According to DailyMail.com, former US government intelligence officers are now employed in prominent positions throughout Silicon Valley with the sole purpose of policing “misinformation.”
There are a lot of former FBI, CIA, NSC, and State Department officers working at Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
The disclosure comes amid concerns that the FBI was in charge of censoring Twitter and the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The Twitter records have shown the company’s tight ties to the FBI, how often it requested that accounts and tweets be blocked, and any questionable contacts that occurred before the Hunter laptop story were suppressed.
The records described how a large number of former FBI agents joined Twitter during the past few years, leading to the creation of a separate, exclusive Slack channel.
Additionally, MacLeod described in full how former CIA agents began working for Google in another study.
It is yet unknown whether any of these ex-agents collaborated with their former employers to discredit any stories.
According to federal law, however, the CIA is not allowed to “engage in any activity for purposes of altering or interfering with the domestic political process.”
Nine former CIA operatives, including Aaron Berman, the senior policy manager for misinformation at Meta and the person once responsible for writing the president’s daily briefings, have now been located by DailyMail.com.
Six additional individuals joined the social media behemoth after working for other intelligence agencies, and many of them have recently written about Facebook’s initiatives to combat purported “covert influence activities.”
The Twitter Files, which have been made public over the past few weeks and demonstrate what appears to be a coordinated effort to discredit specific stories, even looked to be disregarded by David Agranovich, a former intelligence officer at the National Security Office working in the White House.
Eight former FBI agents who were employed in the “trust” and “security” departments, as well as one individual who had reportedly worked in “psychological operations” at the National Security Council, could all be found on Twitter, according to DailyMail.com.
However, some people, like Kristie Canegallo, a former vice president of trust and safety at Google, have left their positions at major tech firms to work for intelligence agencies.
Canegallo is currently serving as the Department of Homeland Security’s chief of staff.
Aaron Berman: President’s former briefer at the CIA turned senior policy manager for misinformation at Meta.
Aaron Berman left his job as a senior analytic manager at the CIA in July 2019 to become a senior policy manager for misinformation at Meta.
Speaking of his job in a video posted to Facebook, he explains that he is the manager of ‘the team that writes the rules for Facebook,’ determining ‘what is acceptable and what is not.’
He says he has to find a balance between ‘harmful content’ and ‘protecting freedom of speech.’
‘We’re really navigating that space as best we can.’
But for more than 17 years prior to accepting the job at Facebook, Aaron prepared and edited the president’s daily brief, writing and overseeing intelligence analyses to enable ‘senior US officials to make decisions on the most critical national security issues,’ according to his LinkedIn profile.
It said he focused especially on ‘the impact of influence operations of social movements, security, and democracy,’ MacLeod wrote in his report, but that section seems to have since been deleted.
Still, it notes, he ‘led briefings for Cabinet members, senior National Security Council officials, and Members of Congress.’
Deborah Berman: Former Intelligence analyst at the CIA now working as trust and safety manager
Deborah Berman spent a decade working as a data intelligence analyst at the CIA before she was brought on as Meta’s trust and safety manager.
Not much is known about her work at the notoriously secretive agency, but her pre-agency publications indicate she was a specialist in Syria.
She also describes on her LinkedIn that she is a ‘former CIA analyst with 15 years of experience producing sophisticated strategic, technical, and statistical analysis to advance US national security.’
Deborah is now tasked with protecting Meta from threats and resolving issues with the sites.
Recently, she published a post praising Facebook’s leadership amid massive layoffs in the tech industry.
‘I am fortunate to have been spared by Meta layoffs today. Unlike Elon Musk, our leadership clearly values Trust and Safety,’ Deborah wrote last month.
‘This is a c***** situation overall, but I will call out Zuckerberg for publicly owning his mistakes (in a mass email to employees, republished in NYT) that led the company to this place.
‘It’s a nice reminder that no matter how junior or senior you are, owning mistakes and devouring the resultant crow do not show weakness, but win you respect.
‘Similarly, it’s a nice illustration that, if you have an opinion and find it proven wrong, far better to admit it and work to mitigate the consequences than to deny and make others pay. I find that extremely relevant in our fraught society.’
Kris Rose: Political and counterterrorism analyst at the CIA before joining Meta’s Oversight Board
Kris Rose held a number of positions in the intelligence community before he joined Meta’s Oversight Board in March 2020.
His first foray into the field was as a counterterrorism analyst for the CIA, in which, he writes, he ‘assessed developments related to worldwide terrorism in support of US policy makers’ and led ‘team efforts in monitoring terrorism-related trends.’
From there, he became a special advisor of policy strategy at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for over a year, after which he went back to the CIA as a political analyst.
In that position, he writes, he ‘produced the US government’s leading strategic assessments related to geopolitical trends in support of US foreign policy development’ and ‘drove new thought, research, and analysis to senior US officials including the president, the White House, National Security Council, Cabinet officials, and Congressional leaders.’
Kris then went on to become the president’s daily briefer himself, informing ‘national security decision-making at the highest levels of the US government’ and presenting the nation’s preeminent intelligence briefing to senior White House officials.’
He served on Meta’s Governance Oversight Board, which is directly responsible for the direction of its social media sites.
Kris has now left that role, too, and is working back in the intelligence industry as a senior advisor to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Bryan Weisbard: Former CIA intelligence officer now employed as director of trust, safety, security, and data privacy
Bryan Weisbard worked as a CIA intelligence officer from 2006 to 2010, MacLeod revealed.
In that role, he led ‘global teams to conduct counter-terrorism and digital cyber investigations.
He had written on his LinkedIn at the time that he would ‘identify online social media information propaganda and covert influence campaigns’ in his role.
But Bryan appears to have scrubbed any mention of working for the CIA from his profile, which now simply says he held ‘multiple senior level leadership positions in the U.S. government intelligence community.’
Cameron Harris: CIA analyst turned Meta trust and safety project manager
Not much is known about Cameron Harris, other than that he worked as a CIA analyst from 2015 through 2019.
He is now working full-time as a trust and safety project manager for Meta.
Scott Stern: CIA targeting officer now working as ‘senior manager of risk intelligence
Scott Stern first joined the CIA in January 2006, as a targeting/political analyst, making his way up through the ranks of the intelligence agency over the course of more than seven years.
In his last job at the CIA, Stern was the Unit Chief of Targeting, in which position he helped select targets for US drone strikes across South and West Asia.
He writes on his profile that he ‘led high-stakes operational determinations for complex and ambiguous overseas counterterrorism operations.’
Scott also ‘co-developed an innovative analytic report to update policymakers on specific-high profile counterterrorism activities’ as he distilled and clearly communicated ‘incomplete, vague and often intentionally misleading information’ to the White House, Congress, and senior intelligence officials.
That incomplete information, he said, led them to ‘formulate insightfully, value-added conclusions with tight timelines.’
Scott is now working as the senior manager for Trust and Safety Risk Intelligence, in which, he writes, he oversees ‘more than 50 analyses to influence product roadmaps and design… to protect Meta’s users, company and systems from the most complex and high-severity risks across all platforms and abuse areas, notably child safety, counterterrorism, fraud, misinformation, and emerging harms.’
Mike Torrey: Senior CIA analyst now Meta’s technical head of detection, investigations, and disruptions of complex information threats
Mike Torrey left his position as a senior analyst at the CIA in September 2018 to become the security engineer investigator for threat analysis.
He writes on his LinkedIn that he had also briefed White House and other top government and military officials, as well as ‘foreign partners,’ and ‘developed methodologies for assessing cyber attribution and cyber threat sophistication.’
Mike also says he conducted ‘in-depth technical analysis and targeting in support of operations, developed targeting studies… and identified and supported the recruitment of human and technical intelligence sources against a variety of foreign cyber threat targets worldwide.’
In his position at Meta, Mike writes that he is the ‘problem lead for intelligence, investigations, and engineering,’ working to ‘identify, understand and disrupt complex information threats to the Meta community.’
Hagan Barnett: CIA contractor who is the head of harmful content operations at Meta
Hagan Barnett’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he was a self-employed contractor for the CIA from 2006 through 2008.
He does not specify what he did at the agency but later went on to become the chief of the counterterrorism section at the Treasury Department before being promoted in 2019 to Acting Assistant Director of its Counterterrorism, Human Rights, and Corruption Division.
Gina Kim Sumilas: Former lawyer for CIA now works at Facebook
Gina Kim Sumilas had served as an assistant general counsel for the CIA for nearly 12 years beginning in 2005.
She then went on to work as an attorney for Hewlett-Packard before taking a role serving as Facebook’s director and associate general counsel for the Asia-Pacific region.
Emily Vacher: Former FBI supervisory special agent who now serves as Meta’s director of trust and safety
Others, like Emily Vacher, served in other United States intelligence agencies.
Emily, for example, was in the FBI from 2001 through 2011, MacLeod reports.
She made her way up to the rank of the supervisory special agent before being headhunted by Meta.
In an interview with Teen Vogue back in 2018, Emily said he role at Meta is to ‘keep people safe both online and in the real world.
‘Before I came to Facebook, I was an FBI agent,’ she said. ‘I was on the Child Abduction team, so when I came to Facebook I realized that this incredible platform could be used for such good.’
She then worked with developers to develop Facebook’s Amber Alert program, alerting users of an abducted child in their area.
‘Coming from a place where I look for missing kids, I knew that the best way to find these ids was to get the information to the right people, and Facebook is the perfect platform for that.’
Mike Bradow: Former USAID deputy director of policy now working on misinformation policy at Meta
Mike Bradow also worked for a decade at USAID, eventually becoming deputy director of policy.
The USAID is a government-funded organization, which has faced backlash for bankrolling and staging multiple regime changes in other countries, including in Venezuela in 2002, Cuba in 2021, and ongoing attempts in Nicaragua.
But since 2020, Mike has been employed by Meta as its product policy manager, in which position he is tasked with discovering misinformation.
Jeff Lazarus: Former economic and political analyst at the CIA now working in Meta’s strategic response department
Jeff Lazarus spent five years in the CIA as an economic and political analyst before joining Big Tech.
In his role at the CIA, Lazarus says he wrote ‘dozens of memos and assessments for senior policymakers on Middle East issues and completed a tour in Baghdad.
He also ‘briefed lawmakers, National Security Council staff, sub-cabinet officials and allies on a range of economic, political and security issues in Iraq’ before he joined Google’s staff in 2017 as a policy advisor in its trust and safety department.
Jeff said he would collaborate with ‘product managers, legal, industry partners and external subject matter experts on content and behavioral abuse across a range of Google’s consumer and developer-focused products.’
Eventually, he was promoted to serve as Google’s ‘central source within the Government Affairs and Public Policy team on a range of cyber security-related issues,’ and became a senior policy advisor at the company in April 2021.
From there, Jeff went on to work as a senior trust and safety advisor and is now in charge of ‘strategic response’ at Meta.
It is unclear what that role entails.
Olga Belogolova: Worked at the State Department and the Office of the Secretary of Defense before joining Facebook as its policy manager
Olga Belogolova had stints at the State Department and the Office of the Secretary of Defense before she joined Meta’s staff in 2017.
She started off as just an analyst, before becoming an analyst specifically researching threats from Russia.
Olga writes that in that position, she would ‘identify, track and disrupt campaigns’ leading work on threats from Russia and Eastern Europe and ‘in particular the Internet Research Agency investigations between 2017 – 2019.’
She is now leading policy for countering influence operations at Facebook, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Just recently, she posted about Facebook’s efforts to combat covert influence operations from 2017 and 2022, writing: ‘Our investigative teams have identified and disrupted over 200 CIB networks now from all over the world, from 68 countries in at least 42 languages from Amharic to Urdu to Russian and Chinese.’
Corey Ponder: Ex-CIA senior targeting analyst now working as a senior strategist at Meta focusing on creator equity and wellbeing
Corey Ponder started out as a policy consultant at the Department of Homeland Security, analyzing the overlap between cargo supply chains, regulatory agencies, and aviation passenger chains, according to his LinkedIn.
He moved on to the CIA as a liaison officer in April 2012, working in Afghanistan to ‘manage outreach programs’ and communicating ‘key analysis on regional and national developments to senior military and diplomatic officials.’
Corey worked his way up at the agency, his profile shows, and became a lead data analyst and eventually a senior targeting analyst.
But in 2015, Corey was recruited by Facebook to become a product specialist, before ultimately becoming the policy programs associate manager three years later.
From there, Corey was hired by Google in 2019 to ‘develop policies that help improve user experiences on Google Assistant, with a focus on privacy policy’ only to join Meta again in March 2021 as a senior strategist of creator equity and wellbeing.
Writing of his years of experience, Corey says: ‘As a national security analyst with the CIA, I helped the organization harness “big data,” managed an outreach and briefing program with senior leaders, and developed a new analytic team to grow our organization’s capabilities.
‘With Facebook, I listened to users and drove product quality, advocated for users’ rights to privacy, and built partnerships with community colleges and nonprofits to bring digital skills education to US workers.
‘At Google, I built our privacy best practices to insure user trust and meet user needs.
‘Now at Meta, I develop programs for creator partners, craft initiatives, and support product strategies to help them feel safe, valued, and treated fairly on our platforms.’
Hayley Chang: Former FBI lawyer now working as the director of associate general counsel for Meta’s cybersecurity and investigations team
Hayley Chang leads Meta’s legal team, focusing on protecting the company and its users ‘from malicious activity in cyberspace,’ her profile on the George Mason website says.
Before taking on that job, she had served as deputy general counsel for the FBI, where she oversaw 9/11-related suits.
Hayley had previously served as deputy general counsel for cyber and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, her profile says.
In that capacity, she testified in favor of the Preventing Emerging Threats Act in 2018, which enables federal law enforcement to ‘use advanced technology to counter emerging threats from drones.’
She also led the department’s legal strategy to ‘leverage new authorities to mitigate a Russia-based cybersecurity threat.’
Robert Flaim: Meta’s head of strategic platforms who spent more than 20 years in the FBI
Robert Flaim joined Meta as the head of strategic platforms in June 2020.
Before that, he was working as a business development manager for Amazon Web Services, according to his LinkedIn, and was previously a strategic technology advisor at the FBI for more than 20 years.
Daniel Aragnovich: Director for intelligence at the National Security Council who is now the director for global threat disruption at Meta
Before joining Meta last year, Daniel Aragnovich served in the United States Department of Defense — first on the 2016 National Security Council’s Presidential Transition Team before working as an analyst for six years.
From there, Daniel worked as the director for intelligence at the National Security Council and was then headhunted to become Facebook’s Global Threat Disruption Lead in 2018 and eventually taking on the role at Meta.
He also shared information about Meta’s efforts to quash cyber-espionage, writing on Friday: ‘Our surveillance-for-hire report focuses on new entities engaged in recon, engagement, or exploitation on behalf of clients around the world, building on our last year’s report.’
But he also seemed to dismiss concerns about government involvement in social media companies, tweeting on December 9: ‘Good people doing one of the hardest jobs in tech don’t deserve to become political footballs for a manic billionaire or for ladder-climbing opportunities.’
He seemed to dismiss the revelations posed by the Twitter files in a tweet earlier this month
Nathaniel Gleicher: Former director of cybersecurity policy for the NSC joined Meta as head of security policy
Similarly, Nathaniel Gleicher joined Meta in 2018 as the head of its security policy, just a few years after leaving the NSC.
He had served as Director for Cybersecurity Policy at the National Security Council (NSC) in the White House, where he said he would develop ‘US government policy on key technology and cybersecurity challenges, including encryption, cyber deterrence, internet governance, and network security.’
Nathaniel says on his Twitter that at Meta, he ‘counters adversarial threats,’ though he does not specify what those may be.
Jeffrey Gelman: Former NSC and State Department official who became the policy communications manager at Facebook
Jeffrey Gelman started out as a foreign policy advisor on then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign before taking on a role as a ‘special assistant’ to the National Security Council at the White House.
He then became a senior advisor on international security and nonproliferation at the Department of State for three years.
From there, he went on to serve a variety of roles prior to becoming Facebook’s policy communications manager in March 2020.
Jeffrey stepped down from that role, though, in November, and is now working as the deputy head of global communications and public engagement at the Oversight Board in London, England.
Erin Clancey: Political Advisor at the State Department turned public policy manager at Meta
Erin Clancey’s first real job out of school was as an intelligence analyst at the State Department, where she writes she ‘contributed intelligence analysis’ on counterterrorist finance assessment in the Middle East and North Africa at the request of the Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research.
Erin also boasts that she worked on the US sanctions placed on Iraq and Sudan by the US government.
She served time as a political-military advisor at the US Embassy in Oman and at the US Embassy in Damascus during the time of the Syrian civil war and the Arab Spring.
Additionally, Erin coordinated with the White Helmets — a controversial aid organization that some have alleged is too close to al Qaeda.
And, Erin’s LinkedIn notes, she volunteered on both the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 and the Joe Biden campaign in 2020.
Erin was ultimately appointed to serve as a public policy manager for Meta in February 2021 but still moonlighted as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and as a fellow on the Atlantic Council.
Jim Baker: The embattled Twitter lawyer who used to work for the CIA
Jim Baker has come under fire in recent days after it was revealed that he previously served as an attorney for the FBI but is now working at Twitter.
On Monday, journalist Michael Shellenberger revealed how the FBI met with Jim Baker ahead of the 2020 presidential election, where he convinced Roth that the materials from Hunter Biden’s laptop could be ‘Russian disinformation.’
The trove of documents Shellenberger released detailed how several former FBI officials were joining the ranks at Twitter, and that left at the Bureau had tried to get top-level security clearance for Twitter officials so they could be notified of any alleged election interference.
Agents even allegedly paid Twitter executives $ 3.5 million to silence the story.
Matthew Williams: Intelligence program manager at the FBI who became a senior director at Twitter
Matthew Williams spent more than 15 years with the FBI, starting out as an intelligence analyst in March 2005 before ultimately moving up in the ranks to become an intelligence program manager.
He ultimately joined Twitter in June 2020 as a ‘senior director of public trust’ according to his LinkedIn, and was promoted in June to ‘senior director of public trust, revenue policy, counsel systems, and analytics.’
With that promotion, the New York Post reports became the co-lead of Twitter’s Trust and Safety department.
Kevin Michelena: An FBI intelligence analyst for more than a decade before becoming Twitter’s senior corporate security analyst
Kevin Michelena spent more than 12 years working in the FBI as an intelligence analyst before he joined Twitter’s ranks.
He writes on his LinkedIn that he was a technical intelligence analyst, though he does not specify what that role entailed.
In June 2021, Kevin became Twitter’s senior corporate security analyst, in which he writes, he autonomously runs the Protective Intelligence Team’s Data Center Security program.
Doug Hunt: Ex-supervisory special agent now serving as a senior director at Twitter
Doug Hunt spent over 20 years with the FBI as a supervisory special agent, working to take down gangs and criminal enterprises, according to his LinkedIn.
He joined Twitter as a senior director in 2016, leading its Special Security Support Team and assessing and mitigating ‘threats to Twitter’s most visible employees and events.’
Karen Walsh: Former special agent focused on public-private sector outreach who now serves as Twitter’s director of corporate resilience
Karen Walsh spent more than 20 years in the FBI, as a special agent focused on public-private sector outreach.
She then joined Twitter as a director of corporate resilience in March 2020, writing on LinkedIn: ‘Privileged to find myself working with a new family of amazing people!’
Dawn Burton: Former federal prosecutor who is now Twitter’s director of strategy and operations
Dawn Burton is a former federal prosecutor who served as deputy chief of staff to former FBI Director James Comey.
She does not write much about what she did at the FBI, but working that closely with Comey, she likely would have been involved in the FBI’s investigation into then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails, as well as its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Dawn continued to serve in her role following Comey’s ouster, before joining Twitter in September 2019 as the director of strategies, and counsel organization.
‘Over the last three years at Twitter, I have built and scaled a global strategy and operations team of more than 40 incredibly talented and high-performing business and finance operations, strategy and program management, data analytics, and systems and tools professionals,’ she boasts on her LinkedIn
But her LinkedIn says she left the role over the summer and is now working as the chief of staff for Google’s ads privacy and safety department.
Michael Bertrand: Worked over two decades on counterterrorism in the FBI before taking on the role of ‘crisis manager’ at Twitter
Michael Bertrand spent 23 years with the FBI working in counterterrorism and internal investigations.
He was also the chief of staff to some of the FBI’s top executives from 2018 to 2020.
Bertrand is now a ‘crisis manager’ at Twitter.
In that position, the Post reports, he is responsible for ‘proactively and selectively leaking terms to assess and manage global incidents and crises affecting Twitter employees’ offices and reputation.’
Mark Jaroszewski: Former supervisory special agent who now serves as Twitter’s director of corporate security and risk
Mark Jaroszewski started out as a New York State trooper, spending seven years on patrol and another three investigating narcotic deals.
He then worked for over 20 years as a supervisory special agent for the Bureau in the violent crime, organized crime, and terrorism units.
A 2018 press release says his job was focused on ‘helping the FBI create strategic, mutually beneficial relationships with the private sector.’
But from there, he was snatched up by the private sector, becoming the head of the crisis management team later that year.
Mark was then promoted in 2020 to become the director of corporate security and risk.
As he writes on his LinkedIn: My team looks to current events and the future to identify, assess and understand potential risks and threats before they materialize, on one of the most complicated platforms in the world.
My team solves problems, builds collaboratively across teams and provides sound analytical assessments to inform leadership, content moderation and the business.’
Vincent Lucero: Supervisory special agent turned senior security manager at Twitter
Vincent Lucero spent more than 22 years at the Bureau, according to his LinkedIn.
He was a supervisory special agent for the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction directorate from January 2012 to May 2015, before becoming an assistant legal attaché for four years.
Vincent then served another two years as a supervisory special agent for the Bureau, while apparently also serving as Twitter’s senior security manager.
Greg Anderson: Worked NATO ‘psychological operations’ before becoming Twitter’s product policy manager
In 2019, Twitter hired Greg Anderson straight out of NATO to work on its cybercrime policy, according to MacLeod.
MacLeod had reported that his LinkedIn profile said at the time that he worked on ‘psychological operations’ for the trade alliance.
But after Mint Press highlighted his work in April, he removed all mentions of ‘psychological operations’ from his profile, claiming to instead have just worked as a ‘researcher.’
Either way, Greg joined Twitter in 2019 as a policy specialist before moving on to work as a product policy manager for TikTok.
In a recent post on his LinkedIn, Greg wrote: The staff at Twitter are some of the best in the field and I was honored to have worked alongside them during my time there.
‘They are driven, intelligent, and above all empathetic.”
Jacqueline Lopour: The former ‘go-to-writer’ at the CIA works intelligence collection at Google
Jacqueline Lopour spent more than 10 years at the CIA, according to a profile about her at the Canadian Network for Research on terrorism, security and society.
She had served as a ‘leading US government expert on security challenges in South Asia and the Middle East’ and was the ‘go-to-writer of quickly needed papers for the US president,’ MacLeod reported.
In her position, her profile says, she performed analyses on security issues, specifically focusing on counterterrorism in South Asia and the Middle East.
She also did a rotation at the National Counter Terrorism Center where she followed terrorist groups in Syria.
Ryan Fugit: Former CIA officer recruited by Google to become senior manager of trust and safety
Ryan Fugit spent eight years as a CIA officer, working in the Directorate of Operations across many mission centers throughout the world.
In that capacity, he writes on his LinkedIn, he ‘led and oversaw the global collection and reporting of technical cyber threats.’
He was then recruited by Google in 2019 to become its senior manager of trust and safety, managing a ‘global Trust and Safety team of full-time employees and vendors.’
The team focused on ‘dark web monitoring, cyber threats, open source intel collection, and an abuse bug bounty program,’ Ryan’s LinkedIn says.
Nick Rossman: Ex-FBI and CIA agent who is serving as the senior manager of trust and safety at Google
Nick Rossman served as an analyst for both the FBI and the CIA before he was recruited by Google to become its senior manager of trust and safety.
In his work as an analyst at the FBI, he says he ‘wrote time-sensitive, analytic counterterrorism assessments and collaborated with a team of agents and analysts in the US and overseas on hostage cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan.’
From there he became an analyst at the CIA, where he worked for five years focusing on issues in Iraq.
‘While in government as a CIA intelligence analyst, I developed innovative intelligence products to address customers’ needs,’ Nick’s LinkedIn reads.
‘As an analyst covering a unique target — rule of law issues in the Middle East — I developed collaborative working relationships with intelligence customers to identify their analytic needs and use interviews and debriefings to leverage their knowledge for leaders across the community.’
Jacob Barrett: Former CIA officer who lead Google’s Security Intelligence team
Jacob Barrett served seven years with the CIA, first as an ‘open source officer’ in 2007 before becoming an ‘expert open source officer for Big Data’ in 2013.
As part of his responsibilities, he writes on his LinkedIn, he managed ‘major big data pilot programs, evaluat[ed] technologies and secur[ed] and initiate[ed] new contracts.’
Jacob then joined Google as an associate principal for the trust and safety team two years later and was promoted in October to director of security intelligence.
In that role, he explains on his LinkedIn profile: ‘I lead Google’s Security Intelligence team, which investigates, monitors and disrupts the most dangerous security threats facing our users.
‘We conduct deep investigations into attacker behavior and quantitative performance analysis of Google’s web-scale protection systems, the combination of which informs Google’s high-level security strategy.’
Chelsea Magnant: CIA political analyst turned Google’s cybersecurity policy manager
Chelsea Magnant spent nine full years in the CIA as a political analyst before she was recruited by Google.
She joined the tech giant in October 2018 as a global threat analyst, eventually making her way through the ranks of the company to become the search giant’s cybersecurity policy manager this past October.
Yong Suk Lee: Former CIA manager who became Google’s director of global risk analysis
Yong Suk Lee started out his career in the CIA, spending a full 22 years at the agency as a manager and analyst for the Directorate of Analysis.
He left the agency in 2019, according to his LinkedIn, at which point he joined Google as the lead of the company’s risk analysis.
Lee was also promoted in May, and is now the director of the department.
He does not offer any specifics of what he did, either at the CIA or at Google.
Beth Schmierer: Former strategic analyst at the CIA and political officer at the State Department who is now Google’s ‘Americas Intel Manager’
Beth Schmierer got her start as a strategic analyst at the CIA, eventually becoming the agency’s senior political analyst.
In that role, she writes on her LinkedIn, Beth ‘analyzed classified and open source information to mitigate threats to US national security in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.’
She also ‘wrote assessments to inform policymakers — up to and including the president — about foreign threats to US interests, enabling policymakers to avoid tactical surprise, manage ongoing crises and advance US interests abroad.
‘She recognized when the US government lacked information and worked with the intelligence community to drive collection to fill these information gaps,’ Beth continued.
Beth also boasted that she was deployed to Iraq in 2008 ‘to help defeat extremists, support the US warfighters and contribute to reconciliation.
In 2011, she moved on to the State Department, where she served as a political officer for 10 years, working with foreign governments ‘to implement the US government’s agenda in Spain and Latin America.’
She would also deliver briefings to the US ambassador and ‘authored reports measuring the impact of US policies overseas.’
By September 2021, Beth decided to get out of the public sector, and took a four-month break from work before joining Google, first as a global threat analyst in the Americas and then as the Americas Intel Manager.
It is unclear what that role entails.
Candice Bryant: The CIA’s former chief of public communications now works communications for Google
Candice Bryant also got her start at the CIA, working as a political analyst for five years before stepping into the field of communications.
She was promoted to the agency’s chief of public communications in March 2019 and spent more than two years in that role before she was headhunted by Google.
Candice writes in her profile that she worked to support ‘CIA leadership, the president of the United States, and senior policymakers’ in her capacity at the agency, and has a background in corporate communications ‘focused on a range of issues from security to DEI.’
Meaghan Gruppo: Ex-CIA intelligence analyst who is now Google’s Global Intelligence manager for its Enterprise Security Risk Analysis department
Meaghan Gruppo actually started off as a public affairs officer for the CIA, working as the agency’s senior editor of its website.
She held that position for two years before becoming an intelligence analyst at the agency.
From there, Meaghan went on to hold a series of odd jobs in public relations and marketing until 2016 when she started working as a senior analyst for the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism bureau.
In that role, she writes on her LinkedIn, Meaghan ‘developed tactical and strategic intelligence assessments related to US violent extremist groups.’
Ultimately, Meaghan joined Google in 2018 as a program manager for its Enterprise Threat Management Department before eventually becoming the company’s Global Intelligence Manager.
As she writes on her profile: ‘A background in intelligence analysis and communications brought me to Google where I use both to build programs that help the company identify, assess and mitigate strategic security risk.’
Clinton Dallas: Ex-CIA officer now working as Google’s systems access lead
Clinton Dallas’ LinkedIn notes that he was an officer at the CIA for a total of nine years before he was hired by Google in January.
It is unclear what he did in the agency, but at Google, he writes that he leads ‘risk analysis efforts to help set and implement strategy at the intersection of data security, network access and third-party (contingent) workers.
‘A career theme I’ve had has been navigating and solving risky and complex problems on a global scale while also developing strategy and [go-to-management] plans,’ he writes.
‘Leveraging these experiences and skills in a product role with global impact is my professional orientation.’
Katherine Tobin: Former branch chief for the CIA who now heads Google’s workspace innovation for its global public sector
Katherine Tobin jumped from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to the CIA and back before she joined Google’s ranks.
She started out in 2010 as an enterprise manager for the Office of the National Intelligence manager for South Asia, spending four years in that role, before joining the CIA as a branch chief in its Office of Advanced Analytics at the Directorate of Analysis.
From there, she returned to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, working for another two years as the director of its lateral innovation division.
Katherine finally joined Google in May 2021, working as its head of workspace innovation for the global public sector.
‘After over a decade in the US intelligence community, I am now at Google, where I help federal, state and local governments to accomplish their missions more effectively, more efficiently and more securely using state-of-the-art technology,’ Katherine writes on her LinkedIn.
She adds that her ‘favorite problems to solve are around promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, whether that’s human capital, technology use or access to public spaces.’
Joanna Gillia: Former leadership analyst at the CIA who became a talent consultant at Google
Joanna Gillia worked as a lead analyst for the CIA from September 2012 through January 2014, MacLeod reported — though her LinkedIn profile now just says she worked for the ‘US government.’
She joined Google straight from the agency, and stayed at the company for over five years, eventually becoming a talent consultant in July 2019.
According to her profile, though, Joanna left the company the following year.
It is unclear what she is doing now.