The Same Old Story

Why would the U.S. Congress refuse to declassify the secret intelligence files on the Argentinian dictatorship from 1976 to 1983? Isn't the United States of America the "leader of the free world", based on its being the freest of societies ever? Isn't secrecy in government contrary to democracy, respect for human rights and so forth? What is it that the Americans are hiding in this regard? Could it be that they were accomplices to the military junta? There must be something terrible in those files, when more than 30 years later, they are deemed so sensitive.

Of course, we all know what's in them. It's the same old story of the U.S. in Latin America and elsewhere around the world. Americans put in place, prop up or support right-wing dictators, all in the name of fighting whatever "ism" they find objectionable, participating in their crimes or, "at best", looking the other way when they happen. Of course, it's always the others who are the bad guys; never the "Boy Scouts" from the U.S.

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