home

Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees on Internet

This would be just laughable if it weren't so serious. The CIA is not very good at keeping its own secrets, according to a new investigation by The Chicago Tribune. The paper was able to track covert and other CIA employees using commercially available databases.

When the Tribune searched a commercial online data service, the result was a virtual directory of more than 2,600 CIA employees, 50 internal agency telephone numbers and the locations of some two dozen secret CIA facilities around the United States.

Even though not all of the employees are covert, there is ample concern that those who are could become the targets of terrorists. Not only that:

Other potential targets include at least some of the two dozen CIA facilities uncovered by the Tribune search. Most are in northern Virginia, within a few miles of the agency's headquarters. Several are in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington state. There is one in Chicago. Some are heavily guarded. Others appear to be unguarded private residences that bear no outward indication of any affiliation with the CIA.The CIA has been notified of their project. The article also contains a senior administration official's reaction:

"I don't know whether Al Qaeda could do this, but the Chinese could."

A senior intelligence official's reaction sounds like the old Freddy Prinze line, "It's not my job." It seems it is the job of the covert employee to create his or her own cover and ensure its integrity.

Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, the senior U.S. intelligence official replied that "I don't have a great explanation, quite frankly."

The official noted, however, that the CIA's credo has always been that "individuals are the first person responsible for their cover. If they can't keep their cover, then it's hard for anyone else to keep it. If someone filled out a credit report and put that down, that's just stupid."

The problem according to some, is that new CIA agents are too inexperienced to know how to do this and there is a shortage of mentors.

"You're getting into the problem of very junior, inexperienced people, which a lot of veteran CIA people feel now is part of the problem. Porter Goss has to double the number of operational people in an environment where there are no mentors. Who's going to train these people?"

Is there anything that the Bush Administration has done right in the war on terror? It sure doesn't sound like it. No wonder we can't find Osama. But I won't sleep better knowing he can find those Bush sends looking for him.

< Denver Blogger Spearheads Brokeback Mountain 'Thank You' Ad | NYT Lauds 'Crashing the Gates' >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#1)
    by JK on Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 08:19:35 PM EST
    In the year 2006 it is indeed laughable, but at the time the pertinent ifo. was generated no one was thinking of an omnipresent never forgeting databse of information available to anyone whith a spare dollar or two.

    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#2)
    by Tom Maguire on Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 10:19:29 PM EST
    No surprise - the same reporter filed a story on cracking Valerie Plame's identity - his online service said she had an embassy affiliation in the early 90's, which is not good for a NOC, apparently.

    Is there anything that the Bush Administration has done right in the war on terror?
    Given the war on the CIA that liberals have conducted for at least 30 years, with no small amount of success, it's ironic, at least, for a liberal blog to blame the Bush administration for the CIA's weaknesses.

    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#4)
    by Darryl Pearce on Sat Mar 11, 2006 at 10:59:25 PM EST
    Given the war on the CIA that liberals have conducted for at least 30 years... Thanks for the laugh. I see that Cheney and Rumsfeld, who've also been conducting a war on something (I don't know yet) for thirty years have continued their string of "successes" ...

    Where are the mentors? Hmmm, I seem to remember one of Porter's marching orders was to clean house of all agents who were in opposition to King George and his Court Jestors. That's why there are no mentors, they were either fired or left because they couldn't work for Goss.

    I hope that this Keystone Kops situation isn't indicative of another rapacious privitization scheme by the Bush administration. We know the routine: incessant warnings that our intelligence system is broken and claims that the only solution to the problem is through the miracle of the private sector because only the private sector can properly maintain and operate our intelligence operations and save us from governmental bungling. Think of the vast amount of unaccountable money that the privitization of U.S. intelligence would funnel to corporate powers. That thought ought to scare the crap out of all of us.

    Richard Clark was exactly right again. Remember how the White House pooh-pooed and downgraded his cyber security program. Datamining by adversaries was a major concern.

    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#8)
    by aw on Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 07:13:38 AM EST
    Given the war on the CIA that liberals have conducted for at least 30 years...
    The problem reasonable, decent (I suppose you could call them liberal) people had with the CIA 30 years ago was with it's operations (assassinations, coups, etc) not with intelligence gathering.

    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#9)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 07:57:08 AM EST
    et al - See, I told you everyone knew Mrs. Wilson. aw - You are correct. Then the Church Committee came along and with help from Stansfield Turner, gutted the agency of real people, deciding instead to depend on NSA intercepts, satellites and other electronic surveillance. And we can see where that has gotten us. Maggie - Just in case you have forgotten, the CIA is tasked with carrying out policy, and not opposing it. Or, for that matter, leaking it to the press.

    Well, CIA "cover" these days may not be so effective, but it sure is expensive and top-shelf: From the Chicago Trib 12/25/05 here (registration required).
    CIA team traveled Italy in style By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Drew Crosby and Samuel Loewenberg contributed to this report from Madrid Published December 25, 2005 MILAN, Italy -- When the CIA decides to "render" a terrorism suspect living abroad for interrogation in Egypt or another friendly Middle East nation, it spares no expense. Italian prosecutors wrote in court papers that the CIA spent "enormous amounts of money" during the six weeks it took the agency to figure out how to grab a 39-year-old Muslim preacher called Abu Omar off the streets of Milan, throw him into a van and drive him to the airport. First to arrive in Milan was the surveillance team, and the hotels they chose were among the best Europe has to offer. Especially popular was the gilt-and-crystal Principe di Savoia, with acres of burnished wood paneling and plush carpets, where a single room costs $588 a night, a club sandwich goes for $28.75 and a Diet Coke adds another $9.35. According to hotel records obtained by the Milan police investigating Abu Omar's disappearance, two CIA operatives managed to ring up more than $9,000 in room charges alone. The CIA's bill at the Principe for seven operatives came to $39,995, not counting meals, parking and other hotel services. *snip*


    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#11)
    by Edger on Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 09:03:03 AM EST
    jackl: Well, CIA "cover" these days may not be so effective, but it sure is expensive and top-shelf: Bombed. James Bombed.

    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#12)
    by aw on Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 11:02:25 AM EST
    et al - See, I told you everyone knew Mrs. Wilson.
    No, I don't see. I read the article linked in the comment above, and I see only that CIA agents have differing views on whether someone is a NOC. Supposedly working at an embassy is a dead giveaway, but every embassy employee must then be presumed to be CIA.
    aw - You are correct. Then the Church Committee came along and with help from Stansfield Turner, gutted the agency of real people, deciding instead to depend on NSA intercepts, satellites and other electronic surveillance.
    Are you sure you're not a retired pretzel maker, PPJ? The Church Committee "came along" and pushed measures to protect the constitutional rights of US citizens from illegal surveillance.

    The Trib article is something of a hack job. Check out Larry Johnson's blog (No Quarter) here for the views of someone who used to be in the CIA. In short, the Trib's author was able to find out so much about Plame precisely because so much had previously been leaked about here.

    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#14)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 11:29:51 AM EST
    aw - In my time it was presumed to be the Communications Officer. Yes, the reforms of the Church Committee protected us so well that when we needed protection they no longer existed.....because of the reasons stated. Do some reading on the Church Committee and the damage it, and later Demos, did. You're living, and others are dying, with the results.

    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#15)
    by Sailor on Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 11:56:42 AM EST
    See, I told you everyone knew Mrs. Wilson.
    Perpetual prevarication. Now for some truth:
    According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran. [...] Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation. [...] One former counterintelligence official described the CIA's reasons for not seeking Congressional assistance on the matter as follows: "[The CIA Leadership] made a conscious decision not to do a formal inquiry because they knew it might become public," the source said. "They referred it [to the Justice Department] instead because they believed a criminal investigation was needed." The source described the findings of the assessment as showing "significant damage to operational equities."


    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#16)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 04:29:26 PM EST
    sailor - That information is so old it has chin whiskers. It is well known that Mrs. Wilson was known to work for the CIA. What is not generally known is the disinformation put out by:
    .... current and former intelligence officials,
    Mostly like the same ones who showed an astounding lack of judgement and political motivation by letting Mrs. Wilson send her husband to Niger. As for damage, how about let's discussing the NYT's story on the NSA spying on terrorists. Don't want to? I thought not.

    Re: Newspaper Able to Track Covert CIA Employees o (none / 0) (#17)
    by Sailor on Sun Mar 12, 2006 at 05:33:35 PM EST
    And your constantly repeated lies have been disproven over and over I'm not sure why you even bother to comment.

    But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done "covert work overseas" on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA "was making specific efforts to conceal" her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion. (A CIA spokesman at the time is quoted as saying Plame was "unlikely" to take further trips overseas, though.) Fitzgerald concluded he could not charge Libby for violating a 1982 law banning the outing of a covert CIA agent; apparently he lacked proof Libby was aware of her covert status when he talked about her three times with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Fitzgerald did consider charging Libby with violating the so-called Espionage Act, which prohibits the disclosure of "national defense information," the papers show; he ended up indicting Libby for lying about when and from whom he learned about Plame.
    Link

    Posted by JimakaPPJ March 12, 2006 05:29 PM sailor - That information is so old it has chin whiskers. It is well known that Mrs. Wilson was known to work for the CIA.
    Then there must be tons of evidence kickin' around. A dime a dozen. Like you're about to produce right now, right...? That's what I thought.
    What is not generally known is the disinformation put out by:
    .... current and former intelligence officials,
    Once and future shrub shills.
    Mostly like the same ones who showed an astounding lack of judgement and political motivation by letting Mrs. Wilson send her husband to Niger.
    For the kazillionth time, Jim, what evidence exists that Mrs.Valerie Plame Wilson has the authority to "send" her husband to Niger? That's what I thought. Furthermore, would it have changed anything factually if she had? That's what I thought. Sorry to go all Led Zeppelin on your sorry butt, Jim, but the song remains the same. No sale for him still means no sale for you. The Intelligence Community's Job is to root out the truth and to defend this Country and her interests. It is not to make shrubco look good and cover up its endless lies and stupid mistakes to the detriment of the Country and its Citizens. Ya follow? Always a pleasure.