Colston Westbrook

Colston Westbrook was born September 14, 1937, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. His father, Edward Cody Westbrook, died in Germany during World War II. Westbrook served in both the Army and Air Force, mastering multiple languages including Korean, Japanese, Italian, German, French, and Swahili. In 1967, he went to Vietnam to work for Pacific Architects and Engineers, a confirmed CIA proprietary that built interrogation centers for the Phoenix Program. When asked why he went to Vietnam, Westbrook replied, "Money, why else? I could make $10,000." His employment at PAE placed him directly within the CIA's counterinsurgency infrastructure.¹²

The Black Cultural Association

After returning from Vietnam, Westbrook enrolled at UC Berkeley's Linguistics department in September 1970 and established an educational consulting company called Minority Consultants. He became the "outside visitors coordinator" for the Black Cultural Association at Vacaville Medical Facility in California, a program that connected white radical leftist students from Berkeley with Black prisoners. Westbrook's cover employment history with Pacific Architects and Engineers and his work with the LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Section and California's Criminal Identification and Investigation Unit placed him squarely within the domestic intelligence apparatus.¹²

Recruitment of Donald DeFreeze

Through the Black Cultural Association, Westbrook recruited and mentored Donald DeFreeze, the future leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army, who was serving time at Vacaville as a career criminal and LAPD informant. DeFreeze obtained early release from Vacaville by performing a "favor" for prison authorities, a reference to submitting to psychiatric experiments during the same period when MKULTRA experiments were being conducted on inmates. After his release and subsequent escape from Soledad Prison on March 5, 1973, DeFreeze formed the SLA, which conducted a campaign of political violence in California that served to discredit left-wing movements.¹

The Death List

By April 1974, the Symbionese Liberation Army placed Westbrook on its death list, calling him a CIA agent and "torturer." Westbrook went into hiding following the SLA's denunciation. The SLA's accusation, coming from a group led by the very man Westbrook had recruited at Vacaville, underscored the question of whether the entire SLA had been a manufactured radical group created through intelligence channels.¹²

Pacific Architects and Engineers: CIA Proprietary

The nature of Pacific Architects and Engineers (PAE) is well-documented in available sources. PAE was a subsidiary of the Pacific Corporation, a multi-national consortium headquartered in Delaware that was wholly owned by the CIA. Its services included construction of 44 Province Detention Centers in South Vietnam and civilian cover for CIA operatives. Westbrook's own records listed his employment as "Administrator of Pacific Architects and Engineers." His role in Vietnam, according to researcher Dick Russell's 1974 investigation, included serving as an adviser to the Vietnamese Police Special Branch from 1966 to 1969, providing "logistical support for CIA Phoenix Program" operations, and functioning as an adviser in "the indoctrination of assassination and terrorist cadres." Westbrook later denied working for the CIA.³

Death

Westbrook died of cancer on August 3, 1989, in Oakland, California, at age 51. He was survived by his wife Eposi Mary Ngomba from Cameroon and four children. He had served as dean of students at Contra Costa College from 1978 until his death.²