You've probably never heard of Marty Martin. He spent most of his life as an anonymous CIA operative. But he very recently came out of the closet as the man Bush put in charge of finding Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of 9/11, and guess what? It turns out the man Bush put in charge of finding bin Laden is an extremely shady and allegedly corrupt war profiteer. Who would have thought? 
 
 Martin, of course, never succeeded in catching bin Laden. He ran the CIA's bin Laden unit from 2002 to 2004, a fact that we now know only because he emerged to grab some credit for bin Laden's death and celebrate the agency's discontinued torture program: "We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day," he told the Associated Press three weeks ago. Prior to that, he was just a nondescript former agency official who went into the security consulting business after retiring. The closest hint to just how key an official he was came from references to a "Marty M."—described as a sort of Jack Bauer of the bayou—in former CIA director George Tenet's memoir. 
 
 Now that we know who Martin really is, we can get a sense of what kind of guy Bush turned to for arguably the most crucial job in the war on terror. 
 
 1. The Kind of Guy Who Bilks Taxpayers for His Own Enrichment 
 
 In 2007, after leaving the CIA, Martin joined International Oil Trading Company, a Florida company that delivered fuel to U.S. forces in the Middle East. In 2008, congressional investigators accused it of ripping off the Pentagon to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This year, the Pentagon's own audit found that the company overcharged the government by as much as $204 million on a series of massive Iraq war fuel contracts. 
 
 2. The Kind of Guy Who Bribes Foreign Officials 
 
 According to a Florida lawsuit against International Oil's owner Harry Sargeant III, Martin paid a $9 million bribe to the head of the Jordanian intelligence service back in 2007 to secure his company's exclusive rights to ship fuel across Jordan to U.S bases in Iraq. (That allegation comes from the Jordanian king's brother-in-law, Mohammad al-Saleh, who is suing Sargeant for purportedly screwing him out of a $100 million stake in the company.) 
 
 3. The Kind of Guy Who Helps Launder Illegal Political Contributions 
 
 In 2008, the Washington Post reported that Sargeant, a billionaire, raised funds for John McCain's presidential campaign with help from an unnamed "former head of the bin Laden unit" who worked for him. The men reportedly skirted campaign finance laws by funneling the money through Arab-American "straw donors." McCain quickly returned $50,000 of Sargeant's lucre. The Post never named the ex-chief of the CIA bin Laden unit involved in the fundraising, but unless two former heads of the bin Laden unit were working for Sargeant at the time, that man was Marty Martin. 
 
 4. The Kind of Guy Who Gets Totally Psyched When People Die In a War He Profits From 
 
 In a court filing last week, attorneys for al-Saleh quoted from an e-mail that Martin wrote to Sargeant in 2008 in which he appeared to gloat over the escalation of violence in Iraq: 
 
 Fyi, word of a 're-surge' is floating around amidst shit hitting the fan in Iraq today. ☺ 
 
 The "shit hitting the fan" was the Battle of Basra, the Iraqi Army's attempt in March 2008 to finally roll up militias loyal to Moqtada al Sadr. It was widely seen as a debacle and victory for al-Sadr, and many feared the conflict threatened to reignite the civil war. That month, 40 Americans died in Iraq. ☺! 
 
 In other words, he's a former CIA agent. Anyway, that's Marty Martin, the guy Bush put in charge of the bin Laden hunt. Glad it worked out for him. 
 
 Harry Sargeant's lawyers couldn't be reached for comment on this story. The CIA declined to comment. And Marty Martin's bin Laden-hunting predecessor, Michael Scheuer –- who served for two years as a special adviser to Martin's unit –- claims to have never heard of Marty Martin (which we can only presume is a CIA first-rule-of-Fight-Club omerta thing). Reached on his phone, Martin said: "No no, man. I don't want to talk to you, man," and hung up before we had a chance to ask a question. 
 
 [Image via AP] ||||| A member of Jordan’s royal family is accusing an American oilman and former GOP fundraiser of bribing the Jordanian government to facilitate his fuel shipments through the country to U.S. forces in Iraq. 
 
 The allegation emerged in a civil lawsuit pitting the billionaire American businessman, Harry Sargeant III, against an ex-business partner, Mohammad al-Saleh, the brother-in-law of Jordan’s King Abdullah II. 
 
 Al-Saleh, the plaintiff in the case first reported by NBC News in May 2008, claims that he was cut out of a lucrative one-third share in Sargeant’s firm, the International Oil Trading Co., based in Boca Raton, Fla., and replaced by an ex-CIA official with deep contacts in the Jordanian government. 
 
 The crux of the bribery allegation involves a $9 million wire transfer from Sargeant’s firm, directed to a mysterious figure in Jordan’s intelligence agency identified in court documents only as “Pasha.” 
 
 Sargeant’s lawyers acknowledge that “Pasha” was “possibly” Gen. Mohammad Dahabi, then head of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Jordan’s intelligence agency. A source inside the Jordanian government confirmed that. 
 
 Kickback or legitimate payment? 
 
 Al-Saleh’s lawyers argue in court documents that the money was a kickback to curry favor with the GID and secure Sargeant’s continued use of Jordanian thoroughfares to ship fuel to U.S. bases in western Iraq. 
 
 Sargeant’s lawyers insist the $9 million was payment to a “quasi-government” Jordanian company that was a subcontractor for Sargeant’s firm and deny any wrongdoing by their client. 
 
 Sargeant, a retired Marine pilot and former official of the Florida state GOP, was once among the Pentagon’s closest business partners, winning billions of dollars in fuel contracts in the Iraq war. But fallout from the contracts has eroded Sargeant’s reputation. 
 
 A congressional probe led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., concluded in October 2008 that Sargeant had exploited his close ties with the Jordanian monarchy to win an exclusive license — a so-called letter of authorization that permitted his company to ship the fuel through Jordan to Iraq, as the contracts required. 
 
 Sargeant used his “effective monopoly” over the supply routes to grossly overcharge the Pentagon, Waxman wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Waxman called it “the worst form of war profiteering.” 
 
 Shortly after the probe, Sargeant resigned as the finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party. 
 
 Last month, a Pentagon audit requested by Waxman found that Sargeant was overpaid by as much as $204 million for the fuel contracts, which were worth nearly $2.7 billion over six years. The Defense Department accepted Sargeant’s inflated prices because no other competitor could get the letter of authorization from the Jordanian government, the audit said. 
 
 Ex-CIA agent hired 
 
 Now Al-Saleh’s lawsuit is dredging up new information about Sargeant’s dealings with the Jordanian government. 
 
 Among other things, court records indicate that Sargeant hired Marty Martin, a former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, to help manage his oil firm in 2007. Martin — identified in court documents as a former Middle East CIA station chief — leveraged his contacts in the Arab world to cement Sargeant’s relationship with the Jordanian government, even as the king’s brother-in-law was being forced out of the oil company and defrauded, al-Saleh’s lawyers contend. 
 
 The money transfer at the core of the bribery allegation is revealed in a November 2007 email from Martin to a representative of the Jordanian intelligence service. In it, Martin wrote that $4.5 million had been “transferred to the designated account for the Pasha’s attention.” 
 
 Three days later, Martin wrote again to confirm that a “second tranche of $4.5 million should also hit your account today.” He added, “Please advise Pasha.” 
 
 A high-placed source inside the Jordanian government confirmed that the “Pasha” alluded to in the emails was Dahabi, then head of the GID. The source, who requested anonymity, said the payments were “being made to the GID,” and added, “A simple trace on the wires will easily reveal who the beneficiaries were and the bank account details.” 
 
 The GID is the Jordanian counterpart to the CIA, and the two agencies have reportedly cooperated in the secret rendition of terrorist suspects. In a report this year, Human Rights Watch portrayed the GID as a vast shadow force in Jordan, harassing dissidents and “influenc(ing) decisions in most aspects of Jordanian public life.” 
 
 Violation of anti-bribery law alleged 
 
 Al-Saleh’s lawyers allege in court documents that Martin’s payments to the GID may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 
 
 But Sargeant’s lawyers, Mark Tuohey and Roger Kobert, said the wires were destined for Taurus Trading Co., a Jordanian firm that provided ground services for Sargeant as a subcontractor. The lawyers characterized Taurus Trading Co. as a “quasi-government entity” and said the Jordanian government was a paid third party in Sargeant’s defense work. Taurus Trading Co. did not respond to emails requesting comment, nor did the Jordanian Embassy in Washington. 
 
 Asked why the director of the GID would be involved in the wire transfers, Kobert responded, “You’d have to ask him.” 
 
 Dahabi, who was the GID’s director in 2007, did not answer calls to his cellphone. 
 
 Martin did not reply to emails or phone calls seeking comment. 
 
 Sargeant’s lawyers accuse al-Saleh’s side of taking the wire transfers out of context. “They try to make something very mundane and boring sound sexy,” said Kobert. “It’s not sexy.” 
 
 Al-Saleh’s lawyers have cited another email that they argue shows Martin plotting to cut al-Saleh out of his one-third stake in the oil firm. ||||| 30 July 2011. The cat-fight between FoxNews and Gawker appears to be yet another screech in the Obama-CIA's continuing campaign to loudmouth its Bin Laden kill operation of which the orchestrated outing of CIA John is a part. That FoxNews invited Michael Scheuer, the disgraced-and-fired ex-head of the Alec Station-OBL hunting team, to discuss the outing a member of that very same team, indicates that every CIA sly promotional venture is a gloss on the sordid practice of prolonging very drawn-out operations to keep funding flowing generously, Scheuer now a paid shill to do just that. The same practice was at work in the recently completed Aspen Security Conference where the rewards of keeping terrorism media-hot was speechified at length by the prime beneficiaries of the depthless money pit -- national security threat mongerers and the media avidly promoting one another by appearing to differ, the New York Times a funder of the Aspen genteel differences of opinion amongst club members. FoxNews and Gawker gutter-trash-for-ads differs from the CIA and NYT global affairs pretense only in transparency of camouflage. 13 July 2011: Two photos below from The New York Observer, Issue dated July 18, 2011, p. 20. These photos are not published in the online article. School of the uniform invited: cryptome[at]earthlink.net 12 July 2011. CIA John further disclosed: http://www.observer.com/2011/07/exclusive-bin-laden-hunter-cia-john-identified/?show=all 
 
 The Man in the Yellow Tie, with Clinton and Panetta, and in a college yearbook photo. 12 July 2011. In response to an inquiry: Washington Post today publishes another CIA chapter in the valorization of CIA John, supposedly in response to the Cryptome sniffing, but most likely a sign of appreciation for our taking the bait to promote a designated hero. It glosses the previous AP report by slathering on more motherhood-and-apple-pie "risk to undercover officer," and suggests that ranks of reputable publishers will obediently play the access hand they are given or be banned for revealing the officer's identity. Even threatened with prosecution in the jounralism-hiding-behind-Wikileaks gambit. Nothing about the female star which may mean that will be a separate series of disclosures as the re-election campaign unfolds. A call to the CIA press office might get you a quotable sip from the spigot, and get you placed on a watch list for possible enlistment as a favored outlet. If unusually creatively done you will be invited to interview CIA John and, best of all, the Diana huntress who is pissed that the guy is getting the credit for her deftly brilliant tracking. https://www.cia.gov/contact-cia/index.html If unusually creative at stroking you will be invited to interview CIA John and, best of all, the Diana huntress who is pissed that the stud is getting the credit for her deftly brilliant tracking. If the press PR office plays hard to get see the link to the Entertainment Industry Liasion. And if CIA-celebrity outreach is slow to respond report as threats White House photographer Pete Souza; AP's Adam Goldman, Matt Apuzzo and the unknown photographer of Panetta's visit to Congress; Gawker's John Cook and the Multiple Does who have spread the outing of Galahad online: https://www.cia.gov/contact-cia/report-threats.html 10 July 2011. In response to an inquiry: Cryptome prepared the CIA-John file about 4:00PM on July 5, 2011, uploaded it and the first download took place at 4:11PM. Our copy of the AP story states it was updated at 1:45AM, July 5, 2011. We don't recall exactly when we saw the AP story, but it would have been after 7AM on the 5th when we started reading online news about bin Laden (a topic we are following to track the PR spin). Then it took a couple of hours to look for photos of the days cited in the AP story and package a file (note we package, do not write). We first thought it was some other person with Panetta at the Senate hearing, an older gent just behind Panetta. Unsure about the identification we went back to the photos to look for the older gent. Then we spotted the tie and noticed the unusual height of the person wearing it. Then again went back to the photos and saw John the Tall wearing the tie in one of them as well as lurking behind in the Senate photo. (There are two versions of the latter photo, almost identical.) Artful cropping by the White House to include John's arm and tie -- and height -- provided perfect clues for dummies to go with the AP dummy-baiting. Fortunately, White House Flickr photos are high-resolution or it would have been difficult to see the tie clearly, and more importantly, to see John in the background in the low-resolution photos customarily appearing in the media. The public may not know that AP and others distribute high-resolution photos to paying customers, and the low-res versions are reduced to hold down costs of publishing. AP offers the Senate photos of Panetta and John at high-resolution at a cost of $200 for a single day's internet use. We did not buy one. Others are free from the White House. Nada from the CIA black hole except to very high-paying customers and syncophants. We assume that by now John and the bin Laden hunt team have been awarded medals. That is likely to have taken place when Obama went to CIA on May 20, 2011, to thank the covert operators in private and the CIA employees in public, the last heavily documented by the press. The next CIA person to be outed on the OBL-hunt team is the woman who worked with John, who made the actual call of a targeted lead to OBL, and, best, AP slyly reports, a journalism graduate! What better story could there be for a spying industry as badly in need of favorable PR for valiant and dogged investigators as official spies. We bet there are a slew of journalists working that clue, and being fed more tidbits and perhaps exclusive briefings by the woman under guidance of CIA PR wizards. If she looks like Valerie Plame we will have most winning couple. Who will get his and her names first, TMZ or you? To sanitize the source send names to Cryptome for washing. 9 July 2011. See also the Situation Room's live kill feed: http://cryptome.org/0004/kill-sitroom/kill-sitroom.htm 8 July 2011. A relevant Associated Press biographical detail about CIA John's identifying height: "In college, he walked on to a Division I basketball team and hustled his way into a rotation full of scholarship players." And, a CIA official on Alec Station: http://cryptome.org/0004/cia-alec-station.pdf (1.2MB) Cryptome: There is little risk to CIA John in suggesting his identity. Spies do not appear in photos unless intentionally, albeit in usually discreet form (every spy spinner rises from the shadows deliberately, maintaining the allure of darkness). The White House photo where CIA John is in the background appears staged to locate him directly behind Panetta and showing the back of Obama's head. The White House photographer seldom shows Obama in this manner, camera held above Obama (Pete Souza is several inches shorter) to aim at Panetta and his prime briefer of the day. Most likely is that Obama, or his media advisors and the CIA, directed the photo shoot and its publication on Flickr as part of a campaign to vaunt the CIA operation and prepare its media-perfect, tall, handsome, athletic, stolid, dogged, quiet-man dragon-slayer for coming out of the cold for a future public role. Moreover, Obama has emphasized publicity for the CIA and DoD for the OBL assassination, with heavily-media covered visits to the CIA where dozens of CIA employees were photographed and videotaped. The White House offers a video of a visit on May 20, 2011 to thank CIA employees for the OBL operation. Cryptome offers photographs of that visit and another on April 20, 2009. The two AP reporters who wrote the article about CIA John work the CIA beat, and will no doubt continue their OBL series in cooperation with the CIA -- the agency carefully cultivates such beat reporters with significant disclosures once it is shown the reports will be favorable. It is no secret that there are a bevy of such reporters, writers, media producers, lecturers, consultants and spy-industry friends who capitalize on their privileged access (most pretending to be distant from their bedfellows). 6 July 2011. Cryptome responds to Shepherd Johnson's pointing to the CIA's Alec Station operation to find Bin Laden (housed in the Gloucester building, Tysons Corner): CIA John was at Alec Station for many years, maybe for all its existence. Then after Alec Station was allegedly dissolved in 2006, he probably moved to the CTC and on to the NCTC, chasing OBL with a bevy of cohorts. There may still be a hidden remnant of Alex Station at Gloucester (or the nearby Stafford building) -- the CIA never fully joins with the other natsec players, just pretends to do so, keeping its hardcore CTC going in contempt of PR-driven NCTC. John is going to get a career boost, maybe come out of undercover. That seems to be what Panetta was doing by promoting him to Obama and then the showboating at Congress knowing the photos would be taken and eventually leaked -- as with the AP story filled with easy to follow clues (AP was told or knew what was in the photos of John in the background). A series of privileged media disclosures is how OBL's killing is going to be promoted by the CIA for many years, with John and Alec Station cohorts moving up the chain of perks and eventually hitting the lecture and literature circuit, first for CIA's never-ending PR and budgetary outreach, then after retirement for hard cash and pension supplements like the crowd of CT natsec gangsters at the Aspen Security Forum. 5 July 2011 CIA John Who Hunted Osama bin Laden Photos The man who hunted Osama bin Laden ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press, MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Updated 01:15 a.m., Tuesday, July 5, 2011 [Excerpts] WASHINGTON (AP)  After Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, the White House released a photo of President Barack Obama and his Cabinet inside the Situation Room, watching the daring raid unfold. Hidden from view, standing just outside the frame of that now-famous photograph was a career CIA analyst. In the hunt for the world's most-wanted terrorist, there may have been no one more important. His job for nearly a decade was finding the al-Qaida leader. [Note the tie pattern of the unusually tall man behind Gates off the photo at right. This photo is taken in a secure conference room in the Situation Room complex. (As an aside, the brigadier general running the show from a laptop, rather than a low-ranked technician from remote console, is highly unusual, and probably indicates the high-level security measures protecting the bin Laden operation. This is also suggested by holding the show in a small conference room rather than the commodious large confedrence room frequently shown in public photographs.)] President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) [Note the unusually tall man at rear with tie pattern which matches the photo above. This photo is taken in the large conference room of the Situation Room complex.] President Barack Obama talks with members of the national security team at the conclusion of one in a series of meetings discussing the mission against Osama bin Laden, in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Gen. James Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is seen on the screen. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) [Continuing the AP story] The Associated Press has agreed to the CIA's request not to publish his full name and withhold certain biographical details so that he would not become a target for retribution. Call him John, his middle name. ... Two days after bin Laden's death, John accompanied Panetta to Capitol Hill. The Senate Intelligence Committee wanted a full briefing on the successful mission. At one point in the private session, Panetta turned to the man whose counterterrorism resume spanned four CIA directors. [Note unusually tall man at upper left with a tie not unlike the previous.] In this May 3, 2011 file photo, CIA Director Leon Panetta, right, leaves after briefing members of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. Alex Brandon, AP Associated Press photo offerings. Screen shots downloaded 13 July 2011. The headline and caption for the top image have been updated from the original at bottom. Source Associated Press photo offering of Panetta and John Source
– A CIA operative in charge of hunting down Osama bin Laden is a war profiteer who helped bilk the Pentagon out of some $200 million, reports Gawker. Marty Martin was put in charge of tracking down the terror mastermind from 2002-2004, and boasted to the AP that those early efforts "led to this great day" the day bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs. After he left the CIA, Martin joined International Oil Trading Company, a Florida operation that delivered fuel to US forces in the Middle East, a company accused by both Congress and the Pentagon of grossly overcharging the government, to the tune of $204 million. Martin was also accused in a Florida lawsuit of paying a $9 million bribe to Jordanian officials to win exclusive fuel shipping rights, and has been linked to dirty campaign contributions given to (and returned by) John McCain during his bid for the presidency. Contacted by Gawker to comment on the various charges, Martin responded: "No no, man. I don't want to talk to you, man."