“But by that time I’d been hauled into planning the Grenada invasion. Spur of the moment, rush-rush-rush, with water-tight compartmentalized security. Of course we botched some of it—what else? The only bright point was the assault on Point Salines airstrip. Rangers saved my ass, and the intel you delivered kept our part of it from being a total loss.
“Came 1984, and Reagan’s skivvies were in a wad. The Lebanese had kidnapped 14 Americans in Beirut, including our station chief, Bill Buckley, and were holding them hostage. They even sent us a tape of Buckley being tortured, which Bill Casey played for Reagan. So guess who they sent in to sort that out? Yours truly. There was no way for an American who couldn’t speak the various languages to penetrate the Hezbollah networks, of course, and, par for the course in the Middle East, our paid informants weren’t worth shit. The CIA couldn’t find, let alone rescue, the hostages the Lebanese were holding. Mission failed, they recalled me, and now I get wind that they’re working on some kind of arms deals with the Iranians, who are fighting a war with Iraq. Iran controls Hezbollah, so we’re hoping they can tease out the hostages. Good luck with that.
“Meantime, Congress outlawed funding for our operations in Central America, and I’m afraid that’s where they’ll send me next. Casey’s committed to backing the Contras and throwing out the Sandinistas, but who knows where he’s going to dig up the dollars to do that?
“To top it all off, our Soviet network has been wrapped up, reviving suspicions that there’s a mole in the works after all, fingering our agents. Believe it or not, some in the Company now are hinting that I’m to blame, for giving up on my search too soon.
“Sad to say, the only gold star I’ve gotten since Nam was when word circulated around Langley that you’d gotten tipped off on the Russian Afghanistan invasion from a KGB mole you were running. I let it be known that I was your case officer, and…”
“What?! You told people at Langley I still work for the CIA?”
“I said I ‘was’ your case officer. Left it ambiguous what the meaning of ‘was’ was. When we were in Nam I was, you know. Calm down, Jake. I told only a few people, top secret, need to know.”
“Todd, why did you show up here? Get to the point!”
“Okay, okay, I’m coming to that. Now, I report to Steele Bosserman (not his real name: I can’t divulge names of covert ops personnel), close to the top in the clandestine section. He recently took a fact-finder to Asia, and on his return he called me into his office, shut the door and told me something he’d learned.”
STEELE BOSSERMAN’S STORY
“It seems he’d done a very hush-hush situation assessment of Asian nations to determine what, if any, looming emergencies the CIA might have to address. ‘Todd,’ he said, ‘the Philippines are key to our presence in the Far East. A major shitstorm is brewing there but nobody sees the gathering clouds. Okay, South Korea’s under control. Our troops keep the Commies north of the 38th in line. Singapore’s rock-solid. Nam, Laos and Cambodia, they’re sideshows right now. The Reds took over and are staying in place, have their hands full just recovering from the wars. In Red China we’re already doing as much as we can, there’s even some reason for hope there. Malaysia and Indonesia, no troubles on the horizon. Japan a non-issue.
“‘But look here…’ and he got up and went over to a world map on the wall. ‘The Philippines. More than 7,000 islands stretching from Indonesia in the south, to Taiwan in the north, controlling two of the world’s most important seaways. We maintain major military bases there, the Navy in Subic Bay, the Air Force at Clark Air Base—critical operations, essential for sustaining our influence in the western Pacific. And it’s on the verge of toppling.’
“Really?” I said. “This is the first I’ve heard of that. Not that I’m an expert on Asian relations …’
“‘It’s not widely known, Todd, but the Commies are conniving to overthrow the president, Ferdinand Marcos. He’s been a staunch American ally ever since World War Two, the staunchest. He was a war hero, you know, led the guerillas after MacArthur departed, gave the Japs fits. The most decorated soldier in that theater. He entered politics after the war and has been President since 1965. No Asian political leader has been more steadfast … or effective … in standing shoulder to shoulder with America. And he’s made great strides modernizing his country—Manila abounds with showcase developments. That new Cultural Center of theirs would be a crown jewel anywhere in the developed world.
“‘What I learned on my tour is that Marcos and his government face a dire threat. A Communist insurgency, the New People’s Army, is gaining strength throughout the islands, and they’re planning to make a decisive move soon, subvert elections, install their own puppets and seize control. Once the Philippines go Red, we’re done for in the western Pacific. We’re playing catch-up ball and it’s bottom of the ninth.’
“How did you find about this?” I asked him.
“The old fashioned way—shoe leather and big ears. I talked to all the people who matter there—the generals, the politicos, newspaper publishers, industrialists, bankers, you name it. General Ver, Marcos’s right hand man, arranged for an aerial recon, spent a whole day flying me around, surveying the terrain. Beautiful tropical islands, but the poverty and misery would break your heart. Some of the finest folks in the world, but poor, desperately poor. Even from the air you could tell the threat was palpable. Few cities in Asia have slums as bad as Manila and the other Filipino cities. And you know what slums in Third World cities represent—festering petri dishes of social discontent, nurseries of dissatisfaction, resentment and rage, ideal breeding grounds for Commie agitation.”
“Where does the CIA fit in?” I asked him. “What actions can we take? What assets do we have on the ground?”
“That’s the hell of it,” he replied. “We don’t have any presence in the Philippines to speak of. They’re an ally, after all. Doesn’t look good to station spooks among our allies. But dammit, the Philippines cry out for our aid and assistance. They’re crying out for our help. We’re honor-bound to take an active part, but—and I can’t stress this too strongly—it can’t look like the help is coming from the CIA. We have to do this thing very, very dark.”
Uh oh. “So let me guess, Todd … Bosserman then went on to propose some kind of covert operation to help Marcos fend off this New People’s Army?”
“I can see you haven’t lost your old intel instincts, Jake. That’s exactly what he went on to do. He outlined a plan for slipping in a highly-qualified special agent under deep cover to thwart the insurgents, the same kind of work Ed Lansdale did so well in Indochina. Couldn’t send in someone from the Company, because it would be impossible to get Congressional approval and funding. In fact, if Congress got wind of it, some liberal hotshot would almost certainly leak it, blow the cover and scotch the whole thing. No sir—the Company has to stay at arm’s length, and somebody else’s arm at that.”
“By any chance, did the names of any particular highly-qualified candidates for this mission come up?”
“As a matter of fact, one did. It seems that in a vague sort of way you enjoy quite a reputation around Langley, Jake. The details of what you did in Cambodia remain deeply buried, of course, but our people have the impression that you’ve been real busy since you uprooted Clyde Driffter and outfoxed the Khmer Rouge. Shepherded the Shah out of Iran. Ferreted that Afghani invasion tip. Derailed a Russian gun-running op in Belfast. Shot down one of Castro’s MIGs. Got the goods on Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Steele and I couldn’t come up with any other of our private contractors that came close to your quals.”
“Okay, I get it. Let’s cut to the chase. Let me spell it out for you, Todd. N O space W A Y space P E R I O D.”
“I figured that might be your initial reaction, Jake, before you thought it through. Here’s how it will go. You won’t be on the CIA payroll, not on any government payroll. We’ll pay
you out of an unaudited slush fund, straight cash, used bills of various denominations, no receipts. It’ll be like finding $50,000 on the street, with no witnesses. Plus expenses, of course. We’ll give you air-tight cover and an unassailable legend, and we’ll have assets covering you like brown on chocolate. The Philippines is a peaceful country, law-and-order reign. Marcos has the place buttoned up. What could go wrong?”
“Judging from past performance, just about everything conceivable plus stuff no sane person could imagine. When Murphy formulated his famous Law, I think he was looking over your shoulder.”
“Well, I must say that’s an unkind thing to say, after all I’ve done for you.”
“Just about got me killed, wrecked my Army career … what else?”
“You think you’d be better off if you’d stayed in the Army? I did you a favor, getting you RIF’d and setting you up in business. Look around you, this Malibu beach pad, a gentleman surf bum lifestyle the whole world aspires to. Compare what you’ve been doing for the last 10 years to what it would have been like, cooling your heels in a peacetime army. You’re complaining?”
“Todd, I am not going to throw in with another of your harebrained, off-the-books CIA fiascos. End of discussion.”
“Oh well. At least you gave me a fair hearing. If you’ve made up your mind and set it in concrete, what can I say? By the way, a couple things have come up recently that I need to discuss with you. Seems your name was mentioned in some on-going investigations, and… ”
“Investigations? What about?”
“Well, embezzlement, for one. When you mustered out of the Army, some dimwit clerk inadvertently cut you a check for ten times the actual amount of pay you were owed. Rather than return it, as an honest man would have done, you cashed it and kept it.”
“You said nobody would say anything.”
“Jake, I have never advised anyone to steal money from the United States government.”
“Oh, for Chrissake. The government’s going to prosecute me for that?”
“You never can tell.”
“I’ll pay it back.”
“Also there’s a matter of accepting bribes from foreign interests while performing government work …”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“That bag of uncut diamonds Old Man Poon gave you while you were on mission in Cambodia. If that wasn’t a bribe, I don’t know what is.”
“I don’t think you could prove it.”
“Oh, maybe not, but we could try. Might have to call Sarge Wallace in for testimony, seeing as how he fenced them for you. I’d sure hate to put old Sarge in a tough spot like that, having to choose between being a stand-up guy and losing his pension. Even if we couldn’t prove anything, you’d be tied up in court for a while. Pretty expensive, legal defense. It saddens me, to think of a man like Sarge out on the bricks.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Impersonating a CIA officer is a very serious federal offense, too. People who do that can go to jail for a long time.”
“I’ve never impersonated a CIA officer. I never even was one.”
“A lot of people in high places around the world have the impression you’re a deep-cover covert op with the CIA. We never said you were, and there’s no records of it in our personnel files. Who else but you would lead people to believe that? Shit, even the KGB thinks you’re in the CIA. That’s pretty convincing proof that you’ve been telling tales.”
“Todd, I’m not going into the Philippines for the CIA. Final. The end.”
“Not to mention your directing hostile gunfire at a U. S. Service helicopter off Jamaica.”
“They fired first. Anyway, nobody got hurt.”
“And then there’s the statutory rape charge.”
“What??!! I’ve never bonked any San Quentin quail, not even back in my college days.”
“What about that Chinese girl you were banging in Phnom Penh? The one you brought to Bangkok. We have videotapes from the Oriental Hotel. A teenager, wasn’t she?”
“Todd, that was in another country, and besides, she’s now director of her father’s electronics division. She said she was eighteen.”
“She may well have been. I’m sure there’d be no problem if she’d bring a birth certificate to court for evidence. Probably get the charges dismissed. Might even be past the statute of limitations, don’t know if that applies. I’ll bet a federal court would straighten it out pretty quickly; all she’d have to do is come over and testify. Though she’d probably be embarrassed by our tapes—pretty steamy stuff. Her daddy would be fit to be tied, I’d think. Probably livid with outrage, and you know how ruthless those Hong Kong tai pans can be when provoked. With his resources, no telling what grief he might bring down on you if you involved his daughter in a rape trial.”
“Todd, you came all the way out here to rope me into a CIA project, and now you’re trying to blackmail me. You must be really desperate. Tell me the truth, just this one time. What’s up?”
“Oh, just my career, that’s all. No big deal to you, I’m sure.”
“You’re a federal bureaucrat. Can’t you ride it out a few more years and collect your pension?”
“I’m a political appointee, serving ‘at the pleasure of,’ and I’m far enough from being retirement-eligible that if they canned me now I’d lose it all. So then what, I start over again as a gofer for one of the private military contractors, if they’d even look at a middle-aged, washed-out CIA op? The way things stand, I’d probably wind up as a mall cop. I said I didn’t have many gold stars. Well, if you want to know the whole truth, I’ve collected a passel of black uglies as well. When Reagan directed us to go after Gaddafi it was my bright idea to supply Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to rebels in Chad, which borders on Libya. I thought they could use ’em against Gaddafi’s air force. Then a bunch of those missiles went missing. Turned out our so-called allies also were getting backing from Saddam Hussein. James Baker sent a memo down demanding to know who had the insane idea of sending advanced ordnance to a bunch of wild-ass desert Arabs who were beholden to one of our leading enemies. He found my signature on the recommendation.
“Those bombings in Lebanon happened on my watch: why didn’t we see them coming, people wanted to know. You want fun, go up in front of a Senate closed-door committee hearing and try to explain why the millions we’d been paying for HumInt in Lebanon had been wasted on crooks, liars and double agents that never told us anything useful, usually just disinformation for the benefit of their own factions. Then they sent me to Central America. We had some insurgency manuals in comic-book format that we’d captured in Nam, how to take control of a village, stuff like that. I thought maybe they’d be good training materials for the peasants rebelling against the Sandinistas, so I had them translated, reproduced and distributed. Next thing I knew, they were calling for my scalp for passing out Commie propaganda the Sandinistas could use against our guys.
“So you can appreciate why nobody’s got my back after that litany of fuckups. I’ve got to produce something pretty good, pretty quick, or I’m on the bench. Or out the door. At present they have me involved with logistical support in Afghanistan, coordinating supplies for the rebels, but that’s going down the crapper. The Soviet Hind gunships slaughter them in the mountain passes, so the flow of supplies is down to a trickle. The outcome’s still iffy there, and a lot of CIA people are involved. If Afghanistan comes up aces, others will take whatever credit. If it goes to shit, they assigned me to that mission with a ‘Kick Me’ sign on my ass and guess who’ll take the rap?
“When Steele Bosserman came in with his report on the Philippines, I saw a glimmer of hope. Here’s a chance to do well by doing good, I thought. C’mon, Jake, for old time’s sake help me out, what say?”
“Todd, for old time’s sake I should shoot you in the balls and then bury you alive.”
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“Jake, this Philippines caper is a sure thing. It can’t go wrong. Reagan’s behind Marcos 100%. He’s long admired him as a man, and the guy’s a war hero, for Chrissake. Reagan publicly declared that to throw him to the wolves would confront America with a Communist power in the Pacific. This is strictly on the QT, but here’s some inside dope. The word’s leaked out that Marcos will soon announce a special election to demonstrate how the Filipinos stand behind him, and all we have to do is go over there and keep the Commies from stealing it. Marcos stays in power, Reagan’s happy, and I don’t lose my job. I need this, I really do. Afghanistan’s the only thing I have going, and I’m grasping at the last straw here.”
“Maybe there’s something you could do, Todd. Those Stinger missiles you mentioned. Seems to me they’d be just the thing to combat the Russian gunships. They attack close to the ground, and they aren’t very fast. Those passes are at high altitudes, so the Hinds would be struggling in thin air. What better targets for shoulder-launched heat-seekers? Sitting ducks for Stingers.”
“What’s to prevent another debacle like happened in Chad?”
“Better controls and monitoring? Instead of just passing them out wholesale, distribute them one at a time to trusted tribesmen and have our advisors keep close tabs?”
The Jake Fonko Series: Books 4, 5 & 6 Page 25
