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.
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars website was promoting a tweet this week from Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder and fugitive from justice in turn was promoting a three-part article from the World Socialist Web Site raising the alarm that “an extraordinary number of former intelligence and military operatives from the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Council and State Department are seeking nomination as Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. We’re not sure what has gotten people ranging from Jones, Assange and the Socialists alarmed – but considering who they are – whatever it is, we’re for it.
LOOSE LIPS SINK (AIR) SHIPS? Defense News reported on Monday that the U.S. Air Force has developed a case of lockjaw. Apparently alarmed by airmen engaging in excessive communication, the Air Force has slashed “access to media embeds, base visits and interviews” until the service can “retrain” their entire public affairs team and senior commanders on the importance of maintaining radio silence. Frankly, if you were to have asked us – we would have guessed that the Navy, Marine Corps, and Army were all having rougher times with the media coverage these days – but apparently the Air Force feels that some secrets have escaped, and they are going to clamp down on their communicators to try to prevent it from happening again.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
NETWORK NEWS: Not a day goes by when members of The Cipher Brief Network aren’t making news. Here are just a few examples from this week:
WHAT’S ON THEIR NIGHTSTAND? (Our contributors tell us about what they’re currently reading)
“I have picked up two classics on Sub-Sahara Africa, ‘The Conquest of the Sahara: A History’ by Douglas Porch, who teaches the Naval Postgraduate School. It recounts French colonial adventures across the wide expanse of North Africa. This was a valuable reference to better understand the historical underpinnings of colonial expansion in the last century that takes on a new perspective in the light of militant Islamic objectives in the region ranging from ISIS to Boko Haram. Also, I’m re-reading ‘The Green and the Black: Qaddafi’s policies in Africa,’ published in 1988. Although somewhat dated, this collection of essays illustrates Qaddafi’s engagement with African regimes and takes on a different light given the recent Western engagement in the region.” — Alex Bolling, CIA chief of station and deputy chief of station in several war zones in the Middle East, North Africa and Southwest Asia
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at [email protected] or [email protected].
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