INCONVENIENT ANALYSIS: An article in The Wall Street Journal claims that the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) disagreed with their counterparts at the Central Intelligence Agency over whether Vladimir Putin was ready to end the war in Ukraine. By the WSJ’s account, CIA analysts reportedly wrote optimistically about Vlad’s eagerness to seek peace – while INR took a gloomier view. Several INR analysts were subsequently fired – but State Department officials dispute that the firings were because of their inconvenient (and, at the moment, seemingly accurate) views. If all this is true, the rosy take from Langley’s analysts runs counter to the stereotype. It has often been said that when a CIA analyst smells flowers they look for a funeral.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: Redheaded Russian intelligence operative Anna Chapman is well-known to Cipher Brief readers. She was arrested in the United States in 2010 as part of a Russian “illegals” deep-cover spy ring. Chapman positioned herself as a glamorous real-estate agent in New York City. After her arrest and guilty plea, she returned to the Motherland as part of a big spy swap. Since then, she has served as a TV host, model, and author of a tell-all (well, tell some) sexy memoir that was unfavorably reviewed in The Cipher Brief. Now, according to the tabloid The Irish Sun – Anna, who goes by the name Anna Romanova these days, has been named head of the newly created “Museum of Russian Intelligence.” Chapman likely remembers from her days as a real estate agent, “location, location, location” so it’s not a surprise that the new museum is registered in Moscow near Gorky Park, “at the press office of the Russian Foreign Intelligence service (SVR).”
FREE HAT WITH THAT: If you’ve been following previous Dead Drops, you already know we’ve been talking a lot about the “new generation” of Pentagon correspondents - namely, those who have agreed to have the Pentagon OK their work. Well, Slate has dug into the ‘greatest hits’ of some of the ‘news’ organizations that signed up for that deal in order to keep their access inside the building - and their findings make for an entertaining (if somewhat frightening) read. Conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, and Falun Gong-show participants. Makes us wonder if their new Pentagon press badges come with free tin-foil hats.
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