BAD TRADECRAFT: The crack crew at the UK’s Daily Mail.com have figured out what’s wrong with a number of social media platforms. Apparently, it’s U.S. intelligence alumni. In a story posted Dec 22, the Mail published the headline: “Spooks infiltrate Silicon Valley: Facebook is riddled with ex-CIA agents – including President’s briefer who now runs 'harmful content' team – so many ex-FBI work at Twitter, they have Slack channel and Google is rife with ex-CIA.” Wow, long headline. And with words like “infiltrate,” “riddled,” and “rife” you might get the correct impression that The Daily Mail isn’t keen on former officials finding post-government employment. Among the former “agents” that alarm them, is Aaron Berman who they identify as ‘the president’s former CIA briefer’. Berman was among those featured in one of those goofy Meta commercials not long ago, with people standing around holding framed pictures of themselves and their families. The Daily Mail reports that Berman is now involved in “misinformation policy” for Facebook. We were so unintrigued by the story that we decided to launch our own 30-second investigation and it turns out that Berman’s LinkedIn profile says he used to write and edit for the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) - it doesn’t say he delivered it. In any case, our conclusion is that it was pretty bad tradecraft on Meta’s part if they featured some of the crafty CIA “agents” who have “infiltrated” them, in their TV commercials. But it was also pretty bad tradecraft by The Daily Mail to present former Intel officers working in the private sector as a bad thing.
THE PERILS OF LIVE TV: Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent in-person speech to a joint session of Congress got a lot of attention around the world. Too much for the liking of Putin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, who was hosting a program on Russian TV the morning after the event. The folks in the control room elected to show video in a loop of Zelensky’s rapturous welcome while Solovyov was interviewing a Russian-born, U.S. resident who was willing to trash the event. The incident, described in The Daily Beast by Russia Media Monitor Julia Davis, shows Solovyov furiously texting something and then interrupting his guest to loudly complain: “Guys, get rid of this video, if you can’t read what is being written to you!” The guest, by the way, Dmitri Simes, used the occasion to favorably compare a world leader to Winston Churchill. But the leader he found worthy of that comparison was Vladimir Putin. No, really.
FIRE ONE! Russia has one aircraft carrier – and the good news (for them) is that it did not sink last week. That could have been because the Admiral Kuznetsov was in a dry dock undergoing repairs when it caught fire, and it’s not the first time. Two people died the last (known) time it caught fire, back in 2019. This time though, there were no reported deaths. The folks at Task and Purpose reminded us that back in 2017, the UK defense secretary referred to the Kuznetsov as the “ship of shame.” In that instance, it was because of the carrier’s actions against the Syrian people – attempting to set them – as opposed to itself - on fire.
PUT A FORK IN RUSSIAN SAUSAGE KING: You’ll never guess what happened to Pavel Antov, a Russian “sausage tycoon,” who criticized his country’s invasion of Ukraine. OK, maybe you will. The wealthy Russian was visiting India recently when he fell to this death from a third floor window. Just days earlier, one of Antov’s friends and traveling companions, Vladimir Bidenov, also died in the same hotel. In his case, officials deemed it a stroke. Russian diplomats in India told the Tass news agency that investigators didn’t see a “criminal element in these tragic events.” So that clears that up. Also, late last week, Alexander Buzakov, the head of a major Russian shipyard, turned up dead – but so far, no word on what he might have fallen off of.
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT TURNED CRYSTAL BALL READER: We all sometimes make predictions when a new year is rolling in, but Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev made news recently by predicting that Germany and France will go to war with each other in the new year. And wait, that’s not all. He also predicted a civil war in the United States (no doubt fueled by Russian disinformation campaigns) and if that weren’t enough, he’s also predicting that Elon Musk will be president. We have to say, this bit of news tops our ‘you can’t make this s*#t up’ list this week.
TIS THE SEASON FOR LISTS: Naughty or nice, “best of” or “worst of” – everyone seems to be making lists this time of year, including the folks at Spyscape. The NYC-based museum is out with a list of “50 Top Spy Novels” selected by – well, that’s not entirely clear – but we assume it’s by spies, or something like that. Lists like this are - by definition – arbitrary and the field of possible entries for this one is huge since it includes novels written a half century ago. Also, they cheat a bit by counting certain series - like the James Bond or Mitch Rapp books - as one entry. We were pleased (though not surprised) to see quite a few books that have been featured in The Cipher Brief on their list. For example, Red Widow by Alma Katsu comes in at #48. The former CIA-er turned novelist was interviewed by Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly on the State Secrets podcast in May 2021. #38 was Living Lies by James Lawler who was also interviewed on The State Secrets Podcast and whose second book, In the Twinkling of an Eye made Spyscape’s honorable mention (and was reviewed by The Cipher Brief). Coming in at #24 was Mike 4 by J.R. Seeger who was interviewed by Undercover editor Bill Harlow way back in 2018, and the book was reviewed by John Sipher. And at lucky #13 there is Damascus Station by David McCloskey, reviewed for The Cipher Brief by Rob Richer. . We note that among those making recommendations for the list, were Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Cipher Brief Expert and author of Vampires Rule! and Ken Dekleva, author of The Negotiator’s Cross also reviewed in The Cipher Brief.
COVER STORIES: If it seems we like books, well, we do. We also like movies and TV shows that portray – sometimes accurately – the world of espionage. That’s why we’re looking forward to The Cipher Brief’s new podcast, Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment, hosted by Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly and Cipher Brief Senior Book Editor Bill Harlow. The very first episode is out now with Kelly and Harlow grilling each other about spies and the media. Given that Kelly is a recovering Intelligence Correspondent and Harlow is a veteran government press person, they always knew there were limits to what could be shared, so what are those limits and how does the relationship between intelligence agencies and the media really work?
JACK’S BACK: Maybe the new Cover Storiespodcast will spend some time talking with the creators ofAmazon Prime Video’s Jack Ran series, which recently debuted season three of “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.” (Trailer here.) It’s interesting that more than three years passed between seasons two and three. There are eight episodes in the new season which portrays John Krasinki as Jack Ryan, racing “against time and across Europe to stop a rogue faction within the Russian government from restoring the Soviet Empire and starting World War III.” Huh. Sounds familiar (insert real life here). Early reviews for the new season are pretty strong on Rottentomatoes.com.
HERE LIES THE TRUTH: Speaking of TV series — there is another one in the offing coming from CBS in the spring. This one is called “True Lies.” You may remember a movie by that name, written and directed by James Cameron, from about 30 years ago, that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. The flick combined action and comedy and was a blockbuster. It was reportedly the first film that cost more than $100 million to make and earned several multiples of that figure. The TV version stars far lesser-known actors – which might help keep the budget under nine digits. The plot seems to parallel that of the motion picture. A woman discovers to her enormous surprise, that her bland and boring computer consultant husband is actually a skilled international spy working for “Omega Sector” a top-secret U.S. intelligence outfit. She eventually joins up with him to try to save the world and their marriage. Like the hero of “True Lies,” the TV series seems to have had lots of lives. It previously was rumored to run on Fox, Disney+ and elsewhere. There once was a time when television seasons started in September with an occasional mid-season replacement airing in January. “True Lies” was booked for February but has now been moved to March 1. The series trailer is here. While we don’t know the Alpha and Omega (sector) of it, the series looks like it might be fun.
NOT FOR LAUGHS: In case you’re looking for a show to watch before March, Netflix has just dropped a five-part dramatic series called “Treason” about Adam Lawrence who rises to the top of MI6 after his boss, “C,” is poisoned. But Lawrence finds out that his own intelligence successes were not of his own creation. Enter Kara, a Russian spy with whom he shares a “complicated” past.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
FAKE NEWS! Sometimes it’s a real bummer to see items that have gone viral on social media be exposed as bogus. For example, the spoilsports at Snopes.com say a posting labeled as a statement from Congressman Scott Perry (R, PA) was fake. The false statement posted widely said, “I stand by my statement that Italian Satellites controlled by our own CIA with the help of the Italian government switched millions of votes from President Trump to Joe Biden.” The statement went on to say that proof of this, “mysteriously” disappeared and that Chinese thermostats in American homes might also have been complicit. According to Snopes, the Congressman did send an email to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows shortly after the 2020 election, suggesting that the “Italian satellites” rumor be investigated but apparently, he has not reiterated his thermostat concern. Guess things are cooling off.
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