WELL, ISN’T THAT SPECIAL? According to The Wall Street Journal, Russia’s spy services have cooked up a shadowy new unit called the ‘Department of Special Tasks’, known by its Russian acronym “SSD.” It operates out of military intelligence headquarters and its “special” bag of tricks is said to include assassination, arson, sabotage and putting incendiary devices on airplanes. James Appathurai, NATO’s deputy assistant secretary-general, who is in charge of hybrid warfare, told the WSJ that “Russia believes it is in conflict with what it calls ‘the collective West,’ and is acting accordingly, up to and including threatening us with nuclear attack and building up its military.” Always armed with a denial, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “These are, as usual, completely unsubstantiated accusations.” You might note, as we did, that that is NOT a denial. And while the name of the unit may be new – sadly, the tactics are not.
NO QUESTIONS PLEASE: Last week, we mentioned that the military is spending around $137,000 to get government housing at Fort McNair suitable for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and family to move in. Sounds like a sweet deal for Hegseth and company – but it doesn’t come for free. Military.com says that in keeping with “a 2008 law, a defense secretary who lives in military housing is required to pay rent that is equivalent to 105% of the Basic Allowance for Housing rate for a four-star general with dependents assigned to the same base.” So, that would mean that Hegseth will be writing checks for $4,655.70 each month to his landlord, Uncle Sam. Not exactly a bargain – but considerably better than when Bob Gates was SECDEF for almost five years during the Bush 43 and Obama administrations. He was required to pay the full market rate for comparable civilian housing – setting him back around $78,000 a year – about 40% of his annual salary. Hegseth by the way, is still pretty steamed about Congressional and media questions about the money being spent on his DC fixer-upper though. Responding on X to another post also on X by Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin that reported on a letter sent from members of the House Appropriations Committee asking about the repairs in the midst of government efficiency layoffs, Hegseth wrote: “Fake News of the Day (not surprising from Democrats & @JenGriffinFNG; same thing) Any/all house repairs were going to happen no matter who was moving in and were all initiated by DoD. But Dems/Jen don’t care about facts; they’re just Trump haters.” All of this leads us to three questions: 1) Did Hegseth and Griffin have an argument over the coffee (or Kool-Aid) machine in the break room at Fox News back when he was an anchor there? 2) Does the SecDef have any better way to spend his time than on stuff like this? (There does seem to be an awful lot going on in the world these days.) 3) Are we now living in a world where anyone who asks a question is a ‘Trump hater’?
BRAGGING RIGHTS? Speaking of Secretary Hegseth, last week he announced a plan to re-name Fort Liberty, North Carolina – “Fort Bragg.” If that rings a bell – that’s because the facility was already named Bragg from 1918 until 2023 – when a 2021 law required that the name be changed since members of Congress didn’t think it was a good idea to be honoring Confederate General Braxton Bragg. Hegseth announced recently that the name Bragg would return – but this time, the fort was being named after Army Private First-Class Roland L. Bragg, of Maine, who earned a Silver Star at the Battle of the Bulge in 1943. The Pentagon says the new Bragg saved a fellow soldier’s life “by commandeering an enemy German ambulance so that he could transport a wounded service member 20 miles to an allied hospital in Belgium. The ambulance was under enemy fire the entire time.” Sounds like a worthy namesake to us. No word, though on the cost of changing all the signs and branding on the base – (though for government efficiency reasons we’re hoping they’re not planning to repaint the whole thing, too.) This got us thinking though, what about all the other facilities that also had their names changed to avoid honoring rebel leaders who made their names fighting against the USA? Some in the military with time on their hands could probably find some other Silver Star recipients whose names match up to the currently defrocked Fort Benning, Fort Gordon, Ford Hood, Fort Pickett and such. Not that we’re recommending that approach of course, because replacing all those signs at the gates must be expensive. And wasting taxpayer money, as Elon Musk might tell you, is nothing to Bragg about.
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WHAT COMES AFTER THE SEVENTH FLOOR? Not the 8th floor. At least not if we’re talking about books. Former CIA officer David McCloskey’s last novel The Seventh Floor - which was favorably reviewed in The Cipher Brief - is being followed up with a new one. Last week, McCloskey took to social media to announce that the new book, titled The Persian, will be out this fall. Spies tell us it’s about “a Persian agent for the Mossad” who is captured by Iranian security forces and “compelled to confess his experiences as a spy, which involve not only the security of nationals, but revenge, deceit, and the power of love and forgiveness in a world of lies.” A world of lies, eh? Sounds like it could have been written in the Kremlin.
WHAT FOLLOWS SUMMER GUESTS? Not fall guests. Our not-so-secret sources tell us that writer Tess Gerritsen, author of the novel The Spy Coast (and a past guest on The Cipher Brief’s Cover Stories podcast,) has a new book out soon called The Summer Guests – and she has just landed a deal to produce a third book in the series titled The Shadow Friends. That one apparently won’t arrive until fall of 2026. The books feature retired CIA friends living in the seaside town of Purity, Maine who get wrapped up in solving crimes and mysteries in their bucolic burg. And they also all like to get together and drink martinis (a nugget that came out during the podcast interview). Come on. Old spies who get together over drinks and solve the world’s problems, eh? Sounds like it could have been written at Langley.
CRUISE PATROL: Rumor has it that the next (and possibly last) Mission Impossible movie — “Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning” may debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The flick is set to appear in theaters on May 21. The Cruise patrol is also picking up some buzz about a possible “Top Gun 3”. Cruise co-star Miles Taylor was asked by Entertainment Tonight for a status update and he quoted Cruise as saying “It’s confidential and if I told you I’d have to kill you.” That’s original. There was a gap of about 36 years between the release of the original Top Gun and the sequel that was released in 2022. We’re not really good at math but it’s probably a good thing that Cruise isn’t waiting another 36 years for the next one. Maverick will be close to 100 years old. All those G forces might be a little hard on the ticker.
SHIFTING THE FLAG: Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander retired Navy Admiral Jim Stavridis has entered the “transfer portal” (as they say in the college sports world). Stavridis revealed over the weekend that after 8+ years as a commentator on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC – he has shifted his flag to CNN where he’ll be a senior military analyst.
BRACE YOURSELF: Although we’re more than a year and a half away from the milestone date – we hear there are a ton of projects in the works to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11. A plethora of movies, documentaries, and books – both fiction and non. Rumor has it author, commentator and podcaster Peter Bergen is writing a book titled All the President’s Wars, described as a history of the U.S. global war on terror – with a special focus on military decisions made during the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations as well as the consequences that followed. The book is expected out in September 2026.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
WHERE NEVER IS HEARD, A DISCOURAGING WORD, AND D-E-I IS BANISHED ALL DAY: The latest story from the blotter of the thought police comes from Annapolis. The Baltimore Banner reports that faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy have been instructed to examine their course materials and search for words like “diversity,” “minority,” “belonging,” “bias,” “representation,” and “oppression.” The school provost, Samara Firebaugh, directed instructors to avoid using “materials that can be interpreted to assign blame to generalized groups for enduring social conditions, particularly discrimination or inequality.” Apparently, discrimination and inequality might happen – but no one is to blame.
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