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The Cipher Brief: National Security news, analysis and expert commentary.

Report for Friday, July 18, 2025

US farm agency fires 70 foreign researchers following national security review

Western leaders scramble to reinforce Ukraine’s air defenses

British spies and special forces identities exposed in Afghan data leak

Iran Is Moving to Rearm Its Militia Allies

China's spy agency attacks foreign efforts to 'steal' rare earths

Access the Report

Ukraine’s Defense may Hinge on Offensive Operations

Drones, deep strikes, and the future of warfare

Ukraine’s Defense may Hinge on Offensive Operations

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING – Russia has been bombarding Ukrainian cities with massive aerial assaults, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged [...] More

The Experts

Cipher Brief Experts bring context to today’s global events

Expert Q&A: Putin Overplayed His Hand with Trump on Ukraine

Ralph Goff

EXPERT Q&A — President Donald Trump has offered a strong hand of support to Ukraine in recent days, pledging new weapons and threatening Russia with [...] More

CIA's Latest Existential Challenge

Mark Kelton

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE / OPINION -- Today, the Central Intelligence Agency faces a crisis of trust. While CIA officers have long confronted adversaries [...] More

News & Analysis

Battered but Not Broken: Why NATO Still Fears a Weakened Russia

Battered but Not Broken: Why NATO Still Fears a Weakened Russia

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING – President Donald Trump announced new arms shipments for Ukraine on Monday and threatened Russia with “very severe tariffs” [...] More

Opinion

The Neoprime Club: Silicon Valley and The Rise of Defense Disruptors

OPINION — Today, after a post-9/11 era defined by global counterterrorism and asymmetric warfare, the U.S. is preparing for potential near-peer [...] More

What’s on The Cipher Brief’s Digital Channel

“Putin has drastically overplayed his hand”

Interview with former Senior CIA Officer Ralph Goff

The Problem with Iran’s Proxies

Interview with Glenn Corn, Former Senior CIA Officer

Lessons from Israel’s Stunning Intelligence Operation

Interview with Beth Sanner, Former Deputy Director for National Intelligence, ODNI

Book Reviews

IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION: CIA’s existential threat might not be what you think it is, the CIA’s EXDIR is back in business, a warning to be careful of online love, especially when your new ‘boo’ asks for national security secrets and China is turning flying insects into cyborgs now? Seriously?The Dead Drop uses its own sources and methods to bring you the best collection of national security gossip anywhere, so let’s get to it.CIA’S EXISTENTIAL THREAT: It might not be what you think, according to former CIA Executive Mark Kelton, who wrote a piece exclusively in The Cipher Brief this week saying the greatest threat to the [...] More

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Events

Live Events

Threat Conference

Threat Conference

The Cipher Brief Threat Conference is the nation’s premier forum for non-partisan discussion of global threats and solutions as well as high-level [...] More

Upcoming: 19 October, 2025

Podcasts

State Secrets



In a recent opinion piece published in The Cipher Brief, former senior CIA Executive Mark Kelton suggests that the country’s leading intelligence organization has a trust problem both with policy makers and the public. One component of that problem that Kelton argues poses an existential threat to the Agency, is leakers. Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly talks with Kelton – who oversaw the CIA’s response to the devastating intelligence leaks made by Edward Snowden – about why he believes the future effectiveness of the Agency depends on restoring trust.

Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment


In October1979, the most powerful cyclone in recorded history, raced across the Pacific and set in motion circumstances that caused a horrendous fire at a U.S. Marine Corps facility at the foot of Japan’s Mount Fuji. Thirteen Marines died of their burns and more than 70 other people were seriously injured. And yet few people today know of or remember these events. Chas Henry who served twenty years as a Marine and went on to have a highly successful career as a broadcast journalist – is out with a new book called Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy.  We will talk with him about his four-year-long effort to investigate the tragedy and what he learned about the chaos of the mass casualty event and the courage of those who fought the fire and battled their injuries during the long recovery process. We will ask him why a disaster of such magnitude is so little remembered and why official investigations into the fire appear to have been so limited.