Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy - Eamon Javers [118]
Fox began lining up distinguished international spies and business executives to serve on Veracity’s board of directors. He soon landed two impressive names. One was Sir Richard Dearlove, who served as the chief—known as “C”—of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from 1999 until 2004. The SIS is commonly known in Britain as MI6, and its head is the nation’s top spy. Dearlove is a British knight, and a member of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, a class of knighthood generally reserved for foreign-service officers and diplomats. Fox also brought in an American, Stuart Eizenstat. A partner at the law firm Covington and Burling, Eizenstat heads the international trade and finance practice, and could provide an invaluable connection to the top of the international corporate world. Eizenstat was a deputy secretary of the treasury under President Clinton and helped negotiate the Kyoto Protocol, among other international agreements.
And Fox began hiring intelligence veterans. The former CIA intelligence analyst Josh Mikesell became a partner. As senior advisers, Fox brought in Frank Anderson, the former chief of the CIA’s Near East Division; Mel Gamble, former deputy chief of the CIA’s European Division; Flynt Leverett, a veteran of the CIA who served as senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council; and another CIA veteran, Art Brown.
THOSE CONNECTIONS LED Fox to Veracity’s briefing in New York on North Korea. Like any other businesses, corporate intelligence firms have to hustle for new clients. But this can be tricky when the work product, and the techniques that produce it, are confidential. Often the secret is to show prospective clients just a glimpse of what a firm can do—and dazzle them with behind-the-scenes tales of spycraft.
As the audience members noshed on bagels and poured themselves cups of coffee, Fox welcomed guests from the prestigious law firm White and Case, the investment banks Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, and two private equity firms. The main attraction on this morning was Art Brown, who had retired from the CIA in 2005 and whom Fox had recruited as a senior adviser for Asian issues. With a bullet-shaped bald head and eyeglasses, Brown looked like Hollywood’s idea of a CIA officer. His credentials are impressive. During his twenty-five years in the CIA, Brown lived in Asia for more than twenty years, served as a chief of station in three Asian capitals, and rose to become the chief of the Asia Division for the CIA’s clandestine service. He advised the president of the United States in person on Asian issues, and testified in closed-door sessions of Congress about national security and economic and regional stability in Asia.
Brown sat at the head of the table at the Princeton Club and gave the same insights he’d given to presidents and senators, but this time to the paying clients—and prospective clients—of Veracity. He was joined at the head of the table by the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Stephen Bosworth. Today, Bosworth is dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and sits on the advisory board of Veracity Worldwide.
Together, the two men gave a short presentation on North Korea. In deference to protocol, Bosworth spoke first. He alerted the bankers and lawyers that the North Koreans thought a deal was at hand in the protracted talks with the West about their rogue nuclear weapons program. He also laid out North Korea’s two goals for diplomacy with the outside world: removal of North Korea from the State Department’s list of countries