BIG BROTHA-BUSH APPOINTS IRAN-CONTRA CONSPIRATOR

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No more Mr. Scrupulous Guy

How one of the two brains behind the Iran-Contra scandal this week became one

of America's most powerful men

Sutherland

Monday February 18, 2002 | The Guardian

Last Wednesday something strange happened. The American population was

instructed to panic. Place themselves, that is, on a state of highest

vigilance. Some cataclysmic act of terrorism would happen - within hours. But

nothing terrible happened. Something creepy did. On Thursday there was an

inconspicuous news item. M Poindexter had been appointed to head a new

agency " to counter attacks on the US " , such as Wednesday's no-show. It is

equivalent, in British terms, to Archer being made chancellor of the

exchequer.

The agency which Poindexter will run is called the Information Awareness

Office. You want to know what that is? Think, Big Brother is Watching You.

IAO will supply federal officials with " instant " analysis on what is being

written on email and said on phones all over the US. Domestic espionage. You

want to test it out? Text-message any American friend, " Bmb OK. Allah gr8 " .

The IAO is one of two new offshoots of the Pentagon-based Darpa - the Defense

Advanced Research Projects Agency (it's venerable ancestor, Arpa, invented

the internet). The other new agency is called the Information Exploitation

Office. Its mission is to supply similarly instant analysis about overseas

enemy targets. IEO will employ the computerized sensor networks that have

proved so successful in Afghanistan. And, from now on, America - with IEO

guiding its smart weaponry - will launch sneak attacks. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

IOA and IEO will get a big chunk of the $48bn of the taxpayers' money

Bush is pumping into his war on the evildoers. Never again will it be said

that US intelligence agencies went to sleep on the job - or that they were

too careful about the American citizen's civil rights to do that job. No more

Mr. Scrupulous Guy.

Poindexter is frighteningly smart and very unscrupulous. He graduated top of

his class at the Naval Academy in 1958 and went on to a PhD in physics at the

California Institute of Technology. He returned to uniform as America's

best-educated sailor. He wasn't a desk warrior. Poindexter commanded missile

destroyers. He won medals to hang alongside his academic diplomas. He is the

model for Tom Clancy's hero, Jack .

After the assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981, Poindexter was

called in to review White House security. Reagan was impressed and appointed

him a national security adviser, in 1983, with the rank of vice-admiral.

At this point, things started to go wrong. He and Oliver North were found to

be up to their necks in the Iran-Contra (guns for hostages) scam, which blew

up in 1986. Poindexter was charged and found guilty of conspiracy,

obstruction of justice, and the destruction of evidence in 1990; this was

overturned on appeal the following year. The case against them was that they

meticulously wiped out 5,000 incriminating emails - but forgot about the

back-up tapes. Even smart guys goof sometimes.

Poindexter was also accused by a Costa Rican government commission of being

involved in cocaine trafficking to raise funds for the contras, though this

was never proved (you can find details in the Guardian, July 22 1989).

His excuse for his behavior was brazen: " I made a very deliberate decision

not to tell the president so that I could insulate him from the decision and

provide some future deniability for the president if it ever leaked out. " In

other words, he gave himself the right to run America's foreign policy behind

the back of the commander in chief. Who the hell voted for M Poindexter?

Both North and Poindexter have gone on to do well. North has a radio chat

program that rivals Rush Limbaugh in rightwing virulence. Poindexter was

recruited by Syntek Technologies, a firm in bed with Darpa. His hand was back

in the hi-tech cookie jar. As a company vice-president, Poindexter helped

develop Genoa - an " intelligence mining, information harvesting " system

designed to explore (clandestinely) large computer databases. Listen in on

America's electronic conversations, that is.

Poindexter is, once again, one of the most powerful men in America. His job

description is " crisis manager " . How do you put a man with Poindexter's

record back in the manager's box? Well, a spurious crisis would be

convenient. Now do you understand what was going on last Wednesday - or must

I spell it out for you?