SHOULD GREENLAND AND PANAMA BE (EVEN MORE) NERVOUS: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was engaged in a war of words this week with lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday that focused on the Secretary’s use of Signal to discuss an ongoing military operation earlier this year. While an Inspector General report is expected on this matter, it was another topic that lawmakers asked about that likely had some folks in Greenland and Panama on edge. When asked about whether the Pentagon has contingency plans to take Greenland and Panama by force ‘if necessary’, the Secretary didn’t say yes, but he didn’t say no either, responding, “Our job at the Defense Department is to have plans for any contingency.” That didn’t sit well with members of the committee from both parties. “It is not your testimony today that there are plans at the Pentagon for taking by force or invading Greenland, correct?” Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio., followed up. “I sure as hell hope that is not your testimony.” While many in Greenland and Panama likely concur, Hegseth responded, “We look forward to working with Greenland to ensure that it is secured from any potential threats.” Well, that should clear it up.
MAKING CIA GREAT (AGAIN): CIA Director John Ratcliffe welcomed Fox News cameras into CIA Headquarters in a rare television appearance with presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump to talk about how CIA is apolitical. The two-part interview also included a walking of the CIA museum. In the lead up to that segment, Ms. Trump said that under Ratcliffe, the CIA is “being restructured from the ground up” and said that he is “rooting out bad actors” adding that “the era of a corrupt, politicized CIA is over.” The tour included a stop at a signed photo of President Trump with Ratcliffe saying “We are apolitical in the way we act and the President is Commander-in-Chief, so our job as CIA is to make sure we take our immense capabilities and apply it to his priorities. He’s very happy with us pursuing the things he wants us to do to keep Americans safe and it’s a great privilege for us to do that.”
WHO SHOT BOBBY?: In addition to hosting Fox News, the Agency also announced the release of nearly 1,500 pages of once-classified documents pertaining to the 1968 assassination of New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy this week. Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing, is still serving time and while the released documents don’t indicate any other smoking guns, they do reveal interesting tidbits that hadn’t been previously released about Kennedy acting as a voluntary CIA informant. “Thank you to those at the CIA, ODNI, and NARA who worked hard to locate, review, and digitize these documents, many of which have never been released publicly before," said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a statement released by the Agency. “We will continue coordinating with our partners across the Intelligence Community to fulfill President Trump’s promise of maximum transparency." (How about releasing the Greenland and Panama docs? That seems like it would be another step toward “maximum transparency” – just sayin.) Like most document drops like this, there were lots of other little nuggets to chew on, including one internal memo outlining a CIA effort to poison Cuban leader Fidel Castro by working with someone identified as a “high-ranking” Mafia leader in Las Vegas who “controlled all of the ice-making machines on the Strip.”
DARK THOUGHTS FROM THE DNI: On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted a 3.5 minute long video on X reminding us that nuclear weapons can ruin your whole life. The DNI posted the video on the heels of her recent trip to Hiroshima and the video includes (what we presume to be) AI generated video of a nuke vaporizing the Golden Gate bridge. In the video, she says we are closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before but that “political elites” and war mongers are tempting fate and “fomenting” conflict… “perhaps because they have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and their families.” The video was posted on the DNI’s personal X account – rather than her official DNI X account. Some of the DNI’s supporters were nonplussed. Other observers noted that Russian psyops practitioners frequently release CGI videos of nuclear strikes on the U.S. as a way to create fear, but it’s rather unusual for U.S. officials to do so.
FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA: By now, you already know that the Marine fighting force that famously secured Mount Suribachi was deployed to L.A. this week (against the wishes of California’s Governor) in response to deportation protests there. While securing an L.A. Home Depot instead of the beaches that these ‘jarheads’ probably envisioned storming when they joined the Marines – some may be wondering when this is all over – whether there be an “I-was-there-ribbon” for those who faced down the insult throwing Angelenos. Stay tuned.
HEAVY METAL SHOW IN DC: As The Dead Drop is about to go to press, the sounds of Army tanks revving up will soon be heard on the broad avenues of Washington, D.C. The date of a planned parade intended to honor the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army (coincidentally) is also the 79th birthday of President Trump. Since the mean streets of D.C. are not usually home to tanks, heavy metal plates are being brought in to reinforce vulnerable spots. While some of the vehicles were being transported to the nation’s Capital, graffiti was spotted on a train car carrying M1A2 Abrams tanks that read: “Hang Fauci & Bill Gates” but an Army spokesperson assured that that was not Army policy or part of the celebratory plans (whew). The plans DO include equipment from World War II to present day however, and according to reports, will also include personnel dressed up as old-time soldiers wearing outfits obtained through the Motion Picture Costuming Company.
PENTAGON MYTH TAKE: At last, we now have some EXPLAINED aerial phenomena as opposed to the unexplained kind. The Wall Street Journal says (in the first of a two-part investigation) that they have uncovered evidence that back in the 1980s, Air Force officials may have intentionally spread disinformation that suggested “flying saucers” might have been buzzing around Area 51 in an effort to hide the testing of top-secret U.S. stealth fighters. A Pentagon report released last year, said there was no government coverups involving UFO sightings back in the day – but the WSJ alleges that the “no coverup” report “amounted to a coverup” itself. UFO true believers have long felt that the government was hiding the fact that there were space aliens among us – but if this report is to be believed, the scandal is that some Pentagon officials wanted the public to jump to that wrong conclusion. But that was only part of the problem. According to the report, there also may have been a “bizarre hazing ritual” in which Air Force personnel were falsely told about a “secret alien project” and warned that if they “ever repeated the secret (they) could be jailed or executed.” The defense secretary’s office reportedly sent out a memo in 2023, telling military personnel to quit perpetrating the hoax on the new guys because too many of them believed it. And we wonder how rumors get started…
YOU SURE THIS WASN’T A HAZING RITUAL?The Daily Mail recently published an article with the headline: “Secret CIA program claimed to have found alien civilization on the dark side of the moon: ‘They look like us.’” Turns out the story is about the oft-reported-on CIA Project Stargate remote viewing program in the 70’s and ‘80s. One psychic viewer, Ingo Swann, later claimed that he had a hood put over his head and was flown by helicopter to a remote underground base and when asked to say what he saw (remotely) on the moon he found “towers, machinery, lights of different colors” and beings that look just like us. Swann wrote a book about this in 1998, so why the claim is being repeated now is a mystery to us. He hinted that the U.S. government already knew about the site – and that was the reason that humans had not returned to the moon since 1972. This is how rumors get started.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
WHO SPUN UP OPERATION SPIDER WEB? Well, if you believe some media accounts, among those who had a hand in the attack is a 37-year-old a trucking company owner who is a former Ukrainian DJ and his wife, “who moonlights as an erotic writer.” Russian news outlets are reporting that the couple, who were Ukrainian born but have lived in Russia for some time, are now missing. The drone attack, code named “Operation Spider Web” is said to have damaged 41 Russian warplanes and caused about $7 billion in damage. The wife is reportedly the author of a book titled “I Became Bad While You Loved Me” – which may be a message to her Russian friends.
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