THERE ARE NO SECRETS AMONG ALLIES: The British government has confirmed that it is developing a new nuclear warhead for its ballistic missile submarines. But we imagine they are not exactly happy about having to make the announcement. It was all a secret until Admiral Charles Richard, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command and Alan Shaffer, the Pentagon’s deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment made public statements about the U.S.’ desire to pursue its own updated warhead and mentioned the British effort. “It’s wonderful that the U.K. is working on a new warhead at the same time...” Shaffer told an audience according to Defense News. The only problem is that the Brits had not yet informed Parliament of their plans. Under their system, notifying Parliament is just a courtesy. But as they say, there is no such thing as a good surprise – especially when it comes to nuclear weapons.
ROYAL HOAX: Speaking of the U.K., Queen Elizabeth reportedly paid a secret visit to MI5 on Wednesday to thank the agency for “the tireless work you do to keep our country safe.” The Royal Family twitter account posted her speech. MI-5 Director General Sir Andrew Parker briefed Her Majesty on how her late father, King George VI, helped pass fake intelligence to dupe the Germans during WWII. In order to convince the Nazis that D-Day landings would happen in Calais or perhaps even Norway, the King made a series of “royal visits” to military installations and support facilities which would cause the Germans to think the invasion would happen somewhere other than Normandy.
(ANOTHER) ONE FOR THE BOOKS: Retired Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, the second of President Trump’s four (so far) national security advisors has a book scheduled to come out on April 28. Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World is set to be published by Harper and will “focus on national security and foreign policy, including his contentious time with Trump.” We haven’t seen anything that tells us whether McMaster got his manuscript cleared by the White House and whether they had any problem with it. What makes this interesting is that McMaster’s West Wing successor, Ambassador John Bolton, also has a book in the making. The official (and questionable) publication date for Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, is due out March 17th. The White House has made clear, however, that they are fighting its release because they think it is “full of classified information” including details of conversations Bolton had with the President which, according to the administration, are exempt from release due to executive privilege. No word on when President Trump’s first national security advisor, Lieutenant General Mike Flynn, will publish a book. The three weeks he spent in the White House were pretty eventful.
MORE ON THE BOOKS: Random House has announced that it plans to publish The Sisterhood, a narrative-driven history of women in the CIA. The book will be written by Liza Mundy, author the author of Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II The publisher says The Sisterhood will be “the first complete account of the multi-decade effort by a network of brilliant women CIA analysts who began tracking Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, whose warnings of an imminent terrorist threat were discounted by Washington's male-dominated political establishment until the 9/11 attacks, and who ultimately led the successful hunt for Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders.” Don’t rush to the bookstore just yet, however. The Sisterhood is not scheduled for publication until 2022.
HAVE WE GOT A JOB FOR YOU: Looking for a cushy job with no pressure? We noticed an advertisement on USAJOBS.GOV for a Director of Communication for the DNI’s Inspector General. It is a GS-14-15 gig (paying between $121-$170K) to help the Intelligence Community’s IG with “creativity and storytelling.” The lucky person to land the job will be expected to help “strengthen the ICIG’s brand equity across the community and in the public domain.” A sure sign that the IG is not thinking this job is going to be an easy fill: the job announcement is open for a full year.
THE “SHUT YOUR HATCH” ACT: Most everyone knows that government employees must be very careful about not appearing to engage in political speech or commenting on foreign policy when speaking in public, in the news media, or on social media. But the Diplopundit blog reports that the State Department has reminded employees that “Eligible Family Members” of those employed by the Department in any capacity in the U.S. or abroad must also abide by Department policies. “Social media posts pertaining to U.S. foreign policy written in an employee’s capacity as a private citizen must be reviewed/cleared by the appropriate office,” according to the regulations.
#ABOLISHTHECIA: In the current political environment, if you are a political candidate, anything you ever said or wrote can and will be used against you. For example, some media have reported that in 1974, when running for the Senate, Bernie Sanders advocated abolishing the CIA. Admittedly, the Agency had better decades than the 1970s. But the revelation of Sanders’ nearly half century old view sparked a lot of discussion. Some commentators cited it as an example of the Senator’s over-the-top approach, while others endorsed the recommendation. For a while this week, the hashtag “#AbolishtheCIA” was trending on Twitter. If nothing else, dredging up the old positions serves as a reminder that edgy political views are not a new invention. Sanders also reportedly once endorsed a political candidate who called for enlisted servicemen to “shoot their officers.” No doubt that was hyperbole.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
AS A MATTER OF FACT, IT IS ROCKET SCIENCE: Sad news. On February 22, daredevil “Mad” Mike Hughes was killed when his do-it-yourself rocket crashed in California. Hughes was working on a TV show called “Homemade Astronauts” for the Science Channel (owned by the Discovery Channel.) Hughes’ ultimate goal was to launch himself to the edge of space – but the test that killed him was planned to only boost him 5,000 feet in the air on a self-made steam powered rocket. The oddest part is that Hughes reportedly wanted to go aloft to prove his personal theory that the earth is flat. With scientific insights like that – what could possibly go wrong?
COFFEE TO GO: We had to check the date on an Air Force Times article to make sure April Fools hadn’t arrive early – but the publication swears the following is true. An airman first class at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was demoted in rank recently for urinating in his office’s coffee maker. He was also charged with going AWOL for five days after the event. It is unclear what the airman’s motivation was for choosing the coffee maker for his “emergency evacuation” or exactly how his alleged deed was discovered. We’re guessing it was a leak.
INSIDE THE SCIF – JJ Green’s weekly newsletter looks at the turmoil inside the IC after the firing of Acting ODNI Joseph Maguire earlier this month. The question now is whether he was in the job long enough to write a book….Inside the SCIF is one of our favorite weekly reads. You can sign up for it here.
ASK TWITTER – If you have a national security question that you just can’t seem to get answered, try social media. Yes, we really said that - but don’t trust just anyone’s opinion (you know what they say about those, everyone’s got one). We’re tracking @natsecanswers on Twitter which actually produces answers from people who know what they’re talking about.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any surprising news you picked up while hanging around the office coffee maker? Urn our gratitude by sharing it in a confidential note sent to TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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