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THE FRANKLIN COVER-UP -- CHILD ABUSE, SATANISM, AND MURDER IN NEBRASKA |
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CHAPTER 25: IN MEMORIAM: BILL COLBY On April 27, 1996, my dear friend and mentor, former Central Intelligence Agency director, William Colby, disappeared, supposedly while boating on the eastern shore of Maryland. Ten days later, his body was fished out of the water, less than a mile from his weekend home. His death was pronounced an accident, probably caused by a heart attack, resulting in his falling into the river and drowning. Bill's sudden, and tragic death, prompts me to recount some features of our 25-year relationship, which bear directly on the events under discussion in this book. They will hopefully shed further light on his amazing life, and, perhaps, also on the circumstances surrounding his most untimely death. Bill Colby was one of the pivotal figures in unearthing the Franklin scandal. Without his persistent support and guidance, this book would have never been written. More than once, I was determined to put Franklin behind me, and write it off as a horrible experience that I could do nothing about. Often, I would ask myself, "Why should I have any responsibility to do something, when others in positions of power and government responsibility would do nothing?" I know that Senator Loran Schmit, the head of the Nebraska State Senate's Franklin investigating committee, felt the same way. I told Bill one time: "I have done all I can do, and have been burned badly -- financially and credibility-wise -- and, I am sure, politically. I think it's time to just let it drop." It was at those times that Bill Colby kept encouraging me (and Senator Schmit), kept pushing us, almost forcing us to keep going, and to keep the press apprised. To quote his exact words, "This case is so much bigger than you think. It goes to the very highest levels; we have to keep pulling the strings." His idea was not to investigate further -- which he repeatedly warned me could be very dangerous -- as to shine the sharp glare of publicity onto what had already been discovered, to create the possibility of a real investigation. Bill always promised that he would help me as much as possible, behind the scenes and, if necessary, publicly. And, Bill always delivered. When the Discovery Channel program, Conspiracy of Silence, was being prepared, the British investigative team insisted that they would not go forward on the program unless they had the on-camera personal interview, and verification of Bill Colby himself, that John DeCamp was reporting the truth with respect to Franklin, and with respect to this book, The Franklin Cover-Up. Colby went on camera, and thoroughly shocked the Yorkshire T.V. team in how strongly he came out, risking himself, to support me and my work on Franklin. Bill also wrote a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, in which he strongly recommended that the Justice Department investigate this case from the standpoint I outlined in my book, a copy of which he enclosed with his letter. He got a formal response back from a Justice Department official, promising that the Department would indeed look into the case. But then, Bill had always backed me up, right from the earliest days, beginning in Vietnam. *** I vividly remember my first encounter with Colby -- in the late 1960s. He discovered me by examining files of new, young officers being shipped to Vietnam, who might have "special talents." At that time, my ability to speak half a dozen languages; my training in Airborne, Jungle, and Ranger Schools, as well as Vietnamese Language School, and the fact I was a newly graduated attorney when I was called into service, and volunteered for Vietnam as a Combat Infantry Captain, apparently struck Colby's fancy -- or at least his curiosity. Colby was officially deputy ambassador to South Vietnam at that time, but was in reality the CIA station chief. He ordered that when I showed up in Vietnam, I was to be sent directly to him. I was. Immediately, Bill immersed me in the planning of his own creation: a secret program which would later be one of the most controversial operations of the Vietnam War -- the so-called Phoenix Program. Yes, it was controversial, brutal, and at times horribly handled. But by the admission of the North Vietnamese leadership after the war, it was also the single-most effective, and most feared program the Americans carried out during the Vietnam war. It was Bill Colby, with his power and position as ambassador in Vietnam, in 1970, that made it possible for me to accomplish something never before done or after: to run for the position of state senator from abroad. I fought my entire election campaign from Vietnam, and won it -- without ever setting foot on American soil. I ran and won, despite the fact that the top brass, from the Postmaster General, to the heads of the Army and Joint Chiefs of Staff, had tried to stop me, because I was saying, for the first time, that which Bill Colby and others thought needed to be told to the American people. That was: "Let us win or get out, but let's not keep conducting a charade, where we simply kill American boys to support a corrupt regime while the truth is hidden from the American people." Back in the States, years later, as I marched through my political life and began practice as a private attorney, I maintained the contact with Bill, and often sought his advice. He dared -- when it was truly unpopular to do so -- to come back to Nebraska and testify for me on controversial issues, such as the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in May 1986. Bill Colby had one characteristic rarely, if ever, found in politicians in this day and age. He told it like it is -- the straight, unvarnished truth in simple, understandable terms. Colby proved that, when, as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), he took the CIA before the U.S. Congress, to reveal the Agency's "family jewels" and start the process of correcting the sins of the CIA. For this, President Gerald Ford fired Colby and replaced him with a man named George Bush. Colby told the truth again in December 1987, when he and I, and Henry Kissinger, and a couple of dozen prominent Americans, French, British, North Vietnamese, and former South Vietnamese leaders and journalists (Adm. James Stockdale; Col. Harry Summers, Jr.; George Will; Al Santoli; Jean-Louis Amaud; Ernesto Betancourt; Jacques Chaban-Delmas; Peter Collier; Sir James Goldsmith; Douglas Pike; Lam Ngoc Diep; Robert Komer; Olivier Todd; Nguyen Ngoc Quy; David Horowitz; Elliott Abrams; Tran Van Tong, to name a few) made our way to Paris, for three days, to sit around the very same table at which the Paris Peace Talks had been conducted 15 years earlier. There we all conducted our own International Conference on the Vietnam War. Though not heavily reported in the U.S., in the rest of the world the Conference was heralded as the first real truth session on what happened in Vietnam, on both sides, and why we ended up where we did. *** Shortly before his death, Colby gave me my final assignment. It was the week just before the Oklahoma bombing, and I spent a good amount of time with him in Washington, D.C. I brought him up to date on the Militia of Montana case which he had been following closely, describing in detail the militias' fears that the government was planning an imminent attack on them. As I sought guidance from him on how to best handle the militia situation, Bill smiled and said, "John, it sounds to me like you have the makings of another book. Believe me," he continued, "I know this Militia/Patriot movement is more significant than most Americans, and particularly the press and politicians, could ever realize. I fear that our government does not understand the nature of this movement, nor its potential significance to this country," Bill said. As he continued talking, Bill became very intense. "I watched the Anti-War Movement render it impossible for this country to conduct or win the Vietnam War. I tell you, dear friend, that this Militia and Patriot movement in which, as an attorney, you have become one of the centerpieces, is far more significant and far more dangerous for America than the Anti-War Movement ever was, if it is not intelligently dealt with. And I really mean this," Colby concluded. "What are you saying?" I asked Bill. "Aren't you being a little melodramatic?" I asked him, more than a little upset at what I thought he was saying. "Dangerous?" I continued. "Hell, one Saturday night gang fight in Los Angeles is more dangerous than all the militias combined together from what I can see," I said. "In fact," I told Colby, "I'm willing to wager that you can't find any incidents of real danger or destruction across these United States that were, in fact, initiated by the militias. Every case I have ever heard about is a situation in which one of these characters was being attacked by some government agency over some rinky-dink crime in the first place," I argued -- "And, so far as I can see, most of the patriot and militia people I have dealt with are the salt-of-the-earth Americans who truly believe they are trying to save America. The typical militia member is usually someone who has a lifetime of activity, establishing that role, first in the military, then as a family man or woman, and also as a businessman or hard-working lifetime employee somewhere. Most often they are mature adults, with twenty or more years of life's experiences and learning behind them, including paying taxes, being property owners, developing their communities. "They are not, in most cases, an eighteen or twenty-year-old kid, who has never held a job, been spoiled rotten, or ducked the draft or burned a flag or been arrested, or served time, or done drugs, or been a gang member or done drive-by shootings," I almost shouted at Colby, as I discussed this most important issue with him. "Just what is it that makes the patriot movement and these people so dangerous?" I demanded of him. Bill was now very intense. He spoke very slowly and very clearly, intending that there be no misunderstanding on my part of what he was saying. "It is not because these people are armed, that America need be concerned," Bill explained to my surprise. "It is not that these people stockpile weapons and have para-military training sessions, that they are dangerous," Colby continued. "What concerns me is something far more serious, that I fear our politicians do not see, cannot see, and and refuse to deal with," Colby said. "They are dangerous precisely because of everything you just said. They are dangerous because these people are, in most cases mature citizens who have done everything you just described and who, tragically and in many cases very justifiably, have lost faith in the integrity and honesty of their own government. Yes, they are dangerous because, to use your words, John, they are true patriots who are disenchanted with the government and the system they have grown up loving, supporting and giving their lives and talents for from the moment they were born. For many of them, it is as if they learned their mother was a prostitute and that they are bastards. It really is that traumatic." I listened to Bill; I looked at him, and said, almost playing the devil's advocate by defending the politicians, "So what, Bill? There have always been unhappy people who think the politicians are crooked; that the government is bad; that the end of the world is coming or whatever. We call them nuts or crackpots or whatever and lock a few of them up now and then and go on with our business. What makes these people so much different or more dangerous than any other group who has tromped through history in the last 225 years of this country's existence?" Then my friend, the man whom I have found to have a better grip on the processes of history than anyone else, delivered his punch line. "They are dangerous, John, because there are so many of them. It is one thing to have a few nuts or dissidents. They can be dealt with, justly or otherwise, so that they do not pose a danger to the system. It is quite another situation when you have a true movement -- millions of citizens -- believing something -- particularly when the movement is made up of society's average, successful citizens. "The handwriting is on the wall in several places," Colby continued. "We know from CNN and USA Today polls that about three out of every four Americans no longer trust their own government. And the distance between the government and the citizens is increasing instead of decreasing. And that means, quite simply, John, that there is a base of support for the patriot and militia community which is not visible and may not be seen or understood by our government. Our government and political leaders are still in the mode of viewing the outspoken and visible members of the so-called patriot movement as simply a few nuts who need to be shut up. This is a very dangerous trend. It is time for government and the media to begin closing the gap between the government, the media and the patriot movement, rather than exacerbating it. "The first step in that process is communication," Colby continued. Then, Colby stunned me with his next declaration. "John," he said, looking me in the eyes, "someone needs to step into the forefront and tell the story of the militias and the patriot movement -- what it is, why it has developed, what it means to America if not properly addressed by government; who is involved and just how broad-based this movement or attitude is; where it is strongest, and how this movement can be positively directed, rather than negatively directed -- perhaps by foreign powers. "That is what your next book should be, and it must be written," Colby instructed, "rather than simply spoken to me. And yes, John, I will do everything to help you do this book and tell this story. Your book must become the communications device where both sides of this controversy can go to learn about themselves but, more important, to learn about the other side." Colby concluded, "And you can and must do that because you are really in the perfect position, and have the capability to do it. In fact, right now maybe you are the only one in that position." I was shocked by Bill Colby's near-command to write a new book. True, as the attorney for some of the Montana Militia, I had been put in a unique position to see the inner workings of the militias, but from a position of objectivity, as a lawyer. I had first been drawn into the "militia scene" as a result of the wide circulation of this book. By the militias themselves, I was seen, not as an attorney, but as a combatant, against the worst forms of obscene corruption by our government, and by our nation's so-called elites. The fact that I was a practicing attorney and a former elected official was of secondary consequence. "I think you are serious," I said to Colby with a gentle snicker, trying to break the tension of the moment. "You really are going to help me do this militia book, as you call it -- and I know when you say you will help, that means I have access to a world of intelligence and knowledge that cannot be matched anywhere else on this planet earth. I will do it," I promised Bill. "Start on it right away in fact. OK?" "Should be a best seller," Bill Colby said. "Next time I see you here in D.C. in the middle of May, you should have the first chapter of your new book, Militia," Bill said. A few days later, on April 19, 1995, a bomb blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Within a year, my dear friend and longtime adviser was found dead in the Chesapeake Bay. *** I have very serious doubts about the description of Bill Colby's death that emerged from the police search and the subsequent coroner's inquiry. I do not possess any "secret information" about Bill Colby's final hours; I base my doubts on 25 years of near continuous contact and collaboration with the man, a collaboration which deepened in his final years. I knew Bill Colby very well; I knew his personal habits, his idiosyncracies. Colby had a sailboat and his little get-away cottage, where he went as often as he could. I visited him there on several occasions, as Bill invited me sailing whenever I was in town. Inevitably, however, the weather forecast would warn of a possibility of rain, or a drop of rain would fall, or he'd notice that the moon was not in the right position, or the sun too hot, or whatever. And Bill would decide not to take the risk and go out sailing. My point is simple. Bill Colby was the single most meticulously careful, programmed, organized individual I have ever encountered, especially when it came to matters of safety, security, and personal activities. Therefore, the description given in the media, surrounding his death, does not cohere with Bill Colby's personality, his character, his modus operandi, and my personal experiences with him over many years. Bill Colby was not the kind of person who would take off on an evening boating expedition, leaving his computer still turned on at his desk, his half finished dinner still sitting on the table, and most of the lights on in the cottage. That was not Bill. Furthermore, Bill had been the victim of a "robbery" in Washington, D.C., not too long before his death, in which he had been badly beaten, and easily could have died. This "robbery" and his actual death were both mysterious incidents, in a relatively short span of time. I have a hard time believing in coincidences, when it comes to people like Bill Colby. His mysterious death has also brought to my mind, his own explanations of how people end up dead, in the course of our discussing the death of Franklin case investigator Gary Caradori -- a death Colby himself had investigated. His exact statement on this was: "If it's done right, you'll never know how it was done, or who did it for sure. That's what professionalism is all about." Colby described both professional assassinations, as well as some bungles. The case of Fidel Castro, he said, was one of the biggest fiascos that Bill had ever run across. Colby told the story how in one, now known, memorable sequence of screw-ups, the CIA tried to get Fidel's mistress to plant a tube of super toxic toothpaste onto Castro's bath stand. The ploy ultimately resulted in the girlfriend becoming a dead, ex-girlfriend. The blunders and screw-ups and lack of professionalism, in the efforts to get Castro, drove Bill to insist that the CIA should simply quit trying to assassinate him. In contrast, Colby always used the example of Chilean President Salvador Allende's death as the perfect assassination. "We didn't do that one," Colby informed me. "Everybody thinks we did. But, we truly did not. Someone else got to him before we did, because we sure were planning it. But, whoever did that one, really did it right. We (CIA) are taking the blame in the minds of most governments around the world. But despite the fact that we did not assassinate Allende, everybody knew we wanted to and, whoever did it, left no trails. The best example of a perfect assassination -- no trails; somebody else takes the blame; mission accomplished." I rather suspect in my own mind that that is the situation with Colby's own death. *** In the aftermath of Bill's death, a line began to emerge that Bill was either deeply depressed, or suffering from some fatal ailment, and, perhaps, took his own life. I think a recounting of my last face-to-face discussion with Bill Colby should dispel this gossip for good. I had this meeting with Bill shortly before his death. We had a very lengthy discussion about life, and I asked him, among other things, "Bill, if you were going to pick any period of your life that you would say was the most satisfying and enjoyable, what two-, or three-, or five-year period would it be? World War II, Vietnam, your days as head of CIA? When would it be and what made it so special?" Without hesitation -- exactly one week before he died -- Bill said the following: "The last five years and for sure the next five years," Bill said. "Are you serious?" I asked. "Absolutely," Bill said. "Here's why. First, I have virtually no pressure; yet I am in a position to use my entire life's experiences and learning, and share them with the world to help make a difference. You know what I am doing immediately after I leave you?" Bill continued. "I am headed for Outer Mongolia to give a briefing and to talk to the heads of business and government there. "I just got back from Italy where I did the same thing. That's what I have been doing. I love it. Travel when you want and at somebody else's expense; receive the best treatment you could imagine -- equal to or better than a head of state -- but without all the responsibility, and pressure, and problems. And know that when you speak, they really do listen and know that you really can make a difference in world events, sometimes even more profound than presidents of countries. I love it. And I am in as good health as I have ever been. All the things I wanted to say, and all the places I dreamed of seeing, I am doing, and I'm going to keep doing it and enjoying it for at least the next five years, I hope," Colby concluded. "So, John, don't be discouraged," Bill assured me, "You are young yet, and your best and happiest years really are ahead of you." *** At the time of his death, Bill was working with Britain's Lord William Rees-Mogg, and his American sidekick, James Dale Davidson, publishing a series of newsletters, on international events, financial opportunities, and politics. In fact, he was working on an article for one of those newsletters when he died. Rees-Mogg and Davidson are strange birds. Lord William was, for over a decade, the editor-in-chief of the staid Times of London, and its Sunday Times of London. He fits the stereotype of the classic English "Colonel Blimp," the blunt imperialist, who periodically uncorks with a nasty mouthful of invectives against the "commoner," or the darker-skinned races. After all, he used to write that in the coming age of society, an elite of 5% of the total population would rule over the other 95% as virtual slaves. But Rees-Mogg is not just nasty -- he represents great power. In England, it has long been said that The Times, the flagship paper of the Establishment, regularly announces Britain's foreign policy before the Foreign Office even knows what that policy will be. Rees-Mogg still writes a weekly column for The Times, and is one of the major contributors to the newsletter, Strategic Investment. At the time of his death, Bill had emerged as Strategic Investment's leading "geo-strategist," writing a lengthy front-page article in almost every edition. (Since Bill's death, another former CIA Director, Robert Gates, has been coopted into writing a number of articles, occupying the space formerly reserved for Bill's words of wisdom.) But on several occasions, when I saw Bill or spoke with him during the last year of his life, I'd ask him whether I should subscribe to his newsletter, or, whether he'd just give me a few copies to look over. He always told me not to waste my money. "Ask me about any situation you're interested in, and I'll give you as thorough a briefing as I possibly can. But don't believe a word you read in that newsletter I'm writing for." Strange. But, then again, Bill Colby spent his entire adult life in the shadow world of spies and counter-spies. Maybe his involvement with Rees-Mogg was more complicated than I ever speculated. On at least one point, I know there was a savage difference between Bill and Lord Rees-Mogg and his crowd. Rees-Mogg is one of the most vocal detractors of President Clinton and the First Lady, and often devotes his Times of London columns exclusively to tirades against the American President. Strategic Investment, which goes out to a predominantly American readership, contains non-stop assaults against the Clintons. Not only was Bill's wife, Sally Shelton Colby, in a senior position in the Clinton Administration, but Colby himself had emphasized to me, repeatedly, that Clinton was a great President, and that it was urgent that he be re-elected. And then I recall another incident, which I barely noticed at the time, but which now stands out in retrospect. Together with Rees-Mogg, the most savage press hound attacking Clinton was one Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a Briton who has spent hundreds of hours in Arkansas "investigating" the President, and writing streams of articles in The American Spectator, the British Daily Telegraph, and other papers, attacking Clinton. Evans Pritchard once called me, urgently demanding a meeting. I had never heard of him before, and so asked Bill if he had ever heard of this fellow, "Evans-Prickard, or something," as I put it, barely recalling his name. Bill answered, rather ominously, as I now look back, "His name is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. And," he said, "be very careful." A week after our get-together, in which Bill spoke so enthusiastically about his work and his travels, he was dead -- under the most unusual circumstances, his death officially labeled an "accident." I did not believe it then, and I do not believe it now. But I do believe what Bill said: "If it's done right, you will never know how it was done, or who did it." And so, my dear friend, I wish you a last good-bye. I will do my best to carry out the final tasks you assigned me, as I always did, so many years ago, as a Combat Infantry Captain under your command, in the rice paddies and hamlets of Vietnam.
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