Re: Decrypting the "MIG Group"

[Richard Clark <cardo@well.com>]

Jim, thanks very much for that news item.  I will post it on the WELL.

   Richard Clark

On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, James M. Cobb wrote:

>  
>  
>   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 
>  
>  
> 
>