CHANGES AT THE TOP OF IC: Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Susan M. Gordon delivered her letter of resignation to the White House late Thursday afternoon. The President accepted her resignation and tweeted, shortly after, naming Joseph Maguire, current Director of the National Counterterrorism Center to take on the role of Acting DNI when Gordon and her boss Dan Coats both step down from their positions on August 15. Despite reporting from other news outlets, sources tell the Dead Drop that Gordon did NOT meet with the President on Thursday, but has met with him recently to discuss the role of DNI. Gordon would have been the heir apparent to the Acting DNI role. Gordon's resignation letter was believed to be leaked to the media by the White House.
BOOK HIM: Late last week word came out that former NSA contractor and current fugitive Edward Snowden has a book coming out September 17th titled Permanent Record. The memoir will be published by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers. The tome will simultaneously be published in more than 20 countries, according to The New York Times. In a statement some folks might disagree with, Macmillan CEO John Sargent said “Edward Snowden decided at the age of 29 to give up his entire future for the good of his country.” Others argue that Snowden might soon be giving up a little more. For example, DC lawyer Mark Zaid tweeted that if Snowden didn’t submit his manuscript for prepublication review as he was required to do, the Justice Department “should civilly sue him & collect his advance & all future royalties” per Supreme Court precedent. If Snowden is planning a book tour, The Cipher Brief invites him to visit us in the United States. We know his appearance would draw a big crowd.
SPOOK, HIM? Was novelist John Steinbeck a CIA asset? Short answer: we don’t know. But The Daily Beast carries a speculative piece that suggests he might have been. In the early 1950s, Steinbeck took a lengthy tour of the Mediterranean region and before doing so, had written then-Director of Central Intelligence William Bedell Smith saying “If during this period I can be of any service to yourself or to the agency you direct, I should be only too glad.” Steinbeck had worked for the Office of War Information (part of the OSS) during WWII.
RT TRIES TO DENT CYBERDOME: This week, a group of former senior officials, including two former Homeland Security secretaries, a former Director of National Intelligence and a former acting director of the CIA, joined forces to launch a non-profit group, called U.S. Cyberdome. The organization is intended to protect presidential campaigns from foreign interference. Big names like Jeh Johnson, James Clapper, Michael Chertoff and Michael Morell signed on as advisors according to The Hill. You’ll never guess who was unimpressed. Putin’s propagandists at RT described the effort as “spooks behind Patriot Act, drone & torture programs unite to ‘secure’ US elections, free of charge.” The author of the opinion piece wrote: “A less trustworthy bunch has not been assembled on an advisory board since the Orwellian browser plugin NewsGuard was unveiled.” Receiving the disapproval of Putin’s pals may be the ultimate seal of approval that U.S. Cyberdome needs.
EX-PRISONER EX-PLAINS: American citizen Kim Dong Chui says he spied for the CIA against North Korea for about six years until he was caught and imprisoned. Kim was one of three U.S. citizens released by Pyongyang in 2018 following negotiations with the Trump administration. The online publication NKNEWS.ORG says Kim is now speaking out and claims that he produced “very significant” information for the U.S. before being caught. Finding himself in deep kimchi, Kim gave his captors what he now says was a “largely truthful” confession. “I filmed footage with a watch [equipped with a camera] and used electromagnetic wave wiretapping equipment,” he said adding that he was asked to work as an “antenna” in the country.
SPIES LIKE US TOO: The July 5th Dead Drop told you about former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s podcast with a series of interviews with former intelligence officers. The first edition featured Charlie Allen. The latest podcast focuses on former CIA case officer and Cipher Brief expert Carol Rollie Flynn. Rollie spends a fascinating half hour plus describing her career and the craft of intelligence.
NAME GAME: An outfit called VPN.com announced this week that it has sold to an unnamed buyer – for an unannounced price – the domain name “CIA.COM.” VPN.com says it previously bought the memorable domain for $1 million. They helpfully remind us that the three-letter moniker is widely known around the world to describe the Central Intelligence Agency. The new owner is almost certainly not the folks from Langley – but exactly who they are or what they intended to do with the web address is (like the government’s CIA) somewhat mysterious. Bummed that you missed out on purchasing rights to CIA.com? Don’t despair. VPN.com tells us they have several other primo domain names still available. For example: BYOB.com, Gladiators.com, and the address people are dying to own: FuneralHomes.com.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
CIA BAGMAN: PRNewsWire.com reports that a former CIA contractor by the name of Steve Maddox hopes to bring to market something he calls “COP” – short for “Case of Pain.” It is a device which looks like a ladies’ clutch bag or “small carry item” that can be attached to a purse. When activated, it launches a “heavy volume” of “military/police grade pepper spray” that soaks assailants with about three times the amount of pepper spray in average key chain devices. But wait, there’s more. The COP also has a built-in LED light you can use as a flashlight and to illuminate stuff. Just don’t confuse the buttons. You can watch a demo here.
THE CIA MADE ME DO IT – EPISODE 1 MILLION: In early July, The Guardian newspaper in the UK reviewed a new book called Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties. Conspiracy theorist and author Tom O’Neill reportedly has been obsessed with the subject for more than 20 years. The review (and we suspect the book) is convoluted and difficult to follow. But The Guardian says O’Neill is the “dottiest character” in his own book. He reportedly has 190 binders full of notes on Manson and six extra stacks of unfiled documents, each stack four feet high. Summing it up, The Guardian says O’Neill’s secret history “often sounds incredible; that doesn’t mean it’s not all true.”
THIS WEEK IN JOHN MCAFEE NEWS: In last week’s Dead Drop we mentioned that anti-virus pioneer and “person of interest” in a murder case, John McAfee had extricated himself from a Dominican Republic jail and was again on the run. Now The Sun newspaper says that the tech millionaire has “moved into a tin foil-covered compound in Lithuania to evade CIA kidnap teams.” It has gone unexplained exactly why CIA would be taking the lead to track down the U.S. citizen or exactly how tin foil will protect him from prying eyes but perhaps that will be in next week’s installment.
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