The Tall Oak staff was supplemented by nine part-time contractors. The part-timers all held at least secret-level clearances but only two of them had top secret clearance and SCI access. These “ad hocs” were used primarily for stakeout surveillance and maintenance of stakeout video cameras. Most of them had prior service as NCOs in the Military Intelligence or Civil Affairs branches. Just one of them was a former MP who had only a few months of CID experience, but he was recruited because he had a lot of combat experience in Afghanistan, and because he spoke some Arabic and Pashto without the benefit of any formal training.
The ad hocs lived in a tenuous netherworld. In some weeks they might not work at all, but in others they could work as many as seventy hours. They were paid well (on an hourly basis, at forty dollars per hour), but the job carried no benefits, and it had a few risks. One of the reasons that the ad hocs were at risk was that they were not allowed to carry badges and credentials. In a few instances, this led to some dangerous unintended confrontations with local law enforcement and, on one occasion, with FBI agents.
While they were careful to schedule most of their arrests in conjunction with the FBI, the majority of their “street” time was entirely under Tall Oak tasking, with no coordination with the FBI, and only minimal supervision from DIA headquarters. They had hardly any contact with the CIA, save for a few instances where “handoff” was required when tracking the movement of suspects into Canada. This also meant liaison with the Canadian CSIS, whom the Tall Oakers referred to as “The Burnaby Boys.”
They even had a bit of interplay with local police departments—most notably the DuPont, Washington, Police Department. The liaison with police departments was mainly to coordinate arrest and search warrants, which were normally exercised by the FBI.
The agents all carried compact SIG P228 pistols, designated the M11 by the military. But they used Winchester Ranger STX 9mm hollowpoint ammunition. Even after the DCS transition, their office still bought commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) ammo. Once, that nearly cost them an inspection “gig” when an inspector thought that he knew a regulation that didn’t exist.
For his personal use Phil bought a used, mechanically identical pistol at a gun show. Other than being made of stainless steel and having tritium night sights, it was almost identical to his issued SIG. He also bought four twenty-round factory SIG magazines to carry for his backup magazines, at his own expense. (For his quarterly shooting “quals,” he used only the standard-issue thirteen-round magazines.)
Phil’s position at Tall Oak was a sure means of escape from the endless merry-go-round of deployments to Southwest Asia. Although still officially in a U.S. Army Reserve Control Group, his “position in the national security interest” with Tall Oak meant that he could not be recalled to active duty for anything short of World War III.
42
MILK RUN
The necessity of procuring good intelligence is apparent and need not be further urged.
The second week after Malorie arrived at the McGregor ranch, they had another raid drill. The first one had been called during breakfast, and it was both comical and slow, since they had to make two sets of tableware disappear. But this drill, which was held at 11:00 A.M., was a lightning-fast and well-orchestrated success. Malorie, Phil, the intel cardboard boxes, and the guns were closed up in the closet very quickly.
Just after Phil had emplaced the wedges “by Braille,” Malorie reached out and took his hand in the darkness. A few moments later they were silently holding both of each other’s hands. Then they were kissing.
Ray spoke toward the bookcase in a loud voice. “Okay, all clear. We set a new record: forty-three seconds. You can pull the wedges.”
There was no response.
Ray repeated, now shouting, “I said, you can pull the wedges now!”
Malorie shouted, “Give us a minute. We’re busy kissing.”
Ray shook his head and muttered, “Well, I guess the best man won.”
Phil and Malorie were married two days later. Phil explained that they’d put their relationship “on a wartime footing, with none of the usual engagement pretensions.” The ceremony was conducted at the home of a retired Wesleyan minister who lived near Anahim Lake. All six of them (including Stan Leaman) squeezed into Phil’s crew cab pickup for the short drive.
Running the intelligence analysis cell violated one of the basic tenets of the NLR movement: The cell had connections to some other cells, and hence the risk of their detection and location by counterguerrilla units was much higher. They recognized, however, that unless a few cells were willing to gather and analyze intelligence, the NLR would be far less effective. Following instructions that were frequently mentioned on shortwave radio and distributed along with resistance pamphlets, several NLR cells, such as Team Robinson, compiled intelligence spot reports in SALUTE format, detailing “The Five Ws.”
One of the flyers read:
The intelligence that you provide will help win the war against our occupiers.
Please do not courier hard copies! (They are easier to find in a search, and can carry fingerprints or DNA traces.) Instead, put it on an unmarked USB memory stick (“thumb drive”) with the date of your report included in the file name and then use hand sanitizer or oil to wipe off your fingerprints. (After that, handle the USB sticks only with gloves.)
How to send intelligence reports: Use SALUTE or 5Ws formats:
S
Size (Platoon? Battalion? # of vehicles, # of persons.)
A
Activity (Convoy, checkpoint, patrol, cordon, training, interrogation, relocating/evacuating citizens, etc.)
L
Location (GPS/grid coord, address, road name/#, direction, proximity to landmarks, nearest town, etc.)
U
Unit (Domestic/foreign, police, military, branch, guard/reserve, unit designation, civ supt, volunteer, uniform, vehicle stenciled bumper numbers or license plate numbers, etc.)
T
Time & Duration (Time/date group: Yr mo date 24-hr-time e.g., 20131117 0930 Mtn/Pcfc/Zulu/etc.)
E
Equipment (Weapons, equipment, supplies, vehicles, armor, etc.)
Who
(Who are you [code name]? Did you witness this yourself? Who did? Is this person credible/reliable? Who did you speak with? Who told you this? Did you get his/her contact information?)
What
(What happened? What did you see? What did you hear? What did they say to you? What was the end result? [CREATE A TIMELINE, in chronological sequence].)
Where
(Same as L [Location] in the SALUTE report. Where did this happen/is this located? What direction? Location of first and last observation? Be as precise as possible.)
When
(Same as T [Time] in the SALUTE report. Time/date and duration.)
Why
(Explanation given for activity [yours & theirs], if any. Why were you there and why did you have access to this event/information? [Passerby, observed, participated, solicited, coerced, detained, etc.])