More than 100 former spies and intelligence officers say foreign adversaries could take advantage of a new casino proposed in the Washington, D.C. area to penetrate national security.
The proposed casino would sit in Tysons Corner, less than 20 miles west of the nation’s capital in Northern Virginia. The area that is home to the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The Pentagon and offices of various defense contractors are also nearby.
In a letter addressed to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and members of the Virginia State Assembly, the National Security Leaders for Fairfax group warns that the casino could attract organized crime and that foreign adversaries could have opportunities to blackmail U.S. intelligence officers and other military personnel.
“With the Washington D.C. area having the greatest concentration of the most sensitive security clearances in the country, we urge you to immediately and categorically reject the proliferation of gambling establishments in Northern Virginia … as posing an unacceptable health and national security hazard, whose socioeconomic costs significantly outweigh any short-term increase in revenue,” the letter reads.
Anne Gruner, who spent 25 years at the CIA and co-chairs the National Security Leaders or Fairfax, worries that easy access to a nearby casino could lead federal workers and contractors to develop an issue with gambling, which could be exploited by foreign adversaries.
“These employees would become the focus of any intelligence collection and could become susceptible to extortion,” Gruner said.
Throughout her career, Gruner said she’s seen “security issues, problems with drinking” and other activities people in the intelligence community “shouldn’t do.”
But others argue there are already safeguards.
Dan Meyer, a partner at Tully Rinckey, PLLC, a law firm specializing in military and security clearance, says “elite” federal workers have to abide by a set of 13 guidelines to get and keep a security clearance.
The guidelines relate to issues like a person’s sexual behavior, alcohol consumption, criminal conduct and their financial interests.
“There are a lot of clearances, but not everybody can get them and not everybody can keep them,” Meyer said. “So that elite has to curtail its behavior while the rest of society decides what it’s going to do in the various types of commercial activities it promotes.”
Plus, he says there are checks in place to flag issues related to gambling.
“If you win more than $10,000 in a casino, an e-mail is automatically sent to your security officer through the Financial Crimes Reporting Center,” Meyer said. “So if you have a great day at MGM Grand over there at National Harbor and you win $10,050, [on] Monday you’re going to be talking to your security officer and they’re going to ask you about your behavior and whether everything is all right.”
Plans for the casino advanced to the full senate in the Virginia General Assembly after a committee vote Tuesday. If the bill makes its way out of the full Assembly and is signed by the governor, Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors would call a referendum, giving voters the final say on the project.
The proposal has drawn concerns from area residents about traffic congestion and the project’s accountability. The nearest major casino to D.C. is the MGM National Harbor Hotel & Casino just south of the capital in Oxon Hill, Md.
This article was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.
Transcript:
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
And now for a bit of spycraft.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN’S “THE JAMES BOND THEME”)
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
More than 100 retired spies have written a letter about a possible new casino in the Washington, D.C., area. They say it could pose a threat to national security.
ANNE GRUNER: The group has among them literally hundreds of hours of experience. We’re not a group of NIMBYs masquerading as spies.
MARTÍNEZ: By NIMBY she means not in my backyard. That’s Anne Gruner, who co-chairs the group National Security Leaders for Fairfax. She also spent 25 years at the CIA.
GRUNER: And of course, of all that, seen all kinds of security issues – problems with drinking, problems with people doing things they shouldn’t do. I mean good people getting into inadvertently.
FADEL: The casino would be built in an area of northern Virginia that’s also home to the CIA, director of national intelligence and the National Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Center, along with defense contractors and the Pentagon.
MARTÍNEZ: Gruner says easy access to a nearby casino could lead people to develop an issue with gambling, which could be exploited by foreign adversaries.
GRUNER: These employees would become the focus of any intelligence collection and could become susceptible to extortion.
MARTÍNEZ: However, not everyone is convinced.
DAN MEYER: About 60% of my docket is related to security clearances, how people obtain them, how they maintain them, how they lose them and then how they get them back.
FADEL: Dan Meyer is a partner at the Tully Rinckey law firm. He specializes in military and security clearance. He says there are clear and extensive guidelines developed over decades that people need to follow in order to get and keep clearance.
MEYER: I call them the samurai code of the federal workforce.
MARTÍNEZ: Plus, he says, there are checks in place to flag issues related to gambling. If you win more than $10,000 in a casino, an email is automatically sent to your security officer through the financial crimes reporting center. And there’s already a casino about 10 miles from the White House.
MEYER: So if you have a great day at MGM Grand over there at National Harbor, and you win $10,050, yeah, Monday, you’re going to be in talking to your security officer. And they’re going to ask you about your behavior and whether everything is all right.
FADEL: So reasonable people can differ, but perhaps we can agree that this sounds like a great spy series just waiting to be written.
MARTÍNEZ: The name’s A, Leila. Capital A Martínez.
FADEL: (Laughter) Corny.
(SOUNDBITE OF DAVID ARNOLD’S “THE NAME’S BOND… JAMES BOND”)
