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Dead Drop: March 16

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FOGGY BOTTOM BOUND? As long-predicted, and long-denied, President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to become Secretary of State. The impact of that decision (and Trump’s plan to elevate Agency #2 Gina Haspel to CIA Director) has been discussed at length on other pages of The Cipher Brief and elsewhere. Here at The Dead Drop, however, we thought we would look at another angle. If Pompeo does indeed go to the State Department – will he take anyone from Langley with him? The advice being offered by long-time bureaucrats is for Pompeo to travel as lightly as possible. The signal it would send to the already beleaguered State Department if he showed up with a large “landing party” as part of a hostile takeover, would be bad. “There are plenty of highly-experienced, career diplomats,” who Pompeo can deputize to fill important positions,” one former official told us. There certainly are lots of openings at State – with the possibility of more coming every day. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Steve Goldstein was reportedly fired just hours after Tillerson – for committing truth about the lack of warning Tillerson received regarding his impending defenestration. Goldstein, a former BP senior VP, had been in his State Department job for 99 days. One Pompeo pal who might tag along to State is current CIA Chief Operating Officer Brian Bulatao. The long-time Pompeo cohort is relatively new at Langley having assumed the COO job (previously known as Executive Director) last June 1. He might feel a bit lonely at Langley after his sponsor decamps. Don’t expect to hear anything about such a move until after Pompeo is confirmed by the Senate for his new position, however. Folks on the Hill consider it especially bad form for nominees to talk publicly about who they will put in what position until they are approved by the full Senate.

PAUL PLOT: Who gave Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., bad information? On Wednesday, the Senator announced that he would oppose Trump’s nominations of Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State and Gina Haspel for CIA Director. In the case of Pompeo, Paul’s objection vaguely had something to do with his perception of the CIA director’s position on Iran. But regarding Haspel, Paul was very clear on what has him peeved. "To really appoint the head cheerleader for waterboarding to be head of CIA, I mean, how could you trust somebody who did that to be in charge of the CIA?" he asked. "To read of her glee during the waterboarding is just absolutely appalling." Paul told MSNBC: “On Mrs. Haspel, if you read her quotes, when she was present during waterboarding, she was gleeful at the waterboarding and sort of gloating at the fact that the guy is acting as he’s struggling to breathe and drowning in fluid. This is not what America stands for.” Apparently, he was referring to a ProPublica story from over a year ago which claimed that they learned from a book written by a former CIA interrogator that Haspel confronted Abu Zubaydah in his black site cell and mocked him. Although ProPublica did not identify the book – the quotes in the story match ones contained in “Enhanced Interrogation” written by James Mitchell and published in late 2016. One problem – OK, maybe two. The person described in Mitchell’s book is referred to as “he.” Intelligence officials have told reporters the “he” was not Ms. Haspel. The other issue with Senator Paul’s characterization is that CIA officer involved was not mocking Abu Zubaydah’s reaction to waterboarding – but was commenting on how the terrorist was faking mental illness symptoms from the comfort of his cell months before enhanced interrogation started. (The book says the symptoms disappeared when the male Chief of Base challenged Abu Zubaydah on them.) Mitchell addressed some of the issues on Fox Business News on Wednesday afternoon.

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