Dead Drop: July 12 - 18

SPY CHIEF TRIMS THE FAT, DECLINES TO SHOW THE RECIPE: Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte announced Friday that his office is carrying out another round of staff reductions, after President Trump spent recent weeks calling to shrink the agency's ranks. In a Friday night tweet Pulte said: "U.S. National Intelligence is operating more efficiently and effectively than ever before," adding that the cuts targeted "redundant, or non-critical, personnel" — without saying how many people that actually meant, or which functions they'd been performing. It's the third such round since Pulte took the acting job, and the messaging has followed a consistent formula each time: announce the trim, praise the resulting efficiency, skip the specifics. Whether the intelligence community is actually leaner and meaner or just quieter is, for now, an open question.

YOU WANT ME TO RIDE WHERE? General Tony Thomas (Ret.), former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command doesn’t seem to have slowed down much in ‘retirement’. To prove the point, he’s riding 406 miles across the state of Iowa this month in the “oldest, largest and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world” according to the organizers. The General’s participation in the RAGBRAI ride, as the cool kids call it, will benefit Special Operations Warrior Foundation and if you have an extra $20 burning a hole in your pocket, here’s how you can show your support for the Special Operations Community and put that money to work – without having to do the heavy pedaling.