• The material contained in this book has been reviewed by the CIA to prevent the disclosure of classified information. All statements of fact, opinion or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the CIA or any other U.S. Government agency.

It has been said many times, behind a successful man is a woman. Mr. Osborne had two women in his life: Mrs. Rose Osborne his wife and Mrs. Ella Grisby Motley his mother. 

The best thing that a mother can give to a child is love, encouragement, time and moral values. This is exactly what Ms. Ella did for her son and children.

Sometimes we think that people with wealth or numerous amount of funds are the ones that escalate in achievements but this is not the case with Mr. Osborne. 

Now what is so amazing to me is that he went to work for the CIA one month before I was born. So I feel like I have part of history with me and I thanked him for sending me his book.

Mr. Lutrell M. Osborne and Mrs. Ella Grisby were the first Black mother and son duo to work for the CIA.

Mr. Osborne became one of the Who’s Who in Black procurement minority business.

Mr. Osborne loves his country, the United States of America, and would do anything within his power to protect its interest.

His work has covered five continents: Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Africa.

In 1984, Mr. Osborne quit the CIA after 26 years to become an entrepreneur working as an international food broker.

Mr. Osborne is an advocate for justice, righteousness and peace.

During these last 25 years, he has increased his core competency talents, knowing that he can lead both the Central Intelligence and the National Security Agencies (CIA & NSA). toward better solutions. He has developed a third core compentency leading the Small Business Administration (SBA). It is most exciting to Mr. Osborne when he shares his qualifications and watch people react when he asks them what part of his service or services they would like to hire or challenge.

His wife joined his venture, helping him make his life a success as a man, husband, father, productive citizen and spiritual being.

On September 12, 2001, just one day after the 9/11 Attack on the United States of America, Black Entertainment Television (BET) scheduled Mr. Osborne to appear on national television to discuss “The Attack on America.” He appeared with California’s Democrat Congresswoman, Maxine Waters, who is one of his favorite members of the House of Representatives.

While awaiting the twenty minute limousine ride to B.E.T. headquarters from his daughter’s Washington, D.C. home he considered his unique position. His childhood dreams came flowing back as if a curtain was going up on precious memories.

Mr. Osborne had wanted to become a “spy manager” since he was twelve years old. At the age of twelve he never imagined what his future would hold; he would become a pioneering CIA African-American spy manager, rising within the ranks from CIA clerical employee to Case Manager and mentoring others through the system.

Now, he was going to appear on national television, as an authority, to analyze the possible causes and aftermath of the nation’s most devasting national security breaches. The impact on the World Trade Center and Pentagon became metaphors for the deeper impact on society.

His mother enabled him to be born as Leutrell Michael Carlton Osborne, Sr., also known as “Mike” Osborne, inside the CIA for over 26 years.

His mother, Mrs. Ella Grisby Motley and his biological father, Mr. William Mason Osborne provided him the DNA for the confidence, characteristics and skills he needed to grow up in Washington, D.C. as a light skinned Black man. He did not meet his father until 1960 at the age of twenty-one. Two months before Mr.i Osborne was born his father and step-mother had a baby, his half-brother, William Osborne, Jr.

When he was christened in the Roman Catholic Church, the church named him Michael. His mother, formerly was a Methodist, and later converted to Catholicism before he was seven years old.

His mother was what some of us would call a strong “sista” mother who was very independent and a very nurturing mother.

His father was a mulatto, a hybrid of European and African descendant. 

In 1946 his mother married a trumpeter, Frank Motley from Cheraw, South Carolina. 

His mother and step-father had four children, two boys and two girls: Frank III, Victoria Lillian, Francine Hadaway and Thomas John.

In 1952 his mother was working at the CIA as an overt employee, a clerk in the National Photographic Intelligence Center.

His mother’s nurturing and guidance through his early years contributed to his character, personality and tenacity, creating a desire to make something out of himself before she died.

Ms. Grisby’s personality was shaped in such a way that she gave birth to children who helped changed the world’s perception of Black people, especially in the Intelligence Community.

In 1954 The Supreme Court decision impacted him directly by the opportunity to transfer from a Black High School, Dunbar, to a formerly all White D.C. High School, Roosevelt. Like many other blacks with high I.Q.’s he transferred to participate in D.C.’s grand experiment. To him that experiment never ended.

At Roosevelt High School he met his high school sweetheart. About eighteen months after they met, they were married; they eloped. They now have five children and eight grandchildren.

Mr. Osborne married his wife on September 9, 1957 and the CIA hired him on October 14, 1957. At the age of seventeen years of age he had two passions, Mrs. Rose and the CIA.

Later he discovered that two of his high school classmates were hired by the Agency. He was the only black. The others were a jewish male, Robert Anthony Kogok and a female, Helen Zirnite. Helen was helpful to him in securing an assignment in the Far Northern Country (FNC) in 1963.

They were some sort of Rainbow Coalition. Little did he know that the Civil Rights Movement was about to kick into high gear. Little did he know that he would, in his own way, overcome many of the disadvantages of cultural discrimination within the bowels of the government’s most enigmatic and culturally – biased institution.

The purpose of this book is to encourage others who are fearful to venture and seek employment in the Agency and other secret government organizations.

Blacks in the CIA were looked upon as “people at risk.” The CIA was no different than any other U.S. federal institution. He states when he arrived to the CIA in 1957 it was a “plantation.” 

The top leadership in the Agency was non-Black, even though a few other Blacks like him was employed in the bowels of the Agency.

The Black CIA employees had much more freedom, independence and autonomy than most Black employed elsewhere in government. Now they did not make any decisions about anyone future.

When he would travel on public transportation to and from work, he would wait for the Agency shuttle bus at CIA headquarters on E. Street N.W. near the Department of State. They then rode the shuttle bus to the “temp” buildings.

CIA Director Allen Dulles’ chauffeured limousine would pass by him while he waited for the shuttle. He made it his business to look for his long black vehicle. As Dulles’ limousine passed CIA headquarters, he would often see him smoking his pipe and reading the morning newspaper.

His wife focused on being a wife and mother while he focused on executing steps in the CIA that would help him achieve his objective to become a spy manager. 

He used his crypto capability to seek a position in the Office of Communications (OC). Knowing that one of the supervisors who was assigned in the DCANG had gained legitimate employment in the OC had inspired him.

So he went and asked for the assignment. To his surprise and dismay he was rejected. It had nothing to do with his qualifications. In 1960 the Office of Communications had a policy of not accepting “Negroes.” This action took him back to his high school days at Roosevelt High School with the run in he had with his biology teacher.

By 1959, he had acquired military and Agency security training. During this time the intelligence terms he had learned began changing.

In October 1963, he was assigned abroad to work as a CIA mail clerk in the FNC (Far Northern European Country).

All was well, except that when they arrived in their new home, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and they didn’t know anything about it for the entire weekend. They were stunned like the rest of the world.

They were not watching television because it had not been converted to European standards. They did not have a radio for they did not have their household goods.

He was able to continue his college education at the local university and was also deeply involved with social activities of the university’s Foreign Students Club.

Horacio Jones, another black from his high school in Washington, D.C., had secured an assignment to the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway.

Horacio and Mr. Osborne were both intrigued by the blacks from back home who would show up to talk with them based on the outreach efforts of the Embassy.

Mr. Osborne and his wife were excited when they had the opportunity to attend the Nobel Peace Prize honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Oslo, Norway on Friday, December 10, 1964. Horacio got the word early and engineered their attendance at both the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and the official invitation-only reception given by Ambassador Madame Joy Tibbits in honor of Dr. King.

In the late 60′s there were no more than ten African American families living in Oslo. No more than twenty students from Africa enrolled at the University of Oslo.

Being overseas meant he could not join in and experience first hand some of the major achievements of the Civil Rights Movement.

Mr. Osborne and his wife were able to talk personally with Dr. King and his wife since most of the diplomats and their spouses left early. In his opinion this ruined the reception and also denied Dr. King precious moments to bask in the social spotlight.

Dr. King was calm, cool and collected.

His conversation with Dr. King focused on the Civil Rights Movement, which was progressing back home in the USA.

Dr. King told him about his belief in “non-violence direct action,” a freedom fighting strategy initiated in the early 1900′s during the Indian Struggle for equality in Apartheid South Africa by Mahatma Gandhi, the humble, yet powerful leader.

Dr. King told him, he was disappointed with the white moderates because they talked a good game, but they attempted only weakly to be catalysts for change.

Dr. King told him that the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He explained there were battles among the leaders of the two Civil Rights groups. They fought for turf and were sometimes both bitter and friendly. Much of their activities focused on fund raising, for money is power.

In 1965 Mr. Osborne and his wife had a daughter born in the FNC in May 1965. Her name was Rose Anastasia and one day she was found dead in her crib at the age of eleven months.

Since I have never lost a child I honestly do not know how him and his wife felt. He has stated and my bigmother said when we lost my mother that it was nothing like losing a child.

They received sympathy and condolences from people near and far. U. S. Embassy personnel, U.S. and foreign diplomats and non-diplomats alike showered them with sympathy and condolences. The local Catholic parish was filled to the capacity for the funeral.Their baby brought them much warmth and happiness.

The autopsy revealed Rose Anastasia had an inoperable heart condition and a malformed artery. They shipped her home to Washington, D.C. for burial.

They were returning to Washington in 1966 from the Far Northern European Country.

Mr. Osborne completed the CIA Career Training Program (CTP) in 1969 before he obtained his undergraduate degree from The American University, Washington, D.C. in 1971, his Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science.

Mr. Osborne avoided confrontation of CA intelligence operations during his service, he did re-examine them from the side lines because deep down he knew how Covert Action was being used and still is used, adversely affecting people of color.

Blacks at American University in 1970 were few in number but no outward signs of discrimination existed. The University would not allow him to register as a student in the Foreign Affairs Institute. He had to take courses in the Institute and earn his degree from the School of Political Science, with nine of his eleven courses in Latin American affairs.

Some years later, two of their daughters, De Lavay Cabrina Osborne and Monique Therese Osborne attended The American University. De Lavay, registered and received her degree from the same Institute that rejected her dad.

The CIA gave him and his family official orders and assigned them to the Latin American Country (LAC) from 1972 through 1974, after his supervisors received the word from Shackley.

The Latin American County (LAC) where Mr. Osborne went was considered by many to be a “safe” place to send black case officers.

During the first year, Mr. Osborne accomplished a very significant task in that he recruited an intelligence officer of a third world country to work for the CIA.

Mr. Osborne was the first Black Case Officer to prepare and have the Agency disseminate a finished intelligence report derived from a technical source rather than a human source.

The CIA changed from a segregated government organization to one that overcame traditional cultural and ethnic biases.

Mr. Osborne was named to the EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) Advisory Panel and quickly determined that Colby was in this for real.

Mr. Osborne was an advisor to former President Bush’s father at the CIA, and he thanked him for his “great support of him” and his predecessor, William Colby.

Many of the personnel in the CIA are not undercover so their names can safely appear in public documents identifying them as CIA employees without causing any difficulty; Ms. Sharon Parish is one such individual.

Mr. Osborne reconnected with the Directorate of Operations and desegregrated the management in the Near East and Asa (NEA) Division which for the first time enabled him to work Arab countries and adversaries within a few short weeks after Professor Clemon and he had talked.

The CIA assigned Mr. Osborne to the Libyan Branch as Chief Counter Intelligence for Libya. He had to collect information and develop a secret report on Gaddifi at the request of the White House. There were some serious mistakes made by the division. It seemed clear that he was being set up to take “the fall.”

His goals were shifting and he wanted to try his hand at doing business and becoming an international entrepreneur.

It turned out that Mr. Osborne was the first black professional to be assigned to Libya and no one ever with his skills had been assigned in the Libya Station where the show was Covert Action versus Counter Intelligence. He muscled his way into the assignment Libya.

He has good news for everyone when we claim the Spirit of God, we do not lack anything.

He often talks with their five adult children and eight grandchildren about relationships, given his belief we are embodied as a human being with a Spirit. The human body is a temple of the Spirit (I Corinthians 3:116; 6:9).

He shares it is up to us to achieve our genuine Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experiences (SHAPE) given us before we were born. Rick Warren’s writings have significantly influenced him and he accepts that before he was born that his Higher Power and his SHAPE were predetermined.