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DNI Heads Up on Breaking WP Story


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This just in from Disinfo.com http://www.disinfo.com/

Quoting a source - The Washington Times, known to be owned by the KCIA Unification Church, and purveyors of disinformation, propaganda and intellectual porno themselves, this appears to be a legitimate memo from the Office of Director of National Intelligence.

http://media.washtim...icture_17.png//

A MESSAGE FROM THE MISSION SUPPORT CENTER

Notice to Industry Partners

Subject: Potential Disclosure of Contract Information

Early next week, the Washington Post is expected to publish articles and an interactive website that will likely contain a compendium of government agencies and cotractors allegedly conducting Top Secret work. The website is expected to enable users to see the relationships between the federal govenment and its contractors, describe the tpye of workt he contractors perform, and may identify many government and contractor facility locations.

Publication is expected starting July 19, 2010 with additional articles published thereafter. We request that all ODNI contractors remind all cleared emplooyess of their cresponsiblity to protect classified information and relationships, and to abide by contractural agreements regarding non-publicity.

Employees should be remined that they must neither confirm nor deny information contained in this, or any, media publication, and that the publication of this webside does not consitute a change in any current ODNI classifications. They should also be reminded that if approached and asked to discuss their work by media or unauthorized people, they should report the interactions to their appropriate security officer.

Foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations, and criminal elements [bK: to say nothing about the American public] will have potential interest in this kind of information. It is important that companies review their overall coounterintelligence posture to ensure that it is appropirate. Specfically, we recommend that companies affected by this publication and website assess and take steps to mitigate risk to their workforce, facility and mission, to the extent consistant with your contractual relationsship with ODNI. These steps should include re-enforcement of security and counterintelligence protection and steps to enhance workforce awareness. CI and security events related to o the publcication of thes articles and website should be reported through normal company channels to the MSC/Security office. or the time being, thresholds should be lowered to aggressively report anomalous behaviour.

Should your management or public affairs officers be contacted by the media, any response must be consistent with your contract. If appropriate, you may also refer meida inquiries to ODNI Public Affairs at (703) 275-3700

When I testified at the first public hearing before the Assassination Records Review Board I mentioned the need to obtain records from government defense contractors, specifically Collins Radio, but also General Dynamics, Bell Hellicopter, and other companies that became or their employees became entwined in the events related tot he assassination of President Kennedy.

Besides having Senior and Junior lawyers on the staff, the Warren Commission also included a number of official historians, including one from each of the military branches. The one from the Air Force, Alfred Goldberg, recently retired, but once wrote an important paper on the proliferation of Defense Department contractors and subcontractors whose records were not included or a part of the official government archive.

These stories due out by the Wasington Post could be significant, especially if the NYTs picks up on it and the details are upsetting, and spark Congressional hearings.

Anything else anyone can learn about this would be appreciated.

BK

Edited by William Kelly
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This just in from Disinfo.com http://www.disinfo.com/

Quoting a source - The Washington Times, known to be owned by the KCIA Unification Church, and purveyors of disinformation, propaganda and intellectual porno themselves, this appears to be a legitimate memo from the Office of Director of National Intelligence.

http://media.washtim...icture_17.png//

A MESSAGE FROM THE MISSION SUPPORT CENTER

Notice to Industry Partners

Subject: Potential Disclosure of Contract Information

Early next week, the Washington Post is expected to publish articles and an interactive website that will likely contain a compendium of government agencies and cotractors allegedly conducting Top Secret work. The website is expected to enable users to see the relationships between the federal govenment and its contractors, describe the tpye of workt he contractors perform, and may identify many government and contractor facility locations.

Publication is expected starting July 19, 2010 with additional articles published thereafter. We request that all ODNI contractors remind all cleared emplooyess of their cresponsiblity to protect classified information and relationships, and to abide by contractural agreements regarding non-publicity.

Employees should be remined that they must neither confirm nor deny information contained in this, or any, media publication, and that the publication of this webside does not consitute a change in any current ODNI classifications. They should also be reminded that if approached and asked to discuss their work by media or unauthorized people, they should report the interactions to their appropriate security officer.

Foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations, and criminal elements [bK: to say nothing about the American public] will have potential interest in this kind of information. It is important that companies review their overall coounterintelligence posture to ensure that it is appropirate. Specfically, we recommend that companies affected by this publication and website assess and take steps to mitigate risk to their workforce, facility and mission, to the extent consistant with your contractual relationsship with ODNI. These steps should include re-enforcement of security and counterintelligence protection and steps to enhance workforce awareness. CI and security events related to o the publcication of thes articles and website should be reported through normal company channels to the MSC/Security office. or the time being, thresholds should be lowered to aggressively report anomalous behaviour.

Should your management or p;ublic affairs officers be contacted by the media, any response muss be consistent with your contract. If appropriate, you may also refer meida inquiries to ODNI Public Affairs at (703) 275-3700

When I testified at the first public hearing before the Assassination Records Review Board I mentioned the need to obtain records from government defense contractors, specifically Collins Radio, but also General Dynamics, Bell Hellicopter, and other companies that became or their employees became entwined in the events related tot he assassination of President Kennedy.

Besides having Senior and Junior lawyers on the staff, the Warren Commission also included a number of official historians, including one from each of the military branches. The one from the Air Force, Alfred Goldberg, recently retired, but once wrote an important paper on the proliferation of Defense Department contractors and subcontractors whose records were not included or a part of the official government archive.

These stories due out by the Wasington Post could be significant, especially if the NYTs picks up on it and the details are upsetting, and spark Congressional hearings.

Anything else anyone can learn about this would be appreciated.

BK

WATCH FOR IT: The Washington Post is preparing a major investigative series on the use of contractors in the intelligence community. The series has major contractors a bit nervous ...

July 16, 2010

WaPo Outing America's Secrets?

From the Office of the Director of National Intelligence:

Early next week, the Washington Post is expected to publish articles and an interactive website that will likely contain a compendium of government agencies and contractors allegedly conducting Top Secret work. The website is expected to enable users to see the relationships between the federal government and its contractors, describe the type of work the contractors perform, and may identify many government and contractor facility locations....

If someone could explain why this is happening, please leave a comment. I'd really like to know why someone thinks this is a good idea. For newspaper to publish the identity of those performing Top Secret work and disclose what they are working on must have national security implications.

Meanwhile, be advised that the Obama White House is reportedly "cool with it."

Tip: Kenny Solomon

Sources: Washington Post Set to Disclose Intelligence Contract Information

Posted by Alexander Marlow Jul 16th 2010 at 12:50 pm

A memo obtained from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence indicates the Washington Post is preparing to "publish articles and an interactive website that will likely contain a compendium of government agencies and contractors allegedly conducting Top Secret work." You can view the memo below. The series is likely to launch Monday.

According to another memo from Art House, the director of communications for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the series will be written up by Dana Priest and culminates two years of research. He postulates Priest is likely to advocate:

  • The intelligence enterprise has undergone exponential growth and has become unmanageable with overlapping authorities and a heavily outsourced contractor workforce.
  • The IC [intelligence community] and the DoD have wasted significant time and resources, especially in the areas of counterterrorism and counterintelligence.
  • The intelligence enterprise has taken its eyes off its post-9/11 mission and is spending its energy on competitive and redundant programs.

Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic reports, "Priest's story is said to focus on redundancies, particularly the number of individual counter-terrorism analytical cells costing the government billions of dollars. Some of the redundancy is deliberate because of the nature of intelligence work. But a lot of redundancy, especially in terms of information technology, is probably just wasteful."

The Washington Post is also working on a television component with PBS's Frontline.

Priest has targeted America's clandestine intelligence agencies in much of her research over the years, not least of which with her 2005 article, "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: Debate Is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11." She won the Pulitzer for her reporting on the "black sites." Many on the right hold the opinion this article was detrimental to America's national security and intelligence gathering capabilities and have hurt the war effort. There have also been questions raised about her sources.

At first glance, we at the Big Blogs are unclear what the public is supposed to do with this classified intelligence contract information, and it certainly doesn't seem to fall under the "public right to know" umbrella either. The report may expose billions of dollars of government waste and provide other useful insights, and we'll be sure to highlight those if we see them, but given the reporter behind the exposé and the paper publishing it, be prepared to witness the Washington Post go to battle with our intelligence agencies at a time of war.

We'll be sure to update you on the Big Blogs as this story develops..

Edited by William Kelly
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Fox News is first out of the box:

Post: U.S. Intelligence Grows Beyond Control

July 19, 2010 FoxNews.com

Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, top-secret intelligence gathering by the government has grown so unwieldy and expensive that no one really knows what it cost and how many people are involved, The Washington Post reported Monday.

A two-year investigation by the newspaper uncovered what it termed a "Top Secret America" that's mostly hidden from public view and largely lacking in oversight.

In its first installment of a series of reports, the Post said there are now more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in some 10,000 locations across the U.S.

Some 854,000 people -- or nearly 1 1/2 times the number of people who live in Washington -- have top-secret security clearance, the paper said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Post that he doesn't believe the massive bureaucracy of government and private intelligence has grown too large to manage, but it is sometimes hard to get precise information.

"Nine years after 9/11, it makes sense to sort of take a look at this and say, 'OK, we've built tremendous capability, but do we have more than we need?" he said.

The head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, said he knows that with the growing budget deficits the level of spending on intelligence will likely be reduced and he's at work on a five-year plan for the agency.

The White House had been anticipating the Post report and said before it was published that the Obama administration came into office aware of the problems and is trying to fix them.

The intelligence community warned that the report could blow the cover of contract companies doing top-secret work for the government.

At the same time, a senior administration official acknowledged that the kind of wasteful spending expected to be spotlighted in the series is "troubling" and something the administration is trying to address.

"There will be examples of money being wasted in the series that seem egregious and we are just as offended as the readers by those examples," the official said. The official said some of the information in the story is "explainable," in that some "redundancy" is necessary in the intelligence community. But the official said the administration has been working to reduce "waste" and that "it's something we've been on top of."

Other sectors of the administration were on high alert over the piece. A source told Fox News that the series amounts to a "significant targeting document" in that it will apparently bring together unclassified information from the public domain in a single location, making it a one-stop shop for this level of detail. The official said "few intelligence groups have the assets and resources to pool" this kind of information.

This has led to warnings about how the information could be used. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent out a memo saying that "foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations and criminal elements will have potential interest in this kind of information."The State Department sent out an e-mail saying the series would include a "graphic representation pinpointing the location of firms conducting top secret work, describing the type of work they perform and identifying many facilities where such work is done."

Contractors play a huge role in the nation's intelligence work -- a role that has swelled since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Contractors handle more than half of the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence duties.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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And Here It Is Ladies and Gentlemen, the story you have all been waiting for.

Two years in the making, complete with its own web site (not to be out done by Gary Webb) and in the finest Ben Bradlee tradition, the Wasington Post is proud to present Dana Priest and Willaim M. Arkin in their latest Pulitzer Prize contending production - now playing on computer screens, televisions, radios, newspapers, blogs and barbershops everywhere, the story that may finally instigate Congress to resume oversight responsiblities:

TA TA TA AT (Sound Trumpet)

TOP SECRET AMERICA

- A Washington Post Investigation -

A hidden world growing beyond contro

lPH2010071604490.gifThe government has built a national security and intelligence system so big, so complex and so hard to manage, no one really knows if it's fulfilling its most important purpose: keeping its citizens safe. Continue Reading »

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

A hidden world, growing beyond control

byline-dana-bill.gif

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

http://projects.wash...beyond-control/

Check Companies - Take for example General Dynamics

They really use General Dynamics as their first example, though there's no mention so far of Bell Hell or Collins Radio (Now Rockwell International). SEARCH BY NAME Curious about a specific company? Search for it here.Examples:

General Dynamics

Lockheed Martin

SAIC

See all »

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/

Edited by William Kelly
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Among the tasks assigned to some of these private contractors hired to do Top Secret work is Psy Ops.

Psychological operations

Traditional psychological operations, including the creation and delivery of messages via leaflet, loudspeaker, radio or television; the newer "influence operations" associated with the creation of websites and the use of social media to extend U.S. influence, both overtly and covertly; and the separate clandestine and covert activities associated with influence, deception, and perception management.

55 results for Psychological operations

Is John McAdams web site listed?

And this can't be our friend John Bevilacqua, could it?

http://projects.wash...ch-corporation/

For more check out:

http://jfkcountercoup.wordpress.com/

Edited by William Kelly
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