John Weisman is one of a select company of writers to have had books on both the New York Times fiction and nonfiction best-seller lists. His best-sellers include Rogue Warrior (written with Richard Marcinko) and Rogue Warrior's eight fictional sequels. A former journalist, Weisman has worked in more than three dozen countries. His latest work, the Black Ops novel SOAR, is now available through HarperCollins/William Morrow. He is currently completing the second Black Ops novel, Jack in the Box, for release in 2004. He can be emailed at: blackops@johnweisman.com
Special Event: John Weisman will be appearing to sign autographed copies of his latest thriller, Soar, at the following locations:
August 15: Fort Bragg
11:00-11:30 a.m. - Bldg 80-5050 (2nd street and Buckner Rd)
2:00-4:00 p.m. - Bldg 1017 on Canopy Lane
August 19 & 20: TREXPO EAST (Chantilly, VA)
10:00 a.m.-5::00 p.m. - TEAM ONE NETWORK booth, at Dulles Exposition Center, Chantilly, VA. Official ID credentials required.
August 30: Quantico
12:00-2:00 p.m. - Marine Corps Post Exchange
September 6: Horse Shoe Curve Restaurant (Pine Grove, VA),
6:00-9:00 p.m. at Horse Shoe Curve Restaurant
Pine Grove Road
Pine Grove, VA
Pine Grove Road [Rt 679] runs off Rt.7, just west of the Blue Ridge, and 2 mi. east of the Shenandoah River.
With the war in Iraq winding down, it's time for our intelligence agencies to ratchet up the global war against terrorism with the same sort of proactive energy with which the Pentagon pursued regime change in Baghdad. And just as the Pentagon's victory was aided through the imaginative use of special operations forces and black ops, our intelligence agencies must think outside the box, using covert action and black ops to disrupt terrorist command and control structures and financial networks, and find proactive ways to decapitate terrorist cells and kill terrorists.
These things have been done successfully in the past. Duane "Dewey" Clarridge was appointed as the first director of CIA's CTC, or Counter-Terrorist Center, in the mid-1980s. A cigar-chomping, bespoke-suit wearing, flamboyant, imaginative, and sometimes ruthless case officer who had been station chief in Istanbul and Rome,
Clarridge was also politically incorrect. He believed, for example, that terrorists were at war with America, and therefore terrorism should not be treated as a law-enforcement problem, but dealt with in a kill-or-be-killed manner. Dewey wanted to go to war. He wanted to attack terrorists with every weapon available. He also realized that to fight terrorists effectively you have to think like one. And so, he turned to black ops.
One of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations in the 1980s was the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). ANO hijacked planes, assassinated diplomats, and kidnapped and murdered journalists. In December 1985, ANO operatives staged simultaneous attacks on the Rome and Vienna international airports, resulting in 16 deaths and 60 wounded. For Clarridge, the ANO became a priority target.
A CIA psychological profile of Abu Nidal indicated that he displayed elements of paranoia. With that nugget of intelligence in hand, Clarridge instituted an ambitious covert action program to destabilize ANO.
Here's how it worked. CTC case officers used their agents overseas to spread disinformation that some of Abu Nidal's closest associates had contacted CIA.
When questioned by their boss whether they'd been in touch with the Americans, the terrorists told the truth and said "No."
But Abu Nidal's reaction to their claims of innocence was -- as Dewey knew it would be --paranoia. The result was predictable: by the end of 1987, Abu Nidal had murdered more than 300 of his own people --170 in one night alone-to purge ANO of suspected "double agents." The ANO never recovered from its self-inflicted wounds.
Clarridge's CTC also used a black op to pressure Syria to muzzle Hezbollah. Syria didn't control Hizballah of course. The Shiite militia was a creation of the Iranian Seppah e Pasdaran-the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, and was controlled from Baalbek, in Lebanon's Beka'a valley. But Syria controlled Lebanon. And Damascus had its hand on the Hezbollah tap. Damascus could unleash a flood of terror, or close Hezbollah activity down to a trickle, depending on what political goals Syrian president Hafez al-Asad had in mind.
Now, one of the intelligence factoids of which Dewey was certain was that president Asad did not want to be too closely identified with the radical regime in Tehran.
Dewey, of course, decided to link Asad and Khomeini. He accomplished the goal by having a Hezbollah postage stamp created. The stamp had a portrait of Khomeini in one corner and Asad in the other. On the left side was the French legend: Republique Islamique du Liban." On the right: "Contre les espions Americains" (Against American spies). And in the center was a photo of the car-bombed U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
The stamp was sent to a Saudi financed Arab magazine in Paris. The editor put it on the cover-and was immediately summoned to Damascus and threatened by Syrian intelligence for flagrantly trying to link Asad with Khomeini's terrorism. And for a few months, the Syrians turned the taps so tight that Hezbollah didn't mount a single op.
One hopes that the folks at CTC are thinking like Dewey these days. There are times when ruthless is good. This is one of them.
