March 17, 2016
The Honorable James R. Clapper
Director of National Intelligence
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Washington, DC 20511
cc: Alexander L. Dvorkin, PhD
cc: Mark Hackard
Dear Director Clapper:
I confess to not finding an appropriate name or email address for the contact responsible for ODNI’s website, so I am writing you directly at the postal address provided. I am sure your staff will route my letter to the appropriate persons in your office.
I am writing you about what appear to be contrary facts regarding the number of US departments, agencies, etc., in the US Intelligence Community, and the stars or other symbols representing them on the US Intelligence Community Seal.
On ODNI’s page about the IC seal, it states:
The eight points of the polestar represent the six departments and two independent agencies of the Intelligence Community. They are combined with the 15 stars around the circumference represent the elements of other agencies that are also part of the Intelligence Community.
The banner draped over the lower portion of the compass rose is inscribed with the three core values of the Intelligence Community – Courage, Collaboration, and Commitment. 1
There are, of course, 16 stars around the seal’s circumference.
In your FAQ it states:
Who are the members of the US Intelligence Community (IC)?
The IC is a federation of executive branch agencies and organizations that work separately and together to conduct intelligence activities necessary for the conduct of foreign relations and the protection of the national security of the United States. There are 17 federal organizations in the Intelligence Community. 2
On another page it states:
The Director of National Intelligence serves as the head of the Intelligence Community, overseeing and directing the implementation of the National Intelligence Program and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security.3
With a very limited study of the website and the federation for which it stands, it becomes apparent that the 16 identified US entities plus the ODIC equal 17.
It is quite reasonable that the number “15” for the stars around the IC seal comes down to a typo. Also a clue is that there is definitely a grammar error as well in the same sentence. (“They are combined with the 15 stars around the circumference represent the elements….”)
I would not have cared a great deal about these numbers or typos, but I recently came across an English translation of a talk my friend Dr. Alexander Dvorkin apparently gave in which he brought this up and questioned it.4 He had apparently seen enough of a mystery in these numbers, which, as I say, might not have been part of much of a mystery at all, to question them publicly.
Mark Hackard, who I do not know, apparently translated a talk he reports Dr. Dvorkin giving January 26, 2016 at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University in Moscow about connections and cooperation between the US Intelligence Community and the Scientologists. Mr. Hackard’s translation states, quoting Dr. Dvorkin:
And then there’s the most interesting thing: we’ll read the description of the seal that is found on the official site of the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“The eight points of the polar star symbolize the six departments and two independent agencies of the Intelligence Community. They are combined with the 15 stars around the circumference [sic] represent the elements of other agencies that are also part of the Intelligence Community .”
The problem is that there aren’t 15 stars. There are 16. Count them yourself. So what then is the unnamed sixteenth organization, an element of which is part of the US Intelligence Community? Can we build suppositions?
I also confess that it was undoubtedly a comment from me to Dr. Dvorkin back last December — that the stars around the IC seal numbered 16, not 15 as your web site says — which apparently motivated him to ask his audience at St. Tikhon’s to suppose that Scientology might be a missing or hidden star in the IC constellation.
Dr. Dvorkin’s major thesis in his talk, in my judgment, is right, and very topical. The IC has for many years collaborated with the Scientologists, who themselves form and operate an intelligence entity. And there have been many secret relationships involving IC entities and occult, left-hand-path or fanatical and even criminal religious entities and persons from long before the IC’s confederation. Dr. Dvorkin being hugely correct in all this, however, does not mean that the 15 stars vs. 16 issue is not blowback from a typo.
If it is a typo — an unwillful one — then the supposition that the Scientologists comprise the missing intelligence entity that isn’t missing would be humorous, but not meaningful in the US-Scientology-Russia relationship. This conclusion makes sense because the Scientologists comprise an entity with whom, according to logic, US law and its own visible directives, the IC can stop collaborating at any time. The IC cannot stop collaborating with its own actual announced entities — CIA, FBI, State, 25 AF, etc. – any more than the whole of the US Federal Government can lawfully stop collaborating with any of its myriad parts or entities. By law, logic, humanity and for the good of all, the IC, indeed the entire Government should end all collaboration with the Scientologists, no matter what that brings to light.
I see that other sites have republished Mr. Hackard’s translation of Dr. Dvorkin’s talk, but the visible discussion has been limited.5
The pravoslavie.ru site also has what purports to be the original Russian text of the talk.6
Certainly I realize that deceit and confusion are items in the IC’s mandate, craft and goals, so if the “15,” the grammar, perhaps the “8,” are not just typos, I apologize. The Scientologists too derive much of their success and power from deception and confusion. Either way, can you please signal to me as soon as possible what the truth is.
2-46298 Yale Road
Chilliwack, BC V2P 2P6
- http://www.dni.gov/index.php/intelligence-community/seal ↩
- The link is to this page where 16 US Federal entities are listed: http://www.dni.gov/index.php/intelligence-community/members-of-the-ic ↩
- http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization ↩
- https://espionagehistoryarchive.com/2016/02/27/scientology-the-cia/ ↩
http://www.whenthenewsstops.org/2016/02/scientology-and-cia.html; http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/91070.htm ↩ - http://www.pravoslavie.ru/90753.html ↩