Mark Kelton

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Mark E. Kelton is a former senior executive of the Central Intelligence Agency, concluding his career with the position of Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Counterintelligence (DDNCS/CI). [1] He is currently an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University, and Director of Threat Insider Solutions at Cipher Systems, LLC. [2]

Central Intelligence Agency National intelligence agency of the United States

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and Cabinet of the United States.

Georgetown University Private university in Washington, D.C., United States

Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789 as Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise nine undergraduate and graduate schools, among which are the School of Foreign Service, School of Business, Medical School, and Law School. Located on a hill above the Potomac River, the school's main campus is identifiable by its flagship Healy Hall, a National Historic Landmark. Georgetown offers degree programs in forty-eight disciplines, enrolling an average of 7,500 undergraduate and 10,000 post-graduate students from more than 135 countries.

Contents

Education

Kelton obtained a B.A. in political science from the University of New Hampshire. [1] Kelton obtained an M.A. degree in National Security Affairs from the U.S. Naval War College, and another MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. [1] [3]

Political science is a social science which deals with systems of governance, and the analysis of political activities, political thoughts, and political behavior. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics which is commonly thought of as determining of the distribution of power and resources. Political scientists "see themselves engaged in revealing the relationships underlying political events and conditions, and from these revelations they attempt to construct general principles about the way the world of politics works."

University of New Hampshire public research university in New Hampshire, USA

The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College. In 1893, UNH moved to Durham.

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. Fletcher is well-ranked in its masters and doctoral international affairs programs. As of 2017, the student body numbered around 230, of whom 36 percent were international students from 70 countries, and around a quarter were U.S. minorities. The school's alumni network numbers over 9,500 in 160 countries, and includes ambassadors, diplomats, high ranking military officers, heads of nonprofit organizations, and corporate executives.

Career

Kelton's career at the Central Intelligence Agency was primarily in the realm of counterintelligence, and he spent 16 years performing overseas service. [1] He also served as an executive assistant to Deputy Director for Operations Jack G. Downing. [4]

Counterintelligence Information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage or other intelligence activities

Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program against an opposition's intelligence service. It likewise refers to information gathered and activities conducted to counter espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations or persons, international terrorist activities, sometimes including personnel, physical, document, or communications security programs.

Jack G. Downing was Deputy Director for Operations (DDO) for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1997 until July 1999.

By the mid-2000s, Kelton was the chief of the European Division of the National Clandestine Service. [4]

Pakistan Station Chief

Kelton was the CIA's station chief in Pakistan during the 2011 raid which killed Osama bin Laden. [5] Kelton believes he was poisoned by the Inter-Services Intelligence in retaliation for the raid, forcing him to leave due to a medical emergency. [5] [6]

A station chief is a government official who is the head of a team, post or function usually in a foreign country. Historically it commonly referred to the head of a defensible structure such as an ambassador's residence or colonial outpost. In Germany a Stationsleiter was the government's chief representative in a colonial possession such as the South Sea Islands. It may also be used to refer to the manager of remote scientific stations such as those in the Antarctic and Jarvis Island, an uninhabited minor U.S. Pacific island possession.

Pakistan federal parliamentary constitutional republic in South Asia

Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the world’s sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 212,742,631 people. In area, it is the 33rd-largest country, spanning 881,913 square kilometres. Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre (650-mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China in the far northeast. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the northwest, and also shares a maritime border with Oman.

Death of Osama bin Laden Death of Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist group Al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 am PKT by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group. The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was carried out in a CIA-led operation with Joint Special Operations Command, commonly known as JSOC, coordinating the Special Mission Units involved in the raid. In addition to SEAL Team Six, participating units under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)—also known as "Night Stalkers"—and operators from the CIA's Special Activities Division, which recruits heavily from former JSOC Special Mission Units. The operation ended a nearly 10-year search for bin Laden, following his role in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Compromise of CIA Networks in China

While investigating the 2010-2012 compromise of CIA agents in China, Kelton was initially opposed to the theory that the compromises were caused by a mole, recalling the wrongful suspicions that had taken place during the search for mole Robert Hanssen in the 1990s. [7]

China Country in East Asia

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia and the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.404 billion. Covering approximately 9,600,000 square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the third- or fourth-largest country by total area. Governed by the Communist Party of China, the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities, and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

In espionage jargon, a mole is a long-term spy who is recruited before having access to secret intelligence, subsequently managing to get into the target organization. However, it is popularly used to mean any long-term clandestine spy or informant within an organization, government or private. In police work, a mole is an undercover law-enforcement agent who joins an organization in order to collect incriminating evidence about its operations and so bring its members to justice.

Robert Hanssen FBI agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services

Robert Philip Hanssen is a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history." He is currently serving 15 consecutive life sentences at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado.

Awards and commendations

Over his career, Kelton was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Intelligence Medal of Merit, the Exceptional Collector Award. [3]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Mark E. Kelton". Georgetown University. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017.
  2. ↑ "The Network". The Cipher Brief. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017. Mark Kelton is currently Director of Threat Insider Solutions at Cipher Systems, LLC. Kelton is a retired senior Central Intelligence Agency executive with 34 years of experience in intelligence operations. He completed his career in 2015 after serving as Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Counterintelligence. Mr. Kelton’s distinguished career includes sixteen years of overseas service, to include four assignments in key CIA field leadership positions.
  3. 1 2 "Mark Kelton, MA". Daniel Morgan Academy. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Kelton has more than fifteen years of overseas service, to include four Chief of Station assignments. He also served as the Associate Deputy Director of the Clandestine Service for Technology where he was responsible for the selection, testing and deployment of all technology used by the Clandestine Service in pursuit of its clandestine mission; the Deputy Chief of East Asia Division, Directorate of Operations where he assisted in the direction of all CIA intelligence operations, activities and programs in East Asia, to include engagement with foreign partners; the Chief of Operations, Central Eurasia Division, Directorate of Operations where he assisted in the direction of all CIA operations, activities and programs in Eastern Europe and Eurasia; and as the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director for Operations. He is the recipient of numerous awards and commendations, including the CIA Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Director of National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the CIA Director’s Award, the CIA Intelligence Medal of Merit, the William J. Donovan Award (twice), the CIA Exceptional Human Intelligence Collector Award, and the Intelligence Community Seal Medallion.
  4. 1 2 Hayden, Jeanine C. (August 20, 2015). "CIA's Fallen Agent Memorial". The Cipher Brief. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017.
  5. 1 2 Papenfuss, Mary (May 6, 2016). "Ex-CIA chief Mark Kelton believes Pakistani agents poisoned him after US killed Osama bin Laden". International Business Times . Archived from the original on May 20, 2017.
  6. ↑ Miller, Greg. "After presiding over bin Laden raid, CIA chief in Pakistan came home suspecting he was poisoned by ISI". The Washington Post . Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Mazzetti, Mark; Goldman, Adam; Schmidt, Michael S.; Apuzzo, Matthew (May 20, 2017). "Killing C.I.A. Informants, China Crippled U.S. Spying Operations". The New York Times . Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
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