This special update includes detailed information on upcoming events in Washington, DC and the latest news on the status of the Hinchey Amendment.

This special update includes detailed information on upcoming events in Washington, DC and the latest news on the status of the Hinchey Amendment.

1. SHERIDAN CIRCLE MEMORIAL SERVICE

Please join us for this year's Sheridan Circle Memorial Service to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the assassination of our colleagues Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt by agents of the Pinochet regime. This year's service comes at an important moment: the day before the historic extradition hearings for Augusto Pinochet are set to begin in London. We encourage you to bring your family, friends and flowers!

WHAT: SHERIDAN CIRCLE MEMORIAL SERVICE

WHERE: Sheridan Circle (23rd and Mass Ave. in Washington, DC)

WHEN: Sunday, September 26, 10:00 am - 11:00 am

WHO: Speakers to include: Peter Kornbluh, Senior Analyst and Director of Chile Archives Project at the National Security Archives; José Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director, Americas Division, Human Rights Watch; Francisco Leiva, nephew of Orlando Letelier, Visiting Professor at American University; Marcus Raskin, Co-Founder of the Institute for Policy Studies and colleague of Ronni Moffitt; Reading of Poems from O. Letelier School, a unique school in Santiago, Chile, named in honor of Orlando Letelier, that uses human rights as a basis for all classes and curriculum (reading by Johannah Pemberton, Senior at Richard Montgomery High in Rockville, MD); Invocation by Alma Nieves, Unitarian Minister
and case worker for Latino Transitional Housing, DC; Music by David Rabin and Caleb Rossiter.

2. LETELIER-MOFFITT HUMAN RIGHTS AWARDS

The 23rd Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards will be held Thursday, Oct. 7th, at the National Geographic Society in Washington DC. This year's international award will go to Dr. Juan Garcés, Legal Team Coordinator for the Pinochet Case; his award will be presented by Representative George Miller (D-CA). The domestic award, presented by Danny Glover, will go to the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. Special guests include Isabel Letelier, Saul Landau, and Harry Belafonte. Entertainment by John McCutcheon. Awards program, 7 pm, $35; awards program and following dinner: $150. Tickets must be purchased in advance; get yours soon! Contact Wendy Phipps at (202) 234-9382, ext. 234 or by e-mail at wphipps@igc.org.

3. UPDATE ON HINCHEY AMENDMENT

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees will meet in conference this Thursday, September 23rd, at 2:00 pm to reconcile the language of the Intelligence Authorization Act. This conference committee will determine whether the Hinchey Amendment will be included in the final language of the bill. The Hinchey Amendment was passed as part of the House bill (H.R. 1555), but was not included in the Senate version.

The Conference Committee will include all members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, one member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee and potentially all members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

The Hinchey Amendment would require the CIA to release all documents to Congress pertaining to the death of Salvador Allende, Pinochet's rise to the presidency, and human rights abuses committed during his regime. The CIA released less than 10% of the 5,800 documents declassified in June 1999.

For more information regarding this legislation, please contact Lisa Hauggard at the Latin America Working Group (LAWG), (202) 546-7010.