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.)
YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN (TO CAMPAIGN): …and not be noticed. With all the stuff going on in the world – raids on al-Baghdadi, Syrian troop pullouts, Ukrainian aid controversies and the like, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got busy. He went to Kansas, again. There are persistent reports Pompeo is considering running for the seat being vacated by retiring Senator Pat Roberts. The Kansas City Star was not impressed, writing in an editorial that Pompeo should “either quit and run for U.S. Senate in Kansas or focus on (his) day job.” Whatever his plans, Pompeo keeps finding reasons to go back to Kansas where he does cranky interviews (telling one reporter “Your question is insane”) and passes out giant buttons to school kids which say “United States Department of State: #Swagger.” The State Department-focused website Diplopundit collected online comments about the buttons including: “This is so sad,” “At least they’re not spending money on graphic design,” “That is a crappy use for a public affairs budget” and “Sweet mercy this is embarrassing.”
SNOWDEN PAYDAY DELAYED: We understand that Henry Holt, the publisher of Edward Snowden's recent book, Permanent Record, has agreed to go along with an order from the Department of Justice — via the Federal District Court in Virginia to withhold any proceeds due to Snowden until at least April 1, 2020. The feds are suing to prevent Snowden from profiting from a book which he failed to submit to the pre-publication review process. It is likely, if Snowden's deal is like most publishing arrangements, that he has already received a couple hefty advances. The decision got little attention in the U.S. media — but was picked up by Sputnik News.
APPARENTLY, YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN: In last week’s Dead Drop we mentioned that Maria Butina’s lawyer was oddly asking for a month-long extension to filing an appeal to a conviction when she was about to be released from jail. We still haven’t figured out why—but now know that Maria was released on time and flew back to Russia to a hero’s welcome. Aeroflot upgraded her to business-class. On arrival in Moscow, she was greeted with flowers and met by someone who appeared to be a guy who works for Russia’s disinformation “Internet Research Agency.” Butina said she would not be following Russian spy Anna Chapman’s high-profile role, however, because she was not “a circus bear.” Shortly thereafter, Butina started appearing on Russian state TV decrying the conditions in U.S. prisons and saying she was forced to eat food off the floor, was not allowed to use the bathroom for long periods of time and guards threatened to rape her.
WILL BOEING BOUNCE BACK? Aviation giant Boeing has been under withering attack recently regarding the catastrophic crashes of their 737 Max aircraft. CEO Dennis Muilenburg was on Capitol Hill for two straight days undergoing a grilling from Congressional leaders wanting to know what Boeing knew, when they knew it, and why didn’t they do something about it sooner. It was ugly. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) described the 737 Max jets as “flying coffins.” Others asked Muilenburg why he had not resigned. With all the focus on the planes’ safety it is not surprising that the company would renew focus on reliability aloft. So it was interesting to see this week that Boeing added a distinguished military leader to its Board of Directors. But did it strike anyone as odd that they picked recently retired Admiral John Richardson to join the board and assign him to the Aerospace Safety Committee? Richardson, as you may know, was a submariner. True, American submarines are renowned for their zero-defect attitude. And Richardson just completed four years as head of the Navy during a period when the service suffered a series of deadly collisions at sea. We guess there weren’t any aviators available.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
HALLOWEEN HUMBUG: In the lead up to the Halloween holiday, the CIA’s social media team posted some helpful hints to kids on “staying covert.” The last-minute tips on costume making were not universally well-received. Among those making mischief over the trick or treat advice was the outfit formerly known as Russia Today but now disguised as RT. RT trawled the twittersphere to find trolls who reacted negatively to the post. If we were the Russians, we wouldn’t say “boo” about stuff like this. They are lucky the CIA didn’t point out what a lousy job Russian intelligence officers did of disguising themselves as tourists in their botched attempt to poison a Russian defector in the UK.
WHERE’S THE FIRE? A 72-year-old Spokane, WA man walked into a fire station last week and said he was from the CIA and that he was there to investigate them. Firefighters used their keen senses to determine that something was not right. So, they called their police brothers. According to KOMO-TV, the secret septuagenarian wouldn’t stand for that and apparently stole a car and led the cops on a high-speed chase through a residential area. Fortunately, no one was hurt during the chase which police say ended with the driver plowing through a tall wooden fence.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
