Should I Stay or Should I Go? Dead Drop insiders tell us there is much speculation going on inside the Obama Administration over who will stay in their current role and who might bail before the next election. Rumors have been flying for a while now that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has been ready to hang it up after a long and successful career, but those close to him tell us not to count him out just yet – both he and his Principal Deputy Stephanie O’Sullivan are sticking it out until the end.
O’Sullivan may be one of the intelligence community’s best kept secrets and unleashing her on the private sector could be interesting. The Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly profiled O’Sullivan for CNN a few years back.
Inspired by ‘Wild Bill’. If the U.S. has anything close to a real-life James Bond, he (or she) was probably sipping martinis and rubbing elbows with fellow tuxedo-clad spies at the Ritz Carlton a few days ago. The Office of Strategic Services was the precursor to the CIA, and the OSS Society’s annual dinner is the ‘Who’s Who’ of the spy and special operations world. An audience of what looked like a thousand people heard from CIA Director John Brennan, former SOCOM Commander Admiral Eric Olson, former Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers, CEO of Business Executives for National Security General Norty Schwartz and Rear Admiral Brian Losey, who is the current Commander of Naval Special Warfare Command. The OSS was headed by Major General William Donovan who forged a reputation as a ‘take no bullshit’ commander. (The Dead Drop admittedly finds that pretty cool). The Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe offers a good take on this year’s honorees.
End of an era. Three weeks ago The Dead Drop shared a link to some neat video of legendary reporter Walter Pincus visiting the basement of the Washington Post to go through some of the scores of files he amassed in his 40+ years at the paper. The Post said the fall cleaning was necessary since it will soon move to new quarters. But it turns out there was another reason. Pincus, 83, just shared with his pals the news that Post Managing Editor Marty Baron has informed him that he won’t be making the move with the paper in the New Year. Walter has been operating on contract with the Post for quite some time and, according to our sources, Baron has been knocking off such contributors one-by-one.
Last month Al Kamen, author of the very popular “In the Loop” column was similarly shown the door. The apparent cost-saving move by the Post of giving Pincus the pink slip came the same day we learned Post owner Jeff Bezos moved up to the number four position in the list of wealthiest people on the planet. Pincus will not lack for things to do going forward – he is reportedly working on a book about nuclear disarmament.
Austin Powers. The Dead Drop hears that University of Texas Chancellor and retired 4-star Admiral Bill McRaven (forever known as the Navy SEAL responsible for the Bin Laden raid) – is determined to make UT a major player in discussion of national security matters. Latest evidence: a conference in Austin next week on “Great Powers, Failed States, and New Frontiers: National Security Challenges in the 21st Century.” Among the luminaries drawn deep in the heart of Texas for the panel discussions will be former Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, retired 4-star General Monty Meigs, former Under Secretary of Defense Mike Vickers, ex CIA and FBI counterterrorism biggie Phil Mudd, Agency Asia-hand Dennis Wilder, former Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin and many more. Speeches from McRaven, Senator Ben Sasse (R, NE), Chairman Mike McCaul of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Senator John Cornyn (R, TX) are on the agenda. The program is being led by veteran CIA clandestine service officer (and aptly named) Steve Slick.
Homeland Recap. Spoiler alert! OK, here it is: If you haven’t watched the latest edition of Homeland – and don’t want to know what happened (not that that much happened this week) read no further.
Homeland calls this week’s episode “Parabiosis” – which, as everyone knows, means: “the anatomical joining of two individuals, especially artificially in physiological research.” Why they called it that – we dunno. In this episode Carrie meets up with Saul and tells him that the Russians are trying to kill her by hijacking his assassination operation with Quinn. He doesn’t believe her. She asks Saul to get her access to the hacked CIA documents, convinced that the answer to the question of why the Russians want her dead is hidden in there somewhere. Saul says no.
But Saul soon learns that he is - as Carrie unsuccessfully tried to warn him - under suspicion by the CIA for being involved in the destruction of the Syrian general’s airplane. As a result Saul, has been locked out of Agency computer systems and ordered to undergo a polygraph test to see if he is working for the bad(der) guys. He and Dar Adal have a blow out, and during the airing of their dirty laundry, we learn that Saul passed classified information to Mossad during the First Intifada - almost three decades ago - and Dar Adal has been holding it against him ever since.
Carrie finds out that Quinn has gone walkabout – leaving her hideout while badly injured – to avoid endangering her. Turns out his attempt to commit suicide last week was thwarted by an Iraqi refugee doctor…who attempts to restore his health by giving him a transfusion of his own blood. The doc’s residence is full of Syrian ruffians – including a particularly nasty fellow who has just been released from a German prison – because of tainted evidence collected by illegal German-CIA intelligence operations. Hajik, the ex-prisoner, thinks Quinn is a spy and tries to kill him. Despite his weakened condition, Quinn manages to kill Hajik instead...via a punch to the throat.
Once Saul figures out that he is under suspicion by the CIA, he decides to steal the top secret documents that Carrie wants (what better way to prove your innocence, eh?) and manages to slip them to German billionaire Herr Düring for onward passage to Carrie. Ms. Mathison had asked to borrow Düring’s private plane with 12 hours of fuel to get the hell out of Dodge.
Nailed It. The great lengths that Saul goes to avoid taking a polygraph. Even though he knows he is innocent – no good can come from the experience.
Failed It. There are 3.5 million people living in Berlin (maybe a lot more counting refugees) and they guy who stumbles across Quinn and saves his life is an Iraqi doctor?
Or how about this one: the Berlin Station’s computers have USB drive ports to make it easy for Saul to download the documents. Good intelligence agencies disable such ports to make stealing data harder.
Saul’s computer user name is SBERENSON. Hmm. Clever.
CIA officers barge into Düring’s private club and, in front of everyone, pat down Düring and Saul looking for the thumb drive with the re-stolen documents. Then they haul Saul out. Not exactly subtle…or likely.
