THE DARK OPERATIVE SERIES
Black Man In the CIA
by Leutrell Osborne, Sr.
<[email protected]>
Updated 2019
BLACK MAN IN THE CIA, by Leutrell Osborne, Sr., 2012
Order Kindle Version on Amazon -
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006XGJLGE/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb
A young man grows up in Washington D.C. seeking adventure and burning with desire to achieve great things. He finds the keys to making his dreams come true are with the Central Intelligence Agency. With his wife and life partner Rose he strikes out on his journey that is remarkable, dangerous as well as fulfilling.
This is his story. He tells it in his own words; through the prism of his unique life experiences, the Black Man in the CIA.
He worked for the CIA, one of the 17 Departments and Agencies of the National Intelligence Communities in particular, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Cold War years. Leutrell M. Osborne Sr. (Mike) tells his story to document the former Spy Manager’s history in the CIA while providing insights for others to understand his rise to become a spy manager supervising CIA agents and assets in over 30 countries, and in addition to that also becoming the only spy manager who also has gained six years of experience in Information Assurance (IA).
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006XGJLGE/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb
A young man grows up in Washington D.C. seeking adventure and burning with desire to achieve great things. He finds the keys to making his dreams come true are with the Central Intelligence Agency. With his wife and life partner Rose he strikes out on his journey that is remarkable, dangerous as well as fulfilling.
This is his story. He tells it in his own words; through the prism of his unique life experiences, the Black Man in the CIA.
He worked for the CIA, one of the 17 Departments and Agencies of the National Intelligence Communities in particular, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Cold War years. Leutrell M. Osborne Sr. (Mike) tells his story to document the former Spy Manager’s history in the CIA while providing insights for others to understand his rise to become a spy manager supervising CIA agents and assets in over 30 countries, and in addition to that also becoming the only spy manager who also has gained six years of experience in Information Assurance (IA).
THE DARK OPERATIVE SERIES:
Book 1 - The Black Man In the CIA
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of the themes of the book The Black Man In The CIA (BMCIA) is that the U.S. has to change method of operating (MOD) in the 16 agencies of the Intelligence Community. In simple language, the U.S. Government needs to increase HUMINT collection operations while accepting greater oversight and scrunity on Covert Action intelligence operations. Bad news about CIA and USA’s Intelligence Community generally comes from failed Covert Action intelligence operations. We are caught in the “matrix of a cultural illusion.” The Cultural Illusion is a euphemism for Covert Action Intelligence operations.
Think you know how the world works? Clandestine operations behind the scenes define, direct and manufacture history, trends and policy. Intelligence is in need of a policy overhaul, particularly in terms of Covert Action. In recounting his personal experiences in 26 years at CIA and in exploring fictional scenarios in The Dark Operative Series, Leutrell Osborne, Sr. envisions a new paradigm in Intelligence based on the "11th Commandment," "Love one another."
Law Enforcement has merged with Intelligence. Transnational crime, including drug trade, funds dark ops and is a crucial factor in the global economy. Liquidity is related to money laundering.
Most media resources don't have any idea about the different types of Espionage Enterprises (EE) especially the way we are planning to write about them. The EE consists of three types: FI, CI, and CA.
FI foreign intelligence collection
CI counter intelligence (note two words that are my trade mark)
CA Covert Action operations do a google Leutrell CIA Covert Action and see what the record looks like?
We will deal with the merging of intelligence in law enforcement with us making a big case that the end results are what it is about and not the games that are played enroute to the end result. Law enforcement locks people up. Intelligence neutralizes peoples, organizations, countries nation states etc. Remember one does not have to pull the trigger of the gun in order to neutralize a perpetrator.
CA-type operations have been turned against American citizens, for example during COINTEL PRO and more recent COINTEL FACTOR-type dirty tricks. We will discuss and this and how disclosure and reform might lead to a more effective system.
BEFORE JAMES BOND & JACK BAUER THERE WAS BLACK CIA MANAGER (LEUTRELL OSBORNE)
Leutrell M. Osborne, Sr. (born 1939) is a veteran of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and a leading authority on international intelligence and security issues.
Known in the CIA as "Mike," Osborne has appeared on CNN and BET, numerous speaking engagements and radio shows. Osborne is the author of the espionage thriller “Dark Operative" series, first of which is "Black Man in the CIA." Osborne has investigated the assassination of Martin Luther King, the global drug trade, 9/11, and COINTELPRO.
During his 27 years of service as a CIA Case Officer and Communications Security Osborne had contacts throughout the intelligence community and he served in over 30 countries. He supervised CIA agents, spies and assets on three continents in what historians and espionage experts have termed the most fertile period of domestic and international spying of the modern era.
Osborne also speaks four languages. While he worked CIA intelligence, his mother worked in CIA administration.
After 31 total years of service, Osborne retired and turned his attention to the private sector. Currently, he is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Leutrell Osborne & Associates and provides security consulting and business re-engineering consulting to enterprises seeking to do business with the Federal Government. Osborne also heads the International Institute of Culture, a virtual university of scholar practitioners which allows students to practice English while learning business methods. Osborne is married with grown children, and lives in Annapolis, Maryland.
OSBORNE ULTIMATUM:
Issue No. 1
US intelligence needs to be reinvented and transformed. Covert Action (clandestine or black ops) has come to mean "dirty tricks." Tighter oversight and accountability with improved end results are required. Accountability boards are not enough. One still has to measure the failed Covert Action intelligence.
Issue No. 2
No nation-state currently polices transnational crime, which is a growing threat. Failure to provide adequate Human Intelligence (HUMINT) is a true weakness in the USA system. Information is crucial to diplomatic and military success.
Some intelligence, other than state secrets, now comes from Open Source, so an increase in HUMINT is the quickest route to improvement. Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of Select Committee on Intelligence claims congressional oversight has increased about 100% since 9/11, but there is always room for more.
Issue No. 3
The shadow of the Shadow Government, including domestic spying and assassinations, needs to be revealed to the American people and the world so we can finally heal. We must take responsibility for that shadow, including national and global discrimination and exploitation.
Issue No. 4
In 2008, SB 1959 (HB 1950) threatened to annihilate the First Amendment, eliminating free speech, the right to assembly, and freedom of the press. If it is illegal to disagree with government policy, even with patriotic dissent, our Constitution is under attack.
We have prospered as mega-consumers of the global pie at the expense of disenfranchised others for too long, and need a common and harmonious survival strategy, at home and abroad. A truly humane and spiritual approach is required to heal the split between our paranoia and our human sense of the sacred. We need to find the heart of darkness.
Final statements on crucially important historical events and hidden agendas are probably not forthcoming due to interminable obfuscation. But these wounds don't heal without resolution.
Issue No. 5
A serious consequence, the breakdown in credibility between the U.S. government and its citizenry, needs to be addressed, as well as increasing militarization of police and unwarranted surveillance of US citizens. In 2009, "friendly fascism" continues to skirt the Constitution.
The breakdown of domestic relations and the global economy are a serious issues, perhaps concealing further manipulations. Those hunting the truth continue to press for disclosure from all knowledgeable sources. The Osborne Ultimatum deals with national and transnational crimes. Our ultimatum is the U.S. government has to change, period.
Have we met the enemy and found it is us, in our complacency? Have we inadvertently relinquished our passion for freedom and justice, much less peace? Power can only be gained at other's expense; prosperity can be shared. We must reject manipulation by fear and greed, trading rights for so-called safety.
Fear is being used against us to promote otherwise unacceptable domestic and global policies. When you no longer fear, you rediscover your active compassion, beyond the myriad cultural illusions.
Perhaps the light cannot defeat the darkness, but surely we can hold the balance of power with moral courage against the evil that men do. Public intelligence in the public interest is the way we restore the Constitution, save the Republic, and preserve the Earth and humanity with survival technology. What we need is more intelligent intelligence -- both for our nation and ourselves.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employed Leutrell “Mike” Osborne (1939- ) for 27 years, 1957-1984. He is widely-recognized as a leading authority on national and transnational intelligence, security and crime issues. He has taught political science and appeared on CNN and BET programs, numerous speaking engagements, radio shows and is an author of espionage thrillers, (“The Dark Operative” Series, Book I “The Black Man in the CIA“). A highlight of Osborne’s life was meeting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and attending his Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, in 1964. Self-appointed black ops watchdog, Osborne has re-opened the investigation of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a target of US government dirty tricks program COINTEL PRO* Also, he is investigating transnational crime, especially organized drug trade and more.
One of the themes of the book The Black Man In The CIA (BMCIA) is that the U.S. has to change method of operating (MOD) in the 16 agencies of the Intelligence Community. In simple language, the U.S. Government needs to increase HUMINT collection operations while accepting greater oversight and scrunity on Covert Action intelligence operations. Bad news about CIA and USA’s Intelligence Community generally comes from failed Covert Action intelligence operations. We are caught in the “matrix of a cultural illusion.” The Cultural Illusion is a euphemism for Covert Action Intelligence operations.
Think you know how the world works? Clandestine operations behind the scenes define, direct and manufacture history, trends and policy. Intelligence is in need of a policy overhaul, particularly in terms of Covert Action. In recounting his personal experiences in 26 years at CIA and in exploring fictional scenarios in The Dark Operative Series, Leutrell Osborne, Sr. envisions a new paradigm in Intelligence based on the "11th Commandment," "Love one another."
Law Enforcement has merged with Intelligence. Transnational crime, including drug trade, funds dark ops and is a crucial factor in the global economy. Liquidity is related to money laundering.
Most media resources don't have any idea about the different types of Espionage Enterprises (EE) especially the way we are planning to write about them. The EE consists of three types: FI, CI, and CA.
FI foreign intelligence collection
CI counter intelligence (note two words that are my trade mark)
CA Covert Action operations do a google Leutrell CIA Covert Action and see what the record looks like?
We will deal with the merging of intelligence in law enforcement with us making a big case that the end results are what it is about and not the games that are played enroute to the end result. Law enforcement locks people up. Intelligence neutralizes peoples, organizations, countries nation states etc. Remember one does not have to pull the trigger of the gun in order to neutralize a perpetrator.
CA-type operations have been turned against American citizens, for example during COINTEL PRO and more recent COINTEL FACTOR-type dirty tricks. We will discuss and this and how disclosure and reform might lead to a more effective system.
BEFORE JAMES BOND & JACK BAUER THERE WAS BLACK CIA MANAGER (LEUTRELL OSBORNE)
Leutrell M. Osborne, Sr. (born 1939) is a veteran of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and a leading authority on international intelligence and security issues.
Known in the CIA as "Mike," Osborne has appeared on CNN and BET, numerous speaking engagements and radio shows. Osborne is the author of the espionage thriller “Dark Operative" series, first of which is "Black Man in the CIA." Osborne has investigated the assassination of Martin Luther King, the global drug trade, 9/11, and COINTELPRO.
During his 27 years of service as a CIA Case Officer and Communications Security Osborne had contacts throughout the intelligence community and he served in over 30 countries. He supervised CIA agents, spies and assets on three continents in what historians and espionage experts have termed the most fertile period of domestic and international spying of the modern era.
Osborne also speaks four languages. While he worked CIA intelligence, his mother worked in CIA administration.
After 31 total years of service, Osborne retired and turned his attention to the private sector. Currently, he is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Leutrell Osborne & Associates and provides security consulting and business re-engineering consulting to enterprises seeking to do business with the Federal Government. Osborne also heads the International Institute of Culture, a virtual university of scholar practitioners which allows students to practice English while learning business methods. Osborne is married with grown children, and lives in Annapolis, Maryland.
OSBORNE ULTIMATUM:
Issue No. 1
US intelligence needs to be reinvented and transformed. Covert Action (clandestine or black ops) has come to mean "dirty tricks." Tighter oversight and accountability with improved end results are required. Accountability boards are not enough. One still has to measure the failed Covert Action intelligence.
Issue No. 2
No nation-state currently polices transnational crime, which is a growing threat. Failure to provide adequate Human Intelligence (HUMINT) is a true weakness in the USA system. Information is crucial to diplomatic and military success.
Some intelligence, other than state secrets, now comes from Open Source, so an increase in HUMINT is the quickest route to improvement. Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of Select Committee on Intelligence claims congressional oversight has increased about 100% since 9/11, but there is always room for more.
Issue No. 3
The shadow of the Shadow Government, including domestic spying and assassinations, needs to be revealed to the American people and the world so we can finally heal. We must take responsibility for that shadow, including national and global discrimination and exploitation.
Issue No. 4
In 2008, SB 1959 (HB 1950) threatened to annihilate the First Amendment, eliminating free speech, the right to assembly, and freedom of the press. If it is illegal to disagree with government policy, even with patriotic dissent, our Constitution is under attack.
We have prospered as mega-consumers of the global pie at the expense of disenfranchised others for too long, and need a common and harmonious survival strategy, at home and abroad. A truly humane and spiritual approach is required to heal the split between our paranoia and our human sense of the sacred. We need to find the heart of darkness.
Final statements on crucially important historical events and hidden agendas are probably not forthcoming due to interminable obfuscation. But these wounds don't heal without resolution.
Issue No. 5
A serious consequence, the breakdown in credibility between the U.S. government and its citizenry, needs to be addressed, as well as increasing militarization of police and unwarranted surveillance of US citizens. In 2009, "friendly fascism" continues to skirt the Constitution.
The breakdown of domestic relations and the global economy are a serious issues, perhaps concealing further manipulations. Those hunting the truth continue to press for disclosure from all knowledgeable sources. The Osborne Ultimatum deals with national and transnational crimes. Our ultimatum is the U.S. government has to change, period.
Have we met the enemy and found it is us, in our complacency? Have we inadvertently relinquished our passion for freedom and justice, much less peace? Power can only be gained at other's expense; prosperity can be shared. We must reject manipulation by fear and greed, trading rights for so-called safety.
Fear is being used against us to promote otherwise unacceptable domestic and global policies. When you no longer fear, you rediscover your active compassion, beyond the myriad cultural illusions.
Perhaps the light cannot defeat the darkness, but surely we can hold the balance of power with moral courage against the evil that men do. Public intelligence in the public interest is the way we restore the Constitution, save the Republic, and preserve the Earth and humanity with survival technology. What we need is more intelligent intelligence -- both for our nation and ourselves.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employed Leutrell “Mike” Osborne (1939- ) for 27 years, 1957-1984. He is widely-recognized as a leading authority on national and transnational intelligence, security and crime issues. He has taught political science and appeared on CNN and BET programs, numerous speaking engagements, radio shows and is an author of espionage thrillers, (“The Dark Operative” Series, Book I “The Black Man in the CIA“). A highlight of Osborne’s life was meeting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and attending his Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, in 1964. Self-appointed black ops watchdog, Osborne has re-opened the investigation of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a target of US government dirty tricks program COINTEL PRO* Also, he is investigating transnational crime, especially organized drug trade and more.
EXCERPT: Chapter 9, "The Libya Show"
The CIA assigned me to the Libyan Branch as Chief Counter Intelligence for Libya. My own paradigm is that the country of Libya is on the continent of Africa, but the Agency resources working against Libya where housed in the NEA Division.
I did some digging and I found out that Libya was at one time in the Africa Division and technically I was not the first African American C/O or spy manager working against Libya. It may be safe to say Justice Arrow was the first Black Case Officer assigned to the Libyan Branch in roughly around l957, when the Agency had Libya in the African Division. So in the early Agency they understood geography as it was. This destroyed my belief that I was the first Black Case Officer in the Libyan Branch, but technically I was still the “first” C/O to desegregate the NEA Division in l982.
In short, that’s how I returned to operations field work from administrative duties. My mentor arranged for me to meet Dan Webster, Chief of the Libyan Branch. Within a very short time, the deal was cut for me to get back into the DO but this time in the NEA Division on the Libyan Branch. My work had now covered five continents: Europe, South America, North America, Asia, and now Africa. This was my first assignment involving Muslim culture, though I had a superficial awareness of the Nation of Islam (NOI), the Black Muslims.
I always found other peoples’ spirituality, or lack of it, of great interest. But Libya’s religion was not the issue at the time. This was to be another adventure in risk assessment. I went to work in the Libyan show. Though people were cordial enough, it was clear that I was not going to be cut in on the good assignments. But if I wasn't going to be cut in on the good deals, I was going to take what I felt was mine. I muscled my way into that assignment involving Libya.
But I had learned how easily they can cast someone off when it seems required by the task at hand. Realizing this, I was quite open to an opportunity to leave the agency.
The history of Libya is not as many of us know it today. The country was never to be organized as one country as it is today. No one was promoting a united Libya. Their aim apparently was to encourage the creation of three separate states (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan) which might subsequently, if they could, form a union among themselves, wrote the UN commission in Libya.
O November 21, 1949 the United Nations” General Assembly voted to admit Libya
O January 1, 1952 independence scheduled.
O September 1, 1969 the military seized power in Libya and Captain Qaddafi took over.
Let me take up the history building effort with my personal involvement in the Near East activities of the Agency. In 1981, I returned to the States from Far East OC overseas assignment and resumed leadership of an Agency quality team dealing with hi tech counter intelligence.
During an operation abroad, I was the Headquarters point of contact for a fast developing critical intelligence situation. One of the Case Officers abroad was debriefing a “Libyan intelligence officer” who was under consideration for “doubling.” That is ‘Case Officer talk’ for recruiting a person of counter intelligence capability who would return to work in their original operational environment. In this case the person would return to work in the Libyan intelligence service. Now remember, I was the sole person in the CIA who was the expert on the Libyan Intelligence Service. Please excuse me for making it appear that the Libyan Intelligence Service was that sophisticated.
Thus, when the developments came about, I was being called into work at all hours of the night because of fast developing activities involved an alleged Libyan intelligence operation abroad. I decided I did not want or need to get out of my bed, so I reinvented the way the CIA’s spy managers prepared messages for Headquarters in a fast breaking and important situation. The way we handled things before, when the message arrived in Washington DC for Headquarters action in the middle of the night, I or any spy manager would be called into duty to handle the message, especially when it had to be disseminated outside of the Agency to other members of the National Intelligence Community.
I re-invented how the Case Officer wrote and sent his message to Headquarters. Remember that I knew how Commo worked and I knew how one performs abroad as a Case Officer. So I recommended, and the DO agreed it was permissible for the Case Officer to write the message as if it was going through CIA communications without the Headquarters Case Officer, me, having to sterilize it before going to the National Intelligence Community. In short, everyone agreed and so it was done.
Sorry, the full details of this so-called Libyan intelligence story remain in the Agency for another story I plan to tell, but I had to share this insider historic event because transformation management is now a topic near and dear to my heart. I was already doing what came to be known as “transformation management.” But at the time the terminology was not used to describe my re-invention. Today one would quickly accept such an activity as a part of change management and therefore it was an act of transformation.
Let me really take you into past history just a little. In my cultural studies, I learned that Blacks had invented and improved their environment out of the necessity to reduce work for themselves. And so did I, by re-inventing the handling of material written in the field so it could by-pass Headquarters processing in both the Office of Communications as well as the DO.
Knowing this tidbit raises questions around so-called stories about CIA ‘not being able to deliver sensitive information fast enough to the National Intelligence Community.’ That, too, is for a future book and it is not relevant to my story now. However, one can see that I might have some two cents worth to add about what is true about what goes on in the Intelligence community and what does not. My expertise was in ensuring rapid dissemination of information in critical and fast moving environments. I can only presume it should have improved rather than deteriorate.
Here is another anomaly that I enjoy talking about. By using a “Nubian mind,” I put events into a genuine historical perspective while removing the European spin that places Libya not on the African continent but in some place in the so-called Near East and Asia. Both in Agency parlance as well as in the public eye, this anomaly takes place. Muslim countries are lumped together. The education system in intelligence denies the known facts of geographic positioning, considering Libya is housed in CIA’s Near East and Asian Division instead of the Africa Division.Libya has never been considered typically African nor is it often thought actually to be on the African continent. Few bother asking, “Just where is Libya?” but accept the perception and terminologies that exist. In reality, we should question certain terms that wrongly define a situation.
Some of us still maintain that the United States of America depends too much on doing Covert Action intelligence operations over the use of other traditional foreign intelligence and counter intelligence types of operations. During the last 100 years, the United States continues to create bogeymen and strengthen the US military industrial complex.
In 1982, the White House grew concerned that Qaddafi might orchestrate a strike against targets within the United States and asked whether Qaddafi could mount a successful assassination against the President of the United States. Yes, you guessed who in the CIA got the assignment -- “me.”
Even though the U.S. government continually engaged in intelligence reporting on Libya, the Agency still was asked to perform the specific assessment. My Top Secret Report that we called a “White Paper” landed on the desk of the President. I even had one conversation with one of the White House persons who assisted in the coordination and the delivery of the White Paper. The “White Paper” concluded that Qaddafi could not mount a successful assassination plot against the President. With such a high profile assignment, I used multiple Intelligence Community (IC) resources to make the assessment. The process required the use of satellites (hi-tech) and human (no-tech) sources
To assess the “Libyan Show” as a veteran at Counter Intelligence expert, I gathered and developed reams of information on Qaddafi, who the United States had labeled an enemy of the state. I always considered him to be a threat that the United States had created using Covert Action intelligence operations. Nevertheless, I had to perform my work as if Libya was consistently up to some harm to the United States and other countries. Unfortunately, that was the nature of the “Libyan Show” as it was called. In “Wag the Dog” style, it was a manufactured crisis, a contrived drama.
I did some digging and I found out that Libya was at one time in the Africa Division and technically I was not the first African American C/O or spy manager working against Libya. It may be safe to say Justice Arrow was the first Black Case Officer assigned to the Libyan Branch in roughly around l957, when the Agency had Libya in the African Division. So in the early Agency they understood geography as it was. This destroyed my belief that I was the first Black Case Officer in the Libyan Branch, but technically I was still the “first” C/O to desegregate the NEA Division in l982.
In short, that’s how I returned to operations field work from administrative duties. My mentor arranged for me to meet Dan Webster, Chief of the Libyan Branch. Within a very short time, the deal was cut for me to get back into the DO but this time in the NEA Division on the Libyan Branch. My work had now covered five continents: Europe, South America, North America, Asia, and now Africa. This was my first assignment involving Muslim culture, though I had a superficial awareness of the Nation of Islam (NOI), the Black Muslims.
I always found other peoples’ spirituality, or lack of it, of great interest. But Libya’s religion was not the issue at the time. This was to be another adventure in risk assessment. I went to work in the Libyan show. Though people were cordial enough, it was clear that I was not going to be cut in on the good assignments. But if I wasn't going to be cut in on the good deals, I was going to take what I felt was mine. I muscled my way into that assignment involving Libya.
But I had learned how easily they can cast someone off when it seems required by the task at hand. Realizing this, I was quite open to an opportunity to leave the agency.
The history of Libya is not as many of us know it today. The country was never to be organized as one country as it is today. No one was promoting a united Libya. Their aim apparently was to encourage the creation of three separate states (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan) which might subsequently, if they could, form a union among themselves, wrote the UN commission in Libya.
O November 21, 1949 the United Nations” General Assembly voted to admit Libya
O January 1, 1952 independence scheduled.
O September 1, 1969 the military seized power in Libya and Captain Qaddafi took over.
Let me take up the history building effort with my personal involvement in the Near East activities of the Agency. In 1981, I returned to the States from Far East OC overseas assignment and resumed leadership of an Agency quality team dealing with hi tech counter intelligence.
During an operation abroad, I was the Headquarters point of contact for a fast developing critical intelligence situation. One of the Case Officers abroad was debriefing a “Libyan intelligence officer” who was under consideration for “doubling.” That is ‘Case Officer talk’ for recruiting a person of counter intelligence capability who would return to work in their original operational environment. In this case the person would return to work in the Libyan intelligence service. Now remember, I was the sole person in the CIA who was the expert on the Libyan Intelligence Service. Please excuse me for making it appear that the Libyan Intelligence Service was that sophisticated.
Thus, when the developments came about, I was being called into work at all hours of the night because of fast developing activities involved an alleged Libyan intelligence operation abroad. I decided I did not want or need to get out of my bed, so I reinvented the way the CIA’s spy managers prepared messages for Headquarters in a fast breaking and important situation. The way we handled things before, when the message arrived in Washington DC for Headquarters action in the middle of the night, I or any spy manager would be called into duty to handle the message, especially when it had to be disseminated outside of the Agency to other members of the National Intelligence Community.
I re-invented how the Case Officer wrote and sent his message to Headquarters. Remember that I knew how Commo worked and I knew how one performs abroad as a Case Officer. So I recommended, and the DO agreed it was permissible for the Case Officer to write the message as if it was going through CIA communications without the Headquarters Case Officer, me, having to sterilize it before going to the National Intelligence Community. In short, everyone agreed and so it was done.
Sorry, the full details of this so-called Libyan intelligence story remain in the Agency for another story I plan to tell, but I had to share this insider historic event because transformation management is now a topic near and dear to my heart. I was already doing what came to be known as “transformation management.” But at the time the terminology was not used to describe my re-invention. Today one would quickly accept such an activity as a part of change management and therefore it was an act of transformation.
Let me really take you into past history just a little. In my cultural studies, I learned that Blacks had invented and improved their environment out of the necessity to reduce work for themselves. And so did I, by re-inventing the handling of material written in the field so it could by-pass Headquarters processing in both the Office of Communications as well as the DO.
Knowing this tidbit raises questions around so-called stories about CIA ‘not being able to deliver sensitive information fast enough to the National Intelligence Community.’ That, too, is for a future book and it is not relevant to my story now. However, one can see that I might have some two cents worth to add about what is true about what goes on in the Intelligence community and what does not. My expertise was in ensuring rapid dissemination of information in critical and fast moving environments. I can only presume it should have improved rather than deteriorate.
Here is another anomaly that I enjoy talking about. By using a “Nubian mind,” I put events into a genuine historical perspective while removing the European spin that places Libya not on the African continent but in some place in the so-called Near East and Asia. Both in Agency parlance as well as in the public eye, this anomaly takes place. Muslim countries are lumped together. The education system in intelligence denies the known facts of geographic positioning, considering Libya is housed in CIA’s Near East and Asian Division instead of the Africa Division.Libya has never been considered typically African nor is it often thought actually to be on the African continent. Few bother asking, “Just where is Libya?” but accept the perception and terminologies that exist. In reality, we should question certain terms that wrongly define a situation.
Some of us still maintain that the United States of America depends too much on doing Covert Action intelligence operations over the use of other traditional foreign intelligence and counter intelligence types of operations. During the last 100 years, the United States continues to create bogeymen and strengthen the US military industrial complex.
In 1982, the White House grew concerned that Qaddafi might orchestrate a strike against targets within the United States and asked whether Qaddafi could mount a successful assassination against the President of the United States. Yes, you guessed who in the CIA got the assignment -- “me.”
Even though the U.S. government continually engaged in intelligence reporting on Libya, the Agency still was asked to perform the specific assessment. My Top Secret Report that we called a “White Paper” landed on the desk of the President. I even had one conversation with one of the White House persons who assisted in the coordination and the delivery of the White Paper. The “White Paper” concluded that Qaddafi could not mount a successful assassination plot against the President. With such a high profile assignment, I used multiple Intelligence Community (IC) resources to make the assessment. The process required the use of satellites (hi-tech) and human (no-tech) sources
To assess the “Libyan Show” as a veteran at Counter Intelligence expert, I gathered and developed reams of information on Qaddafi, who the United States had labeled an enemy of the state. I always considered him to be a threat that the United States had created using Covert Action intelligence operations. Nevertheless, I had to perform my work as if Libya was consistently up to some harm to the United States and other countries. Unfortunately, that was the nature of the “Libyan Show” as it was called. In “Wag the Dog” style, it was a manufactured crisis, a contrived drama.