RT, PHONE HOME: According to The New Voice of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate recently convinced 19 Russian soldiers to surrender – not using the many weapons at his disposal – but by talking to them over the radio. We’re not exactly sure what words Budanov used against the Russian soldiers – but no doubt they were less lethal than some of the other devices in his kit. The chief of military intelligence is known for his sense of both strategy and adventure, as he often spends time on the front lines. Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly interviewed Budanov earlier this year in his heavily-fortified office near Kyiv and asked him how this war will end. Want to know what he told her?
TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, LIAR: The noted writer, John le Carré (whose true name was David Cornwell), observed many times that lying is essential to both espionage and novels. And his facility at fictionalizing the truth undoubtedly helped him in both fields. Now, there is a new documentary (with some actor reenactments) called “The Pigeon Tunnel” directed by Errol Morris streaming on Apple TV+. It features interviews with the author conducted shortly before his 2020 death. In it, he spins tales while promising to tell the truth – but by all accounts does not completely do so. Slate notes that Le Carré was also the subject of a 2015 biography by Adam Sisman not too imaginatively titled: “John le Carré: The Biography.” Sisman has just released a new book called The Secret Life of John le Carré in which he reveals some of the ways the novelist misled him the first time around.
WRITER, SAILOR, SECRET SHARER: Earlier this year, The Cipher Brief called on former naval officer and serial best-selling author George Galdorisi to review an important new book, Age of Danger: Keeping America Safe in an Era of New Superpowers, New Weapons, and New Threats by Andrew Hoehn and Thom Shanker. We just learned that Galdorisi has published a new booktitled, Braveship Writers Share Their Secrets: How to Write Books People Actually Read. While many of Galdorisi’s books are fiction – in this one, he and co-author Kevin McDonald have crafted a tool to help aspiring writers learn how to write, publish and sell a book. We noticed that Cipher Brief expert retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis gave a glowing endorsement saying the book “… breaks new ground and provides an entertaining and extraordinarily useful guide for beginning, emerging, and established writers.” Stavridis gave some of his own tips on communicating at the recent Cipher Brief Threat Conference in Sea Island, GA. If you haven’t heard that session, check out his remarks in the Cover Stories podcast.
SPEAKING OF COMMUNICATIONS & ADMIRAL STAV: We stumbled across a job announcement posted by the U.S. Naval Academy Center for Academic Excellence this week seeking someone to serve as the “Admiral James G. Stavridis Professional Communication Specialist.” Duties would include helping midshipmen develop their skills in public speaking, presentations, and writing.
SPEAKING OF COMMUNICATIONS CONTRACTS: While stumbling around, we also came across a “RFI” – request for information – about the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which is apparently thinking about contracting out some of the functions of their public affairs and history departments in support of the Agency’s Office of Corporate Communications. They are looking for help in areas including “internal and external news and information, media, social media, community outreach, protocol, internal and external engagements, congressional affairs, history curation, historical research, and museum management.” If you have the right skills (and a TS/SCI clearance) this might be the right gig for you.
ACTORS STRIKE MAKES FILMING “MI-8” IMPOSSIBLE (FOR NOW): While Hollywood writers have agreed to a new contract – you can’t make movies and TV shows without actors (well, maybe you can do animation and use only characters that don’t speak) and the ongoing actors strike has caused Paramount Pictures to delay the planned release of the eighth “Mission Impossible” movie until the middle of 2025. The film, starring Tom Cruise, had started production but shut down for a while to let Cruise promote the last Mission Impossible flick “Dead Reckoning, Part 1.” But before they could return to the set – the SAF-AFTRA strike struck – and it left Cruise hanging.
PRESSING CONCERNS ABOUT CHINESE ESPIONAGE: We’ve seen a lot of public and private organizations take steps recently to try to defend themselves against possible Chinese espionage – but we didn’t see this wrinkle coming. For about a hundred years, the British Royal Navy has been employing Chinese laundrymen (mostly from Hong Kong) on their ships. But now, according to The Telegraph, the U.K. Ministry of Defence has decided to end the practice of having Chinese laundry contractors on board for fear that they might be cleaning out His Majesty’s secrets too. Don’t worry about the RN looking rumpled however — we hear they are now relying on Nepalese Gurkhas to starch and press their uniforms.
THE DEAD DROP DUH DEPARTMENT: A new occasional feature of blindingly obvious stuff:
SAY IT AIN’T SO! Late last week, the State Department held a briefing about a just-released U.S. assessment, as summarized by Reuters, finding that Russia “is using spies, social media and Russian state-run media to erode public faith in the integrity of democratic elections worldwide.” You will not be surprised that the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov, disagreed with the State Department’s allegations – instead blaming Washington. In a statement on Telegram, Antonov intoned that “by casting our country as an adversary, the White House demonstrates disinterest in pragmatic cooperation to address the common challenges facing whole humankind. Washington, with its reckless policies, has driven Russian-American relations into a dead end.” It just made us wonder how has Russia been doing with Russian – Ukrainian relations? And how is that whole ‘humankind’ thing working out there?
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POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
DON’T LET THE BED BUGS BITE: If you think it is dastardly that the Russians are eroding confidence in elections – you haven’t heard anything yet. They are also reportedly undermining confidence in France’s hotels, Airbnb’s and Metro. There is an ongoing panic throughout France about reports of a wide-spread bed bug infestation. But the U.K.’s Independent newspaper says that the French military is convinced that certain Moscow-directed entities are planting bogus stories in the media that suggest that the outbreak is a result of sanctions imposed on Russia. The sanctions - the Kremlin says – have led to the banning of the importation of bed bug battling chemicals. While there definitely are bed bugs in France, authorities insist their presence has nothing to do with the absences of any Russian chemical agents.
WE DON’T MEAN TO BE A PEST, BUT COULD YOU SEND SOME NEWS TIPS? EMAIL THEM TO US AT: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
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