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Some
years ago, Maria Mattheissen, wife of the novelist and nature
writer, Peter Matthiessen, said to me, "Everything is a hoax."
At the time, I didn't understand what she was referring to. Then
I began to find out. Shortly before his death, the novelist,
John Sherry told me how Peter Mattheisssen was "haunted by the
CIA." Matthiessen told Sherry that he had not "founded" The
Paris Review from scratch, as legend has it, but that he had
established it at the behest of the CIA it while working for the
Agency, so it could serve as his cover in Paris.
In
the official history of The Paris Review, it states: "Matthieseen
invited George Plimpton, then a student at Cambridge, to take
on a position as editor. Plimpton has headed the magazine ever
since. Plimpton's unusual instinct for The Paris Review
was evident as early as 1954, when, in the midst of the annual
running of the bulls at Pamplona, he asked Prince Sadruddin Aga
Kahn to serve as first publisher of The Paris Review.
Prince Aga Kahn little choice but to accept. He remained as publisher
until 1975."
Had
little choice? According to Sherry, Matthiessen assured him that
the Prince never put up a penny. His foundation was the conduit
of CIA funds at all times. Maybe they made him an offer he could
not refuse. But, of course, this was the Cold War, and we were
fighting what President Reagan would call "the evil empire."
Nevertheless, a lot of people got on the CIA gravy train, enjoying
themselves in Paris while fighting the cultural Cold War. Imagine
debonair Americans in Paris, having drinks at the bar of The Ritz,
at our expense, while pretending to be literary lions, and you've
got the picture. Writers got gigs, editors got girlfriends, and
everyone got a piece of the action. What did they accomplish?
They found out that all the leading French writers and intellectuals
at that time were Communists, something everyone knew in the first
place. But as word of American intelligence operations in France
spread, these operations engendered a deep suspicion of America
that led to major disruptions of American foreign policy objectives
in Europe. We treated a great country as a colony and the consequences
are still being felt. Then, with the fiasco of the Vietnam War
that our vast government complex supported, American intelligence
fell linto disrepute.
But
memory is short. Now, the venue has shifted and we are engaged
in a life and death struggle against terrorism. And, as can be
expected, there is a new gravy train. Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld tells us that the war must be waged on all fronts, including
law enforcement. Vast sums are now pouring into operations that
have a familiar look to them reminiscent of the scams of the Cold
War. At the top of the list is something called the International
Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok.
A
vast. Pentagon-like complex hidden from view by landscaping that
includes giant trees, and with a web site that makes it sound
innocuous, the ILEA lists a handful of courses that it offers,
including "Cyber Crime." The prerequisite for this course is
a knowledge of English. A guy teaches this particular course
from the Customs Academy in Brunswick, Georgia with the unlikely
title of Director of Trade Operations. Which trade operations
does he direct? He is also the Acting Director of Mission Support.
What? In actuality, his career in Florida involved opening people's
baggage and rummaging through their belongings in search of contraband
until he moved up the bureaucratic ladder, with a somewhat less
that lateral move to the Customs Academy. Trained to give the
Cyber Crime course in a one-week crash course in Washington, this
GS-14 was put up at the Ritz, the most expensive hotel in Washington!
This, at a time, when various federal agencies are crying that
the budget situation is strangling their effectiveness. Then,
he will be flown to Bangkok to give the course. At our expense.
The
question is why is he needed there when hundreds of so-called
law enforcement people work there already? The answer is pretty
obvious. These courses listed on the ILEA web site are a camouflage.
ILEA, which purports to be affiliated with "US State Department,
the U.S. Customs Services, Bureau of Diplomatic Security of ILEA,"
smells very much like something else. To anyone with a background
and knowledge of intelligence, it appears to be nothing less than
a School of the Americas East and a CIA front. The School of
the Americas supported state-ponsored terrorism and death squads
to perpetuate oppressive regimes in Latin America and had the
direct effect of generating much of the ill-will towards the
United States that we are now grappling with, with the restoration
of the Chavez presidency in Venezuela after a failed bloody coop
in which the United States was undoubtedly involved, and a civil
war in Colombia that threatens the stability of all of Latin America.
Not to mention the millions who died in Guatemala following the
CIA's covert intervention there.
What
is actually being taught at the ILEA? Take a look at the governments
of the Central Asian republics we are supporting and you will
find the worst human rights records in the world. It is known
that they use the most brutal techniques, including torture, to
perpetuate themselves. If the United States doesn't want to practice
these techniques itself, it can send people to these countries
to get information from them. The "jihad" against all of them
is a major focal point of American foreign policy, much as our
support of the oppressive regimes in Latin America has been.
We are prepared to keep control of the oil and natural gas reserves
in those countries at any price, as well as the ability to build
the pipeline that will eventually produce huge profits for American
investors.
The
brutal techniques that used to be taught by the Technical Assistance
division of US AID have now, it would appear, found a new sponsor.
Are these the real courses being offered by the ILEA behind the
façade of the anodyne courses that serve as a front for the ILEA?
This is the inoculation principal at its most obvious. Tell a
little bit of the truth to conceal a bigger lie. You can actually
e mail questions to the ILEA, so seemingly benign. But if you
think ILEA is not a CIA front, you believe in the tooth fairy.
Since
when, you might ask, is the State Department a law enforcement
agency? And as for a useless course like "Cyber Crime," who could
possibly take it? If English is required, most of the police
from the countries we support to control their resources don't
speak English. The Indians and Pakistanis do, but they know much
more than the guy teaching it. And typical CIA. What a farce
and waste of our money. If the CIA devoted its energies and resources
to gathering intelligence, its main function, instead of this
sort of boondoggle, it might have known something about what was
going on in Hamburg prior to 911.
We
need to take a hard look at this operation now before it gets
totally out of hand and earns us more ill will in a part of the
world where we need to build up support for American, not hatred
against us. We should also take a hard look at the Customs Academy
in Brunswick, Georgia, a little known operation that is part of
the larger FLETC or Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where
clowns with their per diems from the FBI and other federal agencies
go to lounge and rent condos on the beach on St. Simons Island
with our money and spend our taxes. The Director of the Academy
is a top-level federal administrator, putting him the very top
range of salary, well in the six-figure bracket. What does he
do? He supervises the guys who train the Customs officials who
are part of one of the most incompetent federal agencies. You
have to wonder if this is not only incompetence but also something
else. When these guys retire, they get incredibly lucrative "consultantships"
around the world from Bulgaria to Costa Rica, dong things like
"airport security." about which they know nothing. No wonder
terrorists fly around undetected.
Is
it all a "hoax?" Not to all those who lost their lives on 911
or to the wonderful men and women in our armed forces in Afghanistan.
But as the war on terrorism expands to include every facet of
human life, we must ask ourselves if we are making the best use
of our resources. "Puttin' on the Ritz" is not exactly the right
way to go in a time of crisis. The New York Times recently
ran an article called "Is This Any Way to Run a Nation?" listing
the incredibly abuses of various federal agencies. "Every week
brings new examples of federal agencies not just performing poorly,
but performing stupidly," The Times quotes Paul C. Light,
director of the Brookings Institution's governmental studies program.
The Times asks" That's just a short list of the woes plaguing
federal agencies these days. But it's enough to make any civic
minded American ask: does anything work well in Washington these
days?" Good question. What grade would anyone give the CIA
and the Customs Services these days? F would be appropriate.
When the INS mailed out visas extensions last month for two of
the September 11 hijackers and with the Federal Aviation Administration
still sending newsletters to at least one of the other dead terrorists,
we must ask, "Is this any way to win the war against terrorism?"
Or do we say, once again, with the immortal Pogo, "We have met
the enemy and it is us?"
Richard
Cummings [send him mail]
served with the office of General Counsel of USAID Near East South
Asia region, as the lawyer for the AID program in Israel, Jordan,
Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and is a member of the Association
of Former Intelligence Officers, having served on the Board of
the AFIO-New England chapter. He is the author of The
Pied Piper-Allard K. Lowenstein and the Liberal Dream (second
ed., InPrint. Com 2000) and Proposition 14-A Secessionist
Remedy.
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