EXCLUSIVE 1/22: CIA's NEW DEPUTY COO: Dead Drop spies tell us that John Edwards has been named CIA's new Deputy COO, working for Andy Makridis. Edwards fills the role once held by Cynthia 'Didi' Rapp. He previously served as chief information officer for the Agency, overseeing digital transformation and brings both public and private sector experience to his new role.
HAYDEN HEADLINE: Former CIA and NSA Director (and Cipher Brief Board Member) General Michael V. Hayden is home from a rehabilitation facility after suffering a stroke just before Thanksgiving. Hayden and his wife, Jeanine and their family issued a statement via The Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security at George Mason University, thanking people from around the world for their messages of encouragement and support. The General, who is one of the most determined people we know, will continue with this in-home rehabilitation over the next several months. Feel free to send additional messages of encouragement via Larry Pfeiffer, Director of the Hayden Center at hayden@gmu.edu.
GITMO? NO: On January 8th, Carol Rosenberg, (a reporter from the Miami Herald who has cornered the market on reporting from and about the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) had a story which asked the question: “Did CIA Director Gina Haspel run a black site at Guantanamo? It has been widely reported (but never officially confirmed) that Haspel was chief of base at a black site overseas in the days following 9/11 – but the GITMO allegation was a new one. Where did it come from? Rita Radositz, a lawyer for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, was speaking at a closed hearing at GITMO on November 16. In a partially redacted transcript Radositz, referring to Haspel, says something (redacted) “makes it impossible for people at Guantánamo, who may have seen her when she was here as chief of base, to identify her and talk about it.” The CIA declined to comment on the report – not surprising since they haven’t commented on the specifics of any of Haspel’s assignments prior to her cover being lifted. But knowledgeable former officials we talked with think the brouhaha was simply a screw up by KSM’s lawyer. “The lawyer was probably thinking of the site in Asia and misspoke” one former colleague of Haspel’s told us. McClatchy managed to find several Agency alumni who have been critical of the interrogation program such as convicted felon John Kiriakou and Glenn Carle to say that while they had absolutely no knowledge of Haspel having been there they wouldn’t be surprised. While Rosenberg does not go so far as to definitively say that Haspel ran CIA operations at GITMO, not everyone was so careful. Vladimir Putin’s “Sputnik News” followed with a story flatly titled “Declassification error reveals Gina Haspel ran CIA Gitmo Torture Site After 9/11.” We at the Dead Drop are missing the good old days, when facts were more valuable than a racy headline. Ah, the good old days.
SAM I AM: Manned aerial reconnaissance inherently involves some risk. But here is one you probably haven’t thought of before. Muckrock.com found an article in the Fall 1979 edition of the CIA’s Studies in Intelligence which mentions an incident in 1964 during the Belgian Congo crisis where a USAF aircraft was dispatched to conduct low-level reconnaissance flights to assess the status of more than 3,000 missionaries who were scattered around the country. One photo brought back from such a mission showed a Congolese peasant throwing a spear at the plane. Tongue in cheek, the Agency later described the weapon as a “Congolese SAM.”
LIGHTEN UP: This seems to be our week for Studies in Intelligence items. Business Insider spotted an item in the most recent edition of the CIA’s Studies in Intelligence that says on the first full day of his presidency, George H. W. Bush told DCI William Webster during his PDB briefing that he was quite satisfied with the intelligence support “but there is one area in which you’ll just have to do better.” He wanted better jokes. According to the report, CIA staffers started including a “Sign of the Times” section of the PDB which contained amusing or unusual anecdotes. The examples cited in the story were not exactly knee-slappers but maybe the best jokes are still classified.
TOUGH QUESTION: The folks at the U.S. Naval Institute took to Twitter last Friday with this fun fact: “Richard M. Nixon is the only U.S. president to have served in the Navy but not have a ship named in his honor. Does he deserve to have a namesake ship? If so, what type of ship should it be?” Last we checked they had over 2K responses, many from people who appeared to take the question seriously. Not us. While Nixon was never the one with a ship named after him, we did note that there was once an LST called USS CROOK COUNTY.
THE LONELINESS OF COMMAND: Speaking of the Navy, someone pointed out a story to us from the Kitsap (WA) Sun which revealed that the commanding officer of the fast attack submarine USS BREMERTON was relieved of his duties last summer after his bosses learned that he had hired TEN prostitutes during a port visit in the Philippines. All at once. A call to the DOD IG hotline said that the skipper, CAPT Travis Zettel, had requested ten girls to arrive at his hotel and that he was seen wandering around with about ten “provocatively dressed females” as he greeted sailors from his command. While Zettel may hold the record for the most women ever to sink a naval career, he is not alone. Very old timers may remember the saga of “Cat Futch” an exotic dancer who was invited to dance from the diving plane of the sail of the submarine USS FINBACK as the boat departed Port Canaveral, Florida in 1975. Finback’s captain lost his job too, having been found "guilty of permitting an action, which could have distracted the attention of those responsible for the safe navigation of the nuclear-powered submarine maneuvering in restricted waters." At least the skipper of the BREMERTON waited until he was ashore.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
JASON BOURNE SPINOFF TV BOUND: Deadline Hollywood says that the USA Network has completed casting for a new drama called Treadstone which is an offshoot of the Jason Bourne movies. “Treadstone explores the origin story and present-day actions of a CIA black ops program known as Operation Treadstone — a covert program that uses behavior-modification protocol to turn recruits into nearly superhuman assassins.” Only NEARLY superhuman?
TWO IMPOSSIBLE MISSIONS: Variety this week revealed the secret news that Christopher McQuarrie has agreed to write and direct not one, but two Mission Impossible films. The dual-mission is reportedly being undertaken with back-to-back filming for release in Summer 2021 and Summer 2022, according to Ethan Hunt himself, who operates in the real world under the name Tom Cruise on outlets like Twitter.
WHY DIDN’T WE THINK OF THAT? Former CIA officer Christopher Burgess has an article in ClearanceJobs.com revealing “CIA Secrets for Hiring and Keeping the Right Employees.” Among the tips: “Want the best? Hire the Best.”
IF WALLS COULD TALK: The Cipher Brief’s new Eye on Publishing, Under/Cover, spoke with thriller writer Brad Meltzer this week about secrets revealed in his new book, The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington. Among the things that Meltzer learned while writing the story of Washington’s bodyguards being involved in a plot to kill him, was a tidbit about the real CIA. Meltzer said he was surprised to learn that there is a room at the CIA named after John Jay, considered the Founding Father of American counter-intelligence. There are two other rooms named after those with ties to the founding of the country. Know who they are? If so, drop a note to us at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
