#john singlaub

[carbone14]

Lieutenant John K. Singlaub de l'OSS – 1940's

John K. Singlaub est un des membres fondateurs de la CIA. Pendant la seconde guerre mondiale il fut officier de l'OSS et participa à l'opération Jedburgh qui consistait à coordonner l'action des maquis de la résistance en vue de désordonner l'action des allemands pendant le débarquement de Normandie.

[whatisonthemoon]

Covert Operations and the CIA's Hidden History in the Philippines

By Roland G. Simbulan, Convenor/Coordinator, Manila Studies Program University of the Philippines (Lecture at the University of the Philippines-Manila, Rizal Hall, Padre Faura, Manila, August 18, 2000.)

For a long time, Manila has been the main station, if not the regional headquarters, of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for Southeast Asia. This is perhaps so because the Philippines has always been regarded as a stronghold of US imperial power in Asia. Since the Americanized Filipinos were under the spell of American culture, they were easy to recruit without realizing they were committing treason to their own people and country. And from the beginning of the 20th century to 1992, there were the US military bases, the mighty symbols and infrastructure of American power.

CIA human intelligence assets in Manila are said to have provided vital information at crucial times. According to declassified documents under the Freedom of Information Act, on Sept. 17, 1972, a CIA asset in the Philippines who was in the inner circle of Marcos informed the CIA station in Manila that Ferdinand Marcos was planning to proclaim martial law on Sept. 21,1972. The CIA station in Manila was also provided in advance a copy of Proclamation 1081--the proclamation that declared martial law in the country--and a list of the individuals whom Marcos planned to arrest and imprison upon the declaration of military rule.

I would like to mention --without going into any conclusions--that, so accurate was the CIA's assessment about the Sept. 21, 1972 declaration of martial rule that it boosted the prestige of the CIA station in Manila. Upon his retirement a few years later, Henry Byroade, the American ambassador to Manila when martial law was declared, was honored by the CIA headquarters in Langley,Virginia--a tribute that is said to be very rarely given to any retiring ambassador. Also, in 1982, the CIA was able to verify from a high-ranking Philippine immigration officer the names of the two doctors who visited the Philippines to treat Marcos for kidney failure, giving the CIA a clear picture of Marcos's health problems.(Richelson, 1999).

It is important to expose US imperialism's clandestine apparatus in the Philippines. If the activities of this sinister agency are not meticulously documented, there is a tendency to mythologize, or even Hollywood-ize, its notoriety and crimes against the Filipino people and Philippine national sovereignty. The CIA is the covert overseas intelligence agency of the United States government and is likewise an "action-oriented " vehicle of American foreign and military policy. The 1975 Church Committee Report of the US congressional investigations into the CIA's covert activities abroad revealed how countless foreign governments were overthrown by the CIA; how the CIA instigated a military coup d'etat and assassinated foreign political leaders like Chilean President Salvador Allende, who merely tried to safeguard the interests of their own country; and how "special ops" and paramilitary campaigns contributed to the death, directly or indirectly, of millions of people, as a result of those actions.

The 1974-75 US congressional investigations also uncovered CIA intervention in the domestic politics of target countries--from the overthrow of governments, attempted assassinations, to subsidies and financial support for the media, political parties, trade unions, universities and business associations--all designed "to clandestinely influence foreign governments, events, organizations or persons in support of US foreign policy." (Robinson, 1996; Richelson,1999). The CIA has gone beyond its original mission of gathering intelligence and was conducting Mafia-type operations not only in its own territory but against foreign governments and their leaders.

Doing covert action that undermines Philippine national sovereignty and genuine democracy in order to prop up the tiny pro-US oligarchical minority that has cornered most of the wealth in their poor country is what the CIA is all about and is the real reason for its existence. It is no longer just the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence which is officially its mandate under the US National Security Act of 1947 that created the CIA.

The CIA in the Philippines has engaged in countless covert operations for intervention and dirty tricks particularly in Philippine domestic politics. On top of all this is the US diplomatic mission, especially the political section that is a favorite cover for many CIA operatives. CIA front companies also provide an additional but convenient layer of cover for operatives assigned overseas. In general, wherever you find US big business interests (like Coca-Cola, Ford, Citicorp, United Fruit, Nike, etc.), you also find a very active CIA. But the covers often used are diversified.

Desmond Fitzgerald, for instance, a former CIA chief of station in Manila was said to have fronted as a legitimate businessman of an American multinational company. Joseph Smith, a top CIA agent assigned to the Philippines in the early 1960s, posed as a "civilian employee" of the Clark Airforce Base's 13th Air Force Southeast Asia Regional Survey Unit .On the other hand, CIA operative Gabriel Kaplan's initial cover was really more "civilian"--with the CIA-created Asia Foundation (formerly the Committee for a Free Asia), then later as resident director of another CIA creation, the COMPADRE both of which we shall be dealing with more extensively later.

On the other hand, CIA operative David Sternberg fronted as a foreign correspondent for an American newspaper based in Boston, the Christian Science Monitor, when he assisted Gabriel Kaplan in managing the presidential campaign of Ramon Magsaysay in the '50s.

The Agency's assets and technical infrastructure in Manila have been drastically affected by the withdrawal of the bases by 1992 because, before this, the CIA operated jointly with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) major listening posts into most of Indochina and southern China. The joint CIA/DIA structure called the Strategic Warning Staff, is headquartered in the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) and operated a number of similar posts as the one in Manila. The Manila station includes very sizeable logistical capabilities for a wide range of clandestine operations against Asian governments.

The loss of the bases in the Philippines was a tremendous blow to the CIA's Asian infrastructure, if not a major setback. From the mid-50s, the US bases in the Philippines served as operational headquarters for "Operation Brotherhood" which operated in Indochina under the direct supervision of the CIA's Col. Edward Lansdale and Lucien Conien, and it involved several Filipinos who were recruited and trained by the CIA. Lansdale was the classic CIA operative in Southeast Asia who was romanticized in Graham Greene's novel, The Quiet American. Lansdale was even appointed by former President Ramon Magsaysay as his "military adviser" but was, in fact, his speechwriter as well, who determined Magsaysay's foreign and military policy. So successful was the CIA in pulling the strings thru Lansdale that in 1954, a high-level US committee reported that, "American policy in Southeast Asia was most effectively represented in the Philippines, where any expanded program of Western influence may best be launched."

Examples of such programs were the Freedom Company of the Philippines, Eastern Construction Co. and "Operation Brotherhood," which provided "a mechanism to permit the deployment of Filipino personnel in other Asian countries, for unconventional operations covertly supported by the Philippines." (Shalom, 1986). The CIA also actively used Philippine territory, particularly Clark Air Base, for the training and launching of operatives and logistics in the late 1950s, where the US covertly supported dissident Indonesian colonels in the failed armed overthrow of Indonesian President Sukarno. The CIA then established supply, training and logistical bases on several islands in the Philippines, including an airstrip in the Tawi-Tawi Island of Sanga-Sanga. A CIA-owned proprietary company, the Civil Air Transport, was actively used by the CIA from Philippine territory to give direct assistance to Indonesian military rebel groups attempting to overthrow Indonesian President Sukarno in the late 1950s.

Manila was also the center of operations for the Trans-Asiatic Airlines Inc., a CIA outfit operating along the Burma-China border against the People's Republic of China. Using the Trans-Asiatic Airlines Inc. as a front company, the CIA recruited for this operation in the early 1950s several Filipino aviators who were World War II veterans, including operatives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' Military Intelligence Service (MIS) who were still in active service.

In his memoirs, former Philippine Ambassador to Burma Narciso G. Reyes narrates that one of these Filipino "undercover" MIS agents posed as the labor attache at the Philippine embassy in Rangoon even before this was formally established. The Filipino CIA undercover agent was also reporting to the American ambassador to Burma from whom he was also getting paid! (Reyes, 1995).

Side by side with CIA proprietary companies Civil Air Transport, Sea Supply Co. and Western Enterprises Co., the agency used Trans-Asiatic Airlines Inc. in an attempt to invade the People's Republic of China in the early 1950s, using the mercenary Chinese warlord Gen. Li Mi as leader of the invasion force. After a few skirmishes with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Gen. Li Mi later on "retired" and pocketed the US financial and military assistance for an invasion against China and concentrated on the lucrative opium trade along the Burmese-Thai border.

US military advisers of the Joint US Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) and the CIA station in Manila designed and led the bloody suppression of the nationalist Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB) which was vehemently opposed to the post-war Parity Rights amendment and the onerous military agreements with the United States. The CIA's success in crushing the peasant-based Huk rebellion in the 1950s made this operation the model for future counterinsurgency operations in Vietnam and Latin America. Colonel Lansdale and his Filipino sidekick, Col. Napoleon Valeriano were later to use their counterguerrilla experience in the Philippines for training covert operatives in Vietnam and in the US-administered School of the Americas, which trained counterguerrilla assassins for Latin America. Thus, the Philippines had become the CIA's prototype in successful covert operations and psychological warfare.

After his stint in the Philippines using propaganda, psywar and deception against the Huk movement, Lansdale was then assigned in Vietnam to wage military, political and psychological warfare. It was Lansdale's view that the tactics that he used to solve the problem in the Philippines were applicable to Vietnam. He was wrong. In 1975, after two decades of protracted warfare, the Vietnamese people defeated the strongest superpower on earth.

The CIA's actions and activities in its Manila station have never been limited to information gathering. Information gathering is but a part of an offensive strategy to attack, neutralize and undermine any organization, institution, personality or activity they consider a danger to the stability and power of the United States. The late Senator Claro M. Recto was believed to have been a victim of the CIA's dirty tricks department because of his staunch crusade against the US military bases in the Philippines. It is now a well-documented fact that General Ralph B. Lovett, then the CIA station chief in Manila and the US ambassador, Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, had discussed a plan to assassinate Recto using a vial of poison. A few years later, Recto was to die mysteriously of heart attack (though he had no known heart ailment) in Rome after an appointment with two Caucasians in business suits. Before this, the CIA had made every effort to assure the defeat of Recto in the 1957 presidential election wherein the CIA manufactured and distributed defective condoms with a label that said, "Courtesy of Claro M. Recto--the People's Friend." Could it be that Recto was a victim of the CIA's covert operations, or what they call "executive action" against those perceived as dangerous enemies of the United States?

It was also during the time of Recto and the Huks that the CIA covertly sponsored the Security Training Center as a "countersubversion, counterguerrilla and psychological warfare school" on the outskirts of Manila. CIA funds concentrated on the sensitive area of "rural development" and funds were channeled to the National Movement for Free Elections' (Namfrel) community centers, the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) and a rural development project called Committee for Philippine Action in Development, Reconstruction and Education (COMPADRE) thru CIA fronts and conduits like the Catherwood Foundation and the "Committee for a Free Asia (CFA), later renamed the Asia Foundation." (Shalom, 1986).

In the late 1980s, the CIA assigned Vietnam veteran U.S. General John Singlaub to organize anti-communist vigilante groups all over the country for mass terror, particularly as part of the Philippine government's "total war policy" against people's movements. General Singlaub posed as an American "treasure hunter" and even secured all the necessary official permits for treasure hunting in the Philippines. Another operative active in the "total war" operations in the Philippines was Vietnam counterinsurgency specialist Col. James Rowe, Joint US Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) adviser, whose cover was blown off when he was ambushed in 1989 by urban guerrillas of the New People's Army in Timog Avenue, Quezon City. Rowe was clandestinely involved in the organization of anti-communist death squads like Alsa Masa and vigilante groups patterned after "Operation Phoenix" in Vietnam which had the objective of eliminating legal and semi-legal mass activists and their political sympathizers that constituted the political infrastructure of the insurgency movement.

The CIA lost its huge telecommunications installation at Clark Air Base--the Regional Relay Station when the Philippine Senate rejected on Sept. 16, 1991, the proposed treaty for the bases' renewal. Before 1970, according to a former CIA operative, the sprawling Subic Naval Base was the site of a China operations group of the CIA and "the agency even constructed 100 expensive modern homes, a large two-story office building and a big warehouse at Subic Bay." (Smith, 1976)

There is, however, a vital covert installation that the CIA was able to retain and maintain: the "Regional Service Center" (RSC). Located along Roxas Boulevard in Manila at the Seafront Compound about a mile south from the US Embassy, the RSC fronts as a facility of the United States Information Service (USIS), formerly called the US International Communications Agency. This ultra-modern printing facility functions as a secret CIA propaganda plant. It has the ability to produce large quantities of high-quality color offset magazines, posters, leaflets and the like in at least 14 Asian languages.

During the Vietnam War, the RSC was ceaselessly involved in economic sabotage against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) or North Vietnam. The RSC was involved in counterfeiting North Vietnamese currency which were airdropped all over the DRV to sabotage the economy and weaken the country's resistance. The CIA's Technical Services Division maintains close liaison with the RSC, which still actively operates within the Seafront Compound along Roxas Boulevard. The post-Vietnam War and later on, the post-bases era has only increased the importance of Manila as a major listening post and regional headquarters of the Agency.

A former junior case officer of the CIA, Janine Brookner, who was stationed in Manila described the capital city of the Philippines as "a wild place" for CIA operatives who spent a lot of time in bars, sex shows and brothels. This was because, according to her, the standard CIA procedure for recruiting targets was to "get him drunk, get him laid, and then get him on the Agency's dole." Brookner was an attractive but determined blonde who claimed to have developed assets in both the government and the Communist Party during her assignment to the Philippines. Brookner was also a very productive recruiter who, as a handler of important assets and as a CIA case officer, claims to be able to make her targets confess everything. "You take care of them," Brookner recalls, "and they tell you their fears and nightmares...I'm good at people depending on me." In fact, her targets, especially high-ranking Philippine government officials, often propositioned her. (Starobin, 1997)

Cultural Fronts

The CIA has long utilized in the Philippines sophisticated or subtle means for clandestine propaganda, such as the manipulation of trade unions and cultural organizations, rather than heavy-handed activities such as paramilitary operations, political assassinations and coups as they had done extensively in Africa, Latin America and Vietnam. During my interview in 1996 with Ralph McGehee, a former CIA agent, and other former CIA operatives assigned to the Manila station, I was told that the CIA had many unheralded successes in the Philippines such as the manipulation of the trade union movement through the Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI) and through funds which were channeled thru the USAID, Asia Foundation and National Endowment for Democracy.

In a recent article in the Journal of Contemporary Asia, American sociologist James Petras describes how progressive non-government organizations can be neutralized, if not coopted, thru US government, big business-backed funding agencies or CIA fronts and conduits masquerading as foundations. The purpose, according to Petras, is "to mystify and deflect discontent away from direct attacks on the corporate/banking power structure and profits toward local micro-projects ...that avoids class analysis of imperialism and capitalist exploitation." Neo-liberalism today, according to Petras, encourages NGOs to "emphasize projects, not movements; they 'mobilize' people to produce at the margins, not to struggle to control the means of production and wealth; they focus on the technical financial aspects of projects not on structural conditions that shape the everyday lives of people." While using the language of the Left such as "people empowerment," "gender equality," "sustainable development" etc., these NGOs funded by USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Asia Foundation, etc. have become linked to a framework of collaboration with donors and even with government agencies with whom they have partnerships that subordinate activity to nonconfrontational politics, rather than militant mass mobilization. (Petras, 1999)

It must be emphasized that the US places high premium on the ideological legitimation of its continuing neo-colonial domination over the Philipines and, as such, depends heavily on US-financed and US-sponsored institutions, especially on the ideological front. Thus, grants are generously poured in by such agencies like USAID, NED, Asia Foundation and the big business-sponsored Ford Foundation. The objective is to constantly lure and lull the masses into the elite-dominated electoral process, thus legitimizing the neo-liberal economic system and its political apparatus, producing a fragile social peace and a "peaceful" mechanism for competition among the Filipino elite and oligarchy. In his book on French colonialism in Algeria titled, The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon wrote:

"Colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding a people in itsgrip, and emptying the native's brain of all form and content.By a kind of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the people, and distorts, disfigures and destroys it."

One of the most critical moments of the CIA station in Manila was the immediate post-Marcos years when they tried to dissociate US links with the Marcoses and politically influence the contours of the post-Marcos era. Financial, technical and political support for the pro-US "agents of influence" assured the dominance of pro-US local elites and institutions as a counterweight to the progressive anti-imperialist, anti-Marcos forces that threatened to define and restructure the architecture of the post-Marcos neo-colonial regime.

USAID was directed to grant the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) with a generous financing so it could formulate a position paper on an economic program anchored on "the partnership between labor and capital." USAID even temporarily set up an agrarian reform office, working closely at TUCP offices. Political analysts of the CIA and USAID wanted to design an agrarian reform program that would not disrupt the agro-export sector and one which could be synchronized with the counterinsurgency program and defuse peasant unrest. The CIA and US military advisers also wanted a deeper role in the design and command of counterinsurgency. These funds were supplemented by the so-called "democracy promotion" initiatives of the NED which poured in heavy funding for TUCP, Namfrel, the Women's Movement for the Nurturing of Democracy (KABATID) and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI). The NED gave a total of $9 million from 1984-1990 to these institutions and organizations.

Following the ouster of Marcos, the US set about to transform the "new" Armed Forces of the Philippines into an effective counterinsurgency force that would integrate military, political, economic and social initiatives, including broad "civic action" campaigns, psychological operations, military aid and training. It was a massive comeback of the low-intensity conflict years of the Magsaysay-Lansdale era! Between 1987-1990, Washington reportedly authorized stepped-up clandestine CIA operations against the Left in the Philippines, including a $10 million allocation to the AFP for enhanced intelligence-gathering operations. There was also an increase in the number of CIA personnel, from 115 to 127, mostly attached as "diplomats" to the US embassy in Manila. (Oltman and Bernstein, 1992)

In general, US military and economic aid are used quite effectively and they remain key elements of US policy in the Philippines. The CIA station handles political aid and political matters. This means, according to the CIA's Intelligence Memorandum on the 1965 Philippine presidential elections for instance, assuring that the victorious national candidates who are acceptable to the US should be "western-oriented and pledge to continue close and equitable relations with the US and the West on matters of mutual interest." (Bonner, 1987) The CIA station also conducts widespread covert operations, among them: stage-managed national elections to assure preferred US outcome; payoffs to government officials under the guise of grants; financing for favored business and civic groups and pro-US propaganda campaigns among the population; the supply of intelligence information on activists and dissidents to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and so on. (Robinson, 1996)

Among the most prominent CIA fronts in Manila is the Asia Foundation with offices at Magallanes Village, Makati. According to a former US State Department bureaucrat William Blum in a recent book, the "Asia Foundation is the principal CIA front" and funding conduit in Asia. The Asia Foundation funds and supports known anti-communist groups or influential personalities, i.e. academics, journalists, local officials, etc. and institutions. (Blum, 1999) According to the former executive assistant to the CIA's Deputy Director for Operations Victor Marchetti in his book, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, the Asia Foundation had the objective "to disseminate throughout Asia a negative vision of Mainland China, North Vietnam, and North Korea." (Marchetti and Marks, 1980 edition). New York Times investigative journalist Raymond Bonner has also identified the Asia Foundation as "a CIA creation" and "front" in one of his books, Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Policy (1987). My interviews with former CIA operatives in the Philippines in 1996 confirm the active use of this foundation for the "Agency."

But the most credible and authoritative source that I have come across identifying the Asia Foundation as a CIA front and conduit is Marchetti's book where the CIA-Asia Foundation link is defined in no uncertain terms:

"Another organization heavily subsidized by the CIA was the Asia Foundation. Established by the agency (CIA) in 1956, with a carefully chosen board of directors, the foundation was designed to promote academic and private interest in the East. It sponsored scholarly research, supported conferences and symposia, and ran academic exchange programs, a CIA subsidy that reached $88 million dollars a year. While most of the foundation's activities were legitimate, the CIA also used it...to recruit foreign agents and new officers. Although the foundation often served as a cover for clandestine operations, its main purpose was to promote the spread of ideas which were anti-communist and pro-American--sometimes subtly and stridently...Designed--and justified at budget time--as an overseas propaganda operation, the Asia Foundation also was regularly guilty of propagandizing the American people with agency views on Asia. The Agency's connection with the Asia Foundation came to light just after the 1967 exposure of CIA subsidies to the (American) National Student Association. The foundation clearly was one of the organizations that the CIA was banned from financing and, under the recommendations of the Katzenbach committee, the decision was made to end CIA funding. A complete cut-off after 1967, however, would have forced the foundation to shut down, so the agency made it the beneficiary of a large 'severance payment' in order to give it a couple of years to develop alternative sources of funding. Assuming the CIA has not resumed covert funding, the Asia Foundation has apparently made itself self-sufficient now.... during the 1960s, the CIA developed proprietary companies for use in propaganda operations. These proprietaries are more compact proprietaries and more covert than the now exposed fronts like Asia Foundation and Radio Free Europe." (Marchetti and Marks, pp.157-158)

The CIA-linked Asia Foundation has long been active in the Philippines. It has generously funded academic seminars, researches, study tours, and conferences in most of the leading Philippine universities, most especially among many colleagues and programs at the University of the Philippines (UP).

You name it, they have their fingers stuck into it! Many nongovernment organizations, journalists, local governments and civic organizations have had their projects funded by Asia Foundation. This is what makes it strategic and well-placed, thus naturally, a matter of great concern and alarm to friends and colleagues in both the academe and the NGO sector who may be very upset by this information on the origins and CIA links of the Asia Foundation. But I did not invent this issue about the CIA-created Asia Foundation. I merely documented the previous testimonies from mostly open sources. It is part of the CIA's history in this country, which I have documented from the accounts of former CIA agents and operatives. Many recipients of Asia Foundation grants as well as the Filipino staff of the Asia Foundation in Manila may not even be aware of its notorious history. But now we know a little better.

It is important to note that in 1961, the chief of the CIA's Covert Action Staff wrote that books were "the most important weapon of strategic propaganda." Tens of thousands of books have been produced, subsidized or sponsored by the CIA and its conduits such as the Asia Foundation in support of US foreign and military policy.

Project Echelon

Together with the National Security Agency, the CIA also maintains "Project Echelon," the most sophisticated and the most technologically advanced eavesdropping system that has ever been devised. Through a relay system of satellites and spook stations in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada and United States, the US intelligence system is able to intercept all telephone, fax, e-mail, Internet and cellphone transmissions worldwide. Its nerve center is located at Fort Meade in Maryland where the NSA maintains its headquarters. This has grave implications for both our public and private security.

The National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States has developed a global surveillance system, Echelon, which is a powerful electronic net operated by super-computers that intercept, monitor and process all phone, fax, e-mail and modem signals. The European Parliament in a 1998 report entitled, "An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control" has listed serious concerns and has recommended an intensive investigation of US-NSA operations. The NSA Echelon system provides awesome potential for abuse against civilian targets and governments worldwide, even against allies of the United States.

It can be recalled that under the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the coverage for special privileges and criminal immunity includes not only US armed forces personnel but also "civilian personnel who are employed by the US armed forces and who are accompanying the US armed forces." These US "civilians" include technicians of the secretive US National Security Agency which, during the existence of the US bases here, operated the spy communications facilities at Clark, Subic and Camp John Hay, among others. (Simbulan, 1985) All private citizens' and government communications are intercepted and monitored by the Echelon System.

According to Nicky Hager's book, Secret Power (1986) which deals with the international electronic spy network, the US has not only been using its NSA Echelon system to collect political, military and economic intelligence against its enemies, but it also targets its own allies. According to Hager:

"...there is extensive interception of the ASEAN countries, including the Philippines....ASEAN meetings receive special attention with both public and private communications of these countries being intercepted to reveal the topics discussed, positions being taken and policy being considered."

Through the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the US plans to fully restore its Echelon system in the Philippines which was greatly interrupted by the pullout of US military facilities and bases in 1992. The CIA heavily relies on the Echelon Project for its technologically advanced Signal Intelligence or SIGNIT, which is managed by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

Conclusion

Every CIA station is virtually an infrastructure for political, military, cultural and even economic intervention. In the Philippines, the CIA has not only functioned as a listening post but has been actively used to engage in covert operations, sabotage and political intervention to undermine Philippine sovereignty and self-determined national policies. Former CIA operatives in the Philippines confirm the use of official "diplomatic covers," especially in the political section of the US Embassy where they are given secure communications, protected files and diplomatic immunity. They have also used "non-official covers," disguised as businessmen in US firms. Covers under the guise of US naval or air force personnel are now minimal after the US bases and military facilities in the Philipines were dismantled. But as we can now see, the CIA has long been operating with virtual impunity and has always gotten away with its deep involvement in Philippine domestic affairs. Shall we allow this continued intervention in Philippine political and economic life?

Bibliography

Books

Blum, William. Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press,1995.

Hager, Nicky. Secret Power. New Zealand: Craig Porton Publishing, 1996.

McGehee, Ralph. Deadly Deceits: My 25 years in the CIA. New York: Sheridan Square Publications, 1983.

Reyes, Narciso G. Memories of Diplomacy:A Life in the Philippine Foreign Service. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing Inc.,1995.

Richelson, Jeffrey T. The US Intelligence Community. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999.

Robinson, William I. Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention and Hegemony. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Shalom, Stephen. The United States and the Philippines: A Study of Neo-colonialism. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1986.

Simbulan, Roland. The Bases of Our Insecurity: A Study of the US Military Bases in the Philippines. Quezon City: Balai Foundation, 1983.

Smith, Joseph Burkholder. Portrait of a Cold Warrior. Toronto: Longman Canada, Ltd., 1976.

Articles

Petras ,James. "NGOs in the Service of Imperialism," Journal of Contemporary Asia. Vol. 29, No. 4 (1999).

Oltman J. and Bernstein, R. "Counter-insurgency in the Philippines," Covert Action Information Bulletin. No. 4, 1992, pp. 18-21

Starobin, Paul. "Agent Provocateur," George Magazine. Oct. 1997, pp.86-91.

Interviews

Ralph McGehee, former CIA operative assigned to the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand; Herndon, Virginia, April-May 1996.

Interviews with former CIA operatives in the Philippines at McLean and Herndon,Virginia, April-May 1996.

Highly Recommended Websites:

CIABASE (use alltheweb.com or dogpile.com as search engines)

http://www.fas.org/sgp/index.html

http://www.pir.org (click Freedom of Information Act documents)

http://www.boondocksnet.com (click U.S. as a World Power)

http://www.Heavens-above.com (for U.S. spy satellites)

http://www.dtic.mil/defenselink/ (U.S. Department of Defense)

http://www.Nuclear Files.org (FOIA documents on nuclear issues)

http://www.odci.gov (the CIA's World Factbook)

http://www.bullatomsci.org

[whatisonthemoon]

Private Groups Step Up Aid to 'Contras' (1985)

By Peter H. Stone The Washington Post Joanne Omang contributed to this report May 3, 1985

Whether President Reagan ever wins congressional approval of funds for rebels fighting Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government, a private-sector campaign involving well-known conservatives is intensifying its efforts to keep the insurgents well-supplied.

The rebels continue to claim that they are well-funded, though it is impossible to establish precisely where the money is coming from. The two most prominent and active support groups identified so far are the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) and its U.S. chapter, the United States Council for World Freedom (USCWF). The head of both organizations is retired Army major general John K. Singlaub, who was ousted as chief of staff of U.S. forces in South Korea in 1977 when he publicly criticized President Jimmy Carter.

Singlaub apparently is an informal link among several other organizations raising money and political support for the "contra" rebels, whom they call "freedom fighters." The boards, donors and membership lists of these groups overlap, often reading like a "Who's Who" of the right. They say that in the wake of congressional refusal to provide U.S. aid to the rebels, it is up to private citizens to show U.S. support for democratic efforts worldwide.

Adolfo Calero, political chief of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest rebel group, said in an interview that "a substantial part" of his arms funds have come through Singlaub. He said his cash flow has improved recently, and estimated his total receipts at "close to $10 million," of which 40 percent is arms and the rest nonlethal help.

Many organizations send humanitarian aid to refugees in the area and try to avoid supplying any of the various armed groups. The Connecticut-based Americares Foundation, for example, dispatched $14 million in medical aid last year, mostly to El Salvador, and plans $20 million this year, distributed through Knights of Malta groups regionwide. About $3 million of that has gone to refugees in Honduras, where many of the families of Nicaraguan contras are living.

The president of the Americares Foundation, Robert C. Macauley, acknowledged that there is no way to guarantee that recipients are apolitical. Other aid donors, such as Singlaub, openly are helping the "contras" fight the Sandinistas.

In a recent interview, Singlaub said that he has raised almost $2 million outside the United States for arms for the Nicaraguan rebels, primarily through the World Anti-Communist League. (U.S. law bans fund raising inside U.S. borders for weapons to be sent overseas.) He and Calero said they were seeking military and financial help from WACL chapters in South America, noting that the chapters in Brazil and Argentina are large and active.

The humanitarian side of Singlaub's drive -- collecting medicine, food, clothing and other nonlethal aid -- has focused on domestic donors. This effort, he said, "has the support of the White House, the Pentagon and the Department of State."

Singlaub works actively for the Nicaraguan rebels' cause. Six weeks ago he was at a contra training camp with Calero offering advice and encouragement and promising to do more fund-raising. Within days, the general was seeking donations at a Palm Springs meeting of the conservative, 400-member Council for National Policy, made up of business, religious and political leaders, of which he is a board member.

Singlaub also is a board member of Western Goals, a conservative educational group founded by the late Rep. Larry McDonald (D-Ga.), and is on the advisory board of Refugee Relief International, an organization that has aided Salvadoran refugees that was established by editors of Soldier of Fortune magazine, a journal specializing in stories about mercenaries. Singlaub has said he has helped raise funds for Friends of the Americas, a Louisiana-based group chaired by Louisiana state Rep. Woody Jenkins, a conservative Democrat.

Jenkins said in an interview that his group has sent $1.5 million in medical aid to refugee groups in Honduras, including some Miskito Indians. His wife, Diane, a group director, said the aid includes 25,000 "shoeboxes" from private donors.

"They're like little CARE packages with a pound of beef, rice, soap, vitamins, candles and salt," she said, and sometimes include fishing lines, hooks and a mirror or photographs of the donors. She said they are worth $25 to $30 each.

Imposition of U.S. economic sanctions against Nicaragua, announced Wednesday by President Reagan, will lead to "thousands of people fleeing out of Nicaragua, and we hope to increase our efforts," especially on the Pacific Coast near the Nicaraguan border, Jenkins said.

Singlaub said the U.S. drive by USCWF and its allies is bringing in just under $500,000 a month, one third to one half of it from a group of wealthy Texas conservatives. They include Bert Hurlbut, president of First Texas Royalty and Exploration Co., prominent conservative donor Ellen St. John Garwood and Mr. and Mrs. John Howell of Howell Instruments. All confirmed that they had made donations.

Singlaub set up the U.S. Council for World Freedom in Phoenix, Ariz., in late 1981 with a loan of about $20,000 from Taiwan, according to retired Air Force lieutenant colonel Albert Koen, who was USCWF treasurer until May 1984. Koen said conservative Colorado businessman Joseph Coors was one of the group's few early backers and remains a staunch supporter.

The USCWF board includes several prominent conservatives: Retired lieutenant general Daniel O. Graham of High Frontier, the "Star Wars" lobby, as vice chairman; Anna Chennault, president of Transportation and Communications (TAC) International; John Fisher of the American Security Council; former U.S. representative John LeBoutillier (R-N.Y.), and Sammy Y. Jung, a Korean business consultant.

Hurlbut, who sits on the advisory board of the USCWF, said he heard about Singlaub through High Frontier while helping it raise funds. Since he joined in 1982, "the general and I have been working the fund-raising side of the street," Hurlbut said. He has traveled around the world with Singlaub and said the general is "treated like royalty by resistance forces everywhere."

Hurlbut has been heading the private drive in Texas with Singlaub. He said he and Mrs. Garwood have contributed more than $100,000, but emphasized that the money is used for medicine, food and clothing for the contras, their families and refugees.

"None of the funds from this country go for hardware. We've solicited funds elsewhere for that. The entire WACL board is trying to help out with arms," Hurlbut said.

The WACL chapter in France "has been very good in helping out" and the one in Britain "has been getting more involved," he said, referring to arms purchases. Chapters in Taiwan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia are among the most active and generous, each contributing more than $100,000 a year for WACL general operating purposes and more for emergencies or special projects, Hurlbut said. His statements could not be independently confirmed.

The World Anti-Communist League was formed in Taiwan in 1967 as an outgrowth of the Asian Peoples Anti-Communist League, a regional alliance against communism launched at the behest of Chiang Kai-shek after the Korean war. WACL board member and honorary chairman Dr. Ku Cheng-kang, head of the Taiwan chapter, has been a high level member of the ruling Nationalist Party in Taiwan for almost 50 years.

Hurlbut maintained that the Taiwan and South Korea chapters are sending $50,000 per month each to the contras. But Singlaub said that was "wishful thinking" and that Hurlbut was not in a position to know the figures.

Some WACL chapters have close ties to the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The Japanese chapter of WACL was founded in the late 1960s by Ryoichi Sasakawa, a wealthy conservative businessman who now heads the Japanese Shipbuilding Industry Foundation. He was jailed as a war criminal after World War II and subsequently helped start the Unification Church in Japan.

An arm of the Unification Church called Causa has run media seminars around Latin America for several years in the "cause" of anti-communism. Its director, retired general E. David Woellner, said the group has "set up our own channels of shipment and programs" to aid refugee groups in Honduras with food, clothing, toys, blankets and canvas for tents. He said the estimated $1 million in aid the group has sent since mid-1984 included a field kitchen, and that former U.S. ambassador John Negroponte had provided "cooperation."

"This program has been coordinated by the Honduran president's wife, the ambassador's wife and my wife," Woellner said. Former U.S. ambassador to Honduras Philip Sanchez is now head of Causa's U.S. branch, and its board of directors includes Daniel Graham of High Frontier and Lloyd Bucher, commander of the USS Pueblo when it was captured by North Korea.

WACL's most visible annual activities have been its conventions and its World Freedom Day rallies. Since the early 1970s, WACL conventions in Europe, Latin America and Asia have drawn delegates from 100 member countries and international groups. Recently they have included representatives from the anti-Castro Cuban terrorist group Alpha 66 and the far right Italian political party Italian Social Movement. The Italian terrorist group Ordine Novo, Croatian terrorist organizations and the Argentine AAA death squads also were represented, according to freelance writer Henrik Kruger, author of the book "The Great Heroin Coup."

Calero mentioned that he attended the WACL convention last September in San Diego and discussed contra needs with two WACL board members: Ku and Belgian Sen. Robert Close, a retired general who heads the European branch. "They said they were going to help and my understanding is that they have come through," Calero said.

Hurlbut said some USCWF board members have helped in innovative ways. Sammy Jung, the Korean consultant to American, Korean and Taiwanese firms, has obtained a large quantity of clothing for the contras at reduced rates. Hurlbut said he is trying to get a wealthy clothing manufacturer in Taiwan to provide similarly inexpensive clothing for the rebels, and said he has approached the Mormon church about providing seed packages in large quantities.

In the past month, Singlaub has made fund-raising trips to Fort Worth and Palm Springs, Fla., where he said he obtained about $100,000 in commitments from fellow members of the Council for National Policy. The 400 or so members of this group, headed until recently by Woody Jenkins, are religious, business and political conservatives including oil magnate Nelson Bunker Hunt, Christian Broadcasting Network chief Pat Robertson, singer Pat Boone and Robert J. Perry of Perry Homes.

An aide to Hunt confirmed that he has donated funds to aid Miskito Indians; Hurlbut said Perry was a contributor to refugee aid, but Perry could not be reached.

Much of Singlaub's 35-year military career involved classified programs and covert operations, starting with the Office of Strategic Services in World War II and then as a CIA station chief in Mukden, China. He was deputy CIA station chief in South Korea during the war there, and during the Vietnam war he ran a classified covert operation from 1966 to 1968 known as the Studies and Observation Group, or SOG. Using about 10,000 men, SOG ran secret raids, sabotage and psychological operations in North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

His deputy during that program was Brig. Gen. Harry C. Aderholt, who now runs the Florida-based Air Commando Association that transports donated medical and other supplies to refugees, primarily in El Salvador.

Another transport organization, the Civilian Military Assistance Group, headed by Tom Posey and based in Alabama, claims more than 1,000 members nationwide and has sent several volunteer teams to fight with the contras. Two of its men were killed Sept. 1 when their helicopter was shot down over Nicaragua.

Last year, Singlaub headed a panel for Fred C. Ikle, the undersecretary of defense for policy, which recommended the use of more unconventional warfare tactics in Central America. Also last year, Singlaub set up a private center in Boulder, Colo., called the Institute for Regional and International Studies. He said it will "recruit people" with intelligence-gathering and psychological operations skills to train the Salvador police and perhaps the Nicaraguan rebels.

Singlaub is now planning this year's USCWF conference in Dallas this September. The final night's schedule is set: it will be a "Freedom Fighters Ball and Banquet" to support the contras.

[whatisonthemoon]

John K. Singlaub, WACL Death Squad Leader, Dies at 100

A decorated hero in WWII, John K. Singlaub ran death squad operations in North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the Cold War, and was fired by Jimmy Carter for challenging civilian authority over the military. From 1966 to 1968, John Singlaub led secret CIA kill-and-capture missions into North Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, the latter in violation of the 1962 Geneva Accords mandating Laos neutrality. Singlaub and his associates represent the very epitome of organized crime, but on an international scale. They deal wholesale in narcotic drugs, illegal weapons, and violence. They do not hesitate to murder and destroy anyone or anything that gets in their way. By any definition these merchants of heroin and terrorism are organized criminals on a scale larger than life. Following the disclosure of the Iran-Contra scandal, Singlaub acknowledged to Congressional investigators in the summer 1987 that, through his position with the World Anti-Communist League, he had worked to support anti-communist resistance fighters in five countries in addition to Nicaragua. A former president of the Anti-Communist League, Singlaub was closely allied to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon organization, the Korean CIA and elements of South Africa’s security forces, as well as with reputed Guatemalan and Salvadoran death squad leaders, including Roberto D’Aubuisson. https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/02/09/cia-bad-boy-john-k-singlaub-virtual-director-of-contra-war-dies-at-100/

[whatisonthemoon]

On Yamashita’s Gold, Singlaub, and the Events Following Marcos’ Departure

Excerpt from The Marcos Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave

From 1984 on, the search for the remainder of Yamashita's Gold was overseen by a Manila company called Nippon Star, virtually the same group of men who had run the Leber Group ten years earlier. Nippon Star was set up originally by ordinary gold seekers who failed to find anything significant. Their company was taken over by the CIA, in keeping with the Agency's practice of turning existing companies into fronts and inserting their own people.

After that, the Manila end of Nippon Star was run by Cesar Lehran of the old Leber Group, a Filipino whose allegiance was owed to Fabian Ver. The company was listed as wholly owned by Phoenix Exploration Services, Ltd., 90 Chancery Lane, London. That company, in turn, was wholly owned by Helmut Trading (apparently a play on words), registered in Liberia under a bearer stock, so its true ownership could never be traced. Associated with Nippon Star, though, was a group calling itself the Phoenix Overseas Project, understood to be one of the fronts of General Singlaub, whose American base was in Phoenix, Arizona. Whatever the case, Singlaub made use of the Nippon Star offices whenever he was in Manila. Another affiliate of Nippon Star was the Delta International Group, headed by Vernon R. Twyman of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a leader of the Praise The Lord Church and its PTL religious broadcasting network. Twyman once told Nippon Star stockholders that they had a "joint venture" arrangement with Sultan Omar DinaIan's Sod Research & Recovery of the Philippines, a friend of President Marcos and one of those involved in excavating for Yamashita's Gold since 1975 or earlier. Thus both Singlaub and Twyman were involved as private citizens with Ferdinand's gold recovery effort at least as early as 1984.

The fact that big guns of the PTL were busy in the same areas as General Singlaub and his military-intelligence associates is hardly surprising. Many American conservative activists were quite naturally also members of PTL and other fundamentalist crusades such as Moral Majority, the Reverend Moon's CAUSA, and so forth. So it is hardly surprising that activists in some of these religious groups were drawn into the search for Yamashita's Gold.

Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, and Pat Robertson were becoming well known to Filipinos, along with the Campus Crusade for Christ, the Church of the Four Square Gospel, and others that evangelized aggressively with the direct encouragement of President Marcos. These individuals turned a blind eye to the brutality of the regime. During the Reagan administration, right-wing religious leaders were sometimes approached directly by Colonel North to participate in CIA covert operations, including funding the Contras. It was perhaps fitting that conservative religious groups were involved in the great Christian crusade for Yamashita's Gold.

pp.395-397 ===== Over the years, the CIA and the National Security Agency had established in the Philippines America's largest telecommunications and technical intelligence base in the Far East, capable of monitoring radio and microwave phone transmissions all over Asia, linked to surveillance satellites that could discern something as small as the numbers on an automobile license plate. Although these were generally directed outward, to cover the Pacific and the Asian mainland, they were also capable of keeping close watch within the Philippines. They could easily monitor all of Fabian Ver's secret communications throughout the archipelago. The Pentagon and the CIA had helped Ver acquire the telecommunications net used by NISA and the Presidential Security Command. In the early 1980s, more than $10 million had been spent to upgrade Ver's telecom system with new computerized electronics from Stromberg-Carlson. Not only could the CIA and NSA monitor the entire system, but they could patch into it at will to interrupt messages, or to substitute false messages. When Ver's transmissions were scrambled, they could be instantly unscrambled.

p.410 =====

Epilogue

PARADISE LOST

THE REGIME LASTED for twenty years only because Filipinos allowed themselves to be convinced that the dictator was in firm control, that his secret police Were everywhere, that his army was overwhelmingly powerful, and that Ferdinand Marcos himself was supernaturally endowed. These things were true up to a point. Beyond that, the impression of power and omniscience was exaggerated by showmanship and grotesque extremes of cruelty. Ordinary people were psyched out. It was the logical outcome of Edward Lansdale's shallow insight into human nature, which failed in Vietnam but worked in the Philippines. Inexperienced at resistance, and unaccustomed to armed struggle, when they finally took to the streets of Manila in exasperation and the Marcoses fled without a struggle, nobody was more astounded than Filipinos themselves, who coined the term "People Power" with refreshing innocence.

After the sudden departure of Ferdinand and Imelda, many Filipinos thought everything was going to change. But in fact little changed. The country had been so thoroughly looted that it had serious problems just feeding itself. Famine continued on Negros and other islands, and in Manila the number of street beggars was up sharply. Washington was more interested in returning the Philippines to status quo than in promoting dramatic reforms. The status quo meant getting back to strongman rule as quickly as possible, while paying elaborate homage to democratic principles. The talk about encouraging a healthy opposition and about correcting the feudal serfdom of the vast majority of Filipinos, was just talk. The norm established in the islands under American suzerainty was the rule of the elite, enforced by death squads, the democracy of the Ku Klux Klan. Cory Aquino, while apparently genuinely committed to land reform and correction of other longstanding abuses, was confronted by so many entrenched enemies of reform that she was forced to defer action indefinitely in order to concentrate on mere survival. So long as there was no genuine reform, whatever money was produced in the islands would continue to flee to safer places. Beautiful as it was, the Philippines was a place to rob, not a place to live.

After a honeymoon with the people, and the ratification of a new constitution, the Aquino government was obliged to purge itself of its reformers and to permit the reintroduction of some of the worst aspects of the Marcos regime. Negotiations with the NPA were broken off and a state of civil war resumed. Vigilante gangs identical to those under Marcos were reinstated and legitimized by Aquino's military staff to fight the "Communist menace."

In March 1987, President Reagan approved a "finding" which cast a pall over all prospects for improvement, providing $10 million for two years of increased CIA involvement in the Philippine government's counterinsurgency campaign. This included technical assistance, help-ing the Philippine military with intelligence gathering, providing com-puters, computer training, and so on. It authorized the Agency to hire Filipinos to spy on each other. CIA agents in the islands would increase by 10 percent, and they would have freedom to deal directly with Filipino soldiers at all ranks, rather than only at the chief-of-staff level.

It was a decision on a par with the meddling of MacArthur, with Truman and Eisenhower giving Lansdale a license to kill Huks and to fake the election of Magsaysay, with Johnson bribing Marcos to become involved in the Vietnam War, and with Nixon and Kissinger endorsing the Marcos seizure of dictatorial power.

The proper atmosphere for this decision was created in the same manner as the Tonkin Gulf Incident, by a rash of dubious reports of secret Soviet arms shipments to the NPA, and the alleged presence of Soviet advisers in NPA training camps. Marcos had done the same thing in his long buildup toward martial law, as Enrile had faked the attack on his car.

The head of one of the largest of the new post-Marcos vigilante groups, "Rising Masses," was Jun Porras Pala, a radio announcer and public crusader in Davao City, who created a right-wing reign of terror in Mindanao. Identifying villages known to be sympathetic to the NPA, Pala issued ultimatums on his radio station telling the villagers to join his group, or they would become targets. Thousands of villagers either joined or fled. When civil officials and religious activists opposed Pala, he broadcast death threats against them. The Aquino government did not put him in jail or in a mental hospital. Instead, Pala's group was encouraged by Davao's military police commander. The new defense minister, West Point graduate Rafael Ileto, and Local Governments Secretary Jaime Ferrer (both old Lansdale men) publicly endorsed the vigilantes. General Fidel Ramos, the hero of the Marcos overthrow, praised vigilantes as "civilian organizations dedicated to the defense of their community."

The vigilante phenomenon in the countryside coincided with the rebirth of anti-Communist anxiety in the cities. Once again the middle class was being told that a Communist takeover was imminent, and once again it was easily convinced. The right wing, failing repeatedly in its efforts to topple Aquino with inept military plots, reverted to terrorist tactics. Leaders of the left and right were brutally slain, including Jaime Ferrer on the right and Leandro Alejandro on the left. Ernie Maceda dusted off the old Marcos bromide and suggested that Alejandro had been killed by his own people to cast suspicion on the right.

Christian fundamentalist sects like joy of the Lord Jesus, the Word of Life International, and Heaven's Magic preached rabid anti-Communist doctrines fomenting fear and hatred in the barrios. Most aggressive of the Christian groups was CAUSA International, the political arm of the Reverend Moon's Unification Church, which had aided U.S. efforts to support the Contras in Nicaragua. The chairman of CAUSA, Bo Hik Pak, acknowledged CIA funding. In August and October 1986, CAUSA held conferences on national security in Manila, bringing together people like General John Singlaub and Ray Cline with top Philippine strongmen such as Fidel Ramos and Juan Ponce Enrile. In March 1987, CAUSA organized a Philippine national conference of vigilante groups, with the raving right-wing terrorist from Davao, Jun Porras Pala, as the keynote speaker. At the conclusion of the conference, participants agreed to organize nine regional CAUSA chapters throughout the Philippines.

The rise of right-wing death squads and the Philippine operations of John Singlaub were not mere coincidence. Singlaub had direct ties to at least one of the Filipino vigilante groups. Alberto Maguigad, alias 'Jake Madigan," boasted that his Counter-Insurgency Command, based in Cagayan de Oro, was funded by Singlaub. Maguigad bragged that two Green Berets were training his men in counterinsurgency tactics.

A senior Philippine military officer said Singlaub was traveling the country meeting right-wing groups to create the right psychological atmosphere for a new Operation Phoenix. We might well wonder whose names would be on the list for extermination. Singlaub also was said to be bringing Special Forces veterans to the islands to train selected units of the Philippine armed forces-at least thirty-seven American mercenaries being imported by Singlaub for that purpose. Chief-of-Staff Fidel Ramos ridiculed the allegation: "I would like you to know that the new armed forces of the Philippines has nothing to do with General Singlaub, he had nothing to do with us before, he has nothing to do with us now, and he will have nothing to do with us in the future. This is a lot of baloney. We don't want him and we don't need him."

Ramos had been acquainted with Singlaub for many years, from Korea and Vietnam. In July 1986, Singlaub came to see Ramos in Manila. Four months later, in November 1986, Singlaub returned to the Philippines with Ray Cline and Major General Robert Schweitzer, recently retired from Reagan's NSC staff. Singlaub and Cline apparently were the two secret envoys Reagan sent to Manila that November to warn Defense Minister Enrile not to attempt a coup against Mrs. Aquino. But while they were there, they held a few other meetings, including one with Enrile, Fidel Ramos, and Brigadier General Felix Brawner. These meetings were so secret that some of the men who attended entered the Philippines under false names. Cory Aquino's brother, Jose Cojuangco, was present at two of the meetings, which were held at the Aquino sugar plantation in Tarlac Province, although Cojuangco later denied he was there. It was soon after this meeting that Reagan approved his "finding" to expand CIA operations in the islands.

What were Singlaub and his secret team really up to in the Philippines-and why the right-wing feeding frenzy?

Funding secret right-wing "initiatives" had not become any cheaper since the fall of Ferdinand Marcos. There was always the rest of Yamashita's Gold, another $100 billion or so-the real reason why John Singlaub was back in the Philippines.

In September 1985, five months before Marcos fell, Singlaub came to Manila personally to get permission to dig. A senior Philippine government official said that Ambassador Bosworth, acting on White House orders, accompanied Singlaub to a meeting that September with Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin. The source said that Singlaub also asked for security protection, or approval to employ private guards. One of Singlaub's high-level official contacts was retired Brigadier General Luis Villareal, who directed the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, and served as president of the Philippine Anti-Communist League.

Shortly after Singlaub's visit, Vernon Twyman's Delta International Group in Tulsa, Oklahoma, got in touch with a Georgia engineer, Al Meyers, who had developed a laser device to find buried gold. A testing laboratory had tested and accepted the device, which reacted when its beam encountered heavy metals of certain densities. The rest was high school trigonometry. Meyers had already been approached by a Houston group, Great Southern & Salvage, which specialized in offshore recovery. They all went to the Philippines to pinpoint Yamashita's Gold at several sites. After having problems with Twyman, Meyers broke off and went to work on his own at a reef in Calatagan Bay, 70 miles south-southwest of Manila. He was helped by Paul Jiga, who told Meyers he had watched a Japanese general's men bury the gold at the reef with the slave labor of Allied POWs, booby-trap it, and cork the hole with a huge slab of concrete, after which they machine-gunned the POWs and left their bodies to be devoured by sharks. Ben Balmores, who had retired more than ten years earlier, was in hiding from the treasure hunters and was reported to be in failing mental health.

Initially, Meyers dealt with Cesar Loran and Alfonso Adeva at Nippon Star, but after Ferdinand and Imelda fled, Meyers was taken to see President Aquino. Among the seven others attending the meeting were Mrs. Aquino's uncle, Congressman Francisco Sumulong, the person she designated to deal with people attempting to recover the gold. The standard arrangement offered Meyers by Sumulong was 75 percent of any treasure to the government of the Philippines, the remainder to the finder.

Meyers said he promised Aquino that his efforts would not cost her government a peso, but he needed coast guard protection in the form of an armed government launch to protect his crew from maraudersFilipinos and Americans connected to other groups that were also searching for the gold at various sites. Meyers told Aquino he expected to recover about 800 tons of gold at the one site. Mrs. Aquino was said to have exclaimed, "My God, it is the second miracle!"

Meanwhile, the PTL-affiliated Tulsans associated with General Singlaub's Phoenix Overseas Project obtained permission to work a different site with Nippon Star. Singlaub's people actually began digging at one site three months before the fall of Ferdinand Marcos, and apparently uncovered some 110-pound gold bars, which renewed their determination. They seem to have had difficulty dealing with Marcos and Ver, so by all accounts Singlaub himself was happy to see Marcos go, and was soon making fresh arrangements with the new government. Cory Aquino's speech writer, Teodoro Locsin, apparently assisted Singlaub in obtaining the necessary new permits. Cory's brother, Jose Cojuangeo, reportedly offered to support Singlaub's recovery effort financially, and to guarantee security by providing Constabulary troops at their prime site in Batangas Province, the Laurel stronghold south of Manila.

Juan Ponce Enrile also assured Singlaub of military support, if necessary with his own private army. But just to be sure, Singlaub brought in his own U.S. Special Forces. It was the arrival of these men, thirtyseven in all, which inspired the rumors that Singlaub was training the Philippine armed forces in counterinsurgency, the rumors denied by Fidel Ramos.

Actually finding the gold was another matter. Locations of some land sites were known, as the reefs were known, but the tricky problem remained to pinpoint the exact position and find the way to reach it without setting off booby traps. This was what had stymied Ferdinand until he brought in Olof Jonsson. While Meyers was working his reef site in Calatagan Bay, for example, he found it impossible to approach the treasure directly, because-aside from the explosives planted in the reef-the access tunnel had been designed to cave in on anyone excavating along the obvious approach. To reach the treasure from any other direction required knowing its exact location and the precise situation of 2,000-pound bombs. The original Japanese detail maps had gone with Robert Curtis, and Curtis had vanished.

In the autumn of 1986, according to well-informed sources in Manila, two men representing Singlaub went to work tracking Curtis down. Before the year was out, they had found him, living in a new town, with a new job and new name. They identified themselves as representatives of Nippon Star. Curtis already knew all about Nippon Star-he had kept a wary eye on developments from a distance. The two men pleaded with him to become involved once again in the search. They desperately needed his maps and his knowledge of the sites. Curtis refused.

A few days later, Curtis was contacted by someone closer to Singlaub. Someone who also had ties to Jay Agnew and his associates at the John Birch Society, who Curtis said had offered to launder up to $20 billion in gold for Ferdinand Marcos. He was extremely anxious to meet Curtis personally, to discuss the Nippon Star project. Curtis again said he did not want anything to do with those people.

The contact man admitted, reluctantly, that General Singlaub was involved, and pleaded with Curtis not to go to the press. Nippon Star had received too much publicity, so it was being shut down and everything would be handled from then on through offshore corporations set up in Panama and Nigeria. He said they needed Curtis badly. In the weeks to follow, he called Curtis again and again, and eventually came to see him.

What John Singlaub was after, he said, was to set up an endowment to fund anti-Communist activities around the world that the U.S. Congress refused to support. They would uncover the gold, give a big cut to the Philippines, and keep the rest for the endowment, which would dispense the funds as needed. They knew generally where to dig, but they needed the detail maps and engineering drawings from Curtis to do the excavating more precisely. Without the maps, it would take much longer and the gold might be missed by inches. They were trying to recruit Olof Jonsson also.

Curtis still refused to become involved.

His phone rang again. This time it was General Robert Schweitzer at the Pentagon. Although he had retired from the army and the National Security Council to work with Singlaub, Schweitzer still had the use of a Pentagon office.

General Schweitzer said he was calling about General John Singlaub's search for Yamashita's Gold. Curtis took the precaution of phoning his caller back on the main Pentagon switchboard, to make sure he was who he said he was.

Schweitzer's message was simple: Curtis must help Singlaub get Yamashita's Gold-to help in the fight against communism in Nicaragua and elsewhere.

"It is your patriotic duty," he told Curtis.

Soon afterward, Curtis was on his way to Hong Kong. He spent three days discussing the proposition with General Singlaub, General Schweitzer, and others. According to reliable sources in Hong Kong and Manila, Singlaub and his group were well prepared for the meeting. They had detailed CIA dossiers on Curtis, knew all about him and his history, and they knew how to play him.

Curtis was offered a seat on the board of Singlaub's new endowment, which would administer the recovery operation and determine the disposition of all the gold found. He would be one of a small group of its directors, among them General Singlaub and six other active or retired U.S. generals. Associated with them would be several leading Filipinos, including Cory's brother Jose Cojuangco and his uncle, Congressman Sumulong. Schweitzer was not among the directors listed, nor were two others whom Schweitzer wanted to bring in on the projectRay Cline and General John Vessey, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Singlaub reportedly was afraid that they would attract unwanted publicity. Although there had been many stories in the Filipino press, up to this point there had been only a few in America because the whole idea of Yamashita's Gold sounded so preposterous. Singlaub was worried that the involvement of Cline and particularly of Vessey would finally alert American journalists to the fact that there was more going on than just, as one foreign correspondent in Manila put it indelicately, "a harebrained treasure hunt by a bunch of wacko rightwing dildos." Billions of dollars were at stake.

No matter what anyone else thought, Singlaub and his circle of American generals were absolutely convinced of the reality of Yamashita's Gold, enough to risk becoming targets of ridicule while they searched for it. Many of them had been in the CIA hierarchy since World War II, involved in shaping the postwar governments of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. In doing so they had employed the patrons of the Yakuza, and had become friends and fellow conspirators of the Kuromaku, Sasakawa and Kodama. Nobody was in a better position than these men to know about the loot Kodama had hidden. They had access to top-secret Japanese military archives, CIA archives, Pentagon archives, all of them beyond the reach of ordinary people, and the inside track on papers Ferdinand Marcos had left behind when he fled. For twenty years, they had used CIA assets to keep close track of Ferdinand's secret gold deals. At some point in the early 1970s, the CIA had become involved in those gold deals through Paul Helliwell's black-money conduits and the branches of Nugan-Hand Bank.

If the CIA did fly tons of gold out of Clark for President Marcos, some of these men were well informed and might even have approved the flights. If Marcos bullion was slipped out through Australia with the help of wealthy tycoons there, using Nugan-Hand channels, some of these men might have been among those at the CIA who authorized its movement. If the huge Marcos gold transactions of 1983 and 1984 were real, and were concluded, some of these men were in a position to know about it, and may have been the ones holding his feet to the fire as he got ready for his first kidney transplant. Singlaub had even been in touch with Dovie Beams's old adversary, Potenciano Ilusorio, now (thanks to President Marcos) a major stockholder in Benguet Exploration, a unit of Benguet Consolidated Mines. Singlaub was said to be helping a group of American executives who wanted to acquire Benguet. In New York, business reporters speculated among themselves that the acquisition was of interest to Allen & Company, who had a history of involvement with Benguet.

If none of these reports was true, why were a platoon of America's top generals back in the Philippines digging for Yamashita's Gold?

Curtis decided to throw his lot in with them-but his decision was short-lived. In the Philippines, newspapers soon were full of stories about Singlaub's searches. His men were excavating ten sites simultaneously, with extremely tight security provided by the Philippine military and the U.S. Special Forces. With the assistance of Curtis in pinpointing exact locations, they expected to hit the first major deposit of treasure "at any time." Many of the remaining sites were in areas controlled by the NPA, and contingency plans were in place, in case of a military confrontation. Nobody wanted the gold to fall into the wrong hands.

Despite all their preoccupation with tight security, Curtis became alarmed at the way General Singlaub himself attracted attention, alarmed at the very high profile of what was supposed to be an extremely secret operation. He was also a bit disturbed by some of the disclosures of the Iran-Contra hearings, which revealed a high incidence of bungling, dishonesty, and venality. In addition, he had discovered that his old enemies in the John Birch Society were sitting on the sidelines, waiting to turn Kodama's blood-soaked booty into a new holy war. Alarmed and disgusted, Curtis took his priceless maps and threatened to vanish once again, unless Singlaub and the other brass hats withdrew and left the excavation to the specialists.

Ferdinand Marcos also had not forgotten Yamashita's Gold. Far away in Honolulu, where he continued to plot his eventual return to power, he held long telephone conversations with men in the Virginia suburbs of Washington who claimed to be arms dealers. They taped the conversations and turned them over to Congress and the press. During the phone calls, Ferdinand said he would pay for the tanks and rockets he needed with thousands of tons of gold still hidden in the Philippines. How many tons, asked the phony arms dealer. Ferdinand whispered hoarsely, "Thousands." Why, in one place alone, he added, he had 4,000 tons of bullion stashed, worth over $40 billion.

Nobody knew where his bullion had gone. Before fleeing from Malacanang, Ferdinand had taken the trouble to have a barge haul away the gold he had stashed in the palace, and trucks haul away the bullion in the vaults beneath the warehouse and the bank. Nobody knew where the presidential yacht had taken its cargo-to Hong Kong, or to some intermediate point like Lubang or Fuga. As to the bullion hidden beneath the Bataan beach palace, some people suspected that it had been taken hurriedly across to Corregidor and hidden among the maze of tunnels on the island. just as a precaution, permission was obtained from the government of Cory Aquino to "renovate" the war memorial at Corregidor.

Although Marcos was obliged to live quietly under public scrutiny in Honolulu, there were other brief glimpses of hidden treasure; in mid-1988, frustrated by his exile, he was reported to have offered President Aquino $5 billion in cash to let him come home. As an opening ante it showed promise, but it fell far short of a serious bid.

Curtis got his wish. Singlaub and the other celebrity generals withdrew to let him dig away in secret beneath Fort Santiago. Hiding his real identity as much as possible, keeping to himself and shunning publicity, and working with a team of diggers provided by Cory Aquino, Curtis made gradual progress toward what he thought would be one of the big deposits of bullion hidden under the fort by Admirals Kodama and Iwabuchi. In March 1988, nearing their objective, the diggers hit a Japanese sand trap. Two workmen died. Curtis said the trap was one of those put in place to discourage recovery. The deaths brought the flare-up of publicity that Curtis had been trying to avoid, but after a few days it subsided as most people contented themselves with a snigger.

As Curtis and his excavators returned to work, they were joined by Olof Jonsson, back in the Philippines for the first time since 1975 to help Curtis pinpoint the trove.

In the national assembly, old supporters of Ferdinand Marcos threatened a complete investigation, and grumbled that Curtis was "destroying a national monument" to what, they did not say.

Imelda and Ferdinand were gone, but in paradise lost, you could still hear the serpent slither.

[whatisonthemoon]

Time Magazine on John Siglaub's WACL Fundraising

Time Magazine: Who Is Helping The Contras? (1985):

The scene was a dinner party in Fort Worth, attended by two dozen well-off conservatives. John Singlaub, a retired U.S. Army major general, had just ended a brief speech pleading for support for the Nicaraguan contras, specifically money for combat boots. One of the guests, a local businessman, stepped forward and wrote a check for $25,000; a few days later the same donor agreed to provide a loan for $50,000 more. The contribution paid for the , purchase of hundreds of pairs of boots -- and Singlaub was elated. Said he: "That's a real patriot."

Ever since Congress cut off contra funding in May 1984, conservative groups in the U.S. have been soliciting money and supplies for the rebels' fight against the Sandinista regime. The main figure in that effort is Singlaub, 63, who was dismissed as Chief of Staff of U.S. forces in South Korea in 1977 after a dispute with President Carter. Adolfo Calero, commander of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (F.D.N.), the largest contra group, claims that Singlaub's network of U.S. and foreign supporters has raised the lion's share of cash and supplies valued at "close to $10 million." Substantial assistance, says Calero, is coming from "at least a dozen or more foreign countries."

From his mountaintop home in Tabernash, Colo., Singlaub directs the World Anti-Communist League. Founded in 1966, WACL has been tainted by ties to ultrarightists, neo-Nazis and Latin American death squads, though Singlaub claims that objectionable members have been purged. Last September President Reagan sent a greeting to WACL's annual convention in San Diego.

Since the U.S. forbids the solicitation within its borders of money for arms to be sent overseas, fund raising by Singlaub and others in the U.S. focuses on nonlethal aid, essentially boots, uniforms, food and medical supplies. Contributions in cash and kind range up to $500,000 a month, according to Singlaub. If a donor insists on giving money for weapons purchases, Singlaub tells them to send the funds to a certain overseas bank account, believed to be in Panama. Letters of credit are then issued against it, enabling recipients to buy arms abroad.

Singlaub also draws on WACL affiliates in 36 countries, particularly those in Taiwan and South Korea. The Taiwan chapter, which is close to the ruling Kuomintang, has raised at least $100,000 so far, mostly from private sources. This is a delicate effort, since Nicaragua is one of the few countries in the world that retains diplomatic relations with Taipei. Contributions also come from Central American nations, Paraguay and Saudi Arabia.

Singlaub stays in touch with other U.S. groups involved in aiding those opposing and fleeing from the Sandinistas. They include the Christian Broadcasting Network, which provides humanitarian aid to Nicaraguan refugees in Honduras. Singlaub also gave advice and assistance to the fund-raising campaign launched by the Washington Times, which is owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. That effort is headed by William Simon, Secretary of the Treasury in the Ford Administration.

Robert K. Brown, publisher of Soldier of Fortune, a magazine about weapons and mercenaries, says organizations associated with the publication are collecting medical supplies, uniforms and the like but insists they do not deal in arms. The magazine has, however, recruited specialists to teach the contras about weaponry and maintenance. One of its teams has been advising the rebels on how to counter Soviet-built Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships that the Sandinistas are expected to deploy soon.

The U.S. group most visibly involved in combat training is the Alabama-based Civilian Military Assistance, headed by Tom Posey, an ex-Marine, who claims to get his funds from private citizens. F.D.N. officers say that Posey's men are instructing contra units in the use of recently acquired surface-to-air missiles. Posey denies it. Says he: "Where did they dream that one up?"

Singlaub, for his part, insists that he is not working for the CIA. But Reagan Administration officials know about and tacitly approve of the former general's activities. As Singlaub told TIME Correspondent Ross H. Munro: "I try to communicate, sometimes by telephone: 'This is what I am about to do. If you object to it, send me a signal.' " So far, he says, none has come.