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Dead Drop

NOUN

  1. A location to secretly pass information without a face-to-face meeting.

Each week we hope to give our readers tidbits of gossip from the world of national security and intelligence. The Dead Drop is a source of fun or intriguing news you can’t get anywhere else.

Got a tip for us? Email us at  thedeaddrop@thecipherbrief.com  and share the scoop. We promise to protect our sources and methods.

Below is our recent intelligence collection:

Dead Drop: Week of November 9

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: We assume the Trump administration elected to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War to send a message (not just on a whim cause it sounded tougher. Who would do that?). While the change is currently symbolic – since it would take an act of Congress to make it official – the rebranding - if fully implemented - would blow a hole in the federal budget. NBC News reports that changing the name “could cost as much as $2 billion, according to six people with knowledge of the potential cost.” Jeez, for that much money – the Pentagon could build six [...] Read More

Dead Drop: Week of November 2

RECKLESS PEACEMAKER: MILEAGE MAY VARY – The Institute for Global Affairs — a think tank that measures global risk and public mood — just dropped a [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of October 26

RIGHT AND WONG: To say that there is a little sniping going on between federal government spokespeople and the media – might be underselling it just [...] More

Dead Drop Archive

Dead Drop: Week of October 19

WRECKING BALLROOM: There has been a ton of discussion over the past few days about the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make space [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of October 12

‘MUST SEE’ TV: Pete Hegseth has ordered Defense Department leaders to verify that every member of the Department has watched or read a transcript of [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of October 5

BIGGEST CROWD FOR A PROMOTION CEREMONY EVER! PERIOD! We are sure that is what Sean Spicer would say about this week’s event where Pete Hegseth [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 28

HOLD MY BEER (IN CYBER) — Imagine the nightmare scenario of a cyberattack depriving you of your favorite beer. That may soon be the sobering reality [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 21

UH, SECURITY RISK ANYONE? Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of U.S. military senior ranks to the Marine Corps base at Quantico next [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 15

MI6 WANTS YOU – YEAH, YOU: Do you have access to secrets that could topple regimes, foil terrorists, or mildly annoy the Kremlin? Then MI6’s dark web [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 8

CHINA KILLS ‘IMMORTAL’ VIDEO: Remember that recent video of President Xi and Putin caught on a hot mic talking about how organ transplants may soon [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 1

TUCKERED OUT: You may be getting as tired as we are hearing stuff about former Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson but he just keeps saying so much [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of August 24

VENICE BRINGS THE DYNAMITE – Spies tell us that Oscar-winning Hollywood director Kathryn Bigelow is on her way to the Venice International Film [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of August 18

THE HOUSE WHERE IT HAPPENED: There was a ton of media interest on Friday surrounding the FBI search of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of August 15

GROK RUN AMOK: Many people do their best thinking of the day while driving to work. And some folks, apparently, the worst. Someone recently posted a [...] More

Dead Drop: August 8

IN THIS WEEK’S COLLECTION: The head of Australia’s Security Intelligence Organization gets specific about foreign intelligence agencies that are [...] More