Operation Snowjob ~a short story~

What follows is fiction. It may bear some resemblance to reality.

Of the 73,000 files Justin Whitehead stole from US National Security Agency (NSA), only one is reproduced here.

Whitehead refuses to comment, except to say it is a faked forgery.

But this alleged file creates a commentary about Whitehead himself, and is therefore of interest.

What you will read is a transcript of an illegally taped, purported conversation between two men, two cousins: former US Secretary of State Aaron Stanton, and Michael Oswald, the director of the CIA.

It is presumed that NSA recorded the conversation.

Michael Oswald, CIA Director: Listen, Aaron, Darlene told me she believes your marriage can be saved. She’s willing to talk. You don’t raise three children and then just walk away because you had an affair. I’m sure you felt “liberated” with a much younger woman. I’ve seen pictures of her, and she’s certainly beautiful. But did you ever think you were being set up? They do that, you know. They send in a honeypot, and then they nail you to the wall. But now Darlene knows. She’s a very stable person. She can handle it.

Aaron Stanton, former US Secretary of State: That’s not why I came here to talk. We can chew that subject to pieces some other time. I want to talk about Justin Whitehead.

Michael Oswald: I just wanted to assure you the CIA did not send the woman to you.

Aaron Stanton: Whitehead once worked for CIA.

Michael Oswald: Yes, he worked for us. In 2009. In Geneva. He was head of computer security, under diplomatic cover.

Aaron Stanton: He quit. He went to work in the private sector.

Michael Oswald: So?

Aaron Stanton: Why did he quit?

Michael Oswald: Apparently, he became disillusioned. He witnessed one of our little operations with a Swiss banker. We helped the man out of a jam, and he subsequently gave us confidential information about numbered accounts.

Aaron Stanton: Sounds pretty thin to me. This boy Whitehead quit the CIA because he discovered you people turn civilians into assets? What did he imagine the CIA does? Sponsor knitting parties?

Michael Oswald: Whitehead was and is unstable. Who knows why people like him act the way they do?

Aaron Stanton: Michael, that’s self-serving. After the fact, after he steals all those secrets, you say he’s unstable. I’ve watched his press conferences. He appears to know exactly what’s he’s doing. And on top of that, he’s perfect in the role of dissident patriot, for the yuppie computer generation. He’s young, white, wan, thin, with that little stubble, those glasses. I’m convinced that if he were 50, bald, with a pot belly, he wouldn’t have aroused nearly as much favorable sentiment.

Michael Oswald: So now you’re a profiler?

Aaron Stanton: I’ve heard rumors.

Michael Oswald: Such as?

Aaron Stanton: The CIA’s turf war with NSA. The battle over budget money. The fact that human intelligence, which is the CIA’s bread and butter, has taken second place to electronic spying.

Michael Oswald: Jesus. You’re saying we helped Whitehead steal all those files, just to fire a torpedo into NSA?

Aaron Stanton: Well?

Michael Oswald: That’s ridiculous.

Aaron Stanton: Would you even know? As Director, you’re miles above operations.

Michael Oswald: I would know, believe me. As soon as Whitehead went public, we launched an internal investigation. We’ve put together every shred we have on Whitehead’s days with the CIA. Nothing sticks out. He’s just a wild card. No one could see it coming.

Aaron Stanton: Or your people are hiding the truth from you. They would, you know.

Michael Oswald: Where is this coming from, Aaron?

Aaron Stanton: It wouldn’t be the first time an employee of the CIA quit or retired, but was still working for you. It also answers the question of how he was able to get to all that secret NSA data. He had help. From your people. They set this whole thing up.

Michael Oswald: I could spin a dozen wild hypotheses about Whitehead. But none of them would be true. He was a lone operator. He was very talented. NSA gave him access to everything.

Aaron Stanton: You should know there are people at NSA who believe Whitehead is still working for the CIA.

Michael Oswald: Of course there are. NSA wants to get off the hook. They want to blame us, or someone else, for their own problems and screw-ups.

Aaron Stanton: People who work as spies lie. They’re trained to. This whole thing is a mess because…who can you believe?

Michael Oswald: By that theory, there is no answer and there never will be. Doubt everybody all the time—that’s a self-defeating philosophy. You have to put your faith somewhere.

Aaron Stanton: I’m beginning to reject that proposition. Maybe doubt is the state of mind we need to cultivate.

Michael Oswald: What is this? A primer in existentialism?

Aaron Stanton: Whitehead leaves the US for medical treatment. He arrives in Hong Kong and stays there for almost a month. And the NSA can’t find him. But two reporters can. They meet with him, and he turns over all his stolen files to them. Do you see how absurd that is?

Michael Oswald: So the CIA helped conceal him in Hong Kong? Is that what you’re suggesting?

Aaron Stanton: The Whitehead story line doesn’t make sense. He joins the Army and is accepted into a training program for the Special Forces. Why? Because he’s a physical marvel? Obviously, because of his computer skills. But then he breaks both legs in an accident, and he’s discharged from the service. Why? He can’t operate a computer anymore?

Michael Oswald: I don’t know anything about that.

Aaron Stanton: Well, you should.

Michael Oswald: Who sent you to talk to me, Aaron?

Aaron Stanton: The Vice President. And he’s no doubt acting on behalf of the President.

Michael Oswald: The President? Who has his ear?

Aaron Stanton: I would assume the NSA does.

Michael Oswald: Are you saying this whole thing could blow up and affect us [CIA]?

Aaron Stanton: Not out in the open.

Michael Oswald: I need to meet with the President.

Aaron Stanton: Consider this a preliminary to that meeting.

Michael Oswald: You’re going to pass along what I say here?

Aaron Stanton: Parts of it. But I want to give you cover if you need it.

Michael Oswald: The Vice President should know the CIA has important details about what really happened in Benghazi. And Operation Fast&Furious is also on our radar. Don’t ask, don’t tell works on both sides.

Aaron Stanton: Yes it does. The Vice President knows the CIA and DEA made highly illegal arrangements to protect the Sinaloa drug cartel, in exchange for Sinaloa providing intell on other cartels.

Michael Oswald: As usual, it’s a standoff.

Aaron Stanton: That’s true. However, the NSA is the joker in the deck. Nobody really knows how much information they’ve gathered on politicians and what they’re willing to leak to the press. So they’re in a strong position with the White House. The whole situation could become unstable, unbalanced.

Michael Oswald: Which is precisely why NSA needs to be taken down a few notches.

Aaron Stanton: Are you saying that’s what the CIA did in the Whitehead affair? He is your man?

Michael Oswald: I’m not saying anything. All of us…maintain an equilibrium with each other. We protect America, and in doing so we sometimes step outside the boundaries.

Aaron Stanton: My extra-marital dalliance…it was exposed by the files Whitehead stole. So I’m on your side, Michael. I want NSA to feel pain. I wouldn’t balk if Whitehead is the CIA’s man and he’s sticking it to those people.

Michael Oswald: There’s something else you should know. We have evidence that NSA has been spying…how shall I put this, spying on where black-budget money actually goes. They have files on it, going back a number of years. Huge amounts of federal money that have been derailed, diverted, stolen. Were that information to be leaked, it would be devastating.

Aaron Stanton: Significant heads would roll.

Michael Oswald: Many heads. NSA must be curbed.

Aaron Stanton: This is a very delicate situation.

Michael Oswald: In a reasonable world, if I have something on you and you have something on me, we stay silent. We protect each other.

Aaron Stanton: Here is what I think happened. At some point, while Whitehead was stationed in Geneva, working for the CIA, he was profiled extensively by his own people. They discovered he was a bit of a loose cannon, a “libertarian,” with strong patriotic feelings.

So a few men approached him. They hinted that they were looking for a man to perform a risky bit of business, for the sake of the Republic. They told him the modern Surveillance State was going too far, it was endangering people’s basic rights, and the NSA needed to be exposed.

Eventually, Whitehead responded positively to this suggestion. So these CIA people, who were vetting him, who might have been real patriots themselves, or just agents with orders to take down the NSA, explained the mission in detail. Whitehead, if he volunteered, would go to work for the NSA a few years hence, and he would be given access [with vital CIA help] to an extraordinary range of documents detailing NSA surveillance operations.

Whitehead would leave the country with these documents and leak them to the press. Of course, he could never come back to America, and he would face dangers, but the CIA would do everything in its power to protect him. And Whitehead agreed to take on this role.

Michael Oswald: An interesting tale. Are you outlining a novel?

Aaron Stanton: No. I’m just putting pieces together.

Michael Oswald: And where are you getting these pieces?

Aaron Stanton: Think about it. NSA has floated at least three explanations for how Whitehead was able to stroll into work and steal the farm. They said he had a thumb drive, a weapon against which the greatest, smartest, and richest spy agency in the world was powerless. Then they said Whitehead had obtained passwords from colleagues at the office, an equally absurd story. They also said Whitehead was such a natural genius, NSA put him in charge of security-oversight, with access to “everything.”

We’re supposed to believe that NSA, for all its spying efforts around the world, simply forgot to lock its own doors. It forgot to install an internal security system that would thwart its own employees and contractors.

Far more likely, NSA does have exceptionally good security. But highly trained and dedicated professionals, from a rival agency, the CIA, were able, over time, to crack that system. And then their front man, their lone wolf, Whitehead, was given his cache of files, and he walked out of work and never came back.

Michael Oswald: No comment. Except that you’re delusional.

Aaron Stanton: I no longer have faith in the mission. And I’m not just talking about the American government’s agenda, but any government’s.

Michael Oswald: A thinking person has to take sides.

Aaron Stanton: But suppose reality makes that impossible?

Michael Oswald: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Aaron Stanton: Suppose reality is a charade?

Michael Oswald: At the CIA, we work with charades all the time.

Aaron Stanton: Well, consider that you’re inventing illusions in order to support other illusions. The CIA and the NSA are two dream merchants fighting for turf, fighting for the right to define What Is for everyone else.

Michael Oswald: I don’t see anything wrong with that. Somebody has to say, “This is real.”

Aaron Stanton: How about the individual?

Michael Oswald: There is no such thing. The individual is dead.

Aaron Stanton: Well, I’m certainly glad we can agree on something. We don’t need humans in their present state. We would do far better with androids.

Michael Oswald: We’re working on it.