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“FRANCO, BE GLAD
YOU DON’T HEAR FROM
ME MORE OFTEN —
OTHERS DO.”
—DEFENSE SECRETARY ASH CARTER IN AN EMAIL MESSAGE TO UNDERSECRETARY FRANK KENDALL
dated May 2, 2015, Carter asked for some guidance on handling his calendar.
“I’m looking at my sched and realize I’m not getting an invite book like I used to in [the deputy secretary of Defense] office,” Carter wrote. “So I have no idea what I’ve been invited to or why I’ve accepted some. Can u [email address redacted] and [Maj. Gen. Ronald Lewis] confer and give me your advice on how to handle calendar?”
NO REPLY NECESSARY
After Carter’s April 2015 speech at Stanford University, Joe Weiss, a systems engineer in attendance, reached out to Carter through an intermediary. “Control system cyberse- curity is still not well understood, and there is minimal appropriate technology currently available,” Weiss wrote in an email message that a person whose name is redacted forwarded to Carter.
Weiss attached testimony he had given to a Senate com- mittee in 2009 on the subject. Carter in turn forwarded the message to his cybersecurity-minded chief of staff, Eric Rosenbach, with a note: “[For your situational awareness], no specific reply required.”
Weiss might have been ahead of the curve. In Febru- ary, two Navy admirals sent a letter to Carter asking him to pay greater attention to the cybersecurity of industrial control systems.
‘ABSOLUTELY OFF THE RECORD’
Former CIA Director George Tenet makes a couple appear- ances in the email messages, once to congratulate Carter on becoming Defense secretary. “Every now and then the good guys win,” Tenet wrote, before inviting Carter to an “absolutely off the record” conference with tech execu- tives in Sun Valley, Idaho, hosted by Allen and Co. (Tenet is managing director of the investment firm.)
Carter made the trip in July 2015, where he promoted his efforts to link the Pentagon and the technology sector. n
YOU’LL GET YOUR TIME, FRANCO
Frank Kendall, who has Carter’s old job as undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, has been working with Carter to improve how the Pentagon scouts and adopts emerging technology. But if an email message dated Nov. 25, 2015, is any indication, Kendall would appreciate more of a direct line to Carter.
“Ash, sorry for another back channel, but I thought it was needed,” Kendall wrote Carter. “I have very little opportunity to communicate with you directly.”
The substantive remainder of the email is redacted, and Carter’s reply is also heavily redacted. But Carter assures “Franco,” as he calls his chief buyer, that he is in the loop, adding, “Be glad you don’t hear from me more often — others do.”
SILICON VALLEY HEAVYWEIGHTS
Carter is the first sitting Defense secretary to set up a Face- book account, and he has apparently struck up a friendship with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. The two have exchanged warm email messages, with Sandberg offering to help promote DOD’s Force of the Future initia- tive, which addresses the role of women in the military.
After joining Facebook, Carter wrote Sandberg: “I am excited about the ability to connect in a whole new way and can see already the power of the communities and conversations you enable.”
Carter has made multiple trips to Silicon Valley in his year or so as DOD chief. After one visit, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen urged Carter to come more often. “The session had a huge impact on everyone who attended and will spread outstanding word of mouth,” Andreessen wrote.
OLD HABITS
In a handful of messages, Carter references administra- tive arrangements he had as deputy Defense secretary, a post he held from 2011 to 2013. In one note to aides,
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