CIA Blog Watch

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.

The Rest

So HI CIA!

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BOMB/NUKE/QAEDA/HOPSCOTCH/CODE WORD/SIGINT/MASINT/CLASSIFIED

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Did you get all that? Hmmm ponder ponder.. Anyway, I understand the needs for datamining to a certain extent, but I really think you’re going to be bored by a lot of the content out there.

Ho hum… Welcome to the panopticon.

Walk In’s Un-Welcome

In the six months after the 9/11 attacks, up to 20 Cubans walked into U.S. embassies around the world and offered information on terrorism threats. Eventually, all were deemed to be Cuban intelligence agents and collaborators, purveying fabricated information.

A White House official complained bitterly and publicly in 2002 that Fidel Castro’s agents had tried to send U.S. intelligence on “wild goose” chases that could cost lives at a time when Washington was reeling from the worst terrorism attacks in history.

But now two former U.S. government experts on Cuba have told El Nuevo Herald that the post-9/11 “walk-ins” were part of a permanent Havana intelligence program — both before and long after 9/11 — that sends Cuban agents to U.S. embassies to mislead, misinform and identify U.S. spies, perhaps even to penetrate U.S. intelligence.

“Many walk-ins were eventually identified as known/suspected [Cuban agents]. The problem was that U.S. intelligence was so starved for information on Cuba — and we had so few Cuba experts — that walk-ins were low risk, high payoff for the Cubans,” said one former U.S. intelligence community official.

“The Cubans periodically used walk-ins to continue to test U.S. capabilities and reactions, but . . . later approaches were not as frequent as we saw in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11 attacks,” added a former top Bush administration official.

Full Story

Ahh the ubiquitous “walk in” In the community, this type of offer could be just as this article speaks of or, it could be a real boon to an agency such as the CIA. What’s interesting is when I was reading this article I thought back to Hurricane Katrina and Fidel’s offer of support services which W said NYET to. Now I can understand a bit more why he would just say no to that.

It also gives me more of a grasp of why W and company may have been so reticent to talk turkey at all about loosening up on Cuba. I know that the Montes case kinda hit close to home.. And now that couple who had been spying for Cuba for years.

Guess Cuba has been busy! Makes sense all the Numbers station action out of them lately.

Scuttlebut On The Street For MillenniuM

Lance Henriksen, the veteran sci-fi character actor perhaps best known for playing former FBI profiler Frank Black in the ’90s TV series Millennium, has been talking about a feature-film follow-up/sequel for years and has reportedly been approached by investors interested in mounting an independent production, though Fox owns the rights.

Now comes news, via ScreenRant, that Fox itself may be considering a new independent movie based on the Chris-Carter-created show, with Henriksen but without Carter (who also created The X-Files and co-wrote and directed last year’s flop The X-Files: I Want to Believe).

I have heard rumblings that Fox are interested in bringing Millennium back to screens—possibly without the involvement of Chris Carter—and this independent route would seem like a way of doing so. It’s also believed that the studio intends to make another X-Files film, and again it’s possible that Carter won’t be involved … .

Now, be aware that this is speculation, but also something that I have heard through the grapevine, so there might be some truth to it.

Fans recall that the show, which aired on Fox 1996-’99, centered on Black, a former FBI investigator with a history of mental issues, who is recruited by the mysterious Millennium Group, a private group of former law-enforcement personnel who investigate crimes of the supernatural but whose true agenda remained murky and had something to do with the coming millennial year (2000, though the actual new millennium kicked off in 2001).

The show had a rocky creative history, owing to changing executive producers (Carter, then former X-Files writers Glen Morgan and James Wong, then Carter again), network interference and a rambling and at times incoherent mythology. The show was canceled before it could wrap up; a 1999 episode ofThe X-Files, titled “Millennium,” brought back Henriksen as Black to put a coda on the Millennium TV series.

ScreenRant suggests that a new independent Millennium movie would be spearheaded by filmmaker Brett A. Hart, who directed Henriksen in the indie feature Bone Dry:

I spoke with Hart who had this to say about the project:

“As a tremendous admirer of “The Millennium Series” I’m of course very intrigued by the recent rumors that there may indeed be a full length feature on the horizon. If any one can get “Millennium” made it’s Lance, and it’s been a long time coming. It’s time to give the fans what they’ve been patiently waiting to see… More insight into the aberrant world of Frank Black … while further elevating and merging storylines, characterization and visuals… and finally closure for one of the finest series ever created. Let’s hope as the title sequence suggest “The Time is near” … and as I’ve already publicly stated … my passion and conviction for the series is so deep that I’d direct “Millennium—The Movie” for free just to see it on the big screen.”

Not sure how a movie would work: The millennial changeover has come and gone, and basing a film on that would be kind of like calling a movie “Y2K.” But Henriksen remains a great screen presence, and it would be nice to see him glowering as Frank Black one last time.

I would LOVE to see this come to fruition and a movie done. However, I certainly hope any film done is done MUCH better than that awful X-Files “I Want To Believe” claptrap that was loosed upon an unsuspecting public. So, without Carter is just fine with me. I should hope that at the very least Lance would be a good judge of script and perhaps say no to a bad one or half effort.

I think personally they have a zeitgeist in the whole 2012 thing coming up. They have the time to make a film and have it out before 2012 comes! I even like the logo I created at the top of this post!

CoB