DISORDER IN THE COURT: There was a fascinating story recently about the Dutch security agency, AIVD, announcing the expulsion of a Russian, pretending to be a Brazilian trying to get work in the Netherlands. Stay with us – this gets a bit complicated. Authorities told the BBC that 36-year-old Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov was a spy for the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. But for years, they say, he has been building a fake identity as 33-year-old “Viktor Muller Ferreira” a Brazilian. Recently, Sergey showed up in The Hague for an internship with the International Criminal Court. And it appears the Russians went to considerable lengths to build a backstory for their illegal, who reportedly attended Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and got a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. In his writings, while building his legend, Sergey/Viktor even posted some articles from the investigative outfit Bellingcat. So, it is entirely appropriate that Bellingcat turned the tables and started working on their usual deep dive into his past this week. They say the real Sergey was from Kaliningrad not Rio. Records show he made multiple trips by train from Kaliningrad to Moscow while he was 20 years old. And he reportedly flew to Moscow several times on spring break from Trinity College. One of his professors at SAIS is really annoyed that Sergey conned him into giving a letter of recommendation as well.
A DETAIL WE HAD NOT HEARD BEFORE: Al Arabiya published an interview this week with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The story contained some assertions we don’t recall seeing at this level of detail in the U.S. media about the strike that killed Iranian military leader General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. According to the story, Pompeo said "General Soleimani was engaged in a plot to kill 500 Americans, saying, “We had the opportunity to take down that plot, and we did.” As you might imagine, the comment did not go down well in Tehran, where commentators - not too subtly - pointed out the high price that the State Department is reportedly paying to provide physical security for the former Secretary.
TIKTOK TAPES TAKE TOLL: Who would have guessed that TikTok couldn’t keep a secret? Well, just about everybody. For example, The Dead Drop told you last December about Senator Marco Rubio calling out Army recruiting for using the app. And as far back as 2020, we mentioned guidance from the military urging troops not to use the app. But the Chinese-run social media site has long insisted that user data from American TikTokers was securely kept in the USA, so there is nothing to worry about, right? BuzzFeedNews says they have reviewed recordings that “contain 14 statements from nine different TikTok employees indicating that engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022, at the very least.” In 2020, President Trump threatened to ban the app for fear that the Chinese government could collect dossiers of personal information on US users. This week, Elon Musk tweeted, “Is TikTok destroying civilization? Some people think so.” Unclear what sparked the question. Was it security concerns? Or maybe the billionaire is just planning another acquisition like the yet-to-be-closed Twitter deal and is driving down the purchase price. On the other hand, maybe he just thinks some of the dance moves featured on TikTok are dangerous.
THERE’S GAMBLING GOING ON IN THIS CASINO: On several occasions in the past, The Dead Drop has goofed on academics and bleeding hearts who have discovered to their shock, that the Pentagon goes out of its way to help filmmakers who make movies that make the uniformed services look good. How dare they? The release of “Top Gun: Maverick” has launched a new crop of outrage. At least one person submitted a FOIA request to prove that DOD likes movies that make them appear likeable. The folks at Task and Purpose have collected some examples of veterans dunking on the dramatically distressed observers. “The walls of the E-Ring outside the OSD Public Affairs office are covered in posters for movies produced with Pentagon cooperation over the last few decades, but this genius submits a FOIA and thinks he’s Bob Woodward,” wrote a retired paratrooper.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
DO DROP IN: Speaking of FOIA, the online publication The Intercept recently obtained some documents from DOD’s US Transportation Command that seem to show that the Pentagon has considered using Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets in the future to deliver quick reaction forces anywhere in the world. Why fly through the air when you can launch an equivalent of a C-17, load personnel and materiel into space and get it anywhere on the globe in 60 minutes? Among the scenarios, TRANSCOM considered, was deploying a “quick reaction force” to protect diplomatic facilities like the State Department outpost that was attacked in the 2012 Benghazi incident. We guess SpaceX could get troops to danger zones…but after the mission is complete, they are probably going to have to hitch a ride back home on an old-fashioned plane or ship.
PARACHUTING IN: There has been a trend in recent years, of a growing number of women, veterans, and former intelligence officers running for elected office. Deb Baldus McGrath, who is running for Congress in Wisconsin, checks all three blocks. We wouldn’t single her out – except for the remarkable campaign video she posted showing the gray haired mother of three skydiving.
BUT DROP IN SAFELY: BreakingDefense.comwent along for the ride on June 13, when members of the US Army’s Golden Knights and the UK’s Red Devils parachute demonstration teams conducted a joint jump over DC to celebrate US-UK Friendship Day. The units landed inside a baseball stadium (Nationals Park was their target.) Both teams came in safely – which is more than the Nationals can regularly say this season.
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