During my career at the CIA, I functioned as an internal CIA staff security officer, federal investigator, protective agent for the Director of Central Intelligence, chief of training for the CIA police force, assistant counter assault team leader, operational security team leader, counterintelligence investigator, Counter Terrorism Center officer, international information systems security officer, polygraph examiner and federal police officer. I was a Category I employee.
Because of my previous employment with the CIA, I must abide by my duty to protect CIA sources and methods. I have been careful to protect the true names of CIA employees, locations and any other information that could jeopardize the Agency or my former co-workers. Thus, I do not discuss my employment status (during my career I have also been assigned to several other government agencies), specific locations, true names of individuals or any other organizations involved. I use pseudonyms for individuals discussed in this book, and the names of all locations involved.
What you will read is a full expose’ of CIA operations. I will also describe the Agency’s use of secrecy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. This will provide, in detail, internal CIA operations, sometimes humorous, I was a part of; revealed to the public for the first time. It details the CIA’s role in the war on terror and results of the author’s experience and research on this subject. The book follows my career as a CIA officer through the many experiences I had while conducting internal security investigations and overseas covert operations. It finishes with a shocking story of the CIA’s misuse of the power of secrecy; I witnessed personally. This event changed my entire view of the Agency I loved, and revealed the Constitutional parameters routinely breached by the CIA.
I am a former intelligence officer. My expertise is in collecting and reporting intelligence. I am not a journalist. I ask the reader to forgive me for my tendency to write in analytical and technical fashion. Overcoming this tendency is a work in progress. This book contains multiple topics on CIA operations, intelligence and terrorism. I welcome the reader to read the entire book, or skip the technical sections and read those describing actual operations. Although there is no specific theme in this work, the overall theme is intended to be a multifaceted description of the internal workings of the CIA and related information regarding the war on terror.
This is, in many ways, the most fulfilling, and the most difficult document I have ever written. The CIA has an important role in protecting our national security. I owe much of my operational training and analytical skills to the organization I loved and served. I have many close friends there and fond memories of several of my assignments.
It is my hope that this book enables Americans to better understand the CIA, inspires them to hold dear our Constitution, never to be intimidated by corrupt, powerful and deceptive assertions of “secrecy,” and motivates them to hold those in power accountable to the American people for their actions.
Kevin Shipp