DECIPHERING THE D/CIA: The Dead Drop poked some fun at the drastic differences in the headlines this week after CIA Director Gina Haspel's first public comments made during a visit to her alma mater, the University of Louisville on Monday. The NYT headline said she was skeptical about North Korea while the WSJ quoted her as saying U.S.-North Korean relations had improved. NBC cited her focus on targeting opioids while the Washington Post highlighted the Agency returning to worrying about nation states. While we value a broad range of perspectives here at The Dead Drop, we also believe there is great value in going directly to the source. That challenge might have been made a bit easier if the Agency had quickly released a transcript of her remarks. It took about 48 hours after her appearance before her prepared remarks appeared on the Agency’s website.
GOOD FIRST STEP, BUT: Going back to the friendly surroundings of her college campus was a good call for Haspel’s initial outing in public after confirmation as CIA Director. Even the welcoming local media noted, however, that she came and went via side doors, did not talk to the press before or after the appearance and took no audience questions. No doubt organizers were not enthusiastic about the likelihood of the event being hijacked by questions regarding past CIA harsh interrogation practices – but at some point, the Director might want to appear in a less controlled circumstance. If she can handle the questions of the Senate Intelligence Committee, we figure she can handle the media's questions. Why should she? To demonstrate the Agency has nothing to fear and nothing to be ashamed of, perhaps.
FOR WHOM THE CAT TOLLS: Until recently, The Dead Drop was unfamiliar with the website “Bellingcat,” which bills itself as the “Home of Online Investigations.” But now we are fans. The site, along with their “investigative partner The Insider – Russia” has done excellent work in digging up the identities of the two Russian men accused of attempting to kill Sergei Skripal in the U.K. First, Bellingcat came up with the pseudonyms of the lads and now they have come up with the true name of one: Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, who they describe as “a highly decorated GRU officer” who had previously been given the “Hero of the Russian Federation” award. Bellingcat did some impressive sleuthing. Treat yourself by reading how they did it here.
RUSSIA WATCH: Journalist Julia Davis bills herself as a “Russian media analyst, and tweets under the moniker @JuliaDavisNews. She clearly has more time than we do to monitor Russian television – and so we cannot independently verify what she is tweeting – BUT – among her reports are items which say: Russian state TV host Evegeny Popov boasted Monday that President Trump singled out his film crew to wave at on the way in and out of the UN building and another Russian media figure said on State TV that “Putin is divorced, he is now married to Russia.” She also reports that “Russia’s state TV claims that based on recent reports, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was “organizing the overthrow of the government.” Most colorfully, perhaps, she reports that Russian state TV defended President Trump against Stormy Daniels’ assertions that his, ahem, “junk” is not monumental. Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov reportedly suggested that Daniel’s expectations were “unreasonably high, in light of her occupation.”
BIG ADDITION TO LITTLE SEEN MUSEUM: USA Today reported on Wednesday that the CIA has made a major addition to their artifacts displayed to those fortunate enough to visit its headquarters museum. A Russian-built MI-17 helicopter that the CIA team used to fly into Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley fifteen days after 9/11 has made its way back to Langley. In the desperate days following Al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States, a team of Agency officers used the helicopter to join up with the Northern Alliance and, as team leader Gary Schroen recalls, “carry the fight back to bin Laden.”
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
The Govern-nator: Arnold Schwarzenegger is not the only action movie star with eyes on a governor’s chair. Vladimir Putin’s “RT” tells us that actor Steven Seagal has declared a willingness to become governor of the Primorsky Krai Region of the Russian Far East. We think he was joking – but these days it is hard to tell.
I Love A Parade: The Intercept recently reported that the advocacy group “Public Citizen” had submitted FOIA requests concerning (now abandoned) plans for a big military parade in Washington. According to the report, the Pentagon redacted material about a mysterious foreign government that had been in communication regarding the parade. The obvious choice to fill in the blank would be the government of France – since President Trump reportedly got the bug to put on a parade after watching an extravagant Bastille Day celebration in Paris. But that may be too obvious. Perhaps the mystery government was North Korea – who, after all, regularly demonstrates precision marching, waving, and sign holding that the U.S. would be hard pressed to match.
Jordan Rules Clancy’s Clark Flicks: Variety reports that Paramount Pictures has selected Michael B. Jordan to portray Tom Clancy hero “John Clark” in two forthcoming movies. Clark was a secondary character in Clancy books – backing up the Jack Ryan franchise. The character is a former Navy SEAL who converted to a CIA case officer. The character appeared in 17 Clancy novels. According to reports, Paramount’s focus will be on turning “Without Remorse” and “Rainbow Six” into vehicles for Jordan. Jordan was the star of the mega-hit “Black Panther.”
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: Got any tips for your friendly neighborhood Dead Drop? Shoot us a note at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
