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1982. The Dallas Morning News broke the story of FBI informant, Frank Varelli, who admitted infiltrating the local chapter of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, a group opposed to Ronald Reagan's Central America policy. Linda Hajek, then a Catholic sister deeply committed to a theology of compassion, figured prominently in the FBI operation. |
| When the story came out, there was my name in the middle of it! I thought: "Oh, my Lord, what are people going to think?" It read like a soap opera: the story of this guy, Varelli, who was going to get me in a motel room and seduce me and have the sex scene recorded on film. I thought, "What scum of the earth would do this kind of thing in the name of national security?" When we were having a spaghetti fund raiser, and didn't have enough money for a printer, I wrote the invitations by hand. That's what Varelli sent to the FBI. It was being considered secret information. We had put out stationery and stamps for people to use to write letters to Congress. Varelli told me he stole those stamps. I asked, "Why did you do that?" He said, "You know, just to harass you." Finally the FBI dropped Varelli. The way they put it was: "The former asset...is no longer operative. Will increase efforts to penetrate the Dallas chapter of CISPES through the development of assets...." More informers! They kept talking about, "We're going to break this CISPES chapter. We want to break this chapter." |
