PRIGOZHIN’S BIG SURPRISE: It seemed the only person surprised by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s untimely death in a plane crash in Russia this week, was Yevgeny Prigozhin. The world still doesn’t know what Russian President Vladimir Putin said to his one-time chef-turned-mercenary leader after he tried to launch a coup – two months to the day – before his reported death but whatever it was, Prigozhin must have eaten it up. Maybe Prigozhin should have been listening more closely to CIA Director Bill Burns, instead of the Russian President, as Burns told a group recently that Putin is someone “who thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold.” Cipher Brief Expert and former senior CIA station chief Dan Hoffman told The Cipher Brief, “This reminds me of the movie The Godfather when Michael Corleone’s character goes to Carlo, the abusive husband of his sister, and tells him he’s out of the family and has to move to Vegas. Carlo goes to the car and gets strangled to death instead. That's how Corleone’s character dealt with it.”
WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED THAT? Well, yeah. A lot of people. Voice of America reported late last week, that there is a growing consensus that two years after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, the country is once again becoming an incubator for terrorism. VOA reports some analysts believe there are about twenty different terrorist groups operating freely in Afghanistan today. But not everyone agrees. For example – the chief spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, says his outfit has essentially put an end to terrorism within his country. Yeah, right. VOA quoted President Biden as telling reporters at a press briefing in July, that he said at the time of the pullout, that going forward, al-Qaeda would not be in Afghanistan – and they are not. But analysts in the VOA report say there are plenty of others.
BULGARIANS BUSTED IN UK: There recently was some head-scratching news about three Bulgarian nationals – who had been living in London and elsewhere in the UK for years, who were arrested on charges of spying for Russia. The three were apparently arrested in February, but the news is just being released now. Authorities say that the detained Bulgarians had false passports and ID cards from at least seven countries and “Discovery and National Geographic television channel uniforms.” Our first thought: wait, they have uniforms at the National Geographic channel? Media reports say the trio held mundane jobs in the UK and that two of them lived next door to a policeman for many years. Exactly what they were spying on and how, remains unclear. Some neighbors said they thought it was suspicious that their TV satellite dish was pointed the wrong way. The Daily Mail described a female member of the group as “a party animal Kremlin spy’ and another as her ‘agent partner who used dating sites seeking ‘friendship’ from both men and women.” Wonder if the National Geographic uniforms helped get him any dates.
THEY DON’T MAKE ‘EM LIKE THEY USED TO: The U.S. Navy made some news last week by decommissioning the USS Sioux City, a littoral combat ship. The vessel was one of a troubled class of ships that has suffered problems with propulsion systems and hull integrity. (Sounds important.) When built, they were expected to last at least 25 years. But Sioux City was less than five years old. It probably still had that new-ship smell. Compare the Sioux City sayonara with other news that the Navy’s 7th Fleet flagship, USS Blue Ridge just completed her first full patrol in the Indo-Pacific since 2019. The ship pulled into her homeport of Yokosuka, Japan…and had spent a lot of time in the shipyards recently but that is understandable since it was placed into commission in 1970. The Navy says they plan to keep it active until 2039 – which, if it makes it that far, will be about fourteen times the lifespan of USS Sioux City.
SIGN OF THE TIMES: You know things are weird when the Associated Press has to post a story knocking down reports that the U.S. Marine Corps has arrested the CEO of pharma giant, Pfizer and killed his body guards. There has been a story circulating on social media (initiated by a “humor, parody, and satire” site) which claims the USMC arrested Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. Apparently the “humor” in the story claimed that the Leathernecks took down Bourla “during a military-sanctioned operation to apprehend the fiendish clot shot manufacturer following his return to the United States.” AP reached out to Pfizer which confirmed that the story was false. Amazingly, according to AP, the Marine Corps did not respond to a request for comment. We know that a lot of people are not keen on getting shots – but we are at a loss to explain why Pfizer is the focus of bogus stories. Back in 2021, AP had to knock down a similar story which alleged that Bourla had been busted by the FBI. That story can from a blog called “The Conservative Beaver.” At least that bogus story involved an organization with actual arrest authority, unlike the Marines.
UFO? NO. Those fact checkers at the Associated Press have been busy. Also last week, they were called on to debunk a photo floating around which appeared to show a UFO emerging from the oceans next to a U.S. Navy ship with a large explosion nearby. Sadly, (for those into UFOs) AP found that the truth was the photo was a real image from 1982 of a U.S. Navy “shock test” – but the shocking part with the pseudo spacecraft was digitally added for a 2008 motion picture.
THERE GO OUR SUMMER VACATION PLANS: On Monday, the U.S. State Department issued a warning urging Americans who are in Belarus to leave that country “immediately” due to the possibility of spillover risks from the ongoing war in Ukraine. This raises a number of questions – chief of which are: (1) what Americans would still be in Belarus and (2) if they needed this kind of warning – are the likely to listen? Apparently, a lot of folks in the country are trying to get out – so much so that a seat on a flight from Minsk to London this week, was reportedly selling for as much as $10,000. (And that probably didn’t include extra baggage charges.)
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
IF IT AIN’T WOKE, DON’T FIX IT: If you thought that Senator Tommy Tuberville’s one-man ban on senior officer promotions was causing a lot of turmoil in the Pentagon, wait until you see what might come next. The House Freedom Caucus has announced that it will not support a “clean” continuing resolution that would allow the government to work after September 30th, so they are effectively threatening a government shutdown unless there is – in their words - an “end to the left’s cancerous woke policies in the Pentagon undermining our military’s core warfighting mission.” They also oppose what they are calling “blank checks” for Ukraine. If they do force a shutdown of government – it could mean that U.S. military personnel would have to keep working – with no checks at all. And people wonder why the military doesn’t like Congress.
(PUT THOSE) BOMBS AWAY? OK in our view, much of the whining about wokeness is way over the top – but not all of it. For example, The Los Angeles Times reported this week that the U.S. Air Force Academy football team plans to wear uniforms for one game this season that honors the Doolittle Raiders who bombed Tokyo in April 1942, just four months after Pearl Harbor. According to The Times, the uniforms will “…include a chrome helmet with “B-25” (the name of the bombers flown during the raid) on the front bumper and either nicknames of specific planes or “Doolittle” on the back.” Also, “the uniforms feature letters and numbers that resemble steel and rivets, and the Raiders’ mantra “Ever into Peril” is written on the pants legs.” The team plans to wear the uniforms during a game against the Naval Academy – which seems appropriate (to us) since Doolittle’s planes launched from the Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet. But the plan has been receiving some flak from critics who object to “glorifying” war. Perhaps when the current crop of USAFA cadets graduate they will only be called on to air drop candy and flowers and future teams’ uniforms will be adorned with the mantra “Never into Peril.” But we doubt it.
CRY ME A RIVER ENTRANCE: More than six months ago, an Army veteran by the name of Drew Duggins took to the social media network formerly known as “Twitter” (and still known as such to us) to ask the rhetorical question: “Where’s the best place to cry in the Pentagon?” He got a fair number of responses – and then the Military Times wrote about it and there have been a flood of answers. We had no idea there were so many people with so much experience. We would like to share the best answers – but fear that the Freedom Caucus might defund the Pentagon in retribution. So, we will let those of you currently assigned to what was once referred to as the “Five-Sided Nut House” find your own spots to cry it out.
IT WOULD BE A CRYING SHAME IF YOU HAD SOME GOOD NEWS TIPS FOR US AND FAILED TO SHARE. SEND YOUR SOB STORIES FOR NEXT WEEK’S DEAD DROP TO: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
The nation’s premiere conference for professionals working in the field of national security and cybersecurity is happening October 7-10. Space is limited. Apply today for your seat at The Cipher Brief Threat Conference.
Read more expert-driven national security insights, perspective and analysis in The Cipher Brief
