Saul Landau, an internationally-known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker, is the first recipient of the Hugh O. La Bounty Chair for Interdisciplinary & Applied Knowledge at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is known for his work on foreign and domestic policy issues, Native American and South American cultures, and science and technology.

Saul Landau's most widely praised achievements are the forty films he has produced on social, political and historical issues, and worldwide human rights, for which he won the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, the George Polk Award for Investigative Reporting, and the First Amendment Award, as well as an Emmy for "Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang."

Articles and columns by Saul Landau have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as The Nation, The International Herald Tribune, USA Today, The Anderson Valley Advertiser, Monthly Review, The Progressive, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and many other journals. He was a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle between 1989-1994.

Saul Landau has written over ten books, short stories, and poems and is currently working on a detective novel. He received an Edgar Allen Poe Award for "Assassination on Embassy Row," a report on the murder of Orlando Letelier.

At Cal Poly Pomona, Saul Landau teaches in the areas of Latin American studies, the analysis of revolution, and politics through film. He has been a guest lecturer for courses offered in the College of Environmental Design, the School of Education and Integrative Studies, the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, and at the International Polytechnic High School.

Saul Landau hosted a film/discussion series on campus during fall quarter 1997. Also during fall quarter 1997 he hosted a speaker series on Mexico, NAFTA, and free trade. In winter quarter 1998, he will host a speaker series "Paths to the 21st Century," part of a new Multimedia Exploration program and internet course by that name. "Paths to the 21st Century" will draw on research and analysis to present a perspective on 20th century issues including war, social justice and injustice, science and technology. This perspective will inform strategies for applying knowledge gained through experience as we look toward the 21" century. World renowned scholars and acclaimed Hollywood professionals will come to Cal Poly Pomona to participate in this exciting project.

Saul Landau received a Bachelor's and Masters' Degree in US History from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with Honors in European History for his Masters. He has done additional post-graduate work at the University of California-Berkeley and at Stanford University.

He has, at various times, taught history, sociology, film and political science at:
American University
University of California at Santa Cruz, Davis, and Berkeley;
The California Institute of the Arts
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Wisconsin
Institute for Policy Studies, Washington School


He has been an artist in residence (film) at Hampshire College and lectured widely on the university circuit.

Saul Landau has been a Senior Fellow of the Washington D.C. Institute for Policy Studies for 25 years and a Pacifica Radio Network News political analyst and commentator since 1993.

Affiliations and Positions:

- The Hugh O. La Bounty Chair of Interdisciplinary Applied Knowledge, at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, since 1997.
- Senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. since 1972
- IPS board member, 1980-1998
- Senior fellow at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam since 1974.
- Pacifica Radio Network News political analyst and commentator since 1993.
- Fulbright Scholarship Awards Committee member for film, video, and photography, 1989-1993.
- Center for Cuban Studies board member, 1973-1998.

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Following is a list of Mr. Landau's films, books & articles, and plays.

Films:

The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas (1996)
Writer, producer, director
Photographer: Haskell Wexler.
Won Best Director Award, First American Indian Intercontinental Film Festival, Santa Fe, 1996;
Won Golden Apple Award, 1997
Won Best Picture at the North Carolina Smoky Mountain, Film Festival, 1997.

Papakolea: A Story of Hawaiian Homelands (1993) Writer and co-producer with Edgy Lee.
Premiered at the Hawaiian Film Festival
Won of the CINE award.

Report from Iraq (1991)
Executive producer
A 20 minute film on the damage done to the Iraqi infrastructure by the Gulf War bombing.

The Uncompromising Revolution (1988)
Writer, producer, director
Theatrical release; 1990, PBS and European television version.
Cuba and Castro at middle age.

Counterpoint: The Sandinista Perspective (1984),
Writer, producer, director

Target Nicaragua: Inside a Covert War (1983)
Writer, producer, director
Photographer: Haskell Wexler for PBS.

Quest for Power: Sketches of the American New Right (1983)
Writer, producer, director
For Dutch, Swedish and Finnish television with Frank Diamand

Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang (1980)
Writer-director With Jack Willis for PBS
Won the First Amendment Award (1981)
Won the Emmy (1980)
Won the James Polk Award for Investigative Journalism (1980)
Won first prize at Mannheim (1980)

Steppin' (1980) Writer, producer, director
A tour of Jamaica with Michael Manley during election time.

The CIA Case Officer (1978)
Writer, producer, director
Photographer: Haskell Wexler
A portrait of the CIA Angola task-force leader
Won first prize at Ann Arbor (1978)

Bill Moyer's CBS report on CIA and Cuba (1977)
Field producer.

Land of My Birth (1976)
The campaign film for Michael Manley in Jamaica
Writer, producer, director
Photographer: Haskell Wexler.

Zombies in a House of Madness (1975)
Writer, producer, director
On a jailhouse poet.

Song for Dead Warriors (1974)
Writer, producer, director
Filmed on the Oglala Sioux reservation
Won the Ann Arbor Film Festival

Cuba and Fidel (1974)
Writer, producer, director
A 24 minute tour of Cuba with Fidel, for high schools.

Castro, Cuba and the US (1974) Director
With Dan Rather for CBS

Who Shot Alexander Hamilton (1974)
Writer, producer, director
A film on Congress

Robert Wall: Ex FBI Agent (1972)
Writer, producer, director
A half hour portrait of an FBI agent who became fed up with the Bureau's gestapo-like methods.

The Jail (1972)
Writer, producer, director
Broadcast on WNET, (plus three educational films on Men and Women in the Correctional Facilities) for Harvard University
Won first prize at Berlin and Ann Arbor

Que Hacer (1971)
Writer, producer, director
A spy story-musical feature film in Chile, featuring Country Joe McDonald.
Won critics prize at Mannheim
Won awards at Cannes and Venice

Conversation with Allende (1971)
Writer, producer, director
Photographer: Haskell Wexler.

Brazil: Report on Torture (1971)
Writer, producer, director
Photographer: Haskell Wexler

Fidel (1969)
Writer, producer, director
Theatrical and television version for PBS.

From Protest to Resistance (1968), for PBS.
Writer, producer, director

Report from Cuba (1967), for PBS.
Writer, producer, director

Losing Just the Same (1966), for PBS.
Writer, producer

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Books and Articles: - Testimonio de Orlando Letelier, with Joan Garces, (Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1995)
- Hot Air: A Radio Diary, Pacifica, (Washington, 1995)
- The Guerilla Wars of Central America, (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1993)
- My Dad Was Not Hamlet: Poems (Washington, IPS, 1993)
- The Dangerous Doctrine: National Security and U.S. Foreign Policy (Boulder, Westview, 1988)
- Changing Course: Blueprint for Peace and Development in Central America, with co-authors, (Washington, IPS, 1984)
- The New American Right, (Amsterdam, Van Gennep, 1983)
- Assassination on Embassy Row, with John Dinges, (New York, Pantheon, 1980)
Won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Non-Fiction Mystery (1981).
- They Educated the Crows, (Washington, IPS, 1978)
- To Serve the Devil, 2 volumes, with Paul Jacobs, (New York, Random House, 1971)
- The New Radicals, with Paul Jacobs, (New York, Random House, 1966)

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Plays:

- A Minstrel Show: Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel, written with R.G.Davis
for the San Francisco Mime Troupe, ran from 1965-67

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An article By Saul Landau followed by response by Nick Cooper

THE EXTRADITION OF PINOCHET TO SPAIN WOULD ADVANCE HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Should British and Spanish judges overcome the obstacles and extradite to Spain General Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean dictator, international human rights law will have significantly advanced. Pinochet was detained in London on October 17 on a request from Spanish judges investigating his participation in human rights violations. For President Clinton, the Pinochet case offers an excellent opportunity to show that his anti-terrorism policy has teeth.

For some two years the judges have gathered evidence from witnesses in Chile, Italy, Argentina and the United States. When Pinochet appeared in England to undergo surgery, the judge seized the opportunity to question him, asking the British government to detain him for the interrogation. Chilean President Frei, has waved the "sovereignty" flag, responding in fear to threats of a military uprising in Chile should Pinochet be extradited and tried in Spain. In fact, Pinochet's case more closely resembles that of the Barbary pirates, those Thomas Jefferson hunted down in the early 19th Century - in accord with international law, which labeled piracy as a crime that any court could prosecute.

According to the Spanish judges investigating the Chilean dictatorship (1973-90) Pinochet's exploits are equivalent to piracy: 1) international terrorism, for having directed several assassinations abroad against foes suspected of threatening the military junta, 2) crimes against humanity, for the systematic jailing and torturing of tens of thousands for political beliefs, and 3) genocide for their role in the slaying of more than 3,000, all of whom were labeled "subversives."

Since Pinochet declared amnesty for himself in Chile, before giving up his presidency in 1990, and since he appointed himself as Senator for Life to gain even further immunity from prosecution, there exists no judicial process in Chile to adjudicate the many crimes he and his military gang are accused of committing, including those against non Chilean citizens. Indeed, Spanish citizens fell victim to Pinochet's reign of terror as did British and Americans.

Conservative forces have raised objections to Judge Garcia Castellon, who presides over the Pinochet investigation and to judge Baltazar Garzon who accepted jurisdiction for crimes committed by the Argentine dictatorship. But the European Parliament passed a resolution last year supporting their jurisdiction and affirming their opinion that human rights law must have extraterritoriality if it is to deter aspiring dictators.

As military ruler of Chile, Pinochet ordered his secret police and military to stop at nothing in combating opposition. Pinochet now claims he knew nothing of the human rights abuses. Doubters should refer to the writ filed last year by retired General Manuel Contreras, secret police chief 1974-77, and number two in the hierarchy of power. In an attempt to reduce his own seven year prison sentence in Chile for conspiring to assassinate Orlando Letelier, Contreras swore in a petition to the Chilean court that every act he undertook was under the direct order of his commander in chief - including the September 1976 car-bombing assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC FBI investigators tracked that brutal deed, in which Ronni Moffitt died as well. She was a young associate of Letelier at the Institute for Policy Studies where both worked. Letelier had been Chilean Ambassador to Washington and Cabinet Member of the overthrown Allende government who exiled himself in Washington after spending a year in a Pincohet concentration camp.

Contreras' statement about responsibility for that act coincides with the views of former FBI Agents Robert Scherrer and L. Carter Cornick, who directed the investigation of the Letelier case. They both concluded that Pinochet had to have authorized it. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Barcella who prosecuted the accused assassins stated to Judge Garcia Castellon that "it is inconceivable that the Letelier assassination could have taken place without the express authority of the Chilean commander." FBI investigations traced the crime's roots to Secret Police Chief Contreras. The US government insisted that Chile better not use notions of sovereignty in the case of an assassination in Washington. As a result Contreras and a subordinate were convicted in the Letelier case, in Chile. But top dog Pinochet has political support in Chile and thus inspires the waving of false flags of diplomatic immunity and sovereignty. Pinochet's agents never respected sovereignty. They not only killed Letelier and Moffitt in Washington, but murdered exiled General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires in 1974. Chilean secret police agents shot exiled politician Bernardo Leighton and his wife in Rome in 1975 and, as the FBI discovered, had hatched many other plots to do violence to their overseas opponents. "Diplomatic immunity" makes little sense to the family of Carmelo Soria, a Spanish UN official who was kidnapped and murdered in 1976 in Chile by Pinochet's elite secret police unit. He had real diplomatic immunity and it did him no good.

The British and US governments have additional grievances with Pinochet. Two British citizens disappeared during Pinochet's reign of terror. One case epitomized the methods used by his secret police. William (Billy) Beausire, a British citizen and businessman had a radical sister, the companion of the leader of Chile's ultra left organization. In order to discover where the leftists were hiding, the political police decided to subject Billy to a routine torture session. Billy's mother found out about the plan and put her son on the first plane to London. Unfortunately, the plane stopped in Buenos Aires. By this time the secret police had discovered Billy's escape plan and they arranged to have their Argentine colleagues detain him. Billy was sent back to Chile and never seen again.

After the 1973 coup, two US citizens, Charles Horman and Frank Terrugi were murdered by Pinochet's military. For seventeen years incidents like this epitomized Pinochet's Presidency. He became president by force, leading a bloody military coup against the elected president, socialist Salvador Allende. A Chilean government commission investigating crimes committed during that period discovered that Pinochet's security forces had killed more than 3000 civilians, tortured many more and driven tens of thousands of Chileans into exile.

In His recent speech to the UN General Assembly, Clinton promised to use his office to end the scourge of terrorism. Now, Clinton could bring the US hammer down on the former Chilean dictator by becoming a partner in a case that epitomizes the use of in5ternational law to combat international violence. The US government has reams of classified documents that link Pinochet to crimes abroad, including to the Letelier- Moffitt killings in Washington. Clinton could advance international law by providing this material to the Spanish judges, who have submitted requests for it under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. He could go one step further and ask Attorney general Reno to add Pinochet's name to the Letelier-Moffitt indictment, which remains open and ask to extradite Pinochet when the Spaniards are through with him.

How much better this process would be for international violence than lobbing cruise missiles into a suspect's territory.

Houston musician and artist, Nick Cooper, responds:

November 1, 1998

Mr. Landau,

To call Pinochet to task for all his crimes especially those against the U.S. and its citizens without aknowledging the U.S. role in the Allende coup and subsequent regime not only undermines the possibility for justice to be done, but also serves the interests of an essential co-conspirator, our State Department. The U.S. and it's media has a policy for dealing with it's former allies who no longer please us. We accuse them of the same war-crimes we had long supported and try to keep them from exposing our role in their regimes. Like Noriega and Saddam Hussein, Pinochet will pay not only for his crimes but for ours as well. The State Department, with the help of the media, will bravely denounce the acts in which it participated.

Nick Cooper

Saul Landau replies:

November 2, 1998

Dear Nick,

I agree with your passionate and just note on the complicity of members of the US government in setting the stage for the coup in Chile. I would go farther. The US Navy played the role of monitor for communications at Chile's military bases to insure the coup-makers that should a loyal unit decide to fight for the Allende government, the rebels could suppress them. But let's take one thing at a time. There's a case against Pinochet. Use it to establish the broadening of human rights law and then let's bring indictments against Kissinger et al. (who are still alive). But please don't think I'm ignoring their role.

Saul Landau

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