IC Contractors, Leaked Emails and Gitmo

Let's start this roundup off with a link to a VICE News story which cites recently declassified documents demonstrating what some contractors and employees of U.S. intelligence agencies are doing on the job. Seems members of the intelligence community check out porn, browse online dating services, hang out on social media and even engage in illegal internet activity while on the taxpayers' dime - and it happens a lot. 

The Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General oversees 16 federal intel agencies and investigated dozens of instances of spy misconduct between 2013 and 2015. The hundreds of pages released by the watchdog entity to VICE resulting from an FOIA lawsuit documented widespread contracting fraud involving millions of dollars.

A worker at Science Applications International Corporation, a Virginia-based company consisting of some 15,000 employees, admitted 95% of his time on the internet was for personal use while contracting with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The man, who spent the vast majority of his workdays emailing and instant-messaging friends, was also contracted with the National Counterintelligence Center, which collects, monitors and analyzes information on potential terrorist threats. In some instances, contractors were engaging in "sex chats" with minors. VICE reports such fraud and illegal activity involved employees assigned to highly classified intelligence programs with the NSA, CIA, and ODNI on behalf of contractors such as IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, Boeing and General Dynamics.  

Readers of The Greys Have Been Framed will recall in Chapter 13 I explained how during the pre-Snowden years I developed suspicions intel analysts were overemphasizing various questionable threats for reasons possibly most motivated by creating job security. I suspected analysts were subsequently compiling lists of names of citizens and conducting surveillance. I speculated the UFO community was adversely effected by such circumstances, given its members commonly hold counterculture and conspiratorial perspectives. The Snowden revelations and ongoing reports of lack of accountability continue to strengthen my suspicions that, in at least some cases, UFO enthusiasts and intel assets engage in self-perpetuating and largely inconsequential exchanges, in addition to whatever more significant spy games may influence ufology.

Emails to Podesta

Meanwhile, Julian Assange and Wikileaks have been rattling the ufology cage by way of publishing private emails apparently obtained from the Clinton camp. How the leaked emails, which in some cases contain discussion of an alleged extraterrestrial presence and related matters, were obtained is not clarified. Not surprisingly, the ET-related emails surround John Podesta, a Washington VIP currently serving as Secretary Clinton's campaign chairman who publicly demonstrated a willingness to pursue the UFO topic. 

An August 18, 2015, email appears to contain a message from the late Edgar Mitchell and was sent from disclosure activist Terri Mansfield to Podesta. Mitchell mentions a war in space, adding that "our nonviolent ETI from the contiguous universe" is bringing zero point energy to the planet and will not tolerate any forms of military violence, whatever you care to make of that.

Rocker-turned-ufologist Tom DeLonge courted Podesta, as well. DeLonge apparently informed the longtime political insider that a "General McCasland" was in charge of a laboratory "up to a couple years ago" at Wright Patterson Air Force Base designated to hold Roswell crash artifacts. DeLonge described McCasland in the January 25, 2016, email as "a very important man" who helped assemble his advisory team.  

A November 16, 2015, email apparently sent from DeLonge to Podesta by way of a Clinton staffer contained a link and password to a private trailer for DeLonge's upcoming film. The clip consisted of warnings the public can't handle the truth and testimony from a silhouette figure describing knowledge of an extraterrestrial presence, among other items.

I'm not going to venture at this time to thoroughly inventory the many possible scenarios of such potentially complex dynamics involving the merging of disclosure activists, the staff of a presidential candidate, intelligence officials, and an outfit such as Wikileaks. That's a mouthful in itself, and suffice it to say it would be wise to tread lightly in forming conclusions. I will say, though, that my initial thoughts turn to possibilities of "canary in a coal mine," counterintelligence operations; intel agencies might investigate potential adversaries who demonstrate disproportionate interest in people holding security clearances in the circles kept by figures such as DeLonge. Who is feeding the young man such narratives and why might also be questioned, among other reasonable concerns.     

Dr. Jeffrey Kaye

From the "last but not least" file: In The Greys Have Been Framed I wrote about how my interest in social dynamics within the UFO community bled into exploring human rights issues. Psychologist Jeffrey Kaye was among the qualified experts and researchers whose articles I cited. Kaye recently published new work readers may find interesting, Cover-up at Guantanamo: The NCIS Investigation into the “Suicides” of Mohammed Al Hanashi and Abdul Rahman Al Amri. It is a 119-page gripping and thought provocative account of the doctor's descent into events surrounding Gitmo, including some of his personal experience. Footnotes and citations are more than adequately offered in this exploration of two of the prisoner deaths documented at the facility.

Kaye's latest work also includes scoring an FOIA win as described in a recent blog post, Documents on Guantanamo as "'America's Battle Lab' in the Global War on Terrorism". The article addresses events surrounding a formerly classified 2002 report composed by Joint Chiefs of Staff on intelligence operations at Gitmo. Even after 14 years, Kaye notes, the mission statement for the report remains classified. Additionally, all discussion of PSYOPS, or psychological operations, is redacted. 

However, Kaye's latest article contains the report and its references to interagency intelligence gathering efforts which involve use of Guantanamo as "America's battle lab". Such documents offer relevant insight into mentalities prevailing at the Pentagon and among intelligence personnel, which, in my opinion, stands to provide deeper understanding of why the intelligence and UFO communities frequently overlap: the exploitation of people and circumstances for strategic purposes, either perceived, actual or unduly inflated.