Final Preparation

Posted by dt on Friday, 5 September 1997, at 4:52 p.m.

Readers:

{an LBS correction- AID is, I think, Agency for International Development?}

My mentor said his see-ya-later to Pepe. Pepe give him his "mi casa es su
casa" farewell. It was not important what was said; it was how they shook
hands that reflected how they felt about each other...that is, the pressure
of the squeeze as they shook hands while grabbing each others elbow at the
same time with the other hand.

It was a short trip by C-130 to Peru. Upon arriving at the CIA's Miniture
Fort Bragg encampment, mentor was greeted by his team members and a Green
Beret Capt. Enrico Villapudua. The captain was to lead his "A" team as
backup to mentor's team. He was not completely briefed on the specifics of
the mission and at the same time he didn't know if mentor knew of the
extreme nature of his orders; mentor did.
(Alleycat you were right. The site was to be nuked. This was not extreme
considering the times....you know communist everywhere, EBE's ready to blow
up earth, domestic protests and, now, possible panic, the Vietnam war, etc.,
etc.)

The Green Berets were from the Third Battalion of the Seventh Special Forces
out of Fort Gulick in the Canal Zone. They were under complete CIA command
while at this paramilitary base and were trained in special explosives and
heavy weapons at the CIA's training facility in North Carolina. The captain
said you guys must be important because my orders are signed by the Director
himself. Translated, you guys really are expendable.

He was referring, of course, to the Director of the Central Intelligence
Agency.....Richard Helms. When the ufo working group
brought in John McCone (from UC Berkeley and former head of the AEC)
as director of CIA in 1961, McCone immediately appointed Richard Helms
as Chief of the Clandestine Services as it was called then. President
Kennedy approved. All three knew about Roswell.

After all the introductions which were understandably kept very short,
Jacobo observed something very strange about the special forces team.
They were all predominantly "brown skins." The old light bulb clicked on for
the Pentagon in that the revolutionary messages in domestic American didn't
go completely unheeded. The military/CIA counter-insurgency
(counter-revolutionary gave the wrong implication)
program was very successful in Peru. One of the reasons was that the green
beret teams were made up of mostly members of Mexican and Puerto Rican
descent. Washington DC thought this made their presence less
conspicuous....maybe we're too hard on our leaders?.

Jacobo knew Rigoberta was unique. She was in actuality. She was a CT (CIA
term for the two year probationary "career trainee"). She was recruited out
of Berkeley where she majored in international studies.
She was fluent in several languages.

The CT spend the first year in formal training programs, such as security,
organization of the agency, intro to the rest of the intell community, and
....the nature of international communism (no ET stuff but some day that may
change). Most of these courses are given at the CIA facility called the
Broyhill Building in Arlington, Virginia. The second year is OJT or
on-the-job training/instruction. Afterwards, the CT goes to "The Farm"
located near Williamsburg, Virginia. This is a 480 acres fun place for the
CT - where they receive self-defense, light-weapons instruction, explosive,
demolition, parachute training, even air and sea operations and light
artillery training.....but PT is always first. It is here that the CT may
run into "contract soldiers"; they do not like to be called mercenaries.

What was unique about Rigoberta was that she was recruited in the first
place. The CIA had its roots in the OSS and like the original ufo working
group (take a look at their pictures some day) was made up of mostly
"eastern establishment, ivy-leaguers" to use the parlance of the 1960's. In
1964, the Agency's Inspector General found out that it was not an equal
opportunity employer, that is, the Inspector found no black Jewish, or women
professionals and only a few Catholics. In fact the predominant requirement
to join the CIA appeared to be that one had to be white, Anglo-Saxon
<---(gecco what are these anyway?), Protestant, and a graduate of the
"right" eastern school.

Rigoberta (and myself) were products of governmental racial transformations
of the early 1960's. Rigoberta was a women, Catholic, graduated from the
"wrong" western school (but, what the hey, so did I). One last word about
her, she was by all accounts very beautiful (I think both mentor and Jacobo
fell for her) and she had one very good skill---she was one hell of a knife
thrower. She always had a knife on her at all times.

Mentor asked the captain to report for a briefing meeting, where information
was to be traded between the two. About all they acknowledged however was
their departure the next morning. The special forces team was going to
approach Carauari from the north between Iquitos and Pebas, and mentor and
his group from the west from Moyobamba.

Mentor made sure that the captain was not to use any radio communication at
the time of the meeting and that they were to follower their orders if given
the signal - a simple flare.

Mentor next got his team together with Rigoberta and Jacobo. Jacobo as well
as the special forces captain noted that mentor's team was not the
stereotypic combative unit. They were specialists. Actually, mentor would
not be doing all the talking as John Feldmen was his diplomatic specialist.
He was poly sci major and transferred from the US State Department; he was
stationed in Panama. The weird thing about them is that they all worn black
fatigues without face paint?

Rigoberta and Jacobo listened intently. Then, Jacobo asked who in the hell
are we going up against? John smiled and looking at mentor said why EBE's.
"Que dice EBE's?" John said "extra biological entities."
Jacobo said, "animals?" John said, "kinda of, yes." Rigoberta said, "outer
space aliens, you know, flying saucers." Jacobo started to laugh, but no one
joined him. "You're not shittin me.....mother of god!" Mentor said that
Jacobo's brown skin turned whiter than his. Now, everybody but Jacobo
laughed.

-dt