Tells the Facts and Names the Names
Sept. 1-15, 2008 Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair vol. 15, no. 15 What the Doctors Saw Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy McCain’s Women McCain’s 14th Amendment Problem By Alexander Cockburn By Douglas Valentine and Jeffrey St. Clair echnically, the 14th Amendment tion, information about location of rescue cCain’s charges of sexism to the U.S. Constitution prohib- ships, and the order of which his attack against Obama must ring its John McCain from becoming was supposed to take place. According mighty hollow to those who presidentT of the United States. to retired Army Colonel Earl Hopper, Mknow him best, and we dare say his sec- Section III of the Amendment says, McCain divulged classified information ond wife Cindy would have an acerbic “No person shall … hold any office, civil North Vietnam used to hone their air comment or two of her own if freed from or military, under the United States … defense system, including “the package all constraints. who, having previously taken an oath … routes, which were routes used to bomb The social culture of the Naval as an officer of the United States … to North Vietnam. He gave in detail the al- Academy at Annapolis shaped McCain. support the Constitution of the United titude they were flying, the direction, if His own recollections of his less than States, shall have … given aid or comfort they made a turn … he gave them what stellar career there focus mainly on his to the enemies thereof.” primary targets the United States was in- drunken escapades and relentless sexual It is a fact that McCain was an of- terested in.” As result, Hopper claims, the predations. He met his first wife, Carol, in ficer in the U.S. Navy and took an oath U.S. lost 60 per cent more aircraft, and Annapolis while he was hanging out with to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the in 1968 “called off the bombing of North the group self-styled “the bad bunch.” She Constitution. This was a solemn appeal to Vietnam, because of the information left her first husband for him, bringing Jehovah to smite him silly in the event he McCain had given to them.”3 her two children with her, soon becom- lied about or broke his oath. If he fell into What is Jehovah waiting for? ing pregnant with Sidney. captivity, he was bound by the Military On accounts of this period, McCain Code of Conduct not to answer ques- As became evident during the revi- grew restive, had some affairs and be- tions or make any oral or written state- sionist Republican Convention, McCain’s came a fixture on the party circuit. At ments disloyal or harmful to the U.S. To political fortunes balance precariously on the end of 1966, he volunteered for ac- do so was considered collaborating with the myth that he never collaborated, even tive service as a bomber pilot in Vietnam. the enemy, and meant yet another mighty under torture. On Saturday, September 6, He was shot down ten months later, and swipe from Jehovah. in Colorado, Sarah Palin wowed the faith- spent the next five and half years as a It is also a fact that, in 1967, Lieutenant ful with an apocryphal story that brought prisoner of war. Commander John McCain was shot out tears to their eyes. As McCain stood be- Meanwhile Carol, a former fashion of the sky while dropping bombs on side her, feigning humility, she told how model, was bringing up their three chil- North Vietnamese civilians. McCain’s “Tom,” one of McCain’s fellow POWs, dren. During Christmas 1969, while visit- plane crashed in a lake, and he suffered would watch through a peephole in his ing her parents’ house, Carol took her car some broken bones and was slapped cell as the guards would walk McCain to deliver presents, slid off the icy road, around after he was rescued. And all down the hall to the torture chamber. hit a tree, and was hurled through the of that hurt, but none of it reached the “Day after day after day,” Sara said – as if windshield. Very badly hurt, she lay in Rumsfeld-Bush-Cheney standard for tor- these torture sessions happened to every the snow for several hours before being ture. Yet after a mere four days, McCain day for five and a half years – McCain discovered. cracked like a robin’s egg. He told his cap- would come back from the waterboard The accident crushed her hip and tors, “I’ll give you military information if and, as he passed Tom, give the thumb’s mangled her legs so badly that surgeons you will take me to the hospital.”1 up and flash a boyish smile. had to remove large sections of her leg In his autobiography McCain elabo- Forget for a moment that McCain, by bones, shortening her by 5 inches and rated, saying, “I gave them my ship’s his own admission, broke after four days leaving her with a limp and in more or name and squadron number, and con- of pain and anxiety and spilled classified less permanent pain. She refused to send firmed that my target had been the power military secrets in order to get medical word to McCain, saying “he’s got enough plant.”2 help. After that, was he even tortured at problems.” Ross Perot stepped in to pay It is alleged that McCain gave the all? numbers of aircraft in his flight forma- CockBurn/St. Clair cont. on P. 2 Valentine continued on Page 3 September 1-15, 2008 her medical bills. who had kept the home fires burning Keating, the financier and anti-porn McCain came home in 1973 and, ac- through his time as a POW. The Reagans crusader, whose fraudulent operations cording to friends, was “appalled” at his never forgave him and stood firmly by with Lincoln Savings and Loan nearly de- wife’s changed appearance. It wasn’t long Carol. Nancy Reagan barely consented railed McCain’s career after exposure of before he sought comfort with others. His to endorse McCain this year. McCain re- Keating’s lavish patronage of McCain as friend Robert Timberg says, “John start- calls, “My divorce from Carol, whom the one of his protectors in Congress. ed carousing and running around with Reagans loved, caused a change in our re- In 1986, Cindy and her father James women.” Through Perot, he met Ronald lationship. Nancy was particularly upset invested $400,000 in a shopping cen- Reagan when the latter was governor of with me and treated me on the few occa- ter being developed by Keating. An in- California, and both Ron and Nancy be- sions we encountered each other after I defatigable traveler, given to impulsive came particularly fond of Carol and put came to Congress with a cool correctness excursions around the world in his pri- her on their payroll. that made her displeasure clear.” vate jet, Keating took along Cindy and In 1979 McCain, in his early 40s, met In a story in the London Daily Mail, the children and, occasionally, John. the 25-year-old Cindy Hensley, an heir- Sharon Churcher wrote on June 8 of this Amid these voyages, Cindy developed ess to her father’s beer distribution em- year: with Keating the idea of financing the pire in Phoenix. It was at a cocktail party “Ross Perot, who paid her medical American Voluntary Medical Team in Honolulu. Cindy recalls, “He kind of bills all those years ago, now believes that (AVMT) to supply aid to disaster-struck chased me around the hors d’oeuvres both Carol McCain and the American areas. Keating, an ardent Catholic, also table. I was trying to get something to eat, people have been taken in by a man who introduced Cindy to Mother Teresa. This and I thought, ‘This guy’s kind of weird.’ I is unusually slick and cruel – even by the relationship led to Cindy’s adoption of a was kind of trying to get away from him.” standards of modern politics. ‘McCain baby born in Bangladesh. The adoption McCain pursued Hensley, inviting is the classic opportunist. He’s always came as a complete surprise to McCain. her to Washington, D.C. He embarked reaching for attention and glory. After he These trips and the relationship with on an affair with Cindy and suddenly came home, Carol walked with a limp. So Keating attracted the scrutiny of inves- told a stunned Carol that he was leav- he threw her over for a poster girl with tigators probing McCain for ethical mis- ing her. McCain began living with Cindy big money from Arizona. And the rest is conduct. Beleaguered by accusations that in January of 1980. He divorced Carol history.’” he had been shielding a top-rung corpo- in April of that year and married Cindy Also quoted by Churcher is Ted rate criminal, McCain appears to have a month later in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sampley, a Special Forces veteran: blamed his wife for the political millstone Biltmore Hotel in Scottsdale. “I’ve been following John McCain’s Keating had become. Friends of Carol were disgusted by career for nearly 20 years. I know him According to two emergency room McCain’s conduct in dumping the wife personally. There’s something wrong with physicians in Phoenix, interviewed by this guy. Let me tell you what it is – de- CounterPunch, and who tell us they don’t ceit. When he came home and saw that want their names used, it was at this time Carol was not the beauty he left behind, that Cindy McCain sought medical atten- he started running around on her almost tion in the Phoenix area for injuries con- right away. Everybody around him knew sistent with physical violence: bruises, EDITORS it. Eventually he met Cindy and she was contusions and a black eye . There were Alexander Cockburn young and beautiful and very wealthy. At at least two more visits for medical atten- Jeffrey St. Clair that point McCain just dumped Carol for tion in the Phoenix area by Cindy, with similar injuries, between 1988 and 1993. ASSISTANT EDITOR something he thought was better. This is a guy who makes such a big deal about Perhaps not coincidentally, this was Alevtina Rea his character. He has no character. He is the period during which Cindy developed BUSINESS a fake. If there was any character in that an addiction to opiate painkillers, includ- Becky Grant first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.” ing Percocet and Vicodin. She was taking Deva Wheeler Cindy urged a return to Phoenix in 20 pills a day, with a physician at AVMT part because many in John’s circle in writing illegal prescriptions. When one of DESIGN Washington, D.C., gave them the cold the employees of AVMT discovered the Tiffany Wardle shoulder. Not only did Cindy pony up illegal prescriptions and told the execu-
COUNSELOR for Carol’s medical care, but she staked tive director, he was fired. He promptly alerted the Drug Enforcement Agency, Ben Sonnenberg McCain’s first congressional race in Arizona in 1982 because the Reagans which opened up an investigation. Cindy CounterPunch leaned on the Republican National was rushed into a drug treatment center PO Box 228 Committee to turn off the funding tap. and went into a pretrial diversion pro- Petrolia, CA 95558 From now on, relations between John gram, thus escaping prosecution. She 1-800-840-3683 and Cindy McCain became remote: he paid for the DEA’s investigation. She [email protected] mostly in Washington and she in Phoenix, claimed she became addicted to painkill- www.counterpunch.org living across the street from her parents. ers because of back pain and the stress All rights reserved. It was at this point she developed the ini- associated with Keating’s prosecution tial business relationship with Charles and conviction. (Keating died in prison.) CockBurn/St. Clair cont. on P. 5 september 1-15, 2008 Valentine continued from page 1 But he did admit to withholding it, and PTSD? A man who pushed a woman in Ted Guy and Gordon “Swede” Larson the practice is standard CIA practice and a wheelchair for merely asking him to do were POWs with McCain. Indeed, they part of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld rep- something about her son, who was MIA? were McCain’s senior officers at the time ertoire of “enhanced” interrogation tech- What if Putin or Medvedev calls him “a he says he was tortured in solitary con- niques. lying skunk?” Bombs away! finement. Guy and Larson, who have Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has No Republican hack is ever going to no axe to grind and have a better idea approved the practice for domestic ap- mention that a guilty conscience is the of what happened than almost anyone plication by your local constabulary. In true source of McCain’s “irrational be- else, claimed that while they could not 2003, in a 6-3 decision, the Court exon- havior,” or that, on June 2, 1969, McCain guarantee that McCain was not physi- erated several Oxnard, California, cops earned a reputation as the “POW cally harmed, they doubted it. “Between who withheld medical treatment from a Songbird.” On that day, McCain featured the two of us, it’s our belief, and to the Hispanic suspect they’d shot five times. on a radio broadcast from Hanoi, aimed best of our knowledge, that no prisoner They claimed they were trying to get him at U.S. servicemen in South Vietnam, was beaten or harmed physically in [the to talk.7 praising his captors for their excellent camp where McCain was],” Larson said. According to medical treatment (“which allowed me to “No one else in that camp was. It was the walk again”) and admitting he committed camp that people were released from.”4 McLamb, “McCain “crimes against the Vietnamese country Jack McLamb, a distinguished Phoenix made 32 propaganda and people. I bombed their cities, towns Arizona policeman, FBI hostage ne- and villages and caused more injury and gotiator and Vietnam veteran with a videos for the death for the Vietnamese people.”10 top-secret security clearance, told Alex communist North “The Vietnamese Communists called Jones that McCain was never tortured. him the Songbird,” Jack McLamb says. McLamb spoke to several POWs, and Vietnamese in “That’s his code name, Songbird McCain, they told him that “when [McCain] came because he just came into the camp sing- in [to the POW camp] he immediately which he denounced ing and telling them everything they started spilling his guts about everything America for what wanted to know.” According to McLamb, because he didn’t want to get tortured.” “McCain made 32 propaganda videos According to these POWs, the two bro- they were doing in for the communist North Vietnamese in ken arms McCain had sustained were which he denounced America for what Vietnam.” 11 the result of McCain panicking and not they were doing in Vietnam.” pulling his arms in when he bailed out of Could the Republicans do anything The Republicans also steer clear of plane. (McCain, notably, was a lousy pilot more hypocritical than celebrate McCain McCain’s 1997 interview with Mike and crashed three planes before being for being tortured, while they’re ap- Wallace, when McCain blurted that he sent to Vietnam.5) plauding the U.S. military and CIA for had murdered “innocent women and Let’s pretend for a moment that, in doing the same exact thing worldwide children.” McCain, apparently having a the excitement of being nominated for on a daily basis? Of course they could! flashback, confessed to having commit- president, McCain has consistently for- At the suggestion that denying medicine ted war crimes. “I am a war criminal,” he gotten to correct the record and reveal to to prisoners is torture, former CIA offi- stated on 60 Minutes. “I bombed inno- the public that he collaborated after four cer and Bush-backing congressman from cent women and children.”12 days. Maybe McCain feels that torture Connecticut Rob Simmons indignantly And by the 9/11 standard, there is no justifies collaboration, and that the denial asserted that “any veteran, anybody who doubt that he is a war criminal and a ter- of medical attention is a form of torture? served his country in war, should be of- rorist. As filmmaker Michael Moore has Maybe that is why he feels justified to fended.”8 said, “McCain flew 23 bombing missions pretend to be a war hero? Irrational Behavior over North Vietnam in a campaign called So, is the denial of medical Operation Rolling Thunder. During this attention a form of torture? Not so, ac- McCain likes to take off his clothes bombing campaign, which lasted for al- cording to former CIA officer Rob and show the country his war wounds most 44 months, U.S. forces flew 307,000 Simmons. While running for Congress – his “scars,” as he calls them – but he is attack sorties, dropping 643,000 tons of in 1999, Simmons was accused of tor- less flashy about his famous psychiatric bombs on North Vietnam (roughly the turing civilian prisoners at a secret CIA disabilities. Even his colleagues have no- same tonnage dropped in the Pacific torture center in Vietnam. The alleged ticed the problem. Former Senator Bob during all of World War II). Though the torture occurred, ironically, at the same Smith (R-NH) was quoted as having said stated targets were factories, bridges, and time McCain was being held in a North about McCain: “I have witnessed inci- power plants, thousands of bombs also Vietnamese POW camp. The specific dents where he has used profanity at col- fell on homes, schools, and hospitals. charge against Simmons, ironically again, leagues. He would disagree about some- In the midst of the campaign, Defense was that he would withhold medicine thing and then explode.” Smith called it Secretary Robert McNamara estimated from injured prisoners in order to obtain “irrational behavior.”9 that we were killing 1,000 civilians a information.6 Do we really want an irrational, angry week. That’s more than one 9/11 every Did Simmons withhold medicine for man with his finger on The Button? A single month – for 44 months.” an hour? A day? Four Days? He didn’t say. man suffering from an incurable case of Palin and Thompson did not mention
September 1-15, 2008
15 that “one 9/11 every single month” fact of documents that would otherwise have Hanoi.’” – or that the embodiment of Christian been declassified long ago.”13 McCain had a similar recollection, writ- character, John McCain, divorced the McCain “says this is to protect the ing in his [autobiography] that he respond- wife that stood by him while he was a privacy of former POWs and gives it as ed, “No, I do not,” when Barral asked if he POW after she was crippled in a car ac- his reason for not making public his own felt remorse. cident, in order to marry a trophy wife debriefing. But,” Schanberg adds, “the law On the one hand, “McCain told [Barrel] heiress who stole drugs for two years allows a returned prisoner to view his that he had not been subjected to ‘physi- from a charitable organization of which own file or to designate another person cal or moral violence’” and “lamented in she was president. to view it.” the interview that ‘if I hadn’t been shot John McCain has been living the Big To try to parry his critics, McCain gave down, I would have become an admiral at 16 Lie for so long he probably believes it’s Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff a peak at his a younger age than my father.’” true. But he also acts to make sure the records, and Isikoff swore they contained On the other hand, he’s running for truth never gets out. “nothing incriminating,” although he ac- president of the United States (an even Like fellow war criminal Rob Simmons, knowledged, “there were redactions.” bigger job than admiral) primarily on the John McCain has not been honest about Why the redactions? This is a question basis of having been tortured. McCain his war record. But while Simmons that riles the POW/MIA community, in- even allows his handlers to claim he only signed non-disclosure agreements with cluding Jane Duke Gaylor, the woman in gave “name rank and serial number” when, the CIA, giving him carte blanche to lie, the wheelchair McCain pushed. Indeed, in his autobiography, he clearly admits to steal, cheat and murder, McCain has to many Vietnam veterans, former POWs collaborating and says it caused him to at- resort to more devious tactics. and their families have criticized McCain tempt suicide. According to the journalist Sydney for keeping his “and other wartime files All this covering-up can take a lot of en- Schanberg (famous for his coverage of the sealed up.” According to Schanberg, “A ergy, but it also takes a lot of help, which war in Cambodia), McCain has a “long- smaller number of former POWs, MIA comes from America’s mainstream media time opposition to releasing documents families and veterans have suggested and, naturally, the military. and information about American prison- there is something especially damning The only way out is a Congressional ers of war in Vietnam.” On the contrary, about McCain that the senator wants to inquiry into McCain’s two disabilities, as “in close cooperation with the Pentagon keep hidden.” a collaborator and a victim of PTSD. Let and the intelligence community [mean- Could that secret be the politically an- Congress absolve him of the first disabil- ing the CIA],” McCain has been success- nihilating fact of his collaboration and its ity, as it surely would, and then inquire if ful in legislating into secret “thousands cover-up? Could it be that he made “nu- the PTSD is under control. Does he need merous public statements that appeared therapy? Can he handle the stresses of favorable to the communist war effort in being commander in chief? 14 Subscription Information exchange for ‘special treatment.’“ Alas, this is just as likely to happen as In their elitist wisdom, the Founding some reporter asking McCain if he col- Subscription information can be found Fathers inserted an escape clause in the laborated, signed a confession, or com- at www.counterpunch.org or call 14th Amendment. Section III says, “But mitted war crimes. toll-free inside the U.S. Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of More likely that Jehovah will smite the 1-800-840-3683 each House, remove such disability.” Published twice monthly McCain’s “disability” (if not his PTSD) except July and August, is thus treatable. All it takes is for some 22 issues a year. congressperson to bring the matter up CounterPunch Books 1- year hardcopy edition $45 for investigation and vote and avoid the 2- year hardcopy edition $80 Constitutional crisis that would ensue, if 1- year email edition $35 the “disability” becomes an issue in the 2- year email edition $65 campaign. As my friend Terry said, “If 1- year email & hardcopy edition $50 McCain merely appeared in photos posed 1- year institutions/supporters $100 in clean sheets [in a North Vietnamese 1- year student/low income, $35 hospital], then 2/3rds should quickly vote Renew by telephone, mail or on our to forgive him. If, however, he supplied website. For mailed orders please military secrets, McCain should not hold include name, address and email federal office.” McCain is a man of many contradic- address (if applicable) with payment. tions. For example, he told Mike Wallace To renew by phone 1-800-840-3683 or he was a war criminal for murdering 1-707-629 3683. Add $17.50 per year for Vietnamese civilians. However, according subscriptions mailed outside the U.S.A. to Fernando Barral, a Cuban psycholo- Make checks or money orders payable to: gist who questioned him in January 1970, Watch for New Titles. CounterPunch “McCain was ‘boastful’ during their inter- Business Office view and ‘without remorse’ for any civil- 1(800) 840-3683 PO Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 ian deaths that occurred ‘when he bombed www.counterpunch.org
september 1-15, 2008 potential first dude before he takes his CockBurn/St. Clair cont. from P. 2 who never mentioned the outburst at the next oath. CP Cindy’s addiction came as a shock to time) was that it had been a long day. McCain. Her parents, who apparently In his book, Schecter also writes that Douglas Valentine is the author of The had closer contact with her, did notice an AP reporter “recounted to me seeing Hotel Tacloban, The Phoenix Program, and attempted some interventions. John McCain wander off into the Red and TDY. His fourth book, The Strength A somewhat eerie insight into Light District of Hanoi in 1996, when of the Wolf: The Federal Bureau of McCain’s psyche can be found in his he was there to normalize relations with Narcotics, 1930-1968 received the Choice version of an ape joke that was popular the Vietnamese,” and that “a few report- Academic Excellence Award. The sequel, in the mid-1980s. The usual version ran ers told me that the McCains don’t really The Strength of the Pack, is being pub- along the following lines. A flight atten- live together anymore, and that until the lished by University Press of Kansas. For dant is the sole survivor of a crash in the presidential campaign Cindy McCain was information about Douglas Valentine, African forest. She meets an ape, who spending much of her time in San Diego and his books and articles, please visit makes her his mistress. Eventually, she with their daughter Bridgette, because his web sites at www.DouglasValentine. gets home and confides her experience to her husband was just not Johnny-on-the- com and http://members.authorsguild. a friend, who exclaims, “That’s terrible.” spot anymore.” net/valentine. He can be reached at red- Cindy found San Diego agreeable, and [email protected]. “There’s noth- John was almost always far, far away. 1. John McCain, U.S. News and World Report, ing better than . . . In 2007, she was asked by San Diego May 14, 1973. watching the Navy Magazine, “When the election’s over, do 2. John McCain, Faith of My Fathers, pp. 193- you think you might consider a western 194. SEALs run up and White House in Coronado?” “Absolutely. 3. “John McCain: Privileged ‘War Hero’, Liar, down the beach. I love Coronado. Listen, to me there’s Collaborator, Traitor,” Part 1, Gerard Kiley’s nothing better than waking up and seeing interview with Earl Hopper, http://educate- That’s a great way the sun come up over the water on the yourself.org/cn/earlhopperinterview08feb08. bay there and watching the Navy SEALs to live.” run up and down the beach. That’s a great shtml. way to live.” “How many days a month do 4. Amy Silverman, “Is John McCain a War “How many days a you see your husband now?” “Not many. Hero,” March 25, 1999, Phoenix New Times. month do you see Two or three, maybe.” CounterPunch 5. Alex Jones, “Prison Planet,” February 8, 2008, has noticed that in recent weeks, when interview with Jack McLamb. your husband now?” political circumstance brought briefly 6. “Justice Takes a Beating,” L.A. Times, May “Not many. Two or them together, Cindy had her arm in a 28, 2003. sling and featured a bandaged wrist. The 7. “Justice Takes a Beating,” L.A. Times, May, three, maybe.” McCain campaign said it was repetitive 28, 2003. “It is,” the flight attendant wails sadly. “He handshaking disorder. Maybe. On the 8. New London Day, May 1999. never calls, he never writes.” other hand, McCain publicly joked this 9. NewsMax.com, July 5, 2006. McCain’s very violent version of this summer about how “I stopped beating 10. Cannon, Eugene. UPI report, June 2, 1969. joke was reported in the Tucson Citizen, my wife just a couple of weeks ago.” (This http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmc- on October 27, 1986: “McCain: Did you was in Nevada, in an interview with the cain.com/McCAIN%20RADIO%20BROADCA hear the one about the woman who is at- Las Vegas Sun.) ST%20from%20Ha%20Noi%20060269.pdf. tacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten The year has been trying for Cindy. 11. Alex Jones, “Prison Planet,” February 8, senseless, raped repeatedly and left to On February 21, the New York Times de- die? When she finally regains conscious- scribed at great length how, during his 2008, interview with Jack McLamb. ness and tries to speak, her doctor leans first White House run in 2000, McCain 12. Ted Rall, CommonDreams.org. February over to hear her sigh contently and to fee- had developed a close relationship with 6, 2008. bly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’” a young blonde lobbyist Vicki Iseman. 13. Sydney Schanberg, “The War Secrets Sen. Relations between the couple became The couple had taken frequent flights John McCain Hides: Former POW Fights publicly acrid. In his 1992 Senate bid, together on corporate jets as she tried to Public Access to POW/MIA Files,” New York McCain was joined on the campaign convince him to favor the telecom com- (APBnews.com), April 25, 2000. trail by his wife Cindy, as well as cam- panies she was lobbying for. His staffers 14. Ted Sampley, “U.S. Veteran Dispatch,” paign aide Doug Cole and consultant were so vexed at the indiscreet associa- November 1999. Follow this link to a good Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy play- tion that they ordered her blocked from photo: http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcianhro. fully twirled McCain’s hair and said, McCain’s office. During the tense press htm. “You’re getting a little thin up there.” As conference after the Times story, Cindy’s 15. Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post Cliff Schecter tells it in his 2008 book frozen face was widely noted. Her inner Foreign Service, Tuesday, March 11, 2008; C01 The Real McCain, “McCain’s face red- thoughts may perhaps have been directed 16. Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post dened, and he responded, ‘At least I don’t toward the yoga instructor in San Diego, Foreign Service, Tuesday, March 11, 2008; C01 plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you reckoned by some in the yoga community cunt.’ McCain’s excuse to three Arizona in that city to be a source of consolation reporters who witnessed the scene (and to the Hensley beer heiress. CP
September 1-15, 2008 The Future of Indentured Scholarship ment, Flattes received a letter from the Treasury Department demanding re- Payback Time: The Student payment of his NSEP scholarship with an added 28 per cent penalty. Flattes’ Who Decided Not To be a Spook believes that NSEP “had no intention of setting up a payment plan and wanted to By David Price turn the matter over to another agency as soon as possible.” Flattes felt like he was decade ago, Nicolas Flattes, an could either begin work at national secu- “being shaken down by a loan shark in anthropology student at the rity related position (which would both a government suit,” but instead of being University of Hawai’i, was award- forgive the debt and provide a salary), or given the choice between paying up now Aed a Boren Scholarship from the National he must repay his loan over a two-year or taking a tire-iron to his kneecap, he Security Education Program (NSEP), period. After some discussion, he was was told he could either come up with then a relatively new funding source for told he could pay off his loan in three payments beyond his budget, sell his students in the social sciences studying years. Flattes could afford a four-year re- skills for national security work as part foreign cultures of strategic interest to payment schedule, but on his budget a of a terror war he does not support, or U.S. policy makers. Flattes’ NSEP schol- three-year schedule was impossible. he could have his credit rating decimat- arship allowed him to travel abroad to NSEP personnel told Flattes that a ed. Not pleasant choices for a man with study food security issues and sustainable four-year repayment plan was out of a conscience and a child to feed. Flattes agriculture in southern India, in a gender the question, and that if he did not meet acknowledges that he must pay back his development studies program focusing Flattes raises the scholarship funds. What he objects to is on nongovernmental organizations’ com- NSEP’s harsh tactics and their efforts to munity initiatives. possibility that pressure him into national security work. Flattes signed a standard NSEP con- Flattes questions what events triggered tract stating that after graduation he National Security the push for him to fulfill his service re- would work at an approved U.S. govern- Education Program quirement at this particular point in time. mental agency dealing with national se- The NSEP service agreement he signed curity issues, by posting his resume on may be using his in 1998 did not specify when this service NSEP’s website or applying to specific debt to pressure must be completed (today, the program federal agencies. All NSEP scholars enter requires services within three years of into such payback agreements – though him to get him to do graduation). Because Flattes served as a there are conflicting accounts of what Cryptologic Technician Technical in the participants have been told they must do classified national U.S. Navy from 1985-1989, he believes to meet these demands. security work. the NSEP’s actions could be an effort Back in the pre-9/11 days of 1998, designed to press him back into ser- Flattes was comfortable with the prospect NSEP’s demands he would have to pay vice involving intelligence work. In the of fulfilling this national security work a 28 per cent penalty, could have his Navy, Flattes specialized in Electronic after graduation. But the radical shift in wages garnished, and collections would Intelligence where he obtained “a secu- militaristic foreign and domestic policy be turned over to a private collection rity clearance that was two levels above and the ascendancy of unchecked pow- agency. Flattes says he left messages Top Secret which is rare for enlisted ers for U.S. intelligence agencies quelled for Boren Scholarship and Fellowship personnel. This field has definite links Flattes’ desire to work in any national se- Director Christopher Powers, saying he and cooperation with U.S. intelligence curity capacity by the time he graduated. was sending the first of his four-year agencies. Basically you work for one, When Flattes completed his Master’s payments. Flattes described a bizarre ep- you work for all in a sense.” Flattes says degree in June 2001, he posted his re- isode that occurred after he sent the first he had specialized training in areas that sume as he was required to do under the of his four-year payments via Canadian would now be of direct interest to intel- guideline and he went on to other things. Registered Purolator service, when he ligence agencies regardless of specific Flattes had no further contact with NSEP received a frightening phone call from changes over the last two decades, and he until two months ago, when he received someone claiming that FBI and D.C. po- can’t help but wonder if his NSEP debt is a letter from the Department of Defense lice were investigating the letter he’d sent being used to try and leverage him into (eventually forwarded from a decade- as a suspected anthrax scare, and they intelligence work that he is unwilling to old address) notifying him that he must demanded to know the contents of the undertake in the current political setting. either begin work for a U.S. agency in- envelope. The check Flattes sent to NSEP The significance of the NSEP’s pres- volved in national security work, or repay was never signed for, and he believes this sure on Flattes is not that he has to pay the cost of his scholarship along with was done to produce a trail of plausible back his scholarship funds: he contrac- penalties. As the parent of a young child, deniability, allowing NSEP to claim he tually agreed to do this when he signed Flattes works part time and lives on lim- was in default so that they could increase his NSEP contract. The significance of ited income. Upon receiving the letter, he pressure on him to seek national security Flattes’ account is threefold: first, Flattes contacted NSEP and tried to work out a related work. raises the possibility that NSEP may be five-year payment plan but was told he After NSEP failed to accept his pay- using his debt to pressure him to get him
september 1-15, 2008 to do classified national security work; others that student wouldn’t really have In my reply to Frank, I quoted chapter second, it documents the forms of coer- to undertake national security work at a and verse of the NSEP contract requir- cion awaiting participants in intelligence later date and that the program’s obliga- ing that he and other NSEP recipients and national security payback scholar- tions were routinely downplayed when seek employment with NSEP-approved ship programs, who come to think better they applied to the program. Some NSEP national security oriented agencies, and of working in national security settings scholars have been told that if they later reminded him that failure to meet these once they finish their education; finally, find work teaching in universities, their demands could lead to repayment of the his treatment counters claims that schol- national security service requirement NSEP funds with interest and penalties. I ars participating in NSEP will not later be may be considered met, though the word- also pointed out the ethical requirements forced to either complete their national ing of contracts has varied on this point for NSEP recipients to disclose fund- security requirements or pay back funds over the years. For example, Flattes’ 1998 ing sources to those they study – skep- with penalties. NSEP service agreement states his agree- tically adding that I was sure that Frank Perhaps the most unusual element of ment to be “employed in a national secu- had followed basic anthropological ethi- Flattes’ case is that we, the public, have rity position in the Federal Government cal guidelines and notified his university some knowledge of it. Flattes’ willingness or work in the field of higher education Institutional Review Board and those he to speak out helps establish how the coer- in [his] study-related area,” while current was in contact with in China that his cive potential of NSEP and other national Boren Scholarships information states research was sponsored by a contract re- security linked payback programs lever- quiring future national security employ- age scholars into governmental service Is a student loans ment. supporting policies that they personally debt being used to While NSEP’s payback requirements oppose. Because of the private nature of can be coercive and create problems for the repayment demands, it is unknow- try and leverage student-researchers needing to inform able how routine such high-pressure de- its recipient into research subjects of unknown future mands are. commitments to national security agen- Institutional privacy policies prevented intelligence work cies, NSEP’s problems seem minuscule Boren Scholarship Director, Christopher that he is unwilling when compared to other new payback Powers, from commenting on the spe- programs. In 2004, the Pat Roberts cifics of Flattes’ case, but he did tell me to undertake in the Intelligence Scholars (PRISP) and that the “vast majority of [NSEP funded the Intelligence Community Scholars scholars] to date have fulfilled the pro- current political Program (ICSP) began providing funds gram’s service requirement through a setting? exceeding over $40,000 a year to stu- variety of jobs throughout the federal dents. Both programs carry career-break- sector and in higher education.” But the that fulfilling NSEP national security re- ing penalties for scholars who might later public does not know how many former quirements by working in education “is decide they did not wish to work for the NSEP recipients have caved to the pro- available only after exhausting all oppor- specific intelligence agencies to which gram’s demands and quietly slunk off to tunities to fulfill the requirement in the they are linked. ICSP’s payback clause work for the CIA, NSA, FBI, Homeland Federal Government in accordance with states that recipients, who like Flattes Security or other agencies designated to conditions established by NSEP.” Current later decide they cannot in good con- meet contractual obligations of servitude. NSEP scholars banking on a career in science work for intelligence agencies, We don’t know how many NSEP scholar- academia as a hedge against required na- must pay back the amount of the funds, ship recipients later work in intelligence tional security work underestimate the plus “the interest on the amounts of such or national security settings. That some odds of securing such work and risk fac- awards which would be payable if at the meet their payback requirements in ways ing the same sort of coercion as Flattes is time the awards were received they were that have little or nothing directly to do experiencing. loans bearing interest at the maximum with national security does not dimin- Misinformation on NSEP’s payback re- legal prevailing rate, as determined by ish the significance of those who do, and quirements is widespread. Back in 2000, the Treasurer of the United States, mul- such connections between scholars and after I criticized NSEP’s payback obliga- tiplied by three.” It is small consolation, national security are the stated reason for tions in The Nation, Adam Frank, then but Flattes should be glad he’s not being NSEP existence. an anthropology graduate student doing hounded by ICSP or PRISP, whose levels Since its inception in 1991, controver- NSEP sponsored research in Shanghai, of draconian usury would have trans- sy has surrounded the NSEP’s payback wrote a letter to The Nation complaining formed Flattes’ modest scholarship’s requirements. During the 1990s, sev- that I had misrepresented NSEP’s pay- principle over the past decade into a debt eral professional associations, including back requirements. Frank claimed that equivalent with the value of a house. the African Studies Association, Latin he and other NSEP scholars really didn’t Even within the ranks of those partici- American Studies Association and the have to fulfill their NSEP contracts pay- pating in various national security linked Middle East Studies Association, formally back clause, that all they had to do was payback programs, there exists an infor- opposed the acceptance of NSEP funds. post “their resume to the NSEP website mal hierarchy of disdain. The secrecy, Over the past decade, some NSEP re- (beyond that they are neither assisted in front-end linkage with intelligence agen- cipients have told me that they were in- finding government work nor compelled cies, and the extreme levels of servitude formally told by academic advisers and to do so).” of the PRISP and ICSP programs give
September 1-15, 2008 the willies to some NSEP loyalists. When an intelligence operative may acciden- for students not of independent means, PRISP first appeared on the scene, one tally reveal security secrets to an agent and as American foreign policy becomes scholar who had received NSEP funds in from a hostile country. The other reason ever more tied to invasion, occupation graduate school and later worked with is that an operative may be influenced or and counterinsurgency, the state’s needs NSEP in another capacity wrote to me bribed by an agent from a hostile country for social science swell. Programs like that “NSEP is very upset about the PRISP and intentionally compromise national the Robert Gates Minerva Consortium fellowship because they feel they’ll be security. I think this has a great bearing provide funds for scholars located out- tainted by it, because they don’t like the on the NSEP, PRISP, and other similar side the government’s walls in ways that secrecy aspects, and because they fear government programs. Since an intel- simultaneously subdue what might have some enterprising young PRISP-er could ligence agent is usually unable to travel been independent academic critiques of end up being killed and/or could threaten in or to a hostile or unfriendly, country national policy while producing knowl- NSEP-ers in the field. As you probably this makes academics good surrogates edge for the state and empire; while in- know, NSEP recipients are not allowed to and even undergraduate students could dentured payback programs like NSEP, be working for the government in any ca- be a useful intelligence tool. They can ICSP, and PRSIP can help produce those pacity during the period of their award.” travel freely, and have no obvious asso- who can harness and use knowledge Like these other payback programs, ciation with an intelligence agency. They within the walls of government. Through NSEP holds the potential of becoming can provide invaluable information about such financial means academics are in- a revolving door between the worlds of countries and places that U.S. intelligence creasingly becoming if not comfortable, academia and national security. Nicolas agents are unable to visit.” then compliant appendages of the state. Flattes wonders if NSEP and other na- Flattes sees these payback programs as CP tional security payback programs are providing unique opportunities for those now providing a way for U.S. intelligence who will face travel and contact restric- agencies to get around the ban limiting tions when they later work in the intel- intelligence personnel from traveling to ligence community. David Price is the author of foreign countries or maintaining contact Flattes and all students facing hard Anthropological Intelligence: The with individuals in countries listed as choices on how to pay for their educa- Deployment and Neglect of American hostile. tion have my sympathy. The education Anthropology in the Second World War, Flattes observes that “there are two industry’s means and relations of produc- published by Duke University Press. He reasons given for this ban. One is that tion provide increasingly narrow choices can be reached at [email protected].
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