PROMOTION POTENTIAL IN PUTIN’S FSB? According to the (not-always-reliable) U.K. Daily Mail, 150 security officials were purged from Russia’s FSB this week – some of whom were also arrested. The Mail story delivers this nugget: Putin is reportedly “hunting for traitors after Western intelligence agents obtained his country’s battle plans before the invasion.” Among those said to be on Vlad’s bad list is Colonel General Sergei Beseda, who was head of the FSB’s foreign intelligence unit but now reportedly resides in the Lefortovo prison. Officially, he is accused of embezzlement, but Beseda is really being blamed for leaks, according to the Daily Mail.
HOW ABOUT SHARING SOME OF THOSE LEAKS? Not with us – but the Ukrainians. Senator Marco Rubio, Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and seven other Republican members sent a letter to DNI Avril Haines this week saying they, “remain deeply concerned that not enough is being done to share critical intelligence that would assist the Ukrainians as Russian forces move to secure territory in the southern and eastern parts of the country. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the administration made a decision “last week” to “help Ukrainian forces better identify how the Russian military plans to attack, and to enable the Ukrainians to respond with their artillery, drone attacks and other fire.”
UBER DUMB: While we certainly hope western intelligence agencies are stealing a lot of Russian secrets, according to the non-governmental whizzes at Bellingcat, they may be getting help from inept Russian operatives. A data leak from Yandex Food, a popular Russian food delivery service, shows that many employees of Russian intelligence services and the military have been ordering chow using their official email and work addresses. Bellingcat and others are using the leaks to identify foodies worth keeping an eye on.
AND YOU THOUGHT THE MILITARY GOT CARRIED AWAY WITH POWERPOINT: Brace yourself for this. Breaking Defense is reporting on an Air Force meeting back in December, with 250 attendees. That’s not the breaking news part. Apparently, the attendees were not jammed into a conference room but were spread around the globe and all wearing Oculus headsets. Will the military be averse to the metaverse? Not a chance. The services have been dabbling in virtual reality for years. An unnamed industry executive is quoted as saying, “You think about, like, a picture’s worth 1,000 words, the video clip is worth a million words — well, how much is it worth to be able to literally experience it based on anywhere you are?” We’re guessing that executive is interested in selling VR headsets to the Pentagon.
JUST IN TIME FOR ELECTION SEASON? Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has a book coming out in November. The publisher, Broadside (an imprint of HarperCollins) says the book will recount Pompeo’s time in the Trump administration, with, “stories and strategic thinking behind key actions regarding North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, Mexico, Israel, Afghanistan, and more.” We hear that Pompeo is among those interested in running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
ROAD TRIP! We saw a tweet this week, from a participant revealing that this year’s “International Intelligence History Association’s conference” will be held in Tutzing, Germany and will include a panel discussion on, “Telling Stories: Communicating Secret Intelligence through Memoirs and Novels.” We found this interesting for two reasons. One, we had never heard of Tutzing, Germany before. Also, we had never heard of the International Intelligence History Association either. The IIHA’s website says the event with be held July 1-3. The last tweet from the organization was posted in 2016, so they have had plenty of time to prepare, apparently. Former CIA chief historian Ben Fischer is among the Tutzing panelists – so we suspect it could be an interesting event.
YOU DON’T KNOW JACK (RYAN): The Military Times has a very detailed story about what current and former uniformed members should know about a possible career with the Central Intelligence Agency. The conceit in the story is that you too can follow Tom Clancy hero ‘Jack Ryan’s’ career path – from the military to the Agency. The piece goes into detail about the benefits available for vets who join the Agency, the hiring process, and the five hiring steps needed to get into CIA. Among the tips they offer, “it is required that you do not follow, friend, share, interact, post, or mention the agency on any of your social media platforms.” The good news is that there doesn’t appear to be any prohibition to your subscribing to The Cipher Brief.
INTERGALACTIC STORK: We’ve heard some strange explanations in our time – but this one is right up there with the weirdest. The British-based tabloid, The Sun, has been fighting with the Pentagon for more than four years now, to get their hands on formerly classified documents relating to the “Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program” — aka “UFOs.” They finally received 1,574 pages of material last month thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. The documents reportedly included material on the biological effects of UFO sightings on humans, including, “burns, heart problems, (and) sleep disturbances.” But wait – that’s not all. There was also “apparent abduction” and “unaccounted for pregnancy.”
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
NEARLY GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS: Workers at an Auckland, New Zealand potato chip factory called, “Mr. Chips” spotted what they thought was a muddy spud on a conveyor belt. Turned out it wasn’t a tuber. Then they thought it was a pomegranate. Wrong again. It was a World War II-era hand grenade. Fortunately it was a training model with no explosives – or as Military Times put it – “this spud was a dud.”
BAG MAN: Last week, during the Masters, we spotted an item in Politico that caught our eye. It reported that former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, USAF General John Hyten, who retired in November 2021, is still in the one year “cooling off period” when he is not allowed to lobby old colleagues on behalf of some beltway bandit. But Hyten says he doesn’t mind, since when he was on active duty he hated having to say “No” to old friends trying to sell him stuff. Nowadays, to keep himself busy, he is reportedly caddying for his son who is a professional golfer. Politico didn’t further identify the son but said he was on the “PGA Tour.”
UNLIKE GOLFERS, WE DON’T WANT TO BE BELOW PAR: So, if you spot any news we can use, send your tips to us at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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