Okay, so how about something that the CIA can't deny? Like, say, the fact that they had the Dalai Lama on their payroll from the late fifties until 1974, reportedly receiving $15,000 a month? Yep, the honest-to-goodness grand puba of the Tibetan Buddhists was, technically, kind of a spy for a while. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, shortened from Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, born Lhamo Dondrub (that's, like, more names than Prince has), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and is also well known for his lifelong advocacy for Tibetans inside and outside Tibet. He's a peaceful type on the outside. But you can tell that living in exile from his home country makes him kinda mad. After the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama fled to India, where he denounced the Chinese occupation of his country and established a Tibetan government in exile. Which is round about the time that the CIA got interested in his campaign against the nascent People's Republic, another one of those pesky communist regimes that could threaten the very fabric of good, God-fearing American society for some reason. The Lama was apparently aware that "the U.S. Government had involved itself in his country's affairs not to help Tibet but only as a Cold War tactic to challenge the Chinese", but he took their money and helped out anyway. What exactly this "help" entailed is not known. The man himself says the CIA involvement "helped the morale of those resisting the Chinese", but from the looks of it he was involved in guerilla warfare against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, as well as the dissemination of anti-Chinese propaganda in the country. So the pacifist head of Tibetan Buddhism, erm, presided over insurgents and the spread of spy materials. That's cooler than the head of most religions, even if it is a little hypocritical.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
