Open letter to Mr. Oliver Stone who recently visited Portugal and didn’t had the chance to know the following facts about the common history of Portugal and the US

Dear Mr. Oliver Stone, I’ve just read the story about your recent visit to Portugal published in the “Expresso” magazine. Knowing your work “The Untold History of the United States” I thought how ironic it was that your only interview in Portugal was to television SIC and newspaper “Expresso” – both of the same communication group – because they are the best exemple of what’s not told to the Portuguese public about their past and contemporary history.

"Expresso" said that you’ve visited Mário Soares at his home in Vau, Algarve. And you did that because you asked first who the President of Portugal was during the first Gulf War (1990-1991). Well, I don’t know if you were previously informed that a Portuguese President doesn’t have the same executive power as the US President. The power to decide the Government foreign policy and Defense strategy are in the hands of the prime-minister. If you were told that in 1990-1991 the prime-minister was the actual President, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, you bet you could have film material!

Aníbal Cavaco Silva was the Finance minister present on the last meeting with the Portuguese prime-minister Sá Carneiro and Defense minister Amaro da Costa, on December 4, 1980, the day these last two died on a plane crash.

A plane crash that was caused by an explosion on board – a fact only given as proven in 2004.

Nowadays, the Portuguese Parliament is investigating a possible link between their death and an investigation commanded by Sá Carneiro to an ilegal guns deal to Iran before the Reagan/Bush 1980 election. The 1980 “October Surprise” deal. Cavaco Silva had been ordered by Sá Carneiro to investigate a financial flow of ilegal money among the militar in Portugal, but he never carried out the investigation. Instead, after the death of Sá Carneiro he became prime-minister in 1985 and, like Mário Soares, who also was prime-minister before him, Cavaco Silva was submissive to the power in Washington.

That’s why you can find Portugal and the Lisbon airport mentioned as a third country in the Iran-Contra affair. Cavaco Silva is a personal friend of Bush senior, the former CIA director. As a matter of fact, Bush senior was present in the inauguration ceremony of Cavaco Silva as President of Portugal in 2006.

So, the name of the person who was in control of the Portuguese policy during the first Gulf War and who’s also a close friend of Bush senior was then the prime-minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva, now the President of Portugal.

I hope you can come a second time to Portugal. There’s a lot more of an “Untold” history that you would really like to know. Because it’s also your history that’s hidden here, in Portugal. All the best.