I LOVE THE SMELL OF NAPALM IN THE MORNING: Like just about everything else these days, the withdrawal from Afghanistan has resulted in deep division, anger, and rancor. Look no further that Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller who posted a video last week saying that he was willing to sacrifice his military career in order to speak out and “demand accountability” of his uniformed bosses. In Scheller’s mind, someone much senior to him should have thrown their stars on the table and told the civilian leadership that they were going about the Afghanistan drawdown badly. Hours later the Marine Corps senior leadership acted – and relieved Scheller from his command. Then the Marine posted another video – this time announcing that he was resigning his commission, essentially throwing away his 17-year investment toward a 20-year retirement. He said he did not want anyone’s charity – and then gave out his wife’s Venmo account number. Most memorably, perhaps, he talked about his time in Iraq which resulted in the smell of burning human excrement evoking in his mind the odor of bacon and eggs.
WITH ALL DUE RESPECT: Scheller was not alone in complaining about how things have been handled – so much so that the chief of staff in the Office of Naval Intelligence felt the need to send out a memo warning active duty and retired service members not to “disrespect” the president or other senior government leadership. While reminding uniformed personnel to steer clear of politics is not unusual – warning retired personnel not to speak badly about elected leaders is a new one on us. We are confident that we could find numerous examples of retired folks having violated that guidance in each of the past several administrations. As for active duty – fair enough – the uniformed services are not the State Department and don’t have a “dissent channel” – but good luck in telling retirees that they need to keep their lips zipped.
UNEXPECTED AUTHOR: Lots of aspiring pundits, may be jealous of Geoff Ball, an active duty USMC captain. Many people try without success to get their views published in the mainstream media. Ball got in print without knowing or trying. He was in command of many of the servicemen and women who were killed at Hamid Karzai International Airport last week and he shared some of his feelings on Facebook saying in part: “Nine of my Marines and Sailors gave their lives so that others may live, and almost 20 other members of my company were wounded by their side.” ABC.com hijacked the post and published it as an OPED, apparently without asking or telling Ball. They even created an “author page” for him. After being called out on the matter – ABC deleted the piece.
EXPECTED AUTHOR: The Cipher Brief gets quite a few pitches from publicists flogging books they think might be of interest to our readers. This week we got a note about a book called: “Coping with Terrorism: Dreams Interrupted.” The author is Carole Lieberman, M.D., MP.H. who says she became “The Terrorist Therapist®” because the 9/11 attacks wounded her New Yorker heart and convinced her to want to help people ‘keep calm and carry on’ in the face of terror. Her publicist refers to Lieberman as “America’s Psychiatrist” (this time without the ® symbol.) Well, if any country needs a shrink right now – it is probably the USA. In her book, Lieberman provides the ten warning signs of “Terrorist Stress Syndrome.” She says if you have three or more of the signs and they began or increased after you were exposed to a terrorist attack (first-hand or through the media) – you’ve got TSS. We’ll spare you the whole list – which range from dramatic things like “Are you feeling out of control of your emotions or your life?” to mundane like whether you have any nagging physical ailments like headaches, colds and pain. Based on her list – just about everyone we know must have TSS. We checked Amazon to see when her book would be published. The page we found says it came out in paperback on “January 1, 1802.” Now that is forward looking. We were going to pick up a copy, but the paperback is selling for $104.60. If you blow that much on a book like this – that is probably the 11th sign that you are struggling with terrorist stress.
9/11 X 20 X 24-BY-7: In our continuing series about the series of retrospectives on 9/11 – here are a couple more: CNN has four specials planned. One focuses on a minute-by-minute account of what happened in the Twin Towers on September 11.th Another interviews some of the people from the second grade class President Bush was talking with when he received word of the Al Qaeda attacks – those kids, now in their late twenties, reflect on their memories of that day. A third documentary is a special report from Jake Tapper on “America’s Longest War: What Went Wrong in Afghanistan.” Details on when the specials will air are available from CNN’s “press room.” Then there is National Geographic which is weighing in with a four-night-long documentary called “9/11: One Day in America.” This one was produced in association with the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and features previously unseen archival footage and an interview with 54 survivors of the attacks. The Nat Geo series is now available on Hulu.
SPEAKING OF ANNIVERSARIES: The twentieth anniversary of 9/11 has sparked a lot of books, documentaries and news stories – but there is another anniversary on the horizon that will merit some attention. The 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in is coming up next June. Helping mark the occasion, will be author Jefferson Morley who has landed a deal to write “Scorpions' Dance: The President, The Spymaster, And Watergate.” The book is said to be “a narrative investigation of the long, twisted relationship” between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms and “the dangerous secrets they wielded against each other.” St. Martin's will publish the book in June 2022. Morley has written several previous books about the CIA including, The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton.
LAST CENTURY IN “THE CIA DID IT” CONSPIRACY THEORIES: We get why people reflect on the 50th, or the 20th anniversary of this or that – but for some reason, Newsweek (which once was a respected news magazine) decided to trot out a story on the 24th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death in order to rehash various conspiracy theories about her untimely passing. We read the piece a couple times and could not come up with an explanation of why it ran now – but among the claims regurgitated was the notion that the CIA and NSA were somehow involved because the agencies reportedly have documents which mention the princess and they won’t release them publicly. You don’t have to be a spy novelist to come up with a thousand reasons why the intelligence community might have intercepted communications from other people talking about prominent figures like Diana – and not want to declassify them. The Newsweek piece cites a 1998 story in the Irish Times quoting a CIA spokesperson as saying: “The assertion that the CIA played any role in the death of Princess Diana is ludicrous.”
NOT ALL HOAX THEORIES ARE ABOUT THE CIA: Some apparently, are circulated by former CIA officers themselves. Case in point, the sad news that Marine Corps and CIA vet Robert David Steele passed away from COVID recently. Steele was a prominent opponent of the COVID vaccine and denied the illness existed or that he had it – right up until the point where he died. Among the things that Steele did believe in was Q-Anon. He earned several mentions in The Dead Drop over the years, most colorfully in 2017, when he appeared on Alex Jones’ Infowars program and declared there was “a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20-year ride.” Our condolences to Steele’s friends and family.
SURVEY SAYS: IT’S UP IN THE AIR: A recent Gallup survey shows that an increasing number of Americans are open to the possibility that UFOs really are signs of alien life – or something unearthly. There are still half of U.S. citizens who aren’t buying UFOs or UAPs – but the number has changed ten points in just a decade. A story in TheDebrief.org notes that scientists are divided too. Some argue that extraterrestrial life is likely – it is just unlikely ETs would want to visit earth.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
SHUSH. CHECK OUT THIS LIBRARIAN: In our never ending search for national security-related books of interest to The Cipher Brief community, we recently stumbled across Joss Walker’s, Tomb of the Queen about librarian Jayne Thorne who hooks up with the CIA to battle a “magic-wielding terrorist group called the Kingdom.” Their fight employ’s CIA’s “white magic.” The book is described as a paranormal adventure thriller and fantasy – just in case you thought it was non-fiction.
YELLOW CARD: The publication “Barents Observer” is devoted to improving relations between Norway and its neighbor Russia. Recently, they ran a story about a sign which is posted along a creek that runs between the two countries. The sign warns visitors “No peeing towards Russia.” We are not exactly sure what would motivate a visitor to suddenly try to cross the stream with a stream of their own – but apparently it happens from time to time. There are closed circuit TV cameras onsite to catch anyone who takes a flyer on this or other offensive behavior. Expected fines run to 8,000 kroner or about $925.
YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE A PISSER? If you leaked some funny stuff to The Dead Drop. Send some our way at TheDeadDrop@theCipherBrief.com.
