The Director of the CIA lay dying in a Washington, D.C., hospital. The Iran Contra Scandal had become white hot and the Agency was under intense pressure to release documents related to the affair. Internally, Agency lawyers were scrambling to produce information demanded by Congress regarding the alleged “Arms for Hostages” deal.
Rumors were circulating that William Casey’s illness was simply a ruse to protect him from accountability for the scandal. Calls for his testimony in front of the House of Representatives and the Senate were growing. There was a firestorm of media demands for interviews with Casey and for information related to the scandal. The President of the United States was being asked for an explanation. The Agency was in trouble.
I was assigned to CIA Director William Casey’s staff as a Protective Agent. During these events, all of us were working long hours, seven days a week, to provide for his continued protection and to look after his wife, Sophia and daughter, Bernadette. Their world had been turned upside down. Sophia Casey was a woman of true grace and elegance. She was handling these traumatic events with poise and patience. All of the agents on the detail had grown to deeply respect her. We observed her quietly sitting in her sun room praying. It was clear her personal faith kept her going.
A month after surgery for a large tumor in his brain William Casey took a remarkable turn for the better, and his health seemed to be returning rapidly. He regained his weight and mental acuity. Late one sunny afternoon, as I occupied the “hot seat” outside his hospital room, Casey asked me to come in to his room to talk. It was a moving moment (discussed in more detail in Chapter 6).
Bill Casey went through a dramatic and inspiring change at the end of his life. Sadly, a few months later, the cancerous tumor reared its ugly head again and his health began to decline at an alarming rate. He entered into a semi-conscious state, unable to talk or move on his own. The cancer eventually took his life.
Part of the momentum behind the Iran Contra Scandal was Casey’s intense friendship with Lebanon Station Chief William Buckley and their loyalty to each other. Buckley had been kidnapped by Iranian terrorists and was being tortured - daily. The amount of CIA information being extracted from Buckley as he was tortured to death by Hezbollah was of grave concern to the CIA. Casey felt personally responsible for Buckley’s plight. Motivated by his own long-held loyalty to his country and his independent, maverick-like personality, Casey sought the most rapid means possible to ensure Buckley and the other hostages were rescued. It backfired. It was the first lesson in a long line of failures, demonstrating you cannot negotiate with terrorists. Radical religious fundamentalism has no heart and no soul. It has only one goal; a global theocracy established through “Jihad” (Arabic word meaning struggle). I discuss this dark, menacing threat in chapters sixteen through twenty-two.
There was a part of William Casey’s past known by only a few people. I learned about it after his death, during the wake in his Roslyn Harbor, New York home. One of his former Office of Strategic Services (OSS) associates shared with me a book, now out of print, called Piercing the Reich. The book describes William Casey and other OSS members’ roles in penetrating the Third Reich during a courageous and bold attempt to gain intelligence. It was truly heroic.
Although he was gruff, somewhat of a mumbler, and had a strong dislike for most members of the news media, Casey was one of the last real dedicated servants of democracy, who continued to take personal risks rare among officials at his level. It is my opinion he knew his health was deteriorating and his time was limited. He had been battling prostate cancer, which apparently had spread to other parts of his body. I watched as he began to stumble and, bit by bit, lose slight amounts of his motor skills.
As Casey lay dying in the hospital, death threats from radicals and bizarre individuals, convinced he was controlling the globe, continued to come into the CIA. As agents assigned to assess the threat against the Director, we continually received, analyzed, and if warranted, followed up on these threats. During his tenure as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), his time terminally ill in the hospital, and even after his death these death threats continued to arrive by mail and via the telephone (to Agency operators). Several letters claimed Casey should die for his involvement in the Iran Contra scandal, and others came from unstable or mentally ill people who thought either they were super-intelligent and ruled the universe, or the CIA was controlling their brain. Most disturbing was the fact that Ayatollah Khomeini had placed a significant price on Casey’s head.
Following Casey’s death, a pall hung over the Agency. The organization had suffered the loss of one of the last staunch, historical defenders of democracy. The CIA was under intense investigation and its future was uncertain. There was a tempest brewing inside and outside the organization.
Shortly after he passed away, the event Bill Casey dreamed of occurred. The Berlin wall was destroyed - by the people, and East Germany and West Germany were united. The Soviet Union, the Great Bear, had fallen. This was one of the most remarkable miracles of the Twentieth Century. Although many believed it was the CIA that was at the heart of the fall of Soviet Communism, this could not have been further from the truth. As a senior lecturer to employees and liaison officials entering the Agency, I did a lot of study on the events surrounding this period. What I found was remarkable. Communism in the East did not fall because of the power and intelligence of the CIA. All we did was hold it back for years. In reality, the fall of Communism was the result of a huge undercurrent; a longing for civil and religious freedom among the people which could no longer be restrained.
One of the catalysts of what became a revival of religious and political freedom in Russia was the 1984 and 1988 crusades held by Billy Graham; for the first time in Moscow. Soviet officials tolerated the event, thinking it would be insignificant, give the appearance of tolerance, and fade away. Instead, it created an explosive undercurrent throughout the Soviet Union and the East. This undercurrent grew at a remarkable pace, involving huge numbers of people tired of religious oppression and the robbery of individual freedom. In the Soviet Union, the movement spread like wildfire. People rebelled against their oppressive governments, tore down the statue of Vladimir Lenin and poured out into the streets. I observed these events from inside the CIA, witnessing the remarkable events that unfolded. When Communism fell in the East, the people did not pour into the streets waving American flags, or praising the CIA for its power and prowess. They broke out into the streets in droves and celebrated communion. Churches barely tolerated during the Cold War which had not been closed down by the government were swamped. The Soviet Duma began having daily Bible studies during its sessions. The sad part was, while the former Soviet Union was introducing the Bible in its government sessions and placing it as a part of student curricula in its schools, America had kicked the Bible out of education and almost every part of open public life. I watched the beginning of one inspiring revival of religious freedom in the East, and the slow elimination of another in America, occurring despite the warnings of the framers of the Constitution. It was as if we had become so fat and happy we had forgotten the fundamental truths which gave us our freedom and liberty.
As the Berlin Wall crumbled, high value intelligence files were eagerly collected by Western intelligence as they were cast out onto the street during the ransacking of intelligence offices. East German intelligence and even the KGB opened their secret files for review by US intelligence officers. The Soviets revealed they had frozen the brains of great former Soviet leaders and were studying them to learn what made them stand out from other people. They gave members of the US media tours of their secret gulags where thousands of political prisoners had been held. Former arch-enemies were now strong political allies. It was truly amazing.
After the fall of communism, I spent a period of time with a former Communist intelligence officer. I cannot reveal his name or his country, but I will never forget our time together. When we first met, we glared at each other across a large walnut conference room table with a sense of distrust; former opponents - now allies. It was a curious and awkward feeling. Neither of us believed the other’s intentions were honorable. He was the typical blond, now graying, blue-eyed East block intelligence agent, and I was his counterpart in the free world. He and I spent weeks working together and, over time, became good friends. Unfortunately, when you are an Agency officer, you have to leave your foreign friends behind when you depart.
One bright and beautiful afternoon, my friend took me on a walking tour of a small town in his country. We talked about the remarkable fall of communism in his country and the people’s new found freedom. As we walked, he turned to me and made a startling statement, a statement once common in America.
“You know, Kevin, our country has left communism and is now a democracy.”
“Yes, I know, that is wonderful.”
“But, there is one thing we have learned.”
“What is that?”
“We have learned a free society cannot function without a belief in the Bible.”
Amazed, I responded, “You know, you are right!”
I will never forget that moment and how ironic it was the opposite seemed to be happening in America—the country which had communicated this truth to the world for so many decades. Communism had fallen because of human being’s innate thirst for true religion, freedom and meaning in life. It also fell because people never forget the imprisoning, persecution and execution of their friends and family.
The CIA in Decline
After Casey’s death, following the tenure of DCI William Webster, Robert Gates was nominated to become the new Director of the CIA. I served as an agent on Gates’ protective detail when he was Deputy Director and while he was Acting Director after Bill Casey’s death. After shocking resistance from Agency officers, who protested at his confirmation hearings, he was sworn in as DCI. Robert Gates was a man of tremendous integrity, discipline and devotion to his country. He also had a tremendous sense of humor. His intellect and professional humility were remarkable. Indeed, Robert Gates ran the CIA following Casey’s death and largely during the tenure of William Webster.
I found Gate’s 2007 appointment as Secretary of Defense to be an excellent choice for a position demanding his basic trait of objectivity. It was a remarkable irony to watch the meeting in Russia between Gates, former Director of the CIA and now Secretary of Defense, and Vladimir Putin, former officer in the aggressive Foreign Intelligence, First Chief Directorate and Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB, now President of Russia. Two former gut-level enemies were now meeting together as (shaky) allies in non-intelligence positions. I can imagine what they both must have been thinking.
Unfortunately, following the election of President Bill Clinton, and Gates’ pre-briefing to him, Gates summarily resigned—I believe seeing what was coming on the horizon for US Intelligence. During Robert Gates’ going-away ceremony at CIA headquarters, I met Sophia Casey again with her daughter, Bernadette. We gave each other a warm hug. We had spent a substantial amount of time together and I had watched her endure painful, personal agony.
The Author in front of armored limousines at DCI Casey’s residence. (Photo courtesy of the Author)
“Kevin, what the heck is going on around here?” Mrs. Casey asked, referring to the rapid decline of the Agency and Gates’ resignation after the election.
“Ma’am, I don’t know, but I think it is bad.”
She looked at me seriously and said, “Well, why don’t you do something about it?”
“Ma’am, maybe I will,” I replied politely.
Although I am by no means a hero or a crusader, I had no idea of the level of internal corruption I was to face later as the Agency imploded.
My last assignment as a CIA DCI Protection Agent was to participate in the turnover of the position of DCI to John Deutch, the appointment of the new DDCI, George Tenet, and the assignment of their first Executive Officer, Nora Slatkin. This was the new CIA Executive Management team.
Although we had lived through the death of the DCI we had served and respected for so long and witnessed the resignation of the new DCI (Robert Gates), whom we all admired, we still remained hopeful a new day for the CIA had begun. We were sorely disappointed.
The Author on assignment overseas as a DCI protective agent.
(Photo courtesy of the Author)
Tenet eventually made it to the position of DCI. He worked hard and was able to raise the extremely low morale existing in the Agency for a time. Unfortunately, he became the first DCI to repeatedly use the “States Secrets Privilege” to shut down suits against the Agency by employees and their families, denying them their basic Constitutional rights. Under his tenure, as intelligence became more arrogant, it also became more inaccurate. Never was this more evident than in the invasion of Iraq.
Following Gates’ resignation, the new DCI, John Deutch, came to visit the CIA Counterintelligence Center (CIC) to congratulate us on our work on internal espionage investigations. He spoke in such a low voice we could barely hear what he was saying. He was usually somewhat disheveled in appearance. Deutch’s Executive Officer Nora Slatkin became known among the Agency population as the “Dragon Lady.” She built a reputation for displaying angry outbursts in public against Agency officers, which bore no reasonable explanation.
The Author with then DDCI Robert Gates during an appreciation ceremony for DCI protective agents.
(Photo courtesy of the Author)
As I reported for duty one day, CIA headquarters was abuzz with reports a CIA Security Protective Officer, or SPO, had stopped Slatkin (not knowing who she was) for not wearing a CIA badge. As the SPO remained calm and asserted the CIA’s policy for displaying a badge while inside CIA headquarters, Slatkin publicly berated the officer. This was part of a long litany of Slatkin’s outbursts directed towards junior and senior CIA officers alike.
In December 1996, Deutch was confronted with allegations he removed his CIA laptop, which contained Top Secret information, from his CIA office, taken it to his home and used it to connect to unsecured sites on the internet. Investigation revealed the allegations were true. On April 14, 1999, following an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) confirming the allegations, Attorney General Janet Reno sent a letter to DCI Tenet declining to prosecute Duetch for compromising national security information. This was just another example of the CIA, and sometimes the DOJ, severely punishing lower level CIA employees who made mistakes, while looking the other way when senior officers did the same; a fact well known among the agency populace. In many cases, senior officers were actually promoted after this kind of blunder.
Sarajevo Tragedy
Later in my career I was assigned as an officer to the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, the CTC. Slobodan Milosevic and the Serbian army had just unloaded their fury on the city of Sarajevo, Bosnia. I led the first team of our division into the ????. Sarajevo had become a model of the world’s different religious and ethnic groups living together and actually getting along. Muslims, Christians, Jews and Secularists were living along side each other in apparent harmony. This was Sarajevo’s exciting message to the world.
One day, the music stopped. Milosevic and the Serbian forces decided they had enough of Bosnia’s freedom and ethnic underpinnings. Slowly and methodically the Serbian military surrounded the city. Centuries of hatred were unleashed on the people in shocking, murderous fury.
The residents of Sarajevo, especially the young educated population, simply could not believe the Serbs did not understand the message of acceptance they held. Led by a young Bosnian student, a crowd marched down the streets of Sarajevo and out into the open, in an attempt to convey to the Serbian Army they were not a threat and wanted peace. Upon orders, a Serbian sniper’s shot rang out, and the young visionary fell to the ground, her life snuffed out - and the hopes of Sarajevo gone. In two horrifying hours, the Serbian army shelled several tons of artillery onto the unsuspecting population, killing scores of innocent men, women and children. Serbian forces moved into the city, going door to door and summarily executing families using AK 47s, as they pled for mercy. To finish the job, the Serbs mined the neighborhoods as they moved on to the next human targets, who were unaware of the impending danger as they slept. Houses and apartment complexes were so riddled with bullets and artillery fragments the holes touched each other. ????????????????????? had several AK 47 bullet holes in the curtains. ????????????????????? . The Serbs dumped the bodies of the murdered Bosnians into huge mass graves. This was ethnic cleansing.
Slobodan Milosevic was the closest thing to a modern-day Hitler. We all thought the world was too “evolved” for a holocaust style mass murder to ever occur again; but it did. Driven by ego and political ambition, Milosevic decided to personally purge Bosnia from the Muslim population whose ancestors had done damage to the Serbs in years past. Milosevic had no conscience. He had no soul. We must be reminded that even in our “modern world” this can happen again. If we ignore that possibility, it will. One of the most fulfilling assignments in my Agency career was having a part in his eventual downfall and arrest.
A disheartening fact for many CIA officers, who personally witnessed the carnage wrought by Milosevic, was the time it took for the CIA to realize what was going on. As early as 1995 the world press was reporting mass killings by the Serbs. US reconnaissance satellites were sending back pictures of large groups of prisoners guarded by armed Serbian troops. The CIA overlooked the aerial photographs and the press reports for three deadly weeks. ??????????????. The Agency simply did not have the resources. ???????????????????????.
This would be one of the largest mass killings of men, women and children since the death camps of Adolf Hitler. No one thought it could happen again. It was a gross underestimation.
Photograph showing the devastation and carnage of a modern Bosnian apartment complex. Following the massacre of men, women and children during the night, the Serbs mined the area as they moved to the next site of “ethnic cleansing.”
(Photo courtesy of the Author)
Tunnel used to smuggle members of the Bosnian government in and out of the city during the Serbian attack. The Author was led through a mine field to the site.
(Rare photo courtesy of the Author)
While I was in Bosnia, I became friends with some of the Bosnian Muslim ????????????. They were not the Muslims we typically think of in the West. There were pockets of radical Muslims there, but these people were largely progressive, modern folks who dressed like many other Europeans. Their form of Islam was peaceful.
I listened to one heart breaking story after another as they told how their children, mothers and fathers were killed by the Serbian onslaught. I became able to recognize those who had experienced this agony by looking in their eyes. There was a kind of sad, hopeless emptiness in their gaze.
One afternoon, leading me through a field of land mines, telling me to step exactly where they stepped, my friends showed me the tunnel the Bosnians had created when they were under siege. This tunnel was dug by the Bosnian people and used to smuggle food, supplies and ammunition into the city. It was also used to move members of the Bosnian government in and out of the city. It was an astonishing act of survival.
My Bosnian friend, a former police officer (most of the Bosnian resistance was made up of police officers) related to me that the worst part of the war for him was to be up in the hills fighting, while his wife and children were hiding in their house, being shelled by the Serbian Army. They suffered in terror as tons of artillery was unleashed in a matter of just a few hours. I had dinner one evening with my friend and his wife, who was a beautiful and gracious woman. She had that look in her eyes. I learned to recognize it in the Bosnian people I met. It was a look of sadness, with a kind of “please help us” despair. Years later, I recognized this look in a pizza delivery man’s eyes in Des Moines, Iowa, while I was on a protective detail there, and another time in a young man’s eyes and facial expression at a shopping mall in Herndon, Virginia.
“You are Bosnian, aren’t you?” I asked the young man in Herndon.
Surprised, he replied, “Yes, I am.”
He had been there during the war. I welcomed him to America and bought him lunch. This happened again and again after my return to the States. I will never forget the pain and sadness I saw in their eyes.
During my tour in the Counterterrorism Center, I was assigned as a Counterterrorism Tactics, Protective Operations and Advanced Firearms Instructor. I traveled around the world training the protective details of foreign presidents and prime ministers. I was gone from home for the better part of two years. I met many fine protective agents in multiple countries and it was the most fulfilling assignment of my career. But, it took a toll on my marriage and family.
On one such protective operations training assignment, I led a team into Bosnia. During the training, a moving and memorable event occurred. Because of a shortage of translators, the host of the training assigned a young Bosnian police woman to translate for my team and me during the training. “Aida” had become a police woman to provide for her brothers and sisters because her mother and father had been gunned down by the Serbs.
During the protective operations course, the young woman accompanied me and the other instructors through each part of the training. Every now and then, I asked Aida if she would like to take part, act as a role player and try her hand at firearms. She excitedly joined in the training. I noticed she not only had an outstanding attitude, but a talent for this sort of work.
Several weeks went by, and we were informed the government had finally located a translator. They ordered Aida back to work on the street. Because of her attitude and talent, I asked the Bosnian government to let her stay on and continue as a student for the rest of the course. They agreed to do so. Aida was thrilled. Over the next several weeks of the course, she shined in each part of the training; eager to learn everything she was being taught.
When course graduation day came, Aida graduated at the top of the class. I wrote a recommendation for her to the Bosnian government. After graduation, I was invited to a final celebration dinner with local authorities. Aida and the other students, many of whom were also outstanding, were whisked away for their own student graduation ceremony.
As I was leaving the official dinner, one of the lead students ran up to me and jubilantly relayed that Aida had just been told she was awarded an assignment on the Prime Minister’s protective detail. As she left the ceremony, she was in tears of joy; her life had changed; now there was a new hope. Aida had earned it.
I never got to see Aida again. But, I will always remember her story, her tenacity for learning, and the good ending to the tragedy she had been through.
A New World War
During my tours as a CIA officer, I traveled around the world, working with people from several different countries, including those in the Middle East. I learned most people, regardless of nationality, are all the same at heart. They respond to love and respect. Regrettably, there was an exception to the peaceful kind of Islam I saw in ??????? ; the emerging form of radical Islam. Some of these people I came in contact with were, essentially, sociopaths—taught from birth to hate the West and live for Jihad; through murder.
In 1998, after the US embassy bombings in Africa, and upon seeing the intelligence coming in, I reached the conclusion we were entering into a new world war. This war is not like the one we predicted could eventually happen. It is a total global conflict, including within our own country. The extent of radical Islam’s goal of establishing a global caliphate (Islamic government) through death and destruction is chilling. It is the same evil force which drove Milosevic to commit mass murder—just a different form.
As a ??????? xxx…????????? Assistant Team Leader and Protective Operations Training Team leader, several of the missions I was sent on by the CIA were potentially one-way assignments. There was a real chance we could be killed in a fire-fight or, even worse if we were caught, be tortured to death and not return. Some officers, not willing to make the sacrifice, dropped out. The qualification process and psychological testing were tough. After completing one of these assignments our team received a Meritorious Unit Citation. We had stopped the terrorists from their murderous goal.
During long missions, I could not tell my wife where I was and could not provide her contact information. I was able only to contact her from discreet locations occasionally. This put a great deal of strain on my marriage, and at one point almost ended it. The life of the spouse of a CIA officer can be very difficult, and these wives receive very little or no recognition for their sacrifice. The divorce rate in the CIA is high. Officers are aware the mission must come first, above everything. Some eventually learn, when you leave the CIA, you simply become a file locked in a secure vault, with people lining up to take your place. Many of your awards for classified assignments are locked in a safe, where they remain permanently hidden. Your wife and children are all you really have left in the long run. You eventually realize this, or lose them and join the ranks of many CIA officers, who, after retirement, return to the CIA, divorced and with no life other than the organization. It is a sad existence.
Just prior to deployment on one of these missions, after qualifying on multiple advanced weapons systems, I went through the final battery of medical and psychological testing, all of which I passed. After the final psychological test, I was called into the CIA’s Office of Medical Services, the OMS, for some kind of “interview.” I could not deploy until I met with the OMS psychiatrist. Let me say here I met many fine CIA “shrinks” while I was there; I think this fellow was, perhaps, an anomaly.
I sat in the OMS interview room and the CIA psychiatrist entered with my file in his hand. He sat down, and informed me,
“Mr. Shipp, we have a problem with your psychological test.”
“And where would that problem be?” I replied, somewhat miffed.
He opened my file, and I could see the test had been torn apart, re-taped and added to the file.
“We have a problem with your answer to question number (X),” he said.
“The question is: ‘Sometimes, I tell a lie.’ You answered no to the question.” Respectfully, I responded that, although I do not expect others to adhere to my moral beliefs, and I am by no means perfect, I try my best not to lie. He, in a poor attempt to use body language and behavioral interview techniques, feigned an incredulous look and described a scenario of a retarded man asking me if I liked his ugly tie. He asked if I would tell him the truth, the tie was ugly, and hurt his feelings. I responded I would simply say, “Wow that is really something.” He got even more frustrated.
Finally, I said, “Listen, I am under cover. My job title and organization are simply not true. However, my cover on these assignments is used to protect the lives of my team and people connected to our mission. That title, of course, is not my real job, but it is official, legal and not from some dark motive of my own. It is in the service of my country. I have no problem with that.”
He seemed pleased with my answer, but said, “If you do not answer yes to this question, you will not go on the assignment.”
He ended the interview.
I took the test again, reached the question and after several minutes of agonizing over it, answered “yes,” the mission was too important. I passed the test, but I felt I had compromised my own personal ethics. I just put the incident behind me.
When I joined the CIA, the first thing which impressed me was the inscription engraved in the marble wall in the lobby of CIA headquarters: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32, the Bible. The verse was chosen and placed there by Allen Dulles, the son of a Presbyterian minister, as a noble and patriotic reminder of the mission of US intelligence. Over the years, I began to realize, this foundational belief had changed. The noble mission the CIA once had was perverted. Deception and lying had become a way of life, not just a part of tradecraft, even against some of our other government agencies and Congress itself. This was happening both in classified and unclassified venues at the Agency. Frankly, lying had become a badge of honor. The verse, as powerful as it is, was now being subverted as a normal way of doing business; many times not to protect national security, but to protect the Agency’s wrongdoing, civil and constitutional violations. Essentially, the verse on the wall had been reinterpreted to convey “the ends justify the means.”