RIGHT AND WONG: To say that there is a little sniping going on between federal government spokespeople and the media – might be underselling it just a bit. On Tuesday, Kevin Baron, a founding editor for Defense One who has also worked for Politico, Stars and Stripes, and the National Journal (and also served as VP of the Pentagon Press Association) re-posted on social media a clip of the President speaking to the crew of USS George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan with Trump saying “Look at all the fake news back there.” Baron’s perspective was that “Trump has been training the rank-and-file military to hate the press since his first term. Those aren’t generals behind him. They’re future generals. This has a 20 year impact.” The next day, the Secretary of the Navy’s spokesperson, Kristina Wong, responded in a tweet (or X or whatever its called now) saying that the military and the press hating each other was not a new thing and she cited an incident from 1888 when a former Confederate General got into a dispute with a journalist and both men died of gunshot wounds. This probably was not the point Wong was trying to make but it seems to us that modern-day politicians labeling journalists as “fake news” if they publish something you don’t like - probably cuts both ways (and well, undercuts the Constitution but hey, who are we to chime in?) In any case – if Wong wanted something to object about – she could have chosen the fact that Baron described the crew behind Trump as “future generals.” We’re just suggesting they are more likely to be “future admirals” but feel free to argue back via The Cipher Brief’s X channel.
PARDON ME? Former CIA officer and convicted felon John Kiriakou has been working hard lately to land a pardon. The self-proclaimed whistleblower played a role in a recent five-part Tucker Carlson documentary about 9-11, was the guest on a 2.5 hour long Joe Rogan Experience podcast, and appeared on multiple other podcasts that you have probably never heard of…including his own. Kiriakou claims he was sent to prison in 2013 for blowing the cover off the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program. Judge Leonie Brinkema who sentenced him to 30 months in prison in 2013 (he ended up serving less than two years) made a point of saying he was NOT a whistleblower, but that he had violated “a solemn trust” by revealing the names of undercover CIA officers. The judge said that if it were up to her, she would have sentenced him to a longer prison term, but her hands were tied since Kiriakou had made a plea deal with the DOJ. In many of his recent appearances – Kiriakou goes way out of his way to say bad stuff about the CIA and especially about former CIA Director John Brennan – which is clever because he knows the current administration leaders are not Brennan fans. Kiriakou told Joe Rogan that he submitted a letter requesting a pardon and had recently been told that CIA Director John Ratcliffe has said that the Agency would have no objection if the President pardoned him and that DNI Tulsi Gabbard had said the same. Playing to an audience of one, the pardon-seeking Kiriakou told India-based ANI News a few days ago, that “Donald Trump is the only president who would have the guts to pardon (him).” He added he had been told that his file is literally on the President’s desk, and he says each day he wakes up hoping that is the day he will be pardoned. Kiriakou is probably hoping that happens before someone like Laura Loomer discovers that Federal Election Commission data shows that he contributed to the Kamala Harris Victory Fund in 2024. We understand that kind of action is not well-received in the White House, either. Sources tell us that on the FEC forms, Kiriakou is listed as a radio host working for Ghebi LLC. Ghebi is a U.S. based firm registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) which receives much of its funding from Russian State media.
The Dead Drop is now updating throughout the week. There's just too much good gossip in the national security world for a once-a-week drop.
UKRAINE’S BOLD DRONE ARMY: There were a lot of headlines out of last week’s Cipher Brief Threat Conference in Sea Island but one of the biggest headlines came from Ivan Pavlenko, Chief of Ukraine’s Electronic Warfare Directorate, who joined the conference live from Ukraine - telling former CIA Director General David Petraeus (Ret.) that Kyiv deploys around 9,000 drones a day to counter Russia. Yep, you read that right. 9,000. Bloomberg's Natalia Drozdiak notes that General Petraeus, who now serves as Chairman of KKR’s Global Institute, called that number “staggering” in comparison to the few hundred thousand drones produced by the U.S. each year. While Russian President Vladimir Putin drags his feet on talks to end the war, we see an art of the deal in the making. Given Ukraine’s innovation and ability to significantly ramp up its production of drones during wartime, it seems a better use of time might be to double down on talks between Kyiv and Washington to export some of those excess drones to the U.S. Just sayin.
RUNNING OUT OF RUSSIANS: Russian President Vladimir Putin is a master at glossing over facts and using rhetoric to convince you of things. Take for example, the Russian president’s claim that Russian victory in Ukraine is inevitable as he refuses to engage in any kind of meaningful talks to end the war. Trump confidante General Jack Keane (Ret.) is calling Putin’s bluff in a new piece published in The New York Post, encouraging you not to believe Putin’s lies. Keane says Putin is not winning the war and that, “Russia has failed to conquer a smaller and poorer adversary despite nearly four years of campaigning. Its military is severely underperforming and Ukraine’s defenses have slowed Russian’s rate of advance to a literal foot pace.” Keane points to data suggesting that Russia has seized only 0.6% of Ukrainian territory this year, losing an average of 1,000 soldiers per day while doing it. Now, we’re not math whizzes, but with a population of approximately 146 million, it would take Moscow 400 years to run out of Russians - though with financial incentives for new recruits shrinking, Putin may run out of those willing to fight much sooner than that.
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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