The religious art, stained-glass windows and classical quotations lining Gaston Hall enveloped the directors of the NSA and the FBI like an elaborate disguise as they gave keynote addresses on combating one of the most daunting challenges of the 21st century: cyberattacks.
The name tags that almost all of the attendees wore showed that they worked for the US government, foreign embassies, intelligence contractors or vendors of cyber-related products, or they taught at universities.
Perhaps not all of the intelligence presence was open. Officially, 40 nations — from Brazil to Mauritius, Serbia to Sri Lanka — were represented at the conference, but not Russia. Yet, hovering in the rear of the balcony, a slender young man carrying a briefcase listened to the panels.
No name tag adorned his lapel. I approached him, introduced myself,and asked his name. I proffered a business card, and requested his, in vain. My cards are still being produced.
I persisted, asking about his job at the embassy. He looked at his watch. I must go. By hiding its role, the CIA makes it easier for scholars to share their insights. They take credit for their presentations on their CV without disclosing that they consulted for the CIA, which might alienate some academic colleagues, as well as the countries where they conduct their research.
An emeritus professor of political science at the University of North Texas, Booth specialises in studying Latin America, a region where history has taught officials to be wary of the CIA. It provides a fig leaf for participants. The CIA arranges conferences on foreign policy issues so that its analysts, who are often immersed in classified details, can learn from scholars who understand the big picture and are familiar with publicly available sources.
With scholarly presentations followed by questions and answers, the sessions are like those at any academic meeting, except that many attendees — presumably, CIA analysts — wear name tags with only their first names. In , its executive ranks teemed with former intelligence officials.
I make no bones about it to my colleagues. I am an American citizen. I feel I should proffer the best possible advice to my government. He later ran into one or two of the same people at an academic conference. Centra strives to mask its CIA connections. We have nothing to do with that. The receptionist fetched human resources director Dianne Colpitts. F or Iranian academics escaping to the west, academic conferences are a modern-day underground railroad. The CIA has taken full advantage of this vulnerability.
Because it was hard to approach the scientists in Iran, the CIA enticed them to conferences in friendly or neutral countries, a former intelligence officer told me. In consultation with Israel, the agency would choose a prospect. Like professors anywhere, they enjoyed a junket. The CIA officer assigned to the case might pose as a student, a technical consultant, or an exhibitor with a booth. Careers with this prestigious federal agency are reserved for only the most qualified, competent and suitable candidates.
The Central Intelligence Agency is a massive federal entity that hires professionals with distinct expertise from a variety of backgrounds. The work of the CIA is carried out through four separate offices:. Specializations within the CIA deal with everything from congressional affairs and legal issues to tactical operations and counter-espionage. Employees of the CIA may be scientists, engineers, economists, linguists, accountants, computer specialists, and mathematicians, among many others.
Their work may involve gathering intelligence on international developments of a critical nature, including political, military, weapons of mass destruction, and terrorist issues. Tom Temin: And when one is overseas for an extended period, I guess it may be a year or two, would that be fair to say? Marc Polymeropoulos: Yeah, sure. So it all just depends. Marc Polymeropoulos: Sure.
One of misnomers about CIA is that we actually do carry guns and are dressed in 5. Read more: Workforce. Tom Temin: And when you are in the field in whatever role, what is it that headquarters can best do in terms of support? And then they put together what is most required, which is papers or briefings for policymakers.
And when the intelligence community is really humming, our true role is a support to policy. Tom Temin: And having been there 26 years, that was probably four, perhaps five administrations that you served under, and they always have politics going back and forth with the intelligence community and the CIA.
Did it seem at the level you operate it at that that was pretty much kept apart from the people doing the work day to day and year after year? Marc Polymeropoulos: Absolutely. But when I do speak, one of the things I talk about is that we really are an apolitical organization.
So I served for different administrations. I think this most recent administration, with a president who was very active on Twitter, certainly made things more interesting. But really one of the the great hallmarks of the CIA and the intelligence community in general is that people just put their heads down and get the business of intelligence, and you really try to push any kind of politics aside.
Marc Polymeropoulos: First and foremost, I think nor new DNI, Avril Haines, who is a veteran of the national security apparatus, of course former deputy director, but also a lot of time at the NSC and state. This is a fantastic choice because she really knows how to integrate intelligence into policy. She knows our foreign partners very well. So I think that she will be a great success. He was an ambassador in two major posts in the past in Moscow and Amman, so he knows about what intelligence collection really means.
And of course, he served in policy roles back in Washington, so he knows how intelligence can help shape and formulate policy. Tom Temin: And you were also a victim of the magnetic radio waves beaming that affected CIA and State Department employees in and , causing brain damage.
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Marc Polymeropoulos: So this is the hardest thing for me really to talk about. I was unfortunately kind of compelled to go public about this because I was not getting the medical care that I really needed and sought.
I took a trip to Moscow in December of , and there was an event there that certainly changed my life. I suffer now from migraine headaches that never go away. On a good note is the agency has has relented after I did go public with my grievances and so I am going to the Walter Reed Traumatic Brain Injury Center for a month of outpatient treatment, which is really the place where I need to go.
Marc Polymeropoulos: It was in a hotel room in Moscow. Tom Temin: But at the first occurrence, you sense that directional quality of the radiation that other people have reported? But one of the key points on that is there was a big study that came out from the National Academy of Sciences which talked about their conclusion it was likely radiation microwave weapon that caused this.
And so the NAS study, I think, was really important in that it gave us a lot more legitimacy as we move forward. Tom Temin: And we interviewed Dr. Marc Polymeropoulos: Yes, I do.
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