THE FORT TELLS FEDS HOW TO HIDE: Last week, the National Security Agency released a set of guidelines telling the federal workforce how to minimize the ability of bad actors to geolocate them using data from mobile phones and smart watches. NextGov.com quoted Neil Ziring of the NSA Cybersecurity Directorate as saying: “COVID-19 has created an environment rich with opportunity for our cyber adversaries, risks—not just limited to location data exposure—are certainly increasing,” said Ziring. “As long as mobile devices are being used, your location data could be exposed.” We’re not as smart as Ziring, but we kinda think in the current environment, it shouldn’t be that hard to track people down. Most of them are home.
TOUGH COMMUTE: Who can blame Mike Pompeo when he became Secretary of State for thinking that his life would be easier if he didn’t have to endure a long commute to work (albeit in the backseat of an armored SUV.) Literally across the street from the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters is a compound called “Potomac Hill” made up of very nice flag officer quarters administered by the Navy. Apparently, Pompeo thought it would be nice if the Navy rented one of the houses to him. Alas, according to Politico, a top Navy Department lawyer “warned that the request was “problematic” and raised “factual, legal, fiscal and ethical” issues, not the least of which was whether he’d be displacing military officers already in line for the limited housing.” Fortunately, the Army came to the rescue of the West Point graduate and Pompeo reportedly now lives in general officer quarters at Fort Myer, Virginia. He reportedly pays “fair market value” in rent – although department spokespeople will not say what that is. There are security savings for the taxpayer because of the Pompeo’s living on Fort Myer. The Department of State says they save $1.5 million a year over what it cost them to protect the homes of former Secretaries Rex Tillerson and John Kerry.
SEAL VS DELTA: Robert O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL who claims to be the person who shot Osama bin Laden, got into a bit of a social media firefight last week when he tweeted a selfie of himself (mask-less) on a Delta airlines flight with the words “I’m not a pu##y.” Seen a row behind O’Neill in the photo was an older gentleman wearing a USMC hat AND a mask. Among those unhappy with the photo was Delta Airlines which quickly banned O’Neill from flying with them saying “Failure to comply with our mask-wearing mandate can result in losing the ability to fly Delta in the future.” The airborne photo tweet was quickly deleted – a retreat that O’Neill pinned on his wife. He went on to say that he was just joking with the picture – and that he had his mask off because he had been eating and drinking on the flight (although no food or drink was visible in the shot.) Soon thereafter, O’Neill began to wonder out loud what he would do with his one million Delta Airlines miles and offered to talk with the Delta CEO Ed Bastian because “I’d like to help them because their image right now isn’t very good.” The satirical website Duffleblog quickly followed with an item saying that SEAL Team 6 announced that they would no longer wear body armor since as one operator explained, “I’m not a pu##y.”
THIS WEEK IN FAKE FEDERAL OFFICERS: We were going to say: “You can’t make this stuff up” but apparently you can. Last week’s Dead Drop had the latest update on Garrison Courtney, a guy accused of pretending to be a CIA officer and bilking companies – even while he was out on bail for bilking companies. Now, we see a story in the LA Times about Donovan Nguyen who was arrested for impersonating a federal officer. Authorities say Nguyen, a resident of Orange, CA, reportedly had a penchant for “parading around in body armor, openly carrying firearms, pulling over motorists with red and blue lights installed in his pickup truck, and purchasing guns with fake Department of Homeland Security credentials.” According to the Times, “last May agents from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service showed up at an Orange County retirement community to serve a search warrant” and Nguyen unexpectedly showed up too wearing a ballistic vest, badge and gun. We find this surprising on several levels – including: why is Diplomatic Security serving search warrants in California retirement communities? In Nguyen’s LinkedIn profile he describes himself as a 12-year DHS agent AND the Director of Security for Vigilantz Protective Services.
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE: The more they stay the same. In a week where we saw Alexander Ma, a former CIA officer, arrested for spying for China and Peter Debbins, a former Army Green Beret, arrested for spying for Russia we also noticed a lengthy article in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk about the case of John Walker, a Navy retiree who was busted for spying for the Soviet Union 35 years ago. The Walker spy ring operated for nearly two decades. It was a “spy ring” because Walker didn’t just betray the country himself but also recruited his brother Arthur, a Navy buddy named Jerry Whitworth and his own son Michael who he signed up to spy right after Michael enlisted in the Navy. John and Art got life sentences, and both died in 2014 at the same North Carolina federal prison. Whitworth was sentenced to 365 years, but the good news is he will be eligible for parole when he is 109. Son Michael did 15 years in prison and was released in 2000.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
HIGHER AUTHORITY: In the February 14th edition of The Dead Drop we mentioned a newly-launched discussion about what to call military personnel in the fledgling Space Force. Well, actor William Shatner (better known as Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise) tweeted this a few days ago: “Dear @SpaceForceDoD, I have a question to ask, if it’s OK. I’m just a nobody here but I was wondering; is it true that the commander officer onboard a “Space Force” ship is designated a Colonel & not a Captain? Is this up for debate? I think I’d like to debate the issue.”
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