Government Opens “Leaks†Investigation –
( I have a Possible Lead )
I see by the TV the government is finally opening an investigation as to who has been leaking highly confidential information to the Media –(and thereby to any interested party –friend or foe in the entire world.)
I ran an informal inquiry of my own when a Communist website began publishing articles about “CIA Torture Planes†– complete with aircraft descriptions, tail numbers,and names of registered owners – described as “CIA front companiesâ€ÂÂ.
My reasons for doing so were quite simple: First,anyone traveling on one of these planes –civilian, or CIA, or diversity training team-has been put at increased risk –especially while abroad. Secondly, it infuriated me that,while a huge fuss was being made about the celebrated “outing” of Valerie Plame , wholesale outing of truly covert CIA staff appeared to be going on.
I learned, if you have the ID numbers of a civilian aircraft, there is an online registry that will furnish the name and address of the registered owner(s) – no questions asked. It’s actually easier than trying to run down the ownership of a car,truck,or bus.
This information , of course, does not tell you whether the owner is a very ordinary business enterprise…or the CIA. For that, I’m pretty sure, you need a little bit of “inside helpâ€ÂÂ.
The existence of of such a registry does not tell you which planes to look at. There are thousands of planes, in all colors,shapes, and sizes-
flying into and out of and parking at airports all over the world.
Pursuing this, I became a registered member of a very large,very legitimate “plane spotting†group,and, after a few days of browsing,noticed there was one member : “LPLA Spotter†, to whom others “referred†plane descriptions – and photos. (Essentially,they looked for planes that remained unattended on the tarmac for long periods of time,and/or that arrived and departed at odd hours.)
The recipient of all this information flew a little Portuguese flag alongside his name , but it was evident from his postings (language and content) he was an American , and that he had nothing but contempt for his fellow Americans.
He claimed to be a teacher of marine biology , working at Lajes, Terceira Island, the Azores – and he liked to boast.
One of his more interesting boasts was that he had an uncle from Palestine, Texas, who had been in the military , and who was now Chief Prosecutor in the Air Piracy section of the US Department of Justice.
I was curious enough to ask him why it was wrong to identify Valerie Plame, but a good deed to out actual covert CIA agents.
He said outing Plame was wrong because it was a political act, but CIA personnel were fair game because they were torturing hapless prisoners – and besides : our tax dollars were paying for CIA planes, so why shouldn’t we be able to identify them ?
I said, perhaps he had a point. Perhaps I should dig out my trusty Minolta and visit nearby McGuire Air Force Base. Maybe I could get some good military plane shots…
(I realized,after posting the response, I had come on way too strong – because there was no response, and the poster’s name disappeared from the site.)
The poster himself- or a very close clone – lingered on site for about a week more , under another screen name ; but was finally “kicked off†for persistent abuse of posting rules.
So: what’s my lead ? The uncle . Discussion of this uncle came up in an earlier exchange with other posters, and in such a way as to suggest
“LPLA Spotter†might have spouted off carelessly.
Think about it for a minute. Did the disagreeable “Spotter†collect information about possible CIA aircraft, and route it to an uncle in the DOJ ? Did that uncle deliberately (or indulgently) research the data and forward it to his nephew ?
Perhaps the FBI will become a bit more curious about this now.
