I SPY (EXCEPT ON THE 5 EYES & UAE): Reuters reported this week that the Central Intelligence Agency turns a blind eye to the United Arab Emirates when it comes to human intelligence. It has been frequently reported that members of the so-called “Five Eyes” (Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada and the U.S.) don’t unleash their intelligence collectors on each other. But news that the UAE gets a free pass may come as a surprise to many folks. Reuters cites three anonymous former CIA officials as confirming the report. Reporter Aram Rostom says his sources claim that the Agency gathers intelligence “on almost every other nation where the United States has significant interests, including some key allies.” Former CIA officer, Bob Baer (apparently NOT one of the original sources) described the lack of collection as “a failure.” In trying to explain why the U.S. would turn a blind eye to the UAE, former CIA officer and Cipher Brief expert Norman Roule said: “Their enemies are our enemies,” (referring to Iran and al-Qaeda) adding: “Abu Dhabi’s actions have contributed to the war on terror, particularly against al-Qaeda in Yemen.”
CHINESE SPIES ON THE RISE: The U.S. may be going easy on the U.A.E. but China is cutting us no slack. The Atlantic reported this week on the ever-growing espionage effort that China is aiming at the United States. The lengthy piece reviews some of the recent cases of American citizens charged with spying for Beijing and examines how the U.S. is often an easy target. But Cipher Brief expert Rodney Faraon is quoted as saying: “They’ve broadened their tactics to go beyond relatively easy targets, from recruiting among the ethnically Chinese community to a much more diverse set of human assets,” he said. “In a sense, they’ve become more traditional.” The piece questions whether the U.S. has what it takes to stop them. Faraon says: “The Chinese use and value intelligence better than we do, seeing its applicability in nearly every aspect of private and public life—military, social, commercial. We have been slow to recognize this for ourselves.”
THE HIGH COST OF HONG KONG PROTESTS: A Taiwan-based news site called “The News Lens” recently took on accusations from the Chinese Communist Party that the recent demonstrations in Hong Kong have been masterminded and funded by the CIA. We previously told you how one “observer” posted a photo of Matt Damon and suggested the actor was a CIA provocateur igniting the anti-extradition protest. Other pro-China media have posted photos of western-looking individuals on the fringe of the demonstrations and suggested they are CIA officers watching their handiwork. So The News Lens did some (very fuzzy) math – and tried to figure out what it would cost the U.S. taxpayers if the Agency went the hire-a-crowd route to assemble the 7+ million protestors who have turned out over the past few months. We’ll spare you the math – and the logic – but their conclusion was that it would cost the U.S. about $4.6 billion.
STATE VACANCIES: Rumor has it, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, is in line to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Moscow. Assuming that turns out to be true – it leaves open the question: who will be the new #2 at Foggy Bottom? Politico says Steve Biegun, President Trump’s envoy to North Korea may be the man. After all, he has done a great job eliciting those beautiful letters from Kim Jong Un. Others, like the Diplopundit blog, say that Under Secretary of State for Management, Brian Bulatao, may move up. Bulatao only recently won confirmation for his management gig – after following his Army buddy Mike Pompeo from the CIA to State. Of course, if either of those gents win the promotion – the administration will have to find someone to backfill for them. Here’s a thought: why not bring in someone from the outside so you don’t create more Senate confirmation hurdles?
BAD NEWS MEANS NO NEWS: Like many government agencies, the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) sends their employees news clippings of interest. Well, they did until last week anyway when the service was scrapped because the contractor who assembled the product was “overly inclusive” and shared documents that were not from news organizations. Specifically, EOIR was embarrassed because they circulated a clip that contained a link to an organization that promotes white nationalism and frequently uses anti-Semitic comments. It is understandable that EOIR would not want to circulate hate speech – but maybe they should have just given their contractor better guidance on what to include. Instead they opted to kill the messenger to make sure no more offensive stuff gets out.
SHEDDING LIGHT ON CASTLE BLACK: According to The Intercept, the U.S. military recently had a “Mission Support Site” manned by Special Operations forces in Syria that went by the name: “Castle Black.” If that sounds familiar – it may be because it is also the name of a bastion in the highly-popular TV series, Game of Thrones. The Intercept says that “mission support sites” are what the military calls places that it doesn’t want to admit are “bases.” And they further confuse things by saying that the same place known as “Castle Black” was also sometimes called “Nights Watch.” We just wanna know if Jon Snow is there.
LEFORTIVO IS NO CASTLE BLACK: J.J. Green’s Inside the SCIF newsletter provides some insight this week into the condition of former Marine Paul Whelan, who is being held by Russia’s FSB in the notorious Lefortivo prison. Paul was injured recently inside the prison and Green has details about what Paul told his family about his increasingly aggressive and hostile treatment.
ILLEGALS BY THE BOOK: In 2010, ten Russian “illegals” posing as westerners were arrested in the U.S. by the FBI and eventually shipped back to Moscow in a spy swap. One of them, Elena Vavilova, who posed as a Canadian for two decades, has now written a fictionalized book about her life of lies. Called The Woman Who Can Keep Secrets, the book reportedly spills some of the details about Vavilova’s double life. Shaun Walker, a reporter for The Guardian, met with her in a Moscow café. He says much of the book focuses on Vavilova’s marriage (to fellow illegal Andrei Bezrukov) and how their sons Alex and Tim (16 and 20 at the time of their parent’s arrests) believed mom and dad were ordinary Canadians. We’re guessing those kids may have trust issues today.
OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT(OR): Another good secret keeper is Katherine Gun, a Mandarin-language scholar who worked at GCHQ in the UK and who is now being portrayed by actress Keira Knightly in a new movie called “Official Secrets.” She was interviewed recently in Salon. She says she saw a memo in 2003 from an NSA official asking for information on six delegates sitting on the UN Security Council and believes the U.S. was collecting information on them to blackmail or pressure them into voting in favor of sanctions on Iraq. She printed the document and mailed it to someone. A short while later, it ended up on the pages of The Observer newspaper. A mole-hunt ensued, and Gun quickly admitted to her act. She did not run, like Edward Snowden, or write a book like Valerie Plame, which is why you probably have never heard of her.
HISTORY WILL BE KIND TO US FOR WE INTEND TO CENSOR IT: The folks at Muckrock.com dug up an old CIA memo to their historians giving them the do’s and don’ts of writing the Agency’s history. The document (which has been declassified for 19 years) instructs them to exclude irrelevant or unnecessary mentions of “embarrassing incidents.” Muckrock seems to take offense at the instruction – although the Agency did say it was OK to include the matter if it was “essential to the understanding of the activities of a particular station or area division.” Avoiding gratuitous mentioning of embarrassing stuff sounds reasonable to us – but including such material is probably the fastest route to success in modern media.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
YOUNGEST/MOST POPULAR LANCE CORPORAL IN THE USMC: That title surely goes to Chesty XV, an 18-month-old English bulldog who serves as the Marine Corps mascot. Just in time for National Dog Day, the website Task & Purpose looked at a day-in-the-life of Chesty, who has been awarded the rank of Lance Corporal – and we must say the dog’s life is pretty good. He works two days a week – on Thursdays practicing for the Friday evening parades at the Marine Barracks at 8th & I streets in DC. The dog reportedly has seven people standing by to “make him look good” including a tailor for his uniform which (unlike the rest of Chesty) is not severely wrinkled.
DEADLY CHAT GROUP: Doru Vaduvescu, a 64-year-old New Yorker and his wife Mimi were members of a CIA-themed chat group on Facebook. As the story goes, they met Truman Delaney, a 46-year-old Mississippi man who claimed to be a CIA “agent” and told them he needed their help to complete his “missions.” The couple agreed and allowed him to move into their tenement apartment where he lived for four months. According to the New York Daily News, about a week ago Delaney accused the couple of being spies, beat Doru and nailed the couple’s bedroom door shut, holding them hostage for 30 hours. The Vaduvescu’s eventually got the attention of neighbors and were released but Doru died of a heart attack the next day. Delaney was arrested. Police say they believe he has “mental issues.” Moral of the story: if a “CIA agent” asks you on Facebook to help him complete his missions – take a pass.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
