TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW: When it comes to Intelligence Community officials briefing senior policy makers – some of the toughest times reportedly come when the “briefee” is already well up-to-speed on the subject matter and they can’t be dazzled by B.S. Perhaps that is why the Director of National Intelligence has selected the highly-experienced Morgan Muir to conduct Presidential Daily Briefs for highly-experienced Joe Biden. President Biden received daily PDBs during the eight years of the Obama administration and was on the receiving end of countless intelligence briefings during his 36 years as a Senator. So, Avril Haines picked Muir who, according to The New York Times, briefed President George W. Bush for three years. Michael Morell, who was the PDB briefer for Bush on 9/11, calls Muir “…the best analyst in the intelligence community” and “…the best briefer in the intelligence community.” No pressure, Morgan. Don’t screw this up.
STATE OF AFFAIRS: According to Axios, the Biden administration is signaling plans to reward fewer big donors with sweet ambassador seats than was done in the recent past. There will still be some plumbs to donors handed out, of course, and there will be slots given to political allies – who may or may not have deep pockets. But the expectation is that the Biden administration will give 30% of the ambassadorial assignments to non-career diplomats. President Trump gave about 44% of embassy gigs to friends and donors.
SIGN ON OF THE TIMES: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence just created an Instagram account. The first posts included a shot of DNI Avril Haines being sworn in by Vice President Harris. So far, there has not been a lot of action – but then on the other hand, they haven’t posted any goofy new logos – so they have that going for them.
BREAKING THE CODE: February 1st was the day the National Cryptologic Museum launched a twitter account. Their site says they joined Twitter in November 2020, but they didn’t get around to posting their first tweet until this week. You can’t be too careful…apparently.
WATCH THIS SPACE: The Dead Drop has reported multiple times about the debate going on about what ranks the new Space Force “guardians” should use. Would they use the ranks of the Air Force – the outfit they were cloned from? Or would they use naval ranks? Since, after all, those things are called “spaceships” and besides – Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise endorsed that path. Well, it turns out, it will be Air Force-lite. Junior enlisted spacemen and women will be called “Specialist 1” (2, 3, & 4). E-5s will be called sergeants – rather than “staff sergeants” in the USAF. After that, all the other ranks will be like the Air Force. So, the USSF has managed to anger William Shatner – and confuse folks trying to ID junior enlisted. We give the whole thing a rank uninspired.
CALL YOUR MOTHER: The Space Force admits it has a PR problem. Not just with figuring out its ranks but also with getting people to understand what they do. Chief of Space Force Operations Jay Raymond told reporters on Tuesday “Space doesn’t have a mother. You can’t reach out and hug a satellite, you can’t see it, you can’t touch it.” His comments came a day after the White House press secretary goofed while answering a question from a reporter who asked about the future of the Space Force. Raymond claimed that his service’s internal communications have been “spectacular” but even his mom doesn’t understand what they do. He blamed that, in part, on the requirement to “severely classify what the threats are out there.” Hey, maybe Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s notion that the 2018 California wildfires were caused by Jewish “space lasers” (called by some the “Death Stars of David”) was right. No, really. We don’t make this stuff up.
CIA’S GREATEST RECRUITMENT? The Sun newspaper in Britain recently reported that there is a “growing dossier of evidence which suggests” that Angelina Jolie is an undercover CIA “agent.” The Sun cites “expert Tom Secker” as their source. The Dead Drop has mentioned Secker before as someone who hates it when Hollywood makes a movie favorable to the Pentagon or U.S. intelligence. The evidence cited in the story about Jolie having a locker at Langley is awfully thin – but we’d like to believe the story is true.
ANOTHER RECRUIT? Airing for the first time after the Super Bowl on CBS, is a (kinda) new series called “The Equalizer” starring Queen Latifah playing the lead character Robyn McCall, described as “an enigmatic former CIA operative who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn.” There was a series by the same name which ran for four seasons in the 1980s. In that one, the star was a former “intelligence operative” of uncertain past employment, but who had a British accent.
REAL RECRUIT: A trailer has just been released for a film called “The Recruit” which is scheduled to be released on March 19th. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as an unassuming businessman enlisted by MI6 and the CIA to partner with Soviet GRU officer Oleg Penkovsky in an effort to collect crucial intelligence that might prevent a nuclear confrontation and help defuse the Cuban missile crisis. While the filmmakers appear to take considerable liberties with the facts surrounding the real-world Penkovsky case, the film looks like it might provide an interesting diversion anyway.
THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE MACHINES: Marine Corps Commandant General David Berger is urging his leathernecks to embrace their battle buddies – even if those buddies are robots. Apparently, many of the living breathing Marines are not warming up to what the service is calling “Man-Unmanned Teaming.” In a recent speech, Berger was quoted as saying, “The same way a squad leader trusts his or her Marine, they have to trust his or her machine.” We imagine if the Marines and machines don’t play well together, they may have to be sent to re-boot camp.
GOING ASHORE: Donald Trump’s final Secretary of the Navy, Kenneth Braithwaite, distinguished himself during his 8 months in office by not being caught on tape cursing out aircraft carrier captains (as his predecessor was.) During the Trump administration, six people (serving either as “acting” or confirmed) held the Navy Secretary title. To make matters more confusing, a couple of those people filled the role twice. Braithwaite was Ambassador to Norway before taking the Navy helm and is reportedly considering running for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Pennsylvania in 2022. Among the attractions of that job probably is the guarantee that, if you get it, it’s a six-year gig.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
CAPTAIN NOT-SO-OBVIOUS: You would have imagined that someone would have thought of this sooner – but last month, the U.S. Air Force put out a solicitation seeking potential bidders to provide privacy curtains for B-52 toilets. With more and more women breaking the glass ceiling and getting assignments aboard the venerable Stratofortresses, someone decided it might be a good idea to offer a little privacy surrounding high-flying loos. The solicitation explained to potential providers: “As the B-52 continues to fly long duration missions, especially with mixed crews, there is a higher need for privacy during rest room activities. This effort is to provide the necessary rest room privacy capability.” Beyond the curtain call, Military.com offers a rundown of more than you ever wanted to know about toilet tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) aboard Air Force aircraft. While the need for curtains seems urgent – (and obvious) – we recommend the USAF be careful not to overpay. They should take a lesson from their Navy brethren who, 35 years ago, made headlines by paying more than $600 each for toilet seats for their P-3 Orion aircraft.
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