Dead Drop: November 1

AT LEAST HE’S NOT ACTING: CIA’s former Deputy Director for Digital Innovation, Andrew Hallman has been named as ODNI’s Principal Executive. It’s not exactly an acting role, but it kinda is.  Hallman will be performing the duties and responsibilities of the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence until the President decides to appoint someone to the permanent position.  The lucky person will also have to be confirmed by the Senate to serve as the number two executive at ODNI.

THIS WEEK’S EDITION OF: STORIES WE CAN’T EXPLAIN:  Former CIA officer Sabrina de Sousa, who had done time in an Italian prison over an alleged 2003 Agency kidnapping of a terrorist suspect in Milan – and who was still serving community service in Italy, reportedly fled that country and has returned to the United States.  Why?  According to Reuters, she decided to flee Italy “after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel visited Rome in October.” The Italian newspaper Il Corriere quoted de Sousa as saying she “was terrified of the consequences (she) could face” and that the “arrival of Haspel in Italy confirmed to the Italian government that the U.S. administration had washed its hands of” her case.  Call us crazy, but we don’t think Haspel’s visit to Italy had anything to do with de Sousa’s case. Perhaps it just provided an excuse to skip out of the community service (which she had been given when her four-year prison sentence was commuted.)

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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