ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS: A Whitefish, Montana man pleaded guilty last week to defrauding another man of $2.3 million by getting him to donate money for “off-the-books” rescue missions for the CIA. According to a Department of Justice Press Release, Matthew Marshall owned up to wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion charges. Marshall reportedly started milking his (unnamed) benefactor back in 2013, claiming to be a former CIA “agent” and former member of the Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance unit. He said he needed the money to rescue people in Mexico and other locations. DOJ says Marshall never served with the CIA in any capacity. And while he was not in Force Recon – he did serve in the Marine Corps Reserve but received an “Other than Honorable” discharge in 1999, after “accumulating 82 absences from inactive duty training.” Marshall faces a possible 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine – but maybe he can find some good-hearted citizen who will spring to help get him sprung from jail.
ANOTHER UNLIKELY CIA TV SERIES: Hardly a week goes by we don’t hear about another CIA-based TV series being created. They almost always are built on unlikely premises. Last week’s Dead Drop told you about a series in development based on a CIA station in Las Vegas. This week we learned more about a (yet to be titled) Netflix series about a fledgling CIA lawyer (played by Noah Centineo) who “becomes enmeshed in dangerous international power politics when a former asset threatens to expose the nature of her long-term relationship with the agency, unless they exonerate her of a serious crime.” Compared to reality, we can think of about five things wrong with that scenario – but watching TV and movies involves a willing suspension of disbelief, right? Among the lengthy list of executive producers is Adam Ciralsky who, in real life, briefly was a fledgling CIA lawyer and whose departure was a bit messy. We first mentioned this series to you back in May – but now they are busily casting it – so it looks like it may actually get produced.
SILENCED SERVICE: We are not sure this is true – and we are not sure it is news – but the Daily Mail says it is – so we will share it. They report that the UK’s “Special Boat Service” (SBS) are now equipped with Heckler and Koch P11 pistols that can kill enemies underwater from more than 30 meters away. The same weapon when used on dry land is said to “be almost completely silent.” The Daily Mail says a military source told them that, “Frogmen need a close-protection weapon, something more than a knife – and the P11 is ideal.” But the analysis is not all sunny, since the weapon’s “main limitation is that it takes ages to reload so once the five rounds have been fired, it is effectively useless,” the source said. On the other hand, when was the last time you encountered six or more bad guys underwater?
MUST BE A HELLUVA SALESWOMAN: A publication called “The Diplomat” which focuses on Asia and the Pacific has a piece about a North Korean spy, code named “Agent Chrysanthemum,” who reportedly has been operating in South Korea attempting to convince people who had previously defected from the North to go “home.” The woman reportedly “defected” to the South herself and then began chatting up other ex-northerners, amping up their dissatisfaction over how they have been treated in the south. She reportedly had some success – and some ex-defectors have shown up in North Korea telling the media that living in the south ain’t all it has been cracked up to be.
ED SNOWDEN NOT A HERO? When we first heard that an Edward Snowden-inspired movie was being made – we figured it would be another effort to lionize the leaker’s efforts just before relocating to Moscow. But perhaps not. According to Military.com, actor Gerard Butler and director Rick Roman Waugh are beginning to film a CIA thriller called “Kandahar” later this month in Saudi Arabia. Butler is set to star as “Tom Harris” an undercover CIA operative whose identity and mission is blown by a Snowden-like leak. In the flick, Harris and his translator must fight their way out of the desert to an extraction point in Kandahar. Military.com says “Waugh co-wrote the screenplay with Army veteran Mitchell LaFortune, a former military intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency who was serving in Afghanistan at the time of the Edward Snowden leaks. The actual fallout from those leaks in LaFortune's real life is a partial inspiration for the movie's story.” Also interesting is the location of the filming – Saudi Arabia’s aspirations for being a movie friendly location took a big hit with the Jamal Khashoggi murder – but seem to be warming up.
TURNS OUT HOGAN WAS A HERO: From the “forthcoming books” department is news about publisher William Morrow’s plans to put out “Task Force Hogan: The True Story of Lieutenant Colonel Sam Hogan and His Tank Battalion, from Normandy to the Elbe and Beyond.” The book is being written by Will Hogan. His father, Sam, during WWII, is said to have “led his men in a great escape from German forces and liberated occupied towns until the war's last day.” The publisher says Sam Hogan was loosely (and inaccurately) used as the model for Colonel Hogan in the 1960s sitcom “Hogan's Heroes.”
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
LET’S HOPE THEY DON’T CONFUSE THE TWO JOBS: Long-time Pentagon reporter Mark Thompson likes to keep an eye on military contract announcements because – well, you never know what nuggets you might find. This week, he tweeted out an excerpt from a Navy announcement about an amendment to a custodial contract for an outfit that is cleaning up the Naval Academy. The $13 million modification to a contract held by the Melwood Horticultural Training Center is for custodial services such as trash removal, cleaning, vacuuming, floor cleaning and scrubbing, re-lamping, and “specialized cleaning of the John Paul Jones Crypt, and basketball floor installation and removal.”
WHO WOULD BELIEVE IT? Back in December, the Dead Drop had an item about a QAnon theory that then-CIA Director Gina Haspel had been taken into custody in Germany where she had allegedly gone to seize a computer server containing election votes. (Don’t they know that CIA Directors only do that in whacky CIA TV shows?) An Agency spokesperson had to tell Reuters it wasn’t true. (Seriously.) It turns out, not everyone was buying that. According to ABC News Correspondent Jonathan Karl’s new book, Trump lawyer Sidney Powell called Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a Trump appointee at the Pentagon, asking that he launch a rescue mission. The book says Cohen-Watnick declined the request – which seems wise.
UNION SUIT: Labor unions in Connecticut have filed a lawsuit seeking bargaining rights for members of the state’s National Guard members who are ordered to active duty by their governor. According to Military Times, there is a 1978 federal statute that makes it a felony for members of the armed forces, including the National Guard, to even attempt to form a labor organization but it only applies if the troops are on active federal duty. Unionized troops could give new meaning to “Pickett’s Charge.” What could possibly go wrong? These are interesting times for National Guard troops. The Oklahoma guard adjutant general says his troops don’t have to get COVID shots – and the Pentagon says: Oh yes, they do. We suspect this is not a matter for collective bargaining.
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