Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.02.2007, Blaðsíða 18

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had jurisdiction of the documents I wasn’t
receiving.
Initially I thought the agency that had had
the documents must be The Department of
Immigration. Today, that department has
been renamed as The Department of Home-
land Security. I would comment on the name
change but I don’t want another phone call.
I had spent hours going over every inch of
the FBI files for any information that was not
obvious on the first reading. I did find in the
corner of one of the documents Laxness’ De-
partment of Immigration file number. One of
the ploys of the Freedom of Information Act
is to send you a form letter saying that they
“can neither confirm no deny the existence
of the files”. Before you can gain access to
the files first there has to be an admission
that the files actually exist. That admission
happens when you receive the files in a large
brown envelope and not before. The Depart-
ment of Immigration could not deny that the
files were in existence so I saved them some
postage.
Because of the encouragement of a few
who had an interest in my work I sent a re-
quest to the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA). I reasoned that with the current politi-
cal climate, the CIA was not going to send
me any files even if the documents did exist.
I was right but I did uncover some interesting
information which makes me believe that the
CIA may very well be the agency that has the
missing documents.
FBI Appeal
After waiting several months for a reply to
my FBI request for the three missing docu-
ments I received a denial October 9th. The
post mark on the envelope was October 3rd.
The denial letter was written August 17th.
You have 60 days to file an appeal from the
date of the denial letter. Mailing this letter
almost two months after it was written was
a good way to ensure that I would have little
or no time to file an appeal. With each denial
comes a letter explaining the appeal process.
The process on how to appeal this particular
denial did not accompany the letter. I had less
than a week to appeal and I had no informa-
tion on how to appeal this particular denial.
I wrote a sarcastic letter and in a couple of
weeks received instructions on how to ap-
peal. I filed an appeal and it was of course
denied.
The denial letter stated:
“I note that your appeal is limited to con-
cerns you have related to the FBI’s referral of
records to another agency. After carefully
considering your appeal, I have decided to
affirm the FBI’s action on your request. The
FBI referred eleven pages that originated
with another government agency for pro-
cessing and direct response to you.”
Hold on! I was originally told there were
three pages denied. On the phone the State
Department had mentioned nine pages.
Now in this denial I was being told there
were eleven pages.
The Department of Homeland
Security
My request to The Department of Homeland
Security went much smoother. The fact that
I had Laxness’ Department of Immigration
file number cut down the number of let-
ters where they would “neither confirm nor
deny the existence of the file”. July 8th 2005
I received a big brown envelope and a letter
stating that “We have completed the review
of all documents responsive to your request
and have identified 8 pages that are respon-
sive to your request” All but two of the pag-
es were totally blank. “We are withholding
6 pages in full”. One of the pages that I was
allowed to access was not legible. The other
page was one that I had in my FBI docu-
ments. There was a notation that was not on
my FBI copy. Hand written in fairly large print
was the word “Subversive Library Index”. I
have subsequently tried to get a copy of this
index but that request was denied and the
FBI will neither confirm nor deny if it exists.
Central Intelligence Agency
I was of the opinion that asking for docu-
ments from the CIA would be a complete
waste of time. Still there are those who had
followed my research and suggested that I
follow up with a request for any documents
that the CIA should have in its possession. In
a matter of several months I was both denied
the documents and the appeals. The letter
states:
“The Agency Release Panel has consid-
ered your appeal and has determined that the
Agency can neither confirm nor deny the ex-
istence or nonexistence of records responsive
to your request on the basis of the Freedom of
Information Act exemptions (b)(1) and (b)(3).
“Exemptions (1) (b) applies to matters
that are in fact properly classified pursuant
to such Executive Order.” “Exemption (b) (3)
applies to matters that are specifically ex-
empted from disclosure by statute provided
that such statute establishes particular cri-
teria for withholding or refers to particular
type of matters to be withheld”.
The files are classified and the type of
classification stated means they do not come
under the umbrella of the Freedom of Infor-
mation Act. I firmly believe that the CIA has
classified files not only on Halldor Laxness
but on the CIA’s presence in Iceland during
the late 40s. The withholding of information
may be more about cold war espionage than
surveillance of Halldor Laxness.
I had always found it odd that J. Edgar’s
Hoover’s interest in Laxness seemed to end
in September/October 1947. There are a
few insignificant pages regarding Laxness’
visit to the United States in 1957. Except for
a telegram in 1948 sent to the Secretary of
State by the American Legation (Embassy) in
Iceland the FBI seems to have forgotten that
Halldor Laxness was a person of interest. If
this particular individual was a threat to na-
tional security why was there not a follow up
on his alleged subversive activities?
The answer as to why the FBI seemed to
lose interest according to the FBI documents
in my possession may lie in the fact that un-
der the provisions of the National Security
Act of 1947 the Central Intelligence Agency
was established on September 18, 1947. It
was the Central Intelligence Agency’s task to
coordinate all international intelligence activ-
ities. We know from the 1948 telegram that
the American Legation (Embassy) in Iceland
was reporting on Laxness’ movement. What
is of note about the telegram sent in 1948 is
that it was a top secret aerogram notifying
the Secretary of State of the United States
that Halldor Laxness had left Iceland for the
winter, was visiting France and was believed
to be in Italy at this time.
Was the CIA in Iceland watching the
movements of Halldor Laxness? I cannot
say for certain that was the case. But I can
say for certain that the CIA had an interest
in the Icelandic people and had much to say
about Iceland, Icelanders and their political
situation. In a 9 page classified CIA docu-
ment called “Current Situation in Iceland”
published 18 October 1949 and declassified
23 January 1978, the CIA makes political ob-
servations regarding security, the communist
threat and the economic status of the coun-
try:
“The Communist Party is no longer a very
important factor in Icelandic politics; it can
neither make nor unmake a government. De-
spite their lack of direct political influence,
the Communist can still arouse and solidify a
fairly strong segment of public opinion, and
create doubts as to the wisdom of govern-
ment policy on certain issues.
“Icelanders are opposed to the estab-
lishment of foreign military bases on their
island in time of peace, but would probably
be willing to receive NATO forces if war or
the threat of war made Iceland’s involvement
seem imminent.
“Solely because of its strategic location,
Iceland has been drawn into the current of
world affairs, albeit unwillingly and hesitant-
ly. Icelanders desire only to be left alone, but
it is as clear to them as to others that their
island will not be left alone in war; perhaps
not even in peace.
“A Communist decision to seize control
of the island could be implemented with as
few as 500 organized armed men. Although
the Communist Party has been capable over
a considerable period of seizing power by
force of arms it’s unlikely that the Commu-
nist would attempt a coup without prior
assurance of Soviet support, without which
they could not consolidate or maintain their
position except for a relatively short period.”
There are nine pages of observations that
certainly could not have been made with-
out a CIA presence in Iceland. If there was a
CIA presence in Iceland and the FBI was very
concerned just a year before about Iceland’s
most famous citizen it would not take a leap
of imagination to infer that the CIA was ob-
serving Halldor Laxness. The CIA has sent me
a form letter saying they can “neither con-
firm nor deny” the existence of CIA files on
Halldor Laxness. I will not speculate on what
is in those files but I will speculate that they
do exist.
Chay Lemoine is a Laxness scholar in the
United States. chayusa@gmail.com
Was the CIA in Iceland watching the movements of
Halldor Laxness? I cannot say for certain that was
the case. But I can say for certain that the CIA had
an interest in the Icelandic people and had much
to say about Iceland, Icelanders and their political
situation.
David Letterman once said that
everyone should memorize three
funny stories about themselves and
be ready to tell them at any time.
This is one of mine, and it is all true.
I wish to God it weren’t, but it is.
About two years ago I started
having some digestive problems.
I’ll spare you all the messy de-
tails, but let’s just say that things
weren’t flowing through the pipes
like they should have been. Like any
real man, I ignored all the signs of
trouble, thinking that everything
would magically fix itself. I hoped
that maybe it was just something
that would go away on its own, like
the Ebola virus.
But of course it didn’t, which
meant a visit to the doctor. And
not just any doctor – I needed to
see a proctologist. Our meeting
was destined to happen for the
dreaded prostate exam that every
man must eventually endure, but I
wasn’t supposed to receive my first
good probing until I was 40. I had
expected about ten more years to
prepare.
The only way that I knew how
to deal with the discomfort that
awaited me at the doctor’s office
was with humour. As the doc-
tor asked me questions about my
condition and my general health, I
peppered him with one-liners.
“Well, at least it looks like you
have very soft hands...”
“I usually have to buy someone
flowers and dinner for this kind of
action...”
“Have you ever been in pris-
on?”
He didn’t laugh, and for some rea-
son that bothered me even more
than having most of a stranger’s
hand in my large intestine. His hunt
for the cause of my condition took
about ten minutes, with a prostate
check thrown in for good mea-
sure.
“Since we’re in there anyway,”
as he put it.
The good news was that my
prostate felt wonderful (at least
from his end). The bad news was
that my digestive condition would
require surgery.
Today’s modern equipment al-
lows surgeons to perform many
procedures without the need to
cut the patient open, and luckily
my procedure could be done in this
manner. Unfortunately the most
convenient path through which the
surgical equipment could enter my
body was the place where things
usually come out. I was getting the
feeling that making it through this
was going to take far more humour
than I possessed, but I could give it
a shot.
The morning of my surgery, I
had my wife pick up a black perma-
nent marker on the way to the hos-
pital. When we got into the prep
room, I asked the nurse which side
of my body I would be laying on
during the invasion. Right before
they wheeled me in, I laid on the
gurney in the position that I would
assume during the procedure and
had my wife write the famous line
from the opening of Star Trek, “To
boldly go where no man has gone
before…,” on my butt cheeks with
the marker. If this didn’t make him
laugh, nothing could. At least I fig-
ured that it would be something
that his proctologist buddies would
get a good chuckle out of the next
time they played golf, or finger
painted, or did whatever proctolo-
gists do in their spare time.
I expected to experience a sig-
nificant level of discomfort from the
surgery, but when the drugs wore
off I felt like I had just calved a baby
elephant. There was a birthday
party happening in my rear and my
anus was the piñata. I was curled
up in the foetal position in one of
those horrible hospital gowns with
the split down the back, exposing
my abused underside for the world
to see. All I could do was lay there
sucking my thumb and moaning.
My wife saw that I was awake
and that I was completely incapaci-
tated, so she came over to spread
a blanket on my shaking body. As
she brought the blanket around my
violated backside, she stopped and
started laughing hysterically. Based
on the way I was feeling, I thought
that the view might be more scary
than amusing, so I asked her gruff-
ly what in the hell could be so hi-
larious. All she could say was, “He
wrote you back.”
I struggled to my feet and made
my way over to the mirror in the
bathroom. Twisting to see my ass
in the mirror, I pulled back the blue
hospital robe and saw new letter-
ing written in blue marker.
It read, “Been there, done that.”
I guess he had the last laugh.
If David Letterman
Only Knew…
By Erik J. Davidek
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