Dead Drop: May 10 - 16

MANHOLE COVER STORY: A Russian cargo ship called the Ursa Major sank off the coast of Spain in December 2024 under circumstances that were, until recently, as murky as the 8,000 feet of Mediterranean water now covering it. A just published CNN investigation has filled in some of the blanks. The ship's official paperwork claimed it was carrying industrial equipment and two manhole covers. According to CNN, Spanish authorities learned, however, from the ship's captain that the vessel may have been carrying components for two nuclear submarine reactors - possibly destined for North Korea. The story is especially sensitive because North Korea has recently deepened military cooperation with Russia by sending troops to assist in Ukraine, raising fears that Moscow may have been sharing advanced nuclear submarine technology with Pyongyang. The sinking itself remains highly suspicious. The crew first reported unexplained slowing, then multiple explosions ripped through the ship, killing two sailors. Russian naval vessels nearby quickly moved to control the area. A Russian spy-linked vessel later returned to the wreck site, where more underwater explosions were detected - possibly to destroy evidence. Spanish investigators considered theories ranging from sabotage to a specialized torpedo attack, though no government has claimed responsibility. U.S. nuclear-detection aircraft subsequently flew over the wreck, suggesting American concern about possible radioactive contamination or clandestine technology transfer. What really happened rests, for now, on the sea floor, perhaps with two “manhole covers” plugging any leaks.

TEN YEARS TO LIFE: France is discovering what the U.S. intelligence community has known for decades: a retired spy with a book deal can be dangerous. The Times of London says that a clause in France's proposed Military Programming Law of 2026 would require former DGSE officers to submit their manuscripts for government approval for ten years after leaving service. The move is in response to the publication of a book called L'homme de Tripoli, in which Jean-François Lhuillier, the DGSE's former Tripoli bureau chief, stands accused of disclosing national defense secrets that included details on how French diplomats left classified documents behind during the 2011 Libya evacuation and asked Russian embassy staff to protect them. Several weeks later, a lot of those documents reportedly disappeared. “Quelle surprise!” Lhuillier also wrote that only learned French special forces were on the ground because the head of the British secret service bureau in Tunis - described in the book as "a Scotsman called Pierce" - invited him to lunch and mentioned it. Critics are characterizing the proposed law as censorship of "hidden periods of recent history." In the United States, they'd call it routine: CIA officers and other intelligence community alumni have long been bound to submit memoirs and even novels they write for government prepublication review and not just for ten years, but for life.