Pacific Island Times PIT November 2018 Vol 3 No. 11 | Page 6

Insights
I
Anthrax in Guam
Truth vs. fiction
recently heard a TV commentary
describing the Watergate scandal
of the 1970s as “quaint” and
“pedestrian.”
That’s quite a comment, given that
Watergate forced a president to re-
sign, sent a number of his associates
and appointees to prison and carved
out a previously unchallenged label
as America’s worst political scandal
in its 200 year plus history.
On the other hand, I
don’t dispute that Don-
ald Trump in less than
two years has carved
out a position vis-à-vis
scandal far overshad-
owing Richard Nixon
and Watergate. It’s now
up to Special Counsel
Bob Mueller to fill in the
details, which regardless
of anything the president
does, will eventually be
laid before us.
Donald John Trump is
famously averse to read-
ing to the extent that his tweets and
vocabulary suggest to some that he
barely knows how to do it. If he did
read however, I would suggest that
he take a look at some of the huge
volume of literature, fictional and
non-fictional, that have grown out of
Watergate.
Thomas Mallon, a long time chron-
icler of Washington, D.C. took on
Watergate in his recent novel titled—
surprise—Watergate. A central char-
acter is Fred LaRue. You had to have
lived through it or read a bit about
Watergate to recall LaRue, a quiet
southerner who raised and moved
a lot of money around, helping to
support the burglars who broke into
the Democratic National Committee,
where LaRue coincidentally had an
apartment.
How quaint, breaking into an office
and rifling files, when Russian hack-
6
rom the
comment box
ers are willing to take care of the job!
As Mallon imagines it: “As LaRue
reentered the living room, he heard
Magruder saying that Hugh Sloan,
the buttoned-up kid who was the
campaign treasurer, had come to him
today, upset to say the least, with
news that the money found on the
burglars could be traced back to the
CRP [aka/CREEP, Nixon’s reelection
committee]. And this: “The presi-
dent’s strategy,” said
[Attorney General John]
Mitchell, “is to look as
if we’re cooperating
even while we claim
executive privilege for
everyone down to the
janitor. And, oh yeah,”
he remembered to add,
“the president says
we’re supposed to draw
everyone’s attention to
the ‘good things’…”
LaRue smiled. “[Chuck]
Colson says the return
of the POWs equals one
thousand Watergates.”
And there’s Roy Hoopes’ novel, A
Watergate Tape. It’s a fairly conven-
tional whodunit drawing literally on
lots of Watergate material from the
journalism of the day. Journalist Ray
Hartley gets entrapped in the scandal
like most of D.C. when an old friend
informs him that—if something bad
happens to him—he’ll receive a tape
that will explain. Bad turns out to be
either his suicide or murder on the
beach and eventually Hartley gets the
tape, though it’s not one of Nixons.
As did mystery novels of an earlier
day (think Nick and Nora Charles of
the Thin Man), Harley is blessed with
a wife who has a lot of good in-
stincts. Talking about the huge num-
ber of top-level resignations going on
at the time: “Were they going to try
to plea bargain and get immunity or
a lighter sentence for telling every-
thing they knew? Or were they going
to fall on their sword for Richard
Nixon? “Not likely,” said Dory. “I
bet they’re scrambling all over each
other to see who can get a deal.”
Sound familiar? Definitely worth a
read.
Truth versus fiction? In one recent
day, the Saudi government came up
with the most outrageous explana-
tion for what became of their fellow
countryman Jamal Kashoggi at their
embassy in Istanbul. Never mind
that those 15 Saudis sent to meet
with Kashoggi were lugging along a
bonesaw, with which everyone except
Donald Trump believes they used to
make mincemeat of a mild dissident.
The Saudis claim that a 60-year-old
pudgy guy died in a brawl with those
15 guys, but somehow, they can’t
produce the body. And then there
was the first indictment of a Russian
person for further cyber-interference
in the 2018 election suggesting that
Putin’s folks haven’t given up on this
sort of activity.
Watergate may have been pedes-
trian, but at least it—not the ensuing
coverup—ended with the break in.
And speaking of books, let me say
goodbye to a real book man, Mark
Foster, who I just learned died in
Wisconsin. Mark became the mentor
and lifelong friend of a 14-year-old
kid who hung around Paul’s Book
Store in Madison until he got a job
there. Mark went on to a distin-
guished career at the UW Library,
where he supervised digitalization
of many of its holdings. Mark and I
hauled a lot of books out of Madison
attics and resold them on State Street.
Mark always kept his hand in as a
bookseller and some of the volumes
he sent my way are a part of the
collections at the Micronesian Area
Research Center at the University of
Guam. Adios Mark and I hope you
find the volumes you are looking for,
however obscure they may be.
Your recent story, “Guam a
secondary recipient of anthrax
shipment,” contains a lead that is
highly inaccurate/misleading and
only stokes unnecessary fear and
misinformation, especially as it
relates to Agent Orange.
The U.S. military remains
committed to protecting the
natural environment, spending
millions of dollars each year
to protect endangered species,
removing invasive species and
funding studies to find new
innovative ways to protect and
enhance the natural environment
in Guam. The military does this in
concert with our local and federal
partners and always adheres to
Federal environmental laws.
Guam EPA and JRM already
clarified to media that the
information in a previous
article was inaccurate about soil
sampling.
In most recent lab results, there
were trace detections of herbicide
constituents, but not traces of
“Agent Orange.” The distinction
is very important.
Detection of traces of 2,4-D
and 2,4,5-T does not necessarily
indicate the presence of a tactical
herbicide, like Agent Orange.
2, 4-D is still widely used in
common herbicide formulations
today and 2,4,5-T was acceptable
for use in the U.S. as an herbicide
until 1985 (both were used in
non-tactical, commercial uses).
Additionally, it is worth noting
that there will be resampling
efforts not because there were
discrepant results between labs,
but because there were also
some quality assurance issues
from the lab that came back with
herbicide traces. The working
group that manages and executes
the sampling and testing was
prepared for this type of situation
and agreed to resampling.
— Lt. Ian M. McConnaughey,
USN Public Affairs Officer, Joint
Region Marianas Public Affairs