NOW YOU SEE ‘EM… Hey, remember the big splash made on November 1 when the CIA released an additional 470,000 files captured in the 2011 Bin Laden raid? Well, a few days later – the files went missing. Suddenly the link on the Agency website to the UBL archives produced this error message: “The Abbottabad files are temporarily unavailable pending resolution of a technical issue. We are working to make the material available again as soon as possible.” A CIA spokesman told BuzzFeed last Friday they hoped to have the matter fixed soon. It took about five days before the “technical issue” was fixed.
The page now has this update: “CIA resolved the technical issues associated with the 1 November 2017 posting of the Abbottabad compound material, removing operating system and other copyrighted files as well as files that potentially posed a risk to users. CIA also converted Microsoft Office files into Portable Document Format (PDF) to enable viewing of the material from any device and to minimize any risks to users, and converted executable files (files that run programs on a computer) to a format that no longer poses a risk to users.”
It lists a glossary for all removed files with the original filename “to allow users to trace the disposition of the file and to understand the specific reason for the file's removal or conversion,” adding that all files are available by original filename in the Converted Material section.
Color us skeptical that this was merely a computer glitch. The Agency is awash with technical experts for whom managing a large database should be child’s play. The un-informed guess here is that the document cache might not have been adequately scrubbed before initially posting. If that turns out to be the case – it could be problematic – since, Dead Drop sources tell us that several outfits “scraped” the newly released files (i.e. downloaded the whole batch of them) shortly after they were initially posted. So, if any changes should later occur – what the Agency was hoping to hide will stand out like a sore thumb.
SPEAKING OF TRANSPARENCY: Shortly after the Bin Laden stash was released – Stephen Hayes took to the pages of The Weekly Standard to hammer the Obama administration for saying in a release less than 24 hours before President Trump was sworn into office – that it was releasing 49 documents from the raid in an announcement titled, “Closing the Book on Bin Laden: Intelligence Community Releases Final Abbottabad Documents.” Hayes’ theory is that the Obama ODNI tried to shield the connections between al Qaeda and Iran that were highlighted in some of the (temporarily) released documents.
On the other hand, former CIA analyst and NSC spokesman Ned Price attributes an entirely different rationale behind the latest CIA Abbottabad data dump. Writing in The Atlantic, Price suggests that CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s motivation for putting out additional seized documents was to highlight the al Qaeda-Tehran link to undermine public confidence in the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal.
SPEAKING OF MISSING FILES: When the National Archives released (most of) the remaining JFK assassination files on October 27, a number of media outlets seized on one document in particular – a 1975 deposition in which former CIA Director Richard Helms was asked if there was any information that showed that Lee Harvey Oswald “was in some way a CIA agent or an age(nt)…..” and then the transcript mysteriously cuts off.
Outlets ranging from The New York Times to the Sun newspaper in the UK (with its headline: “COVER-UP?”) were very mindful of the gap, speculating that a devastating answer was being hidden from us all. But about a week later, The Washington Post’s Ian Shapira (with considerably less fanfare) revealed that the full document had actually been released 23 years ago. In that transcript, Helms said (at length) that Oswald “was certainly not an agent of the CIA,” and “he was certainly never used by the CIA.”
Never mind.
SECOND OPINION: We first learned from Glenn Greenwald’s outfit (The Intercept) that CIA Director Mike Pompeo met late last month with William Binney, a former NSA official and gadfly. According to the article, the meeting was conducted at the request of President Donald Trump – so that Pompeo could hear Binney’s theory on why the theft of Democratic National Committee emails was really an inside job and not the work of Russian intelligence.
Of course, the notion that the Russians were actively involved is the long-held view of Pompeo’s own Agency – and that of the Intelligence Community writ large. But Binney, a 74-year-old ex-NSA employee with a record of butting heads with conventional wisdom, has another notion laid out in a piece he co-signed with a bunch of other former officials calling themselves, “Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.”
How did the President latch on to the alternative explanation? Well, Binney touted the theory on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show in August, and we know the President is a loyal viewer.
The revelation of Binney’s secret meeting with Pompeo forced CIA spokesman Dean Boyd to issue a statement saying, “The director stands by and has always stood by the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment” (which says that Russia was behind the hacking.)
Agency alumni, however, tell us that it strikes them as very odd that someone touting a contrarian conspiracy theory like Binney would get to go around the entire intelligence community and deliver his views directly to the CIA Director. “This smells like a meeting done to please the President – not gather intelligence,” one retiree told us. “The whole “inside job” story sounds like veteran intelligence professional insanity, to me,” he said.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
- Snake Bit Service: Has any U.S. military service had as bad a run of luck as the U.S. Navy of late? Consider the recent headlines: “‘Multiple failures’ by ship crews standing watch contributed to deadly collisions, Navy finds,” revealing that recent deadly at-sea crashes were largely self-inflicted by shoddy seamanship; and “’Fat Leonard’ probe expands to ensnare more than 60 admirals’” – the largest ethics scandal in Navy history keeps expanding, tying up hundreds of personnel – including four-star officers under scrutiny for accepting favors from a corrupt contractor.
Throw in other concerns – such as the likelihood that the U.S. Air Force will snatch the top job in the Pacific – the U.S. Pacific Command – a job that has been exclusively held by the Navy for the past 70 years. And then there is politics – where the president populates his administration with Marine Corp and Army generals – but a dearth of admirals. Looking for a Navy tint to the Trump campaign and administration? Well there is dismissed spokesman, reserve Navy Commander Sean Spicer, and who could forget controversial campaign advisor Carter Page, a 1993 Annapolis graduate who spent five years on active duty.
- We’re Not in Kansas Anymore: Mike Pompeo traveled to his hometown of Wichita where he made public remarks on Monday for the first time since taking over as CIA Director. The biggest threat to the United States, he told the Wichita Downtown Rotary club, is not North Korea or ISIS – but the national deficit. The Dead Drop is relying on the Wichita Eagle’s account of the remarks (since a transcript has not been posted on the CIA’s website as of yet.)
Pompeo joked about his new job: “I graduated from West Point. Our motto was, ‘I will not lie, cheat or steal,’” he said. “And basically, that’s what we (at CIA) do.” Pompeo made about 20 minutes of remarks before teeing off the Q&A saying, “With that, I’m happy to talk about – well, frankly, almost nothing…But I’m happy to listen to your questions.” One question was, “How do you know you don’t have any Russian spies working for you?” Pompeo responded, “We do,” drawing awkward laughter. “We operate every day on the assumption that we’ve got bad people inside the gates,” he said.
Sittin’ in the Ritz: Observers were shocked over the weekend when the Saudi Crown Prince had a gaggle of fellow princes rounded up and arrested on charges of corruption. Very powerful figures in the Kingdom had their assets frozen and their royal butts thrown into a makeshift prison at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton. We can’t tell you exactly what is going on – but we CAN tell you when it might end. We went on the com website (operators of the Ritz Carlton) and found that we could not book any room there until Feb. 1, 2018. But starting that day, there are rooms to be had. At current exchange rates, a room goes for 1214 Riyals a night – or $323.68, which seems like quite a good deal for a royal slammer.
- Home Alone: According to this article from an upcoming edition of the Foreign Service Journal, “The Foreign Service officer corps at State has lost 60 percent of its Career Ambassadors since January. Ranks of Career Ministers, (three-star equivalents) …are down from 33 to 19” and Minister Counselors (two-star equivalents) “have fallen from 431 right after Labor Day to 369 today.” This would be worrisome, but Trump told Laura Ingraham on Fox News recently regarding vacancies at State that he is “the only one that matters.”
NETWORK NEWS: Not a day goes by when members of The Cipher Brief Network aren’t making news. Here are just a few examples from this week:
- Chiefly Speaking: Former senior CIA operations officer was interviewed on the Spy Museum’s “SpyCast” podcast on what it is like to serve as a station chief.
- Covert No Go: Former Acting and Deputy CIA Director is quoted in The New Yorker in a story titled, “Is the Political Class Drifting Toward War with North Korea?” saying, “From my perspective, I can’t think of a covert action that would work in the case of North Korea.”
- War is Hell: Retired four- told Fox News regarding North Korea, “The war is a horrific option, but the fact of the matter is that option is real.”
- What’s up, Doc? Former DNI told CNN that Trump’s speech Tuesday night on North Korea was “mostly stick and not much carrot.”
- Manafort Destiny: , former CIA and NSA director, tells Newsweek that in the recent Russia election meddling news, despite the popular focus on Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos is “the big one.”
- Career Advice: Retired 4-star Navy Admiral now Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts, writes for Time about advice he gives to his students on whether they should work for the Trump administration if they disagree with the President's policies.
WHAT’S ON THEIR NIGHTSTAND?
Ray Mabus served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy, the longest to serve as leader of the Navy and Marine Corps since World War I:
“I just finished a book about the Navy – The Fleet at Flood Tide – by a guy named James Hornfischer. And it was about the last two years of WWII and how the US Navy did that. And sort of the view from both sides – the view from the U.S. side in terms of naval actions and capabilities, and the view from the Japanese side. It’s a terrific book.”
SECURITY QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"For too long, intelligence agencies have been like the man who loses his car keys late at night. When asked why he only searches for them under the streetlight, he answers that it’s the only place he can see. Secrets are the IC’s streetlight, but the information it needs can often lurk in unsuspected and uninspected corners. Taking better advantage of open source information is one way of turning on more lights."
– Carmen , former CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
