Ray Cline, extract from The "Terrorism" Industry

Alexander's collaborator, Ray S. Cline, is a central figure in the terrorism industry, an early proponent of the Soviet network theory, and a leading member and spokesman of the far right. For a long time he was a senior associate at CSIS, adjunct professor of International Relations at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, and an instructor at the Defense Intelligence School. He currently chairs the CAUSA-affiliated U.S. Global Strategy Council, and serves on the editorial board of the Moon-owned monthly magazine, 'The World and I', edited by Arnaud de Borchgrave. Cline is affiliated with many other members of the terrorism industry. During World War II, Cline served as a naval intelligence officer and worked for the OSS in Kunming, China, with John Singlaub, Mitchell Livingstone WerBell III, Richard Helms, and Howard Hunt. Cline later served as deputy CIA station chief in South Korea in the early 1950s. From 1958 to 1962, he was the CIA's station chief in Taiwan, and from 1962 to 1966 was the agency's deputy director for intelligence. He later became director of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1969-73), where he helped coordinate the CIA's destabilization and eventual overthrow of the Allende government in Chile. (12)

In addition to his long-standing ties to the U.S. government, Cline has been closely connected to repressive regimes and the international ultra-right. We have noted his leadership of a Moon-sponsored organization. While stationed in Taiwan, Cline was probably involved in channeling counterpart funds from the U.S. embassy to provide the initial financing for the Asian People's Anti-Communist League in 1954 and the preparatory meeting of WACL in 1958. (13) Cline has attended and participated in several WACL meetings. With Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang Kai-shek, Cline formed Taiwan's notorious Political Warfare Cadres Academy, which has trained officers from right-wing nations worldwide in counterinsurgency techniques. (I4) One of the best known graduates of the academy is Roberto D' Aubuisson.

Cline has also worked with the far-right in the Philippines. After relocating the offices of WACL to the Nippon Star Trading Company complex in Manila in late 1986, John Singlaub met with Cline, Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, and General Luis Villa-Real. Villa-Real, the president of WACL's Philippine chapter, played a central role in the creation of right-wing death squads in that country. (15) Both Cline and Singlaub were identified by the 'Philippine Daily Inquirer' as aiding the forces behind the 1986 coup attempt against the Aquino government. (16)

Cline's ties to the U.S. far right are also noteworthy. He has served in various capacities on the boards of organizations tied to the so-called China Lobby, such as the Committee for a Free China and the Coalition for Asian Peace and Security. He was president of the National Intelligence Studies Center, a conservative and intelligence-linked think tank, and he has been active in the right-wing Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Cline has given interviews to the John Birch Society's 'Review of the News' on two separate occasions (April 22, 1981, and March 27,1985). Lyndon LaRouches' followers cultivated a friendly relationship with Cline, and Cline "continued to chat with them throughout the early 1980s." (17) He is also on the board of directors of the Nathan Hale Foundation and serves on the editorial board of Yonah Alexander's journal, 'Terrorism'.

Cline has been heavily involved in the risk analysis business, working sometimes as a collaborator with Yonah Alexander. He explains, "I am trying to sell my knowledge of the political environment in foreign countries."(18) His clients include several major oil companies (which he has advised not to invest in mainland China), and a number of defense firms, including General Dynamics (a major contributor to CSIS) and Hewlett-Packard. (19) Cline has also created a number of "political risk scenarios" for companies doing business with South Africa, scenarios that claim that the South African government's "sophisticated leadership could be an engine for growth." (2O) In addition to his ties to Taiwan, the Philippines, and South Africa, Cline once helped a Chicago arms manufacturer sell arms to the military regime in Turkey. (21)

We described earlier the nature of a work which Cline and Alexander wrote together, which expounds a simpleminded rightwing version of the establishment model. When Cline previewed his thesis that the Soviet Union was masterminding worldwide terrorism at a 1980 meeting of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, he was sharply attacked by three of his colleagues. Howard Bane, who had only recently retired as the CIA's Moscow station chief, said, "We've got to get Cline off this Moscow control of terrorists. It's divisive. It's not true. There's not one single bit of truth to it." Retired CIA officer Harry Rositzke concurred: "It's that far-right stuff, that's all. It's horseshit." Finally, Conrad Hassel, the FBI's director for antiterrorism instruction, and now head of the Wackenhut Corporation's antiterrorism division, observed, "If you want to believe in the conspiracy theory of terrorism, well, you've got it, but there's no evidence for it." (22)

Cline has been an outspoken proponent of disinformation and direct manipulation of the press by the CIA. In testimony before the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Cline defended the use of such covert devices as black propaganda and the funding of journalists, arguing that "the First Amendment is only an amendment."(23) Despite his CIA background, extensive connections with the extreme right at home and abroad, his open disregard for free speech and the rules of evidence, and the heavily propagandistic character of his writings, Cline has been a frequent guest on ABC's "Nightline," speaking on terrorism and defending the U.S. government's use of Nazi war criminals as missile scientists ("Nightline," October 18, 1984).

Notes

12. Daniel Schorr, Clearing the Air (Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1977), pp, 130-33.

13. Anderson and Anderson, Inside the League, p, 55.

14, Ibid" pp. 56-57.

15. See "Singlaub and Cline, Americans Involved in the Coup?" Philippine Daily Inquirer, Nov. 17, 1986. See also Adele Oltman and Dennis Bernstein, "The EI Salvador of the Pacific: Counterinsurgency in the Philippines," CovertAction Informatian Bulletin, no. 29 (Winter 1988), pp. 18-20.

16. See items cited in previous note.

17. Dennis King, Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism (New York: Doubleday, 1989), p. 194.

18. Stone. "High Times in the 'Political Risk' Business," p, 688.

19. Peter Stone. "Boom Days for Political Risk Consultants." New York Times, Aug. 7, 1983, p, F-23.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Jeff Stein, "Old Spies and Cold Peas," Inquiry, Dec, 29, 1980. p. 21.

23. Quoted in Landis, "Georgetown's Ivory Tower for Old Spooks," p. 9.