Recruiting Spies in the Peace Corps

[Judi Lynn]

March 12, 2008
Recruiting Spies in the Peace Corps
Washington’s blunder in Bolivia strains relations with the Morales government
By Jean Friedman-Rudovsky (La Paz, Bolivia)

In February, allegations surfaced that the U.S. embassy in La Paz, located in western Bolivia, has been asking Peace Corps volunteers and Fulbright scholars to provide intelligence information to the U.S. embassy about foreign nationals in Bolivia.

“It flies in the face of what the Fulbright program is all about,” says John Alexander van Schaick, 23, a Fulbright scholar from Rutgers University, who says that last year, an embassy official instructed him to report on Venezuelans and Cubans living and working in Bolivia. “We’re supposed to be here to help with mutual understanding, not intelligence operations.”

This allegation, along with a similar incident involving Peace Corps volunteers, has again called into question the U.S. role in Bolivia, testing the thickness of the ice under its feet here in the heart of the Andes.
(snip)

In February, allegations surfaced that the U.S. embassy in La Paz, located in western Bolivia, has been asking Peace Corps volunteers and Fulbright scholars to provide intelligence information to the U.S. embassy about foreign nationals in Bolivia.

“It flies in the face of what the Fulbright program is all about,” says John Alexander van Schaick, 23, a Fulbright scholar from Rutgers University, who says that last year, an embassy official instructed him to report on Venezuelans and Cubans living and working in Bolivia. “We’re supposed to be here to help with mutual understanding, not intelligence operations.”

This allegation, along with a similar incident involving Peace Corps volunteers, has again called into question the U.S. role in Bolivia, testing the thickness of the ice under its feet here in the heart of the Andes.

More:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3562/

[magbana]

1. Econ. Hit Man Perkins and the Nasty Business of Peace Corps and Missionary Spies

This is from an interview with John Perkins about his peace corps volunteer/spy persona. I seem to remember the story a bit differently - he was approached at Boston Univ. by the US gov't. to do some spying and that Peace Corps Volunteer was his cover from the git-go. I think the NSA guy he refers to here is one and the same as the Peace Corps recruiter.

There are two groups of people who can go to the ends of the earth without arousing much suspicion - peace corps volunteers and missionaries. Their primary value is that they learn to speak indigenous languages quickly out of necessity which they then use to extract information and propagandize.

BTW, I was reading the other day that Haiti has TEN THOUSAND NGOs. No wonder hHaiti is a hell hole. --spies and bearers of imperial malcontent.

Peace Corps Service in Ecuador

JRoll: Tell us about your Peace Corps service in Ecuador?

JPerkins: A Peace Corps recruiter came to campus. I was at Boston University. I was very fascinated by what he had to say. I had grown up in rural New Hampshire, over 300 years of Yankees from that part of the country in my family. I was fascinated by the indigenous people around New Hampshire, fascinated by reading books and other accounts of indigenous people around New Hampshire. I knew I had what we called then, Indian blood, in my veins. So after the recruiter finished speaking, I talked to him about going to meet such people. He said the Amazon would be a good place. After that I called a gentleman at the NSA who had been behind recruiting me, he was a family friend. He very much encouraged me to go into the Peace Corps. I actually tell that in the book, his encouraging me to do that.



http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/2046503.html