RUSSIA’S SHADOW FLEET SAILS INTO TROUBLE: A 19-year-old Panama-flagged vessel that runs about the size of three football fields ran into a streak of bad luck while sailing off the coast of Germany last month. The Eventin – which authorities say was carrying 109,000 tons of Russian crude oil destined for Egypt – had to be rescued by Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies after its systems completely shut down, leaving its 24-man crew adrift. The Cipher Brief reports that the ship was part of Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ of hundreds of vessels that claim home addresses in obscure corners of the world and help Moscow evade Western sanctions that were imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We’ve never actually directed a rag tag fleet of ships ourselves, but it seems logical that if you’re trying to sail under the radar, you might wanna choose vessels that can actually sail.
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE (CHINESE) EYE: The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning that internet-connected security cameras made in China are making it possible for Beijing to “conduct espionage or disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure.” ABC News says such cameras usually do not include encryption settings and by default, communicate with their manufacturers. This is on top of concerns that “DeepSeek,” the new Chinese-made AI tool, may have code hidden in its programming that can send user data directly to the Chinese government. Perhaps the Chinese security cameras should be dubbed: “Deep Peek.”
ALOHA DNI – AND A FOX IN THE WHITE HOUSE: Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed as Director of National Intelligence by a very narrow margin in the Senate this week after weeks of speculation about whether she would get the votes. Much less noticed though, was that on Tuesday, President Trump announced the twelve members of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (more fondly known as the PIAB) which names Devin Nunes as Chair, and Amaryllis Fox Kennedy (oft mentioned in The Dead Drop) as a member.
Everyone needs a good nightcap. Ours happens to come in the form of a M-F newsletter that keeps you up to speed on national security. Sign up today.
THEY DON’T MAKE “ANNUAL” ROTATIONS LIKE THEY USED TO: Dead Drop readers will recall – way back last week – when we speculated that DOD ousting legacy news organizations like NBC News and The New York Times from their Pentagon cubby holes as part of an “annual media rotation” was an unsubtle signal to other news organizations to stifle their criticism or next year THEY would be on the outside looking in. (The organizations do still have access to the building though.) Still, former long-time CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr took to the pages of the Columbia Journalism Review to explain why keeping journalists out of the Pentagon is a bad idea. The figurative ink on her article was not even dry before the next shoe dropped. Just days after the first evictions…DOD decided to also bounce CNN, The Washington Post and other organizations from their closet-sized makeshift studios and officers to make room for Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, and The Free Press. (We had to look that last one up – but apparently it is a “new media company” that used to call itself Common Sense. It is not clear why they stopped calling themselves that.) We can see why being kicked out of their cubbies could make like tougher for some of the largest news organizations. After all, you never know when you might overhear a good news tip while standing in line at the Pentagon’s Dunkin Donuts location.
BEEF OVER THE GULF: The Associated Press reports that the Trump Administration has blocked them from a third event hosted by the White House over the administration’s beef that the news outlet refuses to change its style guide and start referring to the “Gulf of Mexico” as the “Gulf of America”, which President Trump said he was renaming during his inauguration speech. Some map apps promptly changed the name but the AP says because the gulf lies partially outside of U.S. territory, it’s sticking with the original name. It seems two can play at this game though because squarely in the middle of the AP article describing the beef and saying that denial of access is infringing on the organization’s first amendment rights, is an ad calling for former or current government workers who would like to share information to contact the AP.
TURNABOUT IS FAIR PLAY: Or so they appear to think in Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service - the SVR. You might recall in 2023, the CIA released a video urging disaffected Russians to clandestinely offer their espionage services to the USA. (The Cipher Briefpublished an exclusive on how the program is going last year.) Well, now, the SVR has put out their own video asking “true American patriots” to get in touch with them. The Russians say they are seeking turncoats who really care for “world peace” (which, as we all know – is the Kremlin’s stock in trade.) According to Reuters, the video is part parody of the CIA video and part polemic. No doubt though– that operators are standing by.
RUSSIAN DEATH TOLLS, FALLING: By which we don’t mean their battlefield losses are lessening – but that people who are not fully onboard with Team Putin’s plans continue have a propensity to skip the stairs – and depart high rise buildings via the windows. One of the latest examples, according to a British news site called Metro, is Vadim Stroykin, 58, who was a well-known Russian singer. He was accused of donating money to the Ukrainian armed forces. Vadim didn’t hide his displeasure at the current state of affairs and posted on social media that Putin was a “b**** who went to war not only against a brotherly nation but declared war on his own people.” Authorities in St. Petersburg were not pleased and reportedly paid him a visit. Kremlin-tied Telegram outfits said that when the police showed up the singer “went into a spare room, hastily opened a window and committed an irreversible act.” That’s the St. Petersburg PD’s story and they’re sticking to it.
BOARD AND CONFUSED: It’s hard to keep up with all of the president’s announcements since taking office less than one month ago, but this week, President Trump announced that he had fired the entire board of visitors at the service academies. The board is made up of advisors that offer outside perspectives on academics and student life. But the President said on Truth Social that “Our Service Academies have been infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues over the last four years,” and that “I have ordered the immediate dismissal of the Board of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard.” In this case – the move was not exactly precedent setting. As we reported back in September 2021, then-President Biden sent letters to 18 individuals who had been appointed to the Board of Visitors by President Trump (many in the final days of his first term) telling them to resign by 6PM that Wednesday or they would be fired. Then-White House spokesperson Jen Psaki explained the sackings saying: “The president’s objective is what any president’s objective is, which was to ensure that you have nominees and people serving on these boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with your values.” Sounds like they could just use the same explanation this time around.
WEBSITES GIVETH AND TAKETH AWAY: Or the other way around. Last week, both the Army and the Navy removed pages from their public sites that highlighted the contributions of women to both of those services of the years. Apparently, officials were scrambling to make sure the sites didn’t offend whoever was enforcing the administration’s new rules on banning words, photos and deeds that smacked of “wokeness.” This week, both the Army and Navy restored the material – although the Navy had to come up with a new URL for their page since the original one had the offensive word “diversity” in it. There were other press reports (unconfirmed when last we saw) that NSA was “undergoing a massive ‘purge’ on its public and private websites and internal network, eliminating any site that contains any of a list of 27 words.” Some people called the project the “Big Delete.” It just reminded us that the late comedian George Carlin used to have a routine about the seven words you can’t say on TV. If the Big Delete report is true – NSA may have left that number in the dust. We found a smaller delete on CIA’s public website. Up until a week ago, the website had a section labeled “About CIA – Mission and Vision.” Under a portion called “Teamwork” it said: “We stand by one another. Collaboration, both internal and external, underpins our success….Diversity, equity, and inclusion are mission imperatives.” Spies tell us those seven words are no longer on the site.
NO PENTAGON COVERUP: Earlier this week, there were press reports citing an Army congressional notification that suggested Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth asked for more than $137,000 in repairs and improvements be made to a house on Fort McNair in Washington, so the Secretary and his family could move in. The price tag included almost $50,000 just for new paint. But now officials say it wasn’t Hegseth who requested the fixer upping – but that the improvements were needed for security upgrades (the house had sat empty for a year). Taxpayers might wanna save up now for new paint job for whoever will succeed Hegseth eventually. We’re guessing that since the Secretary has seven kids, the quarters might take a bit of a beating.
(SHAMELESS) SELF-PROMOTION: A look at what’s happening behind the scenes at The Cipher Brief:
WELCOME TO THE ‘MILLION’ CLUB: More than one million YouTube viewers have now tuned into The Cipher Brief’s digital channel for non-partisan insights into where the puck is going when it comes to national and global security. We don’t have any fancy swag to share like the airlines do when you hit a million miles, but we’re super grateful that people want to see true expert interviews on what’s happening that give a little more perspective than you might find elsewhere. For those diehard fans who really do want the swag though, our spies discovered a Cipher Brief shop that you can visit millions of times.
HONORING THE BEST OF THE BEST: The envelopes are being opened ahead of this year’s Cipher Brief HONORS Dinner in Washington DC. The black-tie gala that former Congressman Will Hurd lovingly referred to as ‘spy prom’ (but we lovingly like to think of it more like the Oscars of national security) is set for April 18 in the nation’s capital. This year’s first honoree was announced this week (drum roll please). ABC News’ Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and co-anchor of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Martha Raddatz will accept this year’s Impact Through Journalism award. Raddatz has covered national security and foreign policy for decades and served as White House Correspondent during former President George W. Bush’s administration.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
WHEN CONSPIRACY THEORIES COLLIDE: We somehow stumbled across an article in the Roswell (New Mexico) Daily Record celebrating 25 years of their columnist, Donald Burleson, who pens a monthly feature “Looking Up” and as you might guess – it’s about UFOs and aerial phenomena. The column about Burleson’s columns contains some confusing quotes about FOIA requests that the writer has submitted to the CIA over the years and why he thinks their accepting his appeals after being initially turned down – means he tricked them or something like that. It was a little tough to decipher because the quotes read like Klingon to us. But the part that caught our eye was the fact that Burleson wrote a book in 2011 titled UFOs and the Murder of Marlin Monroe. (Somehow, we missed that one.) The book’s premise is that the movie star was murdered by government officials to keep her quiet after she learned sensitive details about UFO crash retrievals—allegedly pillow talk picked up from her relationships with President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. There have been so many conspiracies over Monroe’s death over the years but we have to admit, her supposed knowledge of alien crash retrievals was not one we were tracking (go figure).
WE’RE NOT THE AP, BUT YOU CAN ALWAYS BEAM UP SOME NEWS TIPS TO US AT: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com
Read more expert-driven national security insights, perspective and analysis in The Cipher Brief because National Security is Everyone’s Business.
