Killing intellectuals
How law breakers and criminals stay ahead at the Pentagon
Imagine this: you are driving home from your local grocery store. Another car, slightly older, slightly more banged up than yours, approaches from behind and drives too close to your bumper. You are initially not concerned. You do, after all, live in a decent, safe neighborhood, and surely no reckless or drunk driver would be up here so close to your home.
You hum along with your music, and before you even see the car, it has come up parallel to you on a two-lane road and is smashing the side of your vehicle – seeking to push you off the road. Your mind flashes and as you grab the wheel to seek to stay on the road, you find your car barreling off the road at 45 miles an hour – as you look up – you see the other car driving off and for a brief 3 seconds you see the license plate and the numbers and letters are seared into your mind, right before your airbag pops out with such force you are knocked unconscious.
You wake up in a hospital. Damage to your entire body, one broken leg, a splitting headache, and a caste on your right hand.
Six months later, you are back home – finally out of the hospital. It has been, and will yet be a long road to a complete recovery. A call comes in on your phone and you recognize it at once – it’s the local police detective who has been looking for the driver, who deliberately targeted and nearly killed you. Good news, he says. The license plate you had remembered, matches the license plate shown in several stores' cameras – which recorded the whole incident, and the man responsible has been identified as none other than your manager at work.
You are confused at first. Why, in God’s name, would your short, fat little boss at work risk his own life and career to kill you? You ask your friends, and one of them quite bluntly points out: well, you did just interview to become his boss, not his equal – not another manager – but his boss. Maybe he just couldn’t handle the idea of working for you.
You ponder this and dismiss the idea of out of hand. No one would break so many laws and go so far to harm you. Then, out of the blue – and unsolicited, you get a call from your company's general counsel. He doesn’t use your boss’s name, but he says quite clearly: “you know, you haven’t been treated that well, and we would like to give you $40,000.00 to just - you know, clear up any misunderstandings.” At first, you think of the medical bills. They have stacked up – your sister had to sell some of her and her husbands retirement plan – to get you the 60k needed to get the second surgery on your leg. You tell the General Counsel about the cost she had to bare, to get you fixed, and about the cost of your treatment going forward.
“Well, then that’s a no. Don’t say we didn’t offer – I’m glad you want to go to court, I would VERY MUCH like to litigate this case to get rid of you.”
The callous harshness of the lawyer stings. Not just because of the words, but no, it stings much, much deeper because the woman who just said this to you, is someone who you have always been kind to. Who have you gone out of your way to help out, when she had legal and policy questions on HR issues.
Three years goes by, and you had moved to a new company – a rival one, still dealing with your badly injured leg – that will never be the same. But you are working hard, getting great performance appraisals and out of the blue, are offered a promotion to go to an even larger company in the same industry. The money is better, you need the extra 12,000.00 a year for your medical bills. And although you don’t currently own a car, the company says they will give you an extra 6,000 a year to make sure you can afford the longer commute. You take the job, as much out of need to take care of your own medical needs as anything else. Plus there is the sixty thousand dollars that your sister and brother in law were counting on for their retirement, just to make sure you can walk again.
You let your manager know about your decision and give him your two weeks notice. He seems taken completely by surprise: “well, what would it take you to stay?” He asks. You pause. You hadn’t expected this response. The boss continues before you can answer, “tell you what, I’ll make you a Department Head, and 30k extra if you stay here.” You let him know you will get back to him. You talk to co workers and others, and ultimately decide, that even though you would prefer to move to the larger company, for a better working environment, ensuring your sister is still able to retire and not be in the poor house is more important.
So you email your boss and let him know you accept his offer to make you a department head. He confirms and thanks you via email. You let the other company know, and they are sorry to see you turn down the job, but simply cant match the offer. A year passes, and your boss still has not promoted you to department head – nor has your pay increased. In fact, all that has changed is you are made an “acting department head.” You enjoy the position and are getting superb performance appraisals, with some cash bonuses. But not nearly what you would make if your boss had kept is word. You bring it up to his boss. The larger boss tells you he is looking into it, discretely. So you rest easy, knowing the right thing will happen eventually.
Then, on one quiet Friday, you are attending the weekly staff meeting – where most of the other managers are in the room, and still more from across the company are on zoom. Your boss begins: “Good morning everyone. Let’s start by thanking Linda for her great job as Acting Department Head. As you all know, from our prior discussions – Linda will be stepping down as Acting department head as of today, and turning all decisions and control over to me by the end of the day. Linda will be taking over our corporate oversight and compliance role, as a single contributer.”
Linda is not just shell shocked – it’s like someone has punched her in the gut. She cant find any words – any words. People around the room and on the zoom congratulate you, but with the cruel grins people have when they know they have beaten an office opponent in the corporate game of life.
You thank them, and you are not being insincere. You don’t know what to do, what to say.
You find later – that the manager had used a doctors note, that you had not sent him – but that you had sent to HR, to justify firing you from your acting department head position. The letter from your doctor had requested a reasonable accommodation – due to the leg pain, he had recommended you have a full size office where you can put your foot up to rest. But you already have that office…you had it as soon as you were appointed as acting department head – so the leg situation is managed.
They assign you to a new cubicle, so small, that you can’t fit into it physically. Your gut has put on more than a few pounds since the car wreck. You bring it to their attention – and they say it’s the only one available.
You turn once again to your managers boss, and he says that he is still looking into it to see what can be done. But at this point, Linda has been fired by her boss that ran her off the road, not for anything wrong she had done – quite the contrary – but no one in her company would come to her defense.
__________________
The above is a fictional story – written by me, to simplify and yes dramatize what I have been living through since 2023.
But, I am – metaphorically at least - Linda. In the fall of 2019, I had been encouraged to apply to become the DISL (SES) in charge of Naval Intelligence Policy and Strategy. If selected, the promotion would be a promotion beyond the GS-15, that would be just one pay grade higher than my GS-14. Yet, senior leadership – the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, and others in the Pentagon had encouraged me to apply. I worked with my mentor at the time – Mr. Mark Russ, to see what the process was for even writing executive core qualifications (ECQs). You had written them over several months and sent them to OPM along with your application. To your surprise and excitement, OPM approved you as qualified for the DISL role. I had already heard through the grapevine – from Brian Nicholson – that only 5 candidates had made the OPM cut, so I would undoubtedly be at least interviewed.
This was shaping up to be a great year. I had – just the year prior - completed a successful rotation supporting operators out at Naval Special Warfare Command. And seeing what they do and being welcomed so warmly – I decided to apply to rejoin the Navy reserves. I had spent 9 years in the IRR as a commissioned officer from 2006 to May of 2015. I had even completed the medical screening. And then the following week, my boss Brian Nicholson and his acting deputy – Brian Kalamajka, a term civilian employee on a limited contract – and navy reservist, released what they hoped would be crippling data about my mental health. I am neurodiverse. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2006, and with a mood disorder in May of 2013. None of which proved to be a problem for my TS-SCI clearance, since it was all properly disclosed to the security office and on my SF-86. But that data is - theoretically – and in a government that actually enforces the law – considered private and not provided to your supervisor – for rather obvious reasons. They generally can’t discriminate against those with hidden disabilities, when they don’t know about them.
I had also just completed Navy’s NAVIGATION 3-year leadership development program, where the Navy invested three years in those they anticipated would be the future senior executives from NCIS, Naval Intelligence and other Navy civilian positions. I worked policy, specifically intelligence policy – for Naval Intelligence since 2015. I was the properly designated Navy representative to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), intelligence policy advisory group, CIA’s National Open Source Committee and to DIA’s Defense Open Source Committee. I have a law degree, a Masters from the Naval War College, and a certificate in artificial intelligence and machine learning from MIT. I was hand-selected by Naval Intelligence leadership – Ms. Lynn Wright and VADM Bob Sharp (former Director of NGA), as the Great Power Competition Team Lead. Over six months I led uniformed and civilian managers as we worked to implement SECDEF Jim Mattis’ 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS). The team was a great success. Our team members spanned the globe. Billets were moved, policies changed, strategies written.
All of that to say, that someone performing such a ham-fisted and illegal act as calling a Navy MEPS station to get your private medical data – was not something I expected to harm my career – not long term anyway. I was wrong.
I immediately reported the misuse of HIPPA data and impersonation of an active duty military officer (which is what Brian Kalamajka and Brian Nicholson) had claimed to be when they called the MEPS medical station – claiming they were my commanding officer and that they “needed” the medical data for “command safety reasons.”
Well, it turns out that a rumor in the Pentagon that “someone has issues, serious issues, not physical ones – but mental ones – is a pretty effective smear campaign against someone you dislike.
Management took immediate action – not to correct the problem, but to shelter and shield both Brians. Brian Kalamajka was reassigned to a permanent civil servant position with even greater authority at the Office of Naval Intelligence, and Brian Nicholson faced no consequence. To the best of my knowledge these two bigots are still working in the Pentagon and at the Office of Naval intelligence with top secret clearances – after lying, deceiving and abusing their authority.
When Linda Banks, the civilian attorney asked me how much money it would cost for the Navy to “make this all just go away.” I was horrified.
“There is not an amount of money to make this go away, and I am insulted you would even ask. This supervisor violated the law, he has discriminated against African Americans in our division saying we don’t need their “kind here,” tried (illegally) to fire a disabled Navy veteran who dared to challenge his authority, and tried to fire another woman who had a disability. In fact, the only men he did not try to fire, were heterosexual, white, Christian men.”
Linda was defensive – but at least she didn’t deny my repeat of events: “We settled all those cases already - just tell me the amount so we can all move forward.” I
paused and thought. This call was being mediated by the DOD inspector general office and Linda Banks, representing Navy.
“Okay, Linda.” I said: “Here is what it will cost the Navy to settle this. Write me a memo and sign it that states clearly, that the permanent personnel files of both Brian Kalamajka and Brian Nicholson will be marked to reflect their violations of the law, and what happened to me as a result, then I will agree to drop this and never bring it up again. I know you will not be able to show me their personnel files, but I just need a memo stating it has ben done. There was not even a pause.
“That is not something we are willing to do.”
“Well I don’t come to work every day or money. I didn’t apply to rejoin the navy reserves to make money – I did it to serve my country on the weekends the same way I do during the week.”
“Okay, Carson – well I would absolutely LOVE to litigate this case then, get some attorneys and tell me who they are.”
I was stunned. This lawyer, literally wanted me to get attorneys, rather than agree to – accurately – mark up the records of two employees.
“I don’t want to get attorneys, why don’t we just solve this, Linda.”
“I am no longer able to communicate with you about this case, and the Navy will not respond to any emails about this, until you provide the names of your attorneys.”
The call ended. I received a follow on email from the DoD IG mediator, encouraging me to accept a financial settlement. I went from annoyed to infuriated. The idea that the Navy had been paying out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to the victims of this racist, homophobic bigot – tax payer dollars – to hide his crimes, and would rather pay me tens of thousands of dollars for silence, then to simply write a sentence in his annual performance review – was shocking.
Needless to say, I did not go back to work for Naval Intelligence. In 2020, I was working on the Office of the Secretary of Defense Intelligence staff, and had even been requested by name to serve on President Trumps’ National Security council. Sandra Brown (the assistant deputy director of naval intelligence an SES position) had shut down that opportunity by claiming the Navy lacked the money to pay my salary while I would be on rotation at the White House. The excuse was laughable – the idea that the federal government couldn’t afford one civilians salary – to answer the request of the White House was insulting – not to me – but to the White House. Who does Ms. Brown think she is, to tell the White House – in this case to tell me to tell the Pentagon White House liaison, that I cant work on the NSC, because the Navy can’t afford to pay my salary? Who is in charge of the federal government anyway?
As my career progressed in OSD, I was offered another job by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Kevin Holmes – the Chief of Staff of OSD/I&S – and his incompetent deputy, Paula Harris – fired me when they improperly used my ADHD diagnosis, to claim I wasn’t suited for the position. The same position they gave me a 5/5 for performing along with a cash DCIPS bonus, due to the excellent feedback they had received from across the pentagon and outside of it, since I had become the Acting Division Chief of Mission Assurance and Strategic Partnerships.
After they fired me, and refused the reasonable accommodation my doctor had recommended – which had already been met due to my rank and position – an office with a door that closes – they didn’t stop. Paula told me with no ambiguity that I had to withdraw my complaint to Dustin Gard-Weiss, about her and Kevin not giving me the promised promotion that led to be declining the ODNI position, or she would use her connections to OSD/USD(I&S)- CL&S (counterintelligence and law enforcement) to get rid of my clearance.
This was – from my perspective at the time – a hollow threat. A manager couldn’t get rid of your clearance by asking a favor…little did I know. I had failed to account for facts I knew but was not considering: First, John Dixson[1] the big ego-small brain guy that Paul and Kevin hired from DIA to take over – what is arguably one of the most sensitive positions in the pentagon – had been hired by them, only after DIA ran him out of the building due to what were rumored to be dozens – not dozen – DOZENS of EEO complaints against him by women he had mistreated.
So, lets just say good ol’ boy harasser (according to pentagon rumor) Johnny owed Paula and Kevin a favor. Not to mention the fact that he absolutely hated me. Why? Well he had been – as some SES divas are prone to do – showed up 30 minutes late to an hour long meeting hosted by ODA&M, and the DOD inspector general – to discuss who was taking on oversight of all law enforcement officers – uniformed and civilian – across the Department of Defense. I had been leading the joint working group – to iron out just what this new department would do, who had which legal and policy authorities, where it would be housed, and other details. When Mr. Dixon sat down 30 minutes late, he sought to take control of the meeting by telling the DoD – IG – and Director of ODA&M that he was asserting control of all policies governing this new office.
I was embarrassed for him. He clearly had not done bothered to read the read-ahead and was politically inept as well, since two people in the room not just outranked him, they outranked our bosses boss – Mr. Moultrie. The DoD-IG and ODA&M who worked for the DEPSECEEF and Congress, were not beholden to the whims, of a joint duty assignee from DIA with dozens of EEO complaints against him. So, to save johnny any additional humiliation, I did what any good staff officer with a pair would do in such a high stakes meeting: I quietly handed him the read-ahead slides he clearly had not seen, and said gently, “Sir, just a quick back-brief – before you got here, ODA&M, and the IG, just agreed on a proper division of authorities, based on statutes, and executive orders.”
He took my back-brief as an attack on his authority. And asked what my name was and why I was authorized to be at the meeting. When I let him know I was there representing the chief of staff, and was leading the working group between his staff and ours – he was livid. So livid, that immediately upon the meeting concluding, he went straight to Kevin Holmes, insisted I be removed as the working group lead, and that I be fired.
Kevin came to me after and asked what I had said to John Dixon? “Carson, what did you do to him?” I told Kevin what had happened, which he confirmed with our ODA&M hosts, and he came to apologize to me. Kevin may be a lot of things – but he knows his pentagon politics, and knew that John being late to such a crucial SECDEF directed decision meeting, and then insulting THE IG of the Department and director of ODA&M who works directly as the Deputy Secretary of Defense’s right-hand in all issues, was completely inappropriate, and worse made Hon. Ron Moultrie look incompetent. Mr. Moultrie, was - about two months later – unceremoniously “clapped” out of the Pentagon after being fired for some reason, we were never provided.
So, by the beginning of 2024 – until present – my TS-SCI is not gone exactly. No, that would require me having done something wrong. And Paula, Kevin, and Johnny boy do not want DCSA to make a decision on my clearance – because – once a decision is made – even to deny me my clearance, I can appeal the decision. They know the only way to punish me for their imagined grievances – is to ensure that the federal government never makes a decision.
So, here three years later and DCSA told me three weeks ago, that although I have sponsors for my clearance to be re-activated, it remains “pending adjudication.”
To make the situation even more humorous – but for it preventing me from working – OPM told the Pentagon and me – that they will not approve my federal disability retirement, in no small part because they reviewed all of my performance appraisals spanning 15 years, and even the bosses who have sought to run me off the road and into the ditch, have given me the highest annual performance scores possible. So, OPM asks the Pentagon: “how could you fire him for a disability?”
And this, is how racists, bigots and haters destroy humble intellectuals. They do not comply with the law, they do not challenge you directly – no they employ favors owed for hires made from other malign employees to freeze people out of government. Leaving the reigns of our government in the trusty hands of criminals.
What could possibly go wrong?