THEY’RE BACK: Well, at least every once in a while. We noted in our January 5th Dead Drop that CIA seems to have soured on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter (but come on, who hasn’t?). Or at least that’s what we thought because they hadn’t posted anything in more than three months. Well, it seems they’re back on the X, posting a new video aimed at Russia (that we mentioned in last week’s Drop) and this past week, a new article from CIA Director Bill Burns titled Spycraft and Statecraft, where he explains what he’s doing to transform the CIA for an ‘age of competition’ (it’s a good read).
THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! Or maybe not. One of the many long-standing themes we have in The Dead Drop is noting when politicians and organizations mislabel foreign military equipment in ads and graphics as being ‘American’. The latest to fall victim to this malady is CBS. The television network has been promoting the season premiere of their “NCIS Hawaii” tv series with a video that contains animated graphics of a mighty warship off Oahu. Unfortunately for CBS, however, eagle-eyed observers noticed that the ship is not some U.S. Navy cruiser in Pearl Harbor…but a Russian Slava class cruiser like the one seen in silhouette here. Oops.
HARD EARNED CASH: You may have heard the story a couple weeks ago, about an Army civilian who has been accused in a DOJ indictment, of bilking the service out of more than $100 million dollars and blowing it on over 30 homes, 80 vehicles and some fancy jewelry. Well, the prosecution for that alleged crime is unhurriedly working its way through the courts but not all government bureaucracy grinds so slowly. According to the New York Post, the defendant in this case filed paperwork to retire from the civil service and because she has not been charged with treason, rebellion or insurrection – the Army says they have no mechanism to withhold her retirement pay. Her attorney said she earned it – and that it has nothing to do with the charges against her. Mello, who reportedly was released without bail while awaiting trial, might want to take that retired pay and splurge…because if she is eventually convicted, she faces up to 142 years in the slammer.
AND THE BONDY GOES TO…. The British Royal family really knows how to roll out the red carpet – and according to The Daily Mail, King Charles III did just that on a number of occasions when he was Prince of Wales. The paper reports that he hosted a secret awards ceremony dubbed by some – the “Spy Oscars.” The King is the patron of the Intelligence Services and over the years, has reportedly “presented hundreds of secret agents with honours (as they spell it over there), awards and citations for bravery.” Sounds like fun. Maybe that was the inspiration for The Cipher Brief’s D.C. Honors dinner in May. Wonder if King Charles will be a presenter.
THE PRINCE OF WHALES: Here is an update on a story we first dove into in 2019 and returned to last June. It is the tale of a 2700-pound beluga whale, nicknamed Hvaldimir, who apparently escaped from Russia where it appears he was being trained for covert missions. That conclusion was based, in part, on the fact that when discovered off Norway, he was sporting a harness that said “Equipment St. Petersburg”. Hvladimir then reportedly spent more than three years slowly working his way along the Baltic coastline. He surfaced again off the coast of Sweden last May, and marine biologists think he may be lonely and looking for a mate. Scientists say he seems quite friendly and is accustomed to being around humans. So now a nonprofit called “OneWhale” is trying to help him find his way to Arctic waters and introduce him to a pod of 500 to 600 beluga whales where his dating prospects would be much improved. When he escaped in 2019, Hvladimir beat the rush of Russians defecting to the west. Now, thanks to OneWhale, he may be about to meet some new friends.
THAT’S THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES: There is a new, unexpected, star of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It is Captain Chris “Chowdah” Hill, commanding officer of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69.) Currently deployed somewhere in the vicinity of the Red Sea, Hill has been launching nearly as many tweets (or whatever you call them on X) as he is fighter missions. The idea is to give family members and friends back home a glimpse of what their sailors are doing…and single out some shipmates for unexpected recognition. One of Chowdah’s regular gimmicks is to lure some sailor under a ruse to the bridge – like to fix a balky radar – and the put them in the captain’s chair (normally off-limits for mere mortals we are told.) He gives them a message from a loved one at home, a fresh baked cookie and sometimes a challenge coin. Hill doesn’t name the sailors in his posts – but includes a smiling picture of them in his chair and their message back home. In one recent post he wrote: “Unsuspecting Petty Officer called to bridge after fixing computer accounts. She works IT. Given cookie and placed in the Captain’s chair. Me: Mom says she loves you. Her: Thanks, mom. The cookie was the best part of my day, but this chair is terrifying!” Hill only joined X in November and already has more than 53 thousand followers.
IT MIGHT TAKE MORE THAN COOKIES: It seems that all the U.S. military services are facing challenges recruiting and keeping personnel. The latest example of this comes in the form of an announcement from the U.S. Navy that it will start enlisting some folks who do not have a high school diploma or a GED. According to Navy Times, wannabee sailors without those credentials will be eligible to enlist as long as they score a 50 or above on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (which tops out at 99.)
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
VAGUELY FAMILIAR: There is a viral photograph floating around which appears to show Usama bin Laden in a meeting with President George W. Bush…or perhaps President George H. W. Bush.. and a bunch of other senior officials. Is it real? We didn’t really need Snopes.com to tell us “no” – but since they went to the trouble, we will share Snopes’ findings. They located an actual photo of a meeting in the Pentagon on September 12, 2001. On the now-viral version, someone replaced the head of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz with that of bin Laden. The photo fakers apparently want you to believe the U.S. was in league with UBL. In fact, it would take another decade for the U.S. to get the head of Al Qaeda – and it would not be via photo shop.
NOT SO SWIFT: Who says the military can’t recruit? Sure, the services may be having trouble filling some of those junior enlisted slots – but some folks like Fox News personality Jesse Watters told views that “around four years ago, the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset.” Other pundits claim that Swift had been turned into a “psy op.” But Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said: “as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off.” Other conspiracy theorists claim that the deep state has manufactured the romance between Swift and her Kansas City Chief boyfriend, Travis Kelce. We’ve gotta admit – if the deep state can recruit a billionaire entertainer and her multimillionaire star athlete boyfriend, they can really work some magic. Now that the Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl – other pundits and politicians say they worry that Swift will appear at halftime to make a political endorsement not to their liking. But here is a conspiracy theory (which we invented) that they really won’t like. It turns out Swift turns 35 years old on December 13th, which (by our reckoning) would make her just old enough to be sworn into high office 38 days later. So maybe she would like to be VP or POTUS? That sound you just heard was conspiracy theorist heads exploding.
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