The secret world

Just as the Windows operating system used to rest on top of DOS, the Plame scandal rests atop the larger controversy of the forged Niger uranium documents. That scheme was just one of several designed to engineer a war.

Many believe that the key figure behind this larger conspiracy (if the dread C-word can't be used here, then where can it be used?) is Michael Ledeen. Although Ledeen has denied any connection to the Niger fraud, former CIA terror expert Vincent Cannistraro, who has been looking into the matter, considers Ledeen "very close" to the center of this plot.

I had intended to write at length about Ledeen at a later time, but this piece by Norman Dombey brings up some little-known aspects of the man's past that deserve wider acknowledgment. Further background information may help readers better appreciate Dombey's valuable essay.

Ledeen resists easy classification. So far as I know, he was never a spook in the sense of drawing a regular paycheck from an intelligence agency -- yet he has always been "spooked up." Meaning: He works closely with covert operators from various services and nations, primarily SISMI, Italy's answer to the CIA.

Ledeen's world is thus which one most Americans -- even those who have read a few books about espionage -- cannot comprehend. Perhaps the best introduction to that world is Joseph Trento's Prelude to Terror, which provides a history of what Trento calls "the rogue CIA" -- an amorphous group whose members have come to despise the legitimate CIA.

In brief: In the space between WWII and his appointment to head the CIA, Allen Dulles pioneered the use of private intelligence networks. The Agency came to rely on various "cooperative" businessmen, who received infusions of capital and other aid in exchange for services rendered. One such businessman was George H.W. Bush. In the Vietnam era, the CIA came to rely on local "businessmen" who trafficked in drugs; the drug trade funded the secret war in Laos.

Then came the 1970s -- the era of CIA investigations, gutsy journalism, the JFK controversy, and the reformist presidency of Jimmy Carter. Carter's DCI fired covert operatives en masse. They formed an off-the-books covert network, replete with its own banks. Anti-Carter forces within the Agency and the Pentagon relied on this secret network, which in turn formed alliances with shadowy figures throughout the globe.

Many operative within this loose network weren't spooks -- not officially. But they were, and are, "spooked up" in their associations and personal histories. Perhaps the best descriptor is intriguer.

Their motives have always varied. Usually, they are propelled by a combination of extremist ideology and unquenchable greed. Some care only about the buck -- or, in recent times, the euro. Others want to remake the world.

Michael Ledeen became part of this network. One cannot easily analyze his strange career within a conventional framework, because his deepest intelligence connections go to:

1. Ted Shackley's faction within CIA.
2. Mossad Likudniks
3. P2 fascists within SISMI.

P2 was an extreme-right Italian secret society headed by a former Waffen SS officer named Licio Gelli, who routinely used blackmail and bribery to acquire power. SISMI officers loyal to P2 coagulated into a cell which received the jocular nickname "Super SISMI" or "Super S."

Although P2 was exposed in the 1980s, this tight-knit group within SISMI remains powerful, and Ledeen has never ceased to use them for his own purposes. The Niger forgeries trace back to this SISMI faction.

Many will wonder how anyone could use one hand to greet the Israelis while using the other to high-five fascists. I can't reconcile the dichotomy; I can only read and relate the history. The two forces do indeed share an intersection point -- and there stands Ledeen.

More than two roads converge at that intersection, and the other roads take us into even more surprising territory. The same off-the-books network maintains strong links to Islamic nations. Saudi intelligence head Prince Turki made some particularly revelatory admissions when he spoke at Georgetown University in February of 2002:

In 1976, after the Watergate matters took place here, your intelligence community was literally tied up by Congress. It could not do anything... In order to compensate for that, a group of countries got together in the hope of fighting Communism and established what was called the Safari Club. The Safari Club included France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Iran.

I doubt that the term "Safari Club" is still used, but the ties forged at that time still bind.

We thus find ourselves trying to navigate an unfathomable subterranean world in which apparent enemies converge. Prince Turki's stated motive -- anti-Communism -- has lost relevance, yet the spooks-who-are-not-spooks continue to work together, continue to trade in arms and drugs, continue to commit a variety of financial frauds, continue to cobble together disinformation schemes, continue to manipulate nations and peoples and history.

The network has no real name. For the sake of convenience, many (including this writer) have called them "neocons." But that nomenclature doesn't really serve. Neoconservatism is a philosophy. A poor man can subscribe to the philosophy without ever having a chance to join this elite club.

The network resists definition by race, religion or region. Anti-Semites believe that the "club" is controlled by Israel; Arab-bashers believe that the club is controlled by Saudi Arabia. Neither view is correct. The group has no leadership, no headquarters, no single ideology. It is far more amorphous and elusive than Fleming's SPECTRE was. It has less internal cohesion than does (say) the mafia. Its ranks include individuals who despise and oppose each other. Yet they all know each other. For they are bound by the lure of power.

Operatives within this network use crooked banks, illicit money, front companies, bribes and assassination. To these people, lying is a sacrament and false documents are scripture. They will conduct covert operations that most "legitimate" intelligence agencies would reject as too risky. Boldness has brought them power: Power to unseat or elect a president, power over the mass media, power to initiate war and to profit thereby.

I'll have more to say on this subject soon...