Vintage Ventura on Display in New Book Jesse Ventura Gets in (another) Last Word CIA Confirms Ventura Meeting Occurred Ventura had it right: CIA was here - Are they still?

Ventura had it right: CIA was here Are they still? BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER, Pioneer Press - January 3, 2008 The secret is out - sort of. Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura met with a group of Central Intelligence Agency officers in 1999 shortly after he was elected, he claims in his soon-to-be-released book " Don't Start the Revolution Without Me." "There were 23 CIA agents waiting in a conference room for me. I counted," says the book, co-written with author Dick Russell. "I got the gist of what they were after. All their questions centered around how we campaigned, how we achieved what we did, and did I think we truly could win from the start? In short, how had the independent wrestler candidate pulled this off?" A CIA spokeswoman, who - as is the intelligence agency's custom - did not want to be identified by name, confirmed the meeting. But not the rest of his statement. "It was part of a training class apparently so, yes," said the spokeswoman. "I can't comment on the content of the meeting. I wasn't there. I can just say that yes, he did have this meeting but it was part of a training exercise." As to the number of agents in attendance: "Our population is actually classified," she said. "So we don't usually comment on numbers." Ventura also said in the book that: "there is a CIA operative inside every state government...They are not in executive positions - in other words, not appointed by the governor - but are permanent state employees. Governors come and go, but they keep working - in a legitimate job with a dual identity. In Minnesota, this person was at a deputy commissioner level, fairly high up." That claim, the spokeswoman did not confirm. "We are federal employees so that, I think, is a little bit off. We are federal employees we are not anywhere near being state employees," she said. Rachel E. Stassen-Berger can be reached at rstassen-berger@pioneerpress.com. www.twincities.com

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