July 28, 1983: Criminal Recruited for Continuity of Government Program

US Army Warrant Officer Robert Rendon, a convicted drug dealer and admitted black-marketer, is assigned to the ultra-secretive Continuity of Government (COG) program, which is designed to keep the federal government functioning in times of disaster. Rendon, who first enlisted in the Army in 1977, is hired despite telling Army officers involved with the secret program that he had been convicted of selling drugs to schoolchildren in Los Angeles in the 1970s and served about 15 months in prison. Rendon also tells Army officers that he ran a black market operation while stationed as an intelligence officer for two years in West Germany. He says he financed the black market operation with funds given to him for espionage assignments by the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). Rendon says INSCOM case officers taught him how to conceal his past under questioning. He also admits to using drugs and soliciting prostitutes while serving as an Army officer. The Army promises not to expose Rendon’s past beyond the COG program and grants him one of the government’s highest security clearances. Rendon will be stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and will spearhead a campaign to discredit whistleblowers that attempt to expose corruption within the COG project, most notably Army intelligence veteran Tom Golden (see After July 1987). Rendon will serve in the secret program until 1989 and later join an Army counterespionage unit (see December 1990). [Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/16/1990]