Two possibilities for running a DG campaign in the post 1970 "Cowboy Years":

1) Hoover's Death
It's well known that old JEH kept tons of blackmail material on just about everybody who was, or even might become, anybody. Some authors (notably Kyle Mills, in "Free Fall") have explored the possibility of some of the terrible things in those hidden files coming to light many years later.

Why wait? The FBI must have been heavily infiltrated by DG during it's legitimate run and many of the "surviving" agents in the 70's were probably scattered around the Bureau. Hoover's free use of the Black Bag job fits right in with the DG style, so many of the FBI DGers would have naturally gravitated to those operations. I'm sure many a paranormally dabbling target of these secret investigations later met surprising, untimely ends after a"night at the opera". But, in such a diverse program, there'd have been many things missed. Perhaps, in the post hoover shuffle of authority, a former DG agent managed to get close enough to the top to get a look at those files. What sort of odd things might suddenly come to light, secret machinations that might cause him to call up some of his fellow opera fans and take unilateral action?

2. SOD/ISA
In the early 80s, according to various sources (my favorite is "Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era" by Steve Emerson), the US Army formed a number of special intelligence and clandestine action units. Two of them. the "Special Operations Division" and the "Intelligence Support Activity" seemed to operate in the same spheres of influence, but seperately (?). Both were massively and secretely funded and both seemed to show the "cowboy" attitude attributed to Delta Green.

It might be interesting to consider the possibility that one or the other of these was actually a front organization set up by DG members still in the military. According to "Secret Warriors" both of these groups operated with relative impunity until the mid-80s, when the Iran-Contra investigations started slinging around all kinds of financial abuse allocations (not hard to accuse someone of stealing money that they didn't have to account for, eh?). One hears rumors even now of thier continued existance (most recently here by Agent Crossingham), but who knows what they might have morphed into after various purges, secret trials and "accidents", post Iran-Contra?

Even more interesting would be if these two competing agencies were avatars of *both* MJ-12 and DG. My personal favorite for DG is the ISA, which appeared to be directly tied to operating with Delta Force in both preparation of areas for DF operations and locating/sanctioning terrorists preemptively. Between both units, there couldn't have been more than a couple of hundred people operating worldwide...a nice, tight DG-like operation. And, of course, monly key operators would actually be DG aware, hiding thier activities behind code word clearances and the natural tendancy of people accustomed to such work not to gossip. As a friend of mine used to say back in the 80s (playing "Top Secret"), in Black Ops, you ask your friends how they've been, but never *where* they've been.

If this seems like too much "punch" for DG scenarios, remember two things. First, the more resources you move, the bigger the "footprint" of even a clandestine operation. Just becauce the ISA might have had access to "SEASPRAY" advanced helocoptor gunships doesn't mean that they would gunship a target that can be handled with a sniper rifle. This type of operation, however secret and classified, would be operating right in MJ-12's backyard and that proximity would indicate extreme caution in the more visible ops. If those gunships destroy a hidden temple in the Syrian desert and rumors are circulated that it was a terrorist training camp, who cares? If they hit a coffee house in the suburbs of Brussels, that's something different...

Second, the group might have operated for a short period of time. There was a definite shakeup in the mid-80s in Army SpecOps as Congress went witch hunting. Unpurged DG operators in the organization might have dissappeared or gone even "Blacker". Any who were insulated from exposure might have stayed on to keep their valuble positions, but abandoned the use of such high powered resources as too risky.

Thoughts?


Credits: Mark Beatty ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )