SNOWDEN JOB: You could hear jaws drop around the Intelligence Community last weekend when President Trump said during a press conference at his Bedminster, NJ golf club that he will “look into” pardoning the fugitive Edward Snowden. In days gone by, Trump has tweeted that Snowden is a “traitor” and should be executed but that was then, and this is – well, this is 2020. The notion of bringing Snowden back to the US wearing anything other than handcuffs did not go down well on Capitol Hill where a bipartisan group of members expressed disapproval. Many former senior intelligence officials also expressed alarm. Former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell and former Under Secretary of Defense Mick Vickers wrote in The Washington Post that pardoning Snowden only helps Russian President (and Snowden’s current landlord) Vladimir Putin. So, why would Trump trot out the idea of pardoning Snowden? We’ve heard lots of theories like one that says the President has a penchant for misdirection (with everyone focused on coronavirus, the post office and the Democratic National Convention – give them something else to talk about) or the notion that supporting Snowden fits in with the narrative that the IC was spying on the Trump campaign so anyone who complains about the IC spying is in line for a favor. It is anyone’s guess. But if Snowden does win a “get out of jail free card” he can probably live well. Politico reports that he’s earned over $1.2 million in speaker fees.
PARDON ME? On the subject of pardons, we were reminded that back in 1998, then-CIA Director George Tenet told President Clinton that if jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard were released (as was under consideration as part of a Middle East peace deal) that Tenet would immediately resign. The Cipher Brief reached out to CIA public affairs to see if current CIA Director Gina Haspel has shared her views on pardons with President Trump, just as George Tenet did with President Clinton years ago. An Agency spokesman said: “I’m sorry, but you know I could never weigh in on anything any current president may or may not discuss with a CIA Director.” We figured that – but thought it was worth a shot.
RUSSIAN MEDIA REVEAL WHO MEDDLED IN US ELECTION: No surprise. They have declared that it was the CIA. Sputnik News reports that Guccifer 2.0, the entity believed to have hacked Democratic National Committee email accounts in 2016 was likely a front for the CIA. They get this from Bill Binney, a former NSA official and self-proclaimed whistleblower. Binney’s views are not news. In November 2017, The Dead Drop reported that Binney had been granted an audience with then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo to explain his “inside job” theory. In the current environment, there is no conspiracy theory too whacky to not be recycled.
SENSATIONALISM SELLS: DOD has announced the creation of yet another task force to look into UFO sightings. There is a lot of interest in – and in some sectors a desire to believe — that we are not alone. But in a case of intergalactic buzz kill, Salon reported this week the views of Brian Dunning, a skeptic who says the great speed and wild maneuvers shown in UFO videos are just the result of a common optical illusion combined with the effect of military aircraft’s Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) cameras “gimbal and glare filter.” If that is the case, why doesn’t the Pentagon tell everyone to calm down? "Two words: sensationalism sells," Dunning said. We hope they don’t tell Mulder that.
YESPER, THAT’S MY SECDEF: When not talking about possibly pardoning fugitive spies at his Bedminster press conference, the president also took a shot at his own Defense Secretary. A reporter asked about rumors that Trump plans to replace Mark Esper in a possible second term. Trump responded: “Mark Yesper? Did you call him Yesper? Oh, okay. Some people call him Yesper. No, I get along with him. I get along with him fine. He’s fine. Yeah, no problem.” The president went on to say that at some point he considers “firing everybody” which is probably one of the more demonstrably true comments ever made.
WHAT’S UP DOC? Speaking of Esper. Politico reported last weekend that Pentagon officials working on his cost-cutting review are proposing a $2.2B cut for military medicine. That prompted an angry response from Pentagon Press Secretary Jonathan Hoffman, who said that Esper “neither directed nor reviewed, let alone approved, any cuts to military healthcare.” He added that Esper had not been briefed on or had seen any such proposal. One of the authors of the Politico story, Lara Seligman, pointed out that Hoffman misrepresented her piece – since the original story never said that Esper had approved such a proposal – only that one was in the works. Then Esper weighed in himself again (incorrectly) claiming that the story alleged he had approved cuts. He insists that he will not allow reduction in the quality of healthcare – and you know he is serious since he signs his tweets “Dr. Mark T. Esper” (even though he is not an MD but has a PhD in public policy. But then, President Trump jumped in and tweeted that “a proposal by Pentagon officials to slash Military Healthcare by $2.2 billion dollars has been firmly and totally rejected by me.” So, wait. The President has shot down a Pentagon budget proposal that the SECDEF hadn’t seen? Yesper.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
THE WATERTOWN ANGELS: A website called TheAviationist.com has dug up a 1957 CIA documentary on the development of the U-2. Among the things you will learn from the 20-minute grainy video is that Area 51 was originally dubbed “Watertown” and the experimental aircraft that would be known as the U-2 was code named “The Angel.”
COUNTER-DRONE OPERATIONS: One of the trickier aspects of national security in the modern world has been the challenge of defeating threats posed by unmanned aerial vehicles (AKA: drones.) But fear not! America is up to the task. NBCNews.com reports that the capability was demonstrated recently, not in Watertown or Area 51, but over Lake Michigan where a “Phantom 4 Pro Advanced” was sent to its watery death by a bald eagle. The drone was mapping shoreline erosion when the bird took offense and attacked it, tearing off one of its four propellers and sending it to the bottom of the lake.
PERSISTENT FLORIDA MAN: We previously told you about Garrison Kenneth Courtney, an ambitious former DEA official who was arrested and charged with impersonating a CIA officer and convincing private sector companies to put him on their payroll and take part in a classified “taskforce.” Courtney had pled guilty and was out on bail awaiting sentencing. Last week, according to UPI, prosecutors requested that bail be revoked because they apparently obtained evidence that Courtney was spending his time trying to defraud more companies under a similar scheme. Apparently, some alleged victims were not Cipher Brief subscribers.
YOU KNOW YOU HAVE MADE IT WHEN: A loyal Dead Drop reader points out that the clue for 62 Across in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal crossword puzzle is: “CIA Director Haspel.” Spoiler alert: the answer is: GINA. Former CIA Directors Tenet and Hayden end up as crossword answers fairly frequently – in part because of the balanced array of consonants and vowels in their names. We don’t recall seeing David Petraeus pop up much – too hard to spell.
IF YOU HAVE A CLUE, SHARE IT WITH US: Don’t leave your fellow Cipher Brief readers puzzled. Send your tips to the Dead Drop at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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