LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! Given the popularity of UFOs and extraterrestrials, you wouldn’t think Congress would have waited more than half a century between public hearings on this – but the wait was over this week when the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence held a public grilling of Pentagon officials over what they know about UFOs. Scott Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence, told the committee that usually investigations into mysterious sightings have resulted in findings of “airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, U.S. government or U.S. industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, or unexplained sightings that merit further investigation.” In other words: we don’t know if we have been visited by space guests. We noticed that still photographers at the hearing seemed to go out of their way to make the participants and the hearing room look spooky. According to DOD officials, some military members may have been reluctant to report unexplained sightings – fearing stigma or being called alarmists. Apparently, there are factions within DOD who do take the subject very seriously, however, but an unnamed official told Politico “They fetishize their secret society,” saying, “It’s kind of a Skull and Bones-type vibe. They take it seriously, but they have no accountability. Zero. There is a whole group of us that know in great detail this subject, a lot of which has not been reported to Congress because of security issues.” Maybe someone should hold a hearing – oh, wait.
WELL, WE KNOW WHO THE JOKER IS: Lifting an idea from the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the Ukrainian government has reportedly issued decks of playing cards with the images of suspected Russian war criminals on them. The BBC quoted the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who says the cards were produced with the help of volunteers.
THE GUARDIAN GUARD? We suppose it was inevitable. When the U.S. Space Force was established in 2019, as America’s newest armed force – it would not be long before it acquired all the accoutrements enjoyed by other services. Last week, a group of U.S. senators introduced legislation that would create a “Space National Guard.” In a rare display of bipartisanship, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Marco Rubio joined forces to launch the Space Force Guard. Apparently, it is awkward to have members of the Air National Guard support the Guardians of the Space Force – so now they may get the space to become a free standing (flying?) outfit.
TIGHT LIPS ABOUT SUNKEN SHIP: The Russians aren’t the only Navy that has had that sinking feeling recently. Military Times says that a U.S. Navy vessel also sank. That’s about all we can tell you. They say it sank under “unclear circumstances, at an undisclosed location, while testing out some secretive technology.” Beyond that, about all we know is that it was worth at least $2.5 million. The Naval Safety Center says, “Due to the experimental nature of the technology coupled with OSPEC concerns, we are unable to provide any further details nor specifics of the incident.” The good news is that the vessel was “immediately recovered and restored.” The bad news is the incident happened on December 7th – Pearl Harbor Day.
IT CAN HAPPEN IN THE BEST OF FAMILIES: The Dead Drop has taken some shots recently at Ukrainian military supporters who have being putting out fake videos purporting to show victories over the Russians. Some of these videos have been accepted as real and circulated by well-meaning but mis-informed folks. The latest to be bitten by the bogus video bug was retired General Barry McCaffrey who tweeted out some footage on Monday of what appeared to be anti-air combat operations. In a tweet, McCaffrey (who we admire a lot) described the images as “Russian aircraft getting nailed by UKR missile defense,” adding “Russians are losing large numbers of attack aircraft. UKR defense becoming formidable.” Unfortunately, it later became clear that the imagery was animation from a video game called Digital Combat Simulator. McCaffrey quickly deleted his tweet but not before some folks made screen captures. Frankly, we are not surprised that some images like this might fool the 79-year-old retired general. We’re guessing he doesn’t play a lot of video games. Because we always look for the silver lining here at The Dead Drop, perhaps he can get an endorsement deal with Digital Combat Simulator.
MYTH-INFORMATION: Speaking of bum information, the folks at Task & Purpose have several stories this week shooting down urban legends in the world of the U.S. military. Many of the myths were news to us – becauses we’ve been busy downing Russian MiGs on video wargames. Among the stories they say you should definitely not believe are ones about: Mr. Rogers having started out as a deadly military sniper, J.Lo being killed by an IED in Afghanistan, and the Navy turning an entire destroyer invisible and then teleporting it from Philadelphia to Norfolk, VA and back again in ten seconds. We know that last one can’t be true because the southbound traffic on I-95 is too heavy to achieve that kind of speed.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
STONE COLD STUPID: Filmmaker Oliver Stone, a man who never met a conspiracy theory he couldn’t embellish, has trotted out a new one. Appearing on the Lex Fridman podcast (which we never heard of before) – Stone floated the idea that because U.S. officials have been talking about concerns that Russia might use a chemical or tactical weapon in Ukraine – that the U.S. might be secretly planning to “explode a nuclear device in Donbas and kill thousands of people” and blame the Russians. “The United States might well be the one who does that false flag operation. It would not be beyond them. They would, it would be a very dramatic, uh, solution to seal this war off as a major victory for the United States,” Stone added.
SPOOKY AD: Whatever you do, don’t let Oliver Stone see the new, three and a half minute long, recruiting commercial that the Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group has created. It asks the question: “Have you ever wondered who’s pulling the strings?” The commander of the 4th PSYCOP Group, Col. Chris Stangle (whose last name is just one letter away from being STRANGLE) is quoted in Task & Purpose as saying the video was made to show off what psy ops troops can do. It is difficult to adequately describe how eerie the thing is – but we recommend you watch it – just not late at night and not alone.
WANT TO PULL SOME STRINGS WITH THE DEAD DROP? If you have a line on some news we can use, send us an email at: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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