Opinion Maker

Jakarta — Warning to prospective CIA agents: "The Director will disavow any knowledge of your activities"

By Wayne Madsen

In the TV series "Mission Impossible," the chief of the Impossible Missions Force was warned in a taped message by his superior, "As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions." A little over ten years before "Mission Impossible" ran on American television, such a scenario may have played out in Indonesia.

From April 18 to 24 1966, leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement met in Bandung, Indonesia, hosted by Indonesian President Sukarno. The summit was attended by the leaders of and representatives from Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Gold Coast (Ghana), India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Yemen.

WMR has learned that Indonesian security arrested an American man in Bandung during the conference who was believed to be planning a terrorist action against the conference venue. The unknown American was sentenced to life imprisonment on an Indonesian prison island, known as the "Alcatraz of Indonesia," Nusa Kambagang, off the southern coast of Java. The American's passport was seized by the authorities. Eventually, the passport expired and the American was considered stateless and he was disowned by the U.S. embassy in Jakarta.

In 1955, the Bandung summit was the scene of a number of U.S. journalists who were actually CIA agents who attempted to disrupt the conference. Using Nationalist Chinese assets, the CIA also attempted to assassinate Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at the conference. On April 11, 1965, an Air India Lockheed L-749A Constellation, the "Kashmir Princess," exploded from a bomb placed on board while flying over  the South China Sea en route from Bombay and Hong Kong to Jakarta. Scheduled to be on board the aircraft was Zhou Enlai but he changed his travel plans at the last minute. Sixteen passengers and crew, including five Chinese journalists, a Polish journalist, an Austrian journalist, a Hong Kong journalist, and a member of the North Vietnamese delegation to Bandung, were killed when the plane exploded. The bomb on the plane was placed by a Nationalist Chinese agent on the CIA's payroll. The Nationalist agent, Chow Tse-ming, operated under the cover of the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company and he was ex filtrated  from Hong Kong to Taiwan aboard a plane owned by the CIA proprietary company Civil Air Transport, a forerunner to Air America. The bomb was American made and used an MK-7 detonator of U.S. manufacture.

The CIA conducted a covert guerrilla war against Indonesia from 1956 to 1958. In 1956, with the encouragement of CIA director Allen W. Dulles, the CIA supported the  failed PRRI-Permesta rebellion in the Celebes.. In 1957,  the CIA supplied weapons to secessionist rebels in Sumatra but the rebellion failed in 1958. On May 18, 1958, a CIA-contracted B-26 piloted by American Allen Lawrence Pope was shot down over Sumatra after "accidentally" bombing a church during services and killing most of the congregants.

According to well-placed Indonesian sources, as late as 2002, the American was still believed to be held in the island prison. However, it was reported that after forty-seven years in detention, the individual had gone insane. Nine years later, it is unknown whether the American is still alive.

However, for those who may contemplate a career in the Central Intelligence Agency, the "Mission Impossible" rules are germane. There are cases when the CIA will "disavow any knowledge of your actions."

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