Wave to the nice people at the CIA part II ...

This is CIA article No. 2 ... I'll have to get to the rest tomorrow. Meanwhile keep recruiting at those cocktail parties! The book at right is -- a book I like by Stephen Kinzer. Lots of CIA stuff. As in: CIA-as-corporate-lapdog stuff. Good night and good luck from Jeanie, your perfect hostess

CIA has eye on Federal Center – Beauprez IDs site for division's move

Intelligence experts say the agency's domestic unit may be headed for the Denver area to be more centrally located and to spread out operations

The Denver Post

May 8, 2005

Mike Soraghan, John Aloysius Farrell and Alicia Caldwell
Denver Post Staff Writers

Washington – The CIA plans to move its domestic operations division to Colorado and is eyeing the Denver Federal Center, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez told The Denver Post.

Beauprez, a Republican from Arvada, said he learned within the past two weeks that CIA officials plan to move a chunk of their Washington operations to Denver and are looking at the Federal Center, which is on West Sixth Avenue surrounded by Lakewood.

"The CIA is looking to increase staffing and mission (in Colorado)," Beauprez said in an interview with The Post on Friday.

He said he wasn't told how many people would be involved, but "I got that it's a significant responsibility and a significant number of jobs."

The Washington Post reported Friday that the intelligence agency was eyeing Denver. A CIA spokeswoman, who refused to provide her name, declined to comment.

"That story we are not commenting on," she said. "I can understand your interest."

The unit, officially called the National Resources Division, consults with academics and debriefs American business travelers who go abroad. It also collects intelligence on foreign nationals in the United States and recruits them to work for the CIA when they return home.

Gov. Bill Owens' office confirmed that the governor met with the division director in Washington, D.C., last year and that he periodically has had discussions with local CIA officials. Owens would not comment directly on the move.

"I can't comment directly on my conversations with the CIA, other than to say that they involved terrorism and related subjects," Owens said through his press office. "I would say that the Denver area with its military and technological resources would be an ideal and logical location for the CIA to expand its operations."

The number of people who work at the division is classified, but experts put the number between a few hundred and a thousand.

Boost for the metro area

Beauprez, who has worked on redeveloping the Federal Center, said the $20 million relocation would be positive for the area, and he didn't think it would make Denver any more attractive as a terrorist target.

"In my estimation, Denver is probably plenty attractive enough already," Beauprez said. "We've got plenty of intelligence operations here already. If terrorists want to inflict pain on a country, they'd probably pick something other than a CIA headquarters."

If the move happens, the public in the Washington and Denver areas may never notice the difference, several experts said.

"I would be surprised if there were a big construction project or a publicly announced event in Denver," said Tom Dougherty, a former CIA case officer who is a partner in the Denver law firm of Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons. "I worked for a predecessor of the division, and the building I worked in did not have a sign out front."

Denver is already home to the Aerospace Data Facility at Buckley Air Force Base, which has about 2,000 employees and puts about $1.5 billion into the economy, said former military intelligence an

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