AN INTELLIGENCE FAILURE FOR THE BOOKS: Israel’s Unit 8200 has been described as akin to the U.S. National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ. The name of the head of the Unit is kept secret from the public – at least it was kept secret until Yossi Sariel apparently accidentally unmasked himself. The Guardian says that a book published in 2021, about how artificial intelligence was going to revolutionize military affairs was published under the title, The Human Machine Team. The author was listed as “Brigadier General YS.” But it turns out the digital version of the book was somehow connected to an email address that links back to Yossi Sariel. According to The Guardian, an IDF spokesperson said the email address was not Sariel’s personal account but that the exposure of his personal information was “a mistake.” Israel has been battered over the past six months over a variety of intelligence failures leading up to the October 7th attacks, and rumors of egregious targeting errors, some of which may have been caused by malfunctions in their ‘Human Machine Team.’ The Amazon.com write up about the book says, “Brigadier General Y.S, an expert analyst, technology director, commander of an elite intelligence unit, and winner of the prestigious Israel Defense Prize for his artificial intelligence based anti-terrorism project, wrote his book, The Human-Machine Team, to address how the combination between human and artificial intelligence can solve national security challenges and threats, lead to victory in war, and be a growth engine for humankind.”
A PHD IN DISINFORMATION? The latest edition of “Dumb Stuff Said by Russian Talking Heads” is a clip from state TV (captured by Russian Media Monitor Julia Davis) in which Vladimir Solovyov says that “Satanists have captured” Kyiv. He adds that “Russian holy sites have to be liberated.” He also says the “pathetic government” in Kyiv should “be designated as terrorists” and that countries that support them are “sponsors of terrorism.” Where do they find these people? We’re guessing they may be graduates of the Russian University for Disinformation.
NAKED TRUTH: It is hard to defend against clandestine listening devices and cameras these days – but new NATO member Finland has opened the kimono about one tried and true technique…the sauna. The Finnish ambassador to Germany, Kai Sauer, recently told The Telegraph in an interview that the best place to have confidential discussions is in the sauna – sans clothes or towels. According to the article, a sauna has recently been added to NATO’s headquarters as a welcoming gesture. This news comes shortly after NATO’s Secretary General bared the news that in recent years, NATO expelled “Russian personnel from NATO headquarters because we realized that they were carrying out activities that were not actually diplomatic work, but intelligence work." Talk about feeling exposed…
WHAT WAS THEIR FIRST CLUE? Moscow media would like you to believe that their security services recently cracked a case of espionage and arrested a resident of the Russian city of Dzerzhinsk. The man was accused of passing information about the transportation of ammunition from that city in northwest Russia to the frontlines in Ukraine and was accused of “State Treason.” The unnamed defendant was said to have been found with an American flag in his possession along with a handwritten copy of the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner. Press accounts show him handcuffed alongside Old Glory. We’re pretty sure proper tradecraft calls for foreign assets to be told to always write out the U.S. national anthem in invisible ink.
KIEL HAUL: The Institute for Security Policy in Kiel, Germany is hosting a “virtual roundtable” on April 22nd marking the 40th anniversary of the publication of Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October. Several prominent naval historians and Lieutenant Colonel Ben Griffin, Chief of Military History at West Point and author of Reagan’s War Stories: A Cold War Presidency will take part. (Griffin was featured last year, in a Cipher Brief Cover Stories podcast.) If you are interested in taking part in the virtual roundtable – you can sign up here. Despite some of the language on the sign-up page –we understand the event will be entirely in English.
HOPE IT DOESN’T BOMB: A couple weeks ago, The Cipher Brief published a not-too-glowing review of a new book by Annie Jacobsen called Nuclear War: A Scenario. The reviewer, former CIA counter proliferation expert John Lauder, found some of Jacobsen’s speculative non-fiction kind of specious. But apparently not everyone was as underwhelmed. The (Chinese-owned) media company “Legendary Entertainment” has optioned the book and is dropping a mega-ton of money on its author. According to Deadline, Jacobsen is getting $500,000 upfront – and if the film is eventually made – she earn $1.5 million. The speculation is that Denis Villeneuve, who directed Dune: Part Two might be brought aboard to direct the film.
HOPE THEY CAN FIND THE BOMB: Army Times reported that National Guard troops from New Jersey, Delaware and Idaho participated in interagency training with the FBI at a New Jersey sports facility last month. The training scenario imagined the FBI receiving “intelligence that a domestic terrorist group has planted bombs — including one with cesium-137, a radioactive isotope — as more than 10,000 people are about to converge on the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton to listen to the vice president.” The training gave the troops experience looking for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives weapons. Sounds like a worthwhile exercise – unless you are journalist Ken Klippenstein of The Intercept who called it “March madness”. Klippenstein had his basketball shorts in a knot because the scenario envisioned domestic terrorists. He says: “There’s no evidence that any domestic terrorist group has ever been well-resourced enough to construct a nuclear dirty bomb. But that hasn’t stopped Washington from building on January 6, to feed its current domestic extremism obsession and fearmongering about it.” Yeah, let’s not train on how to find dirty bombs until AFTER some domestic terrorist group proves they can deploy one.
SHAMELESS (SELF-PROMOTION): A look at what’s happening behind-the-scenes at The Cipher Brief:
PICTURE-WORTHY: Cipher Brief CEO Suzanne Kelly and COO Brad Christian were in Kyiv this month hosting The Cipher Brief’s Kyiv Economic & Security Forum. While our hats go off to the TCB team for hosting a conference focused on technology and the economy in the middle of a war, it’s really the behind-the-scenes pictures we love. The Cipher Brief traveled with an impressive group of Cipher Brief experts and military experts from AEI and the Institute for the Study of War and Kelly is posting all of the back-story photos on her LinkedIn page. Our favorites so far: the crew – led by former CIA Director General David Petraeus (Ret.) unwinding in the overnight train car and pics from their meeting with Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. You can also check out the Dispatches from TCB Experts on The Cipher Brief’s Digital Channel.
YOUR TICKET TO THE DC DINNER PARTY: We’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about The Cipher Brief HONORS Dinner coming up on May 2 with honors going out to CIA Director Bill Burns, former PDDNI Susan Gordon, Award-winning journalist Walter Pincus, Hollywood Executive Producer and Showrunner Howard Gordon and Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova. We also hear that former CIA Directors George Tenet, Gen. Michael Hayden (Ret.) and former PDDNI Stephanie O’Sullivan will be there. We asked ChatGPT (because we believe in the ‘Human-Machine team’ approach) to summarize the dinner for us and we got this back: “Step into the world of national security luminaries at the inaugural Cipher Brief HONORS Dinner, where we celebrate trailblazers shaping the discourse on national and global security. Join us in honoring those who have dared to challenge norms, champion transparency, and ignite innovation in safeguarding our future. It's an exclusive opportunity to mingle with Cipher Brief Experts and distinguished leaders from both public and private sectors. Don't miss your chance to attend this elegant black-tie affair on Thursday, May 2 in Washington DC. Secure your seat now by visiting the event website.” Not too bad, for a machine.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
WELL, IN HINDSIGHT: The U.S. Navy posted a photo on their Instagram account of Commander Cameron Yaste, Commanding Officer of USS John S. McCain on the deck of his ship pointing a rifle at an afloat target. And then, the sea service quickly took the posting down when sharp-eyed observers noticed that the Trijicon VCOG scope was mounted backward on the weapon. (VCOG, as we all know, stands for “Variable Combat Optical Gunsight”) Some cheeky folks commented that that was why they have Marines on Navy ships. But we found one person who came to the Commander’s defense. “Anyone can hit a big target with a high-powered rifle and a scope mounted the normal way,” we were told by someone who begged for anonymity but who aimed to please. “It takes a real marksman to hit something when the scope makes the target look much farther away,” he said.
HATS OFF TO FORT BLISS: Well actually, hats on. Military.com reports that soldiers at the Army’s Fort Bliss installation are authorized to wear “boonie caps,” floppy, light headgear that protects the wearer’s head from the sun. What is a bit head scratching though, is that the hats are not authorized at any other Army base around the world. Everywhere else on the planet – soldiers have to wear something called a “patrol cap” which reportedly is less comfortable in the heat. We know they get a lot of sun at Fort Bliss - but only one Army post worldwide merits the boonie cap? We thought uniform regulations were supposed to make things – you know – uniform.
A TIP OF THE CIPHER BRIEF CAP TO ALL THOSE SENDING US NEWS TIPS. YOU CAN DO SO TOO BY EMAILING US AT: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com
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