THIS Peace Corps Volunteer finds the insinuation offensive, baseless, and reckless.

Who cares if rice costs x per cup and soap y per bar? Peace Corps uses that information to determine our living stipend. Other than that, maybe economists are interested?

I talk to my Peace Corps nurse about my bowel movements, fevers, and petty anxieties. Is that intelligence? Who gives a damn?

And who cares if I taught an adult literacy class at night or used Bush's PEPFAR money for HIV/AIDS outreach through a girls' club?

Make no mistake, there is a reason Peace Corps wants to know each of these things - it needs to justify its existence (as do various bureaucrats within). It needs to be able to find me somehow, within a day or two, in an emergency - etc.

If people at the CIA are reading through my bowel movement transcripts, then God bless their pathetic little hearts. For I'm sure they could pay a national to find all these things out, and more, for a HELL of a lot less than it takes to fly me over here and back.

Volunteers' projects are matters of public knowledge - as is everything we do in our villages. If I look cross-eyed at a pretty girl or buy a box of wine everyone will know and there will be consequences.

If you are going to endanger the lives of volunteers (as foreigners who are working in modest conditions for two years without pay it is already hard enough for people to understand what we are doing in their sleepy little towns, teaching teenagers and listening to shortwave) then the least you could do is get some background information and find a story that makes sense before climbing onto the soap box.

For the action of some idiot at the State Department does NOT by any stretch of logic give a sinister purpose for the Peace Corps.

It isn't just that you have no evidence for this. It also doesn't make any sense. If Peace Corps were an intelligence front, wouldn't I be getting shady requests *through the Peace Corps hierarchy*? Why would volunteers get contacted by State Department idiots who don't say boo to us? And when we (most of us are mellow liberals or maybe libertarians - I'd be shocked to meet a Republican volunteer, whatever that says about Republicans) will just squeal (with the full official and unofficial support of all Peace Corps)?

I once heard a returned volunteer say that she thought the Peace Corps is the best foreign policy the US has going. Despite its flaws, I agree. And so I reckon do a lot of recent volunteers - like the ones I've met - who joined because they wanted to do something constructive rather than destructive.

If you really knew the people and the organization you are talking about, I think you'd be ashamed. But please don't take that from me. Get some actual background information from people who know something and think about what it really adds up to.

(This statement does not represent the official or even the unofficial opinion of anyone but my own self.)

I was never brave enough but I have a few pals that did volunteer and:

Despite its flaws, I agree. The Peace Corps is the best foreign policy the US has going.

Hands down.

A friend in grad school quit the Peace Corps in Salvador because several volunteers were collaborating with intelligence agencies.

Since then I've asked two other friends about their experience and their response was similar to Anonymous Volunteer's.

As an organization the Peace Corps are struggling with an enormous humanitarian effort and take volunteers willing to endure harsh but rewarding living conditions for the good of humankind. I don't believe they are at fault if a few spies slip in here or there in certain locations under the guise of fellowship. As with all things, you take the good with the bad.

Re Spies:

If we are to get our $40 billion dollars worth, I kind of expect the CIA to have a finger in everything (foreign). We're getting ripped off if they don't.

"If we are to get our $40 billion dollars worth, I kind of expect the CIA to have a finger in everything (foreign). We're getting ripped off if they don't."

$40 billion represents the ENTIRE State Department budget -- including non-military direct aid, of which the Peace Corps is but a very small portion. I don't doubt that some Peace Corps workers are principally performing intelligence gathering, but it is probably a VERY tiny portion. What's the point of trying to squeeze the otherwise idealistic souls to get info we could probably get out of directory assistance?

"$40 billion represents the ENTIRE State Department budget"

I am sorry, I was not more clear. I was speaking to the Intell budget.

I just meant the CIA should know what is going on and all for the money in their budget.

Intell being collection of information and all.

I was admitted into the Peace Corps in 2006 for an assignment in Morocco. Luckily, I discovered the following 2004 investigative series by Russell Carollo, who documented a surge in deaths of volunteers as a result of presumed CIA links. As an African-American woman, I was recruited to go to an Islamic country because I could "pass" culturally -- although I speak Spanish. The Dayton Daily News Special Report was my wake up call. "Casualties of Peace": http://www.daytondailynews.com/projects/content/project/peacecorps/index.html

So why is it that all you sell out deside to come crawling out of the wood work now, complaining and sniveling that you were recruited to get information for the CIA. The difference between me, and all of you sell outs is such, I would have took that task on , and parlayed that into a job with the State Department! You could not ask for better cover! Get real, do you honestly think that the countries you were working in , weren't spying on you! and your daily activites! The Peace Corps does do alot of good, this we can not deny. However , there is a reason why it exists, more so then the reason that is officialy given.

The CIA doesn't ban its agents from posing as anything - journalists, diplomats, missionaries, pundits, pollsters, scholars, Peace Corps employees... no limits.

The newspaper articles by Russell Carollo were an incredibly biased, one-sided series by a journalist who had formerly won a Pulitzer Prize that were intended to be inflammatory told only in an effort to win himself another Pulitzer Prize. He had no intention of helping anyone but himself. He lied to people telling parents of dead children that what they told him would be confidential, then violated their trust. He sought only negative stories about the Peace Corps; he made no effort to be objective at all. He manipulated statistics inappropriately (it's called lying with statistics). His experts worked for his own newspaper. They weren't recognized academic experts. It was hack, muckraking journalism by an unethical, unscrupulous reporter only looking to pad his own reputation. If you did not join the Peace Corp based on the slanted piece of trash this guy wrote, you missed a great opportunity for yourself based upon lies.

Truth About Statements in Carlos Amador's Story By Carlos's Mother and Father (parents of a fallen Peace Corps Volunteer)

In our wildest dreams we could not imagine that such bad intentioned people exist. Just for a piece of bread, that will feed them for such a short period of time. No news is good if it has blood in it, because the cause does not justify the means when the dignity of a human being is being questioned and he is not here with us to defend himself. In our belief system, this is very cowardly.

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We cannot remain silent to the bad actions and bad intentions of some few, allowing them to stain names and dignities in order to achieve some goal. Justice cannot be achieved by being unjust.

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We fear terrorism. After September 11, life for many is not the same. We look for terrorists in far away lands. But they live right here in this nation we are so proud of. They sow terror disguised as justice and truth. But what do we do with this internal terrorism, which spreads terror and pain through words in stories that don’t add any value? Stories about people who can’t defend themselves? Stories aimed not at a common good but at recognition and false glories based on other’s pain. If what you do or what you say brings about pain, then it can’t be good. This is when the means become perverse. If a prize is awarded based on the pain of others, then that prize has blood all over it, because such a massacre of the spirit can only be the act of a coward.

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The net effect of this series of articles has not been a challenging of the system, but the killing of dreams, hopes and faith in humanity. The assassination of privacy and the respect we owe to each other.

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This is a silent violence with the excuse of doing justice – for many times evil is disguised as good. These reports are not produced in equality of conditions; they therefore represent a great injustice and an abuse of power.

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How can we be capable of so much hatred and so much devastation? What hunger for power drives us to such inhuman and miserable behavior? Are we not ashamed to have people within our society capable of such acts? What measures are we going to take to do away with this type of terrorism? Are we willing to continue being punished by the Dayton Daily News, specially Mr. Carollo and his crew, by not wanting to publish facts as they happened? .

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The consequences of requesting justice and asking that our son Carlos Amador’s case not be published, as it is still under forensic investigation, were surprisingly devastating. Instead of helping us, they whipped us by using words with a different, evidently pejorative connotation, thereby giving readers a message different from the complete truth.

To the parents of these volunteers who, like Carlos, didn’t return because they died in far away lands giving their very best, don’t let hate dwell in your hearts. Let us not blame anyone either, as no good will come out of those feelings. Let us change the negative pain of our children’s death in positive stimulus for the benefit of others and ourselves. With all the deficiencies that the Peace Corps may have – and we agree that big changes are needed – we cannot allow an outsider like Mr. Carollo to make this his personal mission because, as most of the readers replies have pointed out, his purpose is not justice for the death of our loved ones – as he has clearly demonstrated he does not care for them. His purpose is probably to earn a prize, using our pain as a means of tearing down the Peace Corps. It’s probable that my son could be alive if they had done right everything that had to be done. Maybe some other volunteers would also be alive today. We don’t have a doubt. But the question we ask is: Were the PC’s intention bad? What do we gain by feeling animosity? Would our sons and daughters have wanted us to feel that way?

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If we are really hurting, why don’t we write our own stories? We are sure there will be many forums wanting to listen. Allowing a stranger to fight our battles is very irresponsible of our part. The way Mr. Carollo did his investigation and the way he wrote it he never offered the complete story, but only those parts that feed his incredibly mean objectives. First hand we know Mr. Carollo even contracted locals with very questionable credentials and largely immoral and even cruel techniques to further his incoherent cause..

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We cannot change what happened to many PCVs, but we believe the Peace Corps has learned their lesson. What we can do is force a change of how journalism is conducted, by making sure the media hires people with high ethics, elevated morals, people with a real sense of respect for others. Our sight should be in Mr. Carollo, and our question should be: What are we going to do with all the suffering that Mr. Carollo has brought into our hearts?.

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This series of reports has been like a funeral of values. But those values have to prevail in order to have a society where we can live in harmony, and where respect for the fellow man is the norm. That will allow us to live, not just stay alive. So much injustice and so many lies (or half truths – which is the same) is a defeat for humanity and the peace we all have a right to attain.

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Let us not stain the memories of our sons and daughters by allowing Mr. Carollo and his paper to write whatever he pleases, with no consideration to respect or feelings of the families of these great human beings who consciously and voluntarily exposed themselves to serve in countries which they knew could present difficult if not dangerous situations. But they did so for the mere purpose of making a better world. And the dozens of letters and emails received from those to whom Carlos gave dignity in his 21 months of volunteer service, convince us that our kids achieved their dream.