THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Jack Adams, the Secret Service agent charged with assassinating President George W. Bush and being held for psychiatric evaluation, has told the doctor how he was used to eavesdrop on the presidents by wearing a flag lapel pin with a microphone. Now he tells how he got around being recorded himself when he wanted to, and about having to tell the First Couple about 'the heart medicine' medallion the First and Second Families had to wear following 9/11.

'Tell me about this pill box you referred to', Haber said.

'I have this pillbox a buddy at Langley gave me once when we were working the convention in New York. 'Here's one to put the screws to 'em with,' he said. It's lined with lead or something. You put your com-link inside if you don't want to be out of reach.' I never put my com-link in it, you know, the thing agents wear on their wrists. Those have to be turned on. But I used it for my lapel pin when Laura and I would talk privately, so they couldn't hear us, because of course that didn't have an 'off' button.'

'Had you seen her between your days at SMU and her husband winning the election?'

'Not much. Our real re-connection was the heart medicine talk the first day. But no, Laura and I never had a conversation, just hello and good morning. Stuff like that.'

'That's the second time you've mentioned the 'heart medicine.' Is that a code name?'

'You don't know about the heart medicine either?'

'Did someone have a heart condition besides the vice president?'

'You're joking with me, right?'

'I assure you I'm not.'

'Maybe some secrets really are kept. Everybody thinks that September 11, 2001 was the beginning of terrorism in this country, but there were many other terrorist attacks. There was the original bombing of the World Trade Center, the subway bombing, dozens of people caught at the Canadian border. We were catching terrorists trying to blow us up all the time. Clinton's life was threatened on a daily basis and twice they tried to kill him. And that's not to mention all the things that went on outside our borders. In the mid-'90s right after they almost got Clinton on his trip to the Middle East the boys at the Firm came up with one of their spy-versus-spy plans. More of a policy than a plan. I'm not sure how many people knew about it in the end—outside the cloak-and-dagger community. But it made sense, because the threat of terrorism was becoming very real.

'The plan was modeled after a covert standard used by all the intelligence agencies and the special forces branch. Beginning in 1994 the First and Second Families—excluding their children—were given Medic-Alert medallions like people who are allergic to certain drugs wear so that in an emergency they aren't given drugs that would create a fatal anaphylactic reaction. Except this Medic-Alert medal opens like a locket. Inside is what is referred to as the wearer's 'heart medicine', which they are to take if they should ever be abducted by terrorists.'

'Are you telling me it's some kind of poison?'

'Yes.'

'The president and First Lady and the vice president and his wife are expected to commit suicide?'

'It's an option.'

'Who approved this?'

'Everyone. Mrs. Clinton especially thought it was a good idea. She was surprised someone hadn't thought of it earlier.'

'What's in the locket?'

'Enhanced blowfish toxin.'

'Tetrodotoxin?'

'It was going to be digitalis, but they found a way to make the blowfish toxin quicker and painless. It's a lot better than torture. But it wasn't easy to convince these two.'

'Why?'

'This president likes to take religious stands—in case you hadn't noticed.

'Well his culture of life remarks are arguable, and I say that as a professional, not a politician.'

'This was before 9/11, so we didn't have video tapes of people getting their heads chopped off to show them. Motivational tapes. Laura's reaction was what fouled things up. She said it was absurd and she was never going to take her own life. So the president had to say the same thing. In truth he seemed a lot more upset than she did.'

'So they ended up not wearing them?'

'Oh no, they wore them, just not right away. She put it on in a week or so.'

'When did the president agree to it?'

'September 12, 2001.'

Follow this 44-part serialized book in Windy City Times for the next several months. See www.WindycityMediaGroup.com for past columns.