Dead Drop September 24

GET THE POPCORN OUT:  JCS Chairman General Mark Milley is scheduled to testify in public before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, September 28^th.  The subject matter is supposed to be about the committee’s investigation on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.  That would be colorful enough – but the session is also the first public appearance by Milley following the publication of Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book Peril, and the disclosure that Milley chatted up his Chinese counterpart, General Li Zuocheng, a couple times, allegedly warning him to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Most of the informed speculation after that bit of the book leaked suggests that Milley was just doing his job trying to prevent miscalculation on the part of the Chinese.  We look forward to hearing, however, whether the General really did tell the Chinese that if the U.S. were planning on attacking them – he would be a gentleman about it and give them advance notice.  That seems likely to have lost some context in the translation (to Woodward and Costa.)  The hearing is set to start at 9:30 AM and could make for some colorful viewing.  Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie are also slated to testify – but they will get the easy stuff – just explaining how and why the Afghan pullout was so messy.

THE LIFE OF LAVROV:  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seems to be living large.  The Daily Beast says that according to Russian opposition media (tied to Alexei Navalny) the 71-year-old diplomat often travels the world with a much younger mistress, who is also an actress and restauranteur.  His travel companion is also reportedly is quite rich – but still saves money by using the foreign minister’s official plane on at least 60 occasions for travel around the world. During a press briefing, Maria Zahharova, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, issued a non-denial denial attacking the folks who reported the allegations as “feeding on foreign grants” and stating “…even the most malicious opponents don’t doubt Lavrov’s professionalism. His authority is unshakable. His authority is simply undisputable.” Then Zakharova gathered her papers and promptly stalked off the podium, a move patented by former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.