Dead Drop: January 27

YOU DON’T WRITE, YOU DON’T CALL… Last week, the Kremlin issued an oddly plaintive statement suggesting they kind of miss hearing from CIA Director Bill Burns. The TASS news agency quoted Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), as saying that a meeting with Burns would be “useful” and “possible” but gave no indication that one was in the offing. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “It can’t be ruled out, and of course this kind of dialogue makes sense … I don’t know about exact dates.”  Normally you don’t see officials, especially Russian officials, sending out such “please call” messages especially to the CIA. The SVR RSVP was issued shortly before word leaked that Burns had secretly met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev not long ago.

ALL THE DCI’S MEN:  Fox News host Tucker Carlson told viewers last week that the real reason Richard Nixon was ousted from the presidency was that (as recorded in Oval Office tapes) he told then-Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms that he (Nixon) knew “who shot John” (presumably meaning JFK.) This, according to Carlson, means that Kennedy was killed by the CIA and the Deep State and not-so-tricky Dick was letting Helms know he knew. According to the Fox commentator, this led to Nixon’s ouster by one of Helms’ operatives (wait for it) — Bob Woodward. These allegations spark a lot of questions – principally: what has Tucker been smoking?