Senator’s Aide Takes a Crack at a Code

Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) says there might be merit in the work of an aide who thought he discovered a code word by playing Administration officials’ Persian Gulf speeches backward.

But Pell, who is seeking a sixth term, said aide C. B. Scott Jones, who is paid to study paranormal phenomena, did not have permission to write Defense Secretary Dick Cheney questioning whether “Simone” was a code word.

Jones’ Oct. 3 letter on Senate stationery, which was sent anonymously to several Rhode Island news outlets this week, said the word appeared when speeches by President Bush, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Cheney were played backward.

“I mention this situation in case it is a code word that would not be in the national interest to be known,” the letter said. “If the word means nothing special to you, this is a non-event, just another mystery in a new technology we are developing.”

Pell’s long-standing interest in the paranormal brings periodic snickers from his Capitol Hill colleagues. Jones, 62, a six-year veteran of Pell’s staff who earns about $50,000 annually, is assigned to study developments in paranormal phenomena.

Pell is seeking reelection against Rep. Claudine Schneider. He said the timing of the letter “certainly isn’t helpful.”

Jones was reprimanded for his actions, said Pell’s chief of staff, Thomas G. Hughes Jr. Pell said he had not known about the letter until reporters questioned him about it.

Pell, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Providence Journal-Bulletin that the reverse speech theory “sounds wacky, (but) there may be some merit to it” because he trusts Jones.

The senator said he thought Jones was concerned that the alleged code word was accessible and that the letter was “motivated by patriotic reasons.”

Jones said the reverse speech theory, which is relatively new to him, holds that audio tapes played backward can disclose the hidden codes or thoughts behind normal, forward speech. Someone alerted him to the “Simone” theory, and he decided to alert Cheney, a longtime friend of his, he said.