Got a secret?
Welcome to the Dead Drop.
Finally a smoking gun? Much of the obsession over Hillary Clinton’s email server has seemed like a scavenger hunt in search of a scandal, but the revelation late last week from Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy that a March 2011 email sent from Sidney Blumenthal to Clinton contained the real name of a then-active CIA spy in Libya is kind of a game changer. Former CIA General Counsel John Rizzo told Morning Joe on Monday that the leak of such a name could be “literally lethal” – yet it got very little attention. For comparison’s sake, in his recent memoir, “Company Man,” Rizzo (who personally filed the crime report on the Valerie Plame kerfuffle) said the Plame leak (which got MASSIVE media attention) “while deplorable, was negligible in terms of harm to the nation’s security.” So – name of real spy in a far off dangerous country gets little attention. The name of beautiful spy in cushy DC gets tons of attention. Did someone say something about needing to get priorities straight?
Amusing/Appalling: You Be the Judge. Buried on page 9 of the same Gowdy letter is a quote from a Blumenthal email to Clinton citing his ex-CIA source Tyler Drumheller calling former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates “… a mean, vicious little *^%&#.” Except for the “little” part, some in Washington might actually bear that description as a badge of honor. Just sayin’.
An International Case of Headlines. Ex-CIAer Kevin Hulbert made global headlines last week with an article he wrote in The Cipher Brief making the case for continued U.S. engagement in Pakistan. Both the Pakistan Express Tribune and the India Times picked up the story and ran it in its entirety. Here’s a fun drinking game: see which one seemed to include quotes that weren’t in the original document.
A spy tells the Dead Drop that the Senate Armed Services Committee…is busy prepping for some pretty controversial hearings between now and the end of the year to try and help draw attention to a lot of the concerns that Chairman John McCain has regarding U.S. security posture around the world. Since national security didn’t seem to play a big role in this week’s presidential debate, maybe a headline-grabbing round of hearings will nudge the candidates toward paying a little more attention? So far, the Dead Drop sees no clear leader (from either party) on the issues that the SASC is likely to try and push to the forefront: Syria in particular. It’s fine to bash the other guys (and gals), but after a while, you have to bring your own strategy to the table, right? Voters would clearly see right through it if you didn’t, right? Jury still out.
Playboy gets a makeover…. You probably heard this week that Playboy is changing things up by no longer publishing photos of nude women. Apparently the number of readers has dropped from a whopping 5.6m in 1975 to just 800K today. The Dead Drop doesn’t see the big deal – you only ever read it for the articles anyway, right? Speaking of, a well-dressed source tells us that General Michael Hayden will be featured in the magazine this coming spring – fully clothed, we trust.
Homeland Junkies -– SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
Episode 2 of Season 5 of Homeland has Carrie, now head of security for German philanthropist Otto Düring, taking her boss to a Hezbollah-controlled refugee camp on the Lebanon-Syria border so he can take some bows for donating relief dollars (or Euros). Düring overstays his welcome and Carrie’s security team has to kill a suicide bomber just before detonation…and then they all make a daring motor vehicle escape, narrowly missing getting blown up by a massive IED. (Has anyone in history ever narrowly missed being blown up more often than Carrie? Seriously, you do not want to hang out with that girl.)
Demonstrating there is honor among terrorists (…as if) Hezbollah returns a $40,000 bribe Carrie gave them since they failed to truly provide promised safe passage – and then they deliver the bombshell – the terrorists’ target was Carrie, not Düring.
Meanwhile, the Germans are up in arms about the leak of a document showing the German intelligence service, the BND, was in bed with the CIA trying to gather intelligence on terrorists in Das Homeland. They demand someone pay the price for the leaked secret and that the CIA Station Chief in Berlin be “PNG’d” – declared persona non grata – and sent packing. The station chief, however, tells headquarters they ought to offer up the head of the European Division, Saul Berenson, instead.
Peter Quinn assassinates a woman who was busy convincing young German girls to be ISIS brides or martyrs. Then he goes to his post office box to pick up the next assignment – a message which, when decrypted, spells out “Mathison.” Who is trying to get Carrie killed? Could be Saul, but our bet is shadowy CIA official Dar Adal – played by F. Murray Abraham. After all – can you really trust someone who chooses to be known as “F. Murray”?
REALITY CHECK:
Nailed It – The tension between German intelligence officials – who broke some laws in an effort to stop terrorism – and the journalist aiding hackers who broke some laws trying to get a story out but as a result put Germany at risk — seemed spot on to us. Also, declaring a Station Chief as PNG matches real-world practice.
Failed It – The show implies that Saul, the head of CIA’s EUR Division has taken up residence in Berlin. Convenient for scripting…but that person would normally be working out of Langley.
The notion that Hezbollah would return a bribe for failing to deliver on promised safety stretches the imagination.
What anomalies did you spot? Send your reactions each week to thedeaddrop@thecipherbrief.com. We might publish the best ones – but we might not.
