Dead Drop: September 25

RUSSIA (DOG) HOUSE?  Early Wednesday morning, Politico posted a lengthy story which alleges that the CIA has clamped down on sending intelligence on Russia to the White House. According to the story, the head of “Russia House” – the nickname of the Agency’s outfit that focuses on Russia, was fired earlier this year. The piece quotes sources speculating that CIA Director Gina Haspel is trying not to trigger the president, who is not a fan of getting news that Russia is up to no good.  A CIA spokesman is quoted forcefully denying that any political motive is involved in selecting what intelligence gets shared with the top customer.  Agency alumni we talked with told us it is not unusual for analysts and others to become unhappy if everything they produce is not accepted for wider distribution.  What was unusual, however, was the assertion in the story that the Agency’s general counsel, Courtney Elwood, has been tasked with reviewing virtually every product that comes out of Russia House before it is approved to go “downtown.” Elwood is not a trained intelligence analyst or Russia expert as far as we know, but is one of the few political appointees at CIA.

WHAT’S THE BUZZ:  You may recall that in the past, CIA insiders have told us that the Agency’s internal news clipping service “Media Highlights” which is a collection of news items shared with CIA employees, seems to have censored unfavorable news (for example threats against the so-called CIA “whistleblower.”) The Agency denied such allegations and said their news clips are not intended to be exhaustive…just representative. We reached out to the Agency and asked if they included the recent Politico story in Media Highlights.  CIA Press Secretary Timothy Barrett told us, “We do our best to highlight factual news, not wildly inaccurate reporting.”