In the last paragraph of the last page (535) of his book, author George Crile makes his last acknowledgment to his wife Susan for being, ."..by my side from the beginning ...[as]... transfixed as I by the almost surreal wonder of the story that emerged from our labor..." The "almost" was not necessary. This is one of the most astounding books ever printed, although the author doesn't seem to fully realized it. Practically every page describes a new crime committed by obsessed zealots, "realists," and their sleepwalking colleagues, as they conspired to secretly and illegally fund the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union.

Crile describes in detail how Charlie Wilson, an alcoholic, drug addicted womanizer, ran amok on the House Appropriations Committee, the House Ethics Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, in Washington, Houston, Israel, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and the former Soviet Union, in his personal, reckless, 12 year vendetta, killing Russians in revenge for what they did to Americans in Vietnam.

Wilson had the invaluable assistance of Gust Avrakotos, a renegade CIA clandestine officer, a working class Greek immigrant tough guy from "rust belt" Pennsylvania,. and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, in secretly pumping billions of US dollars into the Afghan Jihad. It is an astounding story told by an excellent writer in command of the material given to him, slipped to him, whispered to him ....or whatever.

What is utterly strange and confusing is that Crile doesn't seem to realize the importance of what he is revealing. He makes frequent use of things called "quotation marks" that imply the person quoted actually made the statement --- admitting again and again to crime after crime, breaking any number of laws. The list of congressmen he interviewed is simply amazing.

How he could get to quote so many top CIA people is incomprehensible. He quotes the late former Pakistani Dictator Zia ul Haq, his ambassador and various generals. They all admit to plotting to deceive, lie and bamboozle everyone not party to the plots. One notices that, although British Intelligence is said to have assisted in covering for the CIA by providing various items specifically and unequivocally forbidden by US law, like sniper rifles and silencers for assassinations, no names from anyone connected with MI 5 appear in the acknowledgments. One supposes British reserve.

The story goes this way. Wilson, a US Navy Vietnam Veteran, is a congressman sitting on the House Appropriations Committee. He idolized Winston Churchill who rallied his country against Nazi Germany as France is conquered.

When the Winter War/Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973 he rushed off to Israel and demanded a tour of the battle front. The Israel Army took him on a tour past burning Soviet/Egyptian Tanks where, "He was ecstatic in the presence of these heroic warriors ...[and it was]... the beginning of a ten year love affair with everything to do with Israel."

The love was reciprocated by campaign contributions from Jewish contributors outside his district and by Jewish congressmen "...who would rally to put Wilson on the all powerful Appropriations Committee where he could help make sure the annual $3 billion in aid [to Israel] would continue to flow." The appointment was made despite the opposition of his Texas Delegation. Wilson in turn, supported the Israeli "Lavi" jet fighter program built in Israel with US money and technology.

Wilson was irked by President Jimmy Carter's arms control initiatives with the Soviet Union, and, since he imagined himself Winston Churchill, he quite naturally saw Carter as Neville Chamberlain, the appeaser of Hitler. He happened to be approached by anti-Communist Congressman Jack Murphy, a W.W.II hero, a graduate of West Point, a highly decorated veteran of the Korean War and a fervent supporter of his friend Anstasio Somoza, the dictator of Nicaragua. (Murphy was my company commander for 4 1/2 months in Fort Dix New Jersey in 1953. Small world isn't it?.) Wilson, to everyone's surprise, managed to restored Somoza's aid package of $3.1 million although, in the end it didn't do much good.

Wilson then fell under the influence of Houston socialite Joanne Herring, a divorced fundamentalist Christian, a member of the John Birch Society, the Minutewomen, a TV talk show host, a tireless supporter of Pakistan and a person friend of Zia ul Haq the military dictator of that country. "Charlie taught me to laugh again and made my life really wonderful she said [to Crile] ...[and] ...a curious romance began, with much talk of Christ, anti-Communism and Zia ul Haq ...she found her spirits returning..." This was how Charlie got involved in the Afghan jihad.

But it wasn't easy! He needed help. The CIA, controlled by weak willed, timid elitists from ivy league colleges was reluctant to more openly support the Afghan Mujahideen for fear of provoking a larger, perhaps Atomic, war with the Soviet Union, was resisting Charlie's shoving enormous sums of money down its throat, so to speak. Gust Avrakotos, despised and knew better than his CIA elitist superiors, he ignored them.

"Almost everyone was a fucking blue blood in the CIA in 1961 when I came in, he says [to Crile] They were just beginning to let Jews move up that year. But there still weren't any blacks, Hispanics or females-just some token Greeks and Polaks" Gust, obviously an affirmative action advocate, shows how authentic he is by using lots of vulgar language which Crile repeats. (The title to Chapter 34 is "Here's to you, you Motherfucker")

Gust was bored. He hadn't been able to get a good assignment since he helped the Greek Colonels run their military dictatorship which all but destroyed Greek democracy. Gust and Charlie didn't tip toe around rules, they ignored them or just broke them. Two hard drinking, foul mouthed macho men who impelled the Afghan jihad while "chasing pussy and killing Russians," ignoring the State Department, the President, the CIA, the Pentagon, Congress, they made personal deals with the Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Chinese Communists, Pakistan, Switzerland, Great Britain. They had the money, few, if any inhibitions, and there was no one to stop them and every US dollar was matched by a Saudi dollar.

How did Charlie manage to do this. Quite simply he was on the Appropriations Committee which controlled how some $500 billion was spent each year. Although the Democrats were attacking the Reagan Administration for the CIA's not so secret support of the Contras against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the Committee supported Charlie's requests for money for a secret war in Afghanistan that the CIA didn't particularly want to fight.

Charlie, the hard drinking, high living, coke sniffing congressman was on the Ethics Committee, and he did a big favor for Tip O'Neil, the Democratic Speaker of the House by getting his friend John Murtha our of trouble. Murtha was deeply involved in the FBI sting which entrapped my old Company Commander Jack Murphy, who went to prison. Charlie did Tip a favor. He must have done a lot of favors not listed in the book since he managed to secretly dole out billions of dollars over the years with no questions asked.

He did this despite numerous exposés of his womanizing, his extravagant junkets around the world at government expense, his having been busted for cocaine, for fleeing the scene of an accident, most likely drunk, for avoiding the police, leaving for Pakistan and not coming back until the "problem" was somehow fixed.

One wonders the kind of things Crile might have left out! Or the kinds of things Wilson wouldn't or couldn't talk about! He mentions that some members in the CIA suspected Wilson of taking money from Oerlikon, a Swiss manufacturer of 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. According to the Pakistani News, years later in 1997, when Wilson was a lobbyist for Pakistan at a salary of $30,000 per month, he was investigated by the FBI on suspicion of bribery and splitting a $4 million commission with Joe Christie, a fellow Texan and business partner. There is no mention of Christie in the book, although Dennis Neill, another lobbyist, is. O'Neill was a lobbyist friend who accompanied Charlie on weapons inspection trips was convicted of felony tax evasion and sentenced to 15 months in prison. O'Neill told prosecutors he shared $25.9 million in arms deal fees with Christie. Did Charlie know about this one? Did Crile?

Wilson's habitual obsession with visiting the Afghan war zone understandably caused Zia ul Haq and his fundamentalist generals extreme nervousness. They obviously did not want to see "the goose that laid the golden egg" killed. They had a good deal going. They had unbelievable amounts of money, they had control over how weapons got to the Mujahideen and the US government ignored their Islamic bomb project.

There is no doubt Charlie put himself in positions of great danger. This "bravery," or his self destructive behavior, his obsession with killing Russians, his dressing up in Afghan costume, his heavy drinking, his habit of bringing flamboyant women with him to fundamentalist Muslim settings combine to produce strange image of a kid from Bible Belt East Texas. A fairy tale, or a demented emanation of a corrupted system unreformable and irreversible heading for doom?

The motivation for the book seems to be to give the CIA credit for the demise of the Soviet Union, that is to take the credit away from the Reagan White House, by showing it was a "bottom up," rather than a "top down" operation. There is also a lot of interesting CIA gossip and "axes ground."

Strangest of all the strange descriptions in this book was Charlie's fantasy for celebrating the victorious jihad. "Freedom fighters would line the [main] street [of Kabul] as far as the eye could see, filling the air with thundering cries of "Allahu Akbar," along with volley upon volley of CIA sponsored joy shots. This celebration of freedom would be seen [thanks to 60 Minutes] and remembered around the world and the partnership of America and its Muslim friends would be seared into everyone's consciousness. This vision died with Zia, but Charlie didn't give up"

(Some of Charlie's Muslim friends seared completely different images into the world's consciousness a few years late in New York.)

Even stranger was Charlie's plan for his marriage to "Sweetums" a former "Miss World." The diplomatic and intelligence services of the United States would provide the logistics for the wedding which would take place on the Khyber Pass. Afghan tribal leaders would be enthroned at one end and thousands of Mujahideen would fire off joy shots at important intervals in the service, with tracer rounds at a ratio of five to one for special effect. A black Baptist minister would perform the service. The House Appropriations Committee... a camera crew from 60 Minutes, Mandarins from the CIA and Pakistani Intelligence ... etc., etc.,

But why go on. Charlie blew it. He went to California to serve as Grand Marshal of the annual Mule Day parade to honor what mules had done in the great anti-Communist jihad and when Sweetums telephoned Charlie's room, Snowflake, a former girlfriend, answered the telephone.

Everyone, of course is sad when the Mujahideen Freedom Fighters turn into Taliban and give shelter to Arabs plotting to kill Americans in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Los Angeles, Washington and New York, but.... that's the way it goes.

This madman with his foul mouthed Greek assistant breathed life into a Golem, a Frankenstein, and that monster is still alive and as we obliviously look on, other madmen are creating other Golems and Frankensteins.