UH, SECURITY RISK ANYONE? Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of U.S. military senior ranks to the Marine Corps base at Quantico next week. The gathering of generals and admirals on such short notice – and without explanation is unheard of and poses - as one would imagine - something of a security risk. So, what’s worth taking a risk like that? We honestly have no clue, so we’re speculating. Maybe the Secretary will put them through the crucible of running the Quantico obstacle course – and fire the ones who don’t meet his standards? Or with the risk of the Federal government running out of money next week, forcing a shutdown, maybe half the GOFOs will be laid off and told to Go Fund yourself? We have no idea. The good news, however, is that Hegseth apparently has decided not to hold this sensitive discussion via Signal.
CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE: The U.S. media don’t have the market cornered on hot tempered debate and questionable assertions among TV news-talk shows. Take for example this clip that Russian Media Monitor Julia Davis found on Russian television. Host Andrey Norkin was apparently annoyed by his guest Andrey Fyodorov, who noted that Russia was in their 1303rd day of the war in Ukraine – which Fyodorov cheekily amended to call the “special military operation.” Fyodorov, went on to note that in 115 days, the war would exceed the duration of the “Great Patriotic War” (WWII to most of us.) The host accused his guest of engaging in demagoguery and declared that if Russian forces had not been conducting the war through “non-military means” – they could have won in two hours (not the three days that some predicted at the start.) “Non-miitary is not how we would describe the Russian paratroopers, the missiles, the drones and artillery shells falling on Ukraine but things must look different from the confines of Russian State TV.
The Dead Drop is now updating throughout the week. Why? Because there's just too much good gossip in the national security world these days for a once-a-week collection.
HOW TO SPY ON YOUR SHIPMATE: A BLUEPRINT – The Navy Times reported recently on a memo signed by Navy Admiral Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations, and addressed to Chief of Navy Personnel, Vice Admiral Jeffrey Czerewko, that includes instructions on how to report suspected “unprofessional” social media use. The memo, circulated online (which could likely be deemed “unprofessional”) offers a blueprint for turning in your fellow shipmates for what they post on their social media accounts. “When reports of Service members’ unprofessional personal social media use are received at the Echelon 1 level, those reports will be forwarded to you for routing and tracking,” reads the memo. Here they are: a. Identify the Service member’s chain of command. b. Forward the report to the Echelon II and Echelon III commander to delegate for review, inquiry and any action as appropriate. c. Direct the cognizant Echelon II and Echelon III commander to provide you with timely status reports. d. Provide me [Caudle] with routine status updates. What’s next? Maybe a follow up memo offering guidance on what can and can’t be posted on personal accounts? And then maybe after that, guidelines on how to think, eh?
FIRE, AIM, READY – President Trump had a not-so-great start to his UN General Assembly speech this week because the teleprompter wasn’t working. Perhaps it was his extensive experience with live television, but the president took the malfunction in stride, (seemingly) joking about it as he opened his speech, complaining that the escalator also stopped working as the President and First Lady were on it. Someone who took the incidents with less humor was White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who posed on X, “If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately.” It seems like some things are out of order here, like “fired and investigated”. We’re not press experts of anything but maybe it’s better to find out what actually happened before threatening firing? Dunno. Just seems kinda logical. As it turns out, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the escalator’s processing unit indicated that it could have stopped because of an accidental trigger of a safety mechanism. Other context that could be helpful in assessing the situation (calmly) might be that the president’s videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function while on the escalator backwards, to take video of the President and First Lady. It also turns out that the teleprompter incident may have been due to the fact that someone from the White House was running it at the time, as U.N. General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock said, “The U.N. teleprompters are working perfectly." That was after the President said on Tuesday: "I can only say that whoever's operating this teleprompter is in big trouble." The White House didn’t immediately respond to the UN’s context around the events. Perhaps Leavitt’s team was too busy trying to figure out how to delete her X post.
MOORE OR LESS: You know those signs on the front of buses that rotate to display the next destination? Maybe they should get some of them to put out front of certain military bases. For many years, an Army base in Georgia was known as Fort Benning in honor of a long-dead Confederate general. Then some folks in Congress got the notion that perhaps it was not a good idea to name stuff after people who betrayed the United States. So, a law was passed in 2021 to rename that base Fort Moore in honor of Lt. Gen. Hall Moore and his wife Julia. But earlier this year, the Secretary of War re-re-named it Fort Benning but this time, in honor of Fred Benning, an obscure corporal who earned a Distinguished Service Cross in World War I. Now Task & Purpose reports that a bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to restore Fort Moore once more. We’re speculating that legislators will compromise (what they’re supposed to do) and label the base “Fort Benning (Not That One) Moore.”
NARRATIVE CONTROL: The Pentagon’s recent crackdown on members of the media who refuse to restrict themselves to whatever news DOD (aka DOW) says is fit to print – is apparently just the beginning of an ongoing process. The move to restrict access to the Pentagon for those who publish “unauthorized information” was move number one. Move number two appears to bring a little more fidelity around speaking engagements (for those who remember the last-minute bail by DoD speakers at the Aspen Forum over the summer). AXIOS is reporting that Secretary Hegseth has circulated a memo placing new restrictions on external speaking engagements for senior military officials. The new guidelines are said to have been written in a way to make it easier for the department to turn down speaking invitations. (We didn’t know it was that hard before.) Now they may reject requests from outfits that have failed to display “professionalism.” But on the bright side, they say they will "prioritize engagements with organizations that comport themselves professionally - even if they disagree with the Department's positions." We’re waiting now for the definition of “professionalism”.
THERE’S A WAR GOING ON: Well, quite a few of them, actually. But one we just learned about over the weekend was between right wing influencer (and sometime Trump whisperer) Laura Loomer and the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Joe Kent. Like most wars – this one is complicated and confusing. Here are some highlights: on Friday night Loomer posted on X that her sources tell her that NCTC “has officially determined that Islamic terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda have infiltrated U.S. soil and are actively planning a series of coordinated Islamic terror attacks.” It was a lengthy post with lots of purported details. Kent responded in a post on X on Saturday saying: “NCTC’s work under President Trump is unassailable, and your false narrative is a distraction. Our recent report is based on verified intelligence from multiple disciplines confirming Al Qaeda’s presence and planning across U.S. cities.” It sounds like they agree on the threat – but they don’t – by a long shot. Loomer is unhappy that Kent’s comments don’t use the term “Islamic terrorism. And Loomer says Kent falsely suggested that she was being paid by a foreign government and called him a “Rabid anti-Semite.” On Sunday morning. Loomer said in an X post to Roger Stone that “we all know this is about using ODNI as a hub for people who are going to assist Tulsi (Gabbard) with her run for President in 2028.”
OOPS THEY’VE DONE IT AGAIN (AND AGAIN): Journalist Dave Brown of the Wall Street Journal may have cornered the market on military misidentification. He hit the jackpot recently by pointing out endless instances where well-meaning folks on X offered a happy 78th birthday to the U.S. Air Force while illustrating their good wishes with photos of planes from the U.S. Navy, the Turkish, French and Swedish Air Forces and of course, some Russians. Seriously, check on Brown’s thread. You’ll be amazed. We are pretty sure Brown used to work for Politico (unless we are misidentifying him.)
THE PENTAGON GOES TO WAR (WITH THE PRESS): It seems the Department of Defense (AKA War) has taken on a new formidable foe: Pentagon press crews. Why do we say that? Because on Friday, the Pentagon announced rules that will require reporters who seek credentials to cover the department - to sign an oath pledging not to gather or use any information that has not been authorized for release. So, at first glance, it looks like if a reporter uses even unclassified information that has not been approved by Team Hegseth, they may lose their Pentagon credentials. A memo from press spokesman Sean Parnell, dated August 18th, laid out the draconian rules and attached a series of documents restricting the media’s access to the building. The New York Times published the documents which include a form that reporters would be required to sign and initial after receiving a briefing. One rule requires reporters to affirm that: “I understand that I must wear my PFAC (Pentagon Facility Alternative Credentials) and APID (Additional Press Identifier Badge) above my waist at all times.” As written, reporters seemingly would need to wear two badges 24 hours a day – even at home, so we’re guessing someone just maybe didn’t think this all the way through. What a shocker. As you might imagine, organizations like the National Press Club were not impressed, calling the new rules “a direct assault on independent journalism at the very place where independent scrutiny matters most: the U.S. military.”
INFLUENCER PEDDLING: The only thing snarkier than the sniping between left and right wing influencers in the U.S. – is the sniping between right and far-right. We don’t pretend to understand who is on what side of the warring factions – but noticed that Laura Loomer recently took a shot at fellow conservative Candace Owens in a post on X. Loomer asked why Owens needs to hawk (expletives deleted) “merch that rips off the CIA…” Which caused us to ask: huh? So we checked Owen’s official website and found she sells clothing marked “CIA” in big letters. Sometimes the attire also has Owens photo under the label: “Candace Intelligence Agency.” Get it? Then we found another website that has a page labeled “Official Candace Owens Shop CIA T Shirt” and offers t shirts with the official CIA logo emblazoned on them. It is not entirely clear if Owens is involved with that site or if they are pretending to be her pretending to be the CIA. (By the way, the law says that no one without permission of the CIA Director can use the seal of the agency in connection with any merchandise in any manner that might suggest the product was approved, endorsed, or authorized by the CIA). Owens is currently being sued by the President of France and his wife – so she may not be intimidated by potential legal complaints from the CIA.
ON THE MOVE — While you were busy watching other news, the Senate confirmed a number of officials to senior national security and defense positions last week. Late Thursday, the Senate confirmed George “Wes” Street as Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Street has served in the U.S. counterintelligence community for more than 30 years, starting as a soldier and Army civilian counterintelligence special agent. Most recently, Street served as Deputy Director of the National Counterintelligence Task Force in the Pentagon. The Senate also confirmed Katherine Sutton as the new assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy. At her confirmation hearing, Sutton called for “great change” at the Pentagon and expressed her intention to “strengthen our offensive cyber capabilities,” address the Pentagon’s “tech debt,” and “surgically” prioritize modernization initiatives. Sutton was previously the chief technology advisor to the CYBERCOM commander and the director of Pentagon operations. And on Friday, the Senate confirmed Mike Waltz, President Trump’s former national security advisor, as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Waltz has plenty of experience with the Trump Administration of course, having served as National Security Advisor until that baton was passed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year as an add-on responsibility.
IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE: At first blush, it might be hard to figure out why the President signed an executive order on August 28th declaring that NASA’s “primary function” going forward would be “intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.” (And you thought it was that space exploration stuff.) The reason that the work of NASA and several other federal agencies was re-classified – was apparently, at least in part, to ensure that employees there would not be eligible for union representation. Government Executive reported that the little noticed EO landed with a thud in some circles and about two dozen protestors showed up outside NASA’s Washington, DC HQ last Monday. Space.com noted the irony that the order was issued just prior to Labor Day, saying the order “affects several thousand engineers, scientists and technicians across every NASA center, and strips away long-standing union rights that were emplaced to protect more than half the agency's workforce.”
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