WONDER WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT THE TOILET PAPER SHORTAGE: The Department of Homeland Security has issued an advisory telling folks that Russian intelligence services are likely closely watching the U.S. response to COVID-19 and that “Intelligence collection on medical supply chain vulnerabilities could inform future operations aimed at weakening key logistical elements in preparation for a wartime attack, or opportunistically during an emergency,” as reported by Yahoo News. In addition, the Russians have tried to score propaganda points by sending a plane load of medical supplies to the U.S. (for a price.) According to Daniel Hoffman, a retired senior CIA officer and Cipher Brief Expert, “the Russians are well aware that we know what our vulnerabilities are," he said. "Implicitly threatening us, the Kremlin wants us to know they also know our vulnerabilities."
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS, WE PRINT: The Washington Post (WaPo) reported on Tuesday that an internal CIA website advised agency employees not to self-prescribe the drug hydroxychloroquine in an effort to treat COVID-19. WaPo says that the site tells CIA officers: “At this point, the drug is not recommended to be used by patients except by medical professionals prescribing it as part of ongoing investigational studies. There are potentially significant side effects, including sudden cardiac death, associated with hydroxychloroquine and its individual use in patients need to be carefully selected and monitored by a health care professional.” The Agency added in bold type: “Please do not obtain this medication on your own.” A gutsy move in light of the fact that the president has been touting the anecdotal benefits of the drug and suggesting that he might take it himself. Not so gutsy was the fact that CIA spokespeople declined to comment to WaPo about internal communication. Our spies also tell us that the Agency’s internal news clipping service titled “Media Highlights” failed to include The Washington Post story on Tuesday morning despite the fact that the story appeared on page three of the newspaper. Media Highlights is said to be available to Agency employees around the world. Guess they don’t want Agency employees getting their news from open sources.
MAY THE SPACE FORCE BE WITH YOU: The U.S. Space Force is only months old but already it is moving at warp speed in making its mark in the entertainment world. Military Times advises that a workplace comedy called “Space Force” will start airing on Netflix in May. Starring Steve Carell, formerly of “The Office,” the show reportedly is about the exploits of four-star General Mark Naird (Carell) who once had dreams of leading the USAF but to his disappointment, finds himself leading the “spacemen” of the new service. You can see a short trailer here.
GETTING TO CONGRESS THE HARD WAY: On multiple occasions, The Dead Drop has told you about the efforts of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, to secure a Congressional seat in New Mexico. In a new advertisement, she is literally running. The ad shows Plame working her way through an obstacle course. The narrator, her brother, says we need her national security experience to fight the coronavirus. As she scales a wall, we’re told she thinks “Trump’s wall is immoral.” It ends with her looking into a camera and saying: “I’m Valerie Plame and I can’t believe I approved this message.”
A BOOK IN SEARCH OF A SHORTER TITLE: Publishing industry trade press say that investigative journalist Tim Tate has landed a deal with St. Martin’s for a book to be titled, Agent Sniper: The Cold War Super Agent, The Soviet Operatives He Exposed And The Ruthless Head Of The CIA Who Despised Him. We don’t know about the rest of the manuscript, but the title sure could use an editor. The book is about Polish Lieutenant Colonel Michael Goleniewski, who is said to have “exposed over 1600 Soviet agents, came in from the cold with his West German mistress, declared that he was actually the Tsarevich Alexei Romanoff, was hounded out of the intelligence community by James Angleton and disappeared without a trace. We found a 1964 newspaper article about him in the CIA’s declassified archives.
“MY SPY” SAYS BYE-BYE TO THEATERS: The motion picture “My Spy,” which was supposed to hit theaters April 17, has fallen victim to COVID-19. Deadline says Amazon Prime Video has purchased the rights to the flick which will start streaming later this year. “My Spy” is the story of a hardened CIA operative who has been demoted and finds himself at the mercy of a precocious 9-year-old girl.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
THINKING INSIDE THE BOX: The boffins at Britain’s GCHQ have produced some puzzles to keep folks busy while confined to their flats and estates. Want to give them a try? What else do you have to do? You can find them here. You can also find them in The Cipher Brief’s M-F newsletter (which is free).
SPYING INSIDE THE LITTER BOX: For some reason, the folks at BuzzFeed produced a video about the CIA’s fairly well-known 1960’s “acoustic kitty” caper. If you are not familiar with it – the story goes that the during the cold war, the CIA tried to figure out how to wire cats and train them to be used as mobile listening devices. Turned out that while you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, you also can’t teach a young cat useful espionage tradecraft. BuzzFeed shows (in animation) how various electronics were implanted in the kitties. The experiment did not go well. BuzzFeed spends ten minutes telling cat jokes – and then stresses that they do not condone the mean things done to our feline friends. Message: don’t try this at home. The project was a failure apparently because using kitties as spies is tougher than herding cats.
CHICAGO WANTS A PASS OVER FOIA REQUIREMENTS: Coronavirus has created a lot of disruption around the country and we are all doing many things differently as a result of the pandemic. But here is an odd impact we might not have expected. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently spoke out in support of a proposal to allow municipalities, while in a quarantine status, to suspend compliance with Freedom of Information release guidelines. In remarks right before the religious holidays, the mayor invoked the Passover story of God sending the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. The Chicago Tribune says that Lightfoot told reporters: “…the angel of death that we all talk about is the Passover story, that angel of death is right here in our midst every single day,” and therefore “…it is difficult for many city agencies to be able to respond to the FOIA requests that have heightened.” Hmmm.
ONE WAY TO LEAVE YOUR JOB: CNN.com’s “travel” section carried a story this week about a 64-year-old Frenchman who reportedly was about to retire when colleagues at his firm got him a surprise farewell gift – a ride in a Dassault Rafe B jet. Unfortunately, they failed to ask if he might enjoy such a gift. It soon became clear the answer was not “oui.” If the story is to be believed, while zipping along at about 870 MPH (which sounds unlikely to us) the plane started to climb, and the backseat passenger reached down to grab something to hold onto. Unfortunately, he picked the ejection handle. The gent rapidly departed the aircraft – allegedly losing his helmet in the process but safely parachuting to the ground. There are large chunks of this story that we find unlikely – but thought we would share it with you because who among us hasn’t had a co-worker that we wanted to eject?
HEY, BAIL US OUT: Got any news nuggets you’d like to see parachute into The Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
