Ted Maher: Behind the Green Beret
I've just finished Ted Maher's book Framed in Monte Carlo (published in 2021). I've been comparing it with the information I discussed in detail in my last post along with other press articles I've read in the meantime.
Maher's story has stayed relatively consistent with what he claimed in various media interviews since returning to US soil in 2007 after the Monaco legal system released him. Except from adding intriguing detail about a pre-fire abduction event of Maher in the streets of Nice, that is.
I will leave it to you to read the book or watch / read the Dateline Interview that details Maher's version of the story.
At the end of his book, Maher raises and gives support to the rather wild theory about Russian involvement. Maher, in more recent years, had come across the story of Martin Armstrong. Armstrong, a highly successful Wall Street investor had been convicted of fraud but, like Maher, he also claims to have been framed.
Armstrong's version of his story was introduced in a documentary released in late 2014 called The Forecaster. While there is no evidence of a direct ban, the documentary is nearly impossible to access and view, particularly in the US. If you can access it, I recommend watching it.
Armstrong's sentence arose from his business dealings with Edmond Safra's bank. In his own writings, Armstrong had surmised that Safra's death could have been a result of dodgy business dealings involving Boris Berezovsky and other Russian oligarchs. As well as, potentially, Vladimir Putin. A more recent book published by Armstrong in 2023, introduces new evidence published by via the Clinton library to support this theory.
The details of Armstrong’s recent insights are a story for another day perhaps.
For the remainder of this post I'd like to focus on Maher's time in the Special Forces. While it was long ago in the late 70s and early 80s and 20 years before the fire - it would have been formative to him as a person.
It is a broadly accepted fact that Maher was trained as a Green Beret. It is also broadly accepted that this training and his specialisation as a Special Forces medic was THE driving reason behind him being hired by Safra's team. The media treated this fact strangely, mentioning it but then moving on quickly with minimal analysis. The topic of Maher's time as a Green Beret is also given minimal attention in Maher’s own book.
Something just does not add up in his story. I have a strong suspicion that there is something Maher isn't telling us - either because he can't (a non-disclosure agreement perhaps) or because he won't (perhaps events of that time wouldn’t reflect well on the story he has built around his innocence).
Let me explain my thinking…
This is what we know from Maher's account:
He joined the army straight out of high school in July 1976. After basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, he transferred to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. From there he applied himself enthusiastically, going through multiple training courses, (Jump School / Airborne, Advanced Medical Training, Advanced Rifleman Training, Multi-Vehicle Driving Training) and volunteering and accepting many "temp duty" assignments.
Maher was promoted rapidly, moving from being a private E1 to specialist E5 in 23 months (from what I've read, the standard minimum time to E5 without special waivers is 36 months). He spent his first six months of his career in the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne before applying for and being accepted to the Green Beret training program.
Of 2,000 soldiers who voiced interest in the Greet Beret program, 320 were accepted and entered the first part of the program. Maher was one of only 66 who finished the boot camp - and that was just the first part of the program.
Maher then was asked to choose a specialty to pursue - he chose the medical field. He joined an initial phase at Fort Sam Houston and underwent intensive training in every level of medical field imaginable. He attended 8 courses a day, five days a week. If participants didn't use their weekends to study, they failed. Just 13 of the 66 candidates graduated, with Maher ranking third in his class.
He proceeded - solo - into advanced practical medical training alongside doctors and nurses for four months. After that he progressed into a third highly secretive phase called "goat lab". This was a phase where the program used live animals for practice in dealing with realistic, mass-emergency scenarios.
After wrapping up his medical side of training, Maher rejoined the broader Green Beret class for a final thirty days of war game exercises. He finished 58 weeks after entering the program. In his words, he "made it through that level with flying colours".
Then Maher tells us he wraps up his three years with the military, takes a small break, and moves with his new wife to Las Vegas. He applies to join the police force and, after a few months of waiting, he joins police force training in September 1979…
Wait... What? That's it? Maher trains and busts his proverbial butt in the military, gets promoted ahead of his peers and finishes Green Beret training near the top of his class - just to leave the military so soon after that?
It’s quite an investment of time and money that the Army made in Maher. What happened to the requirement that in order for applicants to be accepted into the Green Beret program, they must have signed on for 36 months of service AFTER training?
It isn't clear from his book when exactly he completed the Green Beret program, but even if we just add the six months he said he spent before joining the training to the 58 weeks of Green Beret training he said he had, one would expect he would have needed to stick around the military until some time between December 1980 and February 1981 - if not longer.
Add to that the fact Maher was trained in a specialization that is highly sought after - not just in the army units, but by other elite agencies. Special Forces medics not only know how to kill and engage in extreme military missions like other Special Forces members, but they "know how to plug holes and do it well". Based on Maher's medical training and apparent high performance, Maher must have been in demand, either by the elite forces (i.e. Delta Forces) or by agencies like the CIA or the FBI. It stands to reason he would have had a number of appealing roles offered to him upon finishing the program.
Then add to that the emotional ties / strong brotherhood element of Special Ops. I'm no expert on the topic, but after having coming across multiple accounts of other Green Beret characters, it's evident that being a Green Beret is an integral part of a person. This may be because they have the specific physical and mental qualities that allows them to become one of a chosen few. It may because of the specific and intense training they receive and the bonds they develop through intense hardship. Either way, that green beret becomes a massive part of that person's life from graduation to retirement and often beyond - the things they do, the way they think and behave, and the company they keep.
Why would Maher give up such a stellar trajectory and tight brotherhood, pack up with his new wife and move to Vegas, just to join the local police force at the bottom of the "totem pole”?
It could be that things were that different in 1977-79, but it just doesn't pass the sniff test to me.
His version of events would make a lot more sense to me if he had said that it was a next phase in a training program still being guided by Special Ops or one of the agencies. Or if it was his first step in going undercover…
There's also some rather interesting facts and contextual events surrounding Maher’s time in Vegas through the early 80s that I will speak to in my next post. These lend well to building some interesting theories about what Maher really could have been doing in Sin City.
Stay tuned.