MORE THAN STARS ON A WALL: Fifty years ago, The Central Intelligence Agency first dedicated a memorial wall in their Langley, Virginia headquarters with 31 stars engraved on it - each one symbolizing the life of an Agency officer who died in the line of duty. Today, there are 140 stars. PBS News Hour recently reported on the power and meaning of the wall by interviewing Tim Johnson, the artisan who is responsible for the nerve-wracking task of etching new stars in the wall - as well as Calista Anderson, whose mother was a CIA officer who was killed in Khost, Afghanistan in 2009, and Tim Welch, whose father was the CIA station chief in Athens, Greece when he was assassinated in 1975. CIA Director Bill Burns also appears in the story, making clear “the wall is not an abstraction” and that “each of the stars has a profound human story behind (it.)” The PBS video is worth a watch.
RIDICULOUS RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA: (Is there any other kind, you ask?) Media Monitor Julia Davis has captured yet another example of Russian State TV talking heads saying ridiculous stuff. In a recent post, she noted that a Putin propagandist declared that the United States is ruled by a “Satanic cult”. This is a propagandist who assured the viewing audience that Russia is fighting to defend “religious values.” But wait, there’s more. According to Davis, another presenter on the same program, said that many Americans aspire to be just like Vadim Krasikov, the convicted Russian assassin who was freed in the recent prisoner swap. Why? Because then, they would be able to kill anyone that they deem to be lowlife. Krasikov was praised on the program for killing a “lowly, dirtbag.” And there’s more propaganda where that came from in Davis’s new book: In Their Own Words. You can listen to The Cipher Brief’s Cover Stories podcast with Davis, available wherever you listen to podcasts. (Trust us: this one’s worth adding to your playlist.)
ROCK BOTTOM RECRUITING: It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. The U.S. Army entered into a marketing agreement with the United Football League earlier this year involving actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The Army threw about $11 million into a deal with minor league football which called for “The Rock” (who is an owner in the league) to promote the Army on social media. But the Army was thrown for a loss. It is unclear how they know for sure, but the Army now says the deal probably didn’t lead to a single new recruit. And it gets worse. Somehow, the Army calculated that the agreement may have caused as many as 38 individuals to actually back out of their plans to enlist. The Army is now arm-wrestling with the UFL trying to recover about $6 million of its initial $11 million investment. Marketing experts say that the deal was flawed from the beginning. Sure, Johnson has a huge social media following – that the Army hoped to leverage – but the deal was actually made with the UFL, which not surprisingly, isn’t nearly as popular as “The Rock”.
DON’T BE ALARMED. WELL MAYBE JUST A BIT: Global icon Taylor Swift took the stage in Warsaw, Poland recently and she and her team were savvy enough to warn concert goers that alarms bells were planned to go off all over city to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising – a revolt against Nazi occupiers. It was tougher to shake (shake, shake) off alarm bells in Vienna, though, when just a few days later, organizers decided to cancel three planned concerts after authorities reportedly uncovered plans for a potential ISIS-inspired terrorist attack at her concert. Guess a hater’s gonna hate (hate, hate).
BLACK OUT: According to Newsweek, a civilian official assigned to the South Korean Defense Intelligence Command has been arrested on charges of leaking information pertaining to the country’s undercover “black agents” who may be spying on North Korea. The person involved was accused of giving a Chinese national of Korean descent, highly-sensitive information. The Koreans demonstrated they can keep some things secret, however, since the name of the accused has not been released.
BOOKS ON ‘SECRET WORLDS’ ON THE HORIZON: Journalist Michael Weiss has reportedly inked a deal to write a book on the Russian military intelligence organization known as the GRU. The book, titled, Trouble with the Neighbors: Inside Russia’s Most Secretive Spy Agency, will be published by Viking. No word on when. You’ll have to wait until May 2026 for another book titled, The Age of Amateurs: The Hidden History of Espionage and American High Society, from writer Henry R. Schlesinger. That one is said to follow the evolution of American intelligence and will be published by Pegasus.
SHAMELESS (SELF-PROMOTION): A sneak peek behind the curtain at The Cipher Brief:
THE CIPHER BRIEF IS TAKING ON THE WORLD: The Cipher Brief has long been the news organization trusted by leading national security experts who closely follow what’s happening in today’s world, and starting this Sunday, August 11, they’re going even bigger with a new weekly talk show aptly titled, The World Deciphered. Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly is Executive Producer and Cipher Brief Chief International Correspondent Ia Muermishvili is lead anchor and producer. This weekend’s line-up includes a deep dive on the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, which should have served as a wake-up call to the world that Russian President Vladimir Putin was serious about efforts to take back what he thought was his. Subscribe to The Cipher Brief’sYouTube channel to be the first to watch.
NOT AMBITIOUS ENOUGH? HOW ABOUT A NIGHTCAP?: The Cipher Brief has launched a new Nightcap version of its popular daily newsletter. We know, ‘not another newsletter’ but this one’s quite delicious if we do say so ourselves. Here’s our recipe for a good nightcap: pour a good dose of the national security stories that are driving the day. Salt it with insights and perspectives from Cipher Brief Experts so you know what the ‘real’ experts are thinking about what’s happening right now. Shake (never stir) and serve around cocktail time. Or you can do what Cipher Brief COO Brad Christian does and just order a margarita. Either way, make sure you can make sure to get the daily newsletter - now served up at night - by signing up here.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
AIN’T THAT A SHAMAN: Loyal readers of The Dead Drop know the name of Navy veteran Jake Chansley who rocketed to fame (or infamy depending on your point of view) on January 6, 2021 when he showed up at the U.S. Capitol sporting a “horned coyote-tail headdress; red, white, and blue face paint; gloves; and no shirt.” And he was toting “a six-foot pole with an American flag zip-tied to the shaft and a metal spearhead fixed to the top.” Called by some the “Q Anon Shaman,” he was sentenced to three and an half years in prison but got out in about two. Well, late last year, we hear he was running FOR Congress (as opposed to INTO it) but his effort to represent his home state of Arizona didn’t work out so well as he failed to convince enough citizens to sign a petition to get his name on the ballot. It’s not all bad news for this veteran insurrectionist, though. He recently petitioned the Court to have his January 6th insurrectionist outfit - that had been seized as part of the case against him - returned. The government fought to avoid handing over his helmet and spear but U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth apparently found hanging onto the other stuff, well, ‘pointless’.
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