WITCH WAY TO THE QUARTERDECK? Don’t you hate when things you say just keep coming back to haunt you? Well, the U.S. Navy has a new acting secretary, who in the past, had his eye on a clear and present danger: Monterey, California. Hung Cao, Naval Academy graduate, retired captain, and now the nation's top naval civilian, took over the helm this week after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly ousted Secretary John Phelan, without explanation. What surfaced almost as fast as Cao's promotion papers was a 2023 interview in which he warned that "witchcraft and the Wiccan community has really taken over" Monterey, California - a city known, among other things, for hosting the Naval Postgraduate School, where the Navy trains some of its brightest officers. Presumably none of them have been hexed. Devoted readers of The Dead Drop will recall that we mentioned some of Cao’s colorful rhetoric in the past when he was running for political office.
EX-BRAZILIAN SPY CHIEF EX-DETAINEE: Just as the Dead Drop was reporting last week that fugitive former Brazilian intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem had been nabbed by ICE agents in Orlando, he was apparently already on his way out the door. BBC reported on April 16 that Ramagem was quietly released from custody. ICE originally confirmed the detention but as far as we know has offered no explanation for either the arrest or the release. Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, a U.S. resident, announced the news on social media, thanking President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for "the sensitivity with which they dealt with this true national hero." Ramagem was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison in Brazil for his role in the failed 2022 coup plot and was reportedly also under investigation for using the intelligence agency to spy on Bolsonaro's political opponents. He fled to the U.S. in September 2025. Brazil's Supreme Court has formally requested his extradition but it doesn’t look like they’ll be getting it anytime soon.
HEAVY MEDAL PLAY AT THE PENTAGON: CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper, by all accounts a personally modest man, was the subject of unexpected commentary this week after his Pentagon press conference on the Iran war. That’s because some observers noted the extraordinary expanse of ribbons adorning the admiral’s service dress blue uniform. The conversation isn't new: a piece last October counted 17 rows of ribbons on Cooper's uniform, representing up to 51 awards, compared, pointedly, to the much smaller display worn by General Eisenhower. It seems that Cooper - through no fault of his own - found himself in the middle of a longstanding Pentagon argument about "medal inflation”. Cooper, who has led U.S. forces through Operation Epic Fury since airstrikes on Iran began in February, is nobody's idea of a self-promoter and in this case it looks like he’s drawing attention for doing good. You sometimes just can’t win, eh?
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