CIA at Risk
Former senior CIA ops manager Luis Rueda and I had a conversation about our imperiled spy agencies and intelligence analysis teams. Under Trumpian political pressure and purges the situation is bad.
By the time you see this, I hope to be somewhere off Kittery, Maine, enjoying the cool Atlantic waters. But I’ve left behind a special treat—our recent podcast interview with Luis Rueda, a senior former CIA operations officer, which many of you may have missed because, for entirely innocent reasons, I wasn’t able to promote it here in the SpyTalk newsletter.
Luis has been prescient about developments in the Middle East and elsewhere ever since I’ve known him, which is going on some 15 years now. His stint as chief of CIA operations for Iraq alone before the misbegotten invasion was enough of a learning lesson for him, and one that a number of us who’ve closely tracked events in that Godforsaken region have been privileged to learn as well.
Speaking of prescient, Luis Rueda told us back in May that “an Israeli attack on Iran is not going to destroy the nuclear program. It'll discombobulate some things. It'll give them some problems. But the key infrastructure is buried too deep for them to get.” Now there’s emerging evidence that, despite what Israel and President Trump are claiming, the Iranians did manage to spirit away at least some enriched uranium and centrifuges from their Fordo plant, and that the bombing damage wasn’t as complete as advertised. The picture’s unclear.
Rueda also spoke about the politicization of intelligence, from the Bush administration through Trump and Tulsi Gabbard. About Trump’s insane, covert designs on Greenland. And about the actuarial certainty that at least one per cent of the estimated 1,200 to 1,500 intelligence and military folks forced out under Trump for reasons having nothing to do with their competence will succumb to Russian or Chinese spies waving tons of money at them for the secrets in their heads. Do the math: That’s 12 or 15 new turncoats to uncover.
Anyway—especially if you didn't catch it the first time around—do listen to what I think is a fascinating talk with a deeply experienced, and very wise, former senior CIA officer. You can hear it here, on Simplecast, or wherever your preferred platform.
It was obvious that this would happen. Furthermore, Trump considers himself invincible so he is not worried about the effects on him. He is ready to monetize every part of the government that he can. He would probably directly sell or give away our secrets if he can find a deal. Our intelligence seems to be a leaky sieve, in part because of Hegseth, whose addiction to drink seems matched by his addiction to ill advised Signal phone calls and sharing secret information. The protections that our country has built up over the year are gone in less than half a year. It is a shame that the work of people over the centuries to make the US a strong nation is all for naught.
Send this to ManilaHRDSupport@state.gov
Dear Manila RSO,
I called your office on Thursday to report a serious situation in Angeles City. On Monday, I received an email asking for more information. Below is my reply.
Dear Melissa
Thank you for your message.
Here’s an overview of what’s been happening up until now followed by a more detailed report later today.
In January of this year a client requested I review some deeds that belonged to her father. The case led me to investigate a broader sample of e-recorded deeds registered at Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances.
Specifically, Torrens Title Deeds showed clear signs of forgery across the entire category. Rather than PDF scans of legitimate legal documents, these were digitally built with software that mimics PDFs (iText, ABC 123, etc) . When I was examining visual aspects of the files, ChatGPT kept flagging parts of the files that weren’t visible which finally convinced me there was a concealed layer of information in the documents.
I spent two months creating an app to decode the documents, but ChatGPT is needed to finish the last step.
This an original PDF document examined.
https://shorturl.at/4RfQY
This video shows what is typically revealed:
https://youtube.com/shorts/pvS4Cb80jGE?si=dmosGFHzk7A6PoO_
Tulsi Gabbard’s dad was head of the Hawaii Committee that oversees DLNR which oversees use / sale of government land in Hawaii. In all annual reports to the State Legislature, DLNR claims no land was sold between 2020 and 2024 but a careful tally using old records preserved on Internet Archive, at least 30,000 parcels of government land have disappeared from the books during that period. It could be as high as 60k.
In March-April of this year, I began to report what I found. Not just in Hawaii but in other states in a few cases I reviewed fur clients.
TylerTech is a company that started in Hawaii and manages nearly every county, city and state real estate e-recording system in the US. They manage nearly all federal, state and county court systems through a dozen companies including GovOS, Granicus and .gov domain registration. Our entire gov’t digital infrastructure. Since I focus on digital forensic document examination (PDFs only, not paper and ink) I guess that’s why several other cases of similar digital forgery came my way
So if the allegations I’m making are true FATA in Iran, Tyler Tech and our NDI would obviously not want the information reported.
About three months ago, my phone and computer were hacked the save night and I noticed oddities like my computer being online even in airplane mode and Google asking me if I’m signing in from Iran. I get these daily. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_gELYR1v6HYIbHmX_8RD8X0ofEObzBwq/view?usp=drivesdk
From what I can figure out, it’s what’s called a Man-in-the-Middle attack and it was initiated from directly across the hall by based on the IP range. There are six local over air connections hardwired to my computer and each forward information on to an international destination. In this scan, the end customer is FATA
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11zd5b9zNDIN1e-PpPF4SdxLeGeRQ6UaM/view
Notably after the initial hack, CDs I ordered from Lazada arrived with the same spyware burned into them. Websites are blocked and it’s clear the operating systems are subject to active outside control meant to keep me from reporting all this.
I realize the US Embassy is not law enforcement in the Philippines, but I hope that data I send can be investigated
.
Also, I think the virus on my phone, computer and the CDs can be examined. The spyware was not detected by any consumer virus software and due to it’s nature commercial / government software would’ve missed it as well.
I’ll send more details later today. I need to refocus but there’s a lot more to tell. Would it be possible to speak to your regional security officer about the matter?
Best regards ,
David Garzotto
Mermaid Apartments, Unit 18
SapangBato, Angeles City
09988070241
Today I received this email but I have reason to doubt its authenticity.
I’m in very dire situation here. It’s not a coincidence Google is saying I’m logging in from Iran often. I need help.