This is an excellent thread and I'm using it as a jumping off point to get something off my chest that's been bothering me for YEARS. -Thread birthed from a thread.
FusionGPS and HAKLUYT bill themselves as private intelligence firms. There are actually quite a few private intelligence firms in the world. I am the founder and CEO of one myself. But let me tell you about the problems I have with these type assholes.
First off, starting a private intelligence firm is really easy. In both the US and UK it is an unregulated, unlicensed industry. All you have to is file corporate organization paperwork, call yourself a private intel firm & start generating clients.
IT's not like being a private investigator, which in most states requires a state issued license and bonding and has legal and ethical codes that must be adhered to or you lose your license. It's the intel wild west.
In my state of Ohio, to get a PI's license, you need 5 years verifiable investigative experience, either with law enforcement or as an apprentice to a licensed PI firm. You must take and pass a fairly thorough test & pay $375/year to maintain it.
PI's charge from $75-$125/hour based on the case, plus expenses and mileage for any travel. There is also a retainer that must be paid which can vary from firm to firm, sometimes it's 20% estimated total, sometimes it's a fixed fee. Either way, it's a middle class living at best.
Most folks that go & start firms like FusionGPS, which was founded by WaPo journos & shady ex feds & has less than 20 employees, come from shady backgrounds. Some're disgraced formers They seem to only take shady cases. Same with HAKLUYT. They charge millions to 100's of millions
FusionGPS got over $145 million for the filthy Trump-Russia dezinformatsiya dossier. $145 million, a lot of which came from the FBI, which means ultimately it came out of YOUR POCKET as the taxpayer.
I think this is disgusting. I resigned my Commission from the US Navy in 2002 during the 3rd great Intel Exodus since Angleton got shitcanned in 1975 inspiring the first. I left because I knew about fake intel coming from CURVEBALL. My agency stopped accepting his shit in 1999.
I started as an independent contractor in 2007, after a 5 year research project into US domestic extremism, it's major players & the patterns and process of American radicalization both on the right and the left. I knew what I wanted to do & what I had to do to do it.
Every single investigation I've been involved with since has been completely in accordance with the Rules of Evidence in the jurisdiction I was working in, be it Federal or State/Local. I've never fabricated or planted evidence. I like clean cases. I have both ethics & morals.
The difference between an ethics & a morals is, the ethical man knows cheating on his wife is wrong but does it anyway, while the moral man knows it's wrong and refuses to even consider it. I work with both professional and personal ethics & morals...even as an agnostic-atheist.
My morals also go into how I structure my firm, that I founded in 2010. I only contract for government agencies, though am considering diversifying into ethical, factual oppo-research for good political candidates.
Being a government contractor, I know my money is coming out of your pockets. YOUR POCKETS. You, who work hard for the taxes you pay. You know what *I* charge for my services to government agencies? Millions? 100's of thousands?
No, I charge $75.00/hour with a 20% retainer based on estimated total time to complete the given case. I charge on a case by case basis, which means no recurring fees for government agencies. Once an agency hires me, they're on file & I know who they are for future cases.
My fees are no different than a typical Private Investigator's fees because I'm doing essentially the same thing, only just for government clients. No cheating spouses or insurance fraud. I have my degrees, training & a professional certification from ASIS.
But I have no license. I have a badge issued to me as a consultant by one of the Government departments I contract for, but it's only to gain access to whatever crime or attack scene I may have to get past local cops with. I have zero arrest authority.
I'll also flash my badge to an interview subject to gain credibility as someone performing an official function during an overt investigation. I can also get discounts at Golden Corral with it. But anyone can do what I do. That's the dangerous part.
The government agencies have not been vetting the private firms they've been hiring. They've not seen what the principals in those firms were up to prior to incorporating FusionGPS or HALKUYT or Dyncorp or Blackwater/Xe Services. There is no system of accountability either.
HAKLUYT says they won't say a thing about what they do? They refuse transparency? Yeah? That means THEY'RE CROOKED & MAKING MILLIONS OFF THE TAXPAYERS DIME WITH LIES! I believe strongly in transparency. It even plays into how I use this Twitter account.
I am as absolutely open as I can possibly legally be without jeopardizing any individual cases I'm working on or have worked on that are still in prosecution. I'll talk as openly as possible about closed cases that I was involved in years ago, and have here on Twitter.
There's a difference between honest secrecy & dishonest secrecy & it can be hard to tell the difference between the two. Honest secrecy is protecting the integrity of an ongoing investigation as well as the sources & methods used to gather intelligence. That's National Security.
But it's not classified that I contract with multiple Federal, State & Local Law Enforcement Agencies & specialize in domestic counter extremism. It's not classified that I investigate extremist groups on the right & the left. That's pretty vague & doesn't specify which ones.
I can even say I look into groups ranging from anarchist to communist to neo-nazi to anti-Government "Patriot" groups and Sovereign Citizens too. That's all vagaries. You don't which groups or where. But being as transparent as possible is important to me. It's being honest.
And in the Intelligence world their is only one currency. Your own credibility as an Intelligence Professional with integrity. You lose your credibility and your career is tanked. You become a loser like John Schindler or Kevin Shipp peddling conspiracy theories on the internet.
James Comey likes to talk about having integrity in his cryptic yoda Tweets and obvious lies to anyone who will listen. John Brennan likes to talk about being a real American when he voted for a Communist for President. Twice. Andy McCabe talks about serving America with honor.
FusionGPS and HAKLUYT bill themselves as private firms with impeccable credibility and candor but all they do is lie and get rich off YOUR MONEY doing it. What is so honorable about that? I *WISH* there were license requirements and regulations in my industry.
I'd never have to worry about losing my license due to professional ethics violations and violations of the regulations governing the behavior of private intelligence firms and their agents. Firms like FusionGPS, HAKLUYT, Dyncorp & Blackwater/Xe however would have died long ago.
That means they wouldn't be getting all the contracts, while I had to struggle and Angel Investors/Venture Capitalists would take me seriously & fund my firm so it expand to full Agency status & I could hire folks more than on a subcontractor basis & could do even more than I am.
FusionGPS gets $145 million+ to lie about Donald Trump, where for as little as $6 million dollars I could hire a full staff, lease a full office and build a 24 hr watch floor and initiate an air wing to provide full aerial coverage of crisis protest events.
I have a 50 page Business Plan outlining the whole thing. All expenses and what I could achieve with that money and what it would do for domestic National Security as well as the Domestic Security of the allied foreign Governments I've contracted for.
But because I'm not a FusionGPS, HAKLUYT, Dyncorp or Blackwater type, no one gives a shit. The folks who have all the real cash, only invest in them. And look what damage they do to us all with those investments. It's sickening.
$6 Million & I could get a nice office, build a 24 hr watch floor, hire a staff of 25 to start with, expand to full international status providing counter-extremism intelligence gathering & analysis services worldwide filling a major intelligence gap.
I could also buy a Douglas DC-6 propliner & outfit it as a full-scale aerial intelligence gathering & analysis platform not unlike a Navy E2C Hawkeye. The DC-6 is quiet, reliable, VERY fuel efficient & is capable of crossing the Atlantic on a single tank of fuel making it perfect
I wonder what FusionGPS is doing with the $145 Million+ dollars they got for their disgraceful lies? I wonder how much more money they're making...I should say taking from your pockets? They don't just do Trump-Russia lies. They have multiple cases just like me.
