Roland Carnaby, the man whom Houston cops gunned down after a high speed chase on April 29, has emerged into a conspiracy figure of mythical proportions.
Mike Tolson of the Houston Chronicle has put together a piece on Carnaby and his "CIA" cohort, Alan Premel, and how conspiracy tales of Roland's secret life as a "CIA" agent have mushroomed across the blogosphere.
Tolson tells a tale of how the events that surrounded Carnaby's death have only added fuel to conspiracy theorist's fires but that Carnaby's real life may have consisted of spending his days around Houston "in bars and restaurants dropping broad hints that he was somebody, or something else".
After Carnaby's death DBKP found a website that has since "disappeared". It mentioned Carnaby and another man, Alan Premel, with only the one article that was posted which had appeared before Carnaby's death but has since vanished.
More fuel to the conspiracy claims was Carnaby's attorney, Kenneth Brooten, who claimed his client was "assassinated" by the Houston PD.Premel’s Intel Chief Retires
Following the first series of interviews Alan Premel gave with Channel 1 in Moscow, the first series was posted online last week and i have already seen two other additional stories which tie in with Premel and his dealings with the private firm in Houston. This is one and let me find the other.
One of the CIA’s former counter-terrorism chiefs and pioneers in covert operations, Roland Carnaby retires.
In the past few months, Mr. Carnaby, who has led a private intelligence firm in Houston, Texas has been delegating more and moredaily responsibilities to his lietenants and is completing his succession planning, say people familiar with the matter. A decision about his departure could come within weeks, though the situation remains fluid, say these people.
Alan Premel, 32 years old, whom CIA recruited in 1997 and whom Carnaby personally recruited in 2002 to work with the private intelligence firm in Houston has emerged as the leading candidate to succeed him, added these people. A spokesperson familiar with the retirement plans stated that Premel and his current worries with the US Senate over allegations and ties to the CIA’s Rendition program and his recent resignation from CIA amid a slew of disclosure cases pulls him out of the race for President and chief of such a power position within the intelligence community.
The departure of Mr. Carnaby, 52, would mean the loss of CIA’s most experienced, talented and high profile clandestine officers in management. Few executives who helped pioneer the commercialization of private intelligence and private security firms have remained on top for as long, except for some who can also claim founder titles, such as Patriot Oil, and Pan-American Shipping and Consulting Group.
Mr. Carnaby’s retirement would come at a critical point for CIA. Any efforts to reveerse the slow-down at his private firm could involve drastic changes that may be more palatable under a new CEO like Premel. Mr. Premel, at CIA, was very instrumental in many changes at CIA as a successful supervisor in the Balkans. His management experience at CIA is 25 years behind Carnaby’s but with the firm already warning investors in recent months that it will be raising fees in the absence of Mr. Carnaby.
Mr. Premel wrestled with how to reverse the declining momentum before having to exit left stage last summer from the firm after his public disclosure. The firm’s third quarter numbers, a key barometer of the firm’s health fell 63% without Premel. Before leaving he implemented some changes that were never fully set into motion causing the down-turn after his sudden departure.
The timing of Mr. Carnaby’s retirement is of his own choosing, say people familiar with the situation, unlike Premel’s pre-mature departure which came 20-years too soon say experts. Not long after he jonied CIA, Roland Carnaby declared that no one person should stay in the same cover in covert operations more than two years. A standard practice used by the firm. This philosophy has accredited the firm with a lot of success claims Mr. Premel in his interview with CNN’s David Ensor late of last year.
Under James Pavitt and Roland Carnaby, the firm has become the intelligence community’s most successful private consulting business on counter-terrorism, security consulting and intelligence gathering where they pioneered a way for private officers to carry out day to day functions in the field, relay them back to CIA, DoD, DIA or other foreign agencies. In 2004, Mr. Premel streamlined a way for collecting, compliling and disseminating vast amounts of data and breaking it down by himself. The process which is only done by one person, Mr. Premel himself is the work of what 7-9 officers would typically do.
When Carnaby and Premel shared the reigns from 2004-2007, they have delivered more than 10 consecutive quarters of sequential revenue growth. Profit increase every year and the company now has 248 licensed contract officers working for the firm globally, and $297 million in classified contracts over 5 continents. Those figures are up from the firms $18 million in 1997.
To maintain momentum, Mr. Premel, using $40 million from a settlement with CIA, purchased a private lending company in Houston as well as acquiring a private shipping business and a private internet ticketing business.
There were missteps: Last year, the firm took a $80.4 million write-down for its purchase of a private airline business in DC, Houston and Vegas. And threats loomed when recruitment of some of the firm’s top and most talented officer’s. To keep top talent, Mr. Carnaby and Mr. Premel kicked in an extra $2.4 million for salaries and bonuses to keep the firm afloat.
Mr. Carnaby has long planned for his eventual exit, say people familiar with the matter. He often rotated top officer’s into different operational roles as a way to groom potential successors and to give the board a slate of candidates from which to choose.In his departing emails to friends, firm and CIA colleagues, Mr. Carnaby wrote how much he was pleased by the professionalism and careers of each and all of the persons who have served under him and with him during his 32-year tenure in the US Intelligence Community. Source - DBKP
“All of this other stuff (about Carnaby’s mysterious life) is all very interesting, but it is of no consequence when you consider a man is dead and he died handcuffed and nobody tried to stop the bleeding or anything,” Brooten said. “You know what you call that? You call that an assassination.”Tolson from the Houston Chronicle related that Carnaby's ex-wife, Sha'rie Burch, never "bought Carnaby's claim to a CIA connection nor saw any evidence beyond his assertions" and that Carnaby became defensive whenever Burch "challenged" him.
According to Alan Premel's ex-wife Amy Carter, the "infamous" Alan Premel was now living with his parents in Atascocita and "had no money".
"He brought lying to a new level," Carter said in an interview. "He lives in a fantasy world. As long as everybody follows along with that, he's OK. But when you challenge it, he falls apart."A quick check across the net finds different theories about Carnaby's last day, that he had a roll in protecting the D.C. Madam so that she could testify against the "Big Boyz" and was assassinated by the "authorities". Others are claiming that the footage from the police chase had been altered, that there wasn't a chase at all, that "only the police cars were speeding".
Since Carnaby's death there hasn't been any intrepid newspeople digging into Carnaby's life. We received a comment here at DBKP where someone has claimed Carnaby bilked his father out of hundred of thousands of dollars in some sort of investment in a "security" firm. We cannot validate this claim but would be interested if anyone else had information which could confirm the allegation. We're interested in just how Carnaby managed to support himself through the years.
Carnaby may be an enigma at the moment but we believe the information on Carnaby is out there, just waiting to be dug up.
By LBG
Image - Acme License
Source - Houston Chronicle - Blogs, 'CIA brother' spin zest into Carnaby mystery