The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior [Hardcover]

Horacio Verbitsky (Author), Esther Allen (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565840097 | ISBN-13: 978-1565840096 | Publication Date: August 1, 1996

Between 1976 and 1983, about two thousand political dissidents were pushed from airborne Argentine military planes into the waters of the Rio de la Plata or the Atlantic Ocean. At the start of their horrific descent into death, all were living and breathing. Many later washed up on Uruguayan beaches, bloated beyond recognition. Retired navy officer Lieutenant Commander Adolfo Francisco Scilingo only pushed out thirty personally. Nevertheless, it was more than he could live with. He approached Horacio Verbitsky and broke the military's code of silence about Argentina's "dirty war."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Francisco Silingo was a junior naval officer in the Argentinean military dictatorship of the 1970s. Convinced by his superiors that extreme measures were essential in defending Argentina from subversives, he pushed drugged political prisoners out of airplanes into the Atlantic Ocean. Silingo related his experiences to author Horacio Verbitsky because his former commanders began denying such practices ever occurred--though they had gone to great lengths to justify them to their men. This book caused outrage in Argentina in 1995, when nearly 9,000 of the "disappeared" remain unaccounted for.

From Publishers Weekly

A bestseller in Argentina, this electrifying document is the businesslike confessional of retired Lieutenant Commander Adolfo Scilingo, who admits to participating in the Argentine military dictatorship's campaign of torture and murder between 1976 and 1983. In extensive interviews, Scilingo tells Argentine journalist Verbitsky how he took part in "aerial transports"?throwing heavily sedated, naked political prisoners out of airplanes into the Atlantic Ocean. Under Verbitsky's relentless cross-examination, Scilingo also admits that he joined in a kidnapping and observed a prisoner being tortured. Aerial executions of the regime's opponents, he charges, were approved by Church authorities, and a chaplain comforted the officers after their missions. In the introduction, Mendez, general counsel for Human Rights Watch, notes that hundreds of known torturers have avoided prosecution thanks to the Argentine military's clout, and more than 9000 families still do not know the fate of loved ones. Translation rights: Planeta Argentina, Buenos Aires.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565840097
• ISBN-13: 978-1565840096
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tense testimony to a time of terror..., October 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior (Hardcover)

This book is very helpful in the effort to understand the psychology behind the Dirty War in Argentina. Horacio Verbitsky is a well known authority on this time, since he was pursued by the government during the war and since. The journalistic bravery he has shown certainly merit recognition. His pointed questions to war criminal Francisco Scilingo highlight this telling work. The insights will turn your stomach and blow your mind. The Flight reinforces the notion that the military in any country must have full civilian oversight. The Flight is a not a gentle reminder of this vital concept.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Reading, February 10, 2004

By 

"moneypenny62" (Beverly Hills, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior (Hardcover)

Anyone who wants to understand what went through the minds of the torturers, and comprehend how they could perpetuate their atrocities needs to read this deeply moving book. The grubbiness, the gangsterliness, the banality, the bureaucracy and the horror are conveyed in their true magnitude. Yet there is a detachment about it that adds to its credibility. This book is not about left or right, it condemns no political ideology, it doesn't blame the USA - it just tells us what happened and explores deeply how it could happen. I read this book and could not get its vivid presence out of my head for days. Like some psychological trauma, I needed to talk it over afterward.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Flight by Horacio Verbitsky--Book Review, May 29, 2001

By 

Veronica Martino "Veronica Martino" (Nyack, NY-United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior (Hardcover)

Verbitsky transcribes Scilingo's confession regarding the "flights" in which he participated during Argentina's dirty war, between 1976-83. The trivialization of his testimony gives the reader insight on how "desensitized" to their own excesses, the military had become by the time their "deed" was over. Scilingo was the first naval officer to admit to the military's violation of human rights during the war against "subversives". He exempts himself of responsibility by claiming that in the process of carrying out orders from the commanders in charge,the officers themselves, had also become victims of the process. He provides details involving the "loading" of the planes from which live bodies were thrown into the South Atlantic Ocean. A worthwhile tool in making an assessment on the entire story...