ROAD SHOW: We told readers back in October about what we heard was a highly-successful fundraising dinner held by the CIA Officer’s Memorial Foundation (CIAOMF) somewhere near Washington, D.C. Now, our spies tell us that the organization, which raises funds to support the families of fallen CIA officers, has taken the show on the road with a gala outside Washington – in Beverly Hills, CA. Reports back indicate it was quite the show. The master of ceremonies, keeping the crowd in stitches, was Jay Leno who has a long association with the CIAOMF. Foundation Chair (and former CIA Director) Gina Haspel was among the speakers who talked about the Agency’s enduring commitment to families. Current Deputy CIA Director David Cohen (a former Cipher Brief Expert) was on hand and spoke about how the Agency does “hard things in hard places.” He too, mentioned the burden on the families of officers who go in harm’s way. Perhaps the most moving speech of the night was delivered by Jake Spann who was just six months old when his father, CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann, became the first American to die in Afghanistan after 9/11. The Memorial Foundation was established to help people like Jake, his sisters, and the families of other Agency officers who die in the line of duty. Jake spoke about the need for patriots like his father to confront evil wherever it is, but also for all of us to look for good in the world. Among those honored at the event was comedian Tim Allen, who is known for being an engaged advocate for patriotic organizations and causes. Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who has been heavily involved with the CIA since the 1970s, received the Foundation’s “Patriot Award.” Little known fact: the first customer for the database that eventual became the company ‘Oracle’, was the CIA. CIAOMF President (and Cipher Brief expert) John Edwards introduced Ellison and said that because of him, we have a “safer, stronger and more prosperous country.” Edwards also noted that one of the heroes of Flight 93 on 9/11 – Todd Beamer whose “Let’s Roll” words became an inspirational motto for CIA counterterrorism officers – was an Oracle employee. One of the final events of the evening was especially significant given Leno’s affinity to automobiles. This was the auctioning of a specially modified 1950 Mercury sedan (with interior panels autographed by current and former CIA leaders.) The car, which had been donated to the Foundation, was purchased by a generous person in the audience with a bid of $100,000. Not a bad ride. Since it was established, the CIAOMF has awarded over $11.5 million in educational scholarships to over 200 dependents of deceased CIA officers and it is supporting 64 students this year alone.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST SHOTS: In a very pointed dispute, the British tabloid The Daily Mail says at the start of the pandemic, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered British security services to plan a possible raid on a Dutch COVID vaccine factory to steal back millions of doses of vaccine that he and other officials believe had been “stolen” from them. Johnson is said to have asked for “military options” to grab the jabs, which the Brits say they had paid for but had not been delivered. The U.K. reportedly had negotiated a better deal with the manufacturer, AstraZeneca, than the EU – but the European Union impounded the shots. Somehow cooler heads prevailed, and no shots were fired.
KILLING KIVA: The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) is not kidding around and they generally don’t brag about much of anything. While many governments intelligence outfits communicate via the ‘we can neither confirm nor deny’ route, the SBU won’t often even do that. That’s why it was such a surprise when the security service proudly announced that they were behind the assassination of a former Ukrainian lawmaker who had defected to Russia. The SBU not only announced that they were behind the killing of Ilya Kiva, 46, but they also said the action should serve as a warning to “all traitors and war criminals”, saying “The liquidation of the top-ranking traitor, collaborator, and propagandist Ilya Kiva is a special operation of the SBU [Security Service of Ukraine]. The criminal was eliminated using firearms,” according to a Ukrainian law enforcement officer familiar with the matter. Subsequently, the SBU released photos said to be of Kiva’s body lying in the snow, and also images of what they said were the weapons used to kill him. That’s a messaging strategy worth paying attention to.
APPARENTLY, YOU CAN MAKE THIS STUFF UP: Some bad actors associated with Russia, reportedly have been manipulating videos made by well-known American actors – to make it sound as if they were endorsing the notion that Ukraine president Volodymir Zelensky is a “corrupt drug addict.” According to a report from Microsoft, actors and celebrities who lent their faces and voices to platforms like “Cameo” were asked to send messages to someone named “Vladimir” who was struggling with substance abuse. Then, the Russian-backed perps tweaked the messages to make it appear that the messages were intended for Zelensky. Among those whose messages were hijacked, are Priscilla Presley, and actors Elijah Wood, Dean Norris, Kate Flannery and John McGinley.
RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA: Stop us if you have heard this one. There are reports that Russia has engaged in a years-long effort to undermine a western country’s political and electoral process. Well, in this case we’re talking about the U.K. According to a story in The U.S. Sun tabloid, Russian hackers called “Star Blizzard” were responsible for “sustained’ attempts to interfere in the UK political process of eight years.” U.S. Cyber Command says that Star Blizzard has a bunch of AKAs. For example, it is also known as “SEABORGIUM”, the Callisto Group, TA446, COLDRIVER, TAG-53, and/or BlueCharlie. The outfit reportedly conducts spear-phishing campaigns. Among those said to have been targeted is the former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, Sir Richard Dearlove. In an interview with Sky News, Sir Richard said that the Russians don’t necessarily have the capability of directly affecting election results and noted that the UK has “formidable capabilities” and defenses.
WAIT, WHAT? The current head of Britain’s MI6, one of Dearlove’s successors, Sir Richard Moore, thanked Russian state television recently, for its “help” in getting Russians to spy for the U.K. It seems former Russian spy and current TV host, Maria Butina aired a clip from a speech where Moore asked Russians to “join hands with us.” So now, the cheeky Moore has expressed his thanks to Butina for helping get the word out. In response, Butina took some (verbal) shots at MI6 and said that no one would “want to become a British spy.” Apparently, she’s wrong on that one. Go figure.
NETFLIX NUMBERS REVEALED: The folks at Netflix have traditionally kept secrets in a way that the military and intelligence community might admire. But for some reason, the streaming service decided recently to reveal a closely held secret, which is - which of their movies and tv series were the most watched in the first half of 2023. We were surprised to find out that ‘The Night Agent’ came out on top. The Dead Drop has mentioned the show about “low-level FBI Agent Peter Sutherland (who) works in the basement of the White House – manning a phone that never rings – until the night it does – propelling him into a conspiracy that leads all the way to the Oval Office.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show has racked up 812.1 million hours of viewing. That is almost 200 million hours more than the runner up (a Korean drama called ‘The Glory’.) We recognized a couple titles that were in the top 20 including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s series ‘FUBAR’, which came in at #10 and Keri Russell’s ‘The Diplomat’ which finished in the 19th slot…which is not bad considering that there were over 18,000 titles on the list. If you’re like us, you’re probably wondering: “Which show was the least watched on Netflix?” Sadly, we can’t tell you, because probably to avoid hurting feelings – Netflix “rounded up” the viewing hour total for the bottom 3,800 titles on their 18,000-show list and they gave each of those shows credit for 100,000 hours of viewing.
SHAMELESS (SELF PROMOTION): What’s new and exciting at The Cipher Brief:
DON’T EXPECT ANY SBU MEDIA STRATEGIES: Cover Stories podcast co-host Bill Harlow (who is also an author and co-author of numerous books by spies) scored a win by getting an interview with CIA’s Chief of the Office of Public Affairs, Tammy Kupperman Thorp for the most recent Cover Stories podcast. Thorp’s principal role is communicating with major media organizations on matters of national security and helping CIA Director Bill Burns communicate with the Agency’s worldwide workforce. But an interesting side aspect of her job involves coordinating the CIA's contact with the motion picture and television industry and major authors and publishers. Harlow got her to spill some secrets (sorta) about how the Agency engages with Hollywood in the latest episode.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting/weird stuff we discovered:
SCOUT’S HONOR: The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is out with the latest edition of their slick magazine called Scout. It runs 59 pages. Interestingly, it includes things like a feature on the “Dunning-Kruger Effect”, a term for people with limited competence who overestimate their own abilities. The crossword puzzle includes clues like “1 across: An outstanding illegal intelligence officer who became ambassador of one state to three others” and “5 across. A married couple of illegal immigrants who worked in the USA on the nuclear project.”
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