Decrypting the "MIG Group"

["James M. Cobb" <jcobb@ahcbsd1.ovnet.com>]

  Friend, 
 
 
            A 01 29 96 Electronic Telegraph newsstory 
            ----------------------------------------- 

               Riddle of spooks in the White House 
 
                   BY AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD 
 
                           reports: 
  
     Official logs kept by the US secret service...indicate that 
     a top White House aide, Patsy Thomasson, met a team of secret 
     service technicians at her office on the night of Mr Foster's 
     death. 
 
 
  Evans-Pritchard writes: 
 
     ...logs kept by Secret Service staff at the White House --pub- 
     lished in Senate documents on the death of Mr Foster-- show that 
     a so-called "MIG Group" was checked into offices occupied by 
     Miss Thomasson and her boss, David Watkins...at 7.10 pm on July 
     20, 1993. 
  
     Miss Thomasson was the only member of the White House staff log- 
     ged into the office at the time.  She checked out at the same 
     time as the "MIG Group" at 7.44 pm.... 
 
 
  E-P inquired about MIG, but-- 
 
     The press spokesman for the Secret Service at first said that 
     he had not heard of the acronym "MIG". 
 
     The next day he changed his account, saying that the "MIG Group" 
     was a team of Secret Service technicians that had gone to Miss 
     Thomasson's office that night to conduct a routine alarm check. 
     He said he could not divulge what the acronym MIG stood for be- 
     cause the unit was secret. 
 
 
  However, 
 
     Intelligence sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that "MIG" 
     stands for "military intelligence group".  MIG groups are typi- 
     cally known as Technical Services Counter-Measure teams (TSCMs), 
     highly classified units that handle high-tech counter-espionage. 
     Their duties, for example, include sweeping for bugs at the 
     White House. 
 
     Sources say that the high-tech counter-espionage staff at the 
     White House are controlled and operated by the Federal Emergency 
     Management Agency, known as FEMA.  This agency...has enormous 
     power and can draw freely on the capabilities of the CIA, the 
     FBI, and the Pentagon. 
 
 
  E-P concludes: 
 
     ...[The logs] add to the growing weight of evidence that a tiny 
     group at the White House was tipped off early about Foster's 
     death, long before the official notification at 8.30 pm.  It 
     would have provided a window of at least an hour to cover things 
     up before anybody was alerted.
   
     If so, America is facing a White House scandal that is every bit 
     as serious and nasty as Watergate. 
 
 
  The Electronic Telegraph can be accessed at: 
 
                    http://www.telegraph.co.uk 
 
 
  The newsstory is under World News.  Its online filename is wamby- 
  27.html. 
 
 
  Cordially, 
 
  Jim