RT: PHONE HOME: Or at least send us a Telegram. The normally tight-lipped CIA emerged from behind the cloud of secrecy this week, to promote the release of a new Russian-language video posted on Telegram and other social media platforms, that provides instructions for unhappy Russians who want to contact the Agency securely. The video doesn’t directly mention Vladimir Putin or the war in Ukraine – but seeks out Russians with valuable information who are unhappy with the status quo. Agency officials told media outlets that Russians who have been unnerved by the recent bloodshed have already been reaching out, so why not make it easier to connect? That was their reasoning for offering instructions on how to do it securely. Whether the new program has sparked any leads so far is unknown – but it has definitely launched a few jokes. One person tweeted “Your call is very important to us. Please listen carefully because our menu has changed. Press 1 for the Coup Department Press 2 to report war crimes…”
LUNAR LANDING LUNACY: Dmitry Rogozin, the former head honcho of Russia’s Roscosmos Space Agency isn’t necessarily buying those moon landing stories that his American counterparts have been putting out since 1969. Rogozin posted on Telegram recently saying, "About ten years ago, when I worked in the Government, I sent an official request to Roscosmos to provide me with documentary evidence of the Americans' stay on the moon, which at that time was still at the disposal of the federal agency." He says over the years, he tried to find proof that the lunar landing really happened. But Rogozin says the only confirmations he could come up with were in a book describing a Soviet Cosmonaut discussing the mission with American astronauts. Thin gruel in his view. He asked, ‘how could the Americans do this in 1969 and not return to the moon over the ensuring half century?’ According to an item in Zerohedge.com, one of the other things that caused Rogozin to question the mission which seemed more legit was how Soviet spacemen looked after a short flight, compared to the American spacemen who had been to the moon. "I was painfully embarrassed by the fact that the Soviet cosmonauts returning from multi-day expeditions could barely stand on their feet and underwent a long recovery after such flights,” he said adding that, “the Americans crawled out of their lunar ships like cucumbers from the garden. " This raises one important question in our minds: do Russia cucumbers crawl?
RANK INDIFFERENCE: The folks at Military.com recently provided a useful article that provides, as they phrased it, everything you need to know about military ranks. Lots of folks find it confusing to figure out what all those chevrons, stripes, bars and stars actually mean – especially since the various services often call ranks different things than their counterparts. To make matters even more complex – in addition to the “ranks” there are also “pay grades.” The most junior enlisted person is dubbed an “E-1” in addition to being called a Private (Recruit) in the Army, Airman Basic in the Air Force, Seaman Recruit in the Navy and Coast Guard, Private in the Marine Corps or Specialist 1 in the Space Force. But proving that even Military Times can get confused – the piece asks the question: What is the highest military rank? And answers their own question (kinda incorrectly) “The highest military rank is 0-10, or “five-star general.” Actually, four-star generals and admirals are 0-10s. Our own little researched showed that nine Americans have received five-star status…the last living one was Omar Bradley who died in 1981. Since making five-stars did not come with additional pay – the military apparently did not create an 0-11 paygrade on their organization charts…but Military Times shortchanged a lot of living 0-10s. One benefit (beyond bragging rights) of making five-stars is that technically you are entitled to be considered on active duty for the rest of your life and draw full pay and benefits.
JOB OPENINGS: Last week, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman announced that she plans to retire at the end of June. She was the first woman to hold the nation’s number two diplomat role. Who will replace her? We haven’t heard any credible rumors. If you have any inside dope, drop us a line. Perhaps the success of Netflix’s not-entirely-plausible series, “The Diplomat” about an upwardly mobile foreign service officer will inspire career State Department officers to throw their hats in the ring. Also last week, word came out that another major player in national security, General Paul Nakasone, is planning to step down in the coming months. Since Nakasone is dual-hatted – leading both the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command, potential successors will have to throw two hats in the ring. Nakasone hasn’t officially announced his departure or whether he is going to retire or perhaps take another job in uniform.
SPACE COMMAND HQ MOVE ABORTED? Remember we told you last week, that Senator Tommy Tuberville (R, AL) was singlehandedly blocking a couple hundred military nominations? He’s doing that because he was unhappy with DoD’s policy regarding leave and compensation for service members and their families wanting to travel across state lines to seek abortion services. Well, we’re sure it’s just a coincidence…but this week came word that the Biden administration is considering putting a halt on plans to move the Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama. The move was already controversial after being ordered during the latter part of the Trump administration. Biden Administration officials say the delay has nothing to do with politics. In Washington, however, NOTHING has nothing to do with politics.
THIS WEEK IN SCOTT RITTER NEWS: Last week’s Dead Drop also had an item about former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter flogging his book in Russia and hoping that the Russian and Chinese people would forgive America for what it has done to them. Turns out Ritter’s Russian ruminations were just getting started. This week, Russia Media Watcher Julia Davis came up with additional gems like Ritter saying Russia clearly does not want a war and is merely responding to American provocations. And he complained that his friend Seymour Hersh is being mistreated in the US and that “Journalism is dead in America.” You know what else is dead? Irony and self-awareness. Ritter told his Russian friends that I “went to prison for three years because of what I believe in.” Apparently, he believes Russia does not have Google or anything like it – where they might learn that what he really went to prison for in 2011 was exchanging explicit messages with a detective who was posing as a 15-year old girl and then performing a sex act on himself on a webcam. That came a decade after a previous arrest. Since people routinely get jailed in Russia on trumped up charges – maybe Ritter’s audiences will actually believe that he was imprisoned over his political views.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
BRITISH CLICKBAIT: We stumbled across an online site called “Sky History” which seems to promote a British streaming site that offers a chance to “Discover the richness of human history and endeavour with these awe-inspiring shows, from stories of wartime grit to explorations of some of mankind’s biggest mysteries.” Sky History put together an article titled “6 Seductive Sex Spies from History.” Some of the names are familiar, like Mata Hari. Others, not so much (at least to us) like Stephanie Julianne von Hohenlohe, described as a bed-hopping, cigar-smoking princess by marriage who helped the Hitler regime. Perhaps the most amusing was Roald Dahl, the author of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, who allegedly was employed by the British government to collect intelligence during World War II. Among his duties (according to Sky History) was to gather information about Americans who held pro-Nazi views. Among his targets, Clare Booth, who they describe as a right-wing congresswoman. Sky History says Dahl’s mission required him to sleep with Booth for three nights in a row which he reportedly found exhausting or unpleasant or some such. Dahl asked to be taken off the job but was ordered to keep at it and to “close his eyes and think of England.” Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.
KEEP YOUR EYES WIDE OPEN AND THINK OF THE DEAD DROP: We’re news tip mad. Send us news we can use at: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
