The debriefing is over. I sat down with the agency to comb through the archives of my old site. The three summarized reports you just read are the absolute limit of what I am permitted to share. The rest is permanently sealed. But rather than mourning a redacted past, I am making a conscious choice to write an unclassified future.
Three years deep into a foreign assignment in Germany, the reality of the local communication grid has become abundantly clear. The initial strategy for this publication was simple and logical. I wanted to document my daily operations, keep the network back in the States informed, and establish a bridge to the local crowd. At first, the transmission worked perfectly. My family and extended network stateside passed the reports along. The network grew organically.
Man, guys, what a night yesterday. The plan was actually absolutely simple: a quick trip to the Düsseldorf Old Town, grab a fast beer, and head to the first hotel I could find. But as it always goes in field work, plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy.
Hello my friends. The time is finally here. I can finally tell you my true story about how I came to Germany in 2011, why I was transferred to Germany, and why you have not heard from me for a while. I went back and forth with the CIA for a long time to get clearance to publish my side of things, and what you are reading here right now is what I was permitted to say. If there are gaps or questions left open… please know I would have loved to tell you everything and would have gladly gone into every single detail, but part of the deal for me to even step back into the public eye is simply that the CIA calls the shots regarding what I post about the past.
