Dead Drop: June 7

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: Looking for a mate in Moscow?  You’ve got a partner – the FSB. The Associated Press reported this week that Russia is requiring “Tinder” and other dating apps to share data on their users – including messages and photos, with the FSB security service. According to the Moscow Times, Tinder denies that they have shared any data (yet) with Russian authorities – but new regulations require that it and other social media sites store users’ metadata on servers inside Russia. CNN says that three other popular Russian dating apps already share user information with authorities. Those sites (and we are not making this up) are named:  Mamba, Wamba, and Badoo.

STEALTH SHIP: On several occasions, President Trump has told audiences of the wonders of F-35 fighters which he claims can’t be seen because they are “stealthy.” Perhaps the White House believes that capability has been extended to ships as well.  As first reported in the Wall Street Journal, some unnamed White House Military Office staffer reportedly ordered the U.S. Seventh Fleet to keep USS John S. McCain “out of sight” during the President’s recent visit to the U.S. Naval Base in Yokosuka, Japan. The Navy’s new Chief of Information, Rear Admiral Charlie Brown, had been in his job for less than a week when the story broke. Initially, he tweeted a “non-denial denial” saying on May 29^th that “the name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit” and that the service is “proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage.” This led the next day to the President tweeting that “The Navy put out a disclaimer on the McCain story. Looks like the story was an exaggeration or even Fake News – but why not, everything else is!” A day later, RADM Brown officially admitted that a “request was made” to “minimize the visibility” of the McCain. Shortly thereafter, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan order his chief of staff to launch an informal inquiry into what happened (an unusual step since investigations are normally the province of the Inspector General.) The President’s acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, appearing on Sunday news shows minimized the incident saying that “some 23- or 24-year-old person on the advance team” was responsible for asking if someone could look into moving the McCain – which he said was “not an unreasonable thing to ask.” Shanahan reportedly asked his chief of staff to reach out to the White House military office “and reaffirm his mandate that the Department of Defense will not be politicized.”