Jason Bourne

Jason Bourne is the code name of David Webb, a former assassin for an elite anti-terrorist unit that fronts as a financial trading company.

David Charles Webb was born and raised in Nixa, Missouri. A child prodigy, he finished high school at 16 and went on to attend Princeton University. He graduated from Princeton summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Economics. During the spring break of his senior year, he met a retired Army Ranger who so inspired Webb with his tales of military adventure that immediately after graduating from Princeton, he enlisted in the United States Army.

Webb graduated from basic training as an honor graduate and was recommended for Officer Candidate School. After OCS, he went on to the Infantry Officer Basic Course and then the U.S. Army Airborne School. After airborne training, Webb was accepted into the Ranger Orientation Program. Upon graduation of ROP, he was assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment. After attending and passing Ranger School, he became a platoon leader within the 3rd Ranger Battalion. Webb eventually rose to the position of company executive officer after a year.

Soon after being promoted to captain, Webb became interested in joining Special Forces. After completing the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course, he was accepted for the Special Forces Qualification Course at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center. Upon completing the entire training process, Webb joined the United States Army Special Forces. As a Green Beret he commanded a twelve-man Operational Detachment Alpha in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group. While with the United States Army Special Forces, Webb became an expert in close-quarter combat and improvisational defense.

Webb's dedication, finely tuned field skills and exemplary work eventually caught to the attention of a few high-level officials within the Central Intelligence Agency. They believed he would be perfect for a newly-established anti-terrorist program affiliated but outside of the Agency. In short order, he was offered a position in a highly unconventional CIA off-shoot named Operation Treadstone.

To the public, Treadstone Associates is a trader in stocks, bonds, and international currencies, though, it does little in the way of public business and does not have any clients. In actually, Treadstone is a privately funded special operations organization whose mission is to assassinate terrorists who have, directly or indirectly, caused the death of American citizens, or are directly involved in plans to do so in the future. Although formed by elements within the CIA, Operation Treadstone is technically not part of the U.S. government. Located in suburban Maryland on a direct line of sight from the NSA headquarters and the CIA headquarters, it's regularly provided with the encryption equipment that enables it to intercept and decipher communications between the two agencies. Its personnel then take active data, perform their own analysis, and when action needs to be taken, they eliminate the threat. Operation Treadstone neutralizes enemy forces by the elimination of their important personnel. This is outside the legal system, but it doesn't involve political assassinations. They only target people who are directly involved in criminal acts. They're after those who murder innocent people in such a way that conventional procedures cannot handle them.

As a commodities trader and currency arbitrageur, Treadstone Associates does some of its business anonymously through foreign banks, all of which like having large cash accounts, and none of which are overly fastidious about where the money comes from, so long as it is not overtly dirty. It is just another way of keeping outside the system. Treadstone also uses the communications intercept to aid in making a profit. When the NSA does something such as pays attention to what the big central banks are doing, Treadstone is ideally located to take advantage of the signals intelligence they gather and cross-deck to the CIA. This gives Treadstone's currency-trading troops the best sort of insider information, which enables the company to make a ton of long-term money without anybody really noticing. It does that by not attracting investors. That activity funds the counterterrorist work of Operation Treadstone, making it a truly self-funding agency outside the U.S. federal budget process and therefore with absolutely no paper trail connecting it the federal government of the United States. In fact, there is not a single document in the possession of any government employee that has a single word about Operation Treadstone.

Although he was initially only told that he would be tasked with handling covert missions either too sensitive or too risky for standard CIA entities, Webb enthusiastically volunteered for position. Afterwards, he was told the details of Operation Treadstone and his training began. Webb was selected to be one of Treadstone's field officers, i.e. an assassin. To prepare him for such work, Webb did not go through the CIA training program at "The Farm," outside Williamsburg, Virginia. Instead, over a period of several months, his free will and sense of morality were intentionally broken down by means of an insidious behavior modification process: he was deprived of sleep for days on end; a hood was pulled over his head and he was repeatedly held underwater in a tank almost killing him; and he had to shoot and kill an unknown bound, gagged and hooded man sitting in the corner of a room, as the head of the department asks him, "Will you commit to this program?". Webb's questions of "what has he done" were brushed aside; the man is to be killed because Webb has been ordered to kill him, and refusal to kill the man results in Webb being subjected to another near-death experience in the water tank. Finally Webb's personality was broken; he capitulated and killed the subject without remorse. The Treadstone chief welcomed him to the program, and told him that David Webb was dead and that he is now Jason Bourne.

As Jason Bourne he was deployed to various locations around the world as an assassin. But on a job in France he had a sudden attack of conscience when he saw his target in the company of his children, aborted his mission, and was shot in the back twice while attempting to escape. He was later be rescued by a fishing boat off the coast of Marseille, but woke up with his memory gone; however, he retained knowledge of his espionage and martial arts skills. Over time, he has gradually discovered various aspects about his past. And so Jason Bourne has dedicated himself to the destruction of Operation Treadstone.

And the rest is history...