Dead Drop: October 27
GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS: Intelligence insiders tell us that CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s extremely close relationship with President Donald Trump is a double-edged sword. Pompeo reportedly spends more time with the president than anyone other than Trump’s caddy. This access gives him plenty of opportunities to brief the Commander in Chief about the operations and analysis of his workforce. This is a good thing. But Agency officials tell us that Pompeo has also become a trusted adviser to Trump on a wide range of policy matters, from tax reform to healthcare. CIA Directors venturing into policy advisory roles (especially domestic policy) is uncharted territory – and, at least some Agency watchers think, it is not a positive development. “Whether the Director has ever been asked about a policy issue or other topic by the President is not something we comment on,” Dean Boyd, the director of the CIA Office of Public Affairs, emailed.
SAY WHAT? CIA Director Pompeo made lots of news late last week in a public appearance – saying things like: the CIA is going to be “a much more vicious agency” in doing its job…and joking that he doesn’t want to talk about what might happen if Kim Jong-un “should disappear” – for fear of being blamed for it. Then, in response to a question, he appeared to take a shot at former intelligence officials saying, “There are an awful lot of former CIA talking heads on TV,” adding that their obligation to remain quiet about their work “far extends beyond the day you turn in your badge.” IC alumni we talked to are scratching their heads about what sparked that comment. While there are quite a few intelligence veterans interviewed on TV (including several members of The Cipher Brief network of experts) – we haven’t identified any who were inappropriately sharing classified information – but quite a few who have been critical of Pompeo’s boss.
SPEAKING OF LOOSE LIPS: At that same news-making event last week, Pompeo told the audience that CIA was “working to take down” the threat to the United States posed by WikiLeaks and similar groups. “Taking down” implies more than just collecting intelligence. For the Agency to take action, some observers tell us it would have to be done under covert action or counterintelligence authorities. In either case, it sounds kind of classified.
SPEAKING OF SPEAKING FOR THE CIA: On Sunday, Politico reported that Brittany Bramell, who until very recently was working for Uber, has taken up new unspecified duties in CIA public affairs. Bramell’s resume is full of past political connections—including gigs working for Senator Lindsey Graham (R- SC), former House Speaker John Boehner (R- OH), Governor Chis Christie (R- NJ) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ). It is unusual, if not totally unprecedented, for someone with little national security experience but lots of political ties to land at the Langley public affairs shop. “Brittany Bramell brings an extensive background in communications from both the public and private sectors and we are very happy to have her aboard to work on strategic communications for the Agency,” emailed CIA Public Affairs Director Dean Boyd.
TAKING STOCK IN SECURITY: A couple of former top spies visited the New York Stock Exchange this week to share secrets on how to deal with Insider Threats. In a panel led by Cipher Brief CEO Suzanne Kelly, former NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett and former CIA Deputy Director for Counterintelligence Mark Kelton told a room full of CFOs and CISOs at CNBC’s ‘Net Net’ Conference that neither companies nor the Government will ever be completely safe from bad actors operating on the inside, but there are key things businesses can do to mitigate the risk. One of the biggest secrets? Don’t make it a secret. Let employees know that their work on ‘work’ computers will be monitored and then actually monitor it. Both should know a thing or two about that. Ledgett and Kelton played key roles in the Edward Snowden investigation. Ledgett is also a member of The Cipher Brief’s Cyber Advisory Board.
TOASTING LEGENDS: The OSS Society held another sold-out gala on Saturday, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the WWII precursor to the CIA and special operations. CIA and DOD official Mick Vickers was honored with the “Donovan Award,” commemorating a career in intelligence. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was slated to present the award but had to cancel last minute because of a trip to Asia. “Rocket Man, you don’t know who you’re messing with,” Vickers quipped of Mattis’ absence.
CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel made a rare public appearance to toast OSS and CIA legend Amb. Hugh Montgomery – the original “Harvard PhD who could handle himself in a bar fight” – who passed away earlier this year at the age of 93. “Truly a man of action, he spent 85 percent of his agency career operating in the field,” she said, listing the Berlin tunnel operation during the Cold War as chief among his exploits.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
- Lulu of a story: Late last week, as The Dead Drop was going to press, the Washington Post and other media revealed that Lulu, a black Labrador going through CIA bomb-sniffing training (and one of the pups promoted on the Agency’s clever social media sites) had been cashiered for lack of a nose for the work. This week, the website “Funny or Die” published an item saying that Lulu is filing a wrongful termination letter. We’re pretty sure the ruff draft was a joke.
- F-O-I-Spy? Muckrock dug up some documents from the 1970s in the CIA’s now-declassified archives – which show that the NSA explored using the Espionage Act to go after author James Bamford for using the Freedom of Information Act. We knew folks at the Fort were not thrilled with FOIA, but charging someone with espionage for using it seems like kind of a stretch.
- Chutes and Readers: And in an entirely different vein, Muckrock found a 1963 CIA memo which listed the number of its employees signed up for various extracurricular activities. Even back then, it seems the CIA workforce was more into thrills than news. According to the report, there were 54 people (13 of them women) signed up for the “Sky Diving Club” and a total of just 15 (11 women) participating in the “Journalism Club.”
- FBI-CIA Cooperation “Dramedy” – ABC Television is reportedly working on an hour-long action “dramedy” called “Whiskey Cavalier” about an FBI agent called “Will Chase” assigned to work with a CIA officer “Francesca Trowbridge,” code name “Fiery Tribune.” According to Deadline Hollywood, “together, they lead an inter-agency team of spies who periodically save the world (and each other) while navigating the rocky roads of friendship, romance and office politics.”
- Mystery Museum – Perhaps inspired by the popularity of the International Spy Museum in Washington, a new museum is scheduled to open in New York City early next year devoted to different things like “espionage including hacking, deception, and intelligence operations.” According to “Curbed New York,” the new museum called “SPYSCAPE” is being developed by a British-based investment group. The website for SPYSCAPE is pretty vague on what the place will offer – but does make clear it’ll cost you $39 to get in if you want to wait in line, or $59 to skip the queue.
NETWORK NEWS: Not a day goes by when members of The Cipher Brief Network aren’t making news. Here are just a few examples from this week:
- Niger News: Former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell was on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday helping explain what U.S. troops were doing in Niger.
- ISIS Crisis: Retired General Jack Keane was on Fox News Saturday talking about what is next in the fight against ISIS.
- Turkey Take: Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral Jim Stavridis offered a plan on how to pull Turkey back from the brink and keep it in NATO in a Bloomberg Op-Ed piece.
WHAT’S ON THEIR NIGHTSTAND?
Bill “William” Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center :
“I just finished reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It got a little darker than the movie, and the movie was dark, but I enjoy that. I love leadership books, I love reading about the different types of leaders, and I’m a big believer in that leaders are born and not made. How do they manifest that?
I try and read things that are not germane to what we do here to help provide some optic. I will say, I’m into now, I just ordered two historical books on the making of the Constitution. So we recently took down all of our employees here to the National Archives, and we had a reaffirming of the oath to the Constitution in front of the Constitution. We had Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch swear us all in again. It was awesome. It was as cool as it gets, and it was humbling. Now I’m obsessed with going back to my roots in Pennsylvania and learning what I didn’t learn growing up about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. And my son is twelve, so we’re going to do that together as a project.”
SECURITY QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
Bob Gourley, a member of our Cyber Advisory Board, on “hacking back”:
“Ultimately, we do need to give our national security decision-makers a full range of options. While hacking back may be the most sexy of options, it is one that we should rarely employ.” Find out why in his Cyber Advisor column.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at [email protected].