Things seem to have gotten very sloppy in the covert world of the CIA in the 1990's...
The deep, dark secret undercover woman listed her place of employment in the early 90's as an American Embassy in Athens (a true hotspot for WMD sleuthing in the 1990's)...
When the Chicago Tribune searched for Plame on an Internet service that sells public information about private individuals to its subscribers, it got a report of more than 7,600 words. Included was the fact that in the early 1990s her address was "AMERICAN EMBASSY ATHENS ST, APO NEW YORK NY 09255."
Who would ever think an embassy employ could be a CIA operative. Shhhhhh, be very quiet.
After the CIA financed a European Vacation (to study) she landed a job at Brewster/Jennings & Associates - a 'legal services' office. Me thinks that she is not a lawyer so some red flags would probably be sent up the line - especially when the business grosses the amazing sum of $60,000 a year - enough to pay Mrs. Plame, apparently.
Two years later, when Plame made a $1,000 contribution to Vice President Al Gore, she listed her employer as Brewster-Jennings & Associates, a Boston company apparently set up by the CIA to provide "commercial cover" for some of its operatives.But her resume of sleuthing for the compartmentalized CIA WMD programs was not done yet. She next got a job at CIA headquarters as a private energy consultant.
Brewster-Jennings was not a terribly convincing cover. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the company, created in 1994, is a "legal services office" grossing $60,000 a year and headed by a chief executive named Victor Brewster. Commercial databases accessible by the Tribune contain no indication that such a person exists.
After Plame was transferred back to CIA headquarters in the mid-1990s, she continued to pass herself off as a private energy consultant. But the first CIA veteran noted: "You never let a true NOC go into an official facility. You don't drive into headquarters with your car, ever."
Now that's a twist. Run a front business out of CIA headquarters and travel to Iran as a Greek energy consultant. She could then check up on Iran's Global Warming WMD development on the oil platforms. Nobody would suspect CIA involvement to be that open... Very sneaky...
But then one of Porter Goss' goons in the CIA made this unfortunate comment:
A senior U.S. intelligence official, who like the others quoted in this article spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that Plame "may not be alone in that category, so I don't want to suggest she was the only one. But it would be a fair assumption that a true-blue NOC is not someone who has a headquarters job at any point or an embassy job at any point."
The nerve!!!
The CIA could not have been this sloppy during the reign of Clinton the Great!!!
There was a President who took the intelligence services seriously!!!
He cut the budget in half - What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!!!
1 comment:
Good writeup Boghie...it's amazing that of all the CIA leaks during the war on terror, the one that mattered the least (Plame) was pushed forward.
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