From: Michael Torrence
To: GM
Subject: Re: Spy Campaign (for lack of a better title at this point)
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 13:40:43 -0600 (CST)

On Thu, 27 Mar 1997, GM wrote:

> > With whom am I working? Am I the only US agent (FBI or CIA or otherwise)
> > in this task force? If there are others, what are their backgrounds? What
> > independant investigating on my own can I do about my co-workers? Do I
> > have their files? Dossiers? Anything?
> 
> You are assigned to the FBI International Training Facility in Budapest.
> You work with your fellow FBI agents who are also teaching there. 
> You are not part of a task force.  You are a teacher.  You are simply
> supposed to report your findings on the Hungarian Mafia to the CIA as a
> courtesy.  You can request dossiers on your fellow FBI agents.  I'm sure they
> will think you are paranoid and recommend that you receive psychiatric
> treatment.  Do you want a notation put on your file that you may be
> mentally unstable?  If so, then you can request dossiers on your fellow
> FBI agents.

Just because you're paranoid does not mean they aren't after you. :)

Names, ranks and last assignments will be sufficient. Unless even that
much questioning will raise suspicions. If that will put me in the looney
bin, names are adequate. If asking my fellow officers will mark me as
psychologically unstable, I'll go ahead with the full paranoid
investigation and get everything I possibly can on everyone at the
facility.

> Arrested suspects accidently drop names, especially after they get beaten
> up by the police.  

Are the officers committing this brutality diciplined?

> > Do I have other information about this company? Is it public? If so, who
> > are notable stockholders? What is it's annual gross income? Do they
> > advertise? If so, with whom? Who are their suppliers? Distributors?
> 
> Public information on the company is available for gross income, net income,
> members of the board, names of senior staff members (president, CEO, etc).
> Notable stockholders are members of the Hungarian Parliament.  The company
> has a gross income in the millions.  It does not advertise.  It has its
> own supply and distribution branch.

I compile a list of the 20 largest stockholders, as well as a list of the
members of the board and corporate executives. 

> > > Who does Torrence investigate further?
> > 
> > The Firebird Foundation. I'm looking to answer the following questions,
> > and any other information that might be interesting or useful.
> > 
> > How do they generate their revenue for funding projects? Do they produce
> > anything? Take donations? If so, who are major contributors? Do they have
> > an endowment? Where is the money kept? What bank? If invested, in what
> > stocks or bonds? Who administers the endowment?  What caused the growth
> > of such an endowment? Who founded the foundation? Is their charter
> > available? Are they for-profit? not-for-profit? If not-for-profit, are
> > they registered as such with the Hungarian tax code? If I were interested
> > in getting a grant from them, how would I apply?
> 
> As the Firebird Foundation is a privately funded foundation it is not
> required by any known Hungarian or International law to reveal how it gets
> its funding, who sits on its directorial board, whether it is non-profit or
> profit, or make its charter available.  There isn't any literature
> available on how to get a grant from the Foundation.
> 
> Tax records only show that the Foundation does not make any money.
> 
> What does Torrence do?

Time to go beat the pavement, then. If public record turns up no
information, I submit all information I have compiled about the company
and the foundation to Interpol, and any contacts at the CIA and NSA to see
what those searches turn up. 

Do they at least have an address? Phone number? -- What name is on the
title of the property, phone number, utility bills? I investigate bank
records about the mortgage of the property.

If all of this turns up nothing more than an address, I go drive by to
determine an approximate size of the facility. Specifically the number of
people working there. If necessary, I pose as an American tourist who has
accidentally stumbled into their offices looking for a payphone.