THE UN-REAL HOUSEWIVES OF THE 960TH ASSAULT AVIATION REGIMENT: A group of Ukrainian hacktivists and journalists recently pulled a fast one on the wife of the commander of the Russian unit that bombed a theater in Mariupol a year ago, killing hundreds of civilians. The hacker group, known as “Cyber Resistance” and a group of journalists who go by the name “Inform Napalm” fooled the wife of Colonel Sergey Antroshchenko into gathering the wives and girlfriends of the other pilots and getting them to pose in front of an SU-25 airplane wearing their guy’s uniform tunics including medals and other identifying information. Cyber Resistance also claimed to have hacked Colonel Antroshchenko’s Ministry of Defense Records and also obtained and published scantily clad photos his wife that were reportedly sent to him to keep his morale up. We’re guessing that some of the images published by Inform Napalm, like the ID’s of those assigned to the unit – are likely to improve morale for those who are investigating war crimes.
I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I? Russian State TV seemed excited to report the arrest of Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich on allegations of “espionage.” They confidently asserted that Gershkovich was not really a journalist (which the WSJ countered by making his recent reporting available outside the typical Journal paywall.) Russian Media Monitor Julia Davis pointed out a TV segment where Russian pundits said they hoped their spies working undercover as reporters in the U.S. are more sophisticated and don’t get caught.
HERE'S A STORY NOT LIKELY TO MAKE IT ON RUSSIAN STATE TV: The Sun tabloid recently interviewed former CIA counterintelligence chief James Olson who declared that Vladimir Putin “is a dead man walking.” After noting that the war is not going well for the Kremlin, he also said he believes there is a growing undercurrent of opposition to Putin among the military, intelligence services and oligarchs. Olson told The Sun: "Putin is destroying Russia. I believe there are some good Russians, some patriotic Russians who will decide enough is enough." He added “I think Putin will be taken out. I would not rule out assassination.” We noted that in their headline, The Sun referred to Olson as being an “ex-CIA chief.” While it is true that he was chief of an important portion of the Agency (and has written extensively post retirement) the tabloid might have been over-selling his credentials just a bit.
NO, I’M NOT A TERRORIST AND NEXT TIME I’M STAYING AT A HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS: Have you ever mistakenly gone to the wrong hotel room while traveling? Boy, that can be embarrassing. Just ask the FBI and the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command (USASOC) who were conducting a training exercise in Boston this week and entered a hotel room in the Revere Hotel Boston Common. They captured and interrogated someone they thought was a role player – but turned it out to be the wrong person. A spokesperson for the USASOC apologized to “the individual who was affected by the training exercise.” The FBI said the joint raid team was given the wrong room number. A police call, aired by CNN, said there were two Delta pilots who said people claiming to be FBI agents barged into their room and handcuffed them in the bathroom. Whether there was one unintended victim or two – or whether they were pilots or something else, will all come out after the investigation. We can’t wait to read the After Action Report on this one.
LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU: You’ve probably heard quite a bit about the new and improved CIA Museum (if not, check out The Cipher Brief State Secrets podcast from November.) But not everyone is fully up to speed on “the best museum you will never see.” For example – school kids. Well, C-Span and the CIA have a fix for that. C-Span recently published a lesson plan for teachers with a “Virtual Field Trip” to the CIA. The lessons feature the museum director, Robert Byer (who was interviewed in our podcast as well.) It has seven short video clips and options for students to choose various ways to engage – answer questions about their area of interest and expand and test their vocabulary.
I’II DRINK TO THAT: The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence continues to pour out interesting insights into the sorry state of Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine. In their daily tweet on April 2nd they pointed out that not only has Russia suffered “up to 200,000 casualties” since the start of their invasion of Ukraine but they have suffered a significant minority of casualties related to “non-combat causes.” The Brits cite a Russian Telegram news channel saying there have been “extremely high” numbers of incidents, crimes and deaths linked to excessive alcohol consumption by Putin’s deployed forces. Mulling this over – if we were war planners, we might propose an operation calling for Ukrainian forces to send drones to airdrop vodka on Russian positions. There are a couple advantages to this plan. For example: it will save on bombs, rockets and missiles that are in short supply – and Russian troops may hesitate to shoot down the drones – not knowing if they are intended to deliver a Hellfire – or fire water.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
HANG ON SHIPMATE: At a White House press briefing last week, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, tried to slow the roll of New York Post correspondent Steven Nelson. After warning Nelson that time was short, the reporter launched into a lengthy and convoluted question about whether China was at war with the U.S. by sending fentanyl to our shores. A few words into Kirby’s answer Nelson tried to interrupt but Kirby was not having that, saying: “Now let me finish, shipmate…” For those unfamiliar with naval vernacular, we are told that while “shipmate” sounds like a friendly phrase – the speaker’s inflection, tone and context can convey something quite different.
SOUNDS PLAUSIBLE: The Stars and Stripes newspaper collected a few examples of military April Fool’s Day pranks that were pulled this year. The list was not too lengthy – perhaps the fact that April 1st fell on a Saturday cut down the lengths that some troops were willing to go to in order to con their colleagues and the public. One caper reportedly involved personnel at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington telling folks that there was an unidentified balloon floating nearby – only to later reveal it was just Dorothy and Toto heading back to Kansas. Another (somewhat more believable) prank came from a DOD outfit called “Leadership University” which announced that the Pentagon had created a new medal that would soon be awarded to civilians who had considered serving in the military but never actually signed up.
HAVE WE TOLD YOU ABOUT THE MEDAL WE GIVE TO PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT ABOUT SENDING US NEWS TIPS? It doesn’t exist. We were going to create one, but the idea went over like a lead spy balloon. Send your real tips to us at: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com
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