TROUBLESOME LETTERS: We hear the people who have been putting together those open letters decrying the president’s action stripping former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearances have a big problem. They don’t know how to stop. This is how it started: on Thursday morning August 16, a couple former top CIA officials were talking about how they should not let Trump’s action against Brennan go unremarked upon. A short letter was crafted and in less than 24 hours, 15 former CIA Directors and Deputies and Directors of National Intelligence had signed on. Mission accomplished, right? Well, no. Immediately after publishing the letter they started hearing from lots of other CIA veterans who also wanted to have their voices heard. By Friday evening a second statement was published with the names of 60 former CIA officials. #USTOO. In both missives, the point was made that those signing were not necessarily agreeing with the positions taken by Brennan or the words the former CIA director had used – but rather his right to express his opinion as long as he protected classified information. Well, NOW the mission was accomplished? Umm, no. Over the weekend scores of other veterans — not only of the CIA, but also elsewhere in the Intelligence Community, State, Defense and Justice Departments and even NASA said they wanted to add their voices. So early Monday morning another statement with the names and titles of 177 additional people opposing the administration’s actions and threats was released. The names of those who signed that statement were nicely laid out in this Washington Post graphic. By now you know the pattern. We’re told that even more voices are being heard. Many of the signers of the three statements are hearing from friends and former colleagues asking: where do I sign up? Note Brennan was respected but not universally beloved when he was CIA director and his comments that President Trump’s action in Helsinki were “nothing short of treasonous” rubbed some people wrong. Others think he comments are much needed honesty. But as one intelligence alumni told us: “This is not about what was or was not said. When Lieutenant General Mike Flynn led “lock her up” cheers at the Republican National Convention in 2016 targeting Hillary Clinton – if the Obama administration had yanked his security clearances we would have vigorously opposed it.” The Dead Drop is presuming that Flynn kept his clearances – at least up to the point where he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
TEAM GINA: CIA Director Gina Haspel has her leadership team in place. Back in June, The Dead Drop mentioned that it seemed to be taking a long time for Haspel to fill up the 7th floor offices at CIA HQ. Then, a couple weeks ago, she landed a deputy, Vaughn Bishop, who was recently profiled on the Agency website. On Wednesday, August 22nd – the CIA announced the appointment of veteran analyst Andy Makridis to be their Chief Operating Officer and 34-year career veteran Sonya Holt as the new “Diversity and Inclusion Officer.” Makridis is replacing Brian Bulatao as the Agency’s #3. Bulatao is awaiting Senate confirmation to follow his pal, Mike Pompeo, to Foggy Bottom. Long-time CIA expert Emile Nahkleh is a fan of Makridis. He told The Cipher Brief: “Andy's appointment…is very impressive and well-deserved. I worked with Andy over the years and have also interacted with him since then and think very highly of his expertise, experience, and leadership abilities. The Agency's COO is a key position, and Andy is eminently qualified to work with the D/CIA in this area.” CBSNews.com reported that Holt previously led a team to implement recommendations made by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to boost the number of women in senior Agency positions.
MARIA BUTINA – BAD GIRL, BAD SPY, OR BAD LUCK? There is an essay on TheFederalist.com website from someone who knew jailed Russian mystery woman Maria Butina and is defending her against the nasty allegations she’s facing regarding spying for Russia (allegations she denies). The piece paints Butina as an adventuresome soul who just wanted to see U.S. landmarks, and debate the depth of American society. The author’s conclusion is that: “Butina obtained no secret information, failed to bring about any actual meetings for senior Russians, and communicated with her alleged handlers via Twitter messages and unsecured email. It’s hard to believe that anybody is this bad a spy.” TheFederalist.com tends to put the rosiest of spin on stories from the administration’s point of view. For example, Tuesday night they posted an item headlined: “Federal Jury Fails to Convict Paul Manafort on Majority of Counts, Find Him Guilty on 8 Counts of Fraud.” We must admit, for a moment we thought the article in defense of Butina might have been a spoof – because the author who defends her is named: “Faith Bottum.”
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told an audience on Tuesday that he is thinking of getting rid of his smartphone because he thinks the CIA is listening and perhaps planning on assassinating him. “I know, the U.S. is listening. I’m sure it’s the CIA, it’s also the one who will kill me,” Duterte said. Press accounts say he is thinking of shifting to a basic cellphone which he believes is harder to intercept. We have an old flip phone around somewhere we can let him have cheap.
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL? Apparently, the folks in Langley are. Last week the CIA hosted former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and CBS Sports host James “JB” Brown as part of their speakers series. According to an agency release, Dungy and Brown “met with officers from CIA’s Talent Center to discuss opportunities and challenges related to diversity and inclusion, as well as how to dispel common misperceptions about CIA to potential candidates.” Sounds like the Agency did some recruiting of its own. “My eyes have been opened today,” Dungy said. “Both James and I have a great deal more sensitivity—and frankly—just a sense of gratitude for what you do for our country.”
GET GLOMAR EXPLORER OUT OF MOTHBALLS: CNBC reported on August 21, that those new-fangled, hyper-sonic missiles the Russians have bragged about keep crashing during testing. CNBC cites an unnamed source as telling them that the missiles were tested four times between November 2017 and February 2018 and each time they crashed. The story says the Russians hope to recover one of the missiles which went to the bottom of the Barents Sea late last year. Vladimir Putin has said that the missiles have unlimited range. He has called them “invincible.” Since the propulsion system is reportedly nuclear – let’s hope that they are also waterproof.
SECRET WAR’S DARK CLOUD: Secret dossiers peddled by shady characters have been in the news a lot lately. Defense One says a “private investigative firm has been shopping around to Washington reporters a 100-plus-page dossier.” But at stake this time is not the presidential election – no, this is big. This issue involves a $10 billion contract to create a cloud computing network for the Defense Department. Apparently, it is all part of jockeying among major contractors battling to win the mega-contract which Defense One says “will help reshape American warfare by absorbing, processing, and analyzing intelligence, sensor, and troop data, and by facilitating communications through the Defense Department’s worldwide network.”
The dodgy DOD dossier reportedly raises “the specter of corruption on the part of senior Defense Department and private company officials.” Like the election dossier, this one quickly gets pretty confusing. Naturally, the Pentagon-related dossier has better acronyms and code names. The proposed cloud is called “JEDI” for “Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure.” It is not exactly clear who is behind the dossier which among other things disses Sally Donnelly, a former adviser to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
- C/NOT Impressed: We didn’t know the techie website C/NETdoes movie and TV reviews. But it turns out they do. This week they ran a critique of the forthcoming eight-episode Amazon streaming series centered on Tom Clancy’s iconic CIA hero “Jack Ryan.” We’ve told you about the series before. In their review, C/NET declared it as “ain’t that interesting” – which must be tech talk for two thumbs down. C/NET says Amazon Prime can’t find anything “unique or fresh to do with the (Jack Ryan) character. We didn’t get our advanced screener of the series, but we’ll hold out judgment until we see it with the rest of the world on August 31st.
- Grounded in Truth? The new Mark Wahlberg action flick, Mile 22, has a lot of intense action scenes with Wahlberg playing a CIA officer assigned to an elite unit called “Overwatch.” This has folks wondering if it is entirely the work of fertile minds in Hollywood or if it is grounded in truth. According to Military.com, there is more than a grain of truth in it. The producers have put out a short videowhich explains how “Overwatch” is based on the CIA’s “Ground Branch.”
- Secret Email: The folks at Muckrock.comhave discovered a great advance at the CIA’s FOIA office: an email address. The Agency’s transparency shop has been criticized over the years for making people submit FOIA requests via snail mail or by sending a fax to their single, oft-broken, fax machine. The good news is the FOIA shop now seems to have discovered email. The newsworthy part is that this breakthrough apparently happened four years ago – but has been kept secret. Muckrock says it is unclear if the Agency accepts new requests using the address – which, for the record, is cia_foia@ucia.gov.
- The Most Shocking Allegation in the Duncan Hunter Indictment: Lost in the noise from the Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort court cases on Tuesday was the news about the indictment of Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife. CNN assembledwhat they said are the “30 most astounding moments” in the 47-page indictment. Included were gems like the couple overdrawing their bank account more than1,000 times and using $250 of campaign funds to fly a pet (described elsewhere as a bunny) on a family vacation. But here at The Dead Drop we found another reason to be stunned. According to the indictment, when the Hunter family were in Italy in 2015 they asked the Navy for a tour of a naval base there and were told the date he suggested wasn’t convenient. Hunter reportedly told his chief of staff to “tell the Navy to go f*** themselves (no alteration in the original) and the tour didn’t happen. We are shocked — because we have never heard of the U.S. military ever turning down a Member of Congress’s request for a tour. Couldn’t the Command Duty Officer give Congressman and Mrs. Hunter (and perhaps the bunny) a windshield tour of the base? Where was the can-do spirit guys?
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Surely some bunny has heard something astounding. Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
