Daniel Mitrione
 Daniel Mitrione     (policeman) | |
|---|---|
| File:Daniel Mitrione.jpg | |
| Born | August 4, 1920 |
| Died | August 10, 1970 (Age 50) |
Cause of death | gunshot |
| Victim of | murder |
| Interests | torture |
US policeman turned spook who taught torture techniques to police in South America. | |
Daniel Anthony "Dan" Mitrione was a US policeman turned spook who taught torture techniques to police in South America.
Career
Daniel Mitrione joined the FBI in 1959.[1]
In 1960, he was assigned to the US State Department's International Cooperation Administration, going to South American countries to teach "advanced counterinsurgency techniques." A. J. Langguth, a former New York Times bureau chief in Saigon, claimed that Mitrione was among the US advisers teaching Brazilian police how much electric shock to apply to prisoners without killing them.[2] Langguth also claimed that older police officers were replaced "when the CIA and the U.S. police advisers had turned to harsher measures and sterner men"[3] and that under Mitrione as the new head of the US Public Safety program in Uruguay, the United States "introduced a system of nationwide identification cards, like those in Brazil… [and] torture had become routine at the Montevideo [police] jefatura."[4]
In 1967 Mitrione returned to the United States to share his experiences and expertise on "counterguerilla warfare" at USAID.[1]
In 1978 Manuel Hevia Cosculluela, a CIA agent who had worked with Mitrione in Montevideo, published Eight Years with the CIA, a book about his experiences. According to Cosculluela, Mitrione had tortured four beggars to death with electric shocks at a 1970 seminar to demonstrate his techniques for Uruguayan police trainees. Cosculluela reported that Mitrione worked under William Cantrell, another CIA agent.[5]
References
- ↑ a b http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmitrione.htm
- ↑ Langguth, p. 40
- ↑ Langguth, p. 286
- ↑ Nixon: "Brazil Helped Rig the Uruguayan Elections", 1971, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 71, June 20, 2002
- ↑ http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmitrione.htm
