AFGHANISTAN, ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING: Now that the ‘official’ U.S. presence in Afghanistan is over (at least for the moment) all that is left is the finger pointing, recriminations and “whataboutism.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken endured two trips to the Congressional woodshed this week about what many feel was a bungled pullout. John F. Kennedy once said that, “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” In this case, there seems to be no shortage of people who wish to assign parentage to members of the opposing party. So, let the recriminations begin. Politico reports that the House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Mike McCaul (R, TX) has hired Ryan Browne (who until very recently was a CNN Pentagon correspondent) to assist in the investigation of the administration’s handling of the Afghan withdrawal. “It is crucial we discover what led to the chaos of the emergency evacuation and examine the administration’s failed efforts to evacuate all American citizens, green card holders, local allies and other vulnerable Afghans fearing reprisals from the Taliban,” Browne said in a statement obtained by Politico.
NEVER FORGET….UMM…AH… We’ve been warning you for a month or more about the ton of 9/11 retrospectives lined up. This past weekend was wall-to-wall with retrospectives. We saw so many that they all blend together in our mind. We asked our readers to let us know which documentaries got things right – and which ones got things wrong. For the most part, you forgot to do that too. One person with dramatic recollections of the events of twenty years ago is former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell – who just posted the first of two episodes of his “Intelligence Matters” podcast laying out the path to 9/11. Morell was with President Bush on 9/11 and with President Obama the day Osama bin Laden met his maker –so he has some unique insights.
HOME ALONE: While the nation’s unemployment numbers are starting to get better, one place where that is not true is in the upper echelons of the federal government’s national security establishment. The New York Times notes that one of the complaints of the 9/11 Commission was that just before 9/11/01 – nearly half of the Senate-confirmed top national security jobs were empty. But on 9/11/21, only 26 percent of the Biden administration’s national security posts have been filled. Axios has a chart showing how ambassadorial appointments are going in this administration compared to the first year of the past three administrations. Short answer – not good. As of September 12th, the Senate had confirmed two of President Biden’s nominations compared to 56 at the same point during the Obama administration. Things may only get worse. On Tuesday, Senator Josh Hawley (R, MO) said he would block nominees for the State and Defense Departments until Secretary of State Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan all resign over the Afghan withdrawal. Yeah, that’ll make things better. Let’s create some more vacancies that won’t be filled for a while.
MARX BROTHERS: A couple weeks ago, we heard from Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller who took to social media to announce he was resigning his commission because he was unhappy that no one in his chain of command took responsibility for the flawed Afghanistan pullout. Now comes Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hague, who seems to have submitted a resignation after 18 years of service to protest the “ideologically Marxist takeover of the military.” We say “seems to have” because, according to Task & Purpose, the Army has refused to confirm or deny the legitimacy of the missive that Hague’s wife posted on Twitter last week. Hague says he is “…incapable of subjecting myself to the unlawful, unethical, immoral, and tyrannical order to sit still and allow a serum to be injected into my flesh against my will and better judgement.” Subsequent reports make clear that Hague actually left active duty in 2008, so his letter represents passing on reserve retirement benefits down the road. Unclear is whether LTC Hague is getting his medical advice from Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLEY: While we have not yet read Peril, the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa due to be released later this month, not reading it hasn’t seemed to stop anyone else from commenting on it – so what the heck. The big bombshell (so far) has reportedly been that Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley called his Chinese counterpart, General Li Zuocheng, to assure him that despite what he might be seeing on TV, the United States is not about to do anything stupid (militarily.) This sign of assurance outraged a broad range of people (including Senator Marco Rubio and retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman) who essentially shout: “How DARE he? Only the civilian chain of command can promise not to do something stupid!” We were surprised to see Vindman join in the chorus. Maybe he was annoyed that Milley missed his chance to save Vindman last year from the folks the chairman was trying to keep from doing dumb stuff this year.
BOOKS ON THE HORIZON: We hear Dan Hampton, a retired USAF pilot, has landed a deal to write Plane 8, about a secret mission reportedly conducted during the B-25 “Doolittle Raid” on Tokyo in 1942. St. Martin's Press will publish the book, but no date has been set yet. Keeping up with the WWII theme, be on the lookout for a forthcoming book called The Spies of Cosa Nostra: The Untold Story of ‘Operation Underworld,’ How the Mafia and the US Government Teamed up to Win World War II. We’re not sure what will be in the book – but the title sure could use some editing. The publisher says it is the untold story of how "Lucky" Luciano was recruited by US Naval Intelligence during World War II to aid the Allied war effort. Black told some of this “untold story” in an article last November. The book is scheduled to come from Kensington Books in November 2022.
SILVER SCREEN REPORT: Do they still call motion pictures the “silver screen”? Well, in any case, we hear that a 2016 book by Mihir Bose called, Silver: The Spy Who Fooled the Nazis, has been picked up by an India-based outfit calling itself “Almighty Motion Picture.” “Silver” was the codename for the Bhagat Ram Talwar, who is said to be the only “quintuple spy” of WWII, spying for the Italians, Germans, Japanese, Soviets and the British. Much of his spying was conducted in Afghanistan. (Whatever happened to that place?) According to the book write up, Silver was once nearly exposed as a spy by an Afghan, so he invited the man to a curry meal “in which he had mixed deadly tiger’s whiskers, killing the Afghan.”
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting/weird stuff we discovered:
THE DEVIL YOU SAY: As everyone revisits what went right and wrong in Afghanistan, there are lots of odd stories surfacing and resurfacing. We Are the Mighty dug up a golden oldie about how the CIA supposedly created an Osama bin Laden doll which was intended to be shipped to Pakistan and Afghanistan. When the doll got hot, “the plastic face would peel, presenting a red-skinned, greed-eyed face with black Tiger-like stripes…. under the normal-looking bin Laden, there was a scary, deformed, seemingly evil version of him, just waiting to be released.” The CIA supposedly acknowledged the program, code named “Devil Eyes” but said it was discontinued in 2006 and never deployed. The Washington Post said in 2014, however, that hundreds of the dolls were indeed shipped to Pakistan. Maybe Ryan Browne can get to the bottom of this when the HFAC investigation is completed. At least the agency didn’t coat the dolls with poisoned tiger whiskers.
YOU’D BE A DOLL: If you would send tips on fun news stories and gossip about national security to us at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
