Got a secret, can you keep it?
Welcome to the The Dead Drop. Each week we pass along news and gossip from the world of national security and intelligence. While the rest of The Cipher Brief is deadly serious, stop off at The Dead Drop for information that can be fun, intriguing or the kind of stuff that readers have a “need-to-know” to stay current on the news.
MIGHT WANNA READ THE JOB DESCRIPTION: Sources tell The Dead Drop that there’s a lot of tension between the Administration and the Intelligence Community over the question of extending privacy protection to non-U.S. persons amid the hot-button debate over data collection. While we’re told that the IC will play nice for the press, there are serious concerns about how that extension could serve as a barrier to intelligence collection. Oh, and then there’s the fact that the CIA was created to spy on foreign nationals. A Dead Drop source told us that the idea of extending privacy rights to foreigners for espionage purposes is absurd, adding that the Agency is required to use discretion. ‘That’s why our Agency was created. Our job is to invade the privacy of foreign institutions and people.’
THERE’S US AND THEN THERE’S THE REST OF THE WORLD: The Daily Beast reported yesterday (9/10/15) that some 50 spies had joined in on the allegations originally made back in July that senior managers were altering some of their analysis when it came to the true capabilities of ISIS and al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria. The Pentagon’s Inspector General has opened an investigation, but a Dead Drop source with plenty of experience in the region tells us that the Administration’s take on the degradation of the structure and abilities of those two terror groups - and the rest of the region’s take on it - haven’t matched up for quite some time. ‘What I can state, authoritatively, is that all of the interlocutors I deal with on the ground, in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, all high-level senior officials both in intelligence and government circles, are saying that ISIS is not being degraded and that our (USG) training of the opposition forces to ISIS (Iraqis) and our airstrikes in Syria are not getting the job done. The difference in views between the USG position on ISIS and everyone else's view in the region is significant and contradictory.’ That can’t be good.
DAMNED IF YOU DO, MISUNDERSTOOD IF YOU DON’T… Some insiders at the CIA are frustrated over the story that just won’t die: the continuing questions over whether Zero Dark Thirty producers were given too much access while conducting research for the film. While The Dead Drop understands the seriousness of giving some people more access than others, the feeling inside the building is ‘We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.' The option of not cooperating with Hollywood on major projects like this means running the risk of getting the facts ridiculously wrong and cementing a false perception of how things really happened. Insiders say the movie depiction was the most accurate version of one of the CIA’s most successful undertakings in its history and gives the public a better overall understanding of what the CIA does. That alone almost makes dealing with continuing criticism over the coziness of the relationship worth it.
THE AGENCY SHOWS ITS BRIEFS: You might remember that The Dead Drop was the first to tell you a few weeks ago that the CIA was planning to release a number of Presidential Daily Briefs from the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations at the LBJ Library. The CIA went public with the info this week, rolling out an Intel Dream Team to mark the occasion, including DNI James Clapper, DCIA John Brennan, Admiral William McRaven (Ret.), former CIA Director Porter Goss and former CIA Deputy Director ADM Bobby Inman, who gave The Cipher Brief a fantastic overview on U.S. Embassy security issues this week. Just remember folks, we told you about this weeks before the Agency did…
ANOTHER REASON TO BUST OUT A COWBOY HAT…. Insiders know that there will be an Intelligence Forum one day before the PDB Event. The Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas at Austin is hosting a discussion focused on Intelligence in American Society with Director Brennan, Admiral McRaven (now Chancellor of the University of Texas system), former DCIA Goss and Intelligence Studies Project Director Steve Slick.
NOW FOR OUR NEXT INSIDER TIP: We’re told that CIA Director John Brennan is planning a day-long internal celebration of the Agency’s workforce, role and future. The main purpose of the event, which is to take place a few weeks from now, seems to be to rally the workforce behind the new reorganization, which has been met with mixed reviews. We’re interested to hear how that goes.
AND THIS SHOCKER: Last week The Dead Drop told you about the publication of “Rebuttal” – an effort by CIA alumni to put on the record their objections to the 2014 “Feinstein Report” on harsh interrogation practices. Among the first media outlets to trash the book was The Huffington Post, in an article by reporter Ali Watkins who wrote a piece titled “Shocker: The CIA Isn’t Sorry for Torture.” Agency alumni say they weren’t surprised that the article was quick to criticize their effort. After all, they say, as an intern and later reporter for McClatchy Newspapers, Watkins was the recipient of a lot of leaks that some suspected were coming from Feinstein’s staff…including some in 2014 that even caused Feinstein to ask the FBI to investigate how McClatchy got a summary of her still-classified conclusions. Also no surprise, the leak investigation apparently went nowhere.
A HUMAN AT THE HELM: Sometimes we’re a little heavy on Agency gossip here at The Dead Drop (though we’ve had some good Pentagon nuggets of late), so we wanted to spread the love around a little to include ODNI. DNI James Clapper has been known to show his human side and not take himself too seriously while tackling thorny intelligence issues, and this week was no exception. During his appearance at INSA’s Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, DNI Clapper spent much of his speech comparing the Intelligence Community to Spiderman, given its mission to identify threats, understand how to manipulate complex webs of intrigue and to come to the rescue of citizens in need. He spun a web of his own, explaining the connection between the movie studio that owns rights to the Spidey movies (the recently hacked Sony Pictures) and the Intelligence Community, saying both had had less-than-friendly interactions with North Korea of late. An Insider tells us that the original speech had Clapper himself being compared to Spidey, but the well-known champion of others around him asked for it to be changed. Personally, The Dead Drop thinks that the comparison of Clapper to a superhero is kind of a cool one, especially after five decades of service in the shadowy world of espionage, all while navigating the sometimes perilous streets of Washington D.C. So long as he stops short of donning the spandex, we’re on your side, Spidey!
Got inside scoop to share? Drop a note to: thedeaddrop@thecipherbrief.com.
