MUELLER WHO?: The Cipher Brief 2019 Threat Conference wrapped up recently in Sea Island, GA. and our spies tell us that the meeting was a virtual 'Who's who of national security experts'. Spotted: PDDNI Susan Gordon, NSA Senior Cyber Advisor Rob Joyce, General (Ret) David Petraeus, former head of MI6 Sir John Scarlett, NSA Operations Director Jonathan Darby, and a host of other national security notables and it turns out they were more focused on talking about public and private sector solutions to national security threats, than they were about the Mueller report. The Dead Drop utilized it's impressive open source collection skills to find that the invite-only conference served up high-level briefings on a series of national and global security threats, with China being a key point of conversation. Yahoo News! reporter Jenna McLaughlin reported that it may have been one of the only places in the country where the name Mueller wasn't the dominating headline.
GUNS & ROSARIES: Ireland’s national television network, RTÉ, recently aired a documentary about Father Patrick Peyton, an Irish-born Roman Catholic priest who became a friend to Hollywood stars – and, was a “secret agent” for the CIA on the side. Peyton studied for the priesthood in the United States in the 1940s and became something of a media star himself appearing on the radio and launching “rosary crusades” where he deployed the catch phrase “the family that prays together stays together.” IrishNews.Com says Father Peyton became buddies with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, James Dean, Frank Sinatra, Edward G Robinson, Maureen O'Hara, Loretta Young, Jimmy Stewart and Gregory Peck among others. Comedian Bob Newhart reportedly told RTÉ he would do whatever Father Peyton asked, “otherwise I’d go to hell!” Reportedly, the CIA thought Peyton’s place would be in fighting “godless Communism” and is said to have funded the priest’s efforts to take his message to Latin America. Eventually, the Pope told Peyton to quit accepting Langley’s contributions to his collection plate, but he remained very influential until his death in 1992 – and maybe beyond. Irish News says some folks have lobbied for his canonization and Peyton was declared “venerable” in 2017 – putting him one step away from sainthood. We’re pulling for a miracle that would result in his canonization. The list of other former CIA assets who have been declared saints is not long.
FBI GAVE “SEVEN DAYS IN MAY” TWO THUMBS DOWN: The FOIA fans at Muckrock.com have been digging through Ronald Reagan’s FBI file. Among the documents uncovered are some memos showing that the motion picture “Seven Days in May” which was released in 1964 – and which involved an aborted military coup against the U.S. government, freaked out some senior officials. While it is unclear why this particular memo was in Reagan’s file – it does offer some interesting film criticism from the day. Former Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Arleigh Burke, contacted Assistant FBI Director William Sullivan to share concerns that the film was “critical of military establishment” and “detrimental to Nation (sic.)” Burke said he had received letters (without saying from whom) alleging that many of the movie’s cast (Fredric March, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Ava Gardner) had “communist connections.”
FSB BUY THE BOOK: Something we learned from WTOP’s National Security Correspondent J.J. Green’s new “Inside the SCIF”newsletter: Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Report reveals that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) component “Military Unit 71330” has a contract with a Russian front company to purchase and deliver copies of the Federal Yellow Book and Congressional Yellow Book. While these books are publicly available – the standing order illustrates how the FSB goes about collecting, in bulk, information about federal employees.
THE HARM OF “HALL FILES” – An article on LinkedIn by Cipher Brief expert John Sipher and Matt Sitter recently looked at how gossip can prevent promotions. Despite a full range of performance management tools, Sipher says that one of the most powerful influences on who did and didn’t get promoted at the CIA was what they called the “hall file” — the scuttlebutt in the corridors about a particular officer’s informal reputation. They offered seven critical elements to delivering constructive feedback to employees – feedback that, unlike the hall file, would have some chance of improving performance.
BET THEY NEVER THOUGHT THIS IS WHY THEY WOULD BE CRITICIZED: More than a half century ago, President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was overthrown. About 15 years later, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New York Times that the Central Intelligence Agency may have aided the plotters but allegedly did so without the approval of senior administration officials. Recently, Face2FaceAfrica.com, a “pan-African digital media company based in New York City” found new reasons to criticize the action. Highlighted in their story is the allegation that the plan for the coup at one point, called for a small squad of paramilitary experts from the Agency’s Special Operations Group to wearing blackface while attacking the Chinese Embassy in Ghana, killing everyone there and destroying the building. Face2FaceAfrica’s headline stressed the planned use of blackface.
TIME FLIES – UNLESS YOU ARE IN THE SLAMMER: It seems like only yesterday that U.S. forces in Afghanistan who were there shortly after 9/11, discovered that among the Taliban fighters they had captured was John Walker Lindh. The 20-year-old American was later sentenced to 20 years in prison. Fox News Channel tells us that he is now set to be released from prison in May. According to reports, Lindh has dual U.S. and Irish citizenship and plans to try to settle in Ireland after his release. Among those not happy with his release is Johnny Spann, the father of Mike Spann, the CIA officer who was the first American killed in Afghanistan after 9/11. Lindh was among the Taliban captives at Qali-Jangi fortress in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan and was interrogated by Mike Spann shortly before the prisoners rioted and killed the young CIA officer. Lindh was initially charged in Spann’s death but that particular charge was later dropped. Spann’s father told a local news outfit inWinfield, Alabama that he hopes there is something elected officials can do to prevent Lindh from being released early or moving overseas.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
CIA DIRECTOR IN RARE SIGHTING WITH SUPERHERO: CIA Director Gina Haspel made a rare TV appearance recently as she welcomed a young superhero to CIA headquarters. Check it out on NBC here...
I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE: We discovered a recently released documentary called “Third Eye Spies” which is said to be the true story of Russell Targ, a Ph.D. physicist who worked at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s on psychic “remote viewing” and who was involved in the CIA’s “Star Gate Project.” Targ is both the producer and star of the documentary which reportedly includes interviews and commentary from over 30 scientists, former CIA officials and “witnesses” to remote viewing experiments. An article in Inverse.com quotes Targ as saying “I have no doubt that ESP is a non-local ability independent of space and time,” he says. “What that means is that we misapprehend the nature of the spacetime we’re living in.” A trailer can be seen here. It seems that no major film distributor wanted to get behind the documentary. Apparently Targ did not see that coming.
BEAT JET LAG LIKE A CIA “AGENT”: Fodor’s Travel has an article sharing what they claim are techniques used by CIA “agents: when they go on the road to avoid jet lag." They say the trick is a special diet developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. Apparently CIA 'agents" who beat the lag fast for several days before they start to travel. Then they eat a high-protein breakfast on their next time zone’s schedule for one day. Then they fast the next day and then continue the feast, fast, feast, fast cycle until it’s time have breakfast at their final
destination. Frankly, putting up with jet lag for a day or so seems a lot easier.
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