DEAD DROP DDCIA UPDATE: We told you before that there was some speculation around what may have taken The White House so long to appoint a deputy to CIA Director Gina Haspel, after she was confirmed by the Senate back in May. The hallway rumor was that there may have been a tug of war between the Agency and The White House over who to appoint, but alas, a very well-placed source tells the Dead Drop that Vaughn Bishop was Director Haspel's choice 'all along' and that any delay in the public announcement of President Trump's intention to appoint him as DDCIA was due to Bishop making certain that he and his family were OK with him coming back. Bishop retired in 2011 from the Agency, but has a kept a hand in what's happened since then.
SHOCKING DISCOVERY AT LANGELY: Actor John Krasinski, who will star in the forthcoming Amazon series “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” reportedly visited CIA headquarters as he was preparing to play the CIA analyst, Ryan. Krasinski told Entertainment Weekly that he was “blown away” by how “apolitical” the place was. He said what struck him was that “there was no politics being discussed, it was about objectives of protecting people and getting to the truth of the matter, which I thought was really interesting.” The other thing that caught his attention, he said was: “how perfectly and weirdly comfortingly normal everybody was. It wasn’t one-thousand Arnold Schwarzenegger's out there fighting the world for us. It was really these people who, like Jack, have been in other jobs and just decided, ‘I want to do more for my country.’ It was an unbelievable place and I feel so lucky to be representing them.”
PERHAPS WHAT HAD HIM CONFUSED: We’re not sure why Krasinski was expecting Langley to be a political hot-bed but perhaps it is because some Agency alumni have been on TV giving their opinions on current events. It may be easy for actors (and perhaps presidents) to confuse former officials expressing their political views with current employees who keep political views to themselves. The confusion may lead to a belief in the imaginary “deep state” and threats to yank former government officials’ security clearances. Former CIA Director John Brennan said on MSNBC on Tuesday that he has heard nothing from the White House regarding the threatened action to strip him of his security clearance since Sarah Sanders’ initial announcement at the press briefing room lectern. The notion of possibly removing clearances was first floated by Senator Rand Paul (R, KY.) "I don't know anybody in the intelligence national security realms who takes what Rand Paul says seriously. But he continues to spout off on these issues," Brennan told MSNBC.
FULL-ON EPIDEMIC OF ESPIONAGE: A report in Politico.com this week describes how foreign spies have been showing up in droves in San Francisco and Silicon Valley to plumb the treasures of America’s top scientific and technology firms. The story said that one former official claims that “a full 20 percent of all the FBI’s active counterintelligence-related intellectual property cases had originated in the Bay Area.” How do the spies collect their intelligence? Well, according to Politico – some of them do it the old -fashioned way. “Sex workers targeting executives at high-end bars and nightclubs” who “potentially report back to Russian intel officers” was cited. Following up on the report, The East Bay Times contacted one of the spots mentioned, the “Rosewood Sand Hill.” The ultra-luxury hotel vigorously denied the report. “Rosewood San Hill holds itself to the highest standards and does not tolerate illegal or immoral activity” they said in a statement. Exactly how any establishment would go about preventing guests from trading secrets for sex, went unexplained.
BUY WAR BONDS: We’re not sure this is actually true – because we haven’t seen it widely reported – and you would think it would be - but The Daily Mail reported that Russia dumped almost all of its holdings in U.S. Treasury securities in the run up to the Helsinki summit. According to the account, between March and May of this year, Moscow cut its holdings in U.S. Treasuries by 84 per cent.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
- Percussion Discussion: The folks at the Federation of American Scientists do a fine job of beating the competition at getting their hands on obscure government reports. This week they snared a doozy. While the subject matter is nowhere near as sensitive as the usual stuff they drum up, they revealed a 146-page U.S. Army report produced in July 2018, which tells you far more than you want to know about “percussion techniques.” The Headquarters Department of the Army report offers a brief history of percussion and details the design and techniques for playing snare drums, base drums, cymbals and more. There are four pages devoted to the lowly triangle. Who knew there are three sizes of musical triangles and the big ones (10-inchers) are used for producing “darker tones?” Go to page 83 for instructions on how best to strike it.
- Semper Fried: A new report on military excesses from the RAND Corporation is discussed in the San Diego Union Tribune. The report surveyed thousands of active-duty service members and determined that members of the U.S. Marine Corps are far more likely than their counterparts from the other services to engage in binge drinking and alcoholism. It is therefore unsurprising that Leathernecks were also found to be more likely to smoke, use smokeless tobacco, have multiple sex partners, practice unsafe sex and contribute to unintended pregnancy.
- Halloween Every Day? A 58-year-old North Carolina auto mechanic, Christian Desgroux, was just sentenced to six months in prison for impersonating a three-star Army general. According to AP, Desgroux got his faux general outfit at a surplus store and wore it “while getting kicked out of strip clubs.” Apparently, no one thought to report that. But what got him in trouble was when he chartered a civilian helicopter and convinced the pilot to land at the headquarters of a high-tech company in Cary, NC, so that he could take a woman for a spin. She reportedly went along for the ride, but said that she was married, and not in the market to be whisked off her feet. After landing back at her workplace, security officials there notified police and a joint terrorism task force. The prosecutor said that Desgroux “liked the sense of importance he gained by masquerading as a general” and has “used this persona for years.” The judge in the case asked if “it was like Halloween every day?” and suggested that he might have been better off if he had worn “a top hat and tuxedo.”
- The Bachelorette – CIA Style: There’s a movie out called “The Spy Who Dumped Me” about two women (Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon) “who unwittingly become entangled in an international conspiracy when one of the women discovers the boyfriend who dumped her was actually a spy.” Don’t you hate it when that happens? The flick has gotten middling reviews so far (and sounds an awful lot like the Melissa McCarthy movie: “Spy” from about three summers ago.) The British website Refinery29 tracked down Emily Brandwin, who held a brief stint in the real-world CIA’s disguise department and then became an operations officer, and got her to talk about dating as an Agency operative. Among the major takeaways: there is a LOT of dating and even some marriages among CIA operatives, and Agency Christmas parties can get awkward since so many people have been married to multiple people who still work at the same place. Brandwin says spy school teaches you to be good at dating, but U.S. operatives never sleep with their assets. Sounds like a good way to tell Russian operatives from their U.S. counterparts...
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Hey, remember last week when the Dead Drop marked our third anniversary and suggested that our loyal readers celebrate by passing on (story) tips to us? Well, our celebration will last all year – so you still have time. Sent your tips and suggestions to TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
