REALLY EVENTFUL: We learned this week of a new memoir describing the career of 91-year-old retired CIA officer Thomas Ahern who was station chief of the Agency’s operation in Tehran when the U.S. embassy was seized by Islamic radicals in 1979. He and 51 other Americans remained captive for 444 days before being released in 1981. His book, titled Nothing If Not Eventful, was published by the Agency’s Center for the Study of Intelligence and is available online, for free. Ahern spent 35 years as part of the Directorate of Operations and then 30 more as a contractor working on history projects for the Agency. A piece in The Washington Post gives a window into Ahern’s remarkable story of perseverance and resilience. Look for an Undercover review of the book in The Cipher Brief in the coming weeks.
WHO PUT THE DIP IN THE DIPLOMATIC CONFIRMATIONS? It seems only fair that since The Dead Drop was among those expressing concern about the hundreds of flag and general officer promotions held hostage by Senator Tommy Tuberville, that we also note that scores of State Department nominees are also in limbo. According to The New York Times, 43 diplomatic nominees, including Kurt Campbell, who is slated to be deputy Secretary of State, were being blocked from confirmation. Some of them who were not confirmed before the Senate adjourned for the holidays, will have to be re-nominated in the new year. We’re not experts, but it seems there must be a better way for the opposition on the Hill to express their concerns about administration foreign policy, than by keeping top diplomatic seats empty. We note that right before adjournment, Senator Tuberville dropped his block on the final eleven four-star promotions he was holding up, ending his Operation ‘Prevent Defense’. Way to go.
RECRUITING WOES: The Dead Drop has also spared no scorn about Russian efforts to fill their own military ranks by emptying prisons and enlisting convicted murderers and the occasional cannibal – so in fairness – we need to point out that the recruiting picture in Ukraine is also troubled. Late last week, The New York Times reported about complaints that some Ukrainian recruiters have been accused of “pulling men off the streets and whisking them to recruiting centers using intimidation and even physical force.” In August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired all of the country’s regional military recruitment chiefs in a corruption crackdown. This week, Ukraine’s top general Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, kvetched about the move, telling reporters that, “These were professionals, they knew how to do this, and they are gone.” Hopefully someone replaced them – because also this week, President Zelensky said that the military had proposed mobilizing an additional 450,000 to 500,000 more Ukrainians into the armed forces. The Kyiv Independent newspaper said that Zelensky had instructed General Zaluzhnyi to come up with a plan for the mobilization. Zaluzhnyi is having quite a week, after also revealing that a covert listening device was found in one of the offices he uses. He said it wasn’t working – so that suggests to us that it was probably Russian.
KNIGHT’S STAND: SIT! The death of legendary coach Bob Knight on November 1st sparked a lot of memories and stories from basketball fans. The controversial, 83-year-old coach was known for the large number of wins he amassed over the years – and the many times his volcanic temper raised the roof in various arenas. One recollection we didn’t anticipate, however, came from former senior CIA officer (and current Cipher Brief expert) Joe Augustyn, who wrote in The Indianapolis Star about his relationship with Knight. Augustyn met Knight when he was a graduate student in Indiana, and he stayed in touch with the coach after joining the CIA. During his first domestic tour as a CIA officer, Augustyn’s boss learned of the connection and asked him to invite Knight to speak to a group of newly-minted senior intelligence service officers. CIA headquarters higher ups initially were not keen on the idea. Apparently, they were thinking: “what would a mercurial basketball coach have to share with a rising group of intelligence officers?” But somehow the visit went ahead, and it turned out that Knight captivated the crowd. Augustyn says that when Knight finished his remarks, the Agency officers rose to their feet and gave him a standing ovation – until Knight shouted them down. “Sit!” he commanded – and they did. As Augustyn tells it, Knight looked sternly at the audience and said, “If it were not for people like you, people like me would never have a chance.” Knight then stood away from the podium and … applauded his audience. You can read Augustyn’s recollection here.
JUST TALKING ABOUT UFOS CAN BE A NIGHTMARE: It’s no surprise that stories about possible extraterrestrials can be pretty scary – but recently, David Grusch, a former intelligence officer who describes himself as a “UFO whistleblower” told Elizabeth Vargas on the cable network NewsNation that going public with his concerns has been a nightmare for him. A former staffer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and a member of the U.S. Air Force, Grusch claimed in interviews earlier this year, that the U.S. had recovered “nonhuman crafts with nonhuman species inside.” He elected not to go much further than that in open Congressional testimony he said– because, well, he said he didn’t want to provide classified data in a public setting. We’re pretty sure they have SCIFs and members with security clearances on the Hill, so maybe Grusch can be given a chance to unburden himself in a closed setting. Again, we’re not experts but, Duh.
BUCK SHOT: We hear that former CIA officer Buck Sexton, who co-hosts a syndicated radio show has landed a deal to write a book tentatively titled, Manufacturing Delusion which reportedly would explore the tactics used by totalitarian regimes to manipulate people into believing falsehoods. The folks at the Javelin literary agency made the deal with Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Random House.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
CRACK POT? Speaking of manipulating the public into believing falsehoods, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson appeared on a livestream show called Prime Time with Alex Stein and said that he is “open” to the theory that the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked by “Nazi scientists” employed by NASA. We’re pretty sure that the fake landing theory is about as solid as the ones about “Jewish space lasers” causing wildfires…and Italian satellites changing votes in the U.S.
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