Dead Drop: October 20

NEXT YEAR HOLD IT AT CAPITAL ONE ARENA? A year ago, The Dead Drop reported that the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation had just held its annual Richard Helms dinner at an undisclosed location in northern Virginia. At the time, we joked that they might need to find a bigger ballroom after jamming in over 800 supporters to help fund scholarships and other support for the families of fallen CIA officers.  Well, they must have listened because they DID find a bigger ballroom…and still packed it to the gills. Our spies tell us that retired Army four-star General Austin Scott Miller was the recipient of this year’s award. Miller worked closely with the Agency at several stages of his career, especially as head of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan from 2018 to 2021. Among the speakers at the event were former Central Command commander General Frank McKenzie, USMC (Ret.), current CIA director Bill Burns, and former CIA Director (and Memorial Foundation Chair) Gina Haspel. Most of the living former CIA directors (including 99-year-old Judge William Webster) were also on hand. The event was MC’d by Foundation president (and Cipher Brief expert) John Edwards and reportedly raised over $1.5 million for its worthy cause.

LIKE CLOCKWORK: Every time a U.S. military organization has a birthday, or there’s some holiday celebrating veterans or the armed forces, one or more politicians or well-meaning organizations post best wishes on social media and sometimes accidentally accompany those posts with images that don’t exactly align.  The latest example – was picked up by eagled-eyed Politico defense editor Dave Brown – who noticed on October 13, that Congressman Cory Mills (R-FL) wished the U.S. Navy a happy 248^th birthday – by posting a graphic showing a Russian ship. But Mills, an Army veteran, was not a lone ranger – Representative David Trone (D-MD), the Fox TV affiliate in Baltimore, and even an outfit calling itself “SEAL Legacy” made similar mistakes wishing the USN happy birthday while displaying images of Russian ships.