Dead Drop: April 21

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 401^st 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.