UPDATE: DECEMBER 23: While the Dead Drop team is out of the office this week (manning the Canadian/Maine border to prevent Chinese troops from invading to stuff ballot boxes in Georgia)….they are still alert to news. They inform us that former acting and deputy CIA director Michael Morell has informed the Biden transition team that he no longer wishes to be considered for the CIA director position in the new administration. Well-liked among the rank and file, Morell has taken some heat from the left wing of the president-elect’s party for (among other things) being unwilling to declare that Agency officers who carried out interrogation program “torturers.” (Apparently his stance had something to do with the program being approved by the entire chain of command, blessed by the most senior lawyers in government and briefed without objection to Congressional overseers). Transition and Capitol Hill observers felt that had he been nominated, Morell, could have eventually won approval – but in the end, Morell apparently decided that he did not want to put the incoming administration or the CIA through a re-litigation of the enhanced interrogation program which ended about 15 years ago. No word on who will end up with the Langley gig.
POISON PEN (AND CAMERA): If you haven’t seen the joint CNN, Der Spiegel and Bellingcat reporting on the FSB poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny – do yourself a favor and check it out. It is a stunning example of what can be accomplished by detailed investigative techniques, married with some gutsy shoe-leather reporting. Bellingcat examined internet and telephone records, airline passenger manifests and other info, all readily obtainable for a modest fee (bribe) in Russia. Using this information, they were able to establish that a team of FSB operatives had been trailing Navalny for years including (without his knowledge) accompanying him on more than 30 trips. Bellingcat helpfully revealed the remarkable tradecraft they employed to obtain the data. The FSB team, which included chemical weapons experts and medical doctors, narrowly missed killing Navalny in August. Armed with the Bellingcat leads, CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward picks up the trail and (with cameras rolling) knocks on the apartment door of Oleg Tayakin and asks him in Russian if it was his team that poisoned Putin’s foe. Tayakin closes the door without comment. Ward, who was still reporting from Moscow earlier this week – might be well advised to avoid Russian tea rooms and bars for the foreseeable future.
COMING DISTRACTIONS? For the past 15 years, Hollywood executive Franklin Leonard has been producing something he calls “The Black List.” Polling fellow Tinseltown execs, Leonard comes up with the top movie scripts being passed around which have not yet been snapped up for production. The 2020 list just came out and it includes about 80 titles. The Dead Drop scanned it looking for possible future flicks in genres that might be of interest to our readers. Just because a screenplay on the list has not yet sold – doesn’t mean it won’t. In past years, a number of entries have gone from the Black List to the silver screen. So, what’s on this year’s list? One title is: “Neither Confirm Nor Deny” an adaptation of David Sharp’s book The CIA’s Greatest Covert Operation that chronicles the clandestine CIA Glomar Explorer operation that recovered the nuclear-armed Soviet Sub, K-129, that sank in 1968. Then there is “REWIRED,” about a young Ted Kaczynski who is experimented on by Dr. Henry Murray during a secret CIA psychological study that may have led to the creation of the Unabomber. Another unproduced script is “Murder in The White House” which involves the President being murdered during a private dinner, and a female Secret Service agent must discover before morning which guest is the killer or a peace agreement will fail and lead to war. Not enough action for you? Then you might like “Uncle Wick” an action comedy where a lovable but deeply unpopular sixteen-year-old is pulled into an international assassination plot by his uncle, a retired undercover assassin charged with babysitting the lad for the weekend. (Gosh, we hope the Uncle’s first name isn’t John…)But if 16-year-old assassins are too grounded for you, how about “I.S.S” a story of six astronauts living on the International Space Station (ISS) half Russian and half American. When a world war breaks out on earth, the astronauts find themselves on opposing sides. The six astronauts must each secretly choose between their friendships with each other and their allegiance to their country. The aforementioned scripts might be made someday but they face stiff competition from non-national security stories. Our pick for surefire hit on the Black List is “POSSUM SONG” about a country music star who, after discovering his secret songwriting partner dead, struggles to record new material and makes a Faustian bargain with a family of possums who have taken up residency within his walls.
SPEAKING OF BAD MOVIES: The 2020 presidential election continues to continue - with both political parties and their supporters practically accusing each other of making Faustian bargains with a family of possums to stuff the ballot boxes. In fact, the real allegations are somewhat crazier than that. Fox Business News host Maria Bartiromo declared on Monday December 14th that an “intel source” had confirmed to her that Donald Trump was actually the winner of the election. Sadly, she did not specify if that was “U.S. intel” or some other flavor. Meanwhile, one of President Trump’s elite team of lawyers, Sidney Powell, appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (which we had never heard of) with host Mike Huckabee and declared: "It's extremely unsettling to know that American elections have been just as rigged as elections in Third World countries." She added: "I'm sure the CIA has been involved in any number of those activities, if not here and other places around the world." "It may have been the CIA that created this software and programs to begin with," she said, "and then exported them for their own use only to have it come back to us." But the CIA must have had help. "It's massive," she said. "I'm sure the media companies are involved in it too." Meanwhile QAnon followers have been posting stuff on Twitter alleging that an F-16 had been shot down in Michigan, and that 50,000 Chinese troops were killed with anti-personnel bombs on the Canadian/Maine border (or “boarder” as they spelled it.) This invasion probably would have made the news, but we understand it was snowing in Maine. The Kraken-pot Chinese troops tweet got so much attention Military Times felt the need to deny it.
BUT MAYBE IT IS TRUE: The Daily Mail reported that according to a conservative Canadian news site, top secret documents reveal that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to train with Canadian troops in Ontario in 2019. Press accounts say the visit was called off by the Chief of Defense Staff.
WHAT ELSE COULD GO WRONG? Imagine you are sitting around your duty station of Ramstein Air Base in Germany last week and thinking to yourself: “Thank goodness 2020 is almost over. Things are looking up.” At which point alarms start sounding from loudspeakers warning of an “aerial attack” and directing you to “seek cover.” It is unclear whether social distancing requirements are enforced when you are diving under your desk. Fortunately, it turns out it was a false alarm. The base posted an explanation on Facebook (because that’s where airmen turn when they are under attack, apparently.) The notice said: “Attention Team Ramstein, Today, the Ramstein Air Base Command Post was notified via an alert notification system of a real-world missile launch in the European theater. The Command Post followed proper procedure and provided timely and accurate notifications to personnel in the Kaiserslautern Military Community. The missile launch was then assessed to be part of a training exercise and not a threat to the KMC area. The situation is all clear.” The Air Force has not said publicly exactly what missile launch triggered the unnecessary duck and cover exercise, although it was reported that the Russian Navy test-fired four submarine launched ballistic missiles at about the same time in the Sea of Okhotsk. That is a long way from Germany – but in 2020 you can never be too careful.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
PASSING THE FOOTBALL: There has been a lot of speculation that President Trump may skip the upcoming inauguration (unless he is promised that he will be the guest of honor.) Should he take his talents to South Beach (or Mar-a-Lago) before noon on January 20 that raises a question that has not come up before during the nuclear age – how to handle the transfer of the briefcase carrying the nuclear launch codes when the outgoing and incoming presidents are thousands of miles apart. The code-filled satchel is familiarly referred to as “the football.” Business Insider says not to worry. There is a plan. Of course, no one is saying what that plan is. But we are assured there will be no fumbles.
TOYS FOR NUTS: A Pittsburgh breakfast restaurant agreed to hold a “Toys for Tots” charity event – but belatedly found that the co-sponsor was not the “the Few, the Proud, the Marines” but instead the “Proud Boys” – a far-right, neo-fascist, male-only, group that often finds itself in the middle of political violence. The owner of the Crack’d Egg restaurant said she didn’t know she had signed up to participate with an event not authorized by the Marine Corp-affiliated charity. She pulled out of the event. Probably just as well lest the toy box be filled with brass knuckles and the like.
DEAD MEN DO TELL TALES: Well, sometimes. The Sun newspaper, and a documentary called Roswell: The First Witness, now streaming on History, say that thirty years after the death of Jesse Marcel, an intelligence officer of the 509th Bombardment Group at Roswell Army Air Field, the man’s grandchildren reveal the secrets contained in his diary. Marcel was said to have overseen the investigation of a mysterious crash of a possible UFO at Roswell in 1947. His grandkids now say that Marcell examined debris “and determined it was not made by human hands.” Exactly how he figured that out was not explained. But they do say there were “some beans” which were “etched with ‘alien writing.” That does it for us – what earthling would write on beans?
SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT: The Zodiac killer's infamous second cryptogram or "Z-340," unsolved since 1969, has finally been cracked. A team of freelance code breakers reportedly took down the serial killer's devious pen-and-paper encryption system using homemade software. Professional cryptanalysts around the world were elated to confirm the results. They report that the decrypted message includes the phrase "CATCH ME." Team leader Dave Oranchak had been working on the cipher for almost 15 years, when his extreme persistence finally paid off earlier this month. A source who goes by GIRASOL wrote that the detail-oriented Oranchak puts the "ANAL" in "CRYPTANALYST." (Code breakers apparently like shouting things in all caps.)
HEADS UP FOR DEAD DROP READERS: Your Dead Drop team is deploying to the Canada/Maine border to stand watch against invading Chinese hordes. So as a result, there will be no Dead Drop issued on our regular Friday publication dates of December 25 or January 1. But fear not, we will be back on January 8. Meanwhile, we need your help keeping an eye out for Dead Drop-worthy news. Should you spot any, etch the details on some beans…take a photo and email it to us at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
