The Devil & Bob GatesBy Robert Parry
At CIA's campus-like headquarters amid the leafy woods of Langley, Va., a Biblical quote stands out as an ironic motto. Itreads, "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Near the door that William Casey shuffled past for six years in the 1980s, the Lord's advice could be read as a warning, too, a kind of marker for a descent into a netherworldthat crosses Dante with Orwell.
One of the paradoxical figures from that realm was Robert M. Gates, a compact man with the looks of a choirboy and a high-pitched Midwest twang that enhanced his image of innocence. Gates was technically an intelligence analyst dedicated to an objective rendering of fact so top U.S. government officials would have sound information upon which to base decisions.
But Gates was also a savvy political player, who moved through key intelligence jobs at a young age. He was tapped by powerful mentors, especially by CIA directors Bush and Casey who saw in Gates a malleable protege and a reliable subordinate. At a number of crucial turns from 1970s to the early 1990s, Gates was there along the historical path, blending in with his easy smile and soft voice, unthreatening, disarming, but somehow sinister.
Gates's new memoirs, From the Shadows, are an eerie mix ofstartling admissions blended with dubious history and self-serving explanations. The book recounts the final phase of the Cold War and is a work of the period, rendered by a mind which saw social unrest in the Third World as nothing more than Moscow and Washington sliding expendable pawns across a bloody chess board.
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http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/lost2.htmlGates earned his stripes working 1980 October Surprise:
http://www.io.com/~patrik/october.htm