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Theodore Shackley
CIA mastermind of dirty tricks in Cuba, Chile and Vietnam
Harold Jackson The Guardian, Wednesday 18 December 2002 02.10 GMT
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For the second time this year, conspiracy theorists have lost one of their favourite CIA targets. Ted Shackley, once in charge of the organisation's clandestine operations, has died at the age of 75. In the international demonology of espionage, he figured second only to General Vernon Walters, America's ubiquitous spy-for-all-seasons (obituary, February 18). Unlike the affable general, Shackley was far from popular with his colleagues. Though they rated him businesslike and efficient, he was also described as cold and weird. His nickname, the Blond Ghost, carried no overtones of affection, and he eventually left the agency under a cloud in 1979; it remained unclear whether he resigned or was sacked. Shackley's introduction to the intelligence world came in 1945 after the US army discovered he was fluent in Polish (an inheritance from his immigrant grandmother). As the cold war stirred into life, he was assigned to the counter-intelligence corps in Germany, first in Nuremberg and later in Berlin. On demobilisation, he planned to study law, but was recruited by the newly formed CIA in 1951. The details are inevitably shadowy, but he seems to have emerged as an effective, self-promoting organisation man, a dab hand with flow charts and paperwork. Within a decade, he had become station chief in Miami, running one of the CIA's largest operations, focusing mainly on Fidel Castro. Much of his effort went into sending sabotage teams into Cuba and trying to build a network of local spies. Neither had much impact, but subsequent freelance activities by some of his recruits brought the first rumours of Shackley's involvement in drug trafficking. These grew stronger when he was transferred to Laos in 1966, and began recruiting Hmong tribesmen to attack North Vietnamese supply convoys on the Ho Chi Minh trail. In the complex political manoeuvring between local warlords, the Laotians' usual currency was heroin, later alleged to be the principal source of the drugs used by America's demoralised troops in Vietnam. When the Laotian operation was abandoned by the Johnson administration (with 20,000 Hmong recruits killed and many more forced into exile), Shackley was transferred to Saigon. After the CIA's disastrous failure to detect the North Vietnamese build-up for the 1968 Tet offensive, he laid great emphasis on intelligence gathering. His subordinates, however, complained that he always wanted their reports to have a positive tone, a requirement that probably contributed to the Nixon administration's later misjudgment of the military situation. In 1972, Shackley returned to Washington to run the CIA's western hemisphere division,

responsible for activities in central and south America. He played a major role in the campaign against the Allende government in Chile, and in the September 1973 military coup which brought General Pinochet to power. That success brought Shackley promotion to associate deputy director for operations, the CIA's third most senior post. But his accession came just as the storm clouds were gathering in Washington, and the senate intelligence committee wanted to know just what the agency had been up to in Chile - and in the Watergate scandal. The committee's report, listing dozens of illegal activities, was a bombshell. The newlyelected President Carter put Admiral Stansfield Turner in charge of the CIA, with instructions to clean it up. Many of those involved in clandestine operations were sacked, and Shackley was sidelined, at least until it emerged he was a close associate of Edwin Wilson, a former spy eventually jailed for arranging illegal arms sales. Shackley left the CIA in 1979 to run his own consulting firm, from where he continued to associate with old colleagues in the arms trade. Some were later jailed for their part in the Iran-Contra scandal, but no charges were laid against Shackley. His associates were also questioned by a senate sub-committee about involvement in the drug-trafficking activities of the Contra rebels. Once again, nothing was clearly established, though one of the central figures was named as a drug trafficker by the Costa Rican government, and was summarily expelled from the country. Shackley is survived by his wife Hazel, and their daughter. Theodore G 'Ted' Shackley, intelligence agent, born July 16 1927; died December 9 2002

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