MJ-12: Shadows

Author’s Note

Throughout the years, the Central Intelligence Agency and the other organizations within the U.S. Intelligence Community have been dedicated to helping keep this nation safe. That said, CIA in particular has a rather blemished track record when it comes to regime change and various dirty deeds. The events in 1949 Syria you’ll read about here are, for the most part, historically accurate — without the superpowered covert agents, of course. The United States has a long history of covert action and intervention in the Middle East, and the events in Syria described here are perhaps some of the strangest and, in some ways, most egregious. I chose to write about this time and place because it made for a compelling story, first and foremost — but as we think about the ongoing tragedies in Syria today, one can’t help but wonder if we were setting the stage for the events of today back in 1949.

The MAJESTIC-12 series is set in the late 1940s, and as such, the characters have some decidedly un-modern views with regard to race, class, and gender. These views were not included merely for historical accuracy but to recognize how far we’ve come since then — and perhaps highlight how much further we have to go.