Dead Drop: July 29

LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! IT’S A…A….WHATCHALLIT?  First, the Pentagon changed its mind about what to call those odd things in the sky. What today are called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), were formerly known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs.) But now they have also renamed the office in charge of figuring out what UAP/UFOs are.  Eight months ago, DOD established the “Airborne Object Identification and Management Group.” But on further reflection, they have managed to change the moniker to the “All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office” which (fortunately) can be reduced to the acronym “AARO.”  Why the change? Well, one reason is that the office is expanding its gaze.  No longer will AARO look only to the skies – but it will also investigate unidentified underwater objects…and ones that appear to move between the sky and sea – dubbed “transmedium.”  They have done such a fine job figuring out what those unknown airborne objects are – figuring out the oceanic objects should be a breeze.

DOUBLE TROUBLE:  In last week’s Dead Drop, we mentioned that Turkish President Recep Tayyap Erdogan kept Vladimir Putin twiddling his thumbs for a while before showing up for a meeting between the two leaders in Iran. At the time, we thought that in the video Vlad seemed remarkably patient while enduring the snub. Well, The Sun says they know why. The (rarely reliable) tabloid says that Putin had been replaced by a “body double” for the trip.  The Tehran Vlad appeared more alert and mobile than Moscow Vlad who is rumored to be suffering from Parkinson’s disease or cancer. Perhaps casting some doubt on poorly Putin, however, CIA Director Bill Burns told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell at a security conference last week that Putin is “entirely too healthy.” (For more on that, check out Walter Pincus’s column in this week’s Cipher Brief.)  Body double stories are nothing new. We’re old enough to remember when there were frequent, unconfirmed, reports that Saddam Hussein used body doubles. There were even suggestions that the guy who was tried and executed in Iraq was a faux Saddam. But for Putin, The Sun says the Russian leader previously admitted he had considered using body doubles (for some unstated reason) but that he ditched the idea.  Well that clears it all up.