W Griffin: The outlaws

"After some thought, it was decided that the best thing to do with Castillo-and incidentally, the best thing for Castillo personally-was to have him retired honorably from the service. A board of officers was quickly convened at Walter Reed. After an examination of his record, it was decided that he was suffering as a result of his extensive combat service-his chest is covered with medals for valor in action-with post-traumatic stress disorder that has rendered him permanently psychologically unfit for continued active service and therefore he should be medically retired. The board awarded him a disability pension of twenty-five percent of his base pay.

"General Naylor appointed an officer, a full colonel, to present Lieutenant Colonel Castillo with the findings of the board. Taking him with me, I went to Argentina in a Gulfstream with the intention of bringing Castillo home and to place the defected Russians into the hands of the CIA. I took with me two members of my protection detail to guard the Russians, and, frankly, in case Castillo proved obstreperous."

"And did he prove to be 'obstreperous'?"

"Oh, yes, Mr. President. 'Obstreperous' doesn't half cover it. Our ambassador, Juan Manuel Silvio, told me that he hadn't heard Castillo was in Argentina, and that he had heard nothing about Colonel Berezovsky or Lieutenant Colonel Alekseeva.

"The words were no sooner out of his mouth-we were having lunch in a restaurant around the corner from the embassy-when Castillo walked in.

"I asked him where the Russians were. He said at the moment he didn't know, but if he did, he wouldn't tell me, because they had changed their minds about defecting.

"Letting that ride for the moment, I explained his position to him, and the colonel handed him the document he was to sign which would see him retired."

Montvale drained his coffee cup, put it beside the silver pot, then went on: "Castillo said, 'I will sign that when the President tells me to. And only then.'

"I told him that that was not an option, and pointed to the Secret Service agents, who were sitting at a nearby table. I informed him that I was prepared to arrest him, and hoped that wouldn't be necessary.

"He pointed to some men sitting at a table across the restaurant and said they were officers of the Gendarmeria Nacional. He added that, at his signal, they would approach anyone coming near him, and demand their identification. They would not permit his arrest, he announced, and if the people approaching him happened to be armed, Ambassador Silvio would have to start thinking about how to get them out of jail, since the Secret Service has no authority in Argentina and is not permitted to go about armed.

"Castillo then said a restaurant was no place to discuss highly classified matters, and suggested we move to the embassy-presuming Ambassador Silvio would give his word that he would not be detained in the embassy."

"And what did the ambassador do?"

"He offered us the use of his office, and gave Castillo his word that he would not be detained if he entered the embassy. So we went to the embassy, where Castillo almost immediately told us what the Russians had told him about a chemical warfare laboratory-slash-factory in the Congo. And that he and everybody in OOA believed the Russians.

"I told him that the CIA had investigated those rumors and found them baseless. He then said, 'Well, the CIA is wrong again.'

"We then called DCI Powell at Langley, and raised the question to him about a germ warfare laboratory-slash-factory in the Congo. DCI Powell repeated what I had told Castillo. The rumors were baseless-what was there was a fish farm.

"To which Castillo replied that the CIA was wrong again, and that there was obviously no point in continuing the conversation.

"I gave him one more chance to turn the Russians over to me and to get on the Gulfstream. When he laughed at me, I turned to the ambassador and said that it was obvious Colonel Castillo was mentally unstable, and therefore, the ambassador could not be held to his word that Castillo could leave the embassy.

"The ambassador replied that the last orders he had had from the President vis-a-vis Colonel Castillo were that he was to provide whatever assistance Colonel Castillo asked for, and he didn't think that meant taking Castillo into custody.

"The ambassador then pushed the secure telephone to me, and said words to the effect that I was welcome to call the President to see if he could be persuaded to change his orders, but that if I made the call he would insist on telling the President that he could detect no sign of mental instability in Castillo-quite the opposite-and that in his personal opinion, I and the CIA were trying to throw Castillo under the bus because they had somehow botched the defection of the Russians and were trying to make Castillo the fall guy for their own incompetence."

"My God!" the President said.

"As I could think of nothing else to say," Montvale said, "I then returned to Washington."

"Let's call a spade a spade, Charles," the President said. "'As I could think of nothing else to say, and I didn't want the President to know I had gone behind his back, at least until I had time to come up with a credible reason, I then returned to Washington.'"

Montvale flushed, and realizing he had flushed, was furious, which made him flush even more deeply.

"The CIA does have a certain reputation for throwing people under the bus, doesn't it, Charles? Especially those people who have embarrassed it?"

Montvale decided to wait until he was sure he had his emotions under control before going on.

"Silvio was right, Charles, and you were wrong," the President said. "The President gave him an order, and he was obeying it. Disobeying it, getting around it, would have been damned near treason. And you were wrong to ask him."

"Mr. President, I was trying to protect the President," Montvale said.

"What you should have done was go to the President," Clendennen said. "It's as simple as that. You're the director of National Intelligence, Charles, not Benjamin Disraeli!"

"I realize now that I was wrong, Mr. President," Montvale said.

The President made another impatient gesture for Montvale to continue.

"The next time I saw Castillo was in Philadelphia. The President was giving a speech. I didn't know Castillo was coming. The last word I'd had on him was that he was in Las Vegas."

"In Las Vegas? Doing what?"

"I have no idea, Mr. President. I'm not even sure he was in Las Vegas. Anyway, Castillo showed up at the Four Seasons Hotel. The President gave him the opportunity to explain his incredible chemical warfare factory scenario. The President obviously didn't believe it any more than anyone else did, but Castillo still had enough remaining clout with him for the President to turn to DCI Powell and direct him to send somebody to the Congo.

"Castillo said, 'I've already got some people in the Congo, Mr. President.'

"The President said, 'Jesus Christ! Who?'

"And Castillo told him Colonel J. Porter Hamilton, and the President asked 'Who the hell is Colonel Hamilton?' and Powell, who was really surprised, blurted that Colonel Hamilton of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute at Fort Detrick was the CIA's-for that matter, the nation's-preeminent expert on biological and chemical warfare."

"Are you telling me that Castillo, on his own authority-or no authority-actually sent an expert on biological warfare into the Congo?"

"Yes, sir, and not only that, he put him on the phone-actually a secure radio-telephone link-with the President right there in the Four Seasons."

"How the hell did he manage to do that?"

Montvale said: "I really have no idea, sir."

Montvale thought: But I'll bet my last dime that Lieutenant General Bruce J. McNab of the Special Operations Command was in that operation up to that ridiculous mustache of his.