WHAT A DRAG: Finnish authorities say the tanker suspected of cutting multiple underwater cables in the Gulf of Finland apparently dragged its anchor for “up to 50 nautical miles.” If you have ever accidentally driven your car with the parking brake on – you know how annoying that can be. But in this case, the ship, named the “Eagle S,” is owned by a United Arab Emirates corporation and is reportedly “suspected” of carrying out sabotage operations on behalf of Russia. “Suspected” is an interesting word. Russian Media Monitor Julia Davis posted a video of State Duma member Alexander Kazakov where he is actually explaining ‘why’ Russia is cutting cables. The theory, apparently, is that Europe isn’t suffering nearly enough and needs to be punished even more after the war in Ukraine ends. On January 6, Finnish authorities recovered the missing anchor from the Baltic Sea bottom. The Eagle S is thought to be part of a shadow fleet used by Russia to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil. Like its once-lost anchor, the ship is now in Finnish custody.
DOWN IN FLAMES: While the claim hasn’t been fully verified yet, Ukrainian military intelligence says that one of their naval drones operating in the Black Sea shot down a Russian helicopter near Crimea. A Magura V5 unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is said to have fired a missile that took out an Mi-8 helicopter on New Year’s Eve. The Ukrainians released some grainy video of the action which, if accurate, would have been the first time an unmanned surface sea vessel took out a manned aircraft. No word on whether the Ukrainians have painted a helicopter profile on the side of the small USV.
UP IN ARMS: The folks at Military Times have crunched the numbers and tell us that the 119th Congress started off with 100 military veterans among its members. That’s the highest number since 2018. Sixteen of that number are newbies…but the total will head slightly south when two members, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and national security advisor Mike Waltz, resign shortly to take up positions in the new administration. The breakdown includes 9 female veterans – the largest number in history, and 46 Army, 25 Navy, 15 Air Force and 13 Marine Corps vets. We haven’t seen an accounting of intelligence community alums serving on the Hill this go round – but will share it with you when we find one.
DARK CLOUDS IN THE BLUESKY: The social media network BlueSky, which has grown it’s following dramatically in recent months mostly on the strength of NOT being X (AKA Twitter), has recently become a target of Russian disinformation operations. Elliot Higgins, creator of the Bellingcat group, says that a Russian-based outfit known as “Matryoshka” has infiltrated BlueSky and has launched fake videos that start with real people who are experts in some field on camera – and then morph into a cloned voice that sounds like that person – but spouting Russian talking points on Ukraine. Some of the manipulated talking heads claim Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is a dictator – but others suggest that he is also – a “vampire.” BlueSky says it is working on clearing the air of these AI manipulated videos.
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WHO KEPT THE DOGS OUT: We didn’t have this on our menu of craziness for 2025 – but according to press reports, North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un has issued an edict that says that the cooking or selling of that all-American staple – the hot dog – in his country could lead to a person’s arrest and confinement in a labor camp. Like baseball, apple pie and Chevrolets – hot dogs apparently symbolize America in some places, and that’s taboo. As far as we know – Pyongyang residents are still allowed to eat actual dogs –just not the American-style tube steaks.
HEAD SCRATCHER: There used to be a concept known as the “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention” (popularized by journalist Thomas Friedman) which asserted that no two countries that both had McDonald’s franchises had ever gone to war with each other. Sadly, that fast food formula for world peace went into the dumpster in 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia – and again when Russia attacked Ukraine. Here is another long-held belief that might need some revision. NATO’s Article 5 established the principle of collective defense saying an attack on one or more NATO members would be considered an attack on all. But now that President-elect Trump is refusing to rule out taking Greenland by force from NATO member Denmark – we wonder what would happen if the Danes invoked Article 5 against the U.S. And in case you are wondering – no, there are no McDonald’s in Greenland.
GOING AGAINST THE FLOW: While it seems like a lot of big-name reporters seem to be jumping ship and leaving The Washington Post lately, we noticed that an esteemed veteran intelligence correspondent, Warren Strobel, is swimming against the tide. Strobel has joined the Post as National Intelligence Reporter after spending six years at The Wall Street Journal and spending previous stints with Reuters and Knight Ridder. In case you didn’t know, actor James Marsden played Strobel in the 2017 movie “Shock and Awe.”
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
ULTRA CRAZY: You have probably heard that conspiracy show host Alex Jones of “Info Wars” is not exactly mainstream in his thinking. But did you know that he has a weekend fill-in guest host who makes Jones look like Walter Cronkite? The guy’s name is Chase Geiser and he recently took to the airwaves (or wherever InfoWars programs exist) to announce that the perpetrators of the recent New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks were victims of the CIA’s MKULTRA program. MKULTRA was indeed an ill-considered and disreputable program – but it was shut down about a half century ago. According to a clip we saw, Geiser gushes that not only were these two deranged vets set on their path by MKULTRA, but the program was also behind Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, the killings of rock stars Jim Morrison and John Lennon, and the dastardly deeds of Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kaczynski. You may think that the rantings of some obscure talking head are of little import – until you note that at last check, Geiser had over 284,000 followers on X.
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