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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Spy vs Spy vs Spy By Antonio C. Abaya Written May 23, 2006 For the Standard Today, May 25 issue The Leandro Aragoncillo espionage case in the US is becoming a case of Spy versus Spy versus Spy, an expansion of the Spy vs Spy cartoon by Aragones that used to appear (and may still appear) in Mad magazine Leandro Aragoncillo, a Philippine-born US citizen, was a US Marine for 21 years before he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an intelligence analyst in July 2004.He was arrested in September 2005 for stealing a total of 101 official documents from the FBI database, including 37 considered secret. Aragoncillo allegedly passed on these documents to Michael Ray Aquino, also arrested in September 2005, who passed them on to Philippine opposition politicians said to be scheming to overthrow President Gloria Arroyo. These politicians have since been identified as former President Joseph Estrada, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, and former Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella. Aquino was a lieutenant of Lacson when Lacson was a high-ranking police officer, and was also a godson (in marriage) of Estrada. President Estrada admits to meeting Aragoncillo during a state visit to Washington DC in 1999, when Aragonicillo, then with the US Marines, was a staff member of the Clinton White House, assigned to the Office of the Vice-President, Al Gore. When Bush became president in January 2001, Aragoncillo continued working in the office of VP Cheney. The Erap-Aragoncillo relationship seems to have flowered. Aragoncillo visited the Philippines 15 times: once in 2000, three times in 2001, five times in 2002, two times in 2003, three times in 2004, and once in 2005, from June 12 to July 5. (See my articles The FBI Squeeze [Sept.13 2005] and The FBI Plot Thickens [Sept 18, 2005]) Aragoncillo�s 15 trips to the Philippines, from 2000 to July 2005, could not have been possible without the knowledge and permission of his employers, the Office of Dick Cheney and the FBI. In fact, he almost certainly was assigned to make those 15 trips as part of his official duties.. It is not far-fetched to say that Aragoncillo was actually spying for the US government on the Arroyo administration through his contacts in the Philippine opposition, Erap, Lacson and Fuentebella. In the light of 9/11 and the subsequent war on terrorism, the neo-cons in Washington looked with favor on Erap because he waged �total war� against the Muslims in Mindanao when he was president. (The US Loves Erap, Sept. 25, 2005) When President Arroyo hastily pulled out the miniscule Philippine contingent from Iraq (to save the life of Angelo de la Cruz) in July 2004, the US may have decided to junk her in favor of the more macho Erap. Aragoncillo�s meetings with Erap (and Lacson) may have been compelled by the need to choreograph and coordinate the moves against Arroyo. Erap�s political lieutenant, Boy Morales, was even summoned to Washington at least twice, in November 2004, and then in March 2005, just before the anti-Arroyo demonstrations were started by Jejomar Binay in Makati. But a funny thing happened on the way to regime change in Malacanang. The Americans soured on Erap. My theory is that Erap (and Lacson) overplayed their hands by recruiting Aragoncillo to spy for them in Washington DC, from July 2004 until his arrest in September 2005. to secure for them whatever damaging dossiers the Americans had on Arroyo. The Fil-Am ex-Marine is credited with having pulled the only case of espionage ever inside the White House, by stealing classified documents from the office of VP Dick Cheney. A second reason for the souring of the Americans on Erap may have been the insistence of Morales to include communists and pro-communists in his Solidarity �transition council� that was programmed to take over government as soon as Arroyo was overthrown, as I have pointed out several times in this space. What damaging secrets did Aragoncillo steal? We don�t know entirely. But it must be more damaging to Arroyo (as well as to the Americans) than the tidbit that they were referring to her as The Penguin. Erap and Lacson must be under some pressure not to reveal any meatier secrets, such as the identity of the Filipino agents used by the Americans, or details about US electronic eavesdropping on PGMA.. Erap and Lacson are both un-indicted co-conspirators in the charge sheet against Aragoncillo. The implication is that if they were to become indiscreet, they could also be indicted, and the Arroyo government would only be too glad to agree to their extradition to the US for them to face trial there. The Americans are understandably miffed that someone had the nerve to steal documents from the inner sanctum of the White House. The security-conscious neo-cons are not only miffed, they are fuming mad, that one of their agents turned out to be a double-agent. In the cosmic order of things, the documents that Aragoncillo stole from the White House for the Philippine opposition do not approach the importance of the secrets stolen by CIA Agent Aldrich Ames or FBI Agent Robert Philip Hansen, both, but separately, for the Soviets. But what rankles the Americans most is that their security was breached by a two-bit double-agent from an inconsequential Third World country that doesn�t even have any secrets worth stealing. So Aragoncillo spied for two sides. Who was the third spy? When the Garci tape scandal broke out in April or May 2005, I wrote in Junta? Maybe. Erap? No (June 07, 2005) that I wouldn�t be surprised if the Americans turned out to be the ultimate source of the mother tape, as part of their efforts to remove Gloria Arroyo from power, and replace her with the then favored Erap. It was no coincidence that the Garci tapes were first made public by a former lawyer of Erap. This was confirmed by investigative journalist Wayne Madsen (www.waynemadsenreport.com) whose report I quoted in Uncle Dick and Lolo Abat (Dec. 20, 2005): �Aragoncillo passed Cheney�s reports on Macapagal-Arroyo, some of which were obtained from National Security intercepts, to Estrada, a political opponent of Macapagal-Arroyo. Estrada was planning a coup against Macapagal-Arroyo with US support.� (Emphasis mine.) Madsen repeated this allegation in his article of December 15, 2005 titled �Cheney Behind Philippine Coup Attempts?:� that Aragoncillo �provided Philippine opposition figures with damaging classified information on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gleaned from US intelligence sources, including communications intercepts.� (Emphasis mine.) I was right on all counts. Readers who want more details about these maneuvers are invited to access all four articles above in www.tapatt.org as it is not possible to cram all the minutiae here. In April 15, 2005, the US Embassy in Manila reported to Washington that �reports from the US Defense Attache�s Office suggest (the coup plotters) are planning an unspecified military operation� involving elements from all four services to intimidate President Arroyo into resigning. Two scenarios were considered: goading President Arroyo to declare a state of emergency, �prompting the military � unwilling to repress citizens of any political stripe � either to refuse or to turn against the President. The other scenario is a general strike. We now know that the first scenario was actually attempted in February 2006 (involving elements of the Rangers, Marines and PNP � three out of four services). But it did not succeed, not only because the middle class declined to play along with the trapos and the communists, but also because, in my opinion, the Americans � like the middle class, clueless on who to replace PGMA with � ratted on their contacts in the rebellious military and helped the loyalist military foil the rebels� bid to seize power for the Erap trapos and the communists. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles since 2001 in www.tapatt.org. Current articles also in tonyabaya.multiply.com and in tapatt.yahoogroups.com. 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| Reactions to �Spy vs Spy vs Spy� Interesting. BTW, are you related to Tessie Abaya Okol? As previously mentioned, I print your E-mails and distribute them to my paisans. At least we are kept updated with truths and not fabrications. Great job - congratulations. Maria Mendoza, [email protected] May 26, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Aragones made cartoons for Mad Magazie? Can you show a sample? Ross Tipon, [email protected] Baguio City, Maty 26, 2006 MY REPLY. He sure did. But my collection of Mad (I am one of the few persons in the world who have first 100 issues of Mad) is in storage, and I do not have time to dig them up. You will just have to take my word that Sergio Aragones was a regular contributor to the magazine. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hard to imagine that U.S. will be involved with a small country like ours. Ano makukuha nila sa atin? Mike Delgado, [email protected] May 27, 2006 MY REPLY. You never heard of the Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia and their expressed intention to create a Pan-Islamic state, to include parts of Mindanao? You never heard of the Spratly Islands and China�s claim to it and other isles in the South China Sea, or that there might be oil in the area? wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Given that the cold war is over (sort of) and communism is dead or will soon be when JoMa, Satur, and the rest of the commie congressmen kick the bucket, there goes the funding for the NPA), what could be the rationale for the US to have any interest whatsoever in manipulating Philippine politics. There is no more tactical advantage to being in the Philippines. If anything we are at best a bad habit the Americans seem reluctant to break. Americans spying ON the Philippines? I dont think so. It may be SOP for the US to have some type of intelligence gathering mechanism in most countries (you never know when the axis block will reunite) but to have to PHYSICALLY have a spy or double agent is almost ridiculous. All email is filtered through internet connections and even text/calls can be monitored (I love technology). At best this story sounds like Erap (and his motley crew) tried to pull his weight with the spy pinoy style. Paki usap. Padrino. Pera. And in true pinoy fashion fucked it up. Personally I hope the spy hangs. Traitors are not looked upon fondly in teh US...unlike in this country where they go on to be senators. The best and funniest part about it is that all this spy could feed then with was stuff that they already knew about ourselves (to us FIlipinos secrecy is like a sieve). The Americans must have been laughing their asses off (after they fired some internal idiot that allowed it to happen) that the best our spy could do was stuff that could be culled from a local paper and coffee house gossip. I can almost imagine the last thoughts running through Mr. Spys head as they walk him up the gallows towards the hang mans noose, "All this for that?" he might ask him self. "I guess I should have gotten another Ninong at my kasal...hahahahaha...snap" Now thats funny. Jaime Garchitorena, [email protected] May 29, 2006 MY REPLY. The US federal government has indicted and is trying Leandro Aragoncillo for espionage against the US, including stealing secrets from the office of VP Dick Cheney. What more proof do you want or need to be convinced that Aragoncillo was indeed a spy? The fact that he visited the Philippines 15 times while he was employed by the FBI and the Office of VP Cheney means he was also being used by the US to gather information about and against the Philippine government, through opposition politicians. That means he was also spying for the US. That makes him a double agent. It would be na�ve to think that the US never spies on its friends. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Very appropriate title. Would have made MAD publisher...... proud! Jayjay Calero, [email protected] May 29, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The Da Vinci Brouhaha and the Persistence of Belief By Ross Tipon I have read the book and have seen the movie and my faith remains, says Dong Puno (Manila Standard). This statement seems to echo what most "reasonable" Catholic believers hold. It is most apropos to recall what David Wells said in the World in a Word quoted herein: "The church needs to begin by recognizing how modernity works to rearrange the religious landscape. The old secularization thesis, that religion would retreat before the processes of secularization until it disappeared, may seem more plausible in Europe today than it is in America. The fact is that modernity does not necessarily eliminate religion, but it does work to rearrange it. Modernity is hostile to biblical faith, not necessarily to faith in general. It is quite telling, I think, that in Germany where there are 30,000 clergy of all kinds, there are 90,000 witches and fortune tellers. In France, there are 26,000 Roman Catholic priests but 40,000 astrologers. And in America today, it is clear that side by side with its growing modernity there is a gathering tide of spirituality of every kind that is seeping into society. Modernity is coexisting with these spiritualites because they are compatible with it-and in many ways biblical faith is not." The Church (at least the Roman part) has survived through more heinous crimes like the Inquisition and the Crusades and still retains a large following. Most of its believers today may not be of the same make up as those when these horrible crimes were committed but they believe (for whatever that is worth) in the Scriptures, more or less. Perhaps more important for them is the sense of belonging, of going through milestone rites like baptism, confirmation, marriage etc. in the company of their loved ones friends. It is not naughty pseudo-historical books like the Da Vinci Code that threatens the Church but Modernity as Wells has assayed. Modernity is hostile to Biblical faith, not necessarily to faith in general. This statement is very telling. This lies at the very appeal of Dan Brown. He is a very successful faith re-arranger. Ron Hubbard ("Scientology") has tried it. His money success, large indeed, does not come close to Brown's megabucks. His appeal is very much narrower. Unlike Hubbard Brown is not propagating religion per se. Hence his appeal is very eclectic thus wider. His appeal is not to modernity, on the contrary to the Will to Believe. Modernity has no popular spokesmen and doesn't have need for one. People like George Soros or scholars like Joseph Schumpeter and Max Weber of an earlier age are the types who can explain what modernity is and their message is beamed to the elite who have little need for religion. In a sense Brown is very much like H. G. Wells, exploring science fiction. Modernity: think of the cellphone. A friend can just punch in and say that today he has become an atheist. Or the condom. Whatever the strictures of the Vatican are, most believers will use it for as long as it is available within reason. There are males who refuse to use it because it goes against their notions of the macho. That has nothing to do with religion. In a sense the disbelief that books like the Da Vinci Code puts forward has been discounted like bad news about a stock. As long as there is perceived value in the security there will always be a "price support" level. Of course even an amateur investor knows that this price support moves up and down like the ebb and flow of mankind. It is understandable why many Opus Dei members are mad as a hatter. It is a direct attack on them and their practices. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Adios, Patria Adorada The Filipino as Ilustrado, The Ilustrado as Filipino By Alfredo Roces My ego has just received a pleasant massage. As this happens very rarely, pardon the immodesty and allow me to share this with you. God bless. Ding Roces, [email protected] Sydney, Australia Jonathan Best is an American writer-consultant. Recently, as consultant, he was instrumental in helping to set up the Ortigas Foundation Library. This library was established to house the collection of Morton Hertzog's Filipiniana Collection from his Cellar Book Shop in Detroit and the personal reference library of the late historian Dr. Gregorio F. Zaide. A New Yorker from a publishing family (Viking Press) he is an art historian and the author of "Philippine Picture Post Cards 1900-1920" (Bookmark, 1994). The Enlightened Elite By Jonathan Best June 05, 2006, Newsbreak Still hard at work in his 70s and drawing on a lifetime of research and critical analysis of Philippine history and the arts, historian Alfredo Roces now enjoys the freedom of not having to worry so much about currently fashionable theories. Roces was recognized as an outstanding young man of the Philippines with a TOYM award in 1961 and fulfilled his youthful promise with outstanding work as a painter, a popular newspaper columnist for the Manila Times, and a writer of books on outstanding Filipino artists. In 1975, he was editor of the encyclopedic 10-volume "Filipino Heritage" series published in Sydney, Australia, where Roces has lived the last 30 years. In 2005 he launched an exceptionally beautiful monograph on the artist Anita Magsaysay Ho. His latest work "Adios, Patria Adorada: The Filipino as Ilustrado, the Ilustrado as Filipino" is a straightforward history of the formation of Filipino national identity, from the mid-19th to the first years of the 20th century. As the Philippines opened up to international commerce, a new prosperous class of Philippine-born Spanish criollos and a native mestizo elite came into being, a complex mix of Spanish, Chinese, and indigenous indios. This ilustrado class was typified by such men as Dr. Jose Rizal, the painter Juan Luna, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Pedro Paterno, Marcelo del Pilar and the group of the Propaganda Movement that settled in Spain in the 1880'S and '90'S. The Cavite Mutiny of 1872 and subsequent arbitrary garroting of Father, Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora radicalized this generation. The continuing depredations of the arch-conservative Catholic Friars and the ineffectual colonial bureaucrats eventually drove this new class of idealistic and patriotic young men to the revolutionary barricades. They eventually gave up their identification with Spain and sought a new identity as "Filipinos." Roces makes the somewhat unfashionable point that despite the romantic notions of leftist historians of a generation ago such as Agoncillo and Constantino, it was the ilustrados' elite education, money, mobility and unbridled love of "Las Filipinas, patria adorada" that was the driving force behind the formation of a modern Filipino identity, and the demand for independence and revolution in the late 1890s. Whether it was Rizal and Del Pilar fighting over who would pay for the champagne, or Juan Luna at the Caf� Ingles in Madrid in 1883, or Aguinaldo's famous inaugural banquet complete with silk top hats and a French menu in 1899, these leaders were not struggling workers and peasants. The ranks of the revolutionary movement swelled as members of the indigenous principalia were recruited and working-class leaders like Andres Bonifacio joined in, but it was the ilustrados who spearheaded events as early as the 1870s. Roces adds more fuel to the controversy by suggesting it was even the pre-Spanish traditions of kinship politics endemic to the indigenous principalia where "personality and personal prestige mattered far more than principles and issues" that made a unified national stuggle for identity and liberation so difficult. Rizal dreamed of a pre-colonial Lost Eden, which clearly never existed.The real Eden was his patriotic dream of a united and egalitarian nation. After documenting the rise of the ilustrados and their failed fight for equality and political representation in Spain, Roces turns to the struggle at home. The rise of the katipunan, the outbreak of fighting, and the tragic execution of Dr. Jose Rizal ended all hopes of reconciliation with Spain. Roces describes how, sadly for Philippine history, Andres Bonifacio and his brothers were no match for Aguinaldo's Cavite�o kinship and crony politics in 1897. This same parochial divisiveness proved fatal in the struggle against the American invaders two years later as Aguinaldo's own Secretary of Defense, Antonio Luna, was murdered by fellow Filipinos as well. As the American troops continued to arrive and lucrative opportunities were offered to the remaining ilustrados, many followed their class instincts and accepted the promise of a progressive American administration. Most of the true idealists such as Rizal, Lopez Jaena and Del Pilar were dead or in exile by then. Roces tells the story of the ilustrados with the flowing pen and good eye for cultural detail. Unlike so many history books this one is a good read and in fact hard to put down once you start. Roces is especially revealing in his candid analysis of racism which was an intrinsic part of colonial domination. In the past, mainstram Filipino historians seem to have avoided this painful but highly relevant issue, which continues to haunt Filipino society. Alfredo Roces takes the liberty of ending his good work with a bit of encouragement for present-day Filipinos, possibly with an eye on the denizens of elite civil society. He writes: "Isn't it time we examine this Filipino identity that the Ilustrados invented, and accept it as a phenomenon over which we have been given the power to shape and develop? The 'Perdido Eden' of their dreams has long been amidst us to reclaim." It's laudable that De La Salle University chose to publish this excellent book by a prominent historian, but why did they print only 500 copies? Are there really so few readers of history left in this nation of 83 million souls? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |