Dead Drop: October 18 - 24

LUNCH, WITH A SIDE OF SIGINT: Bob Woodward’s forthcoming memoir reveals a White House source who rivaled Deep Throat. It was Woodward’s close friend Richard Darman, who controlled the flow of paper to President Ronald Reagan as White House staff secretary and later, served as budget director under President George H. W. Bush. In an excerpt from “Secrets: A Reporting Memoir” published in The New Yorker, Woodward writes that Darman was willing, sometimes eager, to discuss sensitive intelligence matters, including NSA intercepts and covert CIA operations. Woodward calls him a “reporter’s dream source.” He counts at least 58 interviews, boxes of notes and follow-up memos running as long as six pages. The two reportedly held long lunches at the Madison Hotel, across the street from the Washington Post, and spent weekends together at Woodward’s country house near Annapolis. Leak hunters at the time apparently never checked the Madison’s lunch reservations.

FAVOR RETURNED: It looks like Moscow’s hospitality may come with an invoice. Der Spiegel reports that a Turkish gang known as the Daltons may have been involved in the September 23 arson attack on a Starlink ground station in the Polish village of Wola Krobowska, possibly on behalf of Russian intelligence. Polish officials believe the attack aimed to disrupt service used by Ukraine’s military. At Poland’s request, German police arrested two Turkish nationals in Nürtingen on October 12. A court in Stuttgart will decide whether to extradite them. Russia arrested the Daltons’ alleged leader, Beratcan Gökdemir, in 2024, and Turkey sought his extradition but from what we can tell, Moscow never handed him over. According to German security sources cited by Der Spiegel, Russia declined to prosecute him and provided support, possibly expecting something in return. We’re trying to figure out if this means that Moscow may have found an entrepreneurial way to turn an extradition fight into a retainer agreement instead.