Dead Drop: October 13

DEAD DROP DROPS DEAD: This edition of The Dead Drop comes on the heels of The Cipher Brief’s just concluded annual Threat Conference in Sea Island, Georgia which kept us kind of busy this week. The four-day conference (despite great odds that started with threats of a government shutdown) turned out to be an incredibly insightful event as events in Israel were unfolding.  When CIA Director Bill Burns understandably had to send his regrets so he could remain in Washington, public and private sector attendees found themselves sitting in a room of experts – all with unique and in-depth experiences – to help make sense of how this new war will impact an already complicated global landscape.  Spies tell us that among the speakers filling in for the CIA director, were former National Intelligence Manager for Iran at ODNI, Norm Roule, Admiral Jim Stavridis (Ret.), VADM Mark Montgomery (Ret.) and CIA’s former senior CIA Officer with experience in Beirut and with Hezbollah, Glenn Corn.  We couldn’t imagine better company to be in for anyone trying to make sense of what this all means.

THE PERILS OF A LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP:  It sounds like the romance between Russian agent of influence, Maria Butina, 34, and her ex-boyfriend, American conservative operative Paul Erickson, 61, is over. You will of course recall that Butina confessed to having tried to “establish unofficial lines of communications with Americans having power and influence over U.S. politics” back in 2019, but she was quickly deported back to Mother Russia. The Daily Beast says Butina told a podcast interviewer that she belatedly learned that Erickson is “a monster” who spent thousands of dollars on himself out of her Russian bank account while she was imprisoned in the U.S.  While Erickson was not charged in the case that put Butina in prison – he did have his own legal issues involving allegations of fraud relating to home-building projects in North Dakota. He pleaded guilty and got a seven-year sentence but was pardoned by then-President Trump. We hope these two crazy kids can patch things up. Sounds like they were made for each other.