Dead Drop: February 1-7

YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHAT WE FOUND IN THE LATEST EPSTEIN DOCUMENT DUMP! Answer: The Cipher Brief. No, thankfully there are no invitations to island getaways or dinner parties with the former prince currently known as Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor. But for reasons we don’t entirely understand, the 3.5 million documents released on Friday include news summaries that had been produced for senior executives at places like the FBI or intelligence community inspector general offices. And if you search the archives, buried in some of those news summaries are snippets of Cipher Brief opinion pieces (totally unrelated to Epstein.) The Cipher Brief is routinely cited as a ‘must read’ for intelligence professionals, and has been cited in Congressional hearings and credited by television news analysts as being their best source of information, but this was new to us. And here’s an interesting side note – the news clipping services that the government used to disseminate seem to no longer be produced. We’ve heard that the current administration is less interested than its predecessors in following what’s often called the main stream media – but we don’t know if outfits like the FBI and IC IGs have found some other way to keep up with current events. Maybe all their people just subscribe to The Cipher Brief’s Open Source Report now.

TILTING AT WINDMILLS – PENTAGON STYLE: You may remember that in late December, the Trump administration suspended construction on five major offshore wind projects along the East Coast citing classified national security concerns. This next item blew right past us, but shortly thereafter, the ranking member of the House Armed Service Committee Seapower subcommittee, Rep. Joe Courtney (D, CT), asked DOD exactly how wind turbines were a danger to national security. The Hartford Currant says that the Pentagon wrote back saying that while they respect the HASC’s oversight responsibilities –their spin was that they are unable to discuss the matter and punted to the Department of the Interior.