3 September 2013

Defense Spies on Syria Chemical Attack and Budget

A sends an email thread between Eugene Furst, a civilian at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and A J MacDonald, a former "Chief of Staff of the DIOCC at DIA". One message mentions the Syrian chemical weapons attack:

"By the way, saw your latest success, my congratulations. Good job.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrian-activists-accuse-government-
of-deadly-chemical-attack-near-damascus/2013/08/21/aea157e6-0a50-11e3-89fe
-abb4a5067014_story.html

Other messages discuss Congressional budget justification for military intelligence.

From: "Furst, Eugene P CIV (US)" <eugene.p.furst.civ@mail.mil>
To: "AJMacDonald" <ajmacdonald83@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 9:04 PM
Subject: RE: Follow-up, 20130820 (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Good luck for you, see you soon
Regards,
-Gene

> -----Original Message-----
> From: AJMacDonald [mailto:ajmacdonald83@yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 2:31 PM
> To: Furst, Eugene P CIV (US)
> Subject: Re: Follow-up, 20130820

> As you see I'm far from this now, but I know our guys did their best.
> I enjoyed catching-up with you. Hope to see you soon again.

> Sincerely,
> Jamie 

> On Aug 22, 2013, at 2:14 PM, "Furst, Eugene P CIV (US)"
> <eugene.p.furst.civ@mail.mil> wrote:

>> You're exactly right.  We have to work with both theater on the requirement
>> and the organization that owns the contract to ensure we don't have too few
>> or too many contractors.

>> CITP - Rock Island Contract
>> CIAT - DIA Contract

>> By the way, saw your latest success, my congratulations. Good job.
>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrian-activists-accuse-government-
of-deadly-chemical-attack-near-damascus/2013/08/21/aea157e6-0a50-11e3-89fe
-abb4a5067014_story.html

>> Regards,
>> -Gene

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: AJMacDonald [mailto:ajmacdonald83@yahoo.com] 
>> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 1:00 PM
>> To: Furst, Eugene P CIV (US)
>> Subject: Re: Follow-up, 20130820

>> Gene; CIAT and CITP contracts are MIP funded.  I recall the issue that often
>> surfaced was how the drawdown affected demand necessitating our assessment
>> of where we had folks, the quantity of analysts, and costs associate with
>> their employment.  My recollection of this is correct is it not?  Please
>> advise.  Thank you.  Jamie On Aug 21, 2013, at 4:19 PM, "Furst, Eugene P CIV
>> (US)" <eugene.p.furst.civ@mail.mil> wrote:

>>> Jamie,
>>> 
>>> Next time you come in, I'll grab Katrina in DAMI-RI to help out if needed.
>>> Your comment below is correct.  It's just important to remember that 
>>> the POM captures our "request".  It isn't approved until Congress puts 
>>> its stamp of approval on it.  Pretty sure you understood that, we're 
>>> just at the point where we're covering minor nuances...
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> -Gene
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: AJMacDonald [mailto:ajmacdonald83@yahoo.com]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 5:13 PM
>>> To: Furst, Eugene P CIV (US)
>>> Subject: Re: Follow-up, 20130820
>>> 
>>> Thanks, Gene; ROGER all on the OCO piece - at DIA and with the ISR TF 
>>> OCO was always stated; the fun was in determining what color OCO we 
>>> would be allocated.  End use always mattered in these cases.  POM lock 
>>> precedes the
>>> CJB: In that case the CJB captures how we were allocating MIP dollars 
>>> to support activities within the confines of the approved POM.  We 
>>> might need a coffee!  Jamie
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Aug 20, 2013, at 4:59 PM, "Furst, Eugene P CIV (US)"
>>> <eugene.p.furst.civ@mail.mil> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Jamie,
>>>> 
>>>> One quick caveat... within the MIP and the NIP there is base and OCO.  
>>>> Most, if not all JUONS coming out of theater were addressed using OCO
>>> dollars.
>>>> Some of this OCO was MIP and some was NIP.  Within DA G-2 almost all 
>>>> of our OCO throughout the years was MIP.  Not sure how much MIP/NIP 
>>>> OCO DIA utilized.  Just bringing this up based on your comment "
>>>> albeit the MIP might have more akin to OCO painted the color of MIP".
>>>> 
>>>> You're correct regarding not having the linguist contract presented 
>>>> during Congressional MIP/NIP Day... this was funded using non-MIP 
>>>> Army OCO
>>> dollars.
>>>> Stable Shadow was actually part of MIP/NIP Day... it was just never 
>>>> an issue.
>>>> 
>>>> Following MIP/NIP day, DAMI-RI would begin to build the Army's MIP 
>>>> section of the CJB.  The funding and manpower data within the CJB was 
>>>> based upon data provided by the dollars requested/approved within the 
>>>> POM (once we had a "POM lock", DAMI-RI was able to plug the numbers 
>>>> into
>>> the CJB).
>>>> 
>>>> Everything else is spot-on.
>>>> 
>>>> I can also run this past Katrina in DAMI-RI for review... I'm pretty 
>>>> familiar with the processes, but I'm certainly no expert.
>>>> 
>>>> Please don't hesitate if there's anything else.
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> -Gene
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: AJMacDonald [mailto:ajmacdonald83@yahoo.com]
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 4:43 PM
>>>> To: Furst, Eugene P CIV (US)
>>>> Cc: genefurst@hotmail.com
>>>> Subject: Follow-up, 20130820
>>>> 
>>>> Gene:
>>>> 
>>>> Thank you for making time to see me last week; I enjoyed catching-up 
>>>> with you.  Additionally, I learned a great deal and you enabled me to 
>>>> put a few things back into perspective.
>>>> 
>>>> When I was the Chief of Staff of the DIOCC at DIA I was appointed to 
>>>> lead the Agency's Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) 
>>>> Task Force Tiger Team.  The purpose of this Tiger Team was to merge 
>>>> the ongoing and competing efforts of the agency's five disparate 
>>>> directorates to garner funding from the ISR Task Force to resource 
>>>> their stove piped support requirements to the fights in Iraq and 
>>>> Afghanistan.  They were doing this under the auspices of the JUONS 
>>>> process.  We got our act together and tightened up things within the 
>>>> agency.  I always believed that although we were working through the 
>>>> ISR Task Force we were actually leveraging available MIP and NIP 
>>>> dollars - albeit the MIP might have more akin to OCO painted the 
>>>> color of MIP.  The NIP piece was always something LTG Zahner, and 
>>>> later LTG Kozial, would work out with the DNI.  Do you believe I have
>> this right?
>>>> 
>>>> The NIP MIP day is clear now as well.  Essentially OP served as the 
>>>> intelligence operations authority and advocate for Army intelligence 
>>>> equities (e.g., Prophet, Guardrail, DCGS-A, ARL, EMRS, PTDS and PGSS) 
>>>> during the annual meetings with the Congressional Professional Staff
>>> Members (PSM).
>>>> Our endstate was to ensure that all Military Intelligence Program "
>>>> intelligence capability areas" entered into the Congressional 
>>>> Justification Book (CJB), specifically any changes in resource 
>>>> allocation, were understood by the PSMs prior to final submission of 
>>>> the requirements to Congress for approval.  I am not certain we had 
>>>> our linguist contract or Stable Shadow $s included in this mix.
>>>> 
>>>> However, before all of this kicked off we had to meet with the SMEs 
>>>> and action officers to review the submissions and provide counsel or 
>>>> guidance on the completion of the individual submissions to ensure we 
>>>> "dotted all of the i's" and "crossed all of the t's".  Once this was 
>>>> complete we would review the proposed submissions with the G-2 for 
>>>> approval, guidance and or course changes.  We'd conduct another 
>>>> internal review before providing read-aheads to the PSMs.  Once in 
>>>> the book and good to go this would be aligned with the POM - right?
>>>> 
>>>> Please let me know if I have this right or missed something.
>>>> 
>>>> Again, thank you for your time and patience.
>>>> 
>>>> Sincerely,
>>>> 
>>>> Jamie
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 


Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE