Dead Drop: July 5

HOMELAND INSECURITY: There is a battle going on between the Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security over control of the Secret Service.  For over a century, the Secret Service was part of Treasury.  But all that changed after 9/11 when DHS was created, and all manner of outfits were lumped together to form the new department.  Now, according to the New York Times, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is fighting to regain control of the Service. Who will win this battle? Our money is on Treasury.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: Russian-government-owned media outlet “RT” looked to Chinese-government-owned Global Times to do a little U.S. Secretary of State bashing. RT quotes GT editor Hu Xijin as saying that Mike Pompeo “can no longer play the role of a top diplomat” and claimed that he “has become the most troublesome U.S. official for China.”  Apparently, Hu is in a huff because of recent comments by Pompeo reminding folks of the Tiananmen Square anniversary. “To China, he is still a CIA director who takes over the State Department,” Hu tweeted.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+

Search

Close