FOGGY BOTTOM JOBS REPORT: All administrations like to brag that they are creating new jobs. But a story this week in GQ details how lots of job openings are being created in the foreign service. And that is not a good thing. According to the story “What had started as a trickle of people leaving [the State Department] at the highest levels—often, people who were close to retirement—has turned into a flood of mid-career and junior officers heading for the door.” Julia Ioffe writes “In the first two years of Trump’s presidency, nearly half of the State Department’s Career Ministers retired or were pushed out. Another 20 percent of its Minister Counselors, one rank level down, also left.” Recruitment is also off. In 2009, about 21,000 people took the test to join the foreign service. Today the number is less than half of that.
PROBABLY THE BEST MUSEUM YOU WILL NEVER SEE: Washington’s WJLA-TV was recently invited to CIA headquarters to tour the Agency’s museum – an attraction that tourists cannot get into. The segment focused on things like bin Laden’s assault rifle and a brick from the al Qaeda leader’s Abbottabad compound. We enjoyed the virtual tour but The Dead Drop is trying to not take offense at a comment from Janelle Neises, the museum’s deputy directory who said: "When you make a dead drop, you want to make sure that it's either something that no one would notice — that it would just blend in with its surroundings — or it's so disgusting that no one would ever pick it up."
PROBABLY THE BEST GIFT STORE YOU’LL NEVER SHOP AT: When you get done visiting the CIA Museum (assuming you can get in), don’t forget to drop by the Agency’s gift shop. The Washington Post featured a story this week about the CIA’s popular (with those who can access it) store which sells things like “top secret” barbecue sauce and infant onesies labeled “the result of an UNDERCOVER operation.”
PROBABLY THE BEST CONCERT YOU WILL NEVER HEAR: The New York Post blew the cover on “Spookstock,” an invitation-only concert held at an undisclosed location that raises funds for the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Past headliners have included Peter Frampton, ZZ Top, the Steve Miller Band and Lenny Kravitz. Regular readers of The Dead Drop have heard of the DC-area Spookstock before – but the news in this piece is that organizers are planning for a “Spookstock West” event this spring in Austin, Texas.
A CALL TO ARMS (CONTROL): The Department of State’s Bureau of Arms Control now lists as a “senior adviser” Frank Wuco, a former radio talk show host and navy intelligence officer who suggested nuking Afghanistan after 9/11. The Washington Post reported that Wuco previously promoted conspiracy theories such as former President Obama not being born in the U.S., former CIA director John Brennan being a secret convert to Islam, former Attorney General Eric Holder being a member of the Black Panthers and former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin being tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. If Wuco is advising the Arms Control Bureau now, who’s controlling Wuco?
PROTECTING VALUES: Normally, a military leader urging his subordinates to “maintain high ideals of integrity and service” would be un-newsworthy and would likely go unnoticed. But this week, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday sent a message to “every Sailor – active and reserve, uniformed and civilian” exhorting them to remain true to their oath, maintain good order and discipline, and be above reproach. The message came after presidential pardons to three servicemembers accused of war crimes and a presidential tweet that led to a Navy SEAL convicted of posing for selfies with a corpse to retain his Trident pin while the Secretary of the Navy got fired for having a different view.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS, WE PRINT: You may remember that a couple months ago we told you that CIA insiders noted that the Agency’s internal news clipping service was virtually silent on the subject of the “whistleblower” who was has been so talked about in the media. Well, it turns out the intelligence community is not alone in selectively choosing their news. Pentagon insiders tell us that the Navy’s daily news clippings have been very sparing in their coverage of the controversy over the president’s handling of the Chief Edward Gallagher issue. For example, Richard Spencer’s OPED in the Washington Post titled “I was fired as Navy secretary. Here’s what I’ve learned because of it” apparently didn’t make the cut. One observer told us that these news summaries are “like ‘Home on the Range’.” Huh? Yeah, you know…. “seldom is heard a discouraging word.”
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
WORST BOSS EVER: We’ll all had a few bosses that were something short of inspirational – but if the website Task & Purpose is to believed, Air Force Lt. Gen Lee Levy, II, is one for the books. An 80-page Inspector General report lowered the boom on Levy. One former subordinate was quoted as saying “If he was on the battlefield, he probably would’ve been shot in the back.” Another airman who had worked for him for about three months said that stint was “hands down the worst time that I’ve had in my 11 years in the Air Force.”
USASOC 30TH: December 1st saw the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. While the organization has only been around for three decades in its current form, it traces its legacy to World War I. The current Commanding General of USASOC, Lt. Gen. Francis Beaudette launched a colorful quote to mark the occasion: "ARSOF Soldiers are custodians of the legacy of those who've gone before them. They will never let America down, and as always, they will keep winning through calculated recklessness, disciplined daring, and aggressive action," he said.
SPEAKING OF “CALCULATED RECKLESSNESS”: That term might describe the ballroom moves of former White House spokesman Sean Spicer who surprised critics by lasting several weeks on “Dancing with the Stars.” Spicer was in the news again this week in an AP story with the brutal headline: “Ex-White House press secretary now advising Naval Academy for some reason.” The reason, of course, is that the naval reserve commander was appointed by the president to the Academy’s Board of Visitors.
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