Each week, we bring our readers tidbits of gossip from the world of national security and intelligence. The Dead Drop is a source of fun and intriguing news you may have missed.
BOBBY TRAP: If you believe the British tabloid, the Express (which we don’t), there is a huge fight going on between the British police of Scotland Yard and the CIA over protecting President Trump when he visits the UK, next week. The Express says Scotland Yard and the Agency are “embroiled in a fierce battle over who will be in charge” of the President’s security. The article goes on to say that around 250 armed Secret Service agents will descend on the country for Trump’s visit and that the CIA “desperately want to set up their own control centre following fears of mass protests.” We suspect the Express has gotten the CIA and Secret Service confused…which is entirely understandable since we often mix up MI-5 and MI-6 ourselves.
I’LL WAIT FOR THE MOVIE: Former CIA officer Joshua Schulte, who is currently in jail accused of being behind the “Vault 7” leak of Agency hacking tools to Wikileaks (and is also facing child pornography charges) insists he is an innocent man and “an American patriot.” He made that assertion last week in a 137-page handwritten letter he submitted to a federal court judge. The New York Post said Schulte had to hand scribble the note because the jailhouse typewriter was broken. In addition to the lengthy letter, Schulte also reportedly included a 100-page long appendix. The judge promised he would start reading the missive, which reportedly includes Schulte’s claim that “…the freedom and democracy I thought I was defending never actually existed – the Great American Façade.”
BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID: A number of cybersecurity experts at a recent gathering orchestrated by the Atlantic Council opined that the public should be “significantly concerned” that the White House has eliminated the NSC post of cybersecurity coordinator. According to Defense One, many of the panel felt that National Security Advisor John Bolton’s decision to eliminate the post shortly after he took office in May, was a mistake. Bolton axed the cyber coordinator role after the departure of Rob Joyce who returned to the NSA to become the senior advisor to the Director on Cyber.
I CAN NEITHER CONFIRM OR DENY WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMED: In a press release recently, the ACLU crowed about a federal judge who ruled that the CIA cannot refuse to “confirm or deny” whether it knows anything about a January 2017 raid on Yemen in which allegedly up to 25 Yemeni civilians and one U.S. Navy SEAL died. The judge said that since the then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer publicly declared that the operation was an “intelligence gathering” operation and that the mission was approved after a dinner meeting at the White House which included then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the Agency would have to be a bit more forthcoming.
ON THE OTHER HAND: A different federal judge recently ruled that just because President Trump tweeted stuff about a Washington Post story regarding alleged U.S. aid to Syrian rebels, it doesn’t mean that he has declassified the matter. Politico reports that the judge ruled: “…President Trump did not make an unequivocal statement, or any statement for that matter, indicating that he was declassifying information. This should end the inquiry.” So, are they saying that Sean Spicer’s lectern lectures are more significant that Trump tweets? We don’t know, you be the judge.
SECOND CHANCE: The New York Times announced that they are reassigning their 26-year-old reporter Ali Watkins from their Washington Bureau to their New York headquarters following reports that she had a 3+-year-long relationship with one of her sources, James Wolfe. Wolfe, 57, a former employee of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been charged with lying to the FBI about media contacts, but he has not been charged with leaking classified information. In a statement, the NYT’s editor, Dean Baquet said “For a reporter to have an intimate relationship with someone he or she covers is unacceptable.” This statement came immediately after essentially “accepting” her conduct and moving Watkins to the Times mothership. Watkins will be also reportedly be assigned a mentor. Wolfe, meanwhile, is just $492,000 short of his half million dollar GoFundMe goal to help pay his legal expenses.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
Cover Story: In last week’s Dead Drop we mentioned a lengthy New York Times magazine story about former CIA Director John Brennan. The paper posted a short video online about how they designed the magazine cover featuring a fierce-looking Brennan. Gail Bichler, the magazine’s design director says “there is nothing informal about this portrait” on the cover. “It feels very monumental.” The magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Jake Silverstein, speculates about “what secrets are locked up in that head?” To us, the cover photo suggests that Brennan would not hesitate to tell some kid to get off his lawn.
Another Royal Wedding We Didn’t Get Invited To: According to such diverse publications as the New York Post’s Page Six and Town & Country Magazine, Robert F. Kennedy III (grandson of Ethel Kennedy and the late Attorney General Bobby Kennedy) is planning to marry former CIA officer Amaryllis Fox at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, MA on July 9th. According to a speaker’s bureau bio, Fox lists herself as a “CIA Clandestine Service Officer, writer and peace activist.” The bio says Fox graduated Oxford and did graduate work at Georgetown. “There she developed an algorithm to predict terrorist activity” and “asked by the University's CIA Officer in Residence, Dallas Jones, to share the algorithm with the Agency, she soon began work as a political and terrorism analyst for SE Asia, commuting between Langley and Georgetown to finish her degree with honors in 2004. Following graduation, she moved into the operational training program and served as a Clandestine Service officer overseas until 2009.”
Aim High: The website Task & Purpose this week answered a reader’s inquiry about whether the Pentagon is awash in booze and “exotic dancers” as it was (at least in the writer’s memory) in the 1970’s. Alas, Task & Purpose reports that most of that frivolity has gone the way of the musket – except – that there is a rumor that the Air Force still maintains a secret bar inside the five-sided (no)fun house. Reporter Jeff Schogol says he has been keeping an eye out for the “Fighter Pilots Bar” but, in 13 years of covering the Pentagon, has failed to locate it. If any Dead Drop reader can provide geo-location of the Pentagon mid-flight refueling station, please let us know.
Get Oot of Jail Free, Eh? Here in the United States, we examine reports of foreign collusion with the use of Special Counsels and Congressional investigations. In Canada, they apparently do things a bit differently. Global News of Canada reported recently that the “Immigration and Refugee Board” shot down the government’s claims that a Russian-born, U.S. citizen, now living in Canada was once a “sex spy” working for Russian intelligence. It seems Elena Crenna admitted that in the past she voluntarily provided information to Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB. The information passed on was about the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation which she obtained from her then-boss and now husband (apparently that is where the “sex spy” stuff comes in.) What goes unexplained, is exactly why information about Canadian-run housing projects in Russia would be secret anyway.
Craig’s Bucket List: Actor Daniel Craig, famous for playing James Bond, got a taste of what real-life intelligence officers do during a recent visit to CIA headquarters. According to the Agency’s blog, Craig was at Langley as part of their “Reel vs. Real” effort to help “where appropriate” advise the film industry “to combat misrepresentations and assist in balanced and accurate portrayals.” Agency leaders reportedly explained that “real life espionage is a lot more ‘cloak’ and a lot less ‘dagger’” than the Hollywood version.
WHAT’S ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND? The Cipher Brief often gets requests from readers asking for book recommendations. As TCB prepares to launch a members-only book club, the Dead Drop is looking to make a list of the books DD readers would recommend and why (and which ones you wouldn’t).
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
