In an e-mail sent in February 2009, Smith demonstrates his tendency to take a kernel of truth and blow it up into something more. Related Industries. JAMIE SMITH. After all, the children of Israel were able to leave Egypt loaded with wealth due in large part because of Pharoahs bad behavior. I will fight for workers and help Washington grow. He simulated meetings with arms dealers in bars and would speak with a fake Russian accent. Perhaps God is hardening Pharoahs [sic] heart to glorify himself and bless his people. The book went through the standard legal vetting process and was reviewed by the CIA. On February 15, 2011, Smith sent an e-mail to an open account at Stratfor, an Austin, Texas, intelligence and consulting firm. Red Planet Entertainment teams with Pathbender to option the nonfiction book Gray Work. This will cause people to wonder if youre with the agencynever admit it or deny it when youre there and deflect any questions as casually as you can. A graduate student gets caught in an international conspiracy involving diamonds, exiled Nazi war criminals and a rogue government agent. I dont know that I could be cajoled, said Rush who spent more than a decade as a Navy Seal. In a new memoir Jamie Smith claims to have worked for the CIA and help found Blackwater. *The print version of this story incorrectly referred to the National Clandestine Service as the National Security Service. The SCG International compound shut its gates. Two months after he hired Titus, Smith started referring to him as his general counsel in correspondence about the World War II movie. Many people there remember Jamie: his dad ran Batesvilles biggest dry cleaners for years, and the family was active in the First Baptist Church. The One Subscription to Fuel All Your Adventures. I agree with TheWrap's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and provide my consent to receive marketing communications from them. Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Ed Harris star. True or not, Gray Works is at times a surprisingly gripping account. Jamie Smith is known for Killer's Kiss (1955), The Faithful City (1952) and Suspense (1949). After a NASA trip to Mars runs into a mechanical failure that could cost the astronauts their lives, an unmanned capsule is launched and faked mission footage is shot in a studio. That was, you know, very convincing.. He hit the ground with a crisp salute, was introduced as a former Navy Seal, and told a Christian Broadcasting Network reporter that a stunt like his really energizes the congregation and emphasizes the risks being taken by servicemen and women around the world., The thing about Jamie is that he was certain about everything, says Charles Cusanno, a retired Pennsylvania state police officer and former SCG trainer. Readers are used to seeing prominent true-life accounts revealed as fabrications after they hit the shelves. But this was serious business, too. Smith owned one of them, a sprawling mansion called Crump Place. It offers a unique perspective into military contractors and we believe the exploits in the book. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy. They did so in the belief that he was an ex-CIA officer, a Harvard Law graduate with a degree in accounting, and a man with heavy government ties. At one point, Smiths cell phone rang. He arranged meetings on Capitol Hill, trying to line up support to go into Libya to coordinate better communications among the rebels opposed to Muammar Qaddafi. I got a special case Im working for them., It was seamless, Sanford says. Walter Morgan, a classmate of Smiths in high school and at Ole Miss, recalls spotting Smith on Fox News one morning and nearly falling out of his chair. Smith bought a pile of expensive weapons, including several AR-15s, a camo-colored .308 sniper rifle, Uzis, MAC-10s, Glocks, and a stainless-steel assault rifle. Warren Beatty plays a reporter who learns that every event in the world is organized by a single multi-national corporation. We cannot comment on the specifics of the editorial and legal review process as its confidential, but we had enough documentation that we felt comfortable proceeding.. I had a cover at the State Departments Near East and Asia desk.. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. That morning, according to court documents, Smith drove up in a white Suburban loaded with suitcases, his wife, Allison, and three kids, two girls and a boy. Sources at Blackwater say this was a 30-day posting, though Smith has said he was in the country for eight months. To protect the anonymity of its officers, the CIA neither confirms nor denies employment, and it wouldnt comment on whether its Publication Review Board had actually reviewed Smiths memoir. He said the book passed through HarperCollinss legal vetting and the CIA review board with the manuscript going back and forth at least five times. He was hired as a tax specialist but left after a few months. He also liked to pretend he was a cop. In the book, Smith writes that the ruling was an injustice but that hes no longer angry about it, and more important, focused on his new business at a company called Gray Solutions. Jamie is a wizard, he wrote. If you paid the $1,200 to go through a one-week SCG course, you knew you were heading into an experience that would be authentic. pLying is a cooperative act, and people believe a lie because theyre hungry for somethingusually the thing the liar is peddling. Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier starred. This wasnt the first time Fisher had confronted his friend. Call or Email Jamie Smith for a free 15 minute consultation now - (309) 300-3072. They didnt even like to send me to the State Department when I was a GS-15 with 20 years in. View In Gallery. All Smith had to do was provide the name of someone he worked with in the CIA who could vouch for him. The CIA doesnt usually tap untrained, 20-year-old undergrads to become agents. But for all his faults, Rush believes that Smith was a good instructor. Smith didnt arrive until the danger was over. Paramount Titus had not been allowed to practice law for four years, but he did a lot of legal work for Smith anyway. Captain America joins forces with Black Widow and Falcon to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. Their attorney suggested looking for a safe place to park it overseas. He could have used the cash to build SCG into a sustainable business that earned consistent profits. The Sanfords were owed $12.5 million with interest. 1 of 20 It was a complete fantasy world, says Cusanno. The death blow for SCG came in an August 29, 2012, letter from acting deputy Air Force general counsel David Robbins. At least some of the money was invested, records showsometimes wisely, sometimes not. I work with all stakeholders to build coalitions between the school, administration, and community. But in August, a month before the scheduled September 9 release date, a promotional page for the book on publisher William Morrows website disappeared without explanation. Craig and Mary Jo Sanford gave Smith the windfall from the sale of a business they had spent their life building. By October of that year, the records show that he was disenrolled from ROTC and discharged by the Mississippi National Guard. Frankly, Ive never listened to a better storyteller, was how Baer concluded the quote he provided in 2012. He was never a covert agent, he admitted, but he insisted hed worked for the CIA in some unspecified capacity. Horseshit, says Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and a State Department deputy director in the office on counterterrorism from 1989 to 1993. In spite of such setbacks, Jamie Smith kept plowing forward. In an e-mail sent on May 10, 2009, Smith detailed the precautions he thought were necessary to ensure his safety. The movie will be produced by Red Planets Wes Benton and Pathbenders E. Thompson. JFKs assassination made viewers more suspicious and thats reflected in our films Jamie Smith is challenging conservative Rep. Kelly Chambers for Legislative District 25, Position 1. Then in October 2014, Outside magazine published a profile of Smith in which old friends and former colleagues went on record calling him a fraud whose biggest accomplishments were pure invention. Warren Beatty plays a reporter who learns that every event in the world is organized by a single multi-national corporation. Warner Bros. In less than a year, $2.5 million had dwindled to $200,000. I mean, whos the guy or the girl behind you guys digging into me like Im, you know, Oliver Stone?, Asked about the Sanfords, Smith stuck to his story that he never met Craig Sanford before he received their money. After that he started buying things, paying $41,200 in cash for a Mercedes, $4,475 to upgrade Allisons wedding ring, and $350 for tanning. Jamie Smith is a decorated former CIA officer, founding Director of Blackwater Security, Vice President of Blackwater Training and subsequently the CEO of SCG International. Polk says Smiths message misrepresented Myricks level of interest: during the entire time Polk worked for her, she never did anything to help Smith. In the piney woods of north Mississippi, professionals and wannabes alike would come to the 60-acre compound of an outfit called SCG International to play war games, fire live weapons, conduct mock interrogations, and run around like kids, zinging paintball rounds across creeks and seeking cover in open fields. The money simply disappeared. He had a calm demeanor, like he knew things., To Sanford, Smith casually mentioned all the work hed done in foreign countries, saying that hed had experience carrying diplomatic pouches and working with foreign banks. Smiths public relations representative, Steve Honig, gave The Daily Beast an almost identical comment. After the ruling, Smiths company continued to collect from Air Force contracts for security training for nearly a year. You have to treat the book as a work of fiction, says James Hughes, who retired from the CIA in 2005 after a long career in the agency and now sits on the board of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Do you get the idea?. Plans were thwarted. But it also means that anyone with a knack for storytelling and a bit of insider lingo can call himself a CIA officer and be confident that the agency itself will never contradict that claim. Touchstone To date, though, aside from the transfer of a few minor assets, none of that money has been repaid. Jamie Smith founded SCG in 2002 after working at Blackwater as, what he CLAIMS as, Vice President Blackwater Security Consulting, [3] ultimately he was fired from the company in 2010. Its not entirely clear what Boudreaus role in all this was, and we were unable to reach him for comment. Jamie Luke Smith (born 12 July 2000) is an English cricketer. Sanford knew and respected Boudreau, and he listened when Boudreau told him that someone special would be stopping by. Fisher has known Smith since kindergarten, and at Ole Miss they were roommates and, briefly, fraternity brothers. Then, piece by piece, the lucrative business that Smith had built as a military contractor began to fall apart. In a dystopian future, Charlton Heston discovers that the new and vital food supply from the government isn't what they claim it to be. At the SCG compound in Holly Springs, Smith promised "real-world scenarios for real-world warriors.". After Titus was convicted, the FBI looked at Smith, but the investigation didnt go fareven later, when jurors in civil court found that Smith had defrauded the Sanfords. Later, the $10 million was transferred to an account that allowed Smith to invest it in new assets, including land and other necessities for SCG. To go along with the 4,385-square-foot house he bought for his family in 2006, in the posh Pungo section of Virginia Beach, he put down half a million on an oceanside place in Hawaii that he called his vacation home. In early 2008, he started building the SCG headquarters in Holly Springs, on a logged-out piece of red-clay land. 5 talking about this. That just doesnt happen., He said he was sent as a liaison to the State Department? Baer asked. Even as CIA veterans question his tale, his publisher is doubling down. Instead, according to Smiths bank statements included in court documents and in sworn testimony, he used the money to make a string of bad investments, fund his business, pay off credit cards, upgrade his wifes wedding ring, and buy a Mercedes-Benz. He was in the lobby the next morning with another fellow, who I learned later was either his brother or his cousin or something, and he was there to rescue me. As Smith tells it in Gray Work, after his stint as a CIA agent, he built a career in the world of private security contracting that bloomed after 9/11, allegedly becoming a founding member of Blackwater before starting his own security company and deluxe training facility in Holly Springs, Mississippi. (In testimony during the Sanfords civil suit against him, Smith told a judge that he needed to darken up a little bit when traveling in the Middle East.) Theyd meet at fried-chicken joints and Memphis bars and rescue hostages held in Conex containers. Pelton, who seems to like Smith and says his claims usually contain a grain of truth, nonetheless describes some of his stories as borderline delusional and has characterized Smiths account of the Colombia episode as patently false. The Air Force intended to debarbanSmith and SCG from any new contracts for three years. Paramount Doctors had found malignant tumors on his aorta and thought he might not live another year. The chief just asked me to basically spy on another government agency., No way the CIA would do that, according to agency veteran James Hughes. There was so much bullshit injected into these stories that sometimes I showed up in them.. Ted Lasso Season 3 to Premiere This Spring First Look at Ted vs. Nate! At the end, he apologized for that, sounding almost resigned. Jamie Smith has been a growing force in the Chicago theatrical and sketch comedy worlds. The publishers of Outside stand by their authors and their story and have filed a motion to dismiss. Then he asked, Where in the name of God does a creep like this guy come from?. I cant get into that, because its part of the book, and the agencys still reviewing that.. YOU'VE REACHED YOUR MONTHLY ARTICLE LIMIT. In 2013, Smith tweeted a shirtless selfie (since removed) with a location stamp of Dubai. The disbarred attorney set up companies that Smith used to hold and spend the Sanfords money. In a case with only one victim, the Sanfords, it can be difficult to get a grand jury past the point of a he-said-she-said stalemate. Get access to more than 30 brands, premium video, exclusive content, events, mapping, and more. Smith also offered to set up a fundraising website for the family, who needed money to underwrite efforts to bring Levinson home. Columbia Even if it had, that doesnt mean the CIA backs Smiths claims. There was something funny about the way he did it. He said he was working with a team of other spec-ops guys. It just doesnt happen. Smith loved telling friends and potential clients the story of a mission he ran, which supposedly involved rescuing Pelton from a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia. Jamie Smith is a decorated former CIA officer, author of Gray Work: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy (WmMorrow/HarperCollins 2015), former advisor to the Chair of US House Intelligence . MGM I have been saying it for some time now. But by 2003, Smith had befriended Robert Young Pelton, the gonzo travel writer and host of The Worlds Most Dangerous Places on the Travel Channel. But he was happy to stop in and say hello to his old friend Boudreau and perhaps talk to local police about their training. Smith was initially friendly when we interviewed him last spring, and he talked over the phone in a good-natured way. After all his co-workers are killed, a CIA agent, played by Robert Redford, doesn't know who he can trust as he tries to solve the mystery. Outside's long reads email newsletter features our strongest writing, most ambitious reporting, and award-winning storytelling about the outdoors. Smith, Rush says, was a real-life Walter Mitty and was off doing other things most of the time. Smith went on to start his own security company and deluxe training facility in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Erik Prince, one of Blackwaters founders and its CEO, wasnt as kind. The government tries to silence a career thief who witnessed the President commit a crime. Its an incredible story, both hard to believe and, given the nature of espionage work, even harder to verify. It was the so-called American dream, Craig says. Outside magazine is now fighting a $30 million defamation lawsuit from Smith. As well see, that arrangement also led to nothing but frustration for Smiths clients. From the beginning, Smith wanted SCG International to be as successful as Blackwater. In August of 2011, Smiths troubles compounded rapidly when he was called to testify in the Sanfords fraud suit against him, which was heard in federal court in Virginia Beach. Smith wanted every person who came to Holly Springs to feel like hed received good training and, just as important, that he had something to offer the company and might be hired someday. The Godfather Part II (1974) Jamie Smith is attempting to roll back his statement where he claims there was a misinterpretation of his words that he wants "more things to tax." But, taking him at face value, recognizing the words that came out of his mouth, I think it's very valid to question what his intentions are in making that statement. Records reviewed by The Daily Beast indicate that Smith quit an ROTC summer training program in June 1993. But a call to Ole Miss showed he graduated on time with no break in his education, according to Danny Blanton, the universitys director of public relations. Asked earlier about the books contents, Smith said he couldnt say anything until its published. Smith disputes such claims in his libel suit. We were supposed to take him at his word. SCG was done, and Smith really did go undercover, all but disappearing for the next two years. Subsequently went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. The jacket copy of Gray Work claims that Smith performed covert ops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Syria. I just never thought it was going to get published.. The publishers description for Gray Work calls him a cofounder of the company. Combining a keen eye for humor, and impeccable sense of timing, and one of the most genuine . The government tries to silence a career thief who witnessed the President commit a crime. We found 15 records for Jamie Smith in Castalia, Arnolds Park and 9 other cities in Iowa. The Nice Guys (2016) It featured a shoot house built for teaching forced-entry tactics and room clearing. Smith had the land graded for a gun range and talked about bigger plans: kennels for Boudreaus guard dogs, a helipad for quick travel to and fro, a gun shop for tactical weapons and gear, and even a replica Middle Eastern village for training. Permission to publish cannot be denied solely because information may be embarrassing to CIA or critical of it, or inaccurate. Fisher couldnt help but laugh that Jamie would lie about something so important. Titus was an old pal of Smiths who had helped him during some tough financial times. He was fired from BW for nonperformance, and most of all, habitual and constant lying. And Im like, well, thats nice, but Im in a luxury hotel. As for the Air Force training, its unclear who exactly went through it. He's just one of those guys that can't not embellish a story.. The final break between Smith and Rush came in July 2010, when Smith fired him abruptly. It left him unconvinced. Tax. Craig, whose cancer is in remission, works seven days a week at his garage, fixing trucks. In fact, Smith simultaneously enrolled in an Ole Miss ROTC program and the National Guard in the fall of 1992meaning he joined up after the time he says he was a spookbut he dropped out in 1993, at which point the Guard discharged him. [ARCHIVED THREAD] - "Gray Work" by Jamie Smith CIA/Blackwater operative. Usually what happens is you end up publishing it and then it pops up at you., What I would hope happensand it seems to me happens pretty much in every instancewhen the publishers find that [a book] has real flaws, problems, or inaccuracies, most often they end up taking it off the market. As for any lasting fallout from the fakes that make it through, Entrekin calls the backlash just another tiny chip in the wall., After the Outside article appeared, Baerwho is featured on the jacket and within the textassumed that the book would be buried. After two days of testimony, they awarded the Sanfords $9.8 million in damages. After depositing an SCG paycheck that summer, Charles Cusanno took his family to Disney World, only to come home to massive overdraft notices. Jamie Smith says he was recruited into the CIA as an undergraduate at Ole Miss, cofounded Blackwater, and has done clandestine intelligence work all over the world, operating out of a. During SCGs heyday, between 2008 and 2012, the U.S. government and local law-enforcement agencies paid a lot of money to get people trained so they could function capably in war zones, shoot-outs, and other dicey situations. Marathon Man (1976) Craig and Mary Jo had recently sold their company, netting $12.5 million after taxes from an operation that had been built on a lifetime of hard work. Wag the Dog (1997) Jamie Smith says he was recruited into the CIA as an undergraduate at Ole Miss, cofounded Blackwater, and has done clandestine intelligence work all over the world, operating out of a counterterrorism boot camp in the woods of north Mississippi. Captain America joins forces with Black Widow and Falcon to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. We dont feel we have to prove anything.. Craig was at the exhibition with his prized Belgian Malinois, Pike, working with a K-9 instructor named Rocky Boudreau. Former SCG employees later found themselves online, featured in a training video for a new company called Gray Solutions. The Marvel Studios produced film stars Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson. We won, Mary Jo says. Together theyd made millions through a medical-waste-disposal operation theyd created and grown. and, along the way, face off with an assassin known as Winter Soldier. Blow-Up (1966) Men were shot. What Ive seen, from materials that Jamie gave me, actually ended up raising more questions, Johnson said. IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. Subscribe Contact Us. A follow-up email to Smiths representative, Steve Honig, asking for the name of his agency supervisor, or any agency employee who might be able to verify his service, was similarly dismissed. He acted so sure of himself., He made it a point to inject personal stories into his training, says Art Watts, a north Mississippi sheriffs deputy who was hired as a trainer by SCG. The Sanfords enjoyed their lives in Bucks County, but they had a couple of daunting problems. Instead, he talked them into letting him handle their money. This is the real thing. But hes not surprised. The implication is that whats left is there with the CIAs blessing. In fact, CIA veterans dont believe it and are saying so publicly. SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, Gawker Removes Controversial Post About Conde Nast CFO, Megan Thomason's Sci-Fi Trilogy 'daynight' Optioned by Pathbender (Exclusive). Jamie Smith is a decorated former CIA officer, founding Director of Blackwater Security, Vice President of Blackwater Training and subsequently the CEO of SCG International. He looked like a government guy, he recalls, talking in a straight-ahead Philly accent. They didnt call my agent. The Air Force wont talk about Smith or SCG with us, and our attempt to find answers through a Freedom of Information Act request yielded only copies of contracts, the details of which, except for payment amounts and course dates, had all been redacted. (Smith did not respond to requests for comment about this episode.). Today. His lessons on weaponry and interrogation were sprinkled with Bible verses. MGM He expected Smith to tell him about existing, successful projects in the region as a way to establish credibility, but that never happened. If he was in the war, I guess I was, too, Fisher says. In the wartime years after 9/11, Smith used these stories to build a small empire that he lost just as quickly when people, including his own staff, began to realize that hed made much of it up, and that neither he nor anybody at SCG was doing much harrowing work overseas. In it, he claims the Outside article was a hit piece, whose authors coached and cajoled their dozens of sources in an attempt to humiliate Smith, all to undermine his contract with HarperCollins and interfere with the release of his book. They won a battle in federal court, but that doesnt mean much. In his book and in interviews, Smith dismisses questions about his past. Jamie Smitha man who would say under oath that he wrote the curriculum the Marines use to protect generals and colonels overseaswas apparently scared of a 55-year-old Pennsylvania mechanic with a heart condition. Jamie Smith is registered to provide investment advice and transact in Mutual Funds and Securities in the Province of Newfoundland & Labrador. Cusanno was angry. :). The big new SCG compound was situated near the crossroads of Mississippi Highway 7 and U.S. Highway 78. If he holds up ten fingers, I know there's really only two, travel writer Robert Young Pelton once said of Smith. Smith next paid off tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. My only military training was as an Eagle Scout.. Smith is an executive board member and former teacher's union representative for the Puyallup Education Association and has spent almost two decades as a teacher in local high schools. He began a decorated career with the agency while taking correspondence classes. I was an officer within the CIA, serving in a covert capacity in the classified project office for the director of operations working against the Iraqi target, he writes in a response to the Outside allegations. Finances Cost per Session: $150 According to David Oliver, the attorney representing Smith in his libel suit, HarperCollins knew about the allegations made in Outside and was in fact spooked. And during the time in the early 1990s when Smith says he was working as a CIA intelligence officerand was decorated for service in the first Gulf WarFisher says he and Smith were hanging out in an Ole Miss dorm room. Husband. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). After his legal training ended, Smith took a job with a law firm in Jackson, Mississippi. When the pastor wanted to recognize those whod served in Operation Desert Storm, both brothers stood. As the founder and director of Blackwater Security, Smith's initial vision has undeniably shaped and transformed a decade of war. He made his first-class debut for Surrey against Marylebone Cricket Club in Dubai on 24 March 2019. At this point, in rode Jamie Smith with his government credentials. Follow to get new release updates and improved recommendations. hired in 2009 to help in the effort to rescue Robert Levinson, rescuing Pelton from a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia, disbarred for abusing client escrow accounts. You have two [possible] civil claims worth much more than his civil claim against you., Smith responded about an hour later: Sounds like a first shot over the bow to me that we should take.. Jamie Smith is an Investment Advisor and agent of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI). Email Jamie Smith. X-Files (1998) In 2010, Smiths Pennsylvania victims sued to get their money back. Tom Cruise plays a secret agent that goes on the run to uncover a rogue spy ring responsible for a series of disasters and assassinations. He got his diploma from Regent in 2000 and then went to Boston University to pursue a graduate degree in tax law. SCGs creator and boss, Jamie Smith, was the main draw for most students who came: ex-CIA, Harvard educated, a cofounder of Blackwater, and an all-around world traveler and hired gun. And the accuracy of his book has been called into question by CIA veterans such as retired officers James Hughes and William D. Murray, which is just one reason why Red Planet and Pathbender felt the material would make a good movie. Capricorn One (1977) In the spring of 2014 his publisher delayed Gray Works publication without explanation. Smith fired back, having his lawyer, Jim Thurman, call and warn of a possible countersuit. Let me ask you guys something before we get off into this, he said. Footer menu. He promised to teach people insider tricks for making money in real estate and minimizing their tax burdens. We worked and sweated for years to build that company. Losing their money to Smith, he says, has put a strain on my relationship with my wife and kids. The document dump is part of a $30 million libel suit Smith filed in January against reporters Atkins and Fechter and Outside. When Fisher had called him on it, Smith just laughed it off. Smith represented himself in an appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court, but in November 2012, it ruled in favor of the Sanfords. There would be a national book tour and maybe some high-profile media attention. He turned for help to congresswoman Sue Myrick, a North Carolina Republican who sat on the House Intelligence Committee. You are in the catbirds seat, Titus wrote on the day the Sanfords money was due. Warner Bros. For starters, Pelton had already been released, escorted away from his kidnappers by a Catholic priest. Ive been beat up for four, five years. What he did instead was spend it on a combination of bad investments, personal luxuries, and the land, gear, and employees required to make SCG become big-time. Plenty of people believed him, including the Air Force (which paid him $7 million to train personnel) and William Morrow, which signed him up to write his memoir. The agency is not in the business of fact-checking memoirs. One of his former bosses at the firm, Gary Jackson, describes Smith as a low-level administrator in the months following 9/11. The SCG compound was the hub for a major international operation that touted offices in London, Dubai, Islamabad, Buenos Aires, and Kabul. Universal Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007) Smith declined to discuss this episode with Outside, but Pelton verifies that Smith was wounded in 2004, when he was traveling near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier starred. In Gray Work, Smith recounts his exploits as a CIA-trained spy working for the State Department and how he co-founded Blackwater after 9/11, as well as his decision to leave the private security firm. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Absolute Power (1997) Of all the questions that continue to dog Smith, perhaps the most puzzling is what convinced one of the worlds largest publishing companies to bank on a story that people familiar with Smith have decried as more fiction than fact. As of February 2009, Smiths accounts still held $2.6 million of the Sanfords original $12.5 million. Woohoo. Based on this perception, Smith pulled down some $20 million, including $12.5 million that he took from a trusting couple in Pennsylvania, Craig and Mary Jo Sanford, who thought his international contacts qualified him to safeguard their money in an investment account. Three days after Gray Works publication, the top comment on its Amazon page was from retired CIA officer William D. Murray, who spent 36 years in the agency. Smith could sue him for that, Titus said, and for defamation. He was an extraordinarily good storyteller and if he had written a story of redemption about his contracting work and the rest of it, it would have been brilliant.. It was clear that this guy didnt really have any projects going on, Polk says. Jamie Smith. And there is no evidence, according to former SCG employees, that the company did much beyond running its training camps and angling for more government contracts, which SCG had been competing for since 2005. Deal Central gives you the latest on Hollywood casting, script buys, greenlights and negotiations in the entertainment industry. In 2009, Smith testified that he didnt see anything wrong with hiring Titus at SCG just three weeks after Titus had been indicted on fraud charges. She is also a running coach in the school district and a . The Sanfords were owed $12.5 million with interest. Big haired, charismatic, and a Regent University law grad like Smith, Titus took to organizing asset-protection seminars to lure investors. One of the sources who was allegedly cajoled into defaming Smith, according to the lawsuit against Outside, is Mike Rush, the former president of Smiths security company SCG. Only then was his book still published despite public doubts about his credibility. While investigating a case involving a missing porn actress, a private eye (Ryan Gosling) and an enforcer (Russell Crowe) uncover a conspiracy involving auto manufacturers and corrupt politicians. According to Smith, the delay was caused by the review process. Jurors didnt buy it. Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts star. JFKs assassination made viewers more suspicious and thats reflected in our films. Smith handed over a promissory note that said the money would be returned in 18 months, with interest. Former SCG trainers like Cusanno and Watts says Smith loved action and loved the game-playing aspects of SCG most of all: the paintball fights, the secret meetings, the rescue missions in the shoot house. It was on many calls when we talked about shelving it Theyre the publishers of American Sniper, [the book from military celebrity Chris Kyle whose later discredited chronicles included picking off looters from the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, shooting dead two carjackers without consequence, and beating up ex-SEAL and former governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura] and now theyre doing Gray Work, Oliver told The Daily Beast. But thats neither the book Smith chose to write nor the one that HarperCollins chose to publish. Yet on page 10 of his memoir, Smith writes, Today our new company name is Gray Solutions, but our mission is the same. Plenty of people believed him, including the Air Force (which paid him $7 million to train personnel . He was going to quit first. But its not the book that Baer was hoping to read. Jamie Smith (born 25 December 1997) is an English professional footballer who currently plays as a defender for Greenville Triumph in the USL League One . Promoted to staff accountant in July 2009, began as Accounts Receivable coordinator. Mary Jo had to take a job with the company that bought them out, consolidating reports of medical-waste pickup along the East Coast. We know for sure only that he worked as a Christian karate instructor while at Regent. Gray Works back cover features quotes from some impressive names, including CIA veteran Baer and retired Army Delta Force commander Colonel Lee Van Arsdale. Most of those passages follow a formula: a simple explanation of the supposed wrongdoing, a dismissive comment on the misunderstanding, and a sentence or two about what hes learned or how hes grown from the experience. I just finished this book and found it to be a fascinating glimpse into the dark and dangerous world of espionage, tradecraft etc. Smith also put money into real estate. Smiths rsum and his claims were never part of the pitch for government contracts, Rush says. Perhaps Smiths book has, as he asserted in our interview, been fact-checked. Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts star. Rush maintains that, even though Smiths backstory didnt hold up, the services SCG provided to its clients and the Air Force were legit: student reviews and official assessments were consistently positive, he says. That should be ample assurance for anyone.. Marvel Studios Those a**holes arent telling us anything thats going on, and I want you to damn well change that for meunderstand? Smith writes his chief told him. Let's Connect. I never have owned a gun. Were not going down that path, Honig wrote back. Bob Baer, for one, read the Outside article questioning Smiths bona fides, and figured that was the end for him. When Jamie contacted me, I genuinely wanted to say if Id made a mistake. Establishing that would be easy, he said. I got to thinking, Hes smart, hes got a law degree, Smith testified during a hearing before Tituss fraud trial, hes got way more experience at those types of things than I have, and I had some, you know, just some basic things that I needed done.. In all, Smiths military career appears to consist of just over a year spent in the training pipeline before he decided to voluntarily withdraw.. Smith told Outside that he had nothing to do with the company Gray Solutions. During this period of expansion, Smith never contacted the Sanfords. Paramount This Michelangelo Antonioni film starred David Hemmings as a photographer who discovers the clues to a potential murder in the photos he took of a beautiful woman. The Outside piece I thought was devastating, Baer said. After the book was delayed the second time, we again tried to contact Smith about his overseas work. We would never hire somebody at 18, 19, or 20 years old, he said. But it definitely is an issue for former members of the CIA. Its not clear whenor even ifGray Work will be released, and this is the second delay since we started asking questions about Smith. He was dismissed for 127 in the first innings, setting a . Robbins wrote that a preponderance of the evidence establishes SCG has failed to demonstrate its present responsibility; and debarment is in the public interest and necessary to protect the Governments interests. Word of the Sanford fraud judgment spread. Smith has a background as a CIA officer in publications for SCG, [4] although this assertion has been challenged and never independently verified. Smith is a controversial figure in the world of private security. Ive done undercover work myself, Cusanno says. It cited the judgment in the Sanford lawsuit as the reason. We can trust this.. He denied his friendship and business relationship with Troy Titus and said that the millions paid by the Defense Department to SCG was money well spent. According to Pelton, Smith told him he was shot in the left shoulder by two Taliban on a motorcycle. Jamie Smith for Governor JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN FOCUSED ON SOUTH DAKOTA Jamie does not want to import problems into our state. He was fascinated by war tactics.. As for the Sanfords, it took a while, but they eventually realized there might be a problem. But in 2012 the Air Force (PDF) barred SCG from working with them, making Smiths firm ineligible for all federal procurement programs, for three years. I stand by everything I said in the Outside article, he told The Daily Beast. I had to laugh, Sanford said when he heard about these measures. Sanford was impressed. Blow-Up (1966) Running for re-election in District 15! They Live (1988) People have a right to their opinions, and they have a right to be wrong, Hedley wrote. Though this claim likely isnt true, he sticks to the Moscow Rules and stands by the story when pressed on it. He said he was in Libya in September and October of 2011, working with the opposition to Qaddafi. I know HarperCollins. When he stared down Jamie among the flags and the hymnals, Jamie just smiled and put a finger to his lips. Morgan says he made one call and Jamie never appeared on Fox again. Gene Hackman stars as a surveillance expert who soon begins to think he's the one being watched. The Will Smith and Gene Jackman thriller tells the story of a group of NSA agents who conspire to kill a Congressman and the cover up that ensues after a tape of the murder is discovered. Simpson star. Thats not an issue.. A few days later, the Sanfords wrote two checks made out to SCG International, both for $6.25 million. We provide services for those same groups in the form of training, security, and information collection., The e-mail worked: Smith established communications with Stratfor officials. I know there is some controversy about this author and this book but if you . The secrecy that shrouds operations doesnt cover personal relationships among the clannish intelligence elite. As proof of his CIA past, Smith sent Johnson the same scrapbook of documents provided to The Daily Beast. Entangled with disbarred attorney and convicted fraud Troy Titus, who is currently serving 30 years in federal prison for operating an $8 million Ponzi scheme? Then he built on that auspicious start to become a top security contractor paid to train the U.S. military and hired by foreign states to assassinate terrorists. Even so, Rush says that by early 2010, the entire operation was running in the red. Smiths chief cohort during the conflict that followed was a man named Troy Titus, a huckster who in December 2009 was sentenced to 30 years in prison for what a federal judge called an absolutely massive fraud. In September 2005, long before his December 2009 conviction, Titus had been disbarred for abusing client escrow accounts. In 2009, SCG was hired to work on behalf of Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007. In October 2012 the government shut down his lucrative contracting business. Upon graduation, I enrolled at Ole Miss and involved myself with Republican politics, he wrote. Warner Bros. GMP LLC Michael Fechter, who lives in Tampa, Florida, is a former investigative reporter for the Tampa Tribune. In 2011, after a Virginia civil-court jury said Smith defrauded the Sanfords, the Air Force banned SCG from obtaining contracts for three years. I would put my hand on a stack of Bibles and say, Absolutely, I was an officer at the Central Intelligence Agency at age 21, Smith told us during an interview in April. 1 Streak, Ginny & Georgia Seasons 1 and 2 Lead English TV, Naked Gun Reboot Hopes to Start Shooting This Summer, Says Liam Neeson, Ted Lasso Season 3 First Look: Ted Faces Off With Nate, Schmigadoon! Season 2 Sets April Premiere Date: See First Look, Schmigadoon! Enemy of the State (1998) INTENTIONAL. Its crazy. Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman create a fake war to cover up a presidential scandal in an election year in this dramedy. If anyone asks you what you do/where youre from, just tell them youre from up near Williamsburg (which is true) and you deal with a federal agency (which is truethe IRS), he wrote. This book was vetted by the CIA and FBI, published by one of the largest publishing companies in the world and the movie rights are being handled by a leading and very well-respected talent agency. Gray Work: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy [Smith, Jamie] on Amazon.com. We never lost a client, Grays new website reads, something not many can say.. But for reasons that Smith and his agent declined to explain, storyteller was dropped from the blurb. DeLaurentis handled a lot of the Air Force training at Fort Dix. Rush says Smith didnt have the balls to do it. But his claim is that as basically a 20-year-old he was sent to the front lines of operations with no training., I can show you cleaning ladies and people that work in the cafeteria that have a CIA badge, Johnson said. Nor is the blurb that appears on Gray Work exactly what Baer provided. This fall was supposed to mark Smiths return to glory. Jamie Smiths Controversial Memoir About Days as CIA Super-Spy Lands Movie Deal (Exclusive), Investigating My Brothers Killing: A Search for Answers Becomes a Netflix True CrimeDocumentary, Inside Netflix's Strong Island: How A Young Teacher Was Killed Then Blamed for His Own Death, Antoine Fuqua to Direct Michael Jackson Biopic for Lionsgate, Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel, Penlope Cruz and Roger Federer to Co-Chair 2023 Met Gala, GLAAD Media Awards: Tr, Bros, Nope, Hacks, Demi Lovato and Omar Apollo Among Nominees, Meryl Streep Joins Only Murders in the Building Season 3 on Hulu, Netflix Top 10: Pale Blue Eye Kills Glass Onions No. Only two of us are still alive and Im one them. Clandestine CIA operatives operate in a shadowy world but a small one. Sanford says he already seemed to be aware of their financial situation, and though Smith said he usually didnt deal with such small amounts, he agreed to help. Morgan often played golf with the brother of Fox News anchor Shepard Smith. Gentlemen, any work by Jamie Smith can only be classified as pure fiction, Prince said in an e-mail. Won what? Smith addressed the Sanford case in Gray Work, giving it one paragraph in the almost 400-page memoir, less space than he spent on a bowel movement in a previous chapter. He ended up working as a firearms instructor, post-9/11, at the controversial North Carolinabased paramilitary firm Blackwater. He was pretty popular, standing out for his obsession with martial arts. He wanted to be a ninja. The Levinson familys representativesone of them a former FBI agentsaid they refused to pay for Smiths visits to luxury hotels and restaurants in London. The Parallax View (1974) If you were lucky, Smith might tell you about the time he was shot in Pakistan or how he became a decorated CIA officer during the Gulf War. I do believe that he was at CIA, probably as an intern, Johnson says. Unlike an executive who claims to have been employed by IBM for 25 years and whose claim is challenged, Defendants quickly realized that Smith was under a tremendous handicap. If that happened, you were told, exciting work would follow: protecting a cargo shipment in the Middle East, say, or running special missions deep inside a war-torn African nation. Itll be fun., Mike Rush ended up having an ugly break with Smith, but in Smiths defense he argues that the Air Force got its moneys worth, because SCG had hired legitimate people to do most of the instruction. After Smith graduated from high school in 1988, he enrolled at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, along with his hometown friend Clay Fisher. Trivia (3) Member of Jos Ferrer 's theatrical company from 1947-48. Instead, after many phone calls, they were told by a laywer of Smith's that the money had been lost in the stock market. Zero chance.. After roughly five dozen more unreturned phone calls, Craig Sanford informed Smith that hed hired a lawyer. Portfolio Services About Blog Contact Open Menu Close Menu. His whole room looked like a war room. If, instead, Smith is a liar, hes shown an exceptional talent for profiting from it while fooling the U.S. government, investors, and, now, perhaps, a major book publisher. Main News Jamie Smith seeking trophies in 2022 Surrey's Jamie Smith has returned from his first taste of England Lions action with a singular focus; putting in consistent. Real Estate. ARCHIVED. A man who is obsessed with conspiracy theories finds himself a target when one of his hypotheses turns out to be true. Jamie Smith says he was recruited into the CIA as an undergraduate at Ole Miss, cofounded Blackwater, and has done clandestine intelligence work all over the world, operating out of a counterterrorism boot camp in the woods of north Mississippi. Johnson says theres no way the CIA would have plucked a kid from Ole Miss and given him serious duties. Its unknown how many people actually signed up. The Sanfords werent the only people who say they were taken in. Jamie Smith says he was recruited into the CIA as an undergraduate at Ole Miss, cofounded Blackwater, and has done clandestine intelligence work all over the world, operating out of a counterterrorism boot camp in the woods of north Mississippi. I have experienced working with diverse populations within my community. Among other things, he began carrying a concealed weapon, bought an armored Suburban, and purchased a protection dog from Boudreaus outfit, Baden K-9. They were scared to death about being on the Oprah Winfrey Show and someone dissecting this.. George Clooney and Matt Damon star in this international thriller that took a look at the global influence of the oil industry and their shady politics. James Brolin, Sam Waterston and O.J. The money was said to be very good. Shhh. AGE View Full Report AGE Phone Address View Full Report AGE View Full Report AGE Phone Address View Full Report Powered by Whitepages Premium AGE 40s Smith lectured at the camp wearing cool, snug-fit Crye combat gear and Wiley X shooter glasses. When questioned about his past, Smith has mostly let his lawyer do the talking. Sanford, he claimed, essentially sent $12.5 million to a total stranger. Ace Atkins is a journalist and novelist in Oxford, Mississippi. In 1998, unable to attend his classs ten-year reunion, Smith sent a summary of his career to the reunion committee, and it was filled with dubious claims. Any advice which may be given in respect of non-securities services is given by Jamie Smith solely and no such . Smith found the seed money he needed for SCG on a chilly morning in November 2007, when he rolled into Falls Township, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, at the behest of a friend who introduced him to Craig Sanford. Columbia Just when things looked bleakest, Smiths luck turned. So we walked around Bogot, did some shopping, and we flew home., The newspaper asked Pelton how much of what Smith said could be believed. During that time, some people thought Smith was in Africa, others Texas. Much of Smiths story centers on his role at Blackwater, which sent private soldiers to both Iraq and Afghanistan during the American occupations there. In 2002 Prince, along with former CIA operative Jamie Smith, created Blackwater Security Consulting, which would put former Navy SEALs and other special ops on the market. That presents a problem for both the author and his publisher, HarperCollins, who are trying to sell a book freshly stocked on the non-fiction shelves while some veterans of the intelligence community denounce it as a fabrication. The true mission is how they can help in regime change, Burton wrote. and, along the way, face off with an assassin known as Winter Soldier. If he holds up ten fingers, I know theres really only two, Pelton said. He graduated Harvard with the highest honors. According to credit card statements released during the Sanford case, Smith was spending a lot of his time and money in Hawaii during this period. Jamie Smith Partner. Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early career 1.2 College 1.3 Greenville Triumph 2 Personal life 3 References 4 External links Career [ edit] Early career [ edit] He hadnt received a paycheck in ten months. He wasnt on a special-ops mission, though: he was working for a news organization that was trying to find Osama bin Laden. One favorite: Use misdirection, illusion, and deception. Even when the bastards are onto you, stick with it. Ultimately, he did, says retired FBI special agent Tom Tierney, who had investigated Titus and also Smith. The sole job of the CIA review board, as explained in a post by John Hollister Hedley, then-director of the review board, is to assist authors in avoiding inadvertent disclosure of classified information which, if disclosed, would be damaging to national securityjust that and nothing more.. Titus advised Smith, in e-mails obtained by federal prosecutors, to play hardball with the Sanfords, often in the Lords name. Later he was told by Todd Smith, who handled SCGs books, that Jamie owed a lot of people money but he couldnt be reached. Smith also hired a blond personal assistant. SCG had a right to protest the move, but it never replied, and the ban took effect on October 17, 2012. He sounded like that guy from Despicable Me., Cusanno was paid $1,800 a week to train Air Force personnel. February 7, 2022 Main News Smith's journey to England Lions call-up When Jamie Smith was named in the England Lions squad that will shadow the senior squad during their Ashes preparation,. This Michelangelo Antonioni film starred David Hemmings as a photographer who discovers the clues to a potential murder in the photos he took of a beautiful woman. [5] While investigating a case involving a missing porn actress, a private eye (Ryan Gosling) and an enforcer (Russell Crowe) uncover a conspiracy involving auto manufacturers and corrupt politicians. Theres not a day that goes by without thinking of his face., Mary Jo says the whole ordeal has changed them. Jamie's Quotes "I don't train to be in a gunfight; I'd much rather be in a shootingthere's a difference. The site was managed by indicted swindler Titus, and the family say they never saw a dime of any proceeds it may have generated. A mutual friend asked for the quote and Van Arsdale provided it on the strength of his friends word, the retired colonel added. According to Mike Rush, SCGs former president and a onetime Navy SEAL, the company also hired a couple of impressive specialistsa logistics director and another former Navy Sealwho helped them beat out the competition in nailing down business. There were pricey dinners, child-support payments for his brother, Todd (who later became SCGs vice president), school tuition for Smiths kids, and gun purchases. With a verifiable history of success ranging from leading and growing a business from start-up to scale-up and sale, running programs of work to align operational efficiencies with . As for Smith, he was rumored to be in Batesville earlier this year, riding his motorcycle. Tales of espionage, rescue missions, and assassinations bleed with bravado. They won, but they havent succeeded in getting him to pay up, partly because he left the country for much of the past two years and has been very hard to find. Smith lost an appeal (PDF) in 2012, but still maintains that he plans to fight the judgment in court. What could possibly go wrong? He is a subject matter expert in terrorism, security and tactical / firearms training and currently is an advisor / board member to two global private military companies. Did Jamie rip them off? He was cocky and sure-footed, citing the Moscow Rules, a vintage collection of Cold War maxims for doing battle with the KGB. Jamie Smith is a legend in his own book, the controversial new memoir Gray Work: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy. On the stand, he insisted that hed never met, called, or written Craig Sanford, though some of his staff may have. He liked to tell one about being shot with an AK-47 in the shoulder. Gray Work represents a first of sorts in the publishing world. A lot of federal contracts were on the table in the mid-2000s, as the U.S. government carried out wars and security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. I served as an Intelligence Officer in the Counter Terrorism Division. Id crawl under a hole at that point and never come out., And its still an issue for Larry Johnson, another former CIA officer whose extensive comments about Smiths claims are best summed up by a stand-alone quote in the Outside article: Horseshit., In an interview with The Daily Beast, Smith responded to his critics: Well, the field that Im insecurity contracting and private military contractingis a very competitive field and a lot of people play dirty pool in that arena, he said. Join Outside+ to get Outside magazine, access to exclusive content, 1,000s of training plans, and more.