WHERE’D THEY PUT PUTIN? Ukrainian military intelligence chief Major General Kyrylo Budanov likes to play with the heads of Russians – so we are not entirely sure what to make over his comments about the head of Russia. In a recent interview, Budanov engaged in some speculation that Vladimir Putin might be hiding, ill – or maybe even dead. Budanov told Radio Svoboda that “The Putin who everyone used to know was last seen around June 26, 2022.” There are lots of reports that Putin is using body doubles and eyebrows were raised recently when Putin (or a Putin-lookalike) was seen on looking at his right wrist searching for a watch – which the valid Vlad always wears on his left wrist.
NOW THAT’S AUTHENTIC: Current and former military personnel and intelligence officers often criticize motion pictures for getting the details of their professions wrong. For the military, that might include misplaced ribbons on a uniform or people running around saluting each other at the drop of a hat. For intelligence operatives, it might be characters using personal cell phones in a SCIF or calling a CIA officer an “agent.” But spies tell us that Denzel Washington’s newly-released Equalizer 3 nails some true-to-life details thanks to former CIA officer (and current Cipher Brief expert) Marc Polymeropoulos who is credited as a technical advisor on the film. Denzel plays a former intelligence operative who takes revenge on those who do wrong in the world. Dakota Fanning co-stars as a CIA case officer, who is sent to Italy to investigate carnage (of course). So, what did they get right in the film? In quite a few scenes, the station chief in Rome, named Frank Conroy, (played by David Denman) is wearing a Vienna Inn baseball hat. That (less than swanky site) is an unofficial watering hole frequented by CIA officers and is located just down the road from the Agency HQ. Our spies tell us that Polymeropoulos (who has logged more than a little amount of time in the Vienna Inn himself) made sure the head gear was FedExed to Italy to cap off the character’s authenticity.
NOW THAT’S A LOT OF FBI SHOWS: The TV series FBI is coming back for its sixth season but we don’t know when. That’s because the production date is up in the air due to the SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood writers strikes. The popular G-Men (and women) series sparked two spin-offs: FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted. As the strikes drag on, the likelihood of any new scripted series episodes appearing this calendar year dims. No word on whether any real-world FBI watering holes are paid homage to - in any of the series.
REAL DEAL: Fictional stories about national security issues are fine – but if you prefer true stories about such matters – you may want to check out a new 8-part Netflix series that just started streaming called “Spy Ops.” You can check out the trailer here. The series draws on stories from the files of the CIA, DIA, Mossad, MI6 and other intelligence agencies and features interviews with operatives who participated in those missions. Among the episodes are one about “Operation Jawbreaker” the deployment of a small team of CIA officers into Afghanistan less than two weeks after 9/11. “Operation Pimlico” involved the exfiltration of KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky from Russia by MI6, and there is also a two-parter called “Operation Wrath of God” about the response to the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. If you want to know more about the series before diving in – check out our “Cover Stories” podcast which includes an interview with executive producer Jon Loew and consulting producer and former senior CIA officer (and Cipher Brief expert) Mark Kelton – who helped guarantee authenticity in the new series.
TOO REAL? Alex Lo, a columnist for the South China Morning Post took a gentle satirical poke (we think) at Chinese government officials who posted on social media recently about an article on Douglas Mackiernan who was killed in 1950, in Tibet. Mackiernan was the first CIA officer whose death in the line of duty was subsequently honored on the Agency’s Memorial Wall. Lo’s complaint apparently is that Mackiernan’s exploits sound too heroic to Chinese ears. Mackiernan was an expert in “radio communications, meteorology, photography and organic chemistry” and if that wasn’t enough, was also proficient in four or five languages. Lo suggests that the Chinese government was telling their version of his story now – to let domestic followers know that the CIA has been “carrying out dastardly clandestine operations against China from the start…” The columnist thinks Beijing might be a bit annoyed by current CIA Director Bill Burns’ recent claims that the Agency has made progress in rebuilding its spy operations in China in recent years – a claim Lo guesses is wrong. We’re pretty sure, Lo doesn’t know.
FAKE NEWS: The folks at The Record, a publication put out by Recorded Future, point out that an ongoing Russian disinformation campaign has been circulating fake articles mocked up to look like legit stories from news outlets like The Washington Post and Fox News. The mega social media outfit Meta points at two companies – “Structure National Technology” and “Social Design Agency” as being behind what they call “the largest and most aggressively persistent covert influence operation from Russia that we’ve seen since 2017.” Reportedly, the recent bogus news stories target Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. support for Ukraine’s efforts to combat the Russian invasion. Meta said that the faux Washington Post piece included “a faked Russian-language video which purported shows a fake President Zelensky admitting that he was a puppet of the CIA.” (Maybe they should have given him a Vienna Inn ballcap.)
NOT SO MYSTERIOUS CRASH: The Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) recently launched a new website devoted to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena “UAPs” referred to by almost everyone but the Pentagon, as “UFOs.” Almost immediately, the website crashed. This could be due to overwhelming public interest – or UWD – unknown website difficulty. The website is back up (when last we checked.) It promises that in the near future it will have a function that will allow “current or former U.S. government employees service members, or contractors with direct knowledge of U.S. Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945” to submit reports.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
COLOR US SKEPTICAL: We recently learned that a couple years ago, a veteran entrepreneur seized upon the stereotype of Marines eating crayons – and brewed up an India Pale Ale and dubbed it “Drinking Crayons.” It measures a bold 7.9% ABV – not a beer for shrinking violets. But if you’d like something a little less bracing – they also have a beer called “Shrinking Crayons” that is only 4.8%. Unfortunately – the brews are only available in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and a few spots in New York. Some folks who have tried the beer, wax eloquent about its bold taste. At The Dead Drop, we draw the line at gag beers whose names might make us gag.
DON’T TREAD ON ME: Media reports recently rolled out satellite images that appear to show that Russia has taken to covering parked TU-95 and TU-160 strategic bombers with car tires. Apparently, Kremlin officials have become convinced that this tactic may confuse Ukrainian drones and missiles aiming at blowing up the idle planes. So, to recap — the Russians are putting tires on the top of ground-based airplanes. Not “where the rubber meets the road,” but “where the rubber meets the roof.” Some reports say that the tires reduce visibility of the planes at night but are useless against infrared cameras. Sounds flat crazy to us – but your mileage may vary.
DON’T WALK ON SEA: They really didn’t need to put “Florida man” in the headline of this Fox News story. It seems a guy from the Sunshine State was busted by Coast Guard officials as he was trying to “run” to London in a “human-sized hamster wheel” contraption. Reza Baluchi built the vessel made of a large drum and inflatable buoys surrounded by paddles that were powered by a runner (Baluchi) inside. His marathon effort was stopped somewhere off Georgia. In the long run, that was probably a good thing.
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