Is the Explosion-Noisy Base a C.I.A. Spy School?
HERTFORD, N.C., March 15 — Nine miles out of Hertford, a town as tranquil as an old dog on a porch, the road ends at a sign that says Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity. Officially, Harvey Point is some sort of Pentagon post. But everybody around Hertford says the official version is fiction. ”We felt it was a C.I.A. base from the beginning,” said Paul Gregory, the county manager. In fact, Harvey Point is the place where, for the last 37 years, the Central Intelligence Agency has run secret paramilitary and counter-terrorism courses for thousands of its officers and select foreigners — most recently, the Palestinian security forces, according to intelligence officials. Established weeks after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, this school for spies has been shielded by secrecy, security fences and cypress trees festooned with Spanish moss ever since. But it makes its presence felt. Black helicopters thud over the treetops at dusk (”They scare the soup out of you,” said Deborah S. R
