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Dead Drop: April 6

<p>dead drop</p>

IN DEFENSE OF DIPLOMACY: About 200 retired U.S. Ambassadors have written to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and ranking member, motivated by President Donald Trump’s nomination of Mike Pompeo to become the next secretary of state. The ambassadors don’t endorse or condemn the pick – but tell the committee that the nomination presents an opportunity to “focus public attention on the urgent need to restore the power and influence of American diplomacy.” In the letter, they note that “of the nine senior leadership positions reporting to the Secretary of State, eight are now vacant.” They added that “over 50 ambassadorial posts are unfilled, as are 16 of the State Department’s 22 Assistant Secretary positions.”

INTERESTING CHOICE OF WORDS: While perusing our copy of the Russian Embassy Weekly newsletter, we noticed that they quoted Ambassador Anatoly Antonov telling NBC’s Savannah Guthrie “that (the) atmosphere in Washington is poisoned.” This comes on the heels of reports Russian operatives who may have tried to poison not just the atmosphere but doorknobs in the U.K. And Newsweek reported over the weekend that “suspected Russian agents have been spotted cruising the neighborhoods (in America) of some defectors protect by CIA security teams.”

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