Dr. Jack Wheeler, whose death-defying adventures span the globe and whose achievements have inspired wide-ranging acclaim, is one geopolitical expert who doesn’t mince words.
Wheeler’s latest barbs are reserved for the Central Intelligence Agency, which despite common perception, he says, is populated by anything but right-wing operatives.
“Most folks think the CIA is a right-wing outfit,” Wheeler writes on his unique intelligence website, To the Point. “It is not. The CIA has been dominated by incompetent left-wing hyper-liberals for years. The worst mistake of George Bush’s presidency was not replacing Clinton holdover George Tenet as CIA director. This is a guy responsible for the single greatest intelligence failure in U.S. history (being unaware of 9-11), who sweet-talked his way into Bush’s confidence and was able to keep his job because he named the CIA Headquarters after [Bush’s] father.”
Available to subscribers of To the Point, Wheeler’s piece goes on to discuss Tenet’s demise and reminds readers he predicted who the ex-CIA chief’s replacement would be, former Rep. Porter Goss. Wheeler describes how the CIA bureaucracy waged a war against Goss’ confirmation, which took months to be approved.
“The key to understanding this war,” writes Wheeler, “is that the CIA doesn’t simply live in a pre-September 11 world where terrorism is only a ‘nuisance’ – it is that the CIA lives in a left-wing world, the same left-wing world as the State Department. Both worship at the Shrine of Accommodation, Appeasement and Compromise.”
The analysis tells of both successful and unsuccessful attempts by CIA bureaucrats to undermine Goss and his plans to shake up management at the agency. In addition, Wheeler discusses what he considers an October Surprise cooked up by Bush opponents in the CIA to discredit him before next month’s election.
Summing up the intra-agency battles going on, Wheeler writes, “It’s wartime at Langley as you read this.”
As far as what exactly the October Surprise is, Wheeler says readers will have to
subscribe to ‘To the Point’ to find out.
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Besides writing for To the Point, Wheeler heads the Freedom Research Foundation, which currently is working on what he calls the Free Iran Project. The project applies “Reagan Doctrine strategies toward the liberation of Iran,” he explained.
The website is global, Wheeler says, “but we really focus on issues people are really interested in … key areas of geo-strategic and national security import for the United States.”
‘Religion without a future’
Wheeler said Islam is also a focus of To the Point, including “the nature of Islam and the problems Islam faces – with regard to us and with regard to its own future.”
“Quite frankly,” he said, “there are a lot of extinct religions in the history pages, and Islam is going to become extinct unless it’s reformed.
“When you start blowing yourself up, when you get that kind of insane desperation, you’re history,” he said. “This is a religion without a future unless it reforms.”
On his site, Wheeler includes a subscription article comparing the Aztecs with Arabs: “Both the Arabs and the Aztecs invented a religion of jihad as a rationale to justify their imperialist empires. …”
“War – Holy War – became the purpose of the Aztec state. All soldiers in the Aztec army were holy warriors, warriors of the gods. Peace was dangerous. No war meant no prisoners to sacrifice, no food for the gods, which risked the destruction of mankind and the universe itself. The only way to avoid cosmic disaster was for the Aztecs to accept the burden fate had given them and wage perpetual war for the salvation of humanity.
“All in all, a pretty clever rationalization for a monstrous imperialist tyranny, wouldn’t you say? Sounds like they were taking religion-inventing lessons from the Arabs.”
Adventure in his blood
Wheeler has always been drawn by the thrill and accomplishment of adventure. He became the youngest Eagle Scout in history at age 12 before becoming the youngest person to climb the Matterhorn in Switzerland at age 14.
“People collect things,” Wheeler explains. “They collect stamps, or coins, or porcelain. At 14, I decided what I wanted was to collect extraordinary experiences. You could lose your stamps or coins, but you can never lose what you have done with your life.”
Wheeler swam the Hellespont like Leander in Greek mythology, was adopted into a tribe of Amazon headhunters and successfully hunted a man-eating tiger in South Vietnam while still in high school.
“My intellectual adventures began when I read Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises and Aristotle, inspiring me to get a Ph.D. in Philosophy,” he said. “I explored Africa, the Gobi, Mongolia, Central Asia, Tibet, the Himalayas, the Andes, Borneo and the South Pacific, discovered lost tribes in New Guinea and the Kalahari, took elephants over the Alps in Hannibal’s footsteps, skydived onto the North Pole, roused anti-Marxist guerrillas from Angola to Afghanistan and helped get rid of the Soviet Union.”
Forty years after Wheeler’s historic climb of the Matterhorn, he ascended the mountain again, this time with his 14-year-old eldest son, Brandon.
Wheeler completes his column entitled “What life is all about” this way:
“No lion, sitting underneath an acacia tree in the Serengeti, asks himself, ‘What does it mean to be a lion? What is the purpose of my existence?’ A lion has no choice but to unselfconsciously follow his genetic program. But human beings have to figure out how and why to survive, they have to choose a rationale that gives purpose and meaning for their lives. My choice has been to try and make my life, and now the life of my son, a thrilling adventure.”
Wheeler has worn many labels throughout his decades as an adventurer and geopolitical expert. The Wall Street Journal called him “the originator of the Reagan Doctrine.” The Washington Post called him “The Indiana Jones of the Right,” and Izvestiya, the organ of the Soviet Communist Party, called him an “ideological gangster.”
Wheeler says his site offers readers “mind-stretching pro-America insights on our lives, our politics and our world.”
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., sums up Wheeler’s extraordinary life:
“Jack Wheeler is just about the most interesting man I know. As a professional adventurer, he has discovered lost tribes and led expeditions to every corner of the globe. As a geopolitical strategist, he created the Reagan Doctrine, which led to the demise of the Soviet Union. He is a brilliantly original thinker and deeply perceptive analyst of world events. I value his counsel and friendship.”
Here’s how Wheeler describes his online resource:
“To The Point intends to be both the world’s most accurate and insightful geopolitical intelligence service, and a pro-America, pro-capitalist, pro-Western Civilization intellectual ammunition service for defenders of liberty.
“Our goal is for our subscribers to look upon To The Point as an oasis of reason and insight. Our subscribers are becoming the most highly informed people in America.”
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