AUF WIEDERSEHEN ACTING DNI GRENELL? While not exactly a lovefest, Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee’s confirmation hearing for nominee Rep. John Ratcliffe gave the impression that the Congressman is on a fast track to becoming the next Director of National Intelligence. Socially distanced Senators did not rough up the nominee much at all and there was little attention devoted to reports that he had embellished a thin résumé, reports which caused him to pull his name for consideration for the post once before. If/when Ratcliffe is confirmed, Politico posed the question will Grenell be rewarded with another senior-level Trump administration post? Or will he head back to Germany where he is still the U.S. ambassador?
ZOOM TO GROW? A lot of people seem to be using video apps these days for telework and social gatherings. But are these apps safe? The folks at the National Security Agency, who know a thing or two about cybersecurity, have posted a guide to help federal workers choose between various telework options when necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic. Some toplines: Zoom offers end-to-end encryption while Microsoft Teams does not. Of course, NSA does not endorse any specific platform. They suggest users consider the “country of origin” of various teleworking services (that is to say: cough, cough, “China.”)
IT’S RAINING DOCTORS IN RUSSIA: You think conditions in the U.S. are tough? Well, spare a thought about Russia where there have been a rash of Russian doctors who have complained about the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) suddenly falling out of hospital windows. We did not know that hospital windows opened. Three Russian doctors in the past couple weeks have suffered “accidental” defenestration. The latest, Alexander Shulepov, was reported to be fighting for his life after suffering head injuries which came from a fall – shortly after he participated in making a video complaining about the lack of PPE. Two senior female doctors died from similar “accidents.”
NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: A couple of weeks ago, The Dead Drop mentioned that for cybersecurity reasons the Navy was bizarrely withholding information on new assignments for its flag officers – despite a law which required the service to announce such moves. Senator Elizabeth Warren got on the Navy’s case and this week Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday caved and replied to Warren saying: “The Navy must align itself with the rest of the Department of Defense,” adding “I value the need for transparency with the American Public and am grateful for your engagement on this matter.”
SWEET RIDE FOR SALE: You may not have been putting too many miles on the family sedan during the lockdown, but nevertheless, if you happened to find yourself in need of a new set of wheels, have we got a suggestion for you! OK, not exactly a NEW set of wheels. But Military Times tells us that on June 13, there will be an auction in Auburn, Indiana where a Dodge WC-57 Command Car will go up for sale. The 4x4 vehicle was part of the 3rd Army headquarters motor pool and was specially modified to meet the personal preferences of General George S. Patton. It comes will all the bells and whistles including a “Browning .30 caliber machine gun mount, armor plating, sirens, horns, auxiliary tanks, and 3rd Army HQ pennants.” The auctioneers have posted a video of the vehicle in case you want to kick the tires (remotely)
MAKING LIGHT OF HEAVY ARMOR: There is a long-standing military tradition of attaching playful names to serious pieces of equipment. The folks at Task and Purpose recently dug up a list of names stenciled on the gun tubes of mothballed Army M1 tanks. We think you will get a bang out of some of those names. For example: “Diplomacy Failed,” “A Can of Whoopass,” and “Bye Felicia.”
DID THE CIA ROCK THE RUSSIAN’S WORLD? A new podcast set to drop on May 11th poses the interesting question: Was the CIA responsible for writing the song “Wind of Change” for the Scorpions in 1990 as a piece of Cold War propaganda? Apparently, this is not as much of an off-the-wall assertion as it might seem. The podcast, hosted by New Yorker journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, says the song was a huge hit in the U.S. and Europe and arrived just in time for the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. From what we can tell, the podcast doesn’t come to a definitive answer on the question…but if the Agency wrote it, we hope they are getting royalties. One version of the song posted on YouTube has been viewed 761 million times in the last decade alone.
BEIRUT RULES THE SCREEN: One of the first books reviewed in The Cipher Brief’s “UnderCover” section was “Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah’s War Against America” by Fred Burton and Samuel Katz. We liked it a lot and gave it 3.5 trenchcoats in an October 2018 review. Apparently, we were not alone. Author Burton tweeted this week that TV producer Jon Steinberg is working on a series based on the book.
WISE MEN RULE IN PRINT: Publishing sources say St. Martin’s will release a book early next year titled: Three Wise Men: A Navy SEAL, A Green Beret, and How Their Marine Brother Became a War’s Sole Survivor. This is the story of Jeremy Wise, a former Navy SEAL who became a CIA contractor and was killed in a suicide bombing in Khost, Afghanistan. His brother Ben, was a Green Beret sniper who lost his life in a firefight with the Taliban, and their brother Beau, is a Marine who was pulled from the battlefield by DOD to avoid the chance that one family would suffer the unimaginable loss of three sons.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
MAY THE (SPACE) FORCE BE WITH YOU: We’ve mentioned before a new show coming to Netflix called “Space Force” starring Steve Carell (formerly of The Office). A new trailer has been released and the show looks like the kind of goofy, out-of-this-world, workplace comedy that we need right now. In addition to Carell, there is a strong cast including John Malkovich, Lisa Kudrow, Fred Willard and Jane Lynch. Among those who have seen the trailer is General John Raymond, the Chief of Space Operations, who said he is looking forward to the program but offered advice to Carrell: “Get a haircut.“ The show launches May 29th.
MAYBE THEY ARE TRYING TOO HARD: A lot of organizations jumped on the “May the 4th” meme in their social media activity. The U.S. Navy jumped too – but may have missed. Mediate.com says the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet posted a bizarre mashup showing a photo of the aircraft carrier “USS George H.W. Bush, the Death Star, the Millennium Falcon, and five X-Wings photoshopped into the background, with the caption “May the 4th Be With.” But no: “You.” There was no explanation for the missing “You.” Our guess is that any organization that has a title as long as “U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet” might run out of energy before they get to the “You.”
WHY NOT “U2 MUSK”? Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and his single-named girlfriend “Grimes” just produced a baby. Media accounts say that the couple have named the kid: “X Æ A-12 Musk.” The press guessed that the A-12 was a reference to the CIA aircraft A-12 which Lockheed called “Archangel.” We note that the CIA called it “Oxcart” – so maybe there is some Musk Ox joke to be made here.
DISCORDANT NOTE: The website AmericanSongwriter.com carries a feature about Seattle-based country musician Miller Campbell. It says she earned multiple college degrees, aspired to work for the State Department and had a job offer from the CIA which she almost accepted. But “just two weeks before she was to travel overseas to Turkey to meet her future C.I.A. colleagues, she decided to turn down the position” and took up songwriting instead. Call us crazy, but we haven’t heard of CIA planning to send new hires overseas (analysts or case officers) before they have had any training. But we understand that songwriters need good imaginations.
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