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Welcome to the Dead Drop.
SERIOUS CONVERSATIONS. The Chertoff Group hosted a Who's Who among the public-private sector this week to host a conversation about risks facing the connected generation. Accenture Strategy, Apple, Cisco, Cyphort, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Adobe and Sailpoint made the east coast trip from the Valley to troubleshoot issues like Innovation, Data Security, Implications of the EU Safe Harbor Decision and Threat Detection. Also there were guvvies from the Department of Homeland Security, DoD, and some 3-letter intelligence agencies. There was a lot of talk about how much the U. S. government is spending on Einstein 3, how much is too much when it comes to information sharing and how security risks are changing. The Dead Drop loves this kind of nerdy, but pertinent, conversation around driving change, so look for more coverage of events like this in the future. And hey, this is a platform that engages ideas from all corners of the global security environment, so don't be shy: send your thoughts on worthy conversation topics to thedeaddrop@thecipherbrief.com. While you're at it, go to thecipherbrief.com and Join The Community to sign up for first access to trending issues and conversations on these topics.
GENERALLY SPEAKING. The Dead Drop hears that General J.C. Campbell, currently head honcho for U.S. forces in Afghanistan is frontrunner to follow General Phil Breedlove as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. Also in the hunt is Army General Mike Scaparrotti, the U.S. Commander in Korea. Breedlove is rumored to be in the running for Chief of Staff of the Air Force. General Lori Robinson may be moving from PACAF in Hawaii to the NORTHCOM job in Colorado. But some within DoD question whether the potential Breedlove post is pure speculation, telling The Dead Drop 'there's no F-ing way that's likely to happen'. Ah, the beauty of gossip...
ADMIRABLE SERVICE. DD hears that Admiral Michele Howard, currently Navy Vice Chief of Naval Operations, will be sailing off to Italy as Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe (We miss the old “CINC” title – which allowed that job in the past to be dubbed “CINC US NEVER.”) The Navy’s top HR guy, Chief of Naval Personnel VADM Bill Moran, is set to get his 4th star and follow in Admiral Howard’s wake as Vice CNO.
FLAG FOOTBALL. Spies tell us that many of the rest of the Navy flag officer assignments are in flux however due to the long-running “Fat Leonard” corruption investigation (a portly contractor who gave free meals and gratuities to some Navy seniors.) The Dead Drop hears the Navy (which had been unable to make many overdue assignments) plans to test the system by starting to nominate flag officers for onward assignments even if they are still “under DOJ investigation.” Justice is moving painfully slowly in these cases – nearly 100 flag officers are tied up (not necessarily because THEY are under investigation…but because they are in the “daisy chain” with someone who is.) The Senate will have to referee deciding whether to move/promote/retire people squashed by Fat Leonard.
WASTE NOT WANT NOT. Some CIA alumni tell us that they're amused by the bleats from quarters about the House Benghazi investigation taking 18 months and “wasting $4 million” of taxpayer money, noting that the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of CIA interrogation tactics took about five years – cost more than $40 million. “At least the House allowed those involved to testify” one Agency veteran noted to us. The SSCI never talked to anyone involved in the CIA’s interrogation program. “They just cherry picked their way through documents and made a one-sided pronouncement.”
OH SO SOCIAL. The annual OSS Society Dinner this Saturday (which Foreign Policy last year called the "hottest party you've never heard of") will be highlighted this year by the presentation of the William J. Donovan Award to Ambassador Hugh Montgomery. Montgomery — a distinguished OSS veteran — went on to serve for decades at the CIA. His Ambassador title came along with a couple assignments at the State Department in the '80s. CIA Director George Tenet dragged him back to Langley where Montgomery continued to serve until a few months ago. We guess — since he is on the verge of hitting 92 — we will cut the Ambassador some slack for bailing out early.
The Donovan award goes back to 1961. Past recipients include the likes of Allen Dulles, Dwight Eisenhower, The Earl of Mountbatten, Maggie Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush.
DYING SINGLE. The DD is gonna use its platform to call out something that sounds pretty bogus. U.S. government contractors who are killed overseas in the line of duty are covered by insurance policies that provide their families with about $400,000 in death benefits. That’s IF they were married – or had kids at the time of death. If they were single and childless as Glenn Doherty (one of four Americans killed in Benghazi on September 11, 2012) was – their families don’t get a dime. What makes the matter more unfathomable is that contractors are forced to buy insurance policies before deploying – but are not told that they need to procure a spouse or a kid before anyone can collect the death benefit. The CIA and a number of committees on Capitol Hill have been trying to rectify the situation. Given the obvious unfairness, it shouldn’t be hard to resolve – or at least you would think. But efforts to fix the situation have dragged on forever. The House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee seems to be the hold up. Hard to imagine why.
15 MINUTES. Full disclosure: the following has nothing to do with the world of global security (directly anyway), but we have a personal tech sector shout out, and a bone to pick. It seems that Cipher Brief Investor Stewart Alsop made a cameo appearance (got a reference, really) in the new Legendary Pictures flick ‘Steve Jobs’. Apparently, the tech journalist-turned venture capitalist has a knack for rubbing people the wrong way, even the really brilliant ones who change the world. (Check out the back story in Alsop’s own words here.) So that’s the 15 Minutes. Now we have a Jurassic World-sized bone to pick: Legendary Pictures, which is headed by (an awesome dream follower) Thomas Tull, (who is also an investor in TCB) seems to have forgotten to send us any tickets to the movie that we could share with Dead Drop readers. Ahem. Just sayin.
HOMELAND – BETTER CALL SAUL. SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t want to know what happened in last Sunday’s edition of Homeland – titled “Better Call Saul” – stop reading now. SPOILER ALERT #2! Even if you DO keep reading you might not know what happened – because, as is so often the case with this series, things are a little confusing. But here is our take:
Carrie is holed up with Quinn who was badly wounded in last week’s shootout with a pesky Russian thug. Quinn is bleeding badly, self-diagnosed septic, and at death’s door. He can’t/won’t go to a hospital because doing so might jeopardize Carrie. So Carrie reaches out to most-recent boyfriend Jonas – who has a sister who is a doctor – hoping Sis will show up with some drugs. But Jonas comes alone – which is good because we have too many characters in this show already. Carrie leaves recent boyfriend Jonas there to take care of ex-boyfriend Quinn while she goes off to try to figure out who put her on the kill list.
CIA biggie Dar Adal seems to have relocated to Berlin (like everyone else) and is trying to figure out how the Syrian general’s plane got blown up last week. Fingers point toward the Israelis (and their Ambassador to Germany who is apparently also the Mossad station chief). Dar orders CIA station chief Allison to put surveillance on Saul (who is known to be tight with the Israeli). But we learn from a meeting with Russian no-good-nik Ivan that Allison is working for the other side. Seems the Russians lured the Israeli ambassador to Geneva so that they could cast suspicion on him when the Syrian’s plane blew up. Allison feeds to Saul the fact that the Israelis were near the scene of the crime. Saul confronts his old friend – only to be captured on film doing so by CIA surveillance.
Hacker Numan figures out that a Russian embassy official was probably involved in killing his partner and the partner’s hooker girlfriend…so he posts video of the Russian and encourages folks to show up and demonstrate outside the Russian mission – which, for some reason, they do.
Meanwhile Carrie tries to figure out what was in those stolen CIA documents that caused all those folks to get killed. She is told that she’ll have to access the originals from the CIA Station – where she is no longer a welcome visitor. Carrie sets up a secret meeting with Saul…after sending him a stick of Black Jack gum – which must mean something but by this point we were too tired to figure it out.
Finally – Jonas decides that Quinn is about to bleed out – and calls 911. Quinn hearing this, miraculously gets off his death bed, and takes off for the waterfront (there is a waterfront in Berlin?) where he hopes to kill himself using a cinder block and twist ties or something – so that his body will not lead to his true love Carrie. But some Good Samaritan stops him…and Quinn goes for plan B which involves trying to die in peace in a trash dumpster. The episode ends with the Good Samaritan eyeballing him again, so we figure next week Quinn will discover that dying – like everything else in this series – is not a simple thing.
Nailed It: Out in public with her black wig, Carrie finally figures out that a light disguise is not going to hack it. She buys a Guy Fawkes-like mask from a demonstrator which, at least temporarily, will defeat all the surveillance cameras and face-recognition software in Berlin. Fortunately for her apparently everyone in Berlin wears Guy Fawkes masks.
Failed It: How come a pro like Saul fails to notice the surveillance on him when he visits his Israeli friend? How come he knows to elude it when meeting with Carrie? And what sloppy tradecraft for CIA Station Chief and double agent Allison – to meet face-to-face with her Russian handler – to literally hold hands, share a smoke and check out the photo of an apparently dead Carrie. If Saul can be followed – what makes her think she is clean?
