Dead Drop: October 7

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BALLROOM: Our spies tell us that after a couple year COVID hiatus, the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation held its biggest ever annual fundraising dinner at an undisclosed location in Northern Virginia last week. More than 800 former and current intelligence officers and their supporters packed the place and heard remarks from CIA Director Bill Burns, former Director George Tenet and Foundation president (and Cipher Brief expert) John Edwards.  We’re told that the honoree, former Director Gina Haspel, spoke movingly about men and women she knew during her career who had lost their lives in the line of duty. The Foundation provides scholarships and other support for the families of fallen officers.  We hear the dinner raised more than $1.5 million in support of that worthy cause.  Also, among those present were DNI Avril Haines, former CIA and NSA Director General Mike Hayden, several current and former members of congress and about 95% of The Cipher Brief’s Expert Network.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT: It may come as a shock to some, but you can’t always expect precision reporting from tabloid news outfits like the UK’s Daily Star.  A recent illustration of that comes from an article headlined “US deploys world’s most expensive military ship to Atlantic carrying 9,000 troops.”  The subhead is even worse – claiming “The US Navy is set to launch the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier into the Atlantic ocean today – it will house 9,000 troops from nine countries as well as 20 ships and 60 aircraft.”  The Daily Star’s correspondent clearly doesn’t understand the concept of a carrier strike group. All those troops (or “sailors” as most are called) are not on FORD alone – but, according to the U.S. Second Fleet, a total of 20 ships from nine nations are participating in exercises as part of the deployment.  About half of the 9,000 sailors cited by the Daily Star are aboard the FORD, (which left its homeport a day late due to weather) and on its first deployment about five years after commissioning due to a lot of mechanical problems.