HEAD SCRATCHER: A lot of current and former intelligence officials we know are trying to decipher an @realDonaldTrump tweet from last Wednesday which asserted: “So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki.” The two best explanations we have heard were either that “higher ends” means those on drugs, or that the people in intelligence he was referring to are in Russian intelligence.
COATS KEPT IN THE DARK: Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was in Aspen this week, addressing questions at a security conference about what he knows and doesn’t know about the private meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Coats appeared to be almost as much in the dark as the rest of us, confirming to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that he still doesn’t know what happened in that meeting. Toward the end of the interview, Mitchell shared news based on a tweet out of the White House, that President Trump had asked National Security Advisor John Bolton to invite Putin to the White House this fall. “Say that again”, Coats asked Mitchell, taking a moment before adding, “Okaaayyyy. That’s gonna be special.”
FBI FAITH FALLING? Each year the FBI polls its employees to see if they are happy campers. The Washington Examiner reports that the most recent survey shows “a sharp decline in confidence in bureau leadership.” Apparently, the G-men (and women) remain proud of working for the Bureau but have diminishing belief in the “honesty and integrity” of their leaders. The story says that people in the field have a less favorable view of the bosses than do DC-based officials. It is unclear what has caused the drop in confidence. It could be a number of things ranging from past actions of James Comey, the firing of Comey, the response to the firing, or news about senior FBI officers removed from the Mueller investigation and being accused of not practicing all of the Bureau’s core practices of “Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity.” The so-called “climate survey” was traditionally released by the FBI every year. But in 2018 they elected not to release it. Lawfareblog had to sue them under FOIA to get their hands on the latest results.
PICK YOUR TEAM: Meanwhile, FBI Director Christopher Wray was in Aspen recently touting his faith in the men and women of the Bureau. In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Wray maneuvered out of efforts to get him to say whether he had thought about resigning after the constant barrage of attacks that President Trump has made against the FBI in the past several months. Wray focused instead on the work that the bureau is doing that rarely gets headlines, (which is about everything other than Russia these days). Just one of those ‘other items of work’, that Wray pointed out was that there are active espionage investigations going on in all 50 U.S. states right now, and the suspected culprit isn’t Russia, it’s China. Wray appeared to be much more in the camp of his own Bureau than his boss though, when it came to the Russia issue.
SHOCK AND AW SHUCKS: Way back in early 2016, the Dead Drop told you about a forthcoming movie called “Shock and Awe,” directed by Rob Reiner. The movie is based on reporters from the Knight Ridder news organization who were among the few who voiced early and serious skepticism about the Bush administration’s case for going to war in Iraq. At the time, we also noted that there was a long list of Iraq war-inspired flicks that had tanked. Well, add one more. “Shock and Awe” hit the theaters last week (oddly after a short period streaming on DirecTV) and audiences stayed away in droves. Mediaite.com reports that the film earned “a measly $41,000 on its opening weekend.” Perhaps that is because the movie-going public just don’t want to see Iraq movies yet – or maybe it is word of mouth since Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of just 34%. The folks at Breitbart (who admittedly aren’t too fond of Reiner’s politics) gleefully pointed out that this makes the sixth “mega-flop” in a row for Reiner. How bad is a $41K opening weekend? By comparison, the movie “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” earned $44M during the same period.
TATA TO ASSANGE? The Times newspaper in London reported recently that Ecuador and the U.K. are engaged in talks about how to evict Wikileaks founder and fugitive Julian Assange from the London embassy where he has been holed up. If you buy Ben Franklin’s admonition that houseguests and fish begin to stink after three days, you can imagine how popular Assange is in the Ecuadoran mission where he has been holed up for more than six years. As far as we can tell, Assange and Wikileaks have been strangely silent following the indictments last week of twelve Russian GRU officers who have been accused (among other things) of stealing electronic communications from the Democratic National Commission and others leaking them to harm the Clinton presidential campaign. Wikileaks has long claimed that there was no Russian involvement in their obtaining Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2016.
N.S. SEE YOU LATER: One of the more significant – and little known – positions in U.S. intelligence is that of the senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council. The person in that role serves as the President’s liaison to the Intelligence Community. At the start of the Trump administration, the job was filled by a controversial staffer by the name of Ezra Cohen-Watnick who was brought in by Michael Flynn. H.R. McMaster, Flynn’s successor, managed to oust the 30-year-old Cohen-Watnick and replaced him with a more seasoned CIA veteran, Michael Barry. Well, McMaster is now gone, and it appears that Barry soon will be too. The Daily Beast reports that Barry is being bounced by Trump’s third national security advisor, John Bolton. Barry is reportedly returning to CIA. No word on who will be selected to replace him.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
- Here’s an idea: The Feds recently arrested Maria Butina, a Russian woman, on charges of conspiracy and illegally acting as an agent of the Russian government. Some observers note that Butina bears a passing resemblance to Anna Chapman– a Russian illegal who was arrested in 2010. You will recall that Chapman (and fellow countrymen who were operating like something out of a script from “The Americans”) were eventually swapped with the Russians for spies held in their custody. A source close to the Dead Drop playfully suggested that the U.S. offer to send Maria Butina back to Russia in exchange for Edward Snowden. Just a thought.
- To Catch a Spy: The Dead Drop hears that highly-respected former CIA officer James Olson has landed a deal with Georgetown University Press to publish a book next spring titled “To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence.” Olson was once chief of CIA’s counter-intelligence, so he knows of what he writes. He previously authored a book called “Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying.”
- Trump TV: According to MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, in their coverage of the Helsinki summit meeting, Russian state media described Fox News to their audience as “the (American) network run by the president.” Some might argue they got it backwards, but it is an interesting idea.
- Twitter Matter: Blogger Luis Rodriguez says he has created a list of former CIA officials who now opine on Twitter. His comments and math are a bit cryptic, but as we understand it, his list has 62 people on it. About six hours after the president’s “woulda, coulda, shoulda,” press conference, Rodriguez says 58% of them tweeted about Trump’s comments…and 94% of that number were critical.
WHAT’S ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND? Dead Drop reader Mike M. was paying attention a couple of weeks ago when the Dead Drop dropped word that a book club is in the works. Mike says he’s currently reading Deception: Counterdeception and Counterintelligence by Robert M. Clark and William L. Mitchell. Mike describes the book as ‘an interesting overview and model for deception campaigns. Primarily intelligence focused, but the model could be applied to many other contexts.’ C’mon other DD readers, what are you reading, and is it worth our time?
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
