Down South Perspective

I promised a while back not to get into political stuff, but based on some books I read lately I have to sort of break that promise. I say “sort of” because the political stuff is backdoor – politics is not what this is really about. It’s about simple logic, simple truth. And someone who cares about truth. And someone else who should but doesn’t. The first book in question is Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, by Bob Woodward. Came across it at a used book store up in San Jose (Costa Rica). Having been instrumental in bringing down Richard Nixon, Woodward (along with Carl Bernstein) was one of my heroes, a smart, fearless journalist with the balls to go the distance, no matter where it led in uncovering the truth about how absolute power corrupts absolutely. The other reason for my interest in the book was that I’m researching the Iran contra scandal of the 1980s – I’ve decided to involve the characters in the screen version of my novel, Cosmic Banditos, in some historical nonsense during their quest north through Central America to discover What It All Means. As a goofy subplot, pull sort of a Forrest Gump: have our boys accidentally cause the whole Iran contra mess and thereby almost topple that other White House criminal, Ronald Reagan. Woodward’s book deals with CIA shenanigans during the Reagan years, the 1980s, so I assumed it delved deeply into Iran contra. In my Iran contra research I came across a lesser-known book, titled Lost History; Contras, Cocaine, The Press and Project Truth, by Robert Parry. Parry is an award-winning journalist (the Polk Award, which is second only in prestige to the Pulitzer) who has done extensive work for Newsweek, Associated Press, among other mainstream media outlets. In 1984, Parry was runner up for the Pulitzer for his stories on Central America. About as far from a rightwing, leftwing, anywing nutcase conspiracy theorist as you can get. Since both Parry’s and Woodward’s books deal mainly with the United States government’s covert activities under the Reagan administration, I assumed they would be similar in scope and conclusions reached. I also assumed that Woodward’s would be the more in-depth, revealing work. I mean this is THE Bob Woodward. But holy shit was I wrong. Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA is a whitewash. Awful. Truly a travesty. (Hence the past tense above – (Bob Woodward) “WAS one of my heroes.”) Woodward is the person I refer to above who should care about the truth but doesn’t. I could write my own book about the differences between these two books, but for our purposes I’ll just them sum up, using the very different conclusions reached about a major player in the story of the Reagan years – CIA Director William Casey. During the writing of Veil, Casey and Woodward became such good buddies that Woodward ends his book with his visit to Casey’s hospital bed while Casey was dying of cancer in either late 1986 or early 1987 (Woodward doesn’t pinpoint the date). The visit in itself is a dead giveaway that Woodward glossed over the truth about Casey and the CIA. Imagine Richard Nixon inviting the Woodward of the 1970s over for a deathbed chat. Here’s how Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA ends: Casey (more or less) admits to knowing about the diversion of funds from the Iran arms sales to the contras. Duuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh! Talk about missing the point! As is so impeccably documented in Parry’s book (and elsewhere), not only did Casey know about the diversion of funds, but, along with his protégé, Oliver North, the CIA chief was instrumental in planning and carrying out the whole sordid mess. How did the journalist who toppled a president miss that? But the illegal arms sales and diversion of funds to the contras is lightweight stuff. I’ll cut to the quick of the subject that was of most interest to me, the contra/U.S. government/cocaine connection: Not only did Reagan’s White House staff, plus Casey’s CIA, know about the contra’s role in importing cocaine into the United States, they in effect approved it, and aided and abetted it. (Amidst the mountain of evidence is the following, which indicates just how early on Casey knew of the contra/cocaine connection: In February, 1982, only three months after Reagan approved support for the contra “army,” Casey engineered an exemption sparing the CIA from a legal requirement to report on drug smuggling by CIA assets.) Woodward DOES NOT EVEN MENTION the contra/cocaine/CIA connection, although it was reported contemporaneously by his more courageous colleagues, whose stories were either killed or buried, the journalists speciously discredited. The Truth is that the mainstream media were all afraid of the truth — including, ironically, Project Truth, the White House’s and CIA’s illegal (and appallingly successful) attempt to control the press and the Congress, which control they euphemistically termed “Perception Management.” “Perception Management” actually means this: Lie about everything. And intimidate and even outright threaten any of the press or congress-people who do not toe the administration’s propaganda line. (The current administration, of course, has further refined Perception Management, raised (or lowered, depending on your philosophy) it to an art form. And before you accuse me of a goddamn liberal bias – Perception Management was also the m.o. of that smarmy master of spin and deception, William Jefferson Clinton.) The Washington Post not only blew the story as it developed (actively participating in the discrediting of the courageous journalists – including Parry — who uncovered the truth), but when Senator John Kerry’s Report of the CIA/contra/cocaine connection came out (plus other reports, including the CIA’s own internal one) confirmed these journalists’ work — implicating the whole gang of criminals at CIA and the White House in the importation of multi-tons of cocaine in the United States, among other crimes — the Post (plus every other mainstream media outlet) virtually ignored it. The Washington Post, of course, is Bob Woodward’s paper. Although privately owned, the Post organization is part of the same corporate power structure that rules the United States. (Five government-connected-and-beholden mega-corporations control 80% of the media.) That’s why you probably don’t know about this stuff. That’s why you don’t know that while Nancy Reagan was imploring you to “Just say no!” to drugs, her husband and his staff were not only approving but (in the case of North, Casey and others) overseeing the smuggling of tons of cocaine into the United States, in order to illegally fund a mob of terrorist cutthroats. (North, in the Iran contra hearings, reverently compared the contras to “Our Founding Fathers” – meanwhile, as North well knew, the CIA itself was describing them as the moral equivalent to “a gang of Hell’s Angels.” The facts would prove that this characterization was… kind.) A tidbit, since I happen to live in Costa Rica: In 1989, Costa Rica banned Oliver North from entering their country after its own investigation clearly implicated North in drug smuggling and other crimes. And on a surfy note: there’s a break up north of here called Ollie’s Point – so named for the adjacent landing strip that North’s crew used for drug and weapons running. Just some common local knowledge. I’m curious: How come a bunch of ragamuffin surfers knew about Oliver North’s drug smuggling activities when THE Bob Woodward missed it? Is there something wrong here? Okay. I have to back up for a moment – I’m not quite finished with Bob Woodward. March, 2001, six months before the 9/11 attacks. I was living in North Carolina, taking care of Mom, who was very ill with cancer. George W. Bush was president, as he is now – at least this time around he was actually elected. (On the other hand: So much for the wisdom of the electorate, of the “common man.”) Bush-then (in early 2001) was crazed to include in his budget funding for a Missile Defense System, a reincarnation of Reagan’s old Star Wars program, which was supposed to protect us from a massive Soviet nuclear strike. With the fall of the Soviet Union and hence the unlikelihood of a World War with the Russians, Bush’s rationalization for the hundreds of billions of dollars he would need was the threat of a nuclear (or as he would say, “nucular”) missile strike from terrorists or a “rogue nation” (like North Korea or Iran). Okay. So I’m this 50 year old surfer living with his sick Mom in North Carolina, okay? I’ve got a lot on my mind, not only Mom’s deteriorating health (she would die in late April), but my severe financial woes, problems bringing In Search of Captain Zero into print, my lack of a social or love life, the shitty East coast surf, you name it. I’m listening to Bush going on and on about this “threat” and how he’d defend against it and I’m thinking… There’s something wrong here. I put myself in the place of a terrorist or a rogue nation and asked myself how I would attack the United States using either a nuclear or conventional explosive device. I’d use a commercial aircraft or a ship to deliver the device – the former amounting to a flying bomb. Given that that was how it was done six months later in the attacks on New York and Washington (I think we can safely call a multi-ton load of jet fuel an “explosive device”), my reasoning here was (and still is) so obvious that I’ll just outline it. 1. Just where the hell are a bunch of terrorists (or a rogue nation) going to get a long range intercontinental ballistic missile? (By the way, Bush has CUT the funding for keeping track of the Russian’s nuclear material, warheads and missiles, which would be the only realistic source.) And even if they did procure one or more missiles, the blastoff signature would be visible from our spy satellites – we’d wipe the bastards off the face of the earth in retaliation, and they know it. 2. Why spend the time and money on a missile delivery system when you can hijack a ship or airplane – or just buy one? (If I were a terrorist on a tight budget – or with a sense of irony — I’d just FEDEX the device to the U.S., wire it to go off upon arrival, say, in New York or Washington.) Plus, unlike the missile scenario, these means of delivery would be untraceable. 3. Assuming the U.S. actually developed a space based Missile Defense System (and in the highly unlikely event that it worked), this would GUARANTEE that the attackers would use the ship or conventional aircraft (or Fedex) method. Be like locking your front door but leaving the back door and all your windows open – and then advertising this stupidity with a huge sign on the street. I could go on with the inescapable logic here but in the interest of brevity (and attention spans) the above should suffice. To those of you who have been with me since the beginning – I started my site and newsletter in January of 2001 – this may all sound vaguely familiar. Here’s why: In March, 2001 I sent out a DSP (actually called “Sunday Hello in those pre-Costa Rica days) explaining the above reasons why a Missile Defense System was utter nonsense, another lie perpetrated by Bush and the gang of corporate lackeys who run the United States. I was so outraged by the criminal stupidity of a Missile Defense System that I rewrote my newsletter and used it as a “press release,” sending it to a bunch of wire services and media outlets. So out this stuff went, to my subscribers and to the media – six months prior to 9/11. NPR was the only outlet that picked up on it. They quoted me verbatim — though un-credited, referring to me by saying “Some people have pointed out that, etc”). (I also suggested that the two to three HUNDRED BILLION dollars Bush wanted for his bullshit Missile Defense System should be spent on beefing up the Coast Guard and airport security.) This is on the record from back in March 2001, via my newsletter and NPR. Putting aside that in August, 2001 Bush was specifically warned about a terrorist attack via hijacked airplanes (and ignored it), let me ask you this: How come a depressed and distracted surfer living in North Carolina with his sick Mom figured out how our country would be attacked when all the think tanks and spook organizations and presidential advisors hadn’t a clue? (Or if they had a clue, they ignored it.) Was something wrong here? And guess what? Bush is STILL harping about the nuclear-strike-from-terrorists scenario as rationalization for his Missile Defense System. Since I was correct in my 2001 predictions maybe you should listen here: A nuclear (or biological or chemical or conventional explosive) attack on the United States will be via a ship sailed into a coastal harbor, or, more likely, via an airplane such as an old Boeing 707 bought on the used market and then fitted with extra fuel tanks — it’s deadly payload will then (from any airstrip on the planet) be flown under radar to the U.S. Take it to the bank. You heard it here first. I gotta say it again: And Bush STILL wants his Missile Defense System. (Which virtually all scientists who do not have an agenda – meaning are beholden to the defense industry – have said will not work anyway.) He is in fact currently spending billions on it: Right now Bush is in the process of locking the front door, meanwhile leaving the back door and all the windows open. Not only is something wrong here, something is very, very wrong. From my point of view, what’s very, very wrong here has less to do with George W. Bush than it does with… Bob Woodward. (I told you I wasn’t finished with him.) Woodward and all that he represents. With the very survival of the United States at stake, where is Bob Woodward when we really need him? What happened to the Bob Woodward of the 1970s? What has happened to American Journalism? Was George Orwell an optimist? Where do we go for the truth? Which brings me to another book, an important book, which showed me that I was wrong about Bush and Co.’s deep motives for the bogus Missile Defense System. I assumed it was simply to give the Bush regime’s defense contractor corporate cronies a few billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. That’s part of it, no question, but the real truth is worse, and more dangerous. The book I refer to is The Most Important Issues Americans THINK They Know About, Part 1, by Conrad Miller, M.D. I have to tell you a bit about Conrad Miller, because he happens to be a friend of mine. We’ve been surf buddies forever. Conrad is an attending physician in the Emergency Room of a large hospital on Long Island, New York. He’s very good at what he does. Which is to take care of people in crisis, sometimes the worst they’ll ever face. Conrad cares about people. Busy as Conrad is caring about people, he also cares about the United States of America. Conrad figures the United States of America is in need of Emergency Room care. And of course, he’s right. Conrad looked deeply into some issues and in the spirit of the Bob Woodward of the 1970s wrote The Most Important Issues Americans THINK They Know About, Part 1. His book is divided into four parts: 1. Star Wars, “Missile Defense,” and Space Domination… Deals with the aforementioned Missile Defense System travesty. 2. Your Food: Mutated, Irradiated, or Pragmatically Pure?… How, for the almighty dollar, multi-national corporations are endangering your lives through genetically and chemically perverting the food you eat. 3. Surrendering U.S. Sovereignty To The World Trade Organization… How multi-national corporations are consolidating their power over our lives through the World Trade Organization. 4. Radioactive Materials In Your Stroller, Zipper, and Utensils, Anyone?… How de-regulation of the nuclear waste industry is allowing dangerous materials into your home. Conrad’s book is impeccably researched and vetted, his mountain of sources duly footnoted (there are over 500 source footnotes, should you care to check his facts). His more shocking revelations are based on multiple sources, often including United States Government documents, most a matter of public record. A solid piece of investigative journalism. Conrad’s book is self published – do not let that cast doubts about its veracity or import. Yes, it could have used the steadying hand of an editor, but given my own experiences in the book biz, there likely would have been problems of a different sort had he gone that route (assuming a mainstream publisher had the balls to publish him). Bob Woodward writes a travesty like Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA and makes a lot of money. Conrad Miller writes The Most Important Issues Americans THINK They Know About, Part 1, and it will probably wind up costing HIM money. (Yes, there is something very wrong here, alright.) The Most Important Issues Americans THINK They Know About, Part 1, by Conrad Miller, M.D. is available through bookstores (via order) and the usual online sources. Or, better, go to Conrad’s website, www.crestofthewave.com. I highly recommend Robert Parry’s Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, The Press & Project Truth as well. Read Bob Woodward’s book only if you have a high threshold for depression, which I do not. (Please use your library or pick it up at a used bookstore so Woodward doesn’t make a buck on you.) (If — based on my pointing out some simple truths — you want to unsubscribe from my DSP newsletter, follow the simple directions at the bottom of my DSP; if you contact me with an irate demand that I unsubscribe you personally, I’ll just laugh. I CANNOT DO IT FROM HERE AT THE END OF THE ROAD.) I’ll be in touch. Pura Vida, Allan P.S. Get on Conrad’s mailing list and he’ll keep you informed on the latest U.S. government deceptions and lunacies. (Where he gets the time is beyond me.) Here’s a tidbit he sent out this morning, a short New York Times piece. [The New York Times] February 14, 2005 For 3rd Time in a Row, U.S. Antimissile System Fails a Test By DAVID STOUT WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - The United States' fledgling missile-defense system suffered its third straight test failure Sunday night when an interceptor rocket failed to launch from its island base, leaving a target rocket to splash uselessly into the Pacific Ocean, the Pentagon said today. The target was successfully launched from Kodiak, Alaska, at 9:22 p.m. Sunday (1:22 a.m. today, Eastern time), but the interceptor that was supposed to go up a quarter-hour later sat on its pad in the Marshall Islands, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said. The target fell into the ocean near Wake Island. The agency took some consolation from indications that the failure was caused by a malfunction in ground-support equipment rather than with the interceptor missile itself, a spokesman for the missile agency, Richard A. Lehner, said. "But it's a disappointment, in that we had a test planned and were unable to complete it," he said. The latest problem with the missile system comes at an awkward time, as Congress begins to consider President Bush's proposed 2006 Defense Department budget of $419.3 billion, as well as a supplemental budget of more than $80 billion for the current fiscal year, most of it to cover costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Lehner said it was too soon to speculate on when another test might be held, since it takes about 60 days to construct a target missile. He said the latest failure was similar to one on Dec. 15, when an interceptor also failed to launch from the Marshalls to chase a target sent up from Kodiak, although that misfire was linked to a problem within the interceptor itself. The Dec. 15 event was a major disappointment, since it was the first full test of the defense system since Dec. 12, 2002, when an interceptor failed to separate from its booster rocket, missed its target by hundreds of miles and burned up in the atmosphere. Mr. Lehner said the latest test, like the one last December, was budgeted at about $85 million. The tests are part of an effort to install a scaled-down version of President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" defense, envisioned two decades ago against a rain of missiles from the Soviet Union. President Bush pledged during the 2000 campaign to push for deployment of the streamlined system, and he has pushed to make it operational even as tests are being carried out - an approach that has sparked heavy criticism, especially with the string of failures of recent months. In December 2002, Mr. Bush said he hoped to have the system operational by September 2004. But by last September, the program was behind schedule by about 10 months, and that was before the two latest failures. The first group of land- and sea-based missiles and associated systems is to cost more than $7 billion. The overall missile defense program is to cost more than $50 billion over the next five years. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company ——————————————————– And the above is only what the Pentagon is admitting to. (If you believe in the $50 billion budget figure, I’ve got some squatted land here in Costa Rica to sell you.) But forget about the fact that the Missile Defense System does not, and will not, work – as I point out, the logic behind it MAKES NO SENSE anyway. Buy Conrad Miller’s book for the real reasons behind the Missile Defense System deception, and others. Encourage him; get him started on Part II. And maybe drop Bob Woodward an email or note inquiring what happened to him. You can simply click here and enter webmaster@washpost.com as the "friend's" email address to send this page in it's entirety to The Washington Post. Enough of you do that maybe Woodward will respond. (It will just take a minute. And maybe forward this message to your friends – hey, your whole address book. You could make a difference!) As I say, Woodward and all that he represents is the real problem. In the unlikely event that Woodward gets back to me, I’ll keep you posted. (Hey Bob: If you’re reading this, I’m at acwdownsouth@yahoo.com.) A final note: As a test, I emailed the above to the Post. I got a reply thanking me for my Oped submission and an assurance that it would be reviewed. So hey: inundate the Post, let’s see what happens!

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