But Bush's CIA chose to accept Contreras's denials and even began leaking information that pointed away from the real killers.
Newsweek's Periscope reported in the magazine's Oct. 11, 1976, issue that "the Chilean secret police were not involved. .... The [Central Intelligence] agency reached its decision because the bomb was too crude to be the work of experts and because the murder, coming while Chile's rulers were wooing U.S. support, could only damage the Santiago regime." Similar stories ran in other newspapers.
Breaking the Case
Relying on a source in the Argentine military, Scherrer reported to his superiors that the assassination was likely the work of Operation Condor, the assassination project organized by the Chilean government.
"It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the recent assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., may have been carried out as a third phase of Operation Condor," Scherrer wrote, referring to acts of assassination.
On Nov. 1, 1976, the day before the presidential election, the Washington Post became another vehicle for trumpeting Pinochet's innocence.
"Operatives of the present Chilean military Junta did not take part in Letelier's killing," the Post wrote, citing CIA officials. "CIA Director Bush expressed this view in a conversation late last week with Secretary of State Kissinger."
Despite these false claims of innocence about Pinochet and his regime, Democrat Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated Ford to win the presidency on Nov. 2.
Over the next two years, federal investigators would crack the case, successfully bringing charges against Townley and several other conspirators. But prosecutor Eugene Propper told me that the CIA didn't volunteer the crucial information about the Paraguayan gambit or supply the photo of the chief assassin, Townley.
"Nothing the agency gave us helped us break this case," Propper said.
Regarding the Letelier murder, neither Bush nor Walters was ever pressed to provide a full explanation of their activities.
When I submitted questions to Bush in 1988 - while he was Vice President and I was a Newsweek correspondent preparing a story on his year as CIA director - Bush's chief of staff Craig Fuller responded, saying "the Vice President generally does not comment on issues related to the time he was at the Central Intelligence Agency and he will have no comment on the specific issues raised in your letter."
Newsweek editors subsequently decided not to publish any story about Bush's year at the CIA though he was then running for President and citing his CIA experience as an important element of his resume'. Walters also rebuffed interview requests on the Letelier topic prior to his death on Feb. 10, 2002, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In 1995, after the Pinochet dictatorship had ended, DINA chief Contreras was convicted in Chile for the Letelier assassination and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Contreras began implicating Pinochet in the Letelier murder and other acts of terrorism, saying Pinochet knew and approved all of Contreras's actions.
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