Is moose and squirrel, da?
Posted on 05/01/2008 11:01:42 AM PDT by mwdouglass
Was it a spy, or would-be spy, in that SUV? Despite CIA mementos and other evidence, Roland Carnaby's life remains an enigma
Send in Boris and Doris to find out.
Did he know Chuck Barris?
Is moose and squirrel, da?
Oh Roland, they got you too......
Now think of the used car salesman.
how many guys do you know who worked for the company who tell everybody about it (outside of law enforcement)? The thing about spies is that they tend either to go entirely on the record or they tend to avoid EVER letting their identity be known to protect their own safety (Are You Listening Valerie Plame????)
It’s like a Black Belt. The guys how are always talking about how many ways they can kill somebody are not the guys who can actually do it. Real black belts don’t wander around making gestures mimicking kata. Real black belts do their practicing for a purpose and not just to prove they can do it. Of course, if a guy is willing to throw you to the ground just to prove he can do it then I would go ahead and believe him shortly after you’ve hit the floor.
oh, and how many agents do you know who ever drove around in Ferraris??? Only the DEA guys ever got the drive flashy cars in their cover ops. Lucky bastards. But then, it probably makes up for having to try to buy 2 kilos of cocaine with a briefcase full of phone books.
Roland Carnaby joined AFIO as an Associate Member
AFIO Members - Current and Former U.S. intelligence, counterintelligence, military, law enforcement and related (e.g. security) personnel (any rank or level), may become Members.
AFIO Associate Members - U.S. citizens in private, civil, academic or corporate pursuits, as well as, Americans currently in non-intelligence government employment (at any level) or other military service, may become Associate Members.
Wow. Only an associate member, but yet still the president of the local chapter? Interesting.
Fellow AFIO members are probably rather embarrassed at letting Roland “Walter Mitty” ferret his way up to being elected President of the AFIO Houston chapter!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Premel’s Intel Chief Retires
Following the first series of interviews Alan Premel gave with Channel 1 in Moscow, the first series was posted online last week and i have already seen two other additional stories which tie in with Premel and his dealings with the private firm in Houston. This is one and let me find the other.
One of the CIA’s former counter-terrorism chiefs and pioneers in covert operations, Roland Carnaby retires.
In the past few months, Mr. Carnaby, who has led a private intelligence firm in Houston, Texas has been delegating more and moredaily responsibilities to his lietenants and is completing his succession planning, say people familiar with the matter. A decision about his departure could come within weeks, though the situation remains fluid, say these people.
Alan Premel, 32 years old, whom CIA recruited in 1997 and whom Carnaby personally recruited in 2002 to work with the private intelligence firm in Houston has emerged as the leading candidate to succeed him, added these people. A spokesperson familiar with the retirement plans stated that Premel and his current worries with the US Senate over allegations and ties to the CIA’s Rendition program and his recent resignation from CIA amid a slew of disclosure cases pulls him out of the race for President and chief of such a power position within the intelligence community.
The departure of Mr. Carnaby, 52, would mean the loss of CIA’s most experienced, talented and high profile clandestine officers in management. Few executives who helped pioneer the commercialization of private intelligence and private security firms have remained on top for as long, except for some who can also claim founder titles, such as Patriot Oil, and Pan-American Shipping and Consulting Group.
Mr. Carnaby’s retirement would come at a critical point for CIA. Any efforts to reveerse the slow-down at his private firm could involve drastic changes that may be more palatable under a new CEO like Premel. Mr. Premel, at CIA, was very instrumental in many changes at CIA as a successful supervisor in the Balkans. His management experience at CIA is 25 years behind Carnaby’s but with the firm already warning investors in recent months that it will be raising fees in the absence of Mr. Carnaby.
Mr. Premel wrestled with how to reverse the declining momentum before having to exit left stage last summer from the firm after his public disclosure. The firm’s third quarter numbers, a key barometer of the firm’s health fell 63% without Premel. Before leaving he implemented some changes that were never fully set into motion causing the down-turn after his sudden departure.
The timing of Mr. Carnaby’s retirement is of his own choosing, say people familiar with the situation, unlike Premel’s pre-mature departure which came 20-years too soon say experts. Not long after he jonied CIA, Roland Carnaby declared that no one person should stay in the same cover in covert operations more than two years. A standard practice used by the firm. This philosophy has accredited the firm with a lot of success claims Mr. Premel in his interview with CNN’s David Ensor late of last year.
Under James Pavitt and Roland Carnaby, the firm has become the intelligence community’s most successful private consulting business on counter-terrorism, security consulting and intelligence gathering where they pioneered a way for private officers to carry out day to day functions in the field, relay them back to CIA, DoD, DIA or other foreign agencies. In 2004, Mr. Premel streamlined a way for collecting, compliling and disseminating vast amounts of data and breaking it down by himself. The process which is only done by one person, Mr. Premel himself is the work of what 7-9 officers would typically do.
When Carnaby and Premel shared the reigns from 2004-2007, they have delivered more than 10 consecutive quarters of sequential revenue growth. Profit increase every year and the company now has 248 licensed contract officers working for the firm globally, and $297 million in classified contracts over 5 continents. Those figures are up from the firms $18 million in 1997.
To maintain momentum, Mr. Premel, using $40 million from a settlement with CIA, purchased a private lending company in Houston as well as acquiring a private shipping business and a private internet ticketing business.
There were missteps: Last year, the firm took a $80.4 million write-down for its purchase of a private airline business in DC, Houston and Vegas. And threats loomed when recruitment of some of the firm’s top and most talented officer’s. To keep top talent, Mr. Carnaby and Mr. Premel kicked in an extra $2.4 million for salaries and bonuses to keep the firm afloat.
Mr. Carnaby has long planned for his eventual exit, say people familiar with the matter. He often rotated top officer’s into different operational roles as a way to groom potential successors and to give the board a slate of candidates from which to choose.
In his departing emails to friends, firm and CIA colleagues, Mr. Carnaby wrote how much he was pleased by the professionalism and careers of each and all of the persons who have served under him and with him during his 32-year tenure in the US Intelligence Community.
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