State Department Noon Briefing

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2000 - 1:10 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

Q: Yesterday, the executive director of the National Security Archives
praised the State Department for its phenomenal disclosure of 90
volumes of documents on the 1973 coup in Chile and subsequent events.
And one of the documents the State Department released linked Augusto
Pinochet directly to the murder of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt
here in Washington. They expect, I was told, an indictment of Augusto
Pinochet for the murders here in this country.

Can you comment upon that?

MR. REEKER: Well, we talked a bit yesterday about - and we had a
press release that was, I believe, identical to the statement put out
by the White House about the declassification project. And as you
know, a major goal of that project was to put the original documents
before the public so that the public, including the press, can judge
for themselves the historic record.

We also did mention yesterday that some documents related to those
murders, the murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, had been
withheld from release because of the Justice Department's ongoing
investigation into that matter. So I really have to refer any
questions regarding that investigation or those murders or potential
indictments to the Justice Department.

Q: So the State Department records that were withheld were withheld
because the Justice Department is engaged in investigation now?

MR. REEKER: We described yesterday that there were a certain number of
documents that were withheld, some because of legal requirements under
visa law, and then some in terms of equities, which I am told is the
legal term when an investigation is under way and certain documents
may be required as part of that investigation or part of a pending
legal case.

So, again, any details on that case, the status of that, you would
have to go to the Justice Department. Generally, however, we are just
going to let the documents speak for themselves. As you mentioned,
they are very available publicly, and there is a lot of material for
people to go through.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:35 P.M.)