cryptogon.com news – analysis – conspiracies

May 4th, 2008

This post is in a raw, data dump format right now.

Everywhere that I’ve seen this story being discussed on the Internet, there are a lot of anonymous comments saying that Roland Carnaby made it all up; that he just imagined that he was in the CIA, Photoshopped himself into a picture of the lobby of CIA headquarters, created the plaques and commemorations himself. All of that is possible. In fact, it may even be likely. Take some time to read, Mercenary by Tom Junod.

Was Roland Carnaby another “Zeke” type character? Again, maybe, even probably so.

However, there is a mountain of stuff here that is so odd that it practically left a bitter taste in my mouth just from reading it. I don’t know what the “National Security Command Center” is, but that’s the organization listed as the owner of the vehicle Carnaby was driving when he was killed. And maybe a total faker can become the president of a local chapter of the Association for Intelligence Officers. Right?

Let’s keep an eye out for new developments.

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Click2Houston: Suspect Shot In Police Chase Dies

POSTED: 11:53 am CDT April 29, 2008

UPDATED: 5:54 pm CDT April 29, 2008

HOUSTON — A man died Tuesday afternoon after leading police on a high-speed chase throughout Houston that ended in gunfire, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Investigators said officers stopped a driver for speeding on the South Freeway near Orem Drive on Tuesday morning and he took off.

Detectives said the chase went onto the North and Katy freeways before the driver got onto the West Loop. The motorist eventually stopped the SUV on the southbound feeder road of the West Loop near Post Oak Boulevard about 50 minutes later, police said.

There was a short standoff and officers tried to break out the window on the passenger’s side of the SUV.

Officials said the driver did not respond to initial commands to exit the vehicle.

“This went back and forth with the officers trying to get the guy to roll down his window, show his hands and exit the vehicle,” said Sgt. John Chomiak with the Houston Police Department.

When he did step out, the driver reached for something under the driver’s seat, officials said.

Police said they spotted a shiny object, and Sgt. A.J. Washington and Officer C.A. Foster fired once, hitting the man.

“They see the suspect exit the vehicle, turn around, reach down underneath the driver’s seat and that’s when the officers shot,” Chomiak said.

The man then tumbled out of the vehicle and fell to the ground. Officers handcuffed the driver, who lay motionless on the pavement until an ambulance arrived. Officers leaned down and spoke to him as they waited for the ambulance to arrive.

The driver, whose name was not released, died at Ben Taub Hospital. He was only identified as a 52-year-old man.

Investigators said two handguns and a shotgun were found inside the SUV, including one that was within the driver’s reach.

No vehicles were hit during the chase.

Traffic along the West Loop South was backed up for miles while police conducted an investigation on the frontage road and shut down the busy area for more than three hours.

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Click2Houston: Friend: Chase Suspect Was In Intelligence

By Elizabeth Scarborough

POSTED: 10:02 am CDT April 30, 2008

UPDATED: 4:42 pm CDT April 30, 2008

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Family and friends said Roland Carnaby was the man shot by Houston officers after a police chase and that he was in intelligence, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Local 2 obtained a photograph of him standing next to Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

Alan Helfman said Carnaby, 52, was a wonderful friend who would not say much about his work.

“I just know he was involved in intelligence,” said Helfman. “He was highly intelligent. He spoke seven languages fluently, and he always wanted to meet law enforcement.”

His family also said he worked in law enforcement for the federal government with the CIA and FBI.

“He knows better than to run. He should have never run,” said Helfman.

The chase started around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday on Highway 288 at Orem. It lasted nearly 50 minutes.

“The officers, when they discharged their weapons, were in fear of their safety,” said Sgt. John Chomiak with the Houston Police Department.

Local 2 caught the final standoff on tape.

Once the black SUV stopped on the West Loop feeder road near Woodway, the vehicle was surrounded.

Officer C.A. Foster tried to break out the window on the passenger side.

Sgt. A.J. Washington kept his gun trained on the driver. The driver opened his door like he was getting out.

Washington walked around front, and the driver looked like he was reaching under his seat for something. That’s when both officers fired.

“It’s just horrible when you know someone that well and watch him fall like a dog,” said Helfman.

The officers said they saw something shiny in the driver’s hand, and knew he had a concealed handgun license at the time of the shooting.

Detectives later found three weapons in the SUV — a shotgun and two pistols. They said one was within reach.

Helfman said that’s no surprise but believes it was just a big misunderstanding.

His family said Carnaby was on the phone with the FBI moments before he was shot, trying to get them to verify that he was an intelligence officer to HPD.

They said they hope Carnaby is remembered above all else for being a patriot.

His autopsy is supposed to be performed Wednesday.

—

Click2Houston: Credentials Show Chase Suspect In CIA

POSTED: 4:40 pm CDT April 30, 2008

UPDATED: 5:10 pm CDT April 30, 2008

HOUSTON — Police are trying to verify whether a man officers shot and killed after a chase was a CIA agent,” KPRC Local 2 reported on Wednesday.

Investigators found credentials that showed Roland Carnaby, 52, worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Carnaby died after a nearly hour-long police chase Tuesday morning that started on Highway 288 and ended on Woodway.

Friends and family said there was proof inside Carnaby’s SUV that he was an intelligence officer, as they claimed.

Investigators are working to verify the documents and Carnaby’s real identity.

“There are credentials in the car that we have seized and that was the indication — that he worked with the CIA,” said Capt. Steve Jett with the Houston Police Department.

Police said a top CIA official was headed to Houston to verify the documents. The CIA did not comment.

“They could have been made up. They look authentic, but you can do a lot of things with a computer,” Jett said.

As condolences poured into the Carnaby home in Pearland, his family proudly showed off pictures, plaques and other mementos that they said confirmed Carnaby’s distinguished service to his country.

The family said the reason for all the confusion was that Carnaby went by other names. A book signed by the former director of the CIA was autographed to “Tony” — one of his aliases.

“Mr. Carnaby never mentioned to me that he was a CIA agent,” said David Adler, a former CIA officer.

Adler said he recently met Carnaby at a dinner for the local chapter for the Association of Intelligence Officers. Carnaby was the president.

“He certainly seemed like a nice guy. He did not strike me as irrational or unusual,” Adler said.

Adler said he was stunned by Tuesday’s chase and shooting. He said Carnaby’s bizarre actions are an example of how someone in the CIA would not behave.

“There is no legitimate reason for a CIA officer in the U.S. to have weapons in his car. And certainly, there’s no legitimate reason for a CIA officer in the U.S. to not comply with uniformed local law enforcement officers,” Adler said. “They certainly don’t engage in this sort of dangerous behavior that happened yesterday.”

Police said that they believe Carnaby was reaching for a cell phone and not one of the three weapons in his car, as first thought.

“He did not grab the gun. The officers presumed that’s what he was grabbing and the pistol was in relatively close proximity to where he was reaching,” Jett said.

Carnaby had a concealed carry permit, which would not be needed if he were an intelligence agent.

His family released the following statement.

“He lived and breathed his work, loved his country and risked his life for it on an ongoing basis. My family and his associates in the intelligence community believe he deserves real acknowledgement for his many years of service,” said Robert A. Kouts, Carnaby’s brother-in-law.

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Houston Chronicle: HPD Pursuit Shooting Leads to Deep Mystery

By Mike Tolson

The Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON — Mystery continues to envelop a man shot and killed by Houston police Tuesday morning after a high-speed chase that ended near the Galleria.

The victim was identified by friends as Roland Vincent Carnaby, 52, of Houston. But who he really was — or more precisely, what he was — is something police are still trying to piece together.

Carnaby held himself out as a federal intelligence agent but was sometimes cagey about his precise job and employer. At times he mentioned the Central Intelligence Agency or the Department of Homeland Security. He was the president of the local chapter of the Association for Intelligence Officers, a legitimate national organization whose board contains luminaries such as former President George H.W. Bush. Friends said they have seen him in the company socially of local law enforcement officials and high-level CIA bureaucrats.

The CIA told KHOU that Carnaby was not an employee of the intelligence agency.

Car dealer Alan Helfman met Carnaby more than a decade ago when “a mutual friend high in law enforcement” brought him by the dealership. “He bought eight or nine cars from me over the years,” Helfman said.

Carnaby told Helfman he was a federal officer who worked in intelligence. The two men struck up a close friendship.

“He was always teasing me about being a reserve constable,” said Helfman, who volunteers for Harris County Precinct 7.

Friends insist Carnaby was very much who he said he was, even if he was less than specific about his duties. One recalled a recent party in Washington that they both attended for retired intelligence agents.

‘A blank page’

“Most of what he does is so classified that regular homicide (detectives) will come up with a blank page and then a question about why you are asking,” said Fred Platt, the vice president of the local chapter of intelligence agents. “He’s here because of homeland security. The port and the airport. He knows everybody on the command staff of every agency.”

Local law enforcement officials, however, say they don’t know him, including Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt and Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas. The local FBI office also claims to have no knowledge of him.

Hurtt said he’d attended a function held by the Association last year and may have met Carnaby there. He said he did not remember him well, though the two were photographed together.

“I don’t know the gentleman,” he said.

Carnaby traveled frequently for work, Helfman said, but whenever he was in Houston, he visited the dealership on a daily basis. Helfman said Carnaby spoke seven languages and always carried an arsenal of weapons, including several guns and a knife.

“He was always showing me his knife tricks,” he said. “He was real good at karate, too.”

Carnaby was tight-lipped about his work and his private life, and Helfman said he didn’t question him.

“His entire life has always been clandestine. His girlfriends didn’t even know what he was doing,” Helfman said.

Even mundane details of Carnaby’s life were tinged with mystery. His address listed with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is a private mailbox at a UPS Store near downtown. The address at which he registered his Jeep Commander was a different UPS Store in Pearland.

Whatever his real story, Carnaby’s life came to an end about 11 a.m. after police forced his vehicle to a stop. He didn’t acknowledge the officers who encircled him with guns drawn. And he “refused to put his hands where the officers could see him,” said Houston Police Sgt. John Chomiak.

“The driver refused to comply, talk or roll down the window,” Chomiak said.

He opened the driver’s side door only after one of the officers smashed the passenger-side window, police said.

“He stepped out of his vehicle, turned around and reached under the seat,” Chomiak said.

When he did, two officers each fired one time, authorities said. The officers were identified by police officials as HPD Sgt. A.J. Washington and Officer C.A. Foster. Carnaby was later pronounced dead at Ben Taub Hospital.

The incident lasted most of an hour. It began with a routine traffic stop when Carnaby was pulled over for speeding along Texas 288 near Orem. Carnaby raced away after the officers learned he had a license to carry a concealed weapon, police said.

120-mph chase

With the officers in close pursuit, the Jeep raced north along the South Freeway, with speeds reaching 120 mph toward downtown Houston before heading west on the Katy Freeway. Carnaby then headed south along the West Loop, exiting at Woodway where the chase finally came to an end.

Harris County medical examiners said the autopsy will probably be performed today.

Washington, a 22-year HPD veteran, and Foster, who has been on the force for about 15 years, later told investigators they fired because they were in fear for their safety, police said.

Police said the shooting was apparently captured by the dashboard cameras of the HPD patrol cars.

Carnaby slumped to the ground after the officers began firing. He was motionless when they placed him in handcuffs.

‘This doesn’t smell right’

Although an initial examination revealed no weapons inside the man’s car, that changed once it was taken into custody for a more detailed search.

“We have located three weapons inside the vehicle — two pistols and a shotgun,” said HPD spokesman John Cannon. “At least one of them was within reach of the suspect.”

The frontage road was closed for several hours Tuesday as investigators questioned the officers behind long lines of crime scene tape.

“What’s going on?” a passing motorist shouted out as he crawled along the clogged West Loop.

That’s the question his friends want answered. They say Carnaby had no reason to run or disobey police. Platt said he had dined with Carnaby both Saturday and Sunday and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Carnaby was engaged to be married, he said, and led a happy life.

“I can’t fathom any reason why he would be running from the police because he is the police,” Platt said. “This doesn’t make any sense. I can’t understand him running or why they opened up on him. This doesn’t smell right.”

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Houston Chronicle: Was it a Spy, or Would-Be Spy, in that SUV?

Despite CIA mementos and other evidence, Roland Carnaby’s life remains an enigma

By LINDSAY WISE, DALE LEZON and MIKE TOLSON

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Much about Roland Carnaby’s life speaks to a long career as a devoted intelligence officer — from his effort to build a local chapter of the professional association to his personal friendships with current and former members of the intelligence community to his respect and affection for law enforcement and its dignitaries.

His home in Pearland is filled with pieces of his patriotic past. Plaques honor his years of service to the Central Intelligence Agency. A book written by former CIA Director George Tenet is inscribed with a warm and playful message. Photos of him at CIA headquarters, in front of military aircraft and with various dignitaries are prominently displayed.

A small room off the front foyer was Carnaby’s study. There’s an American flag on the wall and a “CIA” coffee mug on the desk.

Now, in the wake of his strange death Tuesday at the conclusion of a high-speed police chase, doubts have been raised about his oft-projected persona as a CIA operative by the agency itself. It bluntly disavowed employing him. Might the denial be little more than standard operating procedure, as his wife suggests? Or could it be that he spent years constructing an elaborate fraud, with a home filled more with artifice than artifacts?

When his wife, Susan, was asked if she now thinks it possible her husband could have been lying to her for more than a decade, she hesitated.

“How would you know?” she replied quietly. “How would you know if what anybody told you was true?”

As family and friends gathered to mourn his loss, her wavering confidence loomed large. A day after police shot him as he made an ill-advised move upon exiting his SUV, the Carnaby that so many thought they knew had become a shadowy figure, one who apparently concealed from his wife his true whereabouts and from his friends many of the pertinent details of his private life. Even some who stand by him admit they never got to know him really well.

“He never really wanted to talk about his personal life,” said one friend who asked not to be named. “Obviously there are some missing pieces.”

This friend, and others, remain loyal, both to the warm and engaging man they knew and to the intelligence agent he claimed to be. They insist his bona fides were too solid and his recognition by former intelligence personnel too genuine for him to be a fake. A caller identifying himself only as “Chuck” and responding to an inquiry sent to chapters of the Association for Intelligence Officers insisted Carnaby worked with the CIA in the 1980s in its Soviet Union unit.

The CIA disputes this, which if true means that the agency identification he carried with him at the time of his death and which he occasionally flashed to friends and law enforcement officers would have been bogus.

“While we do not as a rule publicly deny or confirm employment, I will tell you in this case that Mr. Carnaby was not an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency,” CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. “He was never a CIA officer.”

Wife doubts CIA denial

Of course, the denial doesn’t prove that the agency never used him as a contractor. Carnaby was fluent in many languages, family and friends say, including Arabic and French, and could have been useful in the Mideast, especially in the waning days of the Cold War.

Susan Carnaby does not put much stock in the CIA denial.

“No, because why would they even admit it?” she said. “How many cases could that blow? I think that’s not their policy to make comments on that type of thing. Roland always told me that if anything ever happened to him don’t expect anyone to stand up and say that’s what he did for a living. They keep these things undercover for a reason.”

A former wife, however, is less convinced. Sha’rie Burch, who lives in Willis, said much about her ex-husband struck her as odd when they were married. He told her he worked with the CIA and even had a small badge, but never explained what he did. If she asked for more details, she said, he’d get defensive and not answer.

“He had very big, tall stories that were hard to believe,” Burch said. “It was kind of a suspicious thing.”

Port Authority connection

On the other hand, he was friends with local federal agents and they often came to the couple’s Spring home for dinner, Burch said. The couple had private dinners with the head of the Houston Port Authority, she said, and Carnaby also was close friends with former Harris County Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen, who she said was best man at their wedding in 1986. Klevenhagen died in 1999.

The Port Authority connection could make sense for a strictly commercial reason. Carnaby’s family, which used the different spelling of Karnabe, was involved in the shipping industry, which was the apparent source of his considerable but undetermined income. He paid cash for his cars.

Burch said she first met him when she was about 19. Friends introduced them. He was 10 years older, drove a Ferrari and boasted about his family homes in New York and Geneva.

He was the son of a wealthy Lebanese family that owns a shipping business, she said. She said he told her that he was born and raised in New York City.

His father, Vincent Said Carnaby, was a Lebanese ambassador to several countries, she said, and son Roland worked for the family business and often traveled for business.

He and Burch divorced in 1993. Part of the reason, she said, was his hot temper.

By the time of their divorce, Carnaby already had another romance brewing. A petite woman with curly brown hair and glasses, Susan Carnaby teaches eighth grade in Northshore. The 55-year-old met her husband about 17 years ago when she worked as the manager of a men’s store in the Galleria.

She described him as a gentleman, worldly and traveled.

“He’s one of those people who’s very unique, very vibrant, the life of the party, knows everybody,” she said. “He likes to be around people. He’s a people person.”

He told her he was a CIA agent and she had no reason to doubt him, she said.

After dating for about five years, the couple married in Las Vegas on Nov. 10, 1997. “He planned the whole thing,” she said.

Susan Carnaby said her husband often traveled overseas, leaving for months at a time. If he was in Washington, he would tell her, but most of the time she had no idea where he had gone, she said. It was top secret, he told her.

The last time she saw her husband was in March, she said.

The news that he was in town when he was supposedly traveling, and the mention of a supposed fiancee, stunned her when she learned it after his death. She said she and her husband were not separated.

“Not as far as I know,” she said, adding that the couple just moved into their new house in Pearland last June. “All his things are here.”

Police Wednesday were still trying to fit together the series of events that ended when Carnaby was shot by officers who surrounded his vehicle after a chase that ended near the Galleria.

During the chase, Carnaby called a friend on his cell phone. The friend, whom police have not identified, was supposed to have lunch with Carnaby that day.

“The guy was telling him, ‘You need to pull over. You need to do what the officers are telling you,’ ” said Capt. Steve Jett, commander of HPD’s homicide division. “His answer was, ‘I can’t.’ ”

Tapes back HPD’s account

Police don’t know why Carnaby felt unable to comply with the officers’ demands. He appeared shaky and nervous when pulled over for speeding on Texas 288 near West Orem. He presented a card identifying himself as a CIA employee.

The card was laminated and bore the seal of the espionage agency.

Police said they are waiting for federal officials to determine if the document was legitimate or a fabrication.

Investigators said the three weapons discovered in his car appeared to be Carnaby’s and were legally owned. One pistol was under the passenger-side floor mat while a second was between the seats. A pistol-grip shotgun was on the floor board of the back seat. Jett said a round was in the shotgun and the safety was off.

“All he would have to do was reach over the console and pick it up,” Jett said.

The officers told investigators they feared for their safety when he reached back into the Jeep for what turned out to be a “shiny” personal assistant-cellular phone.

Jett said there is video and audio that backs up the officers’ contention that Carnaby acted “erratically,” before making a “very quick overt move” toward an officer.

He said the HPD would probably seek to prevent release of the audio and video until the investigation concludes.

“We have no idea why he ran. We are investigating that,” he said. “He was very nervous. The officer said that he was shaking, and the officer didn’t understand because most law enforcement would have been friendly.”

A review of public records showed that Carnaby had a clean record save for two speeding tickets, including one last summer in Fairfax, Va.

Reporters Mike Glenn, Stewart M. Powell and Matt Stiles contributed to this report.

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Houston Chronicle: In his final moments, Carnaby made calls to FBI, HPD as he fled

By LINDSAY WISE and DALE LEZON

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

The patrol officer who stopped Roland Carnaby for speeding Tuesday morning was about to detain him as a possible CIA agent impersonator when he took off in his SUV, Houston police said Thursday.

Two days after officers shot Carnaby to death at the conclusion of a high-speed chase, more details emerged about the bizarre chain of events, including phone calls Carnaby made after he was pulled over.

First Carnaby called an acquaintance in Houston Police Department’s internal affairs division, trying to get someone to vouch for him to the patrolman. Later, as he raced away from pursuing officers at speeds up to 120 mph, the man who had for years projected the persona of a federal intelligence officer apparently called a contact he knew in the FBI.

Carnaby initially had thought that by showing an ID card bearing the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency he could be on his way. But the officer who stopped him along Texas 288 near West Orem, already suspicious because of Carnaby’s nervous behavior, did not recognize the ID card and told Carnaby he would check it out, HPD homicide Capt. Steve Jett said.

“The officer went back and checked the guy, and when he checked the license, the handgun permit came up and he was like, ‘Why does a federal agent need a concealed handgun permit?’ ” Jett said.

Increasingly suspicious, the officer asked Carnaby for proof of his connection with the CIA.

“He asked him questions like who’s your supervisor? Do you have a contact number you can call and verify? And the answers weren’t very good,” Jett said.

That was when Carnaby called someone he knew at HPD’s internal affairs division. The officer asked the acquaintance if Carnaby really worked for the CIA.

“The answer was ‘possibly yes,’ ” Jett said. “But the officer was obviously not inclined to just let him go. He was being very thorough and probably was going to write him a ticket, if not put him in jail for something, probably for not presenting a concealed handgun permit when he was stopped.”

State law requires holders of concealed carry permits to present them when stopped by police if they have weapons in the car.

Doubts about Carnaby’s true identity were compounded by conflicting information, Jett said. The officer also had contacted HPD’s criminal intelligence and major offenders divisions to ask them to check Carnaby’s credentials, he said.

“They told him ‘No, we think he’s a fraud,’ ” Jett said. “Something apparently triggered on his name, but again nobody was sure. Nobody’s still sure. They’d heard his name before and they thought no, he’s not (CIA).”

The officer was told to “find something to arrest him on; you can’t arrest him for speeding,” Jett said.

Carnaby had not shown his concealed weapon permit, which was sufficient violation to hold him. But when he was asked to step out of his SUV, Carnaby sped away, Jett said.

As HPD patrol cars began their pursuit, Carnaby called a friend on his cell phone. The friend, described by Jett as “possible FBI,” urged Carnaby to pull over and obey police.

HPD investigators are still trying to get in touch with the friend to talk to him, Jett said. Local FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap declined to comment, saying it is inappropriate for the FBI to discuss an ongoing HPD investigation.

Autopsy video refused

Carnaby’s lawyer, Kenneth Brooten, said the fatal shooting, which occurred after Carnaby exited his car at the end of the chase, did not appear necessary.

“All of this has a smell factor,” Brooten said. “What was the justification for the use of deadly force? Was this man a felon that was fleeing the scene of an armed robbery? Had he pulled a gun on them previously? That’s a public policy issue. That affects every person who drives around Houston or lives there.”

Brooten said he sent a letter to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s office asking that Carnaby’s autopsy be videotaped, but county attorney Barbara Callistien wrote him back to say HCME does not videotape autopsies.

Brooten also wants the Texas Rangers to examine the case and the FBI to look at whether evidence has been tampered with.

A former chief counsel of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Brooten met Carnaby several years ago and served as an attorney for the Houston branch of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, which Carnaby headed. He said he attended an annual symposium for the AFIO at the CIA headquarters at Langley with Carnaby, who seemed well-known there, albeit under the pseudonym of “Tony.”

“I recall people coming out recognizing him, ‘Hey Tony, how are you?’ This is what I saw. Did I know those people personally? No. Was I introduced by Tony? Yes.”

One of Carnaby’s most obvious signs of legitimacy came through the AFIO. Carnaby had led the revival of a dormant Houston chapter, which periodically hosted banquets that featured speakers well known in the intelligence community and were well attended by local law enforcement officials.

The executive director of the AFIO, Elizabeth Bancroft, said she met Carnaby several years ago at the group’s functions held near McLean, Va.

The organization, which is open to U.S. citizens, holds an annual symposium and monthly luncheons.

Bancroft said Carnaby never mentioned being a former CIA employee, and the stories about his connection to the agency shocked her. “Is this genuine or is this a very overactive fantasy life?” she said.

Carnaby was a very eager, enthusiastic AFIO member, Bancroft said. When she told him that the group’s Houston chapter had been inactive for years, he volunteered to get it going again.

She said he was an excellent organizer and boosted chapter membership to about 200 members. He also had extensive contacts with law enforcement, which helped him book speakers for the chapter’s meetings.

HPD defends officers

Carnaby asked the national headquarters if he could name the Houston chapter after CIA agent William Francis Buckley, who was kidnapped, tortured and killed in Lebanon in 1985.

“He talked about Buckley, how much he admired him and the bravery it must have taken to endure that type of torture that ends your life,” she said.

For a person who was so supportive of law enforcement, Carnaby’s final agony angers lawyer Brooten, who criticized the officers present for handcuffing him instead of administering medical care.

“All of this other stuff (about Carnaby’s mysterious life) is all very interesting, but it is of no consequence when you consider a man is dead and he died handcuffed and nobody tried to stop the bleeding or anything,” Brooten said. “You know what you call that? You call that an assassination.”

Jett defended the officers at the scene, saying they are not trained to assist people with serious gunshot wounds.

“We would handcuff people and try to get them comfortable, but we’re not paramedics, and most officers don’t know about giving first aid like that other than CPR, and you don’t want to give CPR to a gunshot victim,” he said.

Investigators later found three weapons in Carnaby’s car, police said. One pistol was under the passenger-side floormat. A second was between the seats. On the back seat floorboard lay a pistol-grip shotgun with a round in the chamber and the safety off.

Brooten said he has no idea why his friend and client ran from police, but he has a difficult time believing HPD’s account.

“Maybe he thought he was being set up. That’s speculation only,” he said. “The answer is no, I don’t know. But there are multiple reasons why an experienced professional would feel threatened. And given the actions after the shooting, maybe his instinct was correct.”

CIA repeats its denial

The CIA on Thursday reiterated its denial that Carnaby had any connection with the intelligence agency.

“This individual was not a CIA officer, and I have seen no indication whatsoever that he had a contract with the CIA,” said agency spokesman George Little.

True or not — his friends claim disavowing any affiliation is standard procedure in clandestine intelligence work — Carnaby had certainly been successful at constructing the appearance of a longtime intelligence officer and a well-connected guy.

His Pearland home contains several photos of him taken with local dignitaries, including former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt. Both insist they do not know him.

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Fox News: Former FBI Agent: I Knew Chase Suspect By Different Name

Former FBI Agent: I Knew Chase Suspect By Different Name

Last Edited: Thursday, 01 May 2008, 10:47 PM CDT

Created: Thursday, 01 May 2008, 4:25 PM CDT

HOUSTON — Roland Carnaby claimed to work for the CIA. But the suspect who police shot at the end of a citywide car chase Tuesday was known by a different name to the former agent in charge of the Houston FBI.

“I only knew him as Tony,” said Don Clark, FOX 26’s security and law enforcement analyst and former FBI agent. “I had no idea what his name may have been or was. The name that was in the newspaper, I had never seen that name before.”

Carnaby, 52, was pulled over Tuesday morning for speeding and then led police on a chase when the officer discovered he possessed a concealed weapon license. His death was ruled a homicide Thursday afternoon after medical examiner’s officials determined he died from a gunshot wound to the torso.

Investigators and FBI and CIA officials have said they could not trace Carnaby’s connection to either agency, but family members said Carnaby had awards, pictures and books signed with several officials, including former CIA Director George Tenet and former Secretary of State James Baker. But Clark says he thought Carnaby was too talkative for an intelligence agent.

“People who are involved in those types of activities are very closed mouth,” Clark said.

Federal credentials also were found inside the SUV, but police say the CIA is sending someone to Houston to examine Carnaby’s alleged Agency credentials.

“If the person was portraying to be something that he wasn’t, I think they have a responsibility to see if there’s been any damage that’s been done,” Clark said.

Carnaby was the president of the Association For Intelligence Officers, a non-profit organization for current or former intelligence professionals and supporters of the intelligence community. Organization officials posted a note on their Web site Thursday, extending their sympathy to family and friends “over his untimely and inexplicable death.”

“A man gifted with remarkable people skills and charm, Roland called upon his wide range of contacts — particularly those in the Houston and Federal law enforcement communities — to support an impressive speaker series and other local activities in the Houston chapter he reactivated a few years ago,” the Web site states. “Mr. Carnaby underscores the achievements and energy associate members bring to the association to assist in the educational mission of AFIO.”

Officers shot at Carnaby as he exited his vehicle because they thought he was reaching for a gun. A thorough investigation of his vehicle after the chase revealed Carnaby had two pistols and a shotgun, and one of the weapons was within his reach.

“One of the officers, on the passenger side, saw the suspect reach down and make an obvious and overt movement underneath the seat. Fearing for his safety, he fired the weapon one time,” HPD Sgt. John Chomiak said.

But Randall Kallinen, an attorney representing Carnaby’s wife of 11 years, said his death should have never occurred.

“The police did not follow procedure,” Kallinen said. “They escalated the situation and then two individuals, two police officers, shot an individual who was unarmed.”

Houston police are still investigating the case.

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KHOU: ‘CIA Operative’ Faced Arrest for Impersonating Federal Agent

11:58 AM CDT on Saturday, May 3, 2008

By TJ Aulds & Allison Triarsi / 11 News

HOUSTON — The widow of a man gunned down by Houston police after a high-speed chase Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against the Houston Police Department on Friday. Susan Carnaby claims the chase that lead to her husband’s death was unnecessary and that police failed to follow proper chase procedures.

The wife’s attorney revealed that Roland Carnaby was shot in the back by police, who said they opened fire on the man because they saw the man reach for something shinny – possibly a gun – after he had exited his vehicle. Carnaby led police on a high-speed chase after he had been pulled over for speeding.

Houston police confirmed that the officer who pulled over Carnaby was about to arrest the 52-year-old Pearland man on suspicion that he was impersonating a federal agent.

Carnaby had presented identification that indicated he was with the CIA to the HPD officer who had pulled him over on Highway 288 near Orem Tuesday afternoon. Houston police said the officer made several calls trying to confirm if the identification was legit, to the point that superiors said Carnaby should be arrested for impersonating a federal agent.

It was during that verification of Carnaby’s identification that the self-proclaimed CIA operative sped off.

Photo provided by Carnaby family

Randall Kallinen, Mrs. Carnaby’s attorney, called the chase of Mr. Carnaby, “silly,” and accused Houston police of failing to follow acceptable chase policies. He also accused police of not rendering medical aid to Carnaby after he had been shot.

“He lay on the ground, bled to death, a massive bleeding while officers had him handcuffed and administered no aid whatsoever,” said Kallinen, shortly after filing the lawsuit.

But Dr. Paul Radelat, who examined Carnaby’s body on behalf of the family told 11 News that the gunshot wound to his back was so devastating, that even if he had been in the “lobby of a hospital,” when he was shot he would likely have not survived.

Meanwhile, the mystery surrounding Carnaby and just who he is continues. Friends and family said Carnaby has for years presented himself as having worked for the CIA. He even had a series of mementos and plaques that indicated he was a member of the U.S. intelligence community.

He was also the president of a local chapter of an intelligence officer’s association. While an officer in the Houston chapter of the Association for Intelligence Officers, the association’s national office identified him as an “associate” member.

The association has several classifications for members including designations for confirmed current and past members of the intelligence community. Associate members are considered to not have been an intelligence operative or agent, but rather citizens who support the intelligence community.

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Houston Chronicle: Wife of Man Who Claimed CIA Link Sues

Federal case says HPD officers who shot, killed Carnaby violated his civil rights

By DALE LEZON

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

The wife of a man fatally shot by Houston police and who claimed to be a CIA agent filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the city, accusing the officers of violating his civil rights.

Roland Vincent Carnaby, 52, was killed after he led police on a high-speed chase after a traffic stop Tuesday morning. The CIA has denied that Carnaby was connected to the agency.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Houston, also names Houston Police Department Sgt. Andrew J. Washington and Officer Charles Foster. Both fired at Carnaby.

It states that the officers violated Carnaby’s right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure and his right to due process.

Police actions defended

The shooting was unjustified, Randall Kallinen, the attorney for Susan Carnaby, said in a news conference after filing the suit.

HPD spokesman Victor Senties said the department does not comment on pending litigation and directed questions to the city attorney’s office.

“I think (the officers) operated the way they should have according to proper police procedures and according to constitutional requirements,” said Arturo Michel, Houston city attorney.

Police officials said Washington and Foster fired because they were in fear for their safety.

Excessive force alleged

After the chase ended, Carnaby stopped and was getting out out of his Jeep Commander but refused officers’ commands to put his hands in plain sight, officials said. Carnaby then reached under the driver seat and grabbed an object as he began to get out of his car, police said. That’s when the officers fired.

“When a person has their back to you, the officer cannot be in reasonable, objective fear for his life,” Kallinen said.

Kallinen said Susan Carnaby hopes the suit will make the city change its methods about use of excessive force on suspects. She is also asking for unspecified monetary damages.

Police said the chase started after Carnaby was stopped for speeding along Texas 288.

Hard to verify

The officer who stopped him became suspicious when Carnaby appeared nervous and claimed to be connected to the CIA. Police were trying to determine if Carnaby’s claim was true when he sped off.

Officers chased the Jeep north along the South Freeway, with speeds reaching 120 mph, toward downtown Houston and then west on the Katy Freeway. Carnaby then headed south along the West Loop, exiting at Woodway, where the chase ended.

Police said officers would find three weapons in Carnaby’s SUV, including two pistols and a pistol-grip shotgun.

Dozens of blog posts refer to Carnaby as a noted intelligence service veteran. The blog posts have been difficult to verify.

Kallinen said that questions surrounding Carnaby’s life do not justify his death.

Discipline problems

He also said that the officers who shot him have had several disciplinary problems at the department.

Foster, who has been on the force for about 28 years, has been reprimanded twice for rules violations, according to city records.

City records show that Washington, on the force for about 22 years, has been suspended once for five days for striking a suspect and once for one day for speeding.

He also was suspended for three days for insubordination and violating department rules. That suspension was reduced to one day in arbitration.

—

Weird Post on Closed Down Blog

The following was recovered from Google cache. It had previously appeared on a blog called, Covert Operations & Pornography at http://papparazzipress.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Premel’s Intel Chief Retires

Following the first series of interviews Alan Premel gave with Channel 1 in Moscow, the first series was posted online last week and i have already seen two other additional stories which tie in with Premel and his dealings with the private firm in Houston. This is one and let me find the other.

One of the CIA’s former counter-terrorism chiefs and pioneers in covert operations, Roland Carnaby retires.

In the past few months, Mr. Carnaby, who has led a private intelligence firm in Houston, Texas has been delegating more and moredaily responsibilities to his lietenants and is completing his succession planning, say people familiar with the matter. A decision about his departure could come within weeks, though the situation remains fluid, say these people.

Alan Premel, 32 years old, whom CIA recruited in 1997 and whom Carnaby personally recruited in 2002 to work with the private intelligence firm in Houston has emerged as the leading candidate to succeed him, added these people. A spokesperson familiar with the retirement plans stated that Premel and his current worries with the US Senate over allegations and ties to the CIA’s Rendition program and his recent resignation from CIA amid a slew of disclosure cases pulls him out of the race for President and chief of such a power position within the intelligence community.

The departure of Mr. Carnaby, 52, would mean the loss of CIA’s most experienced, talented and high profile clandestine officers in management. Few executives who helped pioneer the commercialization of private intelligence and private security firms have remained on top for as long, except for some who can also claim founder titles, such as Patriot Oil, and Pan-American Shipping and Consulting Group.

Mr. Carnaby’s retirement would come at a critical point for CIA. Any efforts to reveerse the slow-down at his private firm could involve drastic changes that may be more palatable under a new CEO like Premel. Mr. Premel, at CIA, was very instrumental in many changes at CIA as a successful supervisor in the Balkans. His management experience at CIA is 25 years behind Carnaby’s but with the firm already warning investors in recent months that it will be raising fees in the absence of Mr. Carnaby.

Mr. Premel wrestled with how to reverse the declining momentum before having to exit left stage last summer from the firm after his public disclosure. The firm’s third quarter numbers, a key barometer of the firm’s health fell 63% without Premel. Before leaving he implemented some changes that were never fully set into motion causing the down-turn after his sudden departure.

The timing of Mr. Carnaby’s retirement is of his own choosing, say people familiar with the situation, unlike Premel’s pre-mature departure which came 20-years too soon say experts. Not long after he jonied CIA, Roland Carnaby declared that no one person should stay in the same cover in covert operations more than two years. A standard practice used by the firm. This philosophy has accredited the firm with a lot of success claims Mr. Premel in his interview with CNN’s David Ensor late of last year.

Under James Pavitt and Roland Carnaby, the firm has become the intelligence community’s most successful private consulting business on counter-terrorism, security consulting and intelligence gathering where they pioneered a way for private officers to carry out day to day functions in the field, relay them back to CIA, DoD, DIA or other foreign agencies. In 2004, Mr. Premel streamlined a way for collecting, compliling and disseminating vast amounts of data and breaking it down by himself. The process which is only done by one person, Mr. Premel himself is the work of what 7-9 officers would typically do.

When Carnaby and Premel shared the reigns from 2004-2007, they have delivered more than 10 consecutive quarters of sequential revenue growth. Profit increase every year and the company now has 248 licensed contract officers working for the firm globally, and $297 million in classified contracts over 5 continents. Those figures are up from the firms $18 million in 1997.

To maintain momentum, Mr. Premel, using $40 million from a settlement with CIA, purchased a private lending company in Houston as well as acquiring a private shipping business and a private internet ticketing business.

There were missteps: Last year, the firm took a $80.4 million write-down for its purchase of a private airline business in DC, Houston and Vegas. And threats loomed when recruitment of some of the firm’s top and most talented officer’s. To keep top talent, Mr. Carnaby and Mr. Premel kicked in an extra $2.4 million for salaries and bonuses to keep the firm afloat.

Mr. Carnaby has long planned for his eventual exit, say people familiar with the matter. He often rotated top officer’s into different operational roles as a way to groom potential successors and to give the board a slate of candidates from which to choose.

In his departing emails to friends, firm and CIA colleagues, Mr. Carnaby wrote how much he was pleased by the professionalism and careers of each and all of the persons who have served under him and with him during his 32-year tenure in the US Intelligence Community.

—

Fox News: Investigators Sorting Fact from Fiction in Fatal Chase

Man Fatally Shot by Police Claimed to be CIA Agent

Last Edited: Thursday, 01 May 2008, 10:17 AM CDT

Created: Thursday, 01 May 2008, 10:12 AM CDT

HOUSTON — Two days after a man was fatally shot following a police chase through Houston, investigators are still trying to determine who the man was and if really worked for the CIA or as a national intelligence officer.

Family members on Wednesday invited FOX 26 News inside the home of a man who claimed to work for the CIA and who was fatally shot at the end of a police chase earlier this week.

Relatives said Roland Carnaby, a 52-year-old Lebanese man who lived in Pearland with his wife of 11 years, was a secret federal agent for the FBI and CIA despite local and federal authorities not being able to verify that claim.

“There was no record of him being an employee of the FBI or CIA,” Houston Police Department Chief Harold Hurtt said Wednesday.

Officials with the FBI and CIA also said that Carnaby did not work for them, even though Carnaby had pictures of himself with former Secretary of State James Baker and Hurtt.

“I’ve taken pictures with probably another thousand Houstonians in the last four years,” Hurtt said.

Carnaby was pulled over Tuesday for speeding and then led police on a chase. He was fatally shot after officers said they thought he reached for a gun.

“One of the officers, on the passenger side, saw the suspect reach down and make an obvious and overt movement underneath the seat. Fearing for his safety, he fired the weapon one time,” HPD Sgt. John Chomiak said.

A second officer also opened fire but it is not clear how many times Carnaby was shot. Carnaby, dressed in a suit, died on the way to the hospital.

Investigators initially only found a cell phone but then said they discovered two pistols and a shotgun inside Carnaby’s sport utility vehicle. They said one was in the suspect’s reach when the officers shot him.

“At any one time, he’s got three or four shotguns, two guns on him, a knife,” said Alan Helfmen, owner of the River Oaks Chrysler dealership and one of Carnaby’s good friends. “I’d like to believe that he would not have tried to shoot somebody. That’s not his mentality.”

Helfman said Carnaby told people he was a CIA agent or some kind of national intelligence officer. He said Carnaby donated large amounts of money to HPD fundraisers, was highly intelligent, spoke seven languages and was the president of the Houston branch for the Association For Intelligence Officers.

“He thought he was one of them … or maybe one of them with a little higher pecking order,” Helfman told FOX 26 News.

Helfman said he met Carnaby a dozen years ago when the man showed up at his dealership to buy a vehicle. The two quickly became good friends, sharing a love of cars and law enforcement.

The black Jeep Commander Carnaby was driving is registered to the National Security Command Center.

Federal credentials were also found inside the SUV but investigators are still trying to determine if the identification is real.

“We don’t know. They could’ve been made up,” HPD Homicide Capt. Steve Jett said.

Relatives said they have plenty of proof that Carnaby was CIA, including an autographed book from, they say, his very close friend, former CIA Director George Tenet.

However, plaques, paperwork and the people who love him say one thing: the truth seems to be just as much of a mystery as Carnaby himself.

HPD officials said they are questioning officers about why medical attention was not given to Carnaby after he was shot and before paramedics arrived.

The two officers that fired their guns have nearly 40 years of law enforcement experience combined. Officials within the police department’s internal affairs and homicide divisions, along with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, are investigating the shooting.

—

Wayne Madsen Reports: Another 9/11 Waiting to Happen

June 16, 2008 — SPECIAL REPORT. Another 9/11 waiting to happen

publication date: Jun 15, 2008

Roland “Tony” Carnaby, the one-time CIA station chief for the Southeast Region slain by Houston police on April 29, was an advocate of increasing “HUMINT” resources in and around the sprawling Houston port complex, from Houston to Galveston. Houston is the largest port in the United States for foreign tonnage.

Carnaby had in his possession the morning of April 29 information that someone wanted and wanted badly enough to order the Houston police to treat the well-known former CIA clandestine agent and president of the local chapter of the Association for Intelligence Officers (AFIO) as a dangerous armed criminal. After an extensive investigation, WMR has learned that those who ordered the “hit” on Carnaby were part of a team, including smugglers tied to the Russian-Israeli mob, who were involved in terrorist planning activities in the greater Houston area.

Carnaby and his intelligence and federal and county law enforcement associates were concerned about the potential for a “9/11-like” false flag attack on either Houston’s port facility, airports, or all of them in and around the Memorial Day and Independence Day weekends.

WMR has learned that at a meeting of tugboat captains last week in Houston, the possibility of an imminent terrorist attack on the Houston port was discussed.

Carnaby’s belief in HUMINT as a determinant of terrorist plans likely caused him to believe that Houston was in imminent danger for an attack. WMR spoke to Carnaby’s intelligence and law enforcement colleagues who share his concerns.

Suspiciously, the Houston police, in violation of US Judge Keith Ellison’s order to preserve all evidence related to Carnaby’s shooting by the Houston police, admitted that it disposed of the evidence. Moreover, after having secured Carnaby’s Blackberry, which is known to contain contact numbers for CIA and other federal agents, as well as their informants, was returned to the custody of the Houston police by Secret Service Special Agent R. Jennings, the reported SAC (Special Agent in Charge) of the Houston office.

Jennings has been accused by Carnaby’s colleagues of cooperating with the very same elements, including individuals connected to Israeli intelligence activities in the Houston area and their well-placed moles inside the Houston Police Department, who wanted access to Carnaby’s contacts and other information. The compromise of Carnaby’s information represents a potentially devastating compromise of national security and are in direct violation of the National Security Act of 1947, according to Carnaby’s colleagues.

It still remains unknown what happened to Carnaby’s Mac laptop computer as well as a number of other cell phones, including an I-Phone and a Bang and Olufsen mobile phone in Carnaby’s possession at the time of his shooting. Carnaby’s colleagues revealed that Carnaby possessed a number of cell phones because some were dedicated to activating video and camera systems placed in strategic locations in and around Houston’s ports and airports and downloading images to his phones and eventually to his laptop. At least three phones in Carnaby’s possession on the morning of April 29 were used to activate cameras and download photos and videos from sites in and around Houston. One mobile phone number was reportedly used for this surveillance activity — 713 208-0000.

The spot on Houston’s West Loop where CIA agent Roland “Tony” Carnaby was gunned down by Houston police in a pre-planned “hit” on April 29. The shooting of Carnaby took place close to former President George H. W. Bush’s Tanglewood residence.

On May 16, 2008, WMR reported: “The CIA was concerned that details of Carnaby’s classified and covert work for the CIA in the Port of Houston, as well as his non-official cover Carnaby Shipping Company Ltd. and American Global Enterprise contacts in the United States and Lebanon may have been compromised to Israeli Mossad agents who have infiltrated the Houston Police Department primarily through blackmail techniques. The Israeli Consulate General in Houston is reportedly at the center of the Israeli influence and intelligence ring in the fourth largest city in America and the home to the largest port for imports in the United States.”

The evening before Carnaby was shot, a man approached Carnaby and two friends at Houston’s Capital Grille, a favorite meeting spot for Houston’s business elite. A man, pretending to be inebriated, went up to Carnaby and acted as though he was an old friend. He was carrying an open bag, the type in which “to go” food orders are usually placed. Carnaby reportedly reached for his concealed handgun and told the man he had never seen him or met him before. The man apologized, quickly left the restaurant, and drove off in a car with diplomatic license plates. Carnaby’s associates now believe the man was assigned to the Israeli Consulate General in Houston.

The I-Phone and Mac in Carnaby’s possession were officially owned by American Global Enterprise. Carnaby’s American Global cover firm operated a warehouse in the Houston port area, a reported center from which traffic from the port into Mexico and outbound via the ship channel was monitored. The actual security for the Port of Houston is maintained not by the Houston Police Department but by the Harris County Sheriff. The jurisdictional problems affected Carnaby’s relationship with both agencies. Whereas the Harris County Sheriff’s office was usually cooperative, the Houston Police was generally not as willing to work on increasing the security of the port.

Pasadena, Texas liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the Houston ship channel, where LNG tankers are loaded and off-loaded. This area is one of the most vulnerable targets in the Houston port complex and is located next to San Jacinto Battlefield Monument and Park, also the location of the battleship USS Texas.

Carnaby’s fear about lax port security was borne out when this editor easily gained access through the main gate into the Port of Houston in a rental car. Although containers in bound and out bound from the port are x-rayed and checked for radioactive materials, the overall security is poor and that prompted Carnaby into calling for a better HUMINT program. However, better HUMINT would also result in the arms, drugs, and auto theft activities of the Russian-Israeli mob, Israeli intelligence assets, and their allies in the pro-Mojahedin e Khalq (MEK) Iranian expatriate community in Houston being identified by federal authorities.

For example, WMR learned from US intelligence and customs agents that the 1998 terrorist bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania had a Houston connections. The terrorist attacks were blamed on Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. The two trucks used in the two East Africa bombings were stolen vehicles that were shipped from Houston via Guatemala. In addition, the bombs used passed though the same Guatemalan smuggling route. In 1998, Israel’s Mossad and Guatemala’s intelligence services continued to enjoy a close relationship and the Central American nation’s successive military juntas could count on the support of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other Israeli lobbying organizations in Washington.

Carnaby also had under surveillance a widespread vehicle smuggling ring that operated out of Houston, location of one of the largest vehicle import port facilities in the United States. One of Carnaby’s law enforcement colleagues revealed that a network of body shops in Houston have been used to strip and smuggle stolen vehicles out of the United States, mostly to Mexico. Some of the theft operations operate under cover of “import-export” businesses and one operation has laundered $250 million in proceeds from the vehicle thefts. These illegal enterprises have been linked to Middle East expatriates linked to Israeli intelligence operations, including the Iranian MEK terrorist group and far right Lebanese Phalangists allied with Israel who are supported by the Israeli Lobby in Washington.

Houston’s vulnerable ship channel. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is opposed to increasing HUMINT collection in this area lest the operations of his Israeli friends become exposed. In one Emergency Rapid Deployment exercise carried out by the US Coast Guard, an unmarked Zodiac raft with an outmoded machine gun with two US Coast Guardsmen on board, sailed up the ship channel from Galveston to Houston without anyone challenging them. Chertoff wold prefer to keep “security” for Houston this way, but for what purpose?

One of WMR’s colleagues, German journalist Jurgen Cain Kulbel, has been imprisoned in Berlin for reporting that the UN chief investigator of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Detlev Mehlis, was once employed by the Israeli intelligence front organization, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). Mehlis steered UN investigators away from the real assassins of Hariri, Israeli intelligence who hired a number of rogue agents from Syrian intelligence, Lebanon’s Druze and Christian Phalangist communities, and Palestinian refugees. Kulbel’s imprisonment is a direct result of pressure from Washington and Jerusalem on the German government.

Some of Carnaby’s associates were also critical of the security contract for the Houston that involved ex-British commando Tim Spicer, whose Aegis Defense Services, the recipient of a number of private military contracts from the Defense Department and the former U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Spicer, in 2002, managed to convince Per Christiansen, a retired Norwegian naval officer whose Hudson Maritime won a Homeland Security Department to secure various American ports, including Houston, to bring him on as a partner. Thus was born Hudson Trident (the Trident being Spicer’s interest in the firm). However, Spicer’s work on Houston’s port security was soon criticized by the government, including Carnaby and his associates. Spicer, who had previously received a port security contract in Haiti around the time of the U.S.-sponsored coup against democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a coup that saw a number of weapons enter Haiti’s ports illegally. Spicer’s lack of performance on the Houston port security contract soon saw him lose out on similar port contracts for Morocco and Chittagong, Bangladesh, according to sources with whom WMR spoke in Houston. A U.S. intelligence source in Houston said, “Spicer fucked up the ship channel contract,” adding, “this guy merely did plausible deniability work for MI6 and MI5,” Britain’s foreign and domestic intelligence services, respectively.

A closer view of Pasadena’s LNG terminal. An attack here would have devastating and deadly results and bottle up the ship channel, affecting the entire United States.

It is clear that a number of Carnaby and his intelligence colleagues are skeptical about the “official version” of 9/11 and fear another such attack, possibly during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. WMR can also report that a close friend of former President George H. W. Bush has taken a keen and supportive interest in our reports on the Carnaby shooting. Bush is the honorary president of the Houston William Buckley Chapter of AFIO, for which Carnaby served as president at the time of his death. Carnaby was also close to the former President, who has reportedly been outraged at the wanton killing of his friend. Carnaby was also reportedly close to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has made no public comment on the death of Carnaby.

—

Houston Chronicle: No indictments in death of man claiming CIA ties

July 24, 2008, 10:22PM

No indictments in death of man claiming CIA ties

2 officers shot driver after chase; civil suit continues

By BRIAN ROGERS

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

A Harris County grand jury Thursday declined to indict two Houston police officers in the shooting death of a man who claimed to be a CIA agent.

Roland Carnaby was fatally wounded on April 29 after fleeing from a traffic stop and leading police on a high-speed chase through the city.

Carnaby was killed after stepping out of his vehicle on a feeder road off Loop 610 West, turning around and reaching under the seat for a shiny object that turned out to be a cell phone.

The grand jury declined to indict Sgt. Andrew Washington and officer Cecil Foster, said Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

“Fatal shootings involving law enforcement are referred directly to a grand jury,” Hawkins said. “After careful consideration, the grand jury chose not to indict the two officers involved.”

Initially placed on administrative leave, both officers returned to duty days after the shooting.

Carnaby, 52, of Pearland, was stopped for speeding on Texas 288. He showed the officer an identification card that he claimed was issued by the Central Intelligence Agency but fled after police learned he had a license to carry a concealed weapon.

The CIA insisted that Carnaby was not connected to the agency. His widow, Susan Carnaby, has maintained that Carnaby was a longtime CIA employee who frequently left the country on assignments.

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt has said he was told by the FBI that Carnaby “may have” been an informant at one time for them but had no other details about the relationship. At the time, a Houston FBI spokeswoman said the agency “cannot confirm nor deny the names of people who provide us with information.”

Susan Carnaby has filed a lawsuit against the city saying HPD violated its own policies when officers pursued him.

Her attorney, Randall Kallinen, said it was unfortunate the two officers were not indicted, but the no-bill does not preclude the city from liability.

If the officers were acting in the scope of their duties, their employer would be liable for the death instead of the officers individually, Kallinen said.

Kallinen also said Carnaby was an independent contractor for the CIA, the FBI and the Secret Service. He said Carnaby’s ability to speak seven languages enabled him to do in-depth background checks for the federal agencies.

He also said HPD’s chase policy is “highly flawed.” Hurtt said the department is reviewing the policy.

“Anytime we have an incident like that, we go back and look at training policy and procedures. If there are changes that need to be made or training that needs to be improved, we do that,” Hurtt said. “It appears that they (the officers) did a pretty fair job of following what our policy states and what the law was.”

Chronicle reporter Mike Glenn contributed to this report.