UNJAILIN’ PAUL WHELAN? Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan is languishing in a Russian jail after being convicted on dubious charges of committing espionage. We have been expecting (almost from the time he was first arrested) that the Russians would swap him for someone of interest to them who is in an American hoosegow. Whelan seems to have fallen off the radar in this country, but we spotted an item of interest in the Birmingham (UK) media. Turns out Whelan’s parents were from that area before moving to the US. The UK media speculate that Whelan may be swapped for two men. One is said to be Russian arms dealer Victor Bout (who was convicted of selling anti-aircraft missiles to terrorists). The other, lesser known, Konstantin Yaroshenko, is serving a twenty-year sentence for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. Whelan never had the look of a trained intelligence operative – and, this being the British media, they report he “has described himself as more Mr. Bean than James Bond.” WTOP’s JJ Green tweeted early this week that Whelan’s whereabouts were unknown and that he may have been moved to another prison. JJ later updated that Whelan had indeed been moved to another prison camp in the Russian Republic of Mordovia.
TRAVEL PROVIDER GETS TRIPPED UP: A travel management firm called “CWT” (formerly known as “Carlson Wagonlit”) fell afoul of ransomware hackers and last week agreed to pay the bad guys $4.5 million in bitcoin. That amount is a drop in the bucket for CWT which, according to Reuters, posted $1.5 billion in revenues last year. The hackers had access to and locked 2 terabytes of CWT files. It is not clear exactly what they had access to – but Diplopundit noted that CWT is the outfit that handles the State Department’s commercial travel arrangements.
A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE: A common mission for American diplomats is to pay visits to cemeteries and honor war dead. U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, did just that recently when he visited a cemetery in Ysselsteyn in eastern Netherlands. Hoekstra tweeted that it was “A terrible reminder of the cost of going to war and why we must always work towards peace.” What he didn’t mention is that Ysselsteyn is a German war cemetery and holds the graves of 32,000 WWII German soldiers including 3,000 “Waffen SS.” There is another cemetery about five miles away where Allied soldiers are buried but as far as we know, he didn’t go to that one.
DIPLO-SPEAK: If Ambassador Hoekstra is looking for someone to take the spotlight off him in Europe – he might look forward to welcoming the nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Retired Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor has recently been nominated to replace Ric Grenell. Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran and frequent guest on Fox News, reportedly criticized Germany for giving “millions of unwanted Muslim invaders” welfare benefits rather than using the money for their armed forces. CNN found clips of some of his media appearances and Macgregor apparently is not a fan of the “millions of Mexicans with no education, no skills and the wrong culture” coming to the U.S. either. He advocated authorities at the border “shoot people if necessary.” When not appearing on Fox News, he was also on Russia’s RT opining that Eastern Ukrainians are really Russians – apparently then there is no need to get spun up about that annexation of Crimea.
RANK HAS ITS PRIVILEGES: USMC Brigadier General Rick Uribe was reprimanded in 2018 (according to Task and Purpose) for “treating an aide like a personal servant during a deployment to Iraq.” He allegedly had a female junior officer “pick up his laundry, grab meals, carry around personal items and snacks, write non-official letters, and reserve equipment for him at the gym, among other ethical infractions.” Uribe is reportedly among those under consideration for promotion to major general. No word on the promotion status of his former aide but we hope she has gotten a bump up too.
BAD NEWS CONTINUES TO DOG THE NAVY: A story broke this week sparked by some video from 2019. The National Navy SEAL Museum had put on a public exhibition last year which included some working dogs attacking a man wearing a padded protective suit and a torn NFL jersey with Colin Kaepernick’s name on it. Kaepernick, of course, made a lot of news when he took a knee during the playing of the national anthem. The message from the museum demonstration appeared to be – if you don’t stand for the anthem, we’ll sic dogs on you. The Naval Special Warfare Command released a statement saying “the inherent message of this video is completely inconsistent with the values and ethos of Naval Special Warfare and the U.S. Navy. We are investigating the matter fully, and initial indications are that there were no active duty Navy personnel or equipment involved with this independent organization’s event.” While the investigation is ongoing the head SEAL, RADM Collin Green suspended support for the museum. “While the museum is an independent non-profit organization and the participants were contracted employees from outside the DoD, in many ways, these facts are irrelevant. We have been inextricably linked to this organization that represents our history. We may not have contributed to the misperception in this case, but we suffer from it and will not allow it to continue,” Green said in a letter obtained by AP
TATA FOR NOW: Back in June, The Dead Drop mentioned that retired Brigadier General Anthony Tata was taking some heat concerning his nomination to be Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. It seems Tata, while in the private sector and working as a Fox News contributor, had a tendency to get colorful on social media. He called President Obama a “terrorist leader” and suggested that former CIA Director John Brennan was trying to assassinate Donald Trump and ought to consider “sucking on” his pistol. Last week, Tata’s confirmation hearing was cancelled minutes before it was set to begin. Senate Armed Services Chairman Senator James Inhofe said many members “didn't know enough about Anthony Tata to consider him for a very significant position at this time." But the problem may have been they knew too much. A couple days later, the administration withdrew Tata’s nomination but announced that he had been designated “the official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.” Here is the tricky part. Under arcane government rules – if Tata is the acting #2 in the Defense Policy shop for 90 days – then the administration can make him acting #1 (the job for which he was nominated but could not get confirmed.)
SPEAKING OF VACANCIES: With the Senate’s ‘advise and consent’ role rendered mute, it is perhaps no surprise that the Congressional oversight role is in some disrepair. And it is not just the Senate. According to Politico, in the House, their “Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence” has been short-handed for months. John Ratcliffe left the panel in May to become Director of National Intelligence, but his seat remains empty. The decision on who will get the slot belongs to House minority leader Kevin McCarthy. Two other republican members are leaving Congress after this term, so McCarthy will have lots of seats to fill. If they can’t decide on a member to take the position – perhaps they could appoint someone as “the official Performing the Duties of a HPSCI Member.”
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
WEAR YOUR MASKS: With everybody talking about masks, the folks at Variety decided it was prime time to rate all the masks worn in the “Mission Impossible” movies. You can count on characters in the flicks ripping their own faces off – to reveal they are someone else. We had no idea it was quite so common, but Variety found 15 examples to rank in a countdown. Coming in at #1 is a mask reveal from “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” but our personal favorite is their #7 where a character appearing to be CNN’s Wolf Blitzer turns out to be actor Simon Pegg.
BOOK REPORT: Douglas Waller is the author of a 2011 NYT bestselling bio called “Wild Bill Donovan” and “Lincoln’s Spies: Their Secret War to Save a Nation” (reviewed last August in The Cipher Brief by Michael Sulick.) Publishing sources say Waller has inked a deal with the publisher Dutton to produce a book on Frank Wisner “a top American spymaster in the 1950s, who oversaw covert ops around the globe that dramatically altered the Cold War and the fates of nations, all while Wisner was afflicted with bipolar disorder.” No publication date was announced.
POP PODCAST: Stewart Copeland, who was once the drummer for the rock group “The Police,” has released a nine-part podcast on the life of his father, Miles Copeland, who was a well-known musician, business man and “secret agent” for the CIA. Copeland explains, “My childhood wasn’t a regular upbringing. We moved around the Middle East and mixing with so many fascinating people. I shared my father’s passion for music, which eventually led to my career in The Police and beyond, and his job shaped me too. In sharing his story, and my family’s story, I hope to shed light on what it is truly like to be the son of a CIA agent.”
DRUM UP SOME NEWS FOR THE DEAD DROP: We have a passion for learning what is going on. If you have a clue, send us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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