BLOODY RIGHT: U.S. National Cyber Security Director Harry Coker traveled to the United Kingdom to tell a conference that Chinese military hackers have been circumventing U.S. cybersecurity defenses and targeting American interests at an “unprecedented scale.” He probably didn’t have any trouble convincing his audience of the threat since the conference came on the heels of reports that the British military payment system had been hacked, likely by the Chinese government. The Times of London reported that more than a quarter of a million military personnel and veterans may have been impacted by the breach. A British Member of Parliament, Tobias Ellwood, speculated to Sky News, that the Chinese might be hacking into the system to identify “financially vulnerable” personnel who might be open to financial inducements. The motivation is not clear at the moment – but Coker’s “unprecedented scale” call seems on target.
DISCORDANT NOTE: It is no surprise that “free speech” is not free in places like China, but now we hear that some songs are not allowed either. The Wall Street Journal reports that authorities in Hong Kong have been enforcing a government prohibition of people “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing” the song “Glory to Hong Kong.” The ditty became popular during the 2019 pro-democracy uprisings in Hong Kong. Local officials recently arrested a housewife and a delivery worker for posting the song on social media. We found a video of the English version of “Glory to Hong Kong” on X. Feel free to hum along (as long as you are not in Chinese controlled territory.)
SECSTATE BLINKEN PULLING STRINGS IN UKRAINE: Well, plucking maybe. The reviews were decidely mixed when Secretary of State Antony Blinken took time during his trip to Kyiv to visit a bar and join a local band called “19.99” playing Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.” Some folks thought his message of solidarity was a good one even if the guitar used by the Secretary might have been out of tune. Others noted that while the song’s title sounds inspirational, if you listen closely to the lyrics (hard to do, we know) the words make reference to American failings like homelessness and gun crime. Fox News host Brian Kilmeade seemed more upset about Blinken’s timing, rather than his song selection: “Kharkiv is about to fall, the second biggest city in Ukraine. The weapons are late, yet to be delivered. The Russians are almost in the open field, hundreds of miles being eaten up, and he’s playing Neil Young?” Kilmeade said. “To me, this is so embarrassing. Can you picture [Henry] Kissinger doing this?” he asked. No. As far as we know, Kissinger did not play guitar. Mishearing (or ignoring) the lyrics however does seem to be a bipartisan issue. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Neil Young filed a lawsuit to prevent Donald Trump from playing “Rockin’ in the Free World” at campaign events.
DID THEY RUN OUT OF GOLF CARTS? The Dead Drop has told you before that the hard-pressed Russian Army has, at times, had to rely on golf carts on the battlefield, having run short of more traditional vehicles. Now, comes a story from Forbes, which says that after losing nearly 15,000 combat vehicles in the Ukraine war – Russia has increasingly been seen using motorcycles. While motorbikes have long been used for messengers and the like, using them to rush headlong toward the positions of the opposition seems to be shifting into a new gear.
ANOTHER, “ONE LAST MISSION” BOOK: Author Paul Vidich, whose last book Beirut Station received a middling review in The Cipher Brief, announced on social media that he has landed a new, two-book deal. The next book is to be called The Poet’s Game and is about “a former CIA officer who is called back to the agency for one last job: to exfiltrate a Russian intelligence officer who has kompromat on the U.S. President, but the mission becomes a hall of mirrors with no exits as a double agent inside the CIA puts the whole plan at risk.” No word yet on when The Poet’s Game will be published. The news got us wondering, however, why so many novels and movies center around retired CIA officers (often mis-labeled as “agents”) who are called back for one last mission. Maybe the theory is that a lot of real retired CIA officers have time to read novels and watch movies and enjoy it when other annuitants like them are cast as the heroes.
ON THE NON-FICTION HORIZON: Dr. Hanna Notte, who is Director of the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, has landed a deal to write a book for Norton titled: We Shall Outlast Them: How Russia’s Conflict with the West Went Global. The book is said to be about: “an alarming new era in Russian statecraft in which the Kremlin is waging a battle of wills against the West and forging new alliances with anti-Western forces in the Global South—including in Iran, North Korea, and the Sahel region—that will cast a dark shadow over the world long after Putin is gone.” Yep. Sounds about right, at least according to Cipher Brief reporting.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
INTENTIONAL GROUNDING? Exiled TV talking head Tucker Carlson found a way to make himself appear grounded by having NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers appear as a guest on his podcast, The Tucker Carlson Show. Compared to Rodgers, Carlson almost appears normal. We have not subjected ourselves to watching the whole thing – but found a few national security highlights mentioned in the reporting done by others who courageously watched the show. Rodgers confirmed rumors to Carlson that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. had sounded him out about possibly running for vice president – which the QB considered for a while before taking himself out of the (political) lineup. From the reports, it appears the Jets quarterback is a believer in a lot of conspiracy theories – about everything from COVID, vaccines, and one about Pat Tillman, who quit the NFL to join the Army and was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. While the friendly fire stuff is tragically true, Rodgers reportedly says that after Tillman’s death, the military confiscated his journal and burned his uniform. No word as to why. Rodgers also thinks Vladimir Putin is an “interesting, thoughtful, smart individual” and suggests the West is slandering the Russian leader unnecessarily. But Rodgers was unhappy with Volodymyr Zelenskyy for having the nerve to show up before Congress inappropriately dressed in fatigues, however. He also darkly hinted that Mossad might have been involved in the death of Jeffrey Epstein and that George Soros is behind demonstrations in the United States because he is “anti-human.” Perhaps Rodgers played too many games without a helmet.
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