Covert_Briefs by Terry Allen

MORTAL FORCE
Now that the war in Guatemala is officially over, the government is turning over some of the army's functions to the civil sector and looking abroad for role models. What better choice than Spain, which not only has a long history of sanctioning state terror in its counterinsurgency campaign against Basque separatists, but barks orders in the same language as Guatemala's honchos.

Reluctant to see such cultural rapport and expertise go to waste, Madrid sent members of its guardia civil to help train Guatemala's new security forces. At least one of those participating, Lt. Lorenzo Barez Gomez, was directly implicated in the kidnaping, torture, and murder of two young Basque activists in the 1980s.

Mexico too, has been sent an officer from the notorious guardia civil to help impart such skills as "the use of mortal force in the police task of combating delinquents and subversive groups." As economic conditions in Mexico continue to deteriorate, and the government turns to repression rather than social services to quell popular anger, his expertise will no doubt come in handy. So far, police from the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, etc. have participated in the international police programs which Spain touts as its way of"helping young democracies."

As for the history of abuses the Spanish bring with them?Not to worry comforts Carmen Romero, parliamentarian for the Socialist Party and the wife of ex-President Gonzalez. Groups such as the anti-Basque death squads have occurred in "all democratic countries" and are "normal in many countries." (Research assistance, Darrin Wood.)


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FISA STRIKES AGAIN
If ever there were a conspiracy of nine white men in a room plotting to undermine democracy, it might look something like the FISA court.This secretive group of judges is appointed by the US Chief Justice under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and meets in sealed chambers in Washington. There, in total secrecy,it hears requests by state and federal agencies to conduct electronic surveillance and clandestine physical searches when issues of"national security" are involved. Those people or groups surveilled under FISA order may never know they were targets, and need never be given access to evidence gathered against them.

This year, FISA set a new record by rubber stamping 839 applications. This topped last year's previous all-time high of 697 approvals. But the term "rubber stamp" does not sit well with FISA Judge Royce C. Lamberth:"I bristle at the suggestion in some quarters that we are a rubber stamp for the executive branch," he said sententiously. "Some applications have been revised. Some have been withdrawn and resubmitted with additional information, and the process is, in fact, working."

No arguing with that, the question is, for whom? In its 18-year history, FISA has approved virtually every one of the more than 9,600 requests from FBI, NSA, and a few agencies that had blacked-out names in records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. And this year, as usual, "No orders were entered which modified or denied the requested authority." For more information on FISA, visit:
http://caq.com/caq53.court.html http://www.fas.org/sgp/ and http://www.privacy.org/pi/


BUSHWHACKING
At least one section of former first lady Barbara Bush's book, A Memoir,strayed from the usual soporific pap. In the collection of self- and George-serving anecdotes, she repeated the canard that former CIA officer Philip Agee had contributed to the 1975 assassination of Richard Welch by exposing him as the CIA's station chief in Greece. In fact, Agee hadn't named Welch and sued Barbara Bush.After she agreed to exclude reference to Agee in the paperback editions of the book, Agee dismissed the case.


TALKING TURKEY
Welch's death sparked Congress to pass the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, which effectively bars publication of the names of undercover US intelligence agents. Top Secret, a German magazine that faces no such restrictions, recently published an article about the intelligence activities in Turkey.

Describing the US role in Turkey, Top Secret editor Michael Opperskalski wrote:"In Turkey the CIA cooperates closely with the ruthless `Counterguerilla forces,' the Turkish intelligence network (especially MIT), and the army in order to suppress the progressive, democratic and revolutionary forces and furthermore wage a systematic warfare against the Kurdish national movement. This cooperation includes from the CIA's side the lecturing of torture methods, collecting strategic information internally and externally on the progressive, democratic and revolutionary forces in Turkey and the Kurdish national movement. Therefore the CIA network in Turkey can be seen as a cornerstone of the extreme reactionary and repressive anti-democratic regime in Turkey serving US interests in the region." For more information: PO Box 270324, 50509 Koeln, Germany.


PLAYING BY THE RULES
For everyone who thought that congressional insiders were a bunch of unscrupulous, anything-goes scoundrels, we now know that they do indeed play by the rules and we know what the rules are. So rest easy, just as the US has imparted its values abroad (see p. 29) in the form of torture manuals, Congress is inculcating its moral standards here at home through the "Washington Rules." The list has been circulating around the Hill and is being used as a training tool for new staff members:

  • "If it's worth fighting for, it's worth fighting dirty for.
  • Don't lie, cheat or steal unnecessarily.
  • There's always one more son of a bitch than you counted on.
  • An honest answer can get you in a whole lot of trouble.
  • The facts, although interesting, are irrelevant.
  • Chicken Little only has to be right once.
  • "No" is only an interim response.
  • You can't kill a bad idea.
  • If at first you don't succeed, kill all the evidence that you ever tried.
  • The truth is a variable.
  • A porcupine with his quills down is just another fat rodent.
  • You can agree with any concept or notional future option, in principle, but fight implementation every step of the way.
  • A promise is not a guarantee.
  • If you can't counter the argument, leave the meeting."


    LOW BODY COUNT, NO PROBLEM
    On 33 different occasions between 1949 and 1969, government researchers released powdered zinc cadmium sulfide, a known carcinogen and suspected teratogen, into the atmosphere to simulate biological attacks. According to the National Cancer Institute, "Current data indicate zinc cadmium sulfide may cause some types of cancer" and possibly birth defects. This danger paled before the happy coincidence that the chemical makes for good data since its particle size is the same as that of bacteria used in biological weapons.

    Targets of the aerial spraying ranged from San Francisco to the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, from Florida to central Alaska.

    Several years ago, after disclosure of the experiments caused an uproar, the Army asked the National Academy of Sciences to find out if anyone had been injured. The results are now in and we can all breathe easy. In St. Louis, Missouri, for example, which experienced the highest level of contamination, the Academy found that excess cancers among children living in the areas where the chemical fell most densely would be only 1.2 per million people. Which,by Army standards, is an insignificantly low body count, unless of course, it's you or your child who gets the cancer.


    TOXIC LOOPHOLES
    In any case, if the experiment followed official guidelines it would have been legal. According to the January 1994 United States Code Title 50 War and National Defense, Chapter 32 Chemical and Biological Warfare Program:

    ¤ 1520. Use of human subjects for testing of chemical or biological agents by Department of Defense; accounting to Congressional committees with respect to experiments and studies; notification of local civilian officials:

    (a) Not later than thirty days after final approval within the Department of Defense of plans for any experiment or study to be conducted by the Department of Defense, whether directly or under contract, involving the use of human subjects for the testing of chemical or biological agents, the Secretary of Defense shall supply the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives with a full accounting of such plans for such experiment or study, and such experiment or study may then be conducted only after the expiration of the thirty-day period beginning on the date such accounting is received by such committees.

    chemical_weapons_test

    (b) (1) The Secretary of Defense may not conduct any test or experiment involving the use of any chemical or biological agent on civilian populations unless local civilian officials in the area in which the test or experiment is to be conducted are notified in advance of such test or experiment, and such test or experiment may then be conducted only after the expiration of the thirty-day period beginning on the date of such notification.

    (2) Paragraph (1) shall apply to tests and experiments conducted by Department of Defense personnel and tests and experiments conducted on behalf of the Department of Defense by contractors.

    Given Congress' historical lack of oversight of Pentagon abuses and Washington's consistent pooh- poohing of the risks of everything from radiation to dioxin, the safeguards seem criminally inadequate to prevent further abuses. 

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