Got a secret, can you keep it?
“Dead drop” – Noun. A location to secretly pass information without a face-to-face meeting.
Each week we hope to pass along to our readers, tidbits of 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.
Like its espionage namesake, The Dead Drop is not a one-way street. Got a tip for us? Email us at TheDeadDrop@cipheronline.com and share the scoop. We promise to protect our sources and methods. Here is the readout from our recent intelligence collection:
SEMPER VIE. In the highly competitive world of Pentagon four-star promotions, more than military merit often comes into play. When General “Fighting Joe” Dunford was nominated in May to become the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, a vacancy was created in his current position – that of Commandant of the Marine Corps. Conventional wisdom had it that General John Kelly, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, a popular and charismatic leader, was likely to get the job. But on July 1 Secretary of Defense Ash Carter surprised many by naming much lesser-known officer, LtGen Robert Neller, as the nominee to follow Dunford.
What happened? The Dead Drop hears that Dunford himself derailed plans for Kelly to fill the Commandant’s boots. Some who are close to Dunford speculate that Kelly was too popular and well-wired and that there was room for only one high-profile 4-star Marine on the Joint Chiefs – Fighting Joe himself.
ENHANCED INTERROGATION. The Dead Drop hears that Showtime’s hit series HOMELAND may have a special lead in to its season premiere on October 4. Multiple sources in the know say a two-hour-long documentary called “The Spymasters,” featuring interviews with most of the living former CIA directors, is slated to air just prior to the kick-off to season five of Carrie Mathison and friends. So long as production doesn’t hit a snag, viewers will see everyone from the 11th CIA director, a fellow by the name of George H. W. Bush, to the current top spy, John Brennan, who have all reportedly been willingly interrogated for the program. Mandy Patinkin, who plays Saul on Homeland, is rumored to be doing the documentary’s narration.
WHISTLEBLOWER vs HORNBLOWER. The July issue of Washingtonian Magazine has a feature on John Kiriakou. The ex-CIA officer and ex-con recently got out of the slammer where he served 23 months for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. The article is the latest attempt to cast Kiriakou as a whistleblower (he claims his conviction was retribution for confirming to the media the practice of waterboarding. We won’t engage in that debate here.)
But what has some former CIA officers frosted is another part of the Washingtonian piece. The story says: “The facts of his case are not contested. In 2002, Kiriakou, then head of the CIA’s counterterrorism operations in Pakistan, directed the capture of Abu Zubaydah, believed to be an al-Qaeda operative and one of the first detainees to undergo the Agency’s “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs.”
In fact, some of the facts of his case ARE disputed. Agency alumni in a position to know tell The Dead Drop that in 2002 Kiriakou was just a mid-level CIA officer sent TDY to Islamabad and that not only did he not “direct” the capture of Abu Zubaydah – despite the tales Kiriakou has been telling in recent years – he played only a marginal role in the operation.
Sources remind The Dead Drop that when sentencing Kiriakou in 2013, Judge Leonie Brinkema (a Clinton appointee to the Federal bench) said that: “This is not the case of a whistle-blower.” She added that based on the evidence she had seen she thought the plea agreement the government gave Kiriakou was “way too light” and if she had the option she would have given him a much harsher sentence.
OFFICE OF PERSONNEL (MIS)MANAGEMENT. Word is out that the FBI has been largely absent from recent White House meetings in the aftermath of the OPM hack. The rumor mill is circulating that the Bureau has elected to skip the sessions because they don’t want to have anything to do with ‘spinning’ the investigation.
PLAY BALL! Service Secretaries used to be quite powerful. While the senior civilians for the Army Navy and Air Force still have clout on budgetary matters but aren’t the heavy hitters they once were. The Secretary of the Navy does retain one cool prerogative, however. He gets to pick the names for new Navy ships.
This past Saturday, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus went to Cooperstown, NY for the Baseball Hall of Fame induction festivities and announced his plan to name a new Freedom-class littoral combat ship the USS Cooperstown (LCS-32.) It is unusual for such a small town to earn such recognition. (Last month Mabus named similar ships Cincinnati and Kansas City.)
But the move will no doubt ingratiate Mabus with the Lords of Baseball. The Dead Drop hears that with less than 18 months to go in the administration, Mabus has told his staff he wants to throw out the first pitch at every stadium in major league baseball. No word on how many of the 30 he has checked off his bucket list so far although we know he has done more than a half dozen.
Come back next week to see what new secrets are exposed in The Dead Drop.
Don’t forget to send us your tips at: TheDeadDrop@thecipherbrief.com.
