JASON BOURNE/DAVID WEBB. : ABOUT THE CHARACTER.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER.
Jason Charles Bourne has a mysterious past, which continues to torment him throughout his lifetime. His real name is David Webb, and he is a career foreign service officer and a specialist in Far Eastern affairs. Before the events in Identity, Webb had a Thai wife named Dao and two children named Joshua and Alyssa in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. But during the Vietnam War, an aircraft strayed into Cambodia dropping two bombs and strafed a spot near the Mekong River, unintentionally killing Webb's wife and two children. Owing to Cambodia's neutrality in the war, every nation disclaimed the plane, since no one wanted to be responsible for the incident. Having nothing left, Webb went to Saigon and trained for a special top-secret unit called Medusa. (Many years later the unit and its actions would still remain top secret.) At this point, Webb was known only as Delta One, his code name within the unit.
[edit] Medusa
The top-secret and government-funded project codenamed 'Medusa' is a vital part of David Webb's life. Taking place during the Vietnam War, Webb was recruited into Medusa by friend and CIA officer, Alexander Conklin, after the death of Webb's wife and children. At the time, Webb was furious and wanted revenge in any possible capacity. By joining Medusa, he felt he was seeking revenge against the people who presumably killed his wife and children, the North Vietnamese. The reason Medusa remains top-secret is the fact that many of the members of Medusa were criminals whom the American government hired during the war to infiltrate parts of Northern Vietnam and kill suspected members of the Viet Cong. In addition, they also killed village chiefs that were suspected to be in collaboration with the Viet Cong and aided in rescuing POWs wherever they could. They were considered an assassination team or a death squad. Each member would be compensated by the United States for doing this.
Most of the members were murderers, fugitives, smugglers, arms dealers, or drug lords being led by a man called Delta. Delta became well known as a ruthless person, with little regard for orders, but succeeding in all his missions. But the fact that "Delta" was really David Webb had become known to too many people. To get to Delta, his brother, Gordon Webb, a US Army Lieutenant stationed in Saigon, was kidnapped.
One member of Medusa was a man by the name of Jason Charles Bourne. During the mission to save Gordon Webb, it was found out that the Australian-born Jason Bourne was a double agent. Bourne was involved in illegal activity including slavery, narcotics, smuggling, and assassinations. With this knowledge, Delta executed Bourne in Tam Quan while he (Bourne) was busy exposing the rescue operation. This was on March 25, 1968. Due to the American government not wanting to acknowledge the existence of Medusa or its members, it never reported the death of Bourne, but rather listed his status as MIA.
Operation Treadstone
Years later, a black ops arm of the CIA was formed called Treadstone 71, named after a building on New York's Seventy-First Street, and Webb was called up by the creator of Treadstone and the creator of Medusa, David Abbott, who was nicknamed The Monk, short for The Silent Monk of Covert Operations. At this point, Webb (Delta) takes the identity of Jason Bourne due to his status as MIA in the war and the fact that Bourne was in reality a ruthless killer with a long criminal record. The point of all this was to turn Jason Bourne into something more than he really was, a contract assassin who would be known all over the world for terminating the lives of just about anyone. The assassin's alias was Cain. The reasoning for creating such a fallacy was to create a competition for a well known assassin named Carlos, or Carlos the Jackal, real name Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who at that time was considered the world's best and most famous assassin. The name Cain was chosen because it had some significance for what he was doing. During Vietnam, Cain was used instead of Charlie in the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot...) because Charlie became synonymous with Viet Cong. So Delta dropped back one letter to Cain, which stood for Charlie. In Spanish, Charlie is Carlos; Carlos was Venezuelan. The myth of Cain was created by having Cain take credit for any well publicized killings that took place in Asia, and later Europe, regardless of the circumstances. By creating this myth, Cain was to drive Carlos out in the open and capture him. To add insult to Carlos's name, Cain stole the credit for Carlos's kills, even if Cain had no part. Later in the story, Cain learns of a contract Carlos accepted on an Ambassador Leland, which he attempted to prevent. However, Cain was unsuccessful and ended up being shot several times, once in the head, and left for dead in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. He would later be recovered by a fishing boat and awake as an amnesiac, presumably a side effect of the gunshot wound to his head.
Bourne fights to learn about his past and his true identity while being chased by both the CIA and Carlos' henchmen. During the novel, at a hotel, Bourne takes a young woman hostage to escape. This woman, named Marie St. Jacques, is an employee of the Canadian government. Bourne and Marie start discovering the identity of Jason Bourne, the contract assassin. The true identity of David Webb is known only to those at Treadstone. She is convinced that the man she knows as Jason Bourne cannot be the ruthless killer that all discoveries they make seem to imply. It is due to Marie that Jason continues to search for his true identity and in the end finds the truth. Through this time, Bourne continually has the phrase "Cain is for Charlie, and Delta is for Cain" flash through his mind, propelling him in the direction of his mission. Charlie refers to Carlos in Spanish and Bourne (Cain) is to replace him.
Between the books Identity and Supremacy, Bourne marries Marie and they both settle down (although under guard) in a small town in Maine. David Webb would go on to become an associate professor in Asian studies at a local university.
When Supremacy starts, Marie is taken captive by the United States government in an attempt to turn David Webb back into his former self, the mythical Jason Bourne. While in reality it was the U.S. government who took Marie captive, it has pinned the blame on a fictitious powerful Chinese druglord. This scheme was conducted to send Bourne after a phony Jason Bourne who had been credited with a Far East political assassination that could, in a worst-case scenario, cause a civil war in China over the ownership of Hong Kong
As Carlos the Jackal enters old age and his infamy fades, he decides that he will do two things before he dies: the first is to kill Jason Bourne. Webb's family is forced to hide in the Caribbean while Webb himself works with old friend and CIA agent Alex Conklin to hunt down and kill the Jackal first. Webb poses as an important member of Medusa, now a nearly omnipotent economic force that controls the commander of NATO, leading figures in the Defense Department, and large NYSE firms. The plan is to use Medusa's resources to contact the Jackal. Webb just misses the Jackal several times, including when the Jackal locates Webb's family in the Caribbean, before Webb stages his own death and convinces the Jackal that he has succeeded. Following this, the Jackal turns to his second goal: to destroy the KGB facility of Novgorod, where the Jackal was trained and later turned away. His files with his real identity were still stored there. Webb tracks the Jackal down with the help of Conklin and a KGB agent as the Jackal begins destroying the KGB compound. In a final confrontation, Webb at last kills the Jackal and returns to his family.
With the climactic events of The Bourne Ultimatum behind him, Jason Bourne is able to once again become David Webb, now professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. However, this serenity does not last for long and, when a silenced gunshot narrowly misses Webb's head, the Bourne Persona reawakens in him yet again. Bourne's first objective is to get to his long time friend and handler at the CIA, Alex Conklin. However, unbeknownst (as yet) to Bourne, a Hungarian by the name of Stepan Spalko has now drawn Jason into a web—one which he cannot escape as easily as his professorial façade.
Jason Bourne takes a mission to rescue his only friend in the CIA, Martin Lindros, who disappeared in Africa while tracking shipments of yellowcake uranium. Once safely back in America, Lindros persuades Bourne to help track the money trail of terrorists buying the nuclear material in Odessa. But once there, Bourne is hampered by confusing flashbacks of unfamiliar places and events and he wonders: Is someone brainwashing him in order to throw him off the trail? Worse, is the man he saved in Africa really Martin Lindros? Now, Bourne is alone gathering evidence while trying to stay one step ahead of the terrorists who won't let anyone stand in their way of destroying the U.S.
[edit] Medusa
The top-secret and government-funded project codenamed 'Medusa' is a vital part of David Webb's life. Taking place during the Vietnam War, Webb was recruited into Medusa by friend and CIA officer, Alexander Conklin, after the death of Webb's wife and children. At the time, Webb was furious and wanted revenge in any possible capacity. By joining Medusa, he felt he was seeking revenge against the people who presumably killed his wife and children, the North Vietnamese. The reason Medusa remains top-secret is the fact that many of the members of Medusa were criminals whom the American government hired during the war to infiltrate parts of Northern Vietnam and kill suspected members of the Viet Cong. In addition, they also killed village chiefs that were suspected to be in collaboration with the Viet Cong and aided in rescuing POWs wherever they could. They were considered an assassination team or a death squad. Each member would be compensated by the United States for doing this.
Most of the members were murderers, fugitives, smugglers, arms dealers, or drug lords being led by a man called Delta. Delta became well known as a ruthless person, with little regard for orders, but succeeding in all his missions. But the fact that "Delta" was really David Webb had become known to too many people. To get to Delta, his brother, Gordon Webb, a US Army Lieutenant stationed in Saigon, was kidnapped.
One member of Medusa was a man by the name of Jason Charles Bourne. During the mission to save Gordon Webb, it was found out that the Australian-born Jason Bourne was a double agent. Bourne was involved in illegal activity including slavery, narcotics, smuggling, and assassinations. With this knowledge, Delta executed Bourne in Tam Quan while he (Bourne) was busy exposing the rescue operation. This was on March 25, 1968. Due to the American government not wanting to acknowledge the existence of Medusa or its members, it never reported the death of Bourne, but rather listed his status as MIA.
Operation Treadstone
Years later, a black ops arm of the CIA was formed called Treadstone 71, named after a building on New York's Seventy-First Street, and Webb was called up by the creator of Treadstone and the creator of Medusa, David Abbott, who was nicknamed The Monk, short for The Silent Monk of Covert Operations. At this point, Webb (Delta) takes the identity of Jason Bourne due to his status as MIA in the war and the fact that Bourne was in reality a ruthless killer with a long criminal record. The point of all this was to turn Jason Bourne into something more than he really was, a contract assassin who would be known all over the world for terminating the lives of just about anyone. The assassin's alias was Cain. The reasoning for creating such a fallacy was to create a competition for a well known assassin named Carlos, or Carlos the Jackal, real name Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who at that time was considered the world's best and most famous assassin. The name Cain was chosen because it had some significance for what he was doing. During Vietnam, Cain was used instead of Charlie in the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot...) because Charlie became synonymous with Viet Cong. So Delta dropped back one letter to Cain, which stood for Charlie. In Spanish, Charlie is Carlos; Carlos was Venezuelan. The myth of Cain was created by having Cain take credit for any well publicized killings that took place in Asia, and later Europe, regardless of the circumstances. By creating this myth, Cain was to drive Carlos out in the open and capture him. To add insult to Carlos's name, Cain stole the credit for Carlos's kills, even if Cain had no part. Later in the story, Cain learns of a contract Carlos accepted on an Ambassador Leland, which he attempted to prevent. However, Cain was unsuccessful and ended up being shot several times, once in the head, and left for dead in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. He would later be recovered by a fishing boat and awake as an amnesiac, presumably a side effect of the gunshot wound to his head.
Bourne fights to learn about his past and his true identity while being chased by both the CIA and Carlos' henchmen. During the novel, at a hotel, Bourne takes a young woman hostage to escape. This woman, named Marie St. Jacques, is an employee of the Canadian government. Bourne and Marie start discovering the identity of Jason Bourne, the contract assassin. The true identity of David Webb is known only to those at Treadstone. She is convinced that the man she knows as Jason Bourne cannot be the ruthless killer that all discoveries they make seem to imply. It is due to Marie that Jason continues to search for his true identity and in the end finds the truth. Through this time, Bourne continually has the phrase "Cain is for Charlie, and Delta is for Cain" flash through his mind, propelling him in the direction of his mission. Charlie refers to Carlos in Spanish and Bourne (Cain) is to replace him.
Between the books Identity and Supremacy, Bourne marries Marie and they both settle down (although under guard) in a small town in Maine. David Webb would go on to become an associate professor in Asian studies at a local university.
When Supremacy starts, Marie is taken captive by the United States government in an attempt to turn David Webb back into his former self, the mythical Jason Bourne. While in reality it was the U.S. government who took Marie captive, it has pinned the blame on a fictitious powerful Chinese druglord. This scheme was conducted to send Bourne after a phony Jason Bourne who had been credited with a Far East political assassination that could, in a worst-case scenario, cause a civil war in China over the ownership of Hong Kong
As Carlos the Jackal enters old age and his infamy fades, he decides that he will do two things before he dies: the first is to kill Jason Bourne. Webb's family is forced to hide in the Caribbean while Webb himself works with old friend and CIA agent Alex Conklin to hunt down and kill the Jackal first. Webb poses as an important member of Medusa, now a nearly omnipotent economic force that controls the commander of NATO, leading figures in the Defense Department, and large NYSE firms. The plan is to use Medusa's resources to contact the Jackal. Webb just misses the Jackal several times, including when the Jackal locates Webb's family in the Caribbean, before Webb stages his own death and convinces the Jackal that he has succeeded. Following this, the Jackal turns to his second goal: to destroy the KGB facility of Novgorod, where the Jackal was trained and later turned away. His files with his real identity were still stored there. Webb tracks the Jackal down with the help of Conklin and a KGB agent as the Jackal begins destroying the KGB compound. In a final confrontation, Webb at last kills the Jackal and returns to his family.
With the climactic events of The Bourne Ultimatum behind him, Jason Bourne is able to once again become David Webb, now professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. However, this serenity does not last for long and, when a silenced gunshot narrowly misses Webb's head, the Bourne Persona reawakens in him yet again. Bourne's first objective is to get to his long time friend and handler at the CIA, Alex Conklin. However, unbeknownst (as yet) to Bourne, a Hungarian by the name of Stepan Spalko has now drawn Jason into a web—one which he cannot escape as easily as his professorial façade.
Jason Bourne takes a mission to rescue his only friend in the CIA, Martin Lindros, who disappeared in Africa while tracking shipments of yellowcake uranium. Once safely back in America, Lindros persuades Bourne to help track the money trail of terrorists buying the nuclear material in Odessa. But once there, Bourne is hampered by confusing flashbacks of unfamiliar places and events and he wonders: Is someone brainwashing him in order to throw him off the trail? Worse, is the man he saved in Africa really Martin Lindros? Now, Bourne is alone gathering evidence while trying to stay one step ahead of the terrorists who won't let anyone stand in their way of destroying the U.S.