Black Ops - Prado

If you pick up a book about the CIA the first thing you should understand is that you are not going to be reading about top secret things.  At least not anything current, say within the last 75 years or so.   It’s funny the number of reviewers out there that think they are going to finally know what actually goes on at Langley, or at the Farm, or at any of the Country “Stations”, or at many clandestine overseas operating locations.   Even in a book describing events that happened a few decades ago, at best we will only catch a glimpse of these events, and these people, these fine Americans, if one, we have a clearance and have seen more behind the curtain already, or two, if some political upheaval was happening and one of the agents found themselves on the wrong end of a politically motivated, and very public, congressional inquiry.  That’s not the best time to know about them.  It’s better, most of the time, to let them go about their job and stay in the shadows.  Contrary to Hollywood belief, these folks do their job in silence to protect America from those who would do us harm.  Ric Prado, author of the new book about his life in the CIA, “Black Ops, The Life of a Shadow Warrior” gives us his perspective. If you know what goes on, at these places, having been there personally, having been through it all, you will know that Ric Prado has reliably translated actual experience into a worthy unclassified representation of the work of these hidden heros. They are Americans who labor in the shadows, to keep those who actively strive to “do us harm” all day, everyday, from doing so.   It’s an impossible job.  It’s a thankless job.  Ric Prado is attempting to thank them.  I think he succeeds.  In addition to successfully telling his story, Prado’s book reads like a recruitment manifesto.  He  has reached  out to a younger generation, those who might consider a job at the Central Intelligence Agency, and asked for them to apply.  He is offering them slightly more insight, into the Agency, than they could gain at a job fair or anecdotally through conversations with those “in the know”.  He’s giving them a glimpse of the life they could expect. I think Prado succeeds.  Hand this book to your young niece or nephew who would like to do something for their country.  Also, Prado helps the next generation understand that the world is an unstable place.   There is a lot of evil running around.   How do we attempt to know about that evil let alone keep in check.

The best part about Prado’s book, particularly if you were alive and politically aware of the National scene over the three decades from 1980 through about 2010 is that he walks through a number of the high profile situations that were on the front page offering not much other than a public admission that the CIA was deeply involved in covert actions in those areas of the world.  It will be tough to talk through these chapters without being mired in politics.   Some of the critics of Prado’s book accuse him of wrapping politics into his writing.   I do not find those criticisms to hold true.  Prado was very even handed about dealing with politics at the time.   He was not, however, even handed the truth regarding the reality of bad people wanting to do our Country harm and the vigilance we must possess to know them, watch them, and in cases where action against our country is imminent, act accordingly as it is our right, as a sovereign nation, to protect our people and our interests at home and abroad, in accordance with all applicable laws, treaties, orders, customs, and truths.  This is where it gets dicey.   I’ll try to be apolitical about the covert activities taking place, but less so regarding the clear and present danger the required action sought to eliminate.   Let’s start with the tyranny of evil men, to quote Samuel L Jackson (or Quentin Tarintino - since he rewrote the quote from Ezekiel 25:17).  “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides

by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.”  Prado was born in Cuba just as Fidel Castro was rising to power and Marxism was taking ideological hold on many of the have-nots due primarily to instances of economic imbalance and the perception of corruption in the hands of the powerful.  Whenever there is corruption or the perception of corruption those that would clean the government of these acts by sweeping them from power do so by attacking the political ideology, blaming the corruption on the politics rather than the corruption of those in power.  This happens on both the left and the right. Rather than attack politics, particularly in a functional democracy, why not simply root at the criminals.  Instead, by sweeping out the political party, instability in government arises.  When this happens, we form, or keep forming, third world countries that cease to function because they are always living on the edge. When a 1st world country experiences this political instability the entire world feels the machinations.

Prado begins in  his childhood.  Living a comfortable middle class life in a democratic Cuba he witnessed first hand the fall of the Cuban government, and the rise of Marxism under Fidel Castro.   Prado was forced to leave Cuba, ousted from his country,  his family losing their possessions and wealth at the hands of the new Marxist government, and had to start over in the United States.   Having nothing to do with the story of the CIA this revolution will put a bad taste in your mouth.  Having everything to do with the story of the CIA as it sets the stage for why the CIA must combat these revolutions on the streets of these countries whose instability could easily fall to a Marxist or Fascist regime inside the power vacuum and thus pose a threat to the freedoms and liberties of citizens world wide.  Prado witness, from an early age, why doing nothing, is not an option.

Nicaragua - Contra;s  Tyranny and Marxism

Peru -- Tyranny and Marxism

North Korea - Tyranny and Marxism

Africa -- Tyranny and Islamic Fundamentalism

Philippines --  Tyranny and Islamic Fundamentalism

Afghanistan  -- Tyranny and Islamic Fundamentalism

What currently divides our country is this belief that progressives on the left are all Marxist and conservatives on the right are all fundamentalists.   The truth is that both sides, left unchecked, lead to the tyranny of evil men on either side of the spectrum.  Socialistic leanings easily cascades into unchecked Marxism and the abuses of a communist dictatorship.  Ascribing to conservatives rule, cascades into  radical fundamentalism and the abuses of a fascist dictatorships.  These two extremes have been demonstrated in the petri dish of so many countries we easily lose count.  These social experiments have played out again and again to the misery and destruction of so many innocent civilians…it quickly becomes impossible for the human mind to grasp the world wide tragedies that have in so many cases led to genocide.    

So, in a nutshell, here’s what goes on.  Training, a lot of training.  Education, a lot of education.  Reading, a lot of reading for the purpose of researching a topic, coupled with a lot of writing, to report on that topic.  The subject, however, is as fascinating as the world has places to go, and people to see.    It can be as boring and mundane as……but in a dangerous world and someone needs to be ready for it.

Five Stars for Prado’s attempt at explaining why we must stay vigilant and ready in a world of evildoers.  It’s not the political  ideology itself that is at issue.  There are as many belief systems for how to create a Utopia as there are ways to raise your child.  All of us would like to live in Utopia.  The human condition, whether handed to us through millions of years of evolution to favor one’s self, or through a more Biblically based belief that evil exists as a by-product of original sin, we live in a dangerous and treacherous world.  Peace and prosperity, 1st world countries built on democracy with a constitution and respect for liveries and legal process should be sufficient evidence of the superiority of these social constructs as to be irrefutable.