A Real LIfe Burn Notice: Krunoslav Draganovic's Burn Notice

My favorite show is Burn Notice. The premise of the show is that the lead character, a former CIA spy named Michael Westen, was "burnt" (a burnt spy is one who is fired and transformed into a pariah) as part of an effort to recruit him into a still unknown or unknown covert conspiracy against enemies and enemies unknown. As of about midway through season four, Westen has made some progress in discovering in why he was burnt, who burnt him, and why he was burnt.

The title of the show Burn Notice comes from the document issued when a spy of individual is burnt by the intelligence community. A Burn Notice is issued when a person proves untrustworthy, dangerous to the American intelligence community after previously worthy, or just becomes a dangerous nuisance. Below is a US Army CIC “burn notice” for Krunoslav Draganovic, a Croatian priest, member of the Ustasha movement, and US Army CIC asset directed against Yugoslavia during the early portion of the Cold War. Draganovic will initially come to US Army CIC attention during the early days of the Cold War. He was evacuating members of the Ustasha movement from Europe to destinations such as Argentina. Later, Draganovic was employed by the US Army to evacuate Klaus Barbie from Europe. Eventually, Draganovic became a target of US intelligence and an asset for the US Army CIC. (*)

That was true until 1962 as shown by this Burn Notice, Krunoslav Draganovic was burnt by the US Army CIC for reasons of security, demands of support for his fellow Croatian terrorists, and simply not being controllable. While his activities were still monitored by American intelligence, he ceased to be a source.

Krunoslav Draganovic's Burn Notice

(*) This post is based off of reports in Draganovic's CIA Name File, Paul Hockenos' Homeland Calling, and John Loftus and Mark Aarons' Unholy Trinity.

Bring Out Your Dead- Files

Conveniently for the FBI, the Bureau does not maintain a ready list of the files slated for destruction. So, unless someone happens to luck out with a FOIA request, files slated for annihilation will probably be destroyed before the public can request them.

Update- Correct goof in title of post. Twice.

FBI FOIA Index of Records Slated for Destruction

Jack Chick's Craziness Not FBI Worthy

Jack Chick is the producer of the crazy religious tracts that you have probably encountered in heavily traveled common areas: bus stops, public restrooms, train stations, and so forth. Given his nearly constant production of craziness, I thought it be interesting to see what American law enforcement had to say about him. So I had a FOIA request submitted to the FBI.

Interestingly enough, Jack Chick, or at least his company has not drawn the formal attention of the FBI. Now, Chick himself might have an FBI file, however, until he dies, the FBI will not release or even confirm his having a FBI file. Below is the rejection letter.

FBI FOIA Final Respose Letter Regarding Jack Chick's Company

Ernesto "Bete Noire" Guevara: The Yugoslav View of Che

Ernesto Guevara, better known as "Che", is an iconic figure. His face adorns everything from beer bottles to t-shirts and his books, decades later, still enjoy brisk sales. Even his honest opponents will admit that he was a skilled political theorist and guerrilla warrior.

However, as reported by the American State Department, Che Guevara had few friends in the Yugoslav government. In a 10/22/1965 Airgram, the Belgrade embassy reported that Che's decision to take leave of the Cubans started an attack on Che by the Yugoslav newspaper Borba, the most important Yugoslav print media of the time. The Borba's Latin American correspondent accused Che of, among other things, having personality defects and of damaging the Cuban economy, and that his dissapearance would like spawn a wave of repression. You can see a summary of the Borba's attack on the second page of the PDF below. The first page is the Airgram's cover sheet.

10/22/1965 Airgram from the US Embassy in Belgrade

Conservapedia Never Even Called the FBI

In Summer 2007, the august founder of Conservapedia Andrew Schlafly threatened to sic the FBI on a user of his website. Naturally, a huge blow-up ensued and was ably documented by the heroes at the RationalWiki.

However, the RationalWiki did fall down on arguably most important task of all, following up on the FBI investigation. There's simply nothing there. Turns out there is a perfectly rational explanation for all this, Neuschwander.

The rational explanation is that Andy Schlafly never called the FBI. He made it all up. I discovered this after ordering up a FOIA request to the FBI on the matter. As their final response letter demonstrates, they have no records pertaining to Conservapedia.


Conservapedia FBI FOIA Letter

CIA Denies Request for Records Given to 9-11 Commission

In his book, Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq, Michael Scheuer provides a tantalizing glimpse into a collection of documents that he provided to the 9-11 Commission that details the American response to the threat posed by Al-Qaeda. Naturally, I immediately had them FOIAed for and eagerly awaited the CIA's response.

I was informed that the CIA's response was very negative. You can see for yourself that the CIA not only invoked the operational exemption to FOIA requests given to it by the CIA Information Act of 1984, they would not even confirm that the files existed. Nor did they give leave to appeal their decision. Overall, a total FOIA block.

P.S. I included the pages from Marching Toward Hell in which Scheuer describes the files on the off-chance that someone else wants to submit a FOIA request.

CIA Shoot Down Scheuer FOIA

What Was Mother Teresa Doing?

Interesting fact: Mother Teresa not only has amassed some form of records with the National Security Agency, but those records, if released, would "cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security." See the denial letter


NSA Mother Teresa Denial Letter

Seriously, WTF?