MUST BE AN ‘ACTING DIRECTOR’ RECORD – The Senate moved quickly this week to confirm John Ratcliffe as the Trump administration’s new CIA Director as the president moved into just his fourth day on the job. By comparison, former President Joe Biden nominated former CIA director Bill Burns as his pick in January 2021 but Burns (who has quietly told his inner circle that being director was the best job he ever had) wasn’t confirmed by the Senate until mid-March of that year. President Trump named an acting CIA director just days earlier – Deputy Director of CIA for Operations Tom Sylvester – who we’re guessing held that role for the shortest time ever on record. President Trump also named Dr. Stacey Dixon as Acting Director of National Intelligence. Dixon has spent the last four years serving as the deputy at ODNI. She may also have a little more time in the acting chair than Sylvester did though because Trump’s nominee for the job, Tulsi Gabbard, continues to face headwinds in the Senate. We’re expecting to find out more about just how serious those headwinds might be when Gabbard’s confirmation hearing kicks off on January 30.
THE NEXT DEPUTY DIRECTOR – With Director Ratcliffe officially on the job, it likely won’t be long before he names a permanent deputy director – traditionally the person who oversees daily operations at the agency. Rumors were still flying as we went to press this week with Mike D’Andrea in the running. D’Andrea is a retired CIA veteran who ran Iran operations and became legendary for his counterterrorism efforts and his ‘gloves off’ approach to developing the agency’s armed drone program. Spies also tell us that retired CIA veteran operations officer Ralph Goff is being considered for the role. The Cipher Brief spoke with Goff – who is a Cipher Brief Expert and spent his career in the field serving as CIA station chief multiple times - to ask what he thought about an overhaul for the U.S. Intelligence Community. One last rumor floating around is that Ratcliffe might not name a permanent replacement until the Senate decides whether or not to confirm Gabbard as DNI – just in case that doesn’t work out.
WHERE WE’RE HEADED — Director Ratcliffe was sworn into the role on the same day he was confirmed by the Senate. And while we haven’t yet seen a flurry of pronouncements about the direction in which he will lead the agency over the next four years (like we did from President Trump on day one) Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton wasn’t shy about offering his own advice during Ratcliffe’s hearing. Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, blasted the agency, saying said the nation needs more from the foreign intelligence collection service. He pointed to a lack of forewarning about the New Orleans terrorist attack and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria among other things and suggested the agency needs to take a bolder approach on its core mission of stealing secrets. Insiders angling for change have told us that morale among some officers has been low, others are looking for the exit and some are energized by the idea of a new direction.
POST NERVES – At least 400 employees at The Washington Post are feeling some heartburn this week – not necessarily because the newspaper’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos was a special guest at President Trump’s inauguration ceremony - but because Bezos didn’t seem to be making time to engage with them while in town. In a letter to Mr. Bezos, some 400 employees said they were “deeply alarmed” by recent decisions that have been made at the paper and asked for a meeting. No word yet on whether that conversation will happen but spies tell us that Mr. Bezos did make time to meet with Post CEO & Publisher Will Lewis, Executive Editor Matt Murray and Editorial Page Editor David Shipley over dinner in Georgetown last week. The Dead Drop reached out to a few folks to ask about it, but they didn’t want to talk.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FEW YEARS MAKES: Four years ago, crowds of people unhappy with the election results were storming the Capitol, erecting a faux gallows and chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” This week, someone, presumably happy with the election results, had the Pentagon ‘Unhang’ Mark Milley. Well, unhang his Pentagon portrait anyway. Within hours of President Trump being sworn into office – someone at the White House ordered the Department of Defense to take down the official portrait of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley. The portrait had only gone up the week before and had been placed on display in a corridor with paintings of all of Milley’s predecessors. The general, who had been selected for the job by Donald Trump in the “45” administration, earned the disapproval of Trump and some of his supporters after they claimed he was being excessively “woke” and reminded service people that they swear an oath to the Constitution and not a king or queen or tyrant or dictator. We’re guessing the unhanging is causing some nerves at the Pentagon, too.
WHO’S MAKING PUTIN NERVOUS – Anyone? President Trump – who promised to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine on day one of his presidency - is asking for a little more time. The president – in comments broadcast live to attendees at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos said that he is ready to meet with the Russian leader immediately to bring an end to the war, saying that efforts are underway. Now, we’re not in the know on this, but it sure feels like those efforts aren’t going so well given that earlier this week, Trump threatened to impose even higher levels of sanctions on Russia if they don’t make a deal. Trump is also calling on Putin to work with him on denuclearization – which could be a hard sell seeing as Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons to achieve his goals in Ukraine. (Here's a look at what former CIA Acting Director John McLaughlin thinks about the benefits and risks associated with meeting with Putin directly, exclusively in The Cipher Brief.)
NORTH KOREA SHOULD BE REALLY NERVOUS: Fox News national security analyst Dan Hoffman cites western officials saying that "of the estimated 11,000 North Korean troops sent to fight in Russia's war on Ukraine in the western Kursk region, 4,000 have already been killed, wounded, missing or captured." Hoffman, a former senior Intelligence Officer really wants to know what Putin has promised North Korea in exchange for sending more of its citizens to their death. You can read Hoffman's full interview with The Cipher Briefhere and it's probably safe to say that with those numbers, it's unclear when or whether Pyongyang will send in more fodder.
KREMLIN CRUTCH CORPS NOT PUTTING BEST FOOT FORWARD: Meanwhile, the world continues to see evidence of pitiful performances on the battlefield by Team Putin. The latest installment comes from Forbes which reports that the Russian manpower shortage is so severe that they have taken to ordering assaults by troops who can only get around on crutches. The story has video, taken by a Ukrainian drone, of a group of Russian soldiers on crutches limping into battle – and quickly being dispatched by drone-dropped ordnance. While the invasion is clearly an “all hands on deck” operation for the Russians – apparently that doesn’t always extend to feet.
WE’RE SURE IT WAS AN HONEST MISTAKE: According to The Guardian, right before Christmas, a group of Russian “diplomats” were taking a public tour of the Houses of Parliament in London. It seems they must have become disoriented because they broke off from the tour group and ended up in a portion of the House of Lords that was off limits. Security caught them and they were sent packing - no doubt with a stiff talking to. Members of the House of Commons and Lords have since been advised that it is a bad idea to invite Russian officials to tour “the parliamentary estate” given their proclivity for going on unauthorized walkabouts.
WOE IS THEM: Just in the nick of time, we learned that there is an entire website called “W.O.E” short for “Watches of Espionage” that is run by a former CIA case officer who has “a passion for timepieces” and posts articles about the watches used by intelligence officers, special forces and other government officials. Last week, there was a timely item (see what we did there?) about whether (and how) CIA officers who receive expensive watches as gifts from foreign entities while on the clock might be able to take them home when they retire. The item noted that (now former) CIA Director Bill Burns received an Omega watch valued about $11,000 as an official gift from a country the name of which was redacted from released reports (but we’re guessing a Gulf state). Burns might have been able to take it home with him when he departed Langley for the last time if he wanted to purchase it at market value. This week W.O.E. is keeping watch on the wrists of Trump administration officials and tells us more than we ever wanted to know about what kind of watches senior players in the new administration have displayed in the past: Trump: several flashy ones (of course, VP Vance: Apple watch, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Rubio and Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem: all have sported Rolexes, FBI Director wannabee Kash Patel: Breitling, and CIA Director Ratcliff and DOD nominee Hegseth in recent years have mostly been seen watch-less.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
NO SPOILERS PLEASE: We learned this week from DailyMail.com that the CIA has partially declassified a book written (but not published) in 1966 by a former U.S. Air Force employee and UFO researcher named Chan Thomas. In fact, the Agency reportedly took this declassification action in 2013 but somehow, folks just now got around to noticing. The book was called “The Adam and Eve Story” and purports to explain how the world will end. The author claimed that almost like clockwork (see the previous item) about every 6500 years, a major disaster strikes the Earth. The author figured that the Biblical “Great Flood” was 6500 years ago and so – we’re kinda due. And he expects a real doozy. Chan suggests the next apocalypse will start in California where massive winds and a tidal wave will start and quickly rush across the entire North American continent. And then, he says, the same thing will happen on all the other continents, essentially wiping out all life on earth. And here is the scary part. The Daily Mail says the book’s publication was halted by the CIA and that while the original manuscript was more than 200 pages long – only 50 pages have been declassified and released so far. If the 50 pages declassified say the world is about to end…the remaining 150 must be really spooky. Fear not, though. Well, not too much. The publication quotes experts who say that a lot of the “science” in Chan’s book is bunkum. And besides – what are the chances of massive climate crises in California?
IT WOULDN’T BE THE END OF THE WORLD IF YOU SENT SOME NEWS TIPS TO US. WE’D LIKE A WAVE OF THEM SENT TO: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com
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