CIA director and Cuban soap operas

Last September, Gen. Michael Hayden (Director, Central Intelligence Agency) addressed the ODNI Open Source Conference in Washington, D.C. about the importance of open source intelligence collection.

General Hayden made an interesting anecdote (as follows) about his visit to a Key West open source facility wherein he watched a Cuban program and observed what analysts were able to extract from broadcasts on the island.

“In addition to that, we made a special effort to visit the outposts in the open source enterprise as well, and I think I we’ve got four of those already in terms of notches on my belt.  One stop that meant a great deal to me was designed to be a courtesy call.  I was in Key West, not on business.  (Chuckles.)  And there is an open source facility there that looks at that island about 90 miles just off the southern marker buoy there.

It was going to be a 20-minute courtesy call.  I was there for three hours because, talk about time on target, the people in this little cinderblock shack on the extreme southern reaches of Key West knew so much about what was happening in Cuba.  And for me as the Director of CIA to sit with them and watch Cuban soap operas and have them tell me what they were extracting from watching these soap operas was quite remarkable.

They gave me a videotape, DVD, of a program that they had captured from the Internet.  And it had a Cuban soap-opera star starring in it, and there are only two other players.  And his name is Nicanor (sp) and he’s making a fine brew of coffee and there’s a knock at his door.  And it’s two individuals from the security service to install the microphones. (Laughter.)

We’re here to install the microphones.  He says, what do you mean, microphones?  And it goes for about 17 minutes of some of the most subtle satiric commentary on a totalitarian state I have ever seen.  He mentions that they have to decide where to put the microphones and they can t put them in the kitchen because it s too noisy and the bedroom air conditioner interferes with it.  So, finally, they say, we have to put the microphones in the bathroom.  (Laughter.)

So he says, when I criticize the government, I must go into the bathroom? (Laughter.)  And he said, why don’t we put another microphone over here?  And then they begin to criticize him.  What kind of person are you?  There are only a limited number of microphones in Cuba!  (Laughter.) There’s a family down the street that criticizes the government day and night. They have 11 kids and they’re only allotted one microphone.

It gave me a new appreciation for life and thought and the situation on the island.”

It looks like Gen. Hayden is referring to Monte Rouge, a Cuban satirical short, which spoofs state security. (Click video above to see the short.)

[H/T: Danger Room]

Tagged as: CIA, Cuba, Cuban, Cuban soap operas, DA, DI, DIA, Government, Intelligence, IT, Key West, land, NAM, ODNI, PLA, Security, state, state security, US, Washington