STRIKE FOUR: We are beginning to get the sense that not everyone liked former CIA officer Bob Baer’s latest book The Fourth Man. First, there was a less than complimentary review in The Cipher Brief by CIA veteran Joe Augustyn saying the book makes, “leaps of logic” and accusations about a former CIA officer that are “borderline malpractice.” Then, there was a column in TCB written by three former CIA Chiefs of Counterintelligence, Mike Sulick, Mark Kelton and Lucinda Webb that said the book was “riddled with errors” and “irresponsible false assumptions.” Then, the man who many said had been unfairly singled out by Baer as a Russian spy, legendary CIA spy catcher Paul Redmond, wrote his own defense in an international journal. Now, we have learned that another high-ranking former CIA counterintelligence official, Dr. Rich Rita, has penned a devastating critique published by the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence. Rita says “key factual errors” in the book “fatally undercut the book’s sensationalist implication that Paul Redmond was probably a Russian mole. We were going to suggest that Baer go back to writing fiction although some folks suggest he already has.
E-RING ROULETTE: The very first item in the very first edition of The Dead Drop, almost eight years ago, was about jockeying for assignments among four-star officers in the Pentagon. So, it is appropriate in this 401st edition, to provide an update. Fortunately, the folks at Politico did the heavy lifting for us and have a lengthy piece this week handicapping the likely candidates to soon fill the JCS chairman and service chief jobs. Politico noted that as many as five of the eight most senior uniformed leaders in the Pentagon are scheduled to leave their current gigs this year. Our sources agree with Politico that the odds-on favorite to be nominated to be the next chairman of the JCS is Air Force General C.Q. Brown. We are hearing that Navy Admiral Lisa Franchetti is just about everyone’s bet to become the first woman to be Chief of Naval Operations. Assuming Brown moves up to chairman, General Jacqueline Von Ovost is a strong contender to be the first woman to be Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
THIS WEEK IN LEAKS: There has been a ton of reporting and kvetching recently about the leak of top-secret documents as a suspect arrested in the case, Massachusetts Air National Guard Airman First Class Jack Teixeira awaits his time in court. Some of that commentary has been thoughtful and well-informed - like a piece by Mark Kelton in The Cipher Brief on “The Enduring Consequences of Intelligence Leaks” and another TCB opinion piece by Javed Ali suggesting Key Reforms Are Needed to Safeguard the Nation’s Secrets. Other bits of commentary were less compelling. Like a tweet from Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene, who implied that “Jake” Teixeira (as she called him) was only being picked on because he is “white, male, christian, and antiwar.” While we support innocent until proven guilty, The Dead Drop is generally in the camp of those who think that 21-year-old airmen should not be their own declassification authority. And a serious argument could be made that rookies fresh out of high school might not be ready to be exposed to the wide range of the nation’s most secret secrets, in any case. Those observers who are claiming that Discord-gate (which no one is calling this leak so far) is the most devastating leak in modern times, apparently believe that the (perhaps 100) documents that Teixeira is thought to have leaked out, does damage equal to the estimated 750,000 documents that Chelsea Manning released to the world (including those looking to harm us) in 2010, or the approximately 1.5 million documents that Edward Snowden pilfered in 2013. Many, but not all of Snowden’s haul were given to the media and others may have ended up with his current landlord, Vladimir Putin. Quite a few pundits have been saying that the problem is that too many government documents are classified. While that is undeniably true – this does not justify declaring open season on secrets or letting outlets with names like “Thug Shaker Central” decide which ones need to be shared with friend and foe alike. Just sayin.
TOO TRUE: Journalist Michael Kinsley famously defined the word “gaffe” as those occasions when a politician accidentally tells the truth. Ironically, that may apply to journalists as well. Last weekend, New York Times reporter David Philipps tweeted – and then quickly deleted: “The NYT worked feverishly to find the identity of the guy leaking TS docs on Discord. Ironically, if the same guy had leaked to the NYT, we’d be working feverishly to conceal it.” Philipps posted another tweet saying “I just deleted a tweet that lacked nuance. Much more nuance coming soon.” If he has posted that nuance since – we’ve missed it.
NOT TRUE ENOUGH: According to the Wall Street Journal, there is a purported Russian social media account identifying itself as “Donbass Devushka” (which translates to “Donbas Girl”) which is run by a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer. In 2020, Sarah Bils, was a chief petty officer (E-7) assigned to the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. But for undisclosed reasons, she was discharged from active duty in 2022 having been busted to E-5. Meanwhile, Bils, now 37, has been among those operating a blog that promotes pro-Kremlin propaganda and (according to the WSJ) has “glorified the Russian military and the paramilitary Wagner Group.” Online, Bils has portrayed herself as a Ukrainian-born woman although some media say she was born in New Jersey. Her site posted some of the documents allegedly leaked by Airman First Class Teixeira and has sold merchandise celebrating the Russian military saying the proceeds will be used to help “our men on the front.” It’s important to know your sources, eh?
ENEMIES WITHIN: Color us shocked that an enlightened regime like that of Vladimir Putin might be mistreating its female service personnel. But Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports that Russian military officers “make life hell” for female soldiers – often designating them as their “field wife” whose duties involve “cooking, cleaning, and indulging him” suggesting a sexual relationship. Reportedly, those unwilling to comply are sometimes forced to sleep outdoors and some are reportedly reassigned to artillery units close to the front. We hope they are heavily armed too, to better engage ‘the enemy’ of course.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
CHINA/TAIWAN RELATIONS GO THROUGH A BAD PATCH? Among the many things we learned this week – was that there are a number of long-standing internet memes that compare Chinese President XI Jinping with Winnie the Pooh. Apparently, this is viewed as somewhat offensive in Beijing – and there are reports that Winnie pix are officially verboten in China. All this belatedly came to our attention via a Reuters story about a uniform patch being worn by Taiwanese air force pilots. The patch shows a cartoon image of a Formosan black bear (a symbol of Taiwan) punching Winnie the Pooh in the face. The patch has the words “Scramble” and “We are open 24/7” on it. Take that, Pooh! We are not sure why the inscriptions are in English, but the patches are reportedly hot sellers in Taiwan.
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