BIRD’S EYE SPY: A major question of international espionage was resolved peacefully recently when, after an exhaustive investigation, authorities in India released a suspect who was being held on suspicion of spying for China. The accused agent turned out to be a confused Taiwanese racing pigeon that ended up near Mumbai, nearly 3,000 miles from home. Naturally, Indian authorities (and naturalists) were suspicious because pigeons can only fly about 620 miles between stops. And there are not very many rest stops between Taiwan and India. What made officials even more suspicious was what appeared to be Chinese writing on the underside of the bird’s wings and two metal rings around one leg. (Some press accounts mention a microchip.) Unfortunately for Mumbai, investigators (and for the bird) the writing had faded and was indecipherable. But, after a lengthy probe, officials determined that the bird was not snooping and probably just got lost, hitched a ride on some passing ship and wound up in a cage in Mumbai. The Indian branch of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) got involved in the flap and eventually helped broker the bird’s release. You would think after detaining the pigeon without cause for so long, officials would buy the bird a ticket back to Taiwan…but instead they let the bird out of jail on its own recognizance to fly the friendly skies of India.
UNHEARTFELT THANKS: In his recent column in Foreign Affairs titled “Spycraft and Statecraft,” CIA Director Bill Burns gave a tour of the horizon of threats that the United States is worried about. Among them, he singled out China noting that the Agency had “committed substantially more resources toward China-related intelligence collection, operations, and analysis around the world—more than doubling the percentage of our overall budget focused on China over just the last two years.” Burns added: “We’re hiring and training more Mandarin speakers while stepping up efforts across the world to compete with China, from Latin America to Africa to the Indo-Pacific.” Among those who took note was Wang Wenbin, the spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry who thanked Burns “for reminding us” that “US spies are everywhere.” We’ve mentioned before how Beijing has been beating the drum trying to spin up local paranoia about American spies. Wait till they find out about the American spy pigeon program. (Just kidding.)
RUSSIAN SPIES ARE EVERYWHERE? A lot of folks in Europe and elsewhere are spun up over allegations that a Latvian member of the European Parliament, Tatjana Ždanoka, may have been working as a Russian spy for more than a decade. An article in The Daily Beast quotes former top U.S. counterintelligence official (and current Cipher Brief expert) Bill Evanina as noting that “Russia spends a lot of time, effort, and resources recruiting members of not only NATO countries, but neighboring countries, intelligence services, and body politic. Especially at the lower level because they assume they’re going to rise up in rank.” Ždanoka (sorta) denied allegations that she was working for the Russians telling the European Parliament in a speech: “Yes I am an agent, an agent for peace, an agent for Europe without fascism, an agent for minority rights, an agent for a united Europe from Lisbon to the Urals,” she said.
BEIJING THROWS THE BOOK AT SUSPECTED SPY: China didn’t need Bill Burns to get them spun up about espionage. This week came news that authorities there have given a “suspended death sentence” to Yang Hengjun, an Australian author, who China has held for more than five years on espionage charges. Yang writes spy novels (which “advocated democracy, rule of law and human rights”)– or he did at least, before he was arrested while visiting family in China. The “suspended death sentence” means that if Yang plays his cards right for two years, his sentence will be reduced to just life in prison. Talk about a bad review for your spy novel.
REACH FOR THE SKY, PODNER: According to USA Today, three military officers have been disciplined for running what they called the “John Wayne Saloon” where select officials were allowed to belly up to the bar and knock back a few drinks during the course of their day. What got them in trouble was the fact that the saloon was inside the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It sounds like it wasn’t much of a saloon…more a locked office with a refrigerator on the inside and a poster of John Wayne on of the door. Officials say that unauthorized drinking took place during normal duty hours on only four occasions since January 2022. “The investigation team found no indication of any impact to the commands’ missions and therefore no impact to national security,” NORAD spokesperson Colonel Elizabeth Mathias said. Given the NORAD mission, the possibility of officials knocking back firewater on the job sparked some concerns, however. The now-punished proprietors of the John Wayne Saloon were not named.
SHAMELESS (SELF-PROMOTION): News from The Cipher Brief:
A BALL PLAYER AND AN ASTRONAUT/SENATOR: Just in time for the opening of spring training – Cover Stories Podcast host Bill Harlow talks with author Adam Lazarus about his book, The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams. Lazarus spills details about the two iconic Americans who met during the crucible of combat during the Korean War. USMC Captain Ted Williams, already a famed baseball player and soon-to-be famous Major John Glenn, who would become an astronaut and a U.S. Senator. Despite wildly different personalities, politics and approaches to life – the two formed a life-long bond that may offer lessons for today’s divided America. You can find The Cover Stories Podcast wherever you listen and subscribe to podcasts.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
RUSSIA’S GOT TALENT: We are not sure exactly what Russian TV show this clip is from, but check out the snippet of six young boys singing: “Soon I will grow up and wanna be a military chemist, bombs out of dough I will make, Russian army – it’s waiting for me!” Bombs out of dough? No matter how you slice it, that sounds like a crumby idea.
POPEYE THE NON-SAILOR MAN: Turns out the gent who was the real-life inspiration for the cartoon character “Popeye” was an Illinois man with no known connection to the sea. According to Military.com, cartoonist E.C. Segar, who created the comic strip, based the beloved character on a hard-drinking man from his hometown who had a propensity to get into bar fights. Frank “Rocky”Fiegel “was a one-eyed, pipe-smoking curmudgeon with a jutting chin.” On the bright side, he was reportedly kind to kids.
WE YAM WHAT WE YAM, AND WE’RE STRONG TO THE FINISH ‘CAUSE WE EAT OUR SPINACH…. BUT WE’D BE EVEN BETTER IF YOU WOULD SEND NEWS TIPS TO US AT: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com
