REVENGE – A DISH BEST SERVED COLD? In one of the more unusual stories we have seen recently, Politico reports that U.S. intelligence believes that the Iranian government “is weighing an assassination attempt” against the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks. The plot is said to be possible retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani nine months ago. A question even bigger than: “Why now?” is: “Why Marks?” Soleimani had a long and bloody history supporting terrorist activities. Marks, on the other hand, has been an ambassador for just under a year. A political appointee she has been a member of the Mara-a-Lago club in Florida and reportedly a long-time friend of President Trump. While Soleimani’s stock in trade was terrorism, Mark’s made her mark designing and selling handbags that go for up to $40,000 each. She seems an unlikely target – but the Politico story had lots of detail citing well-placed intelligence sources including the assertion that the planned attack was reported in the CIA’s World Intelligence Review (aka WIRe) widely available to senior government officials. While several media outlets have reported on Politico’s story – we have noticed (so far) a dearth of major news organizations confirming it and adding any additional detail. That gave us pause – but then a left-handed confirmation came from the Commander in Chief. President Trump tweeted on Tuesday that “According to press reports, Iran may be planning an assassination, or other attack, against the United States in retaliation for the killing of terrorist leader Soleimani, which was carried out for his planning a future attack, murdering U.S. Troops, and the death & suffering....caused over so many years. Any attack by Iran, in any form, against the United States will be met with an attack on Iran that will be 1,000 times greater in magnitude!” That is a much more vigorous response than the silence which accompanied press reports of Russian efforts to place bounties on U.S. servicemen and women in Afghanistan. We are not sure if that means that one story is more credible than the other. Or simply a matter of the country of origin of the threats.
MODEL BEHAVIOR: On the anniversary of 9/11, reporter Catherine Herridge produced a story for CBS This Morning about the model makers from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency who built a scale model of the Abbottabad compound prior to the assault where UBL was tracked down and met his maker. One of the model builders appeared in the report, with his identity concealed. He told Herridge that he did not know who lived in the compound until the mission’s success was announced. Speaking of compartmented information, CBS anchor Anthony Mason said that until seeing Herridge’s report, he didn’t know that NGA existed – but added, “thank goodness it does.”
AD NONSENSE: Every four years, the folks who make political advertisements prove that while they may know a lot about motivating voters, they are a little weak on recognizing military hardware. The latest evidence of this comes in reports noting that an online ad produced by the “Trump Make America Great Again Committee.” The ad has the intent of encouraging Americans to “support our troops” and contained silhouettes of three soldiers on patrol with fighter jets flying above them. The only problem (as first reported in Politico) is that the aircraft silhouettes are of Russian fighters. The angle of the aircraft’s tail and wing sweep make clear it is a MiG-29 according to U.S. and Russian experts. One Russian also claimed that one of the American soldiers depicted appeared to be carrying an AK-74 assault rifle. Julia Davis tweeted that Russian media were quick to mock the mess up. “Obviously, this is a mistake caused by the beauty of Russian weapons. Probably, the designer was so impressed that he forgot to check the country of origin... we hope that he will not be punished severely" one Russian publication said. This is not the first time a campaign has had trouble identifying friend or foe. In 2016, the Trump campaign put out a video advertisement with Trump saying: “Our great veterans are being treated terribly.” The then-candidate added “The corruption in the Veteran’s administration, the incompetence is — beyond. We will stop that.” The ad then cut from Trump sitting at his desk to footage of faceless decorated veterans who, judging by the decorations they were wearing, were Russians.
OLDIES BUT GOODIES: Seems as though about once a quarter some publication somewhere asks the question: what TV shows or movies about espionage are most accurate – according to people in the espionage business? The latest entry in that trope is from a site called Writers in the Storm. The blog is by two people who have written a series of espionage books we have never heard of – e.g. “Key Figures in Espionage: The Good, the Bad, & the Booty.” They say they chatted up a bunch of former IC folks who responded to Twitter inquiries. The blog says the most accurate TV series include: “The Americans,” “Liberty Crossing,” “The Sandbaggers,” and a few others. For movies, John le Carré’s stuff got the best reviews with “A Man Most Wanted,” “The Little Drummer Girl,” and “The Spy Who Came In from the Cold,” at the top of the heap. The whole list can be found here.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
ANOTHER SHIPP HAS SAILED: Remember last week’s Dead Drop had an item about Kevin Shipp, a litigious former CIA officer who is selling training videos and cozying up to QAnon? Well, here is even more Shipp news. (Note: We don’t even begin to understand this…but….) A website called Businessblockchainhq.com notes that on September 10, Shipp tweeted something about a Microsoft crypto-mining patent number with a lot of 6’s in it (which of course would be the sign of the devil if they were all in a row, which they aren’t) and mentioned a video Microsoft posted to YouTube months before that includes a photo of a Serbian woman who is alleged to be a Satanist….so, you know, clearly…something.
ALL SIGNS POINT TO THE FACT THAT YOU SHOULD CONSPIRE TO SHARE NEWS WITH US: Send tips to: TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
