BIG APPOINTMENT: On January 22, The Dead Drop was the first to reveal that the CIA has appointed John Edwards (no, not THAT John Edwards) as their Deputy Chief Operating Officer. This is an important, but widely unknown to the public, position. By some calculations, it is the #4 ranking position within the Agency. Edwards comes from the Agency’s CIO position and replaces Cynthia “DiDi” Rapp who is moving on to lead the CIA’s analysis directorate. Edwards, a widely respected technologist, has over twenty years of experience with the intelligence community – but that experience was broken up with an excursion to the private sector where he held leadership positions with Four12, Accenture, Agilex Technologies and Blackbird Technologies. In a speech last month, Edwards said that data is the “tip of the spear” for intelligence and stressed that people with digital proficiency are the CIA’s “most important resource.”
WAIT, WHAT? This week the Director of National Intelligence released a slick publication laying out the National Intelligence Strategy for 2019. Reading the document, savvy intelligence reporters, like the Washington Post’s Shane Harris, couldn’t help but notice that it emphasizes concerns about adversaries who exploit “the weakening of the post-WWII international order and dominance of Western democratic ideals” and “increasingly isolationist tendencies in the West.” You mean, like threatening to pull the U.S. out of NATO? We suspect that the DNI is confident that the President won’t read the 36-page-long report.
WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE, TOTO: The Washington Post says that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is leaning on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to run for the Senate seat from Kansas soon to be vacated by retiring Senator Pat Roberts. Normally, becoming one of 100 Senators would not be viewed as a step up from holding the most senior cabinet position – but perhaps, after a year as America’s top diplomat, Pompeo is muttering to himself: “There’s no place like home.” Pompeo spoke with Martha MacCallum of Fox News about the rumor saying, “Martha, every day I’m trying to make sure that I’m doing what President Trump wants me to do to keep America safe; that’s my singular focus.” In the trade this is known as a “non-denial denial.”
THE MECHANICS OF GOOD CYBER SECURITY: Recent Air Force studies maintain that “wrench-turners” (i.e. airmen who are trained in fixing airplanes) may make ideal cyber warriors. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom which contends that computer geeks are the go-to guys for such missions. According to Military.com, the USAF has been plugging maintainers into cyber operations courses and “they are just crushing all of these classes.”
REAL FAKE NEWS! Facebook revealed last week that they had removed 364 bogus pages and accounts created by employees of Vladimir Putin’s Sputnik News. In an announcement, the headline of which sounds like it was written by a bot (“Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from Russia”) Facebook said the pages had more than three quarters of a million followers. Someone (using euros, rubles and U.S. dollars) spent about $135,000 to promote the pages. Some of the pages promoted events going back to August 2015. Facebook says it is unclear if the events really occurred. Maybe FB should hire some of those folks from the USAF to throw a monkey wrench into this disinformation campaign.
FORT FUNNY: Don’t say the folks at the National Security Agency (known with the Intelligence Community as “The Fort”) don’t have a sense of humor. At a Washington, D.C. hacker conference known as “ShmooCon” last week they erected a display offering free smartphone recharging with a sign declaring “You know you want to try it!” No word on how many normally paranoid hackers took advantage of the offer.
MAYBE STAYING OFF CAMERA IS A GOOD IDEA: The Dead Drop reported previously that the top Pentagon spokespeople have skipped on camera press briefings for almost nine months. And we wondered whether the Acting spokesperson, Charles Summers, would keep up that record. So far, he has – and he is probably glad he did. This past week, two days after four Americans were killed by ISIS in Syria, Summers met with Pentagon reporters for an off-camera, but on-the-record, briefing. According toTalkMediaNews.com, Summers was pressed about whether the military still considers ISIS a threat. The answer would seem obvious, except for the president’s declaration that ISIS had been defeated. According to the report, Summers ducked the question multiple times saying: “Our fight against terrorism is ongoing” and “We will be vigilant and ensure (ISIS’s) destruction.” Thirty minutes after the session, however, reporters received an email in which Summers wrote: “As Wednesday’s attack demonstrates, ISIS remains a threat.” Glad he cleared that up.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
BUTT HOW DID HE ESCAPE? Atlas Obscura posted a somewhat cheeky video on YouTube last week. It featured International Spy Museum curator Dr. Vince Houghton demonstrating (to some extent) a CIA-issued tool kit used by Agency officers during the Cold War. The “rectal tool kit” was reportedly designed to be hidden where the moon don’t shine – and concealed tools that allowed CIA operatives to pick locks. You’ve got to really want to break into or out of some place to lug this slug-like device around in its intended hiding place.
AN FBI AGENT, CIA OFFICER AND DHS OFFICIAL WALK INTO A BAR: Well, not really. But two guys went into a restaurant in Miami last week and brought along a Belgian Malinois dog. (The breed is said to look like a small German Shepherd.) The manager reportedly told them they could not bring dogs into the facility. But they flashed what turned out to be fake FBI credentials and said essentially, 'Oh yes, we can'. The trio (the two guys and the dog) returned the next two nights as well. According to Vice.com, the manager eventually questioned the men again. One of them told him to call the FBI and CIA to verify their bona fides and then threatened to have everyone in the restaurant arrested. Instead, someone called 911 and the local cops questioned the pair – one of whom then claimed to be “a five-star general” and a CIA “agent.” When the cops didn’t buy that explanation, a fight broke out. The altercation did not go well for the “general” and friend. The wags at Vice report that the dog was not charged with a crime.
HERE’S ONE WAY TO ERECT A WALL: A newspaper in Arizona reports that a Republican lawmaker in the State House has an interesting proposal on how to fund a border wall. Representative Gail Griffin has introduced a bill which would require laptop and cell phone makers to install software which would prevent users from viewing pornography. Under the proposed law, Arizonans wanting to check out racy online content would have to pay the State $20 to have the software disabled on each device. All the money collected would be deposited into a fund and then grants could be issued to help fund the border wall. Besides being technically hard to implement, free speech proponents also point out that the law is almost certainly unconstitutional. Still, you have to hand it to Ms. Griffin (who is 84) for thinking outside the box when it comes to walls.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
