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Dead Drop: April 27

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YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP: Cast members of the hit TV series “Homeland” appeared at the National Press Club on April 23 along with former CIA and NSA Director General Michael Hayden to talk, among other things, about the difficulty of making a fictional television show while keeping up with real-world events. The session was sponsored by the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University. According to AP, Homeland cast members discussed their annual “spy camps” where they meet current and former intelligence operatives to get a better feel for the characters they play. Mandy Patinkin, who plays “Saul Berenson” on the show, said, "I was looking for the heartbeat of these individuals, who they are as human beings. I wanted to know how they prayed and how they dealt with terror in their own lives when they lose someone they're close to, when they are afraid, when they are faced with danger in the Oval Office. Who do they talk to when they are afraid? What do they do when they're afraid? I was looking for their human nature." Claire Danes, star of the show, added: "I was overwhelmed by that experience. I was really struck by the sincerity of their patriotism and the level of their devotion and I was very humbled by that; I was very moved by that. I don't think I've encountered that so directly before and that has always stayed with me." Not everyone they met was quite so impressive, however. Patinkin talked about a video conference call they had with leaker and fugitive Edward Snowden. Snowden, he said, “was the least interesting person who ever came through the door. I’m all for the truth. A lie is a cancer to my soul. But that guy was just proselytizing his manifesto.”

SPEAKING OF SNOWDEN: Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center spoke at the Aspen Center on April 18th and said that the damage from Snowden’s leaks continues to grow. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Evanina said: "This past year we had more international Snowden-related documents and breaches than ever, but probably 98 percent of them were in Der Spiegel or the Guardian," he said. "Very few of these issues have been picked up by U.S. media. But our assessment is they are more damaging now."

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