Here's 'most influential person' of 20th and 21st centuries

Who was the most influential person of the 20th century?

A case can be made for many giant figures, but for Christopher Monckton, a former adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, there is one that stands above the rest.

At a recent conference on the climate change controversy, Monckton was talking about the ideological shift in centers of power and influence that has taken place over the past several decades when he put up on a screen a black-and-white photograph.

"This is most influential man of the 20th century and, arguably, the beginning of the 21st," he said.

Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa

Monckton asked the audience to name him, but no one offered an answer.

The man, he said, is Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, who in 1978, became the highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence officer ever to defect to the West.

Former CIA director James Woolsey says "Disinformation," by former top Soviet bloc spy chief Ion Mihai Pacepa, is "a remarkable book will change the way you look at intelligence, foreign affairs, the press, and much else besides." It's available now at the WND Superstore!

Monckton said it's the first time he's been able to talk about Pacepa, because of the "30-year rule" on classified information.

He recalled Pacepa was debriefed after his dramatic defection.

"The thing that surprised us was the extent of what he had done," said Monckton, speaking at the Heartland Institute's 12th International Conference on Climate Change in Washington, D.C., held March 23 and 24.

"There were 1 million Soviet agents of influence who were Western communists who were attached to and in contact with the disinformation directorate," he said.

"And that is why, just in my lifetime, from university until now, this astonishing lurch to the far totalitarian left has occurred in the media and elsewhere."

Monckton noted that Pacepa tells the story in his groundbreaking book, published by WND Books, "Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism."

A documentary of the same name has been produced along with the book, and currently a feature-length dramatic Hollywood film, based on the book "Disinformation," is in the works, produced by RiverRock Films.

Pacepa, having survived multiple assassination attempts, lives under deep cover in the United States due to ongoing security concerns. His international bestseller “Red Horizons” exposed the massive crimes and corruption of his former boss, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, and was regarded by President Reagan as "my bible for dealing with dictators."

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., hands President Reagan a manuscript of Pacepa's book "Red Horizons"

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., hands President Reagan a copy of Pacepa's book "Red Horizons"

'Astonishing change'

Monckton, in his talk about how the theory of human-caused climate change has gained so much influence despite conflicting evidence, said most people are unaware of how they are being indoctrinated.

Christopher Monckton

He noted an "astonishing change" has taken place "everywhere where power is exercised and influence is wielded," citing the media, universities, churches, unions, "big business" and "big politics."

"How have virtually all of these centers of power gone to the very far totalitarian left so very quickly?"

Monckton pointed to Pacepa's appointment as the head of a then-newly formed division of Soviet-bloc intelligence called the Disinformation Directorate.

The directorate's operatives, Monckton said, "took every opportunity to worm their way into the media and into positions of influence and then use those positions to denigrate the reputations of those who had proved effective in opposing the Communist Party line anywhere in the world."

Monckton said he saw the impact of the KGB plan when he was studying at Cambridge University. A fellow student there was hired by the BBC precisely because he was a Marxist, Monckton said, noting the man is still working for the iconic broadcaster.

"And that's how the BBC recruited, and they still do, because this was the effect of Pacepa," he said.

Monckton, a British hereditary peer, the third Viscount Monckton of Brenchely, has served as a spokesman on climate change and environmental policy for the U.K. Independence Party. A science adviser to Prime Minister Thatcher in the 1980s, he frequently speaks and writes on the climate-change movement.

After his change of heart and spectacular defection in 1978, Pacepa provided invaluable intelligence to the CIA, working with the agency on various plots against the Eastern bloc. The CIA regarded his collaboration as "an important and unique contribution to the United States."

In response, the Ceausescu regime served two death sentences on him. The dictator created a special Securitate unit, U.M. 0195, staffed with about 1,000 officers and given the single task of assassinating Pacepa in the United States.

See Christopher Monckton's full presentation at the Heartland Institute's 12th International Conference on Climate Change in Washington, D.C., held March 23 and 24: