers scattered around and fences and watchtowers, but no one talks about any security people - who had to be there in large numbers. Likely they were kept separate from the ordinary 'inmates', but some puzzle pieces are definitely missing. Likely many more horrors to be found. I remember a very good Covert Action Information Bulletin article on C.D. from long ago. So sad that that publication died from lack of subscribers. I was one for the longest time and every issue was full of information that couldn't be had anywhere else. ::trenchcoatspy::

[Magda Hassan]

I am told by some Chileans that it was some German intel service involved in Letelier's assassination in Washington. Even though the US had foreknowledge of it they were very angry with Germany for it happening. Also that Germany was involved with the assassination of Carlos Prat who as Chief of Army and a constitutionalist in self imposed exile in Rome would have been able to call the military to him and thus a real threat to Pinochet and his supporters. Michael Townley who worked for DINA was involved with both as were the Cubans Posada and friends who also were used by CIA on projects but apparently the equipment in both were supplied by German intel. Many of the Allende cabinet ministers and their families were given refuge in the DDR so I wonder if that is why the West German intel involvement. Obviously fascists help each other out as well.

Peter the communication equipment at CD is of a very advanced type also German origin. You couldn't walk across the country side there with out being spotted. 2 Brits, 1 Israeli and another one from some where I have forgotten tried it at various times and disappeared. Along with about 150 Chileans.

[David Guyatt]

No wish to deflect the thread, which is very interesting, but we might also bear in mind the use of neo-nazis by the US in Ukraine. In other words this is not just history.

Anders, I know the Le Cercle story and the Langemann papers but didn't know that Strauss also went to CD. Fascinating.

I can't help but wonder if Bormann's presence in Latin America after the war, and the hugely wealthy Nazi remnant he controlled is connected to this whole story.

Part of the current blurb from Paul Manning's excellent story about Martin Bormann, Nazi in Exile, says this:

With remnants of the SS as an enforcement arm, former Gestapo chief General Heinrich Mueller as security director, the 750 corporations as a base of economic power and the willing silence and cooperation of the Western Allies, Bormann guided his organization to a position of consummate power. One banker quoted by Manning termed the Bormann Organization, the "world's most important accumulation of money power under one control in history." Controlling Germany's major corporations, the Federal Republic itself and much of Latin America, the Bormann Organization also maintained a formidable circle of influence in the United States.