DOWNGRADE AND SHARE: There was an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal this week by Warren Strobel about the trend by the U.S. government to quickly declassify and share with the public and allies, intelligence relating to the Russian war against Ukraine. If this were fishing – it might be called “catch and release.” In this case, the new policy calls for going much farther than they have in the past, to turn secrets into weapons by letting them go. While the first flurries of downgrade and share did not prevent the Russians from invading Ukraine, (despite Kremlin pledges that they had no such intention) the piece says that U.S. officials believe the sharing did deter some “false flag” operations. Former NSA General Counsel (and current Cipher Brief expert) Glenn Gerstell, is quoted calling the tactic, “..a harbinger” adding that “Future conflicts are going to be shaped, instigated and deterred by releases of information beforehand.” If you think getting information and using it is a no-brainer – you haven’t hung around the Intelligence Community much. There is always the risk that putting out information obtained now will prevent you from collecting similar information down the road. But the practice has won some champions on the Hill. Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said: “My gosh, maybe the West is finally winning the information war.” Nicole de Haay, a spokesperson for the Director of National Intelligence said, “The intelligence community surged personnel and resources to support classification reviews.”
OVER SHARING: Sparked by a March 11th piece in SpyTalk, there is continuing debate about whether internal intelligence community chat rooms on the Intelink system were full of inappropriate political discussion in recent years including commentary supportive of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. A column by MSNBC contributor Frank Figliuzzi, cites another SpyTalk piece that says both the House and Senate intel committees are aware of the allegations and are reviewing them. Figliuzzi also calls for IC leaders to step up and prevent their subordinates from using classified environments “to exchange recipes, racism or radicalization” and to identify any employees who have used the chat rooms in the past to espouse violence or support attempts to overturn valid elections. Now, that’s what we call ‘over sharing’.
THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE REALLY PISSED: One story we spotted in Politico recently that we don’t think has gotten enough attention, was about a group of more than two dozen retired Marine Corps generals who are trying to derail the plans of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General David Berger. Berger wants to overhaul the Corps to make it lighter, faster and broaden capabilities. It isn’t uncommon – in fact it is de rigueur for some old timers to complain when the new guy tries to change things. But in this case, the list of naysayers includes every living former commandant and a bunch of other retired four-stars. Among this group is former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, former CJCS Chairman Joe Dunford and former DHS secretary and White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly. We’re not gonna cast a vote on Berger’s plans – but he deserves credit for being able to bring together retired officers in a way we have not seen since….well…. the creation of The Cipher Brief.
LAST LIST OF 2021: Usually “Best of” and “Worst of” lists come out at the very end – or very beginning of a year. But Military Times waited three full months into 2022 to produce their “Absolute worst military movies of 2021” list. Maybe it took them that long to recover from having watched these flicks. Among the movies earning their scorn was “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse.” It features Michael B. Jordan as a Navy SEAL. There is a dream sequence in the film where Jordan takes a vodka shower while fully clothed, which sounds reasonable but apparently other parts of the movie are not quite so true to the SEAL lifestyle. The two-minute trailer illustrates why you might want to save the hour and fifty minutes it takes to watch the whole thing on Amazon Prime. Then there is “Outside the Wire” a Netflix offering in which a drone pilot (played by Damson Idris) screws up and kinda accidentally kills some American troops. The military decides that the best way to teach him not to do that again is to send him into the field, where he works for an officer who is an android. Apparently, this is set sometime in the near future – because if a drone pilot killed fellow Americans today – he would spend the rest of his life testifying before Congress. There are a few other bad flicks dissed in the Military Times piece – but trust us, if they’re anything near as bad as described, you’re better off not knowing about them.
SLOW HORSES: Apple TV+ has a new show called “Slow Horses” about a dysfunctional team of MI5 officers and their obnoxious boss (played by Gary Oldman.) It is inspired by a series of spy novels by Mick Herron. The title comes from a fictional London location called “Slough House” where the British intelligence service sends their washed-up or malfunctioning agents when they can’t easily fire them. According to Slate, the unit includes “a gambling addict, a guy who once left a top-secret file on the bus, a woman with anger management issues for whom cocaine use is “a weekend thing … strictly Thursday to Tuesday,” and an IT guy so obnoxious no other office would have him.” They are led by Oldman, who is described as “abusive, slovenly, and extravagantly flatulent.”
FAST PLANES AND THE NEED FOR SPEED: The Top Gun sequel has been about to come out for about two years now – and one of these days it may actually appear on the big screens. But it’s making a lot of news even before it premieres. Long ago, the film was criticized for changing the patches on Maverick’s flight jacket to remove a Taiwanese flag, lest it offend China. Now, we hear that still images of the movie show that the uniform of at least one main character, Iceman, played by Val Kilmer, is kinda off with some ribbons on his “rack” repeated, apparently just to make it look more impressive. In the original movie, Kilmer was a lieutenant. Now, he is a four-star admiral with a bogus chest full of ribbons. These are the kinds of things that on-set military advisors are supposed to catch – unless those advisors are from somewhere other than the U.S., of course.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
HIGH SPEED CHASE: A story from The U.S. Sun that was picked up by the New York Post this week says that last October, the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, was trailed on several nights by “odd and menacing ‘balls of light’” that supposedly lurked a half mile behind the ship and about 200 feet above the ocean. The lights were said to be “car-sized.” The article includes very spooky photos. Spooky, that is, until you read the fine print that the photos are a “mock up” of images described by witnesses. We’re not super good at math, but typically, there are about 1200 sailors on a ship like Kearsarge – and if they are embarked, they can have up to 1600 Marines aboard, each of them likely armed with a cell phone – so if anyone has an actual photo of the UFO-like lights – we recommend you “downgrade and share” it.
HAVE YOU SEEN ANYTHING SPOOKY, OR NEWSWORTHY OR MILDLY INTERESTING? Upgrade your friends reading experience by sharing it with The Dead Drop. Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
Reader Warning: Be on the Lookout for Disinformation. Today’s constant barrage of information makes it easy for countries to wage disinformation campaigns and your emotions are the weapon of choice. Learn how disinformation works and how we can fight it in this short video. This is one link you can feel good about sharing.
