Dead Drop: March 27

ACTING UP: This week, the Acting Director of National Intelligence (Ambassador) Rick Grenell announced a new acting director of the National Counter Terrorism Center to replace the previous acting director, Russell Travers, who reportedly was sent packing. Grenell will stay acting DNI unless and until the Senate confirms a permanent replacement.  Congressman John Ratcliffe has been nominated – but with the COVID-19 crisis – it is anyone’s guess when the Senate decides it is wise to gather for a confirmation hearing. (Can you hold a hearing via Zoom meeting?) With Grenell running intelligence from DNI’s Liberty Crossing HQ in Virginia – we presume the U.S. embassy in Germany is being run by an “acting” – known in the diplomatic business as a “chargé.” And that got us wondering how many other “actings” or chargés are out there? Fortunately, the American Foreign Service Association has done the work for us and they have a handy list of current U.S. ambassadors.  They show 26 US embassies as “vacant,” meaning the last ambassador is gone and no one has been nominated to replace them.  And there are an additional 14 places where people have been nominated – but not confirmed for the posts.  So that is 40 places with a vacuum at the top.  These include some major sites like Afghanistan, Cuba, Ukraine, Pakistan, Japan and Canada. Right after we get America working again, we should do the same for its ambassadors.

TAP DANCING:  A fellow by the name of Jim Scott wrote an open letter addressed to “former CIA directors, legal counsel and historians” asking for help finding historic documents that would explain why Scott’s father, a nationally syndicated reporter by the name of Paul Scott, was wired tapped by the Agency in 1963. Formerly classified documents known as the “Family Jewels” confirm that the elder Scott and another reporter were surveilled…but no one admits to knowing why. There reportedly was a highly sensitive transcript made of the wire taps – so secret that only two members of the CIA’s Office of Security had access to it.  Unfortunately, the transcript seems to have gone missing.  So, Jim Scott published an open letter in the Annapolis Capital Gazette hoping that one of the former senior officials will see it and presumably go through that memorabilia they have in a box in their garage or basement – and see if the mystery can be solved.