CAREFUL. DON’T GET VLAD MAD: We were somewhat perplexed last week regarding the kerfuffle over the wisdom of U.S. officials sharing information about sharing information with the Ukrainians. Well, sharing “intelligence” information anyway. People we respect were quite vocal on both sides of the argument. It all started when the New York Times published a story which said that U.S. intelligence that was shared with the Ukrainians helped kill a whole bunch of Russian generals during the course of the war in Ukraine. Then, NBC News weighed in reporting that American intelligence contributed heavily to the sinking of the Russian Black Sea flagship the Moskva. After each of these stories, Pentagon and other officials tried to dial things back a little. Regarding the NYT story, officials said the headline was misleading, and stressed that the U.S. didn’t provide intelligence with the specific purpose of killing specific generals. Essentially, they said, “we just gave them information on Russian troop whereabouts and some generals might have had the misfortune of being in the vicinity.” Then, regarding the Moskva story, officials said they just confirmed to the Ukrainians that their intelligence on the location of the Moskva was correct – but they didn’t know they were going to sink it. At that point, the chattering class jumped in and said, “shut up already.” Figures like New York Times columnist Tom Friedman argued that his sources assured him that the stories were not “part of any thought-out strategy.” Thought-out or not, it is unclear if either of the story lines started with “leaks” or if they were the result of authorized background briefs to members of the media that may have gone awry. Then, somebody leaked news that President Biden was telling folks to quit leaking. Reportedly, Biden read the riot act to defense and intelligence officials about loose lips and sinking ships. As we mentioned, people we respect a lot can take different positions of this. For example, former DNI James Clapper was on said on CNN, “some of the hand-wringing about this is kind of over-wrought.” But about an hour later, retired General David Petraeus was on the same network saying that the intelligence stories have “gone too far.” He suggested that he thought they were, “needlessly provocative.” Our take: U.S. officials take great pride in talking about the tons of lethal weapons that the U.S. has provided to the Ukrainians including Howitzers, Javelins, Stingers and switchblade drones. Administration officials are also happy to tell you the U.S. is sending billions of dollars worth of weapons. But suggesting to the Ukrainians where they might aim them? Can’t do that, because THAT might annoy Putin.
DON’T THOSE UKRAINIANS READ THE DEAD DROP? Last week’s Dead Drop had an item noting that Kyiv is doing well spreading the truth about Ukrainian successes against Moscow – but that they should avoid making stuff up. Apparently, not everyone was listening. This past weekend, there was a flurry of stories that yet another Russian ship, this time the frigate Admiral Makarov, had been set on fire and was spewing black smoke all over the Black Sea. Many news outlets repeated the claim, some including video purporting to show the ship ablaze. But we noticed many of those same sources quietly delete their tweets. Turns out, the video may have been fake, perhaps another one of those video game generated mini-movies. There were other videos from a day or two later, that appear legit, showing the Ukrainians attacking Russian held positions on Snake Island and taking down a Russian troop-carrying helicopter – perhaps with a drone. No need to fake it.
ESPER BOOK: We’ve reported several times on the battle that former Defense Secretary Mark Esper had in getting clearance to publish his memoir titled, A Sacred Oath. He even sued his old department to get around pre-publication roadblocks. Well, the book is now out. And among the nuggets are claims that former President Donald Trump asked about attacking drug labs and drug lords in Mexico (using Patriot air defense missiles, no less) – and pretending the attack came from somewhere else. CBS News’ 60 Minutes asked Trump about that and his response was: “No comment.” Also – Esper says that the former president was a big fan of the way Russian and Italian warships look – thinking they were esthetically more pleasing than American counterparts. Esper says he pushed back saying essentially, maybe so, but ours work better. We tried to reach the captain of the Moskva to get his opinion. We’re still waiting to hear back.
HIT THE ROAD JACK: The Amazon Prime Video TV series “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” is coming to the end of its run. Well, ending before too long anyway. Two seasons of the Clancy-novel inspired series have been released and a third season is likely to drop sometime this summer. Military.com says a fourth and final season is currently being filmed. But after that, star John Krasinski is packing it in. Season four is reportedly also going to feature Michael Peña playing Domingo "Ding" Chavez – a character from several of the Clancy books. Preliminary talks are reportedly going on about a follow-on series starring Peña doing his “Ding” thing.
TWICE TOLD TALE OF A DEAD MAN: If you prefer vintage derring-do, you might check out “Operation Mincemeat,” which premiered on Netflix this week. It is the unlikely (but fact-based) story of British intelligence officers during World War II who planted false papers on a very real corpse and floated it into the hands of the Germans. The film stars Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen and Kelly Macdonald. You can catch the trailer here. Among those involved in the real operation and portrayed in the film was Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, whose name may sound familiar. And if the overall story sounds familiar it may be because it was the basis of the 1956 film, “The Man Who Never Was.” The corpse has had more lives than most cats. Turns out, there is also a musical by the same name “Operation Mincemeat” now being staged in London. Variety, in its review, suggests the play is either “ridiculously cleaver or cleverly ridiculous.” Slate.com has a lengthy article laying out what in the film was real and what was not. As far as we know – they have not performed a similar service for the musical.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
CALL SIGN: PROMO-COOL – Seems like a week doesn’t go by that we don’t have an item relating to the soon-to-be-released “Top Gun: Maverick” movie. This is kind of a fun one. The producers have created a website called WhatsMyCallSign.com. If you visit it, they will ask your name and a couple of odd, seemingly random, questions and then it generates an aviator call sign for you. But wait, there is more. The site also asks for access to your webcam and (after giving away your privacy) it generates a live picture of your face in a colorful jet pilot helmet with your newly assigned call sign attached. Paramount has put together a short video explaining to the uninitiated the significance of call signs. If you fall into that category, your call sign may be: “Clueless.”
A NEWS TIP BY ANY OTHER NAME: Would still be pretty sweet. Launch your ideas to us. Our callsign is TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com. OK, doesn’t fit on a helmet but it is the best we’ve got.
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