Aaron Cohen: Sex Slaves, Drug Trade and Rock n' Roll

Tommy Calvert, who helped write Congress’ Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, which further sanctioned the SPDC for human-rights and other abuses over four years ago, sees the logic in cash-poor Burmese dictators befriending cash-rich terror networks: “They have a mutual enemy in the U.S.,” he says. And after witnessing the SPDC’s atrocities firsthand, he has no doubt they are capable of more far-reaching violence. “The [Burmese] military would go into villages and raid for what I termed at the time ‘human minesweeper slaves’ to lead them through the minefields. These slaves would be mounted with equipment so heavy that they could hardly stand — many were beaten and told to continue moving. If they were maimed and could not continue, the military would leave them to die. I don’t know how to remind people of how dangerous it is to leave people like that in power other than to remind them of history. We used to not think Hitler or the Taliban would become anything powerful or dangerous. But when the alliances of those who seek to oppress and suppress freedom are made against those who seek to preserve and promote it, we often find a problem that seemed harmless erupting into a global war.”

After a month in Aaron Cohen’s mind-boggling world, I’m relieved to be leaving it, even if it means returning to Florida, where my father is dying. My plane is boarding just as the phone rings, so I’m only half-listening as the familiar placid voice comes on the line. “So last night I met with Laura Bickford . . .” The name means nothing to me. “Yeah?” I say, waiting for more names to drop. “She’s the producer making the film about Che Guevara, and so Benicio del Toro, who’s gonna play Che, and Pablo Guevara, Che’s nephew, were there.” He wants me to congratulate him, I guess, but somehow I don’t feel up to it. What, I ask, is his connection to Guevara?

He tells me the producers want firsthand advice on the life of jungle revolutionaries. Cohen has met more than a few of those on his travels. And I try to indulge him in this conversation for a moment, but my thoughts are elsewhere. I have to hang up, I say. My plane is going back to the real world.

Aaron Cohen, peacemaker and would-be high priest, has surfed with Perry Farrell, had lunch with the Dalai Lama, and probably helped save thousands of lives between his night-frighting and testimony on behalf of enslaved people everywhere. Does he really need Hollywood’s approval? Then I remember something the O.C. Task Force’s Dottie Laster said that puts things in perspective: “There’s a certain shock value to this issue. Some people want to be there for the fun par