The Flight
Subtitle: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior
Contributors: Esther Allen (Translator)
Publisher: New Press
Published: August 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 207
ISBN-13: 9781565840096
Subjects: Biography: general; Military tactics; Political oppression & persecution; c 1970 to c 1980; c 1980 to c 1990; Latin America - South America; Contemporary Politics - Latin America; Politics / Current Events; State-sponsored terrorism; Politics/International Relations; Argentina; Politics - Current Events; General; Disappeared persons; Escuela de Mecanica de la Arm; Terrorism
Description: Retired Navy Officer Francisco Scilingo is the first man ever to break the Argentine military's pact of silence. Incensed by what he perceived as unjust treatment of former Argentine military officials, Scilingo stunned his compatriots and the world by openly confessing his participation in the hideous practice of pushing live political dissidents out of airplanes over the South Atlantic during Argentina's dirty war.

The Flight makes available to English-language readers for the first time the complete text of Scilingo's confession, offered as interviews with Argentina's best-known investigative journalist, Horacio Verbitsky. In these interviews, Scilingo confirms what was rumored for years, but always denied by the Argentine military.

He recounts his inside knowledge of and participation in the monstrous campaign of systematic torture and death waged by the military from 1976 to 1983; he details the military's practice of rotating personnel so that everyone, including ranking officers, would be complicit; and he talks about the Church's awareness and seeming endorsement of many atrocities. Scilingo's candid admissions offer unique insights into the psychology of guilt and present a riveting study of human behavior at its worst.