Joker: Ricciardone a destabilizer

Sen. Joker Arroyo accused yesterday US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone of being a "well-trained manipulator" who was involved in secret anti-Iraq operations in Turkey.

"The US gave us an operator, not a diplomat," Arroyo said. "He is a talented man whose forte is operations, more particularly in destabilizing Iraq before the September 11th tragedy."

However, Arroyo said he will not ask the government to declare Ricciardone persona non grata.

"Of course not, he is here to advance the US strategic interests and he makes no bones about it," he said. "It is enough that we are forewarned."

Arroyo said three months after assuming office, Ricciardone signed an agreement with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Rafael Buenaventura to implement the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

"The country shouldn’t expect the polish and flair, or the elan and diplomacy of an Armacost, or Negroponte or Platt, the heavyweight ambassadors that preceded Ricciardone," he said.

Arroyo said the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) reported in 1999 then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as saying that Ricciardone would lead a team of politico-military advisers to work with anti-government groups in Iraq.

"Mr. Ricciardone, currently the deputy ambassador to Turkey is charged with encouraging the groups to destabilize and overthrow the authorities in Baghdad," he quoted the BBC news report.

"He is a foreign adviser who had previously headed the Iraq desk at the State Department and worked on Iraqi affairs in Jordan and the United Kingdom."

Arroyo said Ricciardone had been closely involved in secret operations to aid the anti-government Kurds in northern Iraq, when he was assigned in neighboring Turkey.

"Ricciardone speaks Turkish, Arabic, Italian and French," he said. "It was Ricciardone himself in 1999, who was quoted by the Stratfor analysis of US policy in Iraq, in the Turkish newspaper Milliyet on March 1 as saying that Saddam Hussein will be toppled through a military coup, " he said.

Earlier, Ricciardone said senators stood to benefit from the technical assistance of the controversial group known as AGILE or Accelerating, Growth, Investment and Liberalization with Equity.–Jose Rodel Clapano