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Fucked Up College Kids File 113
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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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A look at the CIA from the Inside
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I think that it is time to make public some information which the current
administration and the Central Intelligence Agency would prefer to keep
from the public eye. During the years since the start of the events which
will be described here, the CIA has been very successful in convincing the
printed media from investigating these events. I have come to believe that
there are only two reasonable explanations for this:
1) The CIA has considerable influence over the printed media and is able to
dictate what they can and cannot print.
2) The printed media is willing to sacrifice freedom of the press as a
trade-off for a pay-off that they are unwilling to acknowledge to the
populace at large. No matter which case is true, it is well past time to
distribute this information and I have chosen to post this widely on the
internet so that the facts can be read as widely as possible.
In 1981, fresh from Colorado State University, I was hired by the Central
Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Administration/Office of Communications
(DA/OC) as a Telecommunications Officer. In this capacity I was responsible
for operating a wide variety of telecommunications devices in support of the
CIA's worldwide network of communication which is used to pass information
and instructions back and forth between CIA headquarters and its myriad
field sites. After several years of this I applied for a program which
would permit me to become a Computer Systems Analyst Programmer in the
Engineering Division of OC and was reassigned as such in 1985.
After spending several months in training for my new duties I became
aware of a domestic assignment at a field site in the southeastern United
States. Since I was fairly new to the Engineering Division, I did not think
I had much chance of getting this assignment, but all of the more senior
officers who were offered this position refused the assignment because they
did not desire to accept a geographic relocation to that particular
location.
After exhausting all other possibilities, they finally asked me if I
would take the assignment and I accepted immediately because I wanted to
live in that part of the country ever since my Navy days. I was also anxious
to move because I found that having lived in many different places in the
United States and around the world, Virginia was absolutely one of the worst
possible places to live. My life had been miserable ever since returning
from an overseas assignment which lasted from September 1981 until September
1983 because I had been subjected to working conditions which were punitive,
unhealthy and was designed to illustrate that mistreatment of employees was
sanctioned by OC management.
After that, things moved pretty quickly and in January 1986 I pack my car
full and started heading southward to my new home and job at a major
telecommunications relay center. About two days later I arrived to find
that I would be largely responsible for defining the duties and
responsibilities of my new position and I attracted this with fervor. Since
this was a new position and because the facility was also new, we had no
legacy to rely on and I soon found myself in the position of being a manager
ex portfolio. Because this facility strongly relied on its variety of
automated systems, I became conversant in every phase of the operations - in
fact, I was really the only person who really understood every phase of the
operation because none of the other individuals who were assigned to the
facility had any real knowledge of the automated systems beyond an
operational level. My managers soon learned to trust and rely on my judgment.
When I arrived at the facility I was a GS-10. Over the next four years I
was promoted three times to a final level of GS-13. My peers at other
facilities used to seek my advice on matters relating to the automated
systems and through my own efforts I had considerable influence on many
different facets of the way in which automated systems were used in support
of the worldwide mission of the CIA. My efforts were also acknowledged on
two separate occasions in the form of $1500 cash awards. In one case the
award was given because I identified a potentially critical weakness in the
security features of one of the systems I worked with. I cannot freely
discuss the exact nature of this weakness, but it once CIA management
became fully aware of the nature of the problem they took steps to
hand-carry a software fix to every location throughout the world where one
of these systems were in use. This system had been in use since before I
became an employee of the CIA in 1981, and in all of the intervening years,
no other programmer had ever noticed that the problem even existed. I will
also add that the CIA's performance appraisal review system is based on a
scale of 1 to 7. With the exception of my first performance review which
was conducted shortly after my arrival while I was still adjusting to my new
job, I was rated as an overall 7 with my lowest grades on individual rating
items being a 6.
In the normal sequence of an individual's career, it would be normal to
expect that superior performance would be rewarded and that the OC mangers
would attempt to move me into areas which represented increased
opportunities. However, the CIA does not represent normalcy. There were
several things that happened along the way. First of all, several officers
who were more senior then me had considerable resentments towards me. In
several cases they had been programmers on the system which was my primary
responsibility for years before I began to work with the system and in all
that time they had been unable to resolve some serious problems with the
software they had written. In some cases they were not even able to provide
a reasonably coherent description for the cause of spontaneous system
failures. Once I began to work with this system I rapidly began to identify
problems with the programs and wrote corrective fixes. I was generating
these changes so quickly that the managers at headquarters were not able
to keep up with the pace. In most cases they didn't even understand the
nature of the problems even after they saw that my changes corrected
problems that had plagued the system since its inception. They grew
strongly resentful because it soon became obvious that their own
incompetence had caused these problems and managers who were even more
senior had to start asked serious questions about why my predecessors had
been unable to correct these problems. Secondly, I always tended to stay
within the guidelines of official policy. This meant that when I discovered
a potential security lapse I felt that I was obliged to report this through
formal channels even though it could possibly cause problems for a senior
officer who had caused the security problem. I received a blistering
private phone call from this officer who berated me heavily for reporting
this incident in official channels. I never understood how he was able to
suppress the investigation of this incident, but this potential compromise
was never examined fully. That officer continued to carry a resentment
against me and apparently vowed that he would make me pay for what I had
done. Thirdly, an unqualified junior, female programmer decided that she
had enough competence to do my job. Since I was the only programmer
assigned to the facility, the only way she could do that was to get OC
management to remove me from the position.
Because of the other matters discussed here, they were all too willing to
do this to demonstrate that they could and would punish any officer who did
not act in a condescending manner.
I had been warned of course. On a very frequent basis I was warned that
I really needed to learn to drink with the right people. Since I was not a
heavy drinker, I did not fit in well with many of the senior staff and I
also objected strongly to an illegal bar which was operated in the rear of
one of the buildings there. Secondly, at one point I was assigned to a
problem which had been assigned to every other programmer who had ever
worked on the system and none of them had been able to solve the problem and
by the time it was assigned to me it was already described as unsolveable.
Just to be sure, however, they gave a message to an individual who would
soon visit the facility. He told me that if I were really smart I would
basically declare that the problem could not be resolved because that would
at least mollify those who desired that I have at least some weakness.
Unfortunately, I did not listen to that warning and within a week I had
identified the source of the problem and by the end of the second week I had
coded and tested a solution which resolved the problem entirely. I found
out later that there was a lot of people who were very angry that I solved
this problem. On a personal level I had nothing against the individual who
schemed to replace me. I didn't know her and really didn't care to.
However, once she got it in her mind that she was determined to replace me,
she stopped at nothing to force the transfer to take place.
At one point, approximately a year before my final departure in July of
1990, she was sent to act as a caretaker for the systems at the facility
while I took several weeks of leave. Without any authority or direction,
she made several modification to the programs of the primary system. Not
only were these changes completely unauthorized, they were also done in a way
that violated configuration control policies set up
by the Office of Communication. Upon my return I discovered these changes
and when I asked her directly who had given her authority to make these
changes, she refused to answer. After her departure the following day I
removed the modifications and informed headquarters of my actions. One of
my sources later informed me that this person had reacted quite angrily when
I had exposed her unauthorized actions. However, since she was already
threatening OC with a Title VII action if they did not give her the position
I occupied, the die was already cast.
Unilaterally, I was informed that I would be transferred to headquarters
without recourse. While other officers at my level had been given a choice
of assignments and had normally been given their first choice, I was
informed that any input I provided regarding my future assignment would be
ignored. When I complained that their actions were discriminatory and
illegal, they stated that as a single, white male I had absolutely no
recourse whatsoever because I was not a member of a protected class. They
even went further to state that because I was single I was required to be
more flexible then my married peers. This despite an Executive Order which
stated that marital status could not be used as a basis of discrimination.
Because of some faulty information I had received and because senior CIA
officials were determined to have their way, I was steered away from the EEO
system (where there is a mandated legal requirement to take certain actions)
to the grievance system (under which, at the time, there was no requirement
for any action to be taken by the Agency). I later learned that the
director of the Office of Communication demanded that my grievance be
discarded and that no action would be taken. I was never informed of this
and only discovered that this had happened when I made some subsequent
queries.
At one point I considered quitting, but the Agency made it very clear
that this would not be tolerated. They stated that they would ensure that I
would never be able to work in that area and even went as far as to say "We
can envision no circumstances under which you can be permitted to remain in
_______" - a statement which has certain ramifications when said by a SIS
level officer who was representing the official position of the Agency. I
knew at that point that I had been blackmailed and since I preferred to
remain alive I accepted the transfer.
Of course, the matter did not end there. Over the next two years they
made it quite clear to me that I would be punished until such time as they
decided otherwise. I was given menial duties that were completely
inconsistent with my grade and professional performance, I was treated
horribly by my supervisors and was generally made to feel like a piece of
shit. At one point I was even told that I could not sit at the conference
table during official meetings of my division and branch along with other
staff members. I was told that I would never be eligible for promotion
again and I would not be considered for any assignment opportunities. They
made my life miserable for two years until I finally had enough and
identified a job with a private company who made me a generous offer because
my resume showed that I had considerable expertise as a programmer. My
manager at the time had no idea that I had been job-hunting and when I
presented her with my letter of resignation she became livid and she
literally backed me into a corner and proceeded to harangue me in an
extremely abusive and derisive manner for a long time before she finally
allowed me to leave her office. I had never been humiliated that way
before - and this was by someone who made a point about leaving a Bible
laying around her office so that everyone would believe that she had
religious convictions.
I was free. Sort of. It still took me another year to find a physical
escape from those surroundings. When I received an offer for a job in North
Carolina I jumped at it. Although I could never right the wrongs that were
done against me, at least I didn't have to live in an area where I was daily
reminded that they had won and I had lost.
Because I finally received the type of information which had been
withheld from me concerning my rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I
finally filed a lawsuit against the CIA. Since the lawsuit was filed the
Agency has done everything it can think of to stonewall the case. They have
failed to fulfill certain administrative responsibilities that they have in
regards to required security briefings, they had attempted to use their
influence over the courts to have the case dismissed, and they have even
made an appointed official violate the integrity of the position he holds by
having him state that it was reasonable for the events to happen as they did
since the "needs of the service" outweigh all other considerations. What
you have just read is not the whole story. The whole story will eventually
fill a book. What I really want to impress on everyone, however, is that
the people of this country have allowed an agency of the Executive branch of
government to act this way. While there is congressional oversight for
matters relating to intelligence and covert activities, the Agency does not
acknowledge any authority over its internal personnel practices. While
other agencies are required to abide by OPM policies, the CIA has been
exempt from these. Even the office of the President of the United States
didn't know what to make of my case - they even tried at one point to refer
the matter to the Office of Special Counsel, but that office had to inform
the White House that they had no authority to act since the CIA was exempted
from examination.
This has been a long, arduous journey for me. I have lost friendships
because the CIA chose to punish those who had an association with me, I have
been forced to give up basic human rights which are supposedly guaranteed by
our Constitution and I have had my career damaged by those power-hungry
individuals whose childish actions served their own purposes even though
those actions defined rational justification.
I don't know where this journey will take me. Maybe one day someone will
find me face down in a ditch somewhere. Maybe they'll just make me totally
disappear. That they would ever admit that they were engaged in illegal and
immoral activities seems unlikely because the President simply doesn't care
about individual citizens of this country and is probably intimidated by the
CIA - or at least overly impressed with the mystique that the Agency
represents. At least, however, I have gotten at least some of my story out.
If this causes even one person to question how we have let the government get
so out of control that events like this can occur, then this communication
has served its purpose.
- Far Reaches
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