MORE THAN TWO SIDES TO A STORY: Former CIA Officers who do some of the Agency's most dangerous work in places like Afghanistan were pretty upset by a recent piece in The New York Times that alleged that CIA-trained Afghan forces have been doing some pretty horrific things in the line of duty in Afghanistan. The frustration over this story and others like it, doesn't stem so much over the allegations, but more that the story presented a one-sided perspective of a highly-controversial issue. The Agency itself had no comment included in the story, though The Cipher Brief spoke with a former CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer who felt compelled to share another view. It's incredibly rare that a former officer in this role speaks out. His piece can be found in The Cipher Brief.
THE RAPP SHEET ON CIA ANALYSIS: Longtime CIA Officer Cynthia Rapp, better known as 'DiDi', has been named the new Deputy Director for Analysis at the CIA. Rapp is a longtime analyst and has served as the head of the President's Daily Brief. She is also the former head of the Public Affairs Office. The Dead Drop hears that Rapp is succeeding Richard Hoch, who will move into the role of Chief Strategy Officer at the Agency.
THE GENERAL FEELING ON THE SECDEF JOB: The Dead Drop hears from a reliable source that Cipher Brief Expert was offered (for a second time), and turned down (for a second time), the job of Secretary of Defense left open by the resignation of James Mattis. The Dead Drop reported shortly after President Trump was elected that the then-President-elect had asked Keane to come on in the role, but that Keane had cited personal reasons for not taking the job. No word about why the General turned it down for a second time.
PENTAGON BRIEFER BOLTS: Secretary of Defense James Mattis wasn’t the only DOD official making an exit as the ball dropped on Times Square New Year’s Eve. Dana White, chief Pentagon spokesperson, also bid the five-sided fun house adieu at the turn of the year. We know what you're thinking. Who? You wouldn’t know it by watching TV, but White has been the official DOD mouthpiece during much of this administration. She tweeted that she appreciated “the opportunity afforded to me by this administration to serve alongside Secretary Mattis, our Service members and all the civilians who support them.” In a note to DOD public affairs staffers on Monday, White said that she submitted her letter of resignation “with a heavy heart.” That might be in part because she has been under investigation by DOD’s Inspector General over allegations that she used her staff to run personal errands and then retaliated against them when they complained. Among the charges is that she sent staffers to pick up her dry cleaning and fill out her home mortgage paperwork. Media requests to the Pentagon seeking a comment on the status of the investigation were not immediately answered. The reason that White’s name may be unfamiliar to you is that she has not conducted an on-camera press briefing since May. That is a lack-of-transparency record that even Sarah Huckabee Sanders might envy. Charles E. Summers has assumed the duties as the Acting Assistant for Public Affairs to the (Acting) Secretary of Defense. CNN reported that Major General Burke Whitman, USMC, was expected to be the acting DOD spokesperson (White wore two hats.) CNN said Whitman’s appointment is controversial since, as an active military officer, he would not be able to answer questions about the “political aspects of (Pentagon) decision-making.” But we figured if he kept up White’s practice of avoiding the briefing room, that would not have been a problem. But thenThe Washington Examiner reported that Whitman suddenly asked to escape the spokesman gig too – according to one account offering five different reasons why he did not want to take the job.
IF WE ONLY HAD A WALL: Back in August, The Dead Drop told you about a 58-year-old auto mechanic from North Carolina who was busted for pretending to be a three-star Army general and chartering a civilian helicopter to try to impress a woman. Christian Desgroux was sentenced to six months in the slammer but he must have gotten out early – because he was just arrested again. This time, North Carolina police say, he claimed to be a Department of Homeland Security agent and called Raleigh police saying he was in pursuit of a van full of illegal immigrants who were driving to Washington, DC with a bomb. While on the phone with a police dispatcher, Desgroux reportedly said that the driver of the van pointed a gun out the window and shot him in the arm. Stars and Stripes says the cops sent 15 units to the scene and apprehended a van matching the description given by the former faux general. No bombs or guns were found. They also apprehended Desgroux whose gunshot wound had miraculously healed itself in the intervening minutes.
OR A WALL OF SOUND: Pentagon scientists are exploring means to manipulate the air with lasers. If it works – they may be able to create non-lethal weapons that make noises that sound like speech – and blast them 20 to 30 kilometers away. According to Defense One, the noises might sound like a “haunted walkie-talkie or the biblical burning bush.” Why exactly do they need burning bushes? According to the report, the devices might stop people charging checkpoints or “just scare the crap out of them.”
RED-FACEBOOK: Microsoft and Russia’s largest search engine, Yandex, have entered into an agreement where Yandex will be the default homepage and search engine on Windows 10 products in Russia. So what? Well, according to the website ClearanceJobs.com, there is the concerning probability of a two-way flow of information that could mean that Russia’s internal security service, the FSB, will have access to “travel information, hotel reservations or airline ticket information, the ability to chart, compile and disseminate travel patterns.” As the website asks: “Russian Search Engine and Facebook Align. What Could Go Wrong?”
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
STOLEN DIS-HONOR: The folks at Task & Purpose recently uncovered some cringe-worthy stock photos of military personnel. If you are a fan of dorky folks pretending to be servicemen and women check out these photos which would make Gomer Pyle look heroic.
CONDUCT UN-BECOMING: The Army’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team wanted to make absolutely sure that their troops knew what kind of activities were verboten at their barracks in Grafenwoehr, Germany. So, they put it in writing. Very explicitly. Army Times says that the unit issued a memo to their personnel not only banning “sexual intercourse, (and) acts that are sexual in nature” but also “rubbing, humping, grinding” not to mention “cuddling” and “lap dancing.” The memo was rescinded on December 26th, not because lap dancing had suddenly become an approved activity, but because officials figured out that soldiers didn’t need quite that clear a road map to on-base off-limits activities.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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