Theories on cause of Colby death abound By Christopher Ruddy FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW WASHINGTON - The body of "the Old Gray Man of the CIA," William Colby, has been found in waters near his weekend home, but theories about his demise continue to thrive. Colby, who served as CIA director under Presidents Nixon and Ford, disappeared April 28. Maryland authorities found his body Monday morning after it washed ashore. This followed an intensive search of the Wimcoico River near Colby's home in Rock Point, Md. Local police believe his body was lost in the cloudy waters of the Wicomico while canoeing, a favorite pastime of Colby's. At 76, Colby was physically fit and, after surviving parachute drops behind Nazi lines in War World II and stints in Vietnam, he was a cautious, careful and cunning man who lived up to his James Bond super-spy credentials. Last week, The New York Post's irreverent Page Six raised concerns about Colby's disappearance and apparent death with an article headlined "Conspiracy Crowd Snatches Colby." "The theory among conspiracy-minded, cloak-and-dagger buffs is that Colby was assassinated so he wouldn't spill any more agency secrets," the gossip page began. Agency insiders reportedly resented Colby for talking to Congress about the "family jewels" - supposed illegal operations the agency conducted in the decades before Watergate. As a result, Colby lost the support of agency insiders and the Ford administration. President Ford fired Colby on Halloween 1975. Some theorists point to the similar circumstances surrounding the 1978 death of CIA deputy director John A. Paisley. Paisley's sailboat was found adrift in the Chesapeake Bay just 15 miles from Colby's home. His body was discovered days later. He died of an apparent gunshot behind his ear. His body had been weighted with diving belts. Since no blood was found on the boat, authorities theorized Paisley first jumped into the water and then fired the shot into his head. However, murder was never ruled out in the case. While some refuse to believe 20-year-old grudges could have led to Colby's demise, others, including Fred Davis, the Maryland county sheriff in charge of the probe, still find the death suspicious and haven't ruled out foul play Already, the death has been the buzz of talk radio and the Internet. Pittsburgh's Jim Quinn on WRRK-FM joked that Colby's body will rise to the top as soon as "someone cuts the concrete slabs tied to his feet." New York shock-jock Don Imus, whose recent roast of the Clintons caused a stir, started off one of his morning programs wondering what the "Whitewater" connection was with Colby's death - a reference, no doubt, to the high number of deaths likened to a web of Arkansas scandal. Even though Imus didn't realize it, Colby did have a Whitewater connection. For the past two years, he has been a contributing editor with a monthly financial newsletter, Strategic Investment. Co-edited by James Dale Davidson and former Times of London editor Lord William Rees Mogg, Strategic is read by more than 100,000 subscribers worldwide and has been closely monitoring the Whitewater scandal. Davidson has written in the newsletter that Vincent Foster, former White House deputy counsel, was murdered and that significant evidence links the Clintons to drug trafficking, murder and organized crime in their home state of Arkansas. Foster was found shot to death more than two years ago in Fort Marcy Park near Washington, D.C. The Wall Street Journal editorialized that it was glad to see James Davidson "pushing the envelope" on the Whitewater scandal. Colby began taking a more active role in the newsletter in February, writing a weekly column on geo-political matters and their effects on investments in Strategic Weekly Briefings - a facsimile newsletter tailored for high-income investors. Colby traveled with Davidson several times to Asia, leading groups of investors. In his columns, Colby never touched upon the Clintons or the Whitewater affair. His name and former association with the CIA was no doubt a real credibility boost for the newsletter and was touted throughout the newsletter and its promotional brochures (which often detailed the newsletter's reporting of the darker side of Whitewater). "I find the death suspicious for a lot of reasons," Davidson told the Tribune-Review. He does not link his Whitewater coverage to the death, but points to problems associated with Colby's disappearance. "It's not clear how his life jacket and paddle, which he always took canoeing with him, disappeared,''he said. Davidson also is disturbed by an early Associated Press report quoting Mrs. Colby as having spoken with her husband on the day of the death. The AP reported that Colby said he was not feeling well, but planned to go canoeing anyway. In a statement this week, Mrs. Colby, who was in Texas when she spoke to her husband for the last time, said he was feeling fine, and never mentioned any plans to go canoeing. Davidson described Colby as a "charming and fit" man who had great stamina traveling. "He was a New Deal Democrat like many who started in the OSS (the forerunner to the CIA)," Davidson remarked. According to Davidson, one of his staff members contacted local police who said they were perplexed as to where the AP got the original report on Colby's conversation with his wife. Some old Cold Warriors recollect Colby's longstanding feud with James Jesus Angleton, the longtime head of the CIA's counterintelligence division. Angleton believed the CIA had been infiltrated by KGB moles; Colby believed Angleton had become symptomatic of Cold War paranoia and forced his ouster in 1974. After his dismissal, a bitter Angleton told associates he believed that Colby had been recruited by the KGB and was a long-term asset of the Soviets. Angelton's supporters noted Colby's association with far left committees - including ones supported by the Institute for Policy Studies - after Colby departed from the CIA. Colby also called for near unilateral disarmament - an immediate 50 percent reduction in the American defense budget during the height of East-West tensions. One friend of Colby's scoffed at such notions and suggested that his espousal of unorthodox views were not based on a longtime hidden ideology, but may be explained by his desire to live down an undesirable reputation he acquired in Vietnam for heading up the controversial Operation Phoenix, a program to eradicate peasant support of the Viet Cong, for which Colby had been branded by war protesters as a war criminal.