[Editor’s note: The State Department FOIA release of 1981 withheld the bulk of this cable under the national security exemption. The once-deleted portions denoted below in red type.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1979GEORGE00942_e.html. This URL may be available through the Wayback Machine.]
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GEORGE 00942 031519Z
ACTION ARA-15
INFO OCT-01 ISO-00 H-01 SSO-00 L-03 SP-02 NSCE-00 SS-15 /037 W
——————128673 031525Z /12
O 031450Z MAR 79
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9101
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E.O. 12065: N/A
TAGS: OREP, PINS, GY
SUBJECT: HFAC INVESTIGATION OF ASSASSINATION OF CONGRESSMAN RYAN
REF: STATE 050207
1. AMBASSADOR, ACCOMPANIED BY DCM, DELIVERED CHAIRMAN ZABLOCKI’S LETTER TO PRIMIN BURNHAM (REFTEL) TO FORMIN RASHLEIGH JACKSON AT 10 AM MARCH 3. (PRIMIN IS CURRENTLY OUT OF GEORGETOWN.)
2. AFTER READING TEXT OF CHAIRMAN’S LETTER, JACKSON SAID THAT IT WOULD RECEIVE PROMPT AND SERIOUS CONSIDERATION WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT. HE NOTED THE REFERENCE TO THE WEEK OF MARCH 11 IN THE LETTER AND OBSERVED THAT THIS SEEMED TO OFFER A RATHER BRIEF TIME FOR CONSIDERATION. HE ALSO MENTIONED THE FACT THAT NEITHER THE GOG AMBASSADOR NOR THE DCM WAS CURRENTLY IN WASHINGTON; THUS, CONTACTS BETWEEN THE GOG EMBASSY AND THE COMMITTEE STAFF, SHOULD THEY BE INDICATED, MIGHT NOT BE IMMEDIATELY POSSIBLE.
3. THE FOREIGN MINISTER SEEMED PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN THE IDENTITY AND LEVEL OF THE GOG OFFICIALS WHOM THE COMMITTEE STAFF HAD INDICATED IT WISHED TO INTERVIEW, AND ALSO THE SCOPE
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OF ITS INQUIRY. HE NOTED THAT THE GOG INTENDS TO PURSUE ITS OWN INQUIRY AND OBSERVED THAT CHAIRMAN ZABLOCKI’S REQUEST RAISES THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF RECIPROCITY TO WHICH, HE SUSPECTED THE US SIDE WOULD BE UNWILLING TO ACCEDE. AMBASSADOR AND DCM DID NOT COMMENT.
4. AMBASSADOR INFORMED THE FORMIN THAT SEPARATE AND APART FROM THE REQUEST FOR MEETINGS WITH GOG OFFICIALS, COMMITTEE STAFF INTENDED TO VISIT GUYANA TO INTERVIEW EMBASSY STAFF AND WOULD ALSO LIKE TO VISIT JONESTOWN. JACKSON OBSERVED THAT THIS WAS A MUCH EASIER REQUEST TO DEAL WITH THAN THE ONE CONTAINED IN THE CHAIRMAN’S LETTER.
BURKE [U.S. Ambassador John Burke]
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