Argentine Secret Service Operation (1977)

The door to the secret SIDE (the Argentine Secret Service) in the calle Bacacay of Buenos Aires  looks rather attractive but inside,  it contained dozens of very small cells  where the kidnapped persons were jailed and tortured till finally disposed. The SIDE had many such "tactical operation centers" in Buenos Aires and other towns. Some survived and recognized the place. This was in 1977 the year I left Argentina for New York.  Thanks Providence and my instincts.                                                                                                                                 Now the secrets are becoming public, thanks to the American Law that allows the publication of many secret documents. Above right the copy of the first page of a secret telegram from the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, reporting the kidnapping of an important Ambassador. Interesting how the American Embassy knew who did it, why and where, in real time, including the most intimate secrets of the military dictatorship. One has to assume that the Americans have a similar degree of knowledge about Israel today, if not even more intimate. 

Regarding the Ambassador, he was kidnapped by the gang led by Gordon, based in the house in the Bacacay street, without authorization by the SIDE, just as a privateer, freelance kidnapping for profit. In many similar cases, the families paid and the SIDE criminals freed the victims and pocketed the money. We who lived then and there, suspected antisemitism because many of the victims were Jewish, and in fact the SIDE suspected Jews but there was also a profit motive. In the case of the Ambassador, the family did not pay and the man was killed. The Americans knew everything in real time and I know for sure they saved some. Not like the current Pope who was the Principal of the Argentine Jesuits at that time. He did not move a finger even when his own "soldiers", French Jesuits, were kidnapped. 

Judge Dee in the Infested City

Finished reading the Willow Pattern mystery, where the Emperor and its court abandoned the city and left Judge Dee in charge. The common people  hides in their houses and bands of scavengers in black hoods collect the corpses and rob anything not nailed down. The Judge says it is necessary to repress in the bud all disorder and beheads four for molesting a streetwalker, and an unknown number for disrespectful words against the absent Emperor. He accuses them of organizing an uprising and using Chinese torture, identifies the infiltrated leaders. As usual in Van Gulik mysteries, prostitutes play a central part in the intrigues. In Van Gulik's China, prostitution is regulated,  work in licensed houses and pay taxes. The girls are peasant class, sold into the trade by indebted families. Elderly millionaires use to purchase the girls for legal wives, and prostitution can be a road to social advancement, as it carries no moral stigma. Judge Dee has three wives, and number one wife manages the household. Some wives are jealous and will not agree with sharing, forcing the husband to maintain a separate home in a nearby village. 

Recurring Dream

In  the dream, I realize I am almost forty and have to marry. I am in a summer camp and consider the girls available. Some of them I have known before. I wake up without a solution. 

Judge Dee Doling Justice in the Epidemic Ravaged Capital

I am reading a topical gong'an novel by Robert van Gulik, set in the Tang Dynasty. The Emperor and his court had abandoned the capital for fear of the epidemic, leaving Judge Dee as supreme authority of the diseased city. As usual, mysterious assassinations occupy Judge Dee's mind, while directing the washing out of the rat-infested sewers and repressing with deadly barbed iron arrows the famished populace assaulting the City Granary. Over this background, three decadent clans are entangled in fierce rivalry over Porphyry, a "virgin" prostitute. In the strictly policed Imperial China, carrying firearms and cutting weapons is prohibited, girls carry hidden iron balls on chains, 流星錘 , which they use with mortal effect. I have not finished yet, so cannot reveal who is the assassin and its motive. I am looking forward to learn the refined torture methods applied by Judge Dee to the suspects. 

P.S.: Happy End. All the rich people involved and their wives have been decapitated by Judge Dee and their fortunes divided between the Tribunal, the Judge and his faithful assistants. The rain washed off the capital's dirt, the epidemic disappeared and the survivors returned to their former business.