ONE GIANT LEAP FOR WOMAN-KIND? The Dead Drop hears that Gina Haspel, the first woman to serve as CIA Director, either has – or soon will — name the first woman to serve as the Agency’s Deputy Director for Operations. The DDO runs the National Clandestine Service – the super secret side of the Agency. We hear that Beth Kimber, a highly-respected, career member of the clandestine service, is among the top choices. The position does not require Senate confirmation. Some (but not all) DDO’s in the past have maintained their undercover status while serving in the job. Kimber, however, is overt.
OUCH, THAT’LL STING: The Telegraph newspaper in the UK reports that the Kremlin has named a square in Moscow in honor of Kim Philby, one of Britain’s worst traitors. You may recall that Philby defected to the Soviet Union in 1963, on the heels of two other Soviet double agents, Guy Burgess and Donald MacLean. Philby held high positions in MI-6 while secretly working for the Soviets. No word on what motivated the Russians to honor the bugger thirty years after his death. If they have no prohibition on naming things after living people, The Dead Drop recommends that the Brits find some suitable space in London to name after Sergei Skripal, the former GRU officer that the Russians tried and failed to kill.
SPEAKING OF BUNGLED HITS: A story in Salon.com alerted us to a streaming TV series that sounds like it would be worth a look. Amazon has just launched season two of “Patriot” which is described as “the screw-up’s answer to TV’s super-agents” and an eccentric spy comedy where every mission goes wrong. Michael Dorman plays “John Tavner” a covert operative whose handler is his dad. Tavner’s “cover job is with a Milwaukee-based piping company.” What could go wrong?
SMILE: YOU’RE ON CANDID STREETLIGHT: Government Executive reported last week that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have “hidden an undisclosed number of covert surveillance cameras inside streetlights around the country.” Apparently, DEA and ICE are not trying very hard to hide the fact, since publicly available government procurement documents show they have spent about $50,000 since June on the devices. The article also discusses “covert traffic barrels” and other spooky gizmos. No telling what's next...
MY, WHAT A SMALL NOSE YOU HAVE: Contrary to everything you learned reading Pinocchio as a kid – the Daily Mail now reports that scientists have figured out that when you tell a lie – the temperature of your nose lowers – and as a result, it gets smaller. While the shrinkage is imperceptible to the naked eye – the all-seeing thermal camera knows when your nose grows smaller. According to the report, tests showed that thermal cameras could detect 80% of people lying – which, they say, is a better rate than the polygraph.
“RIDDLE RESOLVED” – REALLY? There was a recent article in Newsweek which proclaimed that a long-standing riddle of who “dimed out” FBI agent and Russian mole Robert Hanssen, had finally been solved. The article cites a book by recently-deceased author David Wise, as giving the answer. Oddly, the book, titled, The Seven Million Dollar Spy, is only available in audio format. Apparently no “dead tree” publisher has put the thing in print. But according to Newsweek, it was Alexandr Shcherbakov, a former KGB officer, who gave up Hanssen and was eventually resettled in the United States in 2010. But here’s the rub. Hanssen was arrested and convicted in 2001. If Shcherbakov had provided the intelligence that allowed the U.S. to arrest one of the most damaging U.S. traitors ever – it is doubtful that the Russian would have wanted to remain within the Kremlin’s easy grasp for another nine years. In fact, there were stories years ago (such as this NPR story from 2007) about the U.S. paying some disgruntled KGB officer $7 million for a file that contained the fingerprints of someone who turned out to be Hanssen. Notice — $7 million the same amount mentioned in Wise’s book. But he says Shcherbakov was still in Russia. The Newsweek story mentions that the new book Best of Enemies reviewed by The Cipher Brief’s Under/Cover) also alludes to the same story. But best we can determine – Wise and Newsweek fingered the wrong guy.
THE GRU: REALLY GOOD AT LOOKING REALLY BAD: In recent months, The Dead Drop has listed countless examples of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, apparently exhibiting less-than-stellar tradecraft. But now comes an article on Quartz.com which cites Cipher Brief expert and former senior CIA officer Dan Hoffman opining that many of the apparent screw ups are intentionally “discoverable influence operations” and that “being found out was part of the strategy.” Hoffman argues that the near-killing of Sergei Skripal was “a success” and that being seen as trying to kill his opponents would be a plus for Putin and helped drive voter turnout in Russia, where elections occurred two weeks later. Whether that theory is accurate or not – we cannot say – but we certainly hope no one shares the voter turnout tactic with any American politicians prior to 2020.
UNDER/COVER POWER: Each Tuesday, The Cipher Brief’s “Under/Cover” section brings you book reviews, author Q&A’s, and other interesting tidbits from the publishing world on books of interest to our readers. This week, Under/Cover featured a review and Q&A with former CIA officer J.R. Seeger and his novel Mike4. It looks like some of you were paying attention. Just prior to publishing our stories – the Amazon.com sales ranking for Mike4's e-book was 1,240,000 (meaning at that moment, there were about a million and a quarter E-books selling better). Within a few hours, Mike4 was ranking 26,480. The paperback version of the book took a similar leap. Now we hate to brag, but we clearly have the power to get your book on the top 27,000 best-seller list....so, just sayin'.... you should check out Under/Cover every Tuesday and while you are at it, sign up for the free monthly newsletter here.
LAWFARE HIRES PRIESS: Former CIA officer (and Cipher Brief expert) David Priess is having a heckuva week. On Tuesday, his new book How to Get Rid of a President: History’s Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives, was published. On Wednesday, the Lawfare Institute announced Priess’ appointment as their new Chief Operating Officer.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
- Real Heroism: Netflix has a new documentary series out called Medal of Honor, which profiles eight service members who earned the nation’s highest honor. One of the episodes focuses on Air Force Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger who, in 1968, single-handedly repelled a North Vietnamese assault for hours armed with just an M-16 and a radio. According to Task & Purpose, Etchberger was part of a secret CIA mission in Laos and as a result, the details of his heroism were kept secret for thirty years, until they were declassified. President Obama posthumously awarded Etchberger the Medal of Honor in 2010.
- The Sorority Girls of Chi Iota Alpha: Hollywood trade press report that ABC is developing a possible TV series about a sorority girl-turned CIA “agent.” They say it is based on a yet-to-be-published “real-life story” of Tracey Walder called The Sorority Girl Who Saved Your Life. Walder says she was a sorority girl at the University of Southern California when she was recruited by the CIA. The articles say she spent “the next five years as a covert operative for the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, assuming aliases, thwarting terrorist attacks, and hiding in the trunks of cars on her way to debrief terrorists at black sites.” Walder’s LinkedIn bio says she spent four years with the CIA from 2000 to 2004 and that she now is a high school teacher. The folks we talked to who were in CTC at the same time don’t remember her and rolled their eyes at the notion that she was arriving at black sites in the trunk of a car – but maybe there was no room inside the vehicle where the more senior case officers were sitting.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
