THE TUBERVILLE FOLLY: Senator (Call me “Coach”) Tommy Tuberville is continuing to hold the line against allowing promotions and assignments of flag or general officers to be confirmed by the Senate. It appears that the ban may soon trickle down to lower-grade officials who need confirmation before promotion board actions can take effect. Chain of command picture boards at entrances to the Pentagon and other military facilities are increasingly being dotted with blank frames where some senior officer’s mug shot would normally appear. The Coach’s delay of game penalty is impacting not only generals and admirals – but spouses, children, and lower-level folks whose next assignments are also on hold as a result. Some military officials we talked with expressed concern about the impact all this will have on recruiting and retention of the most junior personnel. “If you are considering a career in the military and you see one Senator disrupting up a four-star general’s life,” this veteran told us “…you might be asking yourself how readily some politician someday might choose to screw up the lives of E-4s.” A recent poll of Alabama voters shows that while 54% agree with Tuberville that DOD should change its policy, a slightly larger number (58%) think he should drop his block and move on. Meanwhile, Tuberville has chosen to continue to demonstrate his military expertise. Appearing on Fox News he told host Laura Ingram that it is pointless sending any aid to Ukraine because “…at the end of the day, it’s a junior high team playing a college team. They can’t win.”
PICK YOUR POISON: It is hard to go a day without seeing some story about attempted, thwarted, or successful Chinese espionage against the west. And one must wonder – if these are all the instances we are hearing about, how many are flying under the radar? The British intelligence services recently submitted a report to Parliament describing the goals and scope of their Chinese counterparts. The report, as summarized in Business Insider, says that China “almost certainly” has the largest intelligence operation on the planet “with tens of thousands of officers, most of whom work for three civilian and military agencies.” The British report said that the Chinese intelligence operatives are charged with flushing the “Five Poisons” from their body politic. Those poisons are “Taiwanese independence, Tibetan independence, Xinjiang separatists, the Falun Gong, and the Chinese democracy movement.” Last week, Taiwan announced it had detained an army major and several associates on suspicion of passing military secrets to China. Four suspects were said to have been released on bail ranging from $630 to $19,000 (which sounds pretty cheap by U.S. standards.) The idea of Army majors passing secrets may not seem all that surprising – but we also learned that last month, Taiwan detained a “Chinese yo-yo instructor” on similar charges. OK, we admit we didn’t see that one coming.
HOW DARE THEY? You’ll never guess what China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) is spun up about now. Apparently, they are worried about foreign countries spying on them. CNN reports that the MSS has launched a social media account to call on “all members of society” to join in fighting against the evil foreigners who spying on China. The MSS’s WeChat channel offers rewards for citizens who contribute to the nation’s counter-intelligence efforts. As a result of a law passed in June of 2022, China now offers awards of “up to and above” 100,000 yuan (about $15,000) for tips about foreign threats that endanger national security. For lesser threats they say they offer “spiritual rewards” certificates. Spy snitches would probably prefer yo-yos.
MOM MADE ME DO IT: Federal prosecutors say that the mother of one of the U.S. Navy sailors recently charged with spying for China had encouraged her boy to do so because it might help him get a job with the Beijing regime someday. Now, prosecutors will have to prove that Petty Officer Jinchao Wei did as his mom suggested. If convicted of the espionage charges he faces – a Beijing-based gig may have to wait.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY: One of the topics that keeps popping up in The Dead Drop is the proclivity of politicians, government agencies, members of the media and others to misidentify pieces of military equipment and uniformed personnel. Often, sloppy staff work and a reliance on stock photography leads to some embarrassing mistakes. The latest example is courtesy of Politico defense editor Dave Brown who pointed out a social media post from the Florida State Senate Republicans which wished the U.S. Coast Guard a happy 233rd birthday. They noted that “Since 1790, the Coast Guard has worked to keep our shores and waterways safe.” Unfortunately, the item included an image of a vessel that actually belongs to the Turkish Coast Guard. The same Turkish boat apparently showed up last year, in a happy birthday message from Congresswoman Nancy Mace. But wait, there’s more. Brown found that the FBI Agents Association also used an image of a Turkish boat to honor the USCG. But it gets worse. The World War II Museum too, fell victim to the same problem. We would mock the misidentifying miscreants mercilessly – but someone pointed out that a headline in last week’s excellent Cipher Brief Open Source Report referred to the two USN petty officers arrested on suspicion of spying for China as two “soldiers.” That is likely one case where the misidentified service (the Navy) didn’t mind someone else getting the credit.
SHAMELESS: An inside scoop on what's happening at The Cipher Brief:
CHALK MARKS: Cipher Brief Expert Mark Davidson, who served as former Chief of Station and Deputy Chief of Station at CIA is launching a new entertainment column in The Cipher Brief called 'Chalk Marks' and this week, he answers the ever-burning question of which Hollywood movie (in his opinion, of course) gets it right when it comes to real-life CIA tradecraft.
THE REAL DEAL: CIA Director Bill Burns is rumored to be opening this year's Cipher Brief Threat Conference in October. We can neither confirm or deny, but the speaker's list this year looks like a masterclass on intelligence and national security from both public and private sector perspectives.
GIVE US MORE INTEL: TCB was pretty under the radar as it launched the afternoon version of its M-F Open Source Report a little while ago. That means that now, news junkies who need to stay up on things (as long as they are Subscriber+Members - cause hey, you get what you pay for, right?) have access twice a day to a report on what's happening in the world. Talk about keeping current ...
POCKET LITTER: Other Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
THE SCALES OF JUSTICE: We recently learned (thanks to Military Times) of a study in 2013, that said 12 million Americans actually believed at the time, that “Lizard People” run the USA. While you may find this astonishing, reflect for a moment on the fact that things were a lot more normal in the US a decade ago than they are now. Nick Brown, an artist and military enthusiast has created a series of miniature models and dioramas depicting elite uniformed commandos known as “Lizard Force.” It is unclear to us if Brown was inspired by the poll or general weirdness. He has a website, a Twitter presence (sorry we aren’t going to call it an X-site.) Lizard Force has almost everything except a convincing reason as to why someone would devote their time to this.
WE OFFER SPIRITUAL REWARDS CERTIFICATES …to Cipher Brief readers and combat trained lizards who provide tips on news items we can use in upcoming editions of The Dead Drop. Send news we can use to: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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