Spooked

WISH YOU may, wish you might, but you won’t have the wish you have for Clark.

So spake a CIA – civilian in Angeles, of the CIA – the Clark International Airport. Some cloak-and-dagger credential did indeed obtain in the CIA, having worked in and retired from naval intelligence. So indulging in his take of the CIA – the airport, is no waste of intelligence or time.

The CIA as the premier international gateway of the Philippines will never fly. So he says, with the conviction of Thomas having touched the pierced side of the Risen Christ.

How so?

America will not allow it. Else it would be deprived of its best military training facility. You think good old USA will just let go of its investment in the space shuttle-ready runway at Clark, of the incomparable Crow Valley for bombing and strafing runs of its warbirds? Nothing comes close to Clark for the American eagle to sharpen its talons, so to speak.

And, as it was then so it is moreso now with Chinese belligerence in the Scarborough, er, Panatag Shoal, America’s wish is the Philippine government’s command...

Didn’t I tell you so?

Asked me the CIA in an email with my column of May 10, 2012 titled “Clark conspiracy” attached, the above passages highlighted for effect.

Yeah, the spook reacting there to the Philippine government offer of Clark – along with Subic and six other sites throughout the country – to the United States, pursuant to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement upheld last week by the Supreme Court as constitutional.

Under the EDCA, the US is allowed to build structures, store as well as pre-position weapons, defense supplies and materiel, station troops, civilian personnel and defense contractors, transit and station vehicles, vessels, and aircraft for a period of 10 years.

And here is where the desirability of Clark comes in, opined the CIA:

For one, in the matter of economics. There is nothing for the US to build anymore as it is all there, the most valuable requisite of long and wide twin runways having been built by the Americans themselves.

Two, Clark’s – Subic’s too – strategic location fits perfectly in the US’ “Pacific pivot” shift in its global posturing, er, positioning.

Three, Clark has been tried and tested for its suitability as jump-off point to rapid deployment of US forces, as proven in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Fourth, the all-important R&R for troop morale readily available, easily accessible, and very affordable at Fields Avenue.

Yeah, those itemized arguments all coming from him.

While he expressed sympathy with the militant Pamalakaya lamenting the Supreme Court decision upholding EDCA, the did not buy the group’s sentiment that “the US through its puppet-RP government wants to convert the country into a sole US-military annex under the guise of military modernization and external conflict protection.”

He simply cited what was part of our May 2012 column, to wit: Actually, there’s no need for the US to re-base its forces here. Notwithstanding the closure of its base in Okinawa. All that matters – in the American interest – is unrestricted access to Clark. Thus, the imperative that it should remain at most a limited-service airport, as it is now, with a few domestic flights and some budget carriers. 

With the current of events flowing out of the EDCA ruling and the long-running Clark conundrum, as I have never stopped writing about, I can only take back what I wrote then that the “real plot” of the CIA story – the ex-operative’s and the airport’s -- can never get any spookier than that.

It is getting frighteningly real.

It’s getting a lot like GI Joe’s being back to base. And we’ll be seeing more F-15s, V-22 Ospreys, C-130s, AH-64 Apaches and CH/HH-3 Jolly Green Giants, lesser and lesser Airbuses and Boeings at the Clark airport.

Shame.