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Welcome to the Dead Drop.
ETHOS SOS. The CIA and George Washington University are joining up to hold a public conference on October 27 titled “Ethos and Profession of Intelligence.” (Sounds to us like they left a word out of the title – but perhaps the word “the” is in short supply.) This is the second annual conference – so they must not have solved all the “ethos” problems last year. No doubt they will this time around. The Dead Drop hears that the full-day conference will feature remarks by DNI Jim Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan and will present a handful of panel discussions bringing together “intelligence community leaders, national security experts, current and former intelligence partners, private sector leaders, and members of the media.” The panels are said to cover how intelligence agencies interact with policy makers, recruit and develop staff, protect civil liberties, and build international partnerships. Sounds like enough for a book. Speaking of…
Book Report. The Dead Drop is looking forward to a number of books coming in the new year on national security and intelligence matters. Among them, former CIA and FBI honcho (and current CNN talking head) Phil Mudd’s book from W.W. Norton about the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program – capturing why certain decisions were made and the tenor of the times. Aptly, the working title of the book is ‘The Program.” It’s due in June.
Then there’s a book from Public Affairs about the President’s Daily Brief by CIA veteran and PhD David Priess. “The President’s Book of Secrets” is due to spill on March 1. The Dead Drop hears that Priess landed a foreword by President George H.W. Bush.
Former Under Secretary of Defense Michael Vickers reportedly has a book in the works about his career both at the CIA and the Pentagon…title and publication date are still under wraps.
Nada Bakos, who was CIA’s chief targeting officer tracking Abu Musab al-Zarqawi reportedly is working on a memoir about that critical chase. The book is to be published by Little Brown – perhaps in the winter of 2016.
We previously told you about General Michael Hayden’s “Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror.” That one’s due Feb 23, 2016 from Penguin Press.
Tastier Topics: Security & Beer. RSA President Amit Yoran sat down with The Cipher Brief CEO Suzanne Kelly this week to talk about issues ranging from encryption to motorcycles. Watch for his in-depth, private sector take on the encryption debate on The Cipher Brief next week. What you won’t get in the upcoming article is the fascinating conversation about the naming of RSA’s Reston-based conference rooms. Kelly (a somewhat admitted admirer of beer) made the keen observation that the conference room where the two sat down was named ‘Yuengling’ – so being intellectually curious and all, she asked about it, only to hear that the room next door was called ‘Sam Adams.’ It seems a very Palantir kind of thing to do (though Palantir is famously obsessed with another Cipher Brief favorite, Lord of the Rings). So why did Yoran name all of the conference rooms after beer? ‘We like beer.’
Return to the Homeland. A lot of Dead Drop readers are also ‘Homeland’ addicts, so this one’s for you. Warning: If you haven’t the season premiere yet…don’t read on. (We don’t want to spoil it for those of you who still think Carrie and Brody make a cute couple.)
The Brief: Season 5 Episode 1: “Separation Anxiety”
Carrie hung up her trench coat to become chief of security for a billionaire German philanthropist. Now she spends her days going to church and being a mom – a bit of a switch. But Ms. Mathison is a trouble magnet. Her boss, Herr Düring, decides to visit a refugee camp in Lebanon – controlled by Hezbollah. Carrie says: “bad idea.” Düring ignores her advice.
Meanwhile, German hackers break into the CIA’s Berlin station and find that the Agency has been snooping on Germans (like that would ever happen) but this time it’s to help the local intelligence service get around Deutschland’s privacy laws. The info gets leaked to a reporter and Carrie gets called out of her child’s birthday party to verify it, so she tries to persuade the reporter not to publish the story.
The leak causes Carrie’s old pal Saul to rush to Berlin – but it turns out that they’re not quite pals anymore; Saul gives her the cold shoulder. CIA operative Quinn is called back from Syria to CIA headquarters, grilled in a conference room by a cast of thousands and personally blamed for the failure of the U.S. fight against ISIS. Carrie gets captured by a Hezbollah cell and, while tied up, asks them to arrange safe passage for her billionaire boss when he visits their refugee camp. Quinn shows up in Berlin and starts killing people.
Saul arranges to give Quinn additional assassination missions by having names and photos of targets show up in a mailbox. After all, we know CIA’s computer system cannot be trusted.
Reality Check. Here are a few things we think Showtime got right – and wrong about the world of intelligence.
Nailed It. Carrie trying to talk the journalist out of posting a top-secret document – and the journalist blowing her off. And her being pulled out of baby Frannie’s birthday party as a result of the leak also had the ring of truth.
Failed It. The scene of a low-level CIA officer being called into a conference room and personally blamed for the lack of success in Syria is absurd. Policy gets made in Washington and orders delivered to the field. A real world Quinn might be asked —“How do you see it?” But he’s not gonna be held accountable for personally failing to do away with Assad and ISIS. Plus, how come everyone is a lone wolf? Saul, Quinn, Carrie – everyone wanders around without support, backup or counter surveillance. And while we’re at it…how come no one at CIA HQ wears a security badge?
What anomalies did you spot? Send your reactions each week to thedeaddrop@thecipherbrief.com. Like Quinn’s murder-for-hire mailbox – we promise anonymity.
