British Home Office Rejects Foreign Requests to Question Kissinger

On the eve of his visit to England for a meeting on April 24, 2002, the British Home (Affairs) Office rejected requests to ask questions of the former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. Kissinger was the rejected requests of England – one from Spain and the other from France. On April 18, 2002, media sources reported that Baltasar Garzon, Spain’s top criminal judge, requested judicial assistance from British authorities, asking them to question Henry A. Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State, as a potential witness in an investigation of terrorist acts by Latin American governments in the 1970’s and 1980’s. According to Joan Garces, a lawyer involved in the investigation, Judge Baltasar Garzon said he believed that Mr. Kissinger planned to attend a meeting in London next week. Judge Baltasar Garzon is prominent for his role in initiating extradition for former Chilean head of state Autusto Pinochet from Britain in his investigation of terrorism in Chile. On April 19, 2002, an investigating judge in France, Anne-Sophie Chateau, made a request under the European convention on mutual assistance. The request concerns Kissinger’s potential knowledge and/or involvement of the “Condor Plan” during 1970-80, when the U.S. allegedly collaborated with certain South American countries in monitoring, arresting, and torturing leftist dissidents.