THEY SAID IT WOULDN’T LAST: Or maybe it was: “shouldn’t last.” We forget. But in any case, welcome to the 500th edition of The Dead Drop. Our first edition was published on July 31, 2015 and oh, how things have changed since then. Our very first Dead Drop nugget was about some controversial appointments among the Joint Chiefs. Thank goodness that kind of stuff doesn’t happen anymore.
WHAT’S UP DOC(UMENTARY)?: Another item in our original Dead Drop was a piece about a then-upcoming Showtime documentary called The Spymasters, which featured interviews with all 12 of the then-living ex-CIA directors. The promos for the two-hour program promised that interviewees would “talk candidly about torture, secret prisons, drone warfare, alleged assassinations and the constant threat of attack, which begs the question: how far should America go to keep us safe?” A decade later, we’re writing about a new documentary titled, Chaos: The Manson Murders which is based on the book, Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties. An article in Slate says the film is based on such a wild theory, that even the director of the documentary isn’t sure he believes it. The film doesn’t go quite as far as the book which reportedly theorizes that Manson “deployed the same mind-control techniques that the CIA was using to develop brainwashed assassins who would kill on command with no memory of the act.” We haven’t seen the documentary yet – or perhaps we have - but we’ve been programmed not to remember.
POLY WANTS A LEAKER: The Department of Homeland Security has started administering polygraph tests to try to detect employees who could be tipping the media off about immigration operations. Four different sources confirmed that effort to NBC News, so we’re guessing that those sources don’t fear the polygraph. Both the “border czar” Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem have blamed leaks for the fact that ICE raids around the country have scooped up fewer immigrants than expected. Noem later posted a video on X (a favorite way for Cabinet officials to communicate) saying that DHS has “identified criminal leakers” in her department and they are “preparing to refer these perpetrators to the @DOJ for felony prosecutions” and that “these individuals face up to 10 years in federal prison.” Well, it could be worse. She could take them out to walk her dog with her. So far, we have not spotted any similar announcement on the DOJ website – or the DHS one for that matter. It is unclear if the people Noem says were tracked down were found through polygraphs or some other means.
DOES THIS REALLY ADD UP?: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been doing his homework on the state of world affairs saying recently, “It’s striking but it’s true. Right now, 500 million Europeans are begging 300 million Americans for protection from 140 million Russians who have been unable to overcome 50 million Ukrainians for three years." Hard to argue with the numbers, eh?
WANT TO DEPORT YOURSELF? THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT: Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem has relaunched the CBP Home app with a “self-deportation reporting feature for aliens illegally in the country.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of DHS, has reprogrammed the old CBP One app, which during the Biden administration, enabled migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to schedule appointments at southwest border ports of entry instead of just showing up at the border. The new app, which automatically overwrites CBP One, “is part of a larger $200 million domestic and international ad campaign encouraging illegal aliens to ‘Stay Out and Leave Now’,” DHS said. The term “alien” used in federal immigration law since 1790, has long infuriated migrant advocates. It was removed from the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service manual in May 2021.
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PAR FOR THE COURSE: As Elon Musk’s DOGE overlords march through federal agencies looking for people to fire, the folks at The Interceptare helping them out by teeing up some spots likely to make the cut on sites that will survive and it may surprise you. Military golf courses. The Intercept reports that the Army has 54 golf courses, the Air Force 51, the Navy 29 and the Marine Corp just 10. As far as we know, Space Force doesn’t have a golf course yet, but perhaps they can count that place on the moon where astronaut Alan Shepard shanked a shot in 1971. In any case, given the President’s affinity for the game and the claim by some that military courses are actually money makers for the military welfare and recreation accounts – we predict that the Pentagon’s links are likely to survive the government purge.
BONDI TELLS JUSTICE EMPLOYEES TO SUCK ON THIS: As if Attorney General Pam Bondi didn't have enough to do with leading the nation's charge against criminal migrants, drug cartels, gun runners, hackers and spies - a memo from Bondi went out this week to some 100,000 U.S. Justice Department employees titled "Ending Procurement of Paper Straws". The memo declares: "President Trump recognized that there has been "[a]n irrational campaign against plastic straws" that has led to the forced use of nonfunctional, more expensive, and potentially hazardous, paper straws. The Department stands with the President in rejecting these misguided efforts. Well, who doesn't hate paper straws but we asked an FBI veteran what they thought of the official memo and they questioned the department's priorities. "What about the SVR? The GRU?" Bondi's memo only focused on the straw mission so we're guessing if there are any spies operating at Justice, they better not get caught anywhere near the snack bar with paper drink paraphernalia.
TROUBLE BREWING FOR VETERAN THEMED BEER COMPANY: A little more than a year ago, the Armed Forces Brewing Company moved from Maryland to Norfolk, VA seeking a friendlier environment. The company opened a tap room and brewed its own beer, in part thanks to a $300,000+ tax incentive from Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. But now, they’re closing their doors and looking to take their tap elsewhere citing a “woke mob” of locals who are being mean to them. (Weird, cause people in the Tidewater area generally aren’t anti-military.) Other reports suggest the company may have just been mismanaged. The brew company did, however, garner some considerable bad publicity relating in part to its part-owner and former spokesperson, ex-Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill – who first gained fame by claiming to be the person who shot Usama bin Ladin but later earned notoriety by brewing up some ugly headlines. Maybe too much beer?
GS-OOPS: Last week, the GSA briefly posted their plan to sell off 443 federal government properties ranging from FBI headquarters to other cabinet agency buildings that the 20-somethings working at DOGE declared as excess and of no great use. Shortly thereafter, the list was pared down by about 120 properties – and then a bit later, the well-oiled DOGE-driven machine’s list disappeared entirely. The GSA’s website did promise some version of it would return soon. Among the buildings on the original list, according to Wired, was part of a warehouse complex in Springfield, VA. In the middle of that complex, is a building that has been widely rumored to be some sort of clandestine CIA facility. As far back as 2012, the Washington Business Journal said CIA activity at the site was “perhaps the worst kept secret in Springfield.” The Agency declined to comment on whether GSA/DOGE might have tried to sell off their property without asking.
GO BIG OR GO HOME: For many months now, we’ve been dropping nuggets of news about a trial in the UK focused on a group of British-based Bulgarians who were charged with spying for Russia. Their defense, in part, was based on the fact that they said they didn’t know who they were working for - but late last week, a court in London found three of the Bulgarians guilty of being part of a larger spy ring. Prosecutors accused the group of conducting espionage on “an industrial scale.” We guess the lesson here is: if you’re gonna go big, you should probably know who you’re going big for, eh?
INTER-AGENCY COOPERATION FICTION-STYLE: Rumor has it that CBS is canceling two FBI-focused series: “FBI-Most Wanted,” and “FBI: International.” But fear not. If you’re addicted to fictionalized FBI TV shows, the network is supposedly working on a new spinoff called “FBI: CIA.” According to press accounts, “This upcoming series is set to explore the collaboration between a dedicated FBI agent and a street-smart CIA operative as they work together to combat domestic terrorism in New York City.” There are so many things we could say. The show promises to offer a fresh perspective within the ‘FBI’ universe, focusing on the complexities and challenges of inter-agency cooperation (and we’re guessing they’ll have a lot of material to work on the ‘challenges’ part).
INTER-AGENCY COOPERATION: NON-FICTION STYLE: Netflix is launching a 3-part documentary called: American Manhunt Osama Bin Laden. We won’t spoil it for you and tell you how it ends but the trailer shows a lot of familiar faces including; former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, his then-deputy Michael Morell, ex-CIA counterterrorism chief Cofer Black, former Under Secretary of Defense Mike Vickers and of course, the aforementioned Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
IF IT AIN’T WOKE, DON’T FIX IT: The jokes almost write themselves. You no doubt heard recently that as part of a “kill all remnants of DEI” drive – someone in the Pentagon ordered the removal of photos from a DoD public website of the Enola Gay, the WWII B-29 that dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. As those who paid attention in high school history class know, the plane was named after Enola Gay Tibbets the mother of the pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets. Cipher Brief expert, retired Adm. Jim Stavridis, spoofed on the revisionist history move by posting a revised image of the plane, redubbing it: the “Enola Straight.” But the silliness continues. Other observers worried – what happens when the Pentagon history revisionists find out about USTRANSCOM?
HURRY BEFORE SOMEONE ERASES HISTORY. SEND YOUR BEST GOSSIP NUGGETS TO: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com
