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PEACE CORPS SPIES.
Via Alterdestiny, this is troubling:
In an apparent violation of U.S. policy, Peace Corps volunteers and a Fulbright scholar were asked by a U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia "to basically spy" on Cubans and Venezuelans in the country, according to Peace Corps personnel and the Fulbright scholar involved."I was told to provide the names, addresses and activities of any Venezuelan or Cuban doctors or field workers I come across during my time here," Fulbright scholar John Alexander van Schaick told ABCNews.com in an interview in La Paz.
Van Schaick's account matches that of Peace Corps members and staff who claim that last July their entire group of new volunteers was instructed by the same U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia to report on Cuban and Venezuelan nationals.
The State Department says any such request was "in error" and a violation of long-standing U.S. policy which prohibits the use of Peace Corps personnel or Fulbright scholars for intelligence purposes.
The point of putting a wall between Peace Corps activities and intelligence gathering activities is that any hint of the latter contaminating the former puts the entire Peace Corps operation in jeopardy. If Peace Corps volunteers (or Fulbright Scholars) are suspected of gathering intel for the United States government, then their work can be compromised and their physical safety endangered. I suspect that this represents the activity of "enterprising" low level personnel at State or (more likely) CIA rather than official policy, but it's nevertheless a very stupid move. In the context of a narrative that describes Hugo Chavez as the next V.I. Lenin, however, it shouldn't be all that surprising.
--Robert Farley
COMMENTS (7)
boy, I had a "little fulbright" and I knew a lot of Peace Core people in Nepal. This is horrible, just horrible. What a bunch of losers the bush people are, what a bunch of craven, stupid, idiots.
aimai
Posted by: aimai | February 12, 2008 11:46 AM
This has been going on for decades. See John Perkins' "Economic Hit Man" for details. (If I recall the details correctly, he was recruited by the NSA during his Peace Corps sojourn.) Perkins' book was, of course, met with denials from the powers that be...
Posted by: The Sophist | February 12, 2008 1:06 PM
"The point of putting a wall between Peace Corps activities and intelligence gathering activities is that any hint of the latter contaminating the former puts the entire Peace Corps operation in jeopardy."
Isn't that the Bush mis-administration's whole point?
Posted by: Anonymous | February 12, 2008 4:06 PM
Even Reagan backed down when he tried to appoint an ex-CIA man to run the Peace Corps.
Posted by: captcrisis | February 12, 2008 10:07 PM
"I suspect that this represents the activity of "enterprising" low level personnel at State or (more likely) CIA rather than official policy"
Why on earth would you think that? Because of the Bush administration's record of honorable intentions and above-board policy-making?
Posted by: Gregg Gordon | February 14, 2008 11:30 PM
Wise up people. Everyone outside of the U.S. has long since realized that the Peace Corps and the Fulbright Scholarship program are just covers for C.I.A. activity.
Posted by: Arnie | January 10, 2009 7:11 PM
If I recall the details correctly, he was recruited by the NSA during his Peace Corps sojourn.
On the other side, why on earth would you think that? Because of the Bush administration's record of honorable intentions and above board policy making?
Posted by: Tower Defense | April 25, 2009 3:52 AM