Well, the article quotes several eyewitnesses, right? And sure, they could be CIA plants too. And so could I. And you could be one too, raising the possibility that it was a CIA plot as a straw man for me to “debunk.” And I could be raising that possibility just to enhance my own credibility!
And all that COULD be true. But it’s a little hard to square the idea that the CIA is so all-powerful with the fact that they hired this guy in the first place and whiffed on every one of many opportunities to prevent him from doing what he did.
Heh. A “smart guy” who thinks his haxor skills translate to the courtroom, hoping that his threat to reveal secrets will protect him from the consequences of his alleged actions.
Being a creepy little shit who rubbed his dick on his high school classmates wouldn’t necessarily come up on a background check, even a thorough one carried out by people with law enforcement powers, since he wasn’t arrested for it. (I think the FBI usually handles these for the other three-letter-acronym agencies; I know that’s who contacts me when a former student is applying for a sensitive federal job.) It’s not that they couldn’t have dug up his classmates, but it would be impossible to dig that deep on everyone at his level.
It’s also possible, as the article suggests, that the CIA knew he was a piece of work but figured they could direct that shittiness outward. That’s basically a movie trope (The Dirty Dozen, Suicide Squad, and so forth.) that has become real life (pen testers, “white hat hackers,” etc.).
We used to hear rumors about the cost of our clearance investigations begin around $100K in '82. My initial background check for a TS/SCI clearance was conducted by the Defense Investigative Service. I had neighbors, my preacher, a few teachers, and others approach me when I came home for my first leave from language school with tales of their own encounters. “They hopped out of their car and called out to me as soon as I got home.” Asked about my behavior, beliefs, academics, social skills. Ends up they also contacted my estranged father. Glad his sins and shit service record didn’t reflect poorly on mine.
Has this guy never heard of an in-camera proceeding; or the fascinating story of power and flexibility behind invocation of state secrets privilege?
I’d be shocked if CIA lawyers were incapable of getting a court to accept either their say-so or a review of evidence deemed sensitive very, very, off the record as good enough for the case; as well as if they were incapable of nailing this guy to the wall for attempting to spill anything good either in public parts of the case or the media coverage surrounding the case.
