“WAGING THE TRUTH”: Politico reported this week that last year, nine active duty U.S. four-star officers wrote to the then acting Director of National Intelligence asking that the IC declassify more intelligence to “clarify truth, counter distortions, puncture false narratives, and influence events in time to make a difference.” Excessive secrecy, they argued, was putting the U.S. and its allies at a disadvantage in working against foes like Russia and China. The memo, which was unclassified but marked “For Official Use Only,” was reportedly signed by nine of the 11 four-star combatant commanders on active duty at the time. Only the four-stars atop the U.S. Central Command and Cyber Command elected not to sign. Which makes one wonder: why were they the outliers?
EYIN’ MALIGN: We are not sure if this item relates to the previous one or not – but this week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced that it will establish a new center to track foreign efforts to wage disinformation and influence campaigns in the U.S. The outfit they plan to call the “Foreign Malign Influence Center” is intended to coordinate and integrate intelligence pertaining to malign influence. By the way – when did the word “malign” become so trendy? It is one of those words that you would never have found in a press release – or Center title ten years ago.
LET’S PUT SOME MEAT ON THOSE BONES: In a report that sounds like science fiction, NEXTGOV says that the Army Research Laboratory is exploring ways to fuse organic tissue with robots. It turns out people and animals can still do some things better than machines….so Army researchers are trying to make those devices more like us.
SEEING ISN’T BELIEVING: Several senior European Members of Parliament have recently been on the receiving end of video calls purportedly from Russian opposition figures but that are, in fact, deepfake imitations. The Guardian says call recipients believe that the fake phoners may be Kremlin apparatchiks hoping to discredit Putin’s opposition.
INKLING THAT LINKEDIN MAY BE TRICKY: BBC News’ Gordon Corera reports that according to MI5, at least 10,000 UK nationals have been approached over the past five years on LinkedIn by fake profiles linked to hostile states. MI5 has launched a “Think Before You Link” campaign to encourage Britons to recognize the threat and report suspicious activity.
RIGHT BETWEEN THE FIVE EYES: The folks at AFIO (the Association of Former Intelligence Officers) noted that recent reporting indicates that Japan might join the post-war intelligence network known as “Five Eyes.” And they recommended - for those who want to know more about the relationship between English-speaking intelligence agencies of the U.S., U.K, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - that they check out a 2020 book from Casemate Publishers called Between Five Eyes: 50 Years of Intelligence Sharing by Anthony Wells. What caught our eye is that the book has a forward by someone with the most British title we have ever seen: “Admiral the Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC PC.”
SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT: The Cipher Brief’s upcoming International Summit May 11-13 will provide opportunities to hear from high-ranking former Five Eyes members on the future of alliances. The summit is free for Cipher Brief members, of course.
MI5 EYES INSTAGRAM: The British domestic intelligence agency, MI5, has recently joined Instagram. Officials say they hope their account, @Mi5official will debunk a few myths and that Instagramers will see they are taking a more “open approach” although secrets still need to be kept secret. A few days after launching the account, they had over 100,000 followers. MI5 Director General Ken McCallum is urging the public to check out their Instagram page and follow it saying, “You can insert your own joke about whether we will be following you.”
STATES RIGHTS: There has been a lot of discussion recently about the pros and cons of making Washington, D.C. the 51st state. Normally, The Dead Drop would not weigh in, but we couldn’t help but notice that someone who did was a former Acting Director of National Intelligence. Ambassador Ric Grenell took to Twitter to declare that “No state should have all the Federal jobs. If DC becomes a state, then the federal government must move out of DC and disperse itself among the states.” It didn’t take long for the Twitterverse to respond by the thousands – many pointing out that DC does not have all the federal jobs. Some folks pointed out that most of the intelligence community which he led, for example, are not in DC. In fairness, however, Grenell was A/DNI for only 64 days in 2020 during the pandemic, so perhaps he had one of those work at home gigs and thought the office was in DC.
BOOK STUFF: Author Susan Ouellette is having a good spring. Her first espionage thriller, The Wayward Spy was published March 2nd by Camcat books and now the same publisher has picked up a sequel called Reluctant Martyr about an intelligence analyst who follows the trail of a dead female Chechen terrorist, convinced it will lead to a plot against the United States – but instead finds that she is the target. In addition to being a former CIA analyst herself – Ouellette knows a lot about dangerous skullduggery having also served as a staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI.) The sequel is slated to come out in the spring of 2022.
SPEAKING OF HPSCI: Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D, CA) has landed a book deal with Random House to publish: Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could. It is billed as “an inside account of one of America's darkest hours.” Publication is set for October of this year.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
MY HOMEWORK WAS HACKED: The U.S. Special Operations Command Central created a stir this week by Tweeting just the words “Afghanistan” and “Islamic State” in quotes. Were they sending a signal about their take on President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by September 11th? Initially the command claimed that their Twitter account was hacked. But upon further review – the truth was embarrassing but somewhat less frightening. SOCCENT now says a social media administrator inadvertently Tweeted the words when intending to simply conduct an internet search for topical events. Given the range of things the administrator could have been searching for – the result might have been much worse.
IF YOU BELIEVE THIS, I HAVE A DACHA TO SELL YOU: We don’t know what this signals but U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden apparently is now making some spare rubles by speaking (remotely) at U.S. real estate seminars. He addressed an event on April 24 that was advertised as being created for “entrepreneurs, rule breakers, industry disruptors, business professionals, investors and real estate enthusiasts.” We are not sure what Snowden knows about real estate – but we are confident he has the “rule breaking” part down pat.
CHEMIST LIKELY TO SPEND TIME IN CAN: The Department of Justice announced on April 22nd that Dr. Xiaorong You of Lansing, MI, “was convicted of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, conspiracy to commit economic espionage, possession of stolen trade secrets, economic espionage, and wire fraud.” Quite a rundown of charges. But they had nothing to do with missiles, or supercomputers, or medical technology. Specifically, she was charged with stealing trade secrets regarding the coatings used inside beverage cans. Beverage cans. Dr. You worked for Coca-Cola and the Eastman Chemical Company and was accused of stealing information that cost “nearly $120,000,000 to develop.” Man, that is some expensive coating. Dr. You is scheduled to be sentenced on November 1.
STOIC SPOKESMAN: DoD spokesman John Kirby managed to keep a straight face on Tuesday when asked during a Pentagon briefing: “An Army major was reportedly drugged and bitten by strippers in Poland. Will that affect the U.S. military’s footprint in that country?” There is a long back story to the question which you can find on Task & Purpose. Suffice to say that an Army helicopter pilot failed to maintain social distancing at an off-limits Polish strip club and ended up with a large credit card bill and some serious explaining to do.
KILLER CLAMS: Alaska’s National Public Radio outlet recently stumbled on something to brag about – one of the state’s contributions to the Cold War – shellfish toxin. An ocean researcher found some documents that say that in the early 1950s, the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Lab in Fort Detrick, MD placed an order for some toxic clams. The speculation is that they were used to create lethal suicide devices like the one Francis Gary Powers carried (but didn’t use) on his ill-fated U-2 flight over the Soviet Union. Apparently, paralyzing extracts from certain shellfish – called “saxitoxin” can kill you in minutes. It is unclear what the price per pound for toxic clams was back in the 1950s – but the Army contract was for $10,000 – which was a pretty penny back then.
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