Who's Who.

• Author: THREADGILL, SUSAN
• Position: Current events and personalities - Brief Article - Column

An on-the-record confirmation of a scandal reported years ago in these pages is available in a new book, The Great Phelsuma Caper, by former ambassador Robert Keeley, who says that the mass-murderer Idi Amin had been a CIA "asset" before he ruled Uganda. This means that Idi Amin was a paid spy in the employ of the CIA. The confirmation by Keeley is of an item that had earlier been given us on a not-for-attribution basis by another foreign service officer who, like Keeley, had served in Uganda. It's amazing we won the Cold War. Our agents (remember that Guatemalan colonel?) specialized in killing innocent people while the Russian spies were majoring in stealing our secrets.

The Brookings Institution is fast becoming the Clinton Administration in exile, offering temporary shelter to former White House staffers Gene Sperling, Andrea Kane, Lael Brainard, as well as former Treasury officials Lawrence Summers and Michael Barr, and former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala.

The Senate has passed a resolution authorizing the Peace Corps headquarters building in Washington to be named for former Sen. Paul Coverdell. This has not set well with former Peace Corps volunteers and staff members. Many of them think the Peace Corps' founding director, Sargent Shriver, is more deserving of the honor. If a Republican has to be considered, they feel that the late Loret Ruppe, who ran the agency for eight years compared to Coverdell's two and who is generally considered to have been one of the best of all the directors, should be recognized. Shriver and Ruppe loyalists are working in the House to derail the Senate proposal.

As we now know, there was no truth to the story Bill Clinton's guests on his last trip on Air Force One had vandalized the plane. An example of the many false reports that had appeared was a newspaper column by Fox commentator Tony Snow who said the aircraft "looked as if it had been stripped by a skilled band of thieves--or perhaps wrecked by a trailer-park twister" We have been unable to find a subsequent retraction by Snow, who had not displayed excessive restraint with his allegations: "Gone were the porcelain dishes, the blankets, candies--even toothpaste. It makes one feel grateful that the seats and carpets are bolted down" You would think he would have felt at least a twinge of embarrassment at his own flight of fancy--and perhaps at presidential grammar--when George W. Bush said, "all the allegations that they took stuff off of Air Force...