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Dead Drop

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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: August 2 - 8

BEIJING PICKS THE JERSEY SHORE OF AUTHORITARIANISM OVER THE FRENCH RIVIERA: While the world's billionaires are off in Saint-Tropez comparing yacht sizes, China's Communist Party leadership continues its seven-decade tradition of quietly relocating to Beidaihe, a modest seaside town 186 miles from Beijing every summer. According to CNN, the annual retreat, which dates to Mao's air-conditioning-free 1953, is heavy on secrecy and light on hot air balloons — both banned, along with drones and private boat charters, as security tightens each July. Nobody announces the leaders' arrival; they simply [...] Read More

Dead Drop: July 26 - August 1

DON’T YOU HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS? It used to be that embarrassing mistakes that popped up during public presentations just kinda got forgotten about, [...] More

Dead Drop: July 19 - 25

DIRTY LAUNDRY BEAR: The Russians have apparently discovered a new way to air other people's dirty laundry. The NSA, FBI, CISA and a long roster of [...] More

Dead Drop Archive

Dead Drop: July 12 - 18

FOR BETTER OR WORSE – According to reporting from MS NOW, (not the president’s favorite network) two Atlanta-based FBI intelligence analysts were [...] More

Dead Drop: July 5 - 11

YOU WANT ME TO RIDE WHERE? General Tony Thomas (Ret.), former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command doesn’t seem to have slowed down much in [...] More

Dead Drop: June 28 - July 4

PARDON ME? Word around Washington is that President Trump is thinking about whether he wants to issue 250 new presidential pardons to mark the [...] More

Dead Drop: June 21 - 27

SILENCING THE GENERALS: A bipartisan chorus in Congress is demanding to know why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed out more than twenty [...] More

Dead Drop: June 14 - 20

A NEW REALITY SHOW AT ODNI? The leadership page of the ODNI website now officially reflects William J. Pulte as Acting Director. This, as CNN reports [...] More

Dead Drop: June 7 - 13

HOW INTELLIGENT WAS THAT? Just before President Trump yanked the Acting Director of National Intelligence gig from Mar-a-Lago member Bill Pulte this [...] More

Dead Drop: May 31 - June 6

A “SPECIAL (OPS)” OPENING PITCH — We have it on good authority that Saturday’s opening pitch at the Yankees vs. Red Sox game is being thrown by a [...] More

Dead Drop: May 24 - 30

GOLD RUSH: A man referred to as David Rush, a Senior Intelligence Service-level CIA officer with top secret/SCI clearance was arrested on May 19 [...] More

Dead Drop: May 17 - 23

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS A REALLY AWKWARD CHOICE: The U.S. and Israel reportedly went into their war on Iran with a regime-change plan that could [...] More

Dead Drop: May 10 - 16

MANHOLE COVER STORY: A Russian cargo ship called the Ursa Major sank off the coast of Spain in December 2024 under circumstances that were, until [...] More

Dead Drop: May 3 - 9

WORLDWIDE SHADOW POLICE: Beijing's transnational harassment apparatus had a rough week in a variety of jurisdictions. A London jury convicted two men [...] More

Dead Drop: April 26 - May 2

SOFT PEDAL POWER: As President Trump gets ready to head to Beijing for a May 14-15 summit, the Wall Street Journal is recalling a warmer era. In [...] More