“It was pretty exciting to see the successful bombing of an Iraqi military target on CNN based on information that I had sent to Washington”, said former CIA spymaster Andre Le Gallo. Pictured here: A $1.5 million dollar Tomahawk cruise missile is fired from an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer during Operation Desert Fox during the Gulf War in December 1998.
It’s not everyday that you are approached by a former spy for the Central Intelligence Agency offering to be interviewed. Especially not one with the credentials of Andre Le Gallo – an American hero.
For those who don’t know Andre Le Gallo is a legend in the spy world.
Le Gallo is a veteran of several coups, a war and a revolution.
During a distinguished thirty-year career with the CIA, he served in the Middle East, South East Asia, North and West Africa, and Eastern and Western Europe. He was Chief of Station in four countries, managing counterintelligence, covert action and special operations.
He was also the National Intelligence Officer for Counterterrorism.
On this particular occasion Le Gallo opened up about his accomplishments over his distinguished 33 year long career at CIA:
“You ask about my accomplishments”, Le Gallo said. “Let me give that a try, not an easy topic over a thirty-three year career. I was an operations officer and our primary mission was to acquire intelligence not otherwise available to the White House and policy makers. In other words to breach the walls built by foreign countries to keep their secrets secret. Most of my service was during the Cold War when our primary mission was to learn the Soviet Union’s
plans and intentions.”
“Therefore I think that recruiting and running a high level KGB source who produced hundreds of intelligence reports was a notable contribution. Another was to disrupt Vietminh supply routes in Northern Laos by directing Hmong guerrillas to crater roads and blow up bridges. And it was pretty exciting to see the successful bombing of an Iraqi military target on CNN based on information that I had sent to Washington”, said Andre Le Gallo.
Following his intelligence career, Le Gallo joined a Fortune 10 company as the VP for Corporate Security. He initiated global programs to protect corporate assets, introduced competitive intelligence methods, and established crisis management policies.
After 911, Le Gallo was asked to participate as a board member for a think tank under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, spoke on national security issues at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Labs,Microsoft and Oracle, and multiple universities including Harvard Law School, Rice, UC Berkeley, and Stanford.
LeGallo has been published in the “Intelligence and Counterintelligence Journal”, “The Intelligencer”, “The Forensic Examiner”, in “Studies in Intelligence” and by “United Press International”. His first novel, “The Caliphate”, was published in 2010 and his second, “Satan’s Spy”, in 2012.
According to a CIA source – he was a Senior Operations Officer from 1961-1994 and is highly regarded even today by everyone at the agency. I guess you could say his reputation speaks for itself.
Andre Le Gallo was recently featured in a magazine article Living in the West: http://www.livinginthewest.com/