<p> In this monstrous U.S. government today, it's not so much what
comes down from the top that matters as what you can get away with
from the bottom or from the middle--the least scrutinized level.
(Contrary to the current <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> propaganda as preached by William
<enttype='PERSON'>Colby</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Ray Cline</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Victor Marchetti</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Philip Agee</ent>, who say,
incorrectly, "What the <enttype='ORG'>Agency</ent> does is ordered by the President.")
As with the <enttype='ORG'>Mafia</ent>, crime is a cinch if you know the cops and the
courts have been paid off. With the <enttype='ORG'>Central Intelligence</ent><enttype='ORG'>Agency</ent>,
anything goes when you have a respected boss to sanctify and bless
your activities and to shield them from outside eyes.
Such a boss in the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> was old <enttype='PERSON'>Allen Dulles</ent>, who ran the <enttype='ORG'>Agency</ent>
like a mother superior running a whorehouse. He knew the girls
were happy, busy, and well fed, but he wasn't quite sure what they
were doing. His favorites, all through the years of his prime as
Director of <enttype='ORG'>Central Intelligence</ent>, were such stellar performers as
<enttype='PERSON'><enttype='PERSON'>Frank</ent><enttype='ORG'>Wisner</ent></ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Dick Bissell</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>George Doole</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Sheffield Edwards</ent>, Dick
Shannon, Ed <enttype='PERSON'>Lansdale</ent> and countless others. They were the great
operators. He just made it possible for them to do anything they
came up with.
When <enttype='ORG'>Wisner</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Richard Nixon</ent> came up with the idea of mounting
a major rebellion in <enttype='GPE'>Indonesia</ent> in 1958, <enttype='GPE'>Dulles</ent> saw that they got
the means and the wherewithal. When General <enttype='PERSON'>Cabell</ent> and his Air
Force friends plugged the U-2 project for <enttype='PERSON'>Kelly Johnson</ent> of
<enttype='ORG'>Lockheed</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Dulles</ent> tossed it into the lap of <enttype='PERSON'>Dick Bissell</ent>. When Dick
<enttype='PERSON'>Helms</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Des Fitzgerald</ent> figured they could play fun and games in
<enttype='GPE'>Tibet</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Dulles</ent> talked to <enttype='PERSON'>Tom Gates</ent>, then Secretary of <enttype='ORG'>Defense</ent>, and
the next we knew <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> agents were spiriting the Dalai Lama out of
<enttype='GPE'>Lhasa</ent>, <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> undercover aircraft were clandestinely dropping tons of
arms, ammunitions, and supplies deep into <enttype='GPE'>Tibet</ent> and other planes
were reaching as far as northwestern <enttype='GPE'>China</ent> to <enttype='GPE'>Koko</ent> Nor.
While he peddled the hard-won <enttype='ORG'>National Intelligence Estimates</ent> to
all top offices and sprinkled holy water over the pates of our
leaders, <enttype='GPE'>Dulles</ent> dropped off minor miracles along the way to
titillate those in high places. If you win the heart of the queen
and convert her to your faith, you can control the king. This
works for the Jesuits. It worked well for the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>. <enttype='PERSON'>Allen Dulles</ent>
was no casual student and practitioner of the ancient art of
religion. He was an expert in the art of mind-control. He learned
how to operate his disciples and his <enttype='ORG'>Agency</ent> in the ways of the
cloth.
But for every Saint and every Sinner in the fold there must be
an order of monks, and the <enttype='ORG'>Agency</ent> has always been the haven for
hundreds of faceless, nameless minions whose only satisfaction was
the job well done and the furtherance of the cause. One of the
most remarkable--and surely the best--of these was an agent named
<enttype='PERSON'>Frank Hand</ent>.
In my book, "The Secret Team," written during 1971 and 1972, I
mentioned that the most important agent in the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> was an almost
unknown individual who spent most of his time in the <enttype='ORG'>Pentagon</ent>. At
that time I did not reveal his name; but a small item in a recent
obituary column stated that:</p>
<p> "<enttype='PERSON'>Frank Hand</ent>, 61, a former senior official of the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>, died in
<enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> backgrounds and connections and therefore were "Plumbers."
Only the insiders knew about the real "<enttype='ORG'>Acme Plumbers</ent>.")
<enttype='PERSON'>Frank</ent> was as much at home with <enttype='PERSON'>Allen Dulles</ent> as he was with the
famous old <enttype='GPE'>supersleuth</ent>, General <enttype='PERSON'>Graves</ent> B. <enttype='PERSON'>Erskine</ent>, and as he was
with <enttype='PERSON'>Helms</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Colby</ent>, or <enttype='PERSON'>Fitzgerald</ent>. <enttype='PERSON'>Ian Fleming</ent> may have popularized
the spy and the undercover agent as a flashing <enttype='PERSON'>James Bond</ent> type;
but in the reality of today's world the great ones are more in the
mold of <enttype='PERSON'>Frank Hand</ent> and "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold."
There has long existed a "golden key" group of agency and
agency-related supermen. They came from the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>, the <enttype='ORG'>Pentagon</ent>, the
Department of State, the <enttype='ORG'>White House</ent> and other places in government
or from the outside. They have kept themselves inconspicuous and
they meet in the evening away from their offices. They are the men
who open the doors of big government to industry-banking law and to
the multinational corporate centers of greed and power. Their
strength lies in their common awareness of the ways in which real
power is generated in the government, the real power that controls
activities of the government. In many instances this is the power
of being able to keep something from happening, rather than to make
it happen. For example, if the President is murdered, real power
involves the control of government operations sufficient to make
any investigation ineffective and to assure that the government
will do nothing even if the investigation should turn up something.
Real power is the ability to keep the government bureaucracy from
going into action when the price of petroleum and wheat is doubled
or tripled by avaricious international monopolies.
Some of these "gold key" members have surfaced and have accepted
publicity, as did <enttype='PERSON'>Des Fitzgerald</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Allen Dulles</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Tracy Barnes</ent> and
others. <enttype='PERSON'>Frank</ent> never did. He was so anonymous that even his
friends could not find him.
The <enttype='ORG'>Agency</ent> covered for <enttype='PERSON'>Frank Hand</ent> as it did for few others. The
<enttype='PERSON'>James Bond</ent>s of this world may be the idols of the <enttype='ORG'>Intelligence</ent>
coterie; but if you are a Bill <enttype='PERSON'>Colby</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Dick Helms</ent>, or <enttype='PERSON'>Allen Dulles</ent>,
you know the real value of an indispensable agent. <enttype='PERSON'>Frank</ent> was their
man in the <enttype='ORG'>Pentagon</ent>, and the <enttype='ORG'>Pentagon</ent> was always the indispensable
prime target of the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>. When the chips are down, the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> could
care less about overturning "Communism" in <enttype='GPE'>Cuba</ent> or <enttype='GPE'>Chile</ent>. What
really matters is its relative power in the U.S. Government.
Control of a good share of what the <enttype='ORG'>Pentagon</ent> is doing is more
important to the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> than control over the government of <enttype='GPE'>Jordan</ent> or
<enttype='GPE'>Syria</ent>.
Once, when the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> wanted to move a squadron (twenty-five) of
helicopters from <enttype='GPE'>Laos</ent> to <enttype='LOC'>South Vietnam</ent>, long before the troubles
there had become a war, I turned down the request from the Deputy
Director of <enttype='ORG'>Central Intelligence</ent> in the name of the Secretary of
<enttype='ORG'>Defense</ent> for no other reason than the fact that I did not find that
project on the approved list of <enttype='ORG'>the National Security Council</ent>'s
"<enttype='ORG'>Forty Committee</ent>" (then called the 5412/2 committee). That meant
the agency had neither been directed by the National Security
Council to move those helicopters into <enttype='GPE'>Vietnam</ent>, nor had it received
authorization for such a tactical movement. In other words, the
planned intervention into <enttype='LOC'>South Vietnam</ent> with a squadron of
helicopters would at that time have been unlawful as an
intervention into the internal affairs of another country.
This denial then, in 1960, effectively blocked the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> from
being able to move heavy war-making equipment into <enttype='GPE'>Vietnam</ent>. The
helicopters were actually U.S. <enttype='ORG'>Marine Corps</ent> property on "loan" from
<enttype='GPE'>Okinawa</ent> to the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> for clandestine operations in <enttype='GPE'>Laos</ent>.
At that time my immediate superior was General <enttype='PERSON'>Graves</ent><enttype='PERSON'>Erskine</ent>,
the Assistant to the Secretary of <enttype='ORG'>Defense</ent> for Special (Clandestine)
their activities. He is totally without knowledge of most of them,
and therefore powerless to stop or alter them.
In the case of the helicopters, <enttype='PERSON'>Frank Hand</ent> was able to convince
<enttype='PERSON'>Allen Dulles</ent> that the disapproval from the Secretary of <enttype='ORG'>Defense</ent>,
via my office, was real and that the Secretary would, at that time,
be unlikely to change his mind. <enttype='PERSON'>Frank</ent> also could report that the
position of other top-level assistants was so cool to stepping up
the hardware *involvement* of the military in <enttype='GPE'>Vietnam</ent>, in 1960,
that none of them would likely attempt to persuade the Secretary to
change his policy of limited involvement.
Fortified with the information gleaned by <enttype='PERSON'>Frank Hand</ent>, Allen
<enttype='GPE'>Dulles</ent> would have two primary options: drop the idea of moving
helicopters into <enttype='GPE'>Vietnam</ent>, or bypass the Secretary of <enttype='ORG'>Defense</ent> for
the time being by going to the <enttype='ORG'>White House</ent> for support. In 1960
this was a crucial decision. The huge attempt to support a
rebellion in <enttype='GPE'>Indonesia</ent> had failed utterly, the U-2 operations had
been curtailed because of the <enttype='PERSON'>Gary Powers</ent> incident, the far-reaching operations into <enttype='GPE'>Tibet</ent> had come to a halt by Presidential
directive and anti-<enttype='PERSON'>Castro</ent> activities were limited to minor forays.
And at that time the large-scale (large for <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>) war in <enttype='GPE'>Laos</ent> had
become such a disaster that the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> wanted no more of it. Dick
Bissell, the chief of the Clandestine Services, had written strong,
personal letters to <enttype='PERSON'>Tom Gates</ent>, the Secretary of <enttype='ORG'>Defense</ent>, wondering
the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> and to put it all in the proper perspective. It is not the
President who instructs the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> concerning what it will do. And in
many cases it is *not* even the Director of <enttype='ORG'>Central Intelligence</ent>
who instructs the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>. The <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> is a great, monstrous machine with
tremendous and terrible power. It can be set in motion from the
outside like a programmer setting a computer in operation, and then
it covers up what it is doing when men like <enttype='PERSON'>Frank Hand</ent>--the real
movers--put grease on the correct gears. And in a majority of
cases, the power behind it all is big business, big banks, big law
firms and big money. The agency exists to be used by them.
Let no one misunderstand what I mean. It was President <enttype='PERSON'>Lyndon</ent>
B. <enttype='PERSON'>Johnson</ent> who on more than one occasion said that the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> was
"operating a damn <enttype='ORG'>Murder Inc</ent>. in the <enttype='NORP'>Carribean</ent>." In other words,
he knew it was doing this--and he was the President! This
knowledge has been recently confirmed by <enttype='ORG'>Defense</ent> Secretary James
Schlesinger (who is a former head of the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>) and others by their
admission that they told the agency to end all "terminations." But
<enttype='PERSON'>Lyndon</ent><enttype='PERSON'>Johnson</ent> was powerless to do anything about it. This is an
astounding admission from a President, the very man from whom, the
<enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> says, it always gets its instructions.
The present concern over "domestic surveillance" and such other
lean tidbits--most important to you and me as they are--is not
important to the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>. It can easily dispense with a <enttype='PERSON'>James Angleton</ent>
or even a <enttype='PERSON'>Helms</ent> or a <enttype='PERSON'>Colby</ent> (just look at the list of <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> bigwigs
who have been fired--<enttype='PERSON'>Allen Dulles</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'><enttype='PERSON'>Frank</ent><enttype='ORG'>Wisner</ent></ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Dick Bissell</ent>, Dick
<enttype='PERSON'>Helms</ent>, and now perhaps <enttype='PERSON'>Colby</ent>); but the great machine will live on
while <enttype='ORG'>Congress</ent> digs away at the Golden Apples tossed casually aside
by the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent>--the supreme Aphrodite of them all. Notice that the
agency cares little about giving away "secrets" in the form of
cleverly written insider books such as those by <enttype='PERSON'>Victor Marchetti</ent>
and <enttype='PERSON'>Philip Agee</ent>. The <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> just makes it look as though it cared
with some high-class window dressing. Actually the real harm to
the <enttype='NORP'>American</ent> public from those books is to make people believe that
certain carefully selected propaganda is true.
In the story of <enttype='PERSON'>Frank Hand</ent> we come much closer to seeing exactly
how the <enttype='ORG'>CIA</ent> operates to control this government and other foreign
governments. It is still operating that way. Today it is
President <enttype='PERSON'>Ford</ent> who is the unwitting accessory.</p>
