Updated — December 9
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A RUDE PLACE: Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Trump have exchanged verbal shots. At an event in Texas a few days ago, Tillerson said the President is “undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, “This is what I believe.” The next day Trump proved that he DOES read – or got a briefing anyway — since he fired back with a tweet saying Tillerson “didn’t have the mental capacity needed (as SECSTATE). He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell.” Editorial note: Ouch.
(NEARLY) EVERYONE WISHING MIKE HAYDEN WELL: Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery for General Michael Hayden continue to pour in. Hayden suffered a stroke right before Thanksgiving and is fighting his way back to good health. Hayden told well-wishers that he looks forward to getting back in the national discussion. And almost everyone has wished the same. But in their latest effort to stir up division in the U.S., Vladimir Putin’s Sputnik News posted an article pointing out that President Trump made no public comment regarding the General’s health – noting that Hayden has been critical of the President. We wouldn’t necessarily expect a sitting President to comment on the health of a former official. We WOULD expect Sputnik to try and sow division using the issue, and (shocker) - they did not disappoint.
ANOTHER FINE MESS YOU’VE GOTTEN ME INTO, OLIGARCHY: Senators were unhappy last week when CIA Director Gina Haspel did not accompany Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis to the Hill to brief them on the Saudi Crown Prince's role in the murder of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This week, Haspel did go to the Hill and briefed select members of the Senate – which seemed to go over well with those Members – but not so well with the NON-select members who were left out. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was the most vocal member of the un-invited. "I know about the information of the CIA’s conclusions only by reading it in the media,” he said “There are eight people in congress who get briefings on intelligence. That's not democracy." Actually, it is. By law and practice, a small number of senior members of Congress get briefed on the most sensitive material in a (vain) hope of preventing leaks. This comes as news to Paul, who blamed “the deep state” for his being in the dark. When asked if he blamed the White House – Paul ducked and instead compared the intelligence community to an “oligarchy.”
LOST IN TRANSLATION: Our favorite Russian media watcher, Julia Davis noticed that recent U.S. State Department comments about the illegal seizure of Ukrainian vessels by the Russians, were mischaracterized by Moscow. In a statement, the folks at Foggy Bottom said: “We want the Russians to absorb the message that they need to release the crews or there will be consequences and the pain will grow over time.” But Russian state TV translated that into the State Department promising “that every Russian citizen will experience pain and consequences.” When it was pointed out that this was NOT what the U.S. said, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova blamed the Americans for the original comment being bad English. “This is a compound phrase, which has been poorly constructed,” she said.
SILENT SERVICE CHIEF SPEAKS OUT: Alex Younger, chief of UK’s MI6, made a rare public speech recently. Just like his counterpart at the CIA, Younger chose his alma mater to deliver remarks, in his second public speech in more than four years. The Spy chief took the opportunity to raise the alarm over the cyber threat, which he says brings “potentially existential challenges” to liberal democracies. MI6, he says, is: “…evolving rapidly. Cyber is now our fastest-growing directorate. We are shifting our focus to the nexus between humans and technology.”
WHO WILL RID ME OF THIS TROUBLESOME MONK? The Irish Times launched a speculative piece this week asking if the CIA had killed a prominent American war critic and Catholic monk, Thomas Merton, 50 years ago. Merton was found dead in his room in Bangkok where he had gone for a speaking engagement. The presumed cause of death was a heart attack, but there was no autopsy done. The story presents no evidence that the Agency played a role in Merton’s death – but in the current environment of state sponsored killings – such allegations probably are more readily believed.
MAGICALLY APPEARING: Once a month, the Arts Club of Washington, holds a dinner and magic show at a 200-year-old mansion in Washington D.C. The next event is set for December 20th when former acting CIA Director (and world-class magician) John McLaughlin appears. If you haven’t caught Merlin’s act (McLaughlin is known as 'Merlin' among his former colleagues) we encourage you to treat yourself to a magical evening. Details are here.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
- Sun Dancing Around: Among the movies premiering at the Sundance Film Festival early next year is one called “The Report”, which glamorizes the role of Senate staffer Daniel Jones, who led the Senate Intelligence Committee’s study into the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. The advance publicity claims the study found the program to be “brutal, immoral and ineffective. With the truth at stake, Jones battled tirelessly to make public what many in power sought to keep hidden.” Adam Driver, Annette Bening and Jon Hamm are cast members. No word on whether the film will explain why the five-year, $40 million investigation that Jones led, failed to interview a single person who was involved in the program. In his 2015 book, former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell called the Senate report “one of the worst pieces of analysis that this thirty-three-year veteran of analysis at CIA has even seen.”
- “BE BEST” 1984 Style: Muckrock.com, using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), dug up a document from 1984 about how then-CIA Director William Casey kicked off a “Pursuit of Excellence” campaign, which encouraged Agency employees to, umm, be good at what they do, we guess. There was a four-hour meeting to discuss goals for the future. One suggestion was to fight to abolish FOIA. Clearly, they failed in that mission – or we would not be reading about it.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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