Ex-CIA agent leads new team of journalists in Cuba

By Tracey Eaton

From his Along the Malecon blog

The U.S. government has hired a former CIA agent to create and manage a team of at least 10 journalists in Cuba, contract records show.

Daniel Gabriel has exceptional qualifications. He is a former operations assistant at CNN who later joined the CIA and completed six tours to Afghanistan and Iraq in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

His biography describes him as a former CIA covert action officer who spent 10 years "countering violent-extremism, directing counter-insurgency operations, and developing and benchmarking counter-radicalization theory and methodology in the Islamic world."

According to his LinkedIn profile:

Gabriel helped pioneer the use of social media in war-fighting and political conflict, and he was an early advocate for incorporating social media metrics into predictive intelligence and risk analysis. He is a subject matter expert and original researcher of interactive digital media strategies, social network analysis, international media research, text analytics, latent semantic indexing, strategic planning techniques, operational and organizational design, and complex system dynamics.

One colleague raved: Keep your eyes glued to this guy – he rocks.

Gabriel is the founding partner of Applied Memetics, located at 888 Quincy St., Suite 1901, in Arlington, Va.

• A Sept. 26 contract shows that the Broadcasting Board of Governors, or BBG, agreed to pay Applied Memetics $9,909 for work performed from Sept. 26 to Nov. 15.
• A Nov. 14 document shows the contract was modified to include options extending the contract to Oct. 31, 2016.

The BBG’s Sept. 7 request for proposals said the Cuban reporters would operate in "major cities in Cuba, including Havana and Santiago de Cuba" and "would provide regular local news and feature reports."

The Cuban stringers would be required to "conduct interviews and provide fair, accurate, balanced and objective news and feature stories in Spanish for broadcast on radio, television, mobile and web as required, including breaking news, and deliver news reports and work on short deadlines."

Before founding the company, Gabriel "was a key architect and implementer of strategic engagement, collaboration, and de-confliction efforts across USG agencies to integrate global counter-terrorism strategic communications campaign after 9/11," according to his biography.

He worked as an operations assistant at CNN’s Washington Bureau for Crossfire and as a freelance reporter for the Washington Times before joining the CIA.

Gabriel was also an aide, researcher and New Hampshire political director for conservative politician Patrick Buchanan from 1996 to 2000.

His Arlington company’s partners include:

• Caspian Global, which was "founded by former military personnel, intelligence officers and federal contracting experts; the majority possessing high level security clearances."
• Red Five Security, whose personnel "have extensive experience in security operations and intelligence; security design and engineering; threat and vulnerability assessments; investigations; and have trained corporate and government security professionals around the globe. The team includes experts from the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Departments of State, Defense and Energy as well as accredited security design specialists."
• BAE Systems, which says it is "building on our strength as a global provider of defense and security products to shape support services that meet the changing needs of our customers. From sophisticated cyber services and military support, to mission critical electronic systems and protection equipment, we aim to be at the forefront of defense technology and science."
• Reservoir International, which says its "core function is organizational training in the intricate fields of Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Advanced Special Operations (ASO) and Unconventional Warfare (UW): a core function born of the belief that challenging and relevant training in these fields is vital to the survival and success of the Nation’s warriors."
• Active Media, which says, "Our Business is Growing Your Business Online"

In November 2011, the Army hired Applied Memetics to carry out "social networking training" and paid the company $14,626 for services performed from Nov. 23, 2011, to Jan. 6, 2012, a contract document shows.

The BBG, which manages the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, said the contractor managing the Cuba journalists would be required to produce "at least five stories per week, depending on the news cycle."