Spies Like Us?

For spies like us, the smoke and mirrors world of espionage remains comfortably concealed in the guise of journalists investigating government officials. Starstream Research goes beyond the world of "open source spying" with our friends from the three-letter agencies.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS (STARpod.org) -- As Vice Admiral John M. McConnell was sworn in as the Director of National Intelligence, sources pointed to an orchestrated leak sitting right under the newly appointed head of the U.S Government's Intelligence Community.

The origin of the leaked messages is alleged to be Dr. Ronald Pandolfi, a scientist once tasked with writing National Intelligence Estimates for the CIA.

At least three different sources confirmed to Starstream Research that a "government person" identified a party close to our investigation as an agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service, also widely known as MI-6. The affiliation with MI-6 has been denied, and appears to have been a ruse to prevent a meeting with a former USAF Intelligence Officer at the center of the investigation. The "government person" was loosely identified as a sitting Senior DNI officer.

In 2006, Time magazine reported the story of Pandolfi's former boss, Porter Goss, then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and the firing of an individual for passing classified information that appeared in the news media. The article quotes Goss spokesperson Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, "Every person who works at the CIA signs a secrecy agreement specifically stating they're prohibited from discussing classified information with any individual who is not properly cleared to receive that material." The leak of sensitive information was reported by Goss to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Disclosure of sensitive or classified information must be reported to the FBI and the Justice Department for investigation.

The latest leak case uncovered by Starstream Research appears to be a deliberate effort to manipulate the role of various 'players' around an unknown counterintelligence objective. 'Spooks' often leak information with a purpose: to control or modify the behavior of other investigators.

In age of the Internet, there is a gray zone that smears the demarcation line between journalists investigating 'spooky' activities, and spies posing as journalists to ferret information to elements of the Intelligence Community.

Michael Kinsley noted in his insightful Time article "Free Scooter Libby!":

"Even Bob Woodward can't create a leak all by himself. You need someone else with inside knowledge of the evildoing in question. And here is what's strange: the gospel of the leak has nothing to say about sources except that the reporter won't blab about who they are. If the boss finds out who the leakers are in some other way and fires them, or if they find themselves the subject of a gargantuan federal prosecution, they should not look to the press for sympathy."

The ethical guidelines by which journalists protect their sources need not apply to spies posing as journalists, even if the spies are unwitting agents of carefully orchestrated psychological operations.

Elicitation is a collection method used to spy on unsuspecting parties with connections to persons of interest.

The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive produces a booklet for those in danger of becoming targets of intelligence collection.

Elicitation is described as the "...collection of conversational gambits used in ordinary conversations in order to gain information without being obvious about it. Elicitation by foreign intelligence officers or terrorists is a commonly used and highly effective way of subtly collecting information through what appears to be normal, perhaps even mundane, social or professional conversation."

The booklet warns, "Although you may not personally possess a specific piece of technical information, you may possess operational, organizational, or personnel data that can be used by foreign intelligence officers to identify and pursue more lucrative targets...An intelligence activity directed against you will probably be conducted in an unobtrusive and non-threatening fashion."

The modern world relies on email, chat and instant messaging to facilitate 'conversation' around the world. The international intelligence community has not lost sight of the usefulness of electronic methods of 'conversation' and appear to be actively engaging in 'harmless' exchanges of information with parties of potential interest.

A Defense Intelligence Agency booklet titled "Personal Protection Measures Against the Terrorist Threat" warns that "Information about yourself and in particular your employment with the Federal Government should not be provided to Internet user groups, e-mail services, or other web sites. Adversaries through a variety of methods can easily exploit such information about your identity and employer...Unsolicited emails are a good way for foreign intelligence services or terrorists to collect names, ranks, duty locations, job descriptions, IP addresses, and other valuable information on U.S. Government personnel."

The deliberate leaking by Pandolfi of email messages discussing an official investigation was serious enough that the FBI was alerted to the situation.

Pandolfi's associate in the private sector, Dan T. Smith, claims to be the unofficial conduit of information about the investigation. The purpose of the leak remains a mystery even to those close to the situation.

Recently Smith wrote, "Meanwhile, an inside source has told one of us, that it is known that disinfo is still being fed into UFO channels. This has a specific C/I [counterintelligence] purpose, not specified to me. CF [Pandolfi] discounted this allegation as being counter to their charter to not interfere domestically. This is an issue that has been discussed here previously. There are expected to be further questions about this."

One well-placed source suggested that the counterintelligence aspect originated with the IBC (Intelligence Business Community) and was therefore outside of government supervision.

Part Three: DAMAGE CONTROL

Copyright (c) 2007 Starstream Research. All rights reserved.