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Formed in 1945, during Juan Domingo Perón’s first presidency, and established by Executive Decree 337/46- the C.I.D.E (State Intelligence Coordination), later named S.I.D.E, had the primary task of acting as the national intelligence agency. It was initially run by civilian personnel in Argentina.
Their mission purview extended to foreign and national affairs.
In the same exact manner of the C.I.A., and almost all the world’s intelligence organizations, this department has been the subject of a myriad of horrible debacles.
From the triple failed, and publicly laundered, assassination attempts on the lives Isabel Allende, Rodolfo Matarollo and Enrique Erro in Paris, during the de-facto military government in Argentina; to a well publicized, and highly anecdotal, Operation code named ‘Marilyn’- in which blond shapely women infiltrated the beds of Cuban diplomats, and official delegates that island, during their festive nights out at ‘Café la Biela’ in the neighborhood of Recoleta; a small ‘faux pas’, that ultimately won them nothing and ended up costing a handful of female agents, who defected to Castro’s paradise. - and, finally, and quite possibly the worst to the C.I.A.’s consternation, the Ross Newland scandal of January 2001.
Labeled as ‘a violation of game rules’ by the international intelligence community, this particular fisticuff marked a considerable breakdown between the CIA and the SIDE’s partnership; a lucrative collaboration, that had grown extensively warm during Carlos Menem’s administration, had suddenly been soiled by American distrust. So much so, that CIA’s station was, as a consequence, relocated from Buenos Aires to the neighboring capital of Uruguay.
In the beginning of 2001, Página 12 -an Argentine newspaper- published an article with a detailed description of personal facts and photos of Ross Newland: CIA station Chief in Buenos Aires, and the primary candidate for head of the Latin American division. Said article also contained classified reports concerning the association between the U.S. and Argentina’s spy machine.
Argentina, in the beginning of the 21st century, had two beneficial tools for would-be criminals, and potential threats, to The United States interest; both abroad and domestic.
1: An open door policy for Aliens; an almost non-existing set of requirements for obtaining legal immigrant status. A process that required almost no background checks. In the end Argentinian citizenship was assessable in a quick-end, fluent manner to everyone who so desired it.
2: Argentina, and it’s citizens, had a treaty with the United States: In which both of its populace could visit each other, without the need of a tourist visa; a program known as ‘visa waiver.’
As such, given those two bureaucratic loopholes, Argentina had become the staging ground for all types of fiends, that wished to enter U.S. territory, and operate outside the margins of the law.
The CIA, under Newland’s direction, had been pressuring its Argentinian counter part, SIDE, to investigate an enterprise composed from the likes of the Russian Mafia and ex-KGB agents, that freely operated within Argentina’s territory. They were conducting a smuggling ring of epic proportions.
A few months before Newland had accused the SIDE of following/tracking him and his agents, as well as performing unsanctioned wiretaps and audio surveillance- a peculiar problem that was also shared, and admonished, by the Israeli Mossad and the German’s BND.
By thiat point, the relation was waiting for the last straw to break the camel’s back.
A melting pot of conflicts had been stirred, and it all came to a boil, when the CIA discovered: that not only was the SIDE not investigating, or making a governmental issue, of what the American’s called ‘the Russian problem’, but it was in actuality helping the enemy newcomers insert themselves in the local market by selling them priceless information.
The famous New Year article only served to inflame the American Agency's mood. It was seen as a publicity stunt; orchestrated to not only discredit the CIA, but also reveal hidden human assets, agents, in the war against crime.
The leak was later traced to, the then head of the Secretariat’s counter-intelligence service, retired Major Alejandro Broussoun. An ex-military service men from the Engineers Corps, and a one-time follower of the ultra-nationalist right wing ‘Carapintadas’ organization.
It was a ploy devised, by Brousson, to obfuscate the field and allow the, equally beneficial, financial relationship between the Russians and The SIDE to continue un-molested; it was interpreted as a drowning man’s feeble last stroke.
The scandal ended up putting a dark blemish between both agencies’s kinship and alliances. Major Broussoun was expelled as a peace offering, but the stain had already permeated the fabric; the damage was done.
From that year on: The CIA and the SIDE became two bullies in a schoolyard. They tolerated, feared and understood the necessity for each other, but, although they were on the same side of the fence, they couldn’t stomach their counterpart; there is nothing crueler than seeings one’s self in the mirror and wishing to punch the reflection
Excerpt: The Wraith of The Obelisk- L.J. Gomez.
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