WHOLLY SMOKES: In an effort to explain the U.S. government’s rationale for killing Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, three senior State Department officials conducted a telephonic media briefing on Friday, January 3. The much-needed explanation might have been more persuasive if they had agreed to attach their names to their comments – but the official transcript only identifies them as “Senior State Department Official One,” “Two,” and “Three.” But it is still worth a read. One of our favorite parts was when there was a debate about whether when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the strike “wholly legal” – he meant “wholly” with a W or “holy” with an H. Keeping with the semi-religious theme, one of the briefers (Senior State Department Official #3 to be semi-precise) tried to explain that there was precedent for targeting an enemy senior military official and cited the shooting down of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto in 1942. Perhaps sensing that some of his listeners were not familiar with that event #3 said: “Jesus, do we have to explain these things? That was followed by laughter and a reporter’s comment: “Yes, you do.”
NOW, SHE TELLS US: We are not alone. So says Helen Sharman who became Britain’s first astronaut in 1991, when she visited the Soviet Mir space station. Sharman told The Observer newspaper that “aliens exist, there’s no two ways about it.” And maybe the aliens are not just “out there” – maybe they are here she says. “It’s possible they’re here right now and we simply can’t see them.” That could explain a lot. What goes unexplained, however, is why it took her 29 years to tell us.
AS IF ON CUE: History.com posted a story with the headline, “How the CIA Tried to Quell UFO Panic During the Cold War.” During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, there was a big increase in reported UFO sightings. The CIA, according to the story, gathered a panel of non-military scientists who concluded that there was a threat, but it was not from flying saucers. “It was the public itself,” according to one researcher. There was a concern “that the general public, with their panic and hysteria, could overwhelm the resources of the U.S. government” in a time of crisis. Well, that was back then but fortunately it would not happen today….or….
SNOWFLAKE PANIC: No, we’re not talking about the rumors of wintry flakes which caused the federal government in Washington, DC to shut down at mid-day on Tuesday. Instead this item is about a mass panic attack caused over the recent unpleasantries exchanged between the U.S. and Iran. Hashtags like #WWIII, #WordWarThree and #WorldWarThreeDraft trended on Twitter, causing a rush to check out the Selective Service System website and searches of draft ages and such. The SSS (there’s an acronym we haven’t seen in a while) website crashed as a result. What caused the panic? Among the reasons were some bogus text messages sent out instructing recipients to report to the nearest recruiting station for “immediate departure to Iran.” Reuters says that the U.S. Army Recruiting Command felt enough people were falling for the hoax that they issued a statement saying they wanted “to ensure Americans understand these texts are false and were not initiated by this command or the U.S. Army.”
FOG OF WAR: The Daily Caller picked up on a Twitter exchange between former CIA analyst Cindy Otis, where she noted that a lot of people were sharing on social media a story from the satirical website “The Babylon Bee.” The story was titled: “Democrats Call for Flags to Be Flown at Half-Mast to Grieve Death of Soleimani.” The article, as savvy Dead Drop readers will quickly figure out, was a joke. It includes a purported quote from former President Obama saying” “To think, this all could have been prevented with a few pallets of cash.”
FOG OF PEACE: Some social media accounts were all atwitter recently over a video supposedly showing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying on Russian television that when he led the CIA, he “lied, cheated, stole.” How dare he? Well, actually he DID say that with a twinkle in his eye…not on RT, but instead during an event at Texas A&M in April 2019. Snopes.com rated the report a “mixture” of fact and fiction.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
SHE FEELS THE NEED FOR SPEED: Military.com reported recently that the U.S. Air Force Academy has had a surge of female applicants in recent months – an upswing that might be attributable to the recent Captain Marvel movie which focused on a female fighter pilot who turned into a super hero. The Air Force placed advertisements in 3,600 theaters nationwide that were showing the flick.
LIVE FREE OR SPY: The Dead Drop has mentioned previously that there seem to be some folks out there who think that there is something spooky about Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Now, The Daily Beast reports that a conspiracy theory is growing among “far left internet” denizens that Mayor Pete is a “secret agent.” There is a 13-minute-long YouTube video that has been floating around since last April that explains why the mayor’s resume screams CIA. “Put together, a picture forms of an elite-educated, multi-language-speaking employee of the CIA’s consulting firm who currently serves as an intelligence officer in the naval reserves,” the video’s host told The Daily Beast, “If you created a CIA asset in a lab, you’d wind up with Pete Buttigieg.” Cinching the analysis is, according to one observer, his “mesmerizing, hypnotic blue eyes.”
A JOB THAT FINDS YOU: Ask anyone who can publicly admit that they now work – or once worked at the CIA and the question they get most often is: How can I (or my son or daughter) get a job there? The website ClearanceJobs.com has an article taking a crack at answering that question. Based on information from the Agency’s office of public affairs – one quality that will help is patience. It often takes more than a year from the time a job offer is extended to actually get on board. Some of that delay is due to the requirement to get a top-secret clearance and pass a full-scope polygraph. You don’t need a graduate degree – but a bachelors is required for most jobs. Clearance Jobs says: “the CIA is looking for people with ‘a very particular set of skills’ – not necessarily the kind that can kill you in fourteen ways, but a diverse mindset that can see a problem from fourteen different angles.” An Agency recruiter suggests that in the very near future – rather than waiting for applicants to come to them, the CIA may be contacting you. Which, when you think about it – is kind of spooky.
INSIDE THE SCIF - One of our other favorite weekly reads by WTOP's JJ Green - has been following the Iran vs. US conflict and activity by Iranian-backed sleeper cells located here in the U.S. Sign-up for details in his weekly newsletter.
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