Dead Drop: February 12

NOT SO FAST, MUIR: In the last Dead Drop, we explained why it was a good idea to bring in an experienced hand, Morgan Muir, to deliver the President’s Daily Brief to an experienced intelligence consumer, President Joe Biden. The next day, BuzzFeed posted a story quoting Daniel Jones, lead author of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s controversial 2014 report in CIA interrogation practices, as saying Muir should not be trusted because he previously criticized Jones’ work.  CIA spokesperson Tim Barrett was cited in the story, defending Muir as “an exemplary career intelligence officer whose strength of character is unquestionable.” However, in Washington, it seems the only thing you are not allowed to question is Daniel Jones’s report. By nightfall, The New York Times was reporting that administration officials were saying that Muir was no longer slated to brief Biden but would coordinate the efforts of younger analysts who would.  (By the way, if Daniel Jones’ name sounds familiar, it could be because of the 2019 movie “The Report” which featured actor Adam Driver portraying Jones as he heroically produced the report against great odds and mean people at the CIA.  Turns out, the movie was (like the report itself) misleading and flawed. The Lawfare Blog pointed out many of the inconsistencies between the movie and real life.  Former CIA Director John Brennan wrote in his memoir Undaunted, that: “In mid-2014, while the SSCI study was still underway, Dan Jones told colleagues that he intended to make a movie about the SSCI investigation and the interactions between the committee and the CIA.” The implication was that Jones had one eye on burnishing his own reputation while working on the SSCI report. If they make a sequel to “The Report,” Jones can add a scene about how he derailed Morgan Muir.) The New York Times report quoted two intelligence officials as insisting that the buzz from BuzzFeed had nothing to do with Muir no longer getting POTUS facetime. Color us unconvinced.

DETAINING THE MAURITANIAN: While we are talking about movies about interrogation, here’s another one coming soon. “The Mauritanian” is set to hit “select theaters” on February 12^th. Tahar Rahim portrays Mohamedou Ould Slahi in a movie based on Slahi’s memoir “Guantanamo Diary” describing his stay at GITMO while being suspected of helping organize the 9/11 attacks. Jodie Foster and Benedict Cumberbatch also star in the movie. The trailer starts with the words “This is a true story” which omits the usual phrase “based on” — and just asserts the flick is factual.  Rahim told Salon about the lengths he was prepared to go to get the story right saying “I wanted to be waterboarded for real…” That seems like quite a commitment – especially since Slahi was not one of the three Al Qa’ida detainees who were subjected to that technique.