Assassination on Embassy Row by Miller Mark Crispin; Dinges John; Landau Saul

Author:Miller, Mark Crispin; Dinges, John; Landau, Saul
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media

AS THE LAST ambulance drove away, FBI Special Agent L. Carter Cornick forced his mind to absorb details without losing the larger picture. He noticed, he recalled later, that the ambulances had driven off with the victims but had left behind on the pavement a severed foot, still inside its shoe. Cornick ordered a tight police cordon and then “vectored” the entire area—divided it into numbered sections to facilitate precise identification of each location where evidence would be found.

More FBI agents arrived, among them the top officer of the Washington Field Office, Special Agent Nicholas Stames. Informed of Letelier’s identity, Stames anticipated lots of publicity, probable political involvement, and pressures from many groups. He walked over to Cornick. “It’s your case. Do it,” he told Cornick.

“Mike Moffitt was still there,” Cornick recalled later. “He was in a daze, shouting DINA, DINA. I didn’t know what DINA was. But it wouldn’t take me long to find out.”

A police car finally took Moffitt to the hospital, where he was told Ronni was receiving emergency treatment. He rang IPS. Receptionist Alyce Wiley, hearing his voice, began her usual teasing. “He said, ‘Be quiet, Alyce,’ and I knew something bad had happened,” she recalled. “I remember he said that there had been an explosion in a car and that Orlando was dead and that DINA had done it or something like that. He wasn’t too clear about it. I didn’t know who DINA was, it sounded like a girl’s name. Michael told me they were working on Ronni and he didn’t know about her condition, and he told me to call Isabel. I asked Lilian to call Isabel.”

In a small treatment room, a doctor removed a fragment of metal from Moffitt’s breast bone; his cuts were cleaned and bandaged. “They told me Ronni was hurt very badly, but that they were working on her, and it seemed like an eternity … and they took me in a little room and put me on one of those examining tables and made me lie down and there were several people standing around and one of the doctors came over and said, ‘Your wife is dead.’”

Lilian Montecino, Orlando Letelier’s secretary, telephoned Isabel and told her there had been an accident involving Orlando’s car, and that Isabel should go to George Washington Hospital. Mechanically she added, “Don’t worry, everyone’s all right.” Lilian was nervous as she descended the stairs to the street. Less than three years earlier she had received a similar phone call in Santiago, Chile: her oldest son, Cristián, had met with an accident. Two DINA agents had arrested him, apparently mistaking him for someone else. Lilian’s son had died while being tortured.

A few minutes later Alyce reached Saul Landau at his home. “Terrible accident … Orlando dead … Ronni… Ronni… Come to IPS. Marc and Dick are at the hospital …” She was sobbing. Landau rushed to the institute in a cab, arriving a few minutes before reporters and other outsiders began to drift into the lobby.

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