London Underground Chief is an American former CIA agent

[Minstrel Boy]

Hey, I'm just sayin'.

From the BBC, Jan 13, 2001:

Former CIA agent Bob Kiley has been drafted in to try to save London's ailing Tube network.

...

Robert R. Kiley was born in Minneapolis, the son of a manager of a Woolworth store. Educated at the renowned Notre Dame University, Indiana and at the Graduate School at Harvard, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1963 after having been the leader of a CIA-funded student organisation.

Although former colleagues insist that he is not a "spook", Kiley travelled the world in the 1960s fighting communism and spying on radical students before settling down as the executive assistant to that most frigid of all Cold War warriors, the director of central intelligence, Richard Helms.

He left the CIA in 1970 and went into management. Then tragedy struck. His first wife and two children died in a car crash. His father died two months later and Bob Kiley threw himself in to his work.


He's still on the job. From the BBC on Monday:
"With the building still wrapped in Olympic bid regalia, Lord Coe signed, followed by London Transport Commissioner Bob Kiley."

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Sounds like his family got rubbed out as a message to him.

Wonder what kind of trouble he was getting up to that earned that? (Poor guys :( )

[seemslikeadream]

2. Hey good job Bob, how are those cameras workin' out

[Just Me]

3. *LOL* That is wild beyond belief!!!!

I'm still stuck on Guiliani's security company,...and Guiliani actually being present at the 2nd major terrorist act.

[huskerlaw]

6. Whaa??

That was GUILIANI's security company?? I'm assuming you're talking about the company in charge of the bomb drills in London...if so, omg, that's just so... :tinfoilhat:

[Just Me]

8. No, no, no,...

,...I'm still looking into whether his security company may have had a connection with Turnbull.

All I can draw from the information to date is that corporations are being utilized to do that which governments and citizens cannot possibly do. Corporations are too damned "free" to be the enemies of humanity.

[huskerlaw]

10. Ahhhh, ok

Sorry, I read that wrong. Good luck w/ the research!

[seemslikeadream]

4. Excellent Guns and Butter interview

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4098971&mesg_id=4098971

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Executive Assistant to Richard Helms, no less.

Arguably the most treacherous and cold-blooded Director the agency's known.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. The New Yorker did an extensive profile of him about a year ago.

He's Ken Livingstone's best friend, regardless of his past with the CIA. And the man knows how to fix a transit system. He fixed NYC and Boston before moving to London years ago to work on the tube. Needless to say, that hasn't gone *quite* as well, but the tube is a much more confusing system than either NYC or Boston. Strikes me as a decent guy.

[seemslikeadream]

11. Giuliani thinks he's a great guy too

Mayor welcomes Giuliani support for Bob Kiley
29-3-2001 123


London Mayor Ken Livingstone today welcomed the intervention of his New York counterpart after he backed London's Transport Commissioner Bob Kiley.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani defended Transport Commissioner Robert Kiley after Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's office released figures claiming the New York subway was far less safe than the Tube.

Mayor Giuliani's press secretary said Mr Kiley was "an incredible asset to New York City". Joseph Hofmann, vice president of the subway, said statistics allegedly showing that the New York subway was less safe two years ago than the London Underground were collected a decade after Kiley stopped running the subway
http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=145

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

13. Yes, and I'm sure you think he's an asshole.

You clearly never rode the NYC subway during the 80s!

[seemslikeadream]

17. Not yet I'm just getting to know him, give me a few more minutes please?

[JPZenger]

9. Career in Trains

The guy spent almost his entire life working with trains, including serving as CEO of CONRAIL, when it was being sold off.

[iconoclastNYC]

26. Yes

Conrail was sold off and assets split between one rail company and CSX, who's CEO at the time was John Snow, who is now the Bush Treasury Secretary.

[seemslikeadream]

12. Bob Kiley the highest paid public official anywhere in the western world

The capitals underground transport system is another area where Mr Livingstone is determined to make changes. His hiring of Bob Kiley, the man responsible for turning around New York's subway, for £2 million, has made Mr Kiley the highest paid public official anywhere in the western world. However Mr Livingstone carried on to say, "People feel so desperate they don't care what we are paying Bob Kiley or the team he is assembling as long as we can sort the problems out."

http://www.ifslearning.com/news/archive/newsreleases01/ken.htm


I wonder if the citizens of Britian think they got their moneys worth

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. He actually knows his shit.

He's very, very good at his job, and the London tube is very, very fucked. If you bothered to look into the background of Livingstone's hiring of Kiley, you'd understand.

[shance]

18. Yeah, he does such a great job the tube gets blown up.

You certainly seem to be an authority on just about everything.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. Yes, it's so hard to blow up the tube.

1) Build a small bomb
2) Walk onto tube train
3) BOOM!

What is the damned transport commisioner supposed to do about that? Bomb-sniffing dogs in every station? Metal detectors?

[northzax]

24. well, that's a useless non-sequitor

a determined terrorist will attack a soft target, like public transportation, sucessfully almost every time. Look at Israel- bus bombs are not exactly new, and yet they still happen. You can't screen every passenger on a public transit system, I ride metro in DC two to three times a day, you think I would do that if I had to go through a metal detector? what a pain.

[Bushfire]

14. Transport Secretary sacked Mr Kiley from being chairman London Transp Auth

Tuesday, 17 July, 2001, 15:53 GMT 16:53 UK

Transport Secretary Stephen Byers has sacked Mr Kiley from being chairman and board member of London Transport Authority - positions the government only appointed him to in May.

Mr Byers accused Mr Kiley of attempting to halt, without board approval, the negotiations with private companies bidding to take part in the so-called public-private partnership for the Underground.

Mr Kiley has been a persistent opponent of the scheme. Three weeks ago, he wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair saying he was unable to achieve the changes he believed were necessary to make the scheme work.

more...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1443722.stm

http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/B/Bob-Kiley.htm

Minstrel Boy's posts are always worth a read...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

16. Yes.

Tony wanted to privatize the tube, and Kiley tried to stop him, and thus was sacked.

[Minstrel Boy]

19. But on Monday BBC called him London's Transport Commissioner

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4672203.stm

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

21. He is.

It's a long story involving a fight between Ken Livingstone and Tony over the tube. New Labour wants to privatize it, and Livingstone doesn't. Kiley sided with livingstone, got sacked by the government, then went to work for the city (I think.)

[KoKo]

20. Let's hope he "turned." That bio is pretty scary...

"he joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1963 after having been the leader of a CIA-funded student organisation. "

In 1963! That's before most of the radical student organizations of the very late 60's and early 70's formed. What organization was he leading in '63? :scared: Seriously!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

23. For God's sake, he's working with Ken Livingstone!

Trying to keep New Labour from privatizing a public transport system. He's more than turned.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

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[KoKo]

30. I know that Ken Livingstone was a hero to many of us...in that he allowed

and even "encouraged" the "Anti-Iraq Invasion Protests." Many DU'ers owe him on that. This latest was kind of disturbing, wondering about his choice of allies. :shrug:

I do wonder the "deep" background on this. :shrug:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

36. Regardless of his background...

Kiley has a history of fixing urban rail networks. It's been his forte since the early 80s. Given the current mess with the tube, he seems like a logical choice. It is my understanding of the history that Livingstone contacted him and not the other way around, but I could be mistaken on that point.

[H2O Man]

28. Small world,

isn't it?

(How's the weather up north?)

[Al-CIAda]

31. .

[KoKo]

32. Okay....what should we think of this?

Kiley was into terrible things with CIA including probably "outing" Vietnam Protestors...but he was doing "stuff" even before the Vietnam War became a huge issue.

His wife and child are killed in a car crash and he "dedicates his life" to security for "underground systems."

I would say Kiley was a prime candidate for "Operation GAIO." But, Ken Livingstone was a friend to those of us who were actively involved in PROTESTING IRAQ INVASION...so to many of us here in the States...he's a hero. But, then I read this stuff, and wonder why he would ally himself
with a known :former" (can we believe that) CIA Agent who seems to have made a carrer out of "reforming Undergrounds" from major international city to city...and Rudy Guiliani happens to show up and give support during and after the London Bombings?

:tinfoilhat: :scared: :shrug: :nuke:

What's going on here?

[Pachamama]

34. Too many Coincidinks to not make one "wonder", eh?

:eyes:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

35. I'd put this in context.

This guy has been running transit systems in large cities for thirty years. Given that there's no way you can secure something like a public transport system against this type of attack, I'd be interested to see what possible involvement on his part would have been necessary.

The fact of the matter is that Kiley has been very open about his background, and his years at the CIA. It's something that he's never tried to hide. And I highly doubt his very lengthy career in rail was a cover to get to be transit commisioner of London so that he could... do I-don't-know-what-exactly during a fairly simple and unpreventable (at least by a transit commisioner) terrorist attack.

[Pachamama]

37. I'm thinking more about Rudy's presence in London that day...

...but like I said, there just seem to be too many coincidences to not make one wonder...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

38. If Rudy were actually in on it...

...I'd suggest that it stands to reason that he would be anywhere but London on that day.

[Karenina]

39. "Reason" was permanently removed

from the lexicon 2 years ago. ;-)

[KoKo]

40. Guliani has his own Personal "Security Firm" after 9/11....interesting

that he just happened to be in London for the "terror attack." Maybe he was just sightseeing with his "family." :shrug: The coincidence is odd...I don't see how anyone could think it isn't.

[LibertyorDeath]

33. Thanks for this info

Great find

Rec