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Dead Drop May 6

Dead Drop May 6

TOO SOON?  CIA’s social meeting mavens took to live tweeting events surrounding the demise of Osama bin Ladin last Sunday – marking the fifth anniversary of the terrorist’s exit from the planet. The gimmick got mixed reviews at best – some in the Twitterverse enjoyed the simulated play-by-play of what was arguably the Agency’s greatest hit. Others, ranging from Fortune (which said the tactic “backfired”) to snarky foreign media, like Putin’s “RT” and various British tabloids, were less amused – asking, for example, when CIA was going to recreate live tweets of the Bay of Pigs invasion.  Some people are never satisfied.

OBL STILL DEAD: There are so few successes that outfits like CIA are allowed to celebrate – you have to cut them some slack when they keep spiking the ball in the end zone on well-known victories like nailing bin Ladin. On Sunday, CIA Director John Brennan continued his visibility raising efforts by appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press.  The ostensible purpose also was to note the five-year anniversary of bin Ladin’s “up close and personal” meeting with Navy SEALs.  But MtP host Chuck Todd wasted little time segueing to current threats like ISIS/ISIL/Daesh (choose your favorite label.)  Brennan did a good job of ducking a question about the President once having called ISIS “the JV team.” He also cast doubt on the wisdom of declassifying and releasing the “28-pages” from the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry which reportedly raise questions about Saudi officials’ involvement in 9/11 planning. Brennan described the pages as “uncorroborated, un-vetted information,” some of which is “very inaccurate.”  Meanwhile, former CIA Director Porter Goss (who was co-chair of the Joint Inquiry) came out in favor of declassifying the 28-pages – not that he thinks such a move will settle matters.  He told the Florida Bulldog: “My guess is that some of the 28-page material will be released soon, but some bits will still be redacted. Thus the speculation will continue. I think this will all be settled about the same time everyone agrees about the Kennedy assassination.”

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