A VERY CONSEQUENTIAL DIVIDE: In last week’s Dead Drop, we also mentioned reports that the administration is considering ending the dual-hatted relationship of NSA and Cyber Command – something that has been rumored and hotly debated for years. This time around, Congressman Don Bacon, (R, NE) who serves on the House Armed Services Committee (and is a retired Air Force brigadier general) sent a message to the administration that a lot of Hill denizens oppose the notion. “I’ve spoken to my colleagues on this panel and our friends in the Senate, and on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, the Armed Services Committees are strongly opposed to ending the dual-hatted relationship. I want to take this opportunity to make very clear to the Department’s leadership that if they believe they have allies on this issue who sit on the Pentagon’s congressional oversight panels, they do not.” Some press accounts suggest that the administration is considering making the head of NSA a civilian and giving the stand-alone Cyber Command a 3-star leader.
NEW DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR SPY OPS: One move that seems to have gone beyond the rumor stage was reported by Financial Times saying that the CIA “tapped a veteran clandestine case officer who currently serves as a station chief in the Middle East to run its covert operations around the world.” The new person (whose name is being withheld by the media since he is under cover) is reportedly pretty well-respected around the Agency. Unrelated, we are still tracking rumors that current CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis may be a move within the IC in the near future, but we have no further intel on that at the moment. We hear there’s an open job at NSA.
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THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF – NO ASSEMBLY REQUIRED: Last week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said she was moving the assembly of the President’s Daily Brief away from the CIA to ODNI. The Cipher Brief kinda wanted to know more about what that might mean, so it tapped Beth Sanner, former Deputy Director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who served as President Trump’s briefer during his first Trump administration. Sanner broke down what it was like to brief the president, telling The Cipher Brief, “Unlike anyone else that goes to see the president, you know that you are the person who needs to be delivering that uncomfortable truth or that difficult fact that didn’t actually go that way. I called myself the skunk at the garden party and joked about it, because it’s really the only way you can do it. Everybody else is incentivized to please. I was incentivized to say what other people didn’t want to say.” Maybe that’s why Politico reports that President Trump has only received the brief 12 times in his second administration, though the White House says the president is “constantly apprised of classified briefings”.
WHAT AN HONOR: Cipher Brief Expert and the former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command General Joe Votel (Ret.) and a short-list of other notables were honored this week as 2025 Distinguished Graduates by West Point. Admiral Bill McRaven seemed to agree with the Votel choice saying, “If you are looking for a West Point graduate who has exemplified the Army values, showed tremendous leadership, fought again the enemies of the nation, and upheld the highest tradition of the U.S. military, you could find no better candidate than General Joe Votel. What you might not know about the honoree is that he also loves to read (like us) and recently shared thoughts on one his favorite books on leadership with Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly on The Cover Stories Podcast.
“I WILL NOT LIE OR LEAK”: The Wall Street Journal is reporting on what seems like an elevated number of polygraph investigations being ordered in organizations that report to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Polygraphs (widely and inaccurately called “lie detectors”) have long been used within some U.S. intelligence agencies to detect deceit for decades. But now the focus by DHS and elsewhere seems not just to be on ferreting out spies – but mostly on finding people who are providing information to the news media without authorization. “Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is unapologetic about its efforts to root out leakers that undermine national security,” Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for DHS was quoted as saying. “We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment, or status as a career civil servant—we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.” As pretty much anyone who has ever held a senior intelligence role will tell you, plugging those leaks is a tough task. If only there were a “leak detector”.
BRAZIL’S ESPIONAGE ASSEMBLY LINE: The New York Times is out with a pretty detailed investigative report unraveling just how it says Russia has turned Brazil into a spy factory. It seems the country known for rainforests, carnivals and soccer has also been home to an operation by Russia’s intelligence services to train and launch “illegals” – spies who spend years honing their ability to blend in, in order to facilitate deep-cover spy operations. The goal here though, according to the report, “was not to spy on Brazil, but to become Brazilian”, effectively turning the country into “an assembly line for deep-cover operations.”
TURKEY’S FAULTY CELL TOWERS: Turkish Intelligence reported this month that it caught suspects “red-handed” as part of a sophisticated Chinese espionage operation that used fake cell phone towers to collect intelligence on targets. Chinese intelligence officers allegedly set up shell companies to help facilitate the operation that they also self-funded by hacking into the bank accounts of ordinary citizens and funneling that money to support the program. Who says spies aren’t entrepreneurial?
SWEDEN’S MYSTERIOUS DIPLOMAT: Who knew when Sweden joined NATO that among the things it would bring to the alliance would be a lot of stories about potential security violations and espionage? Last week’s Dead Drop has a couple items about such stirrings in Stockholm. And this week, we’re hearing (via Reuters) about a Swedish diplomat who had been questioned by authorities on suspicion of espionage, and then suddenly died. And here is an interesting twist – the Swedish SAPO security service confirmed that they detained the man and held him for three days for questioning before releasing him. But they declined to identify him. The diplomat’s lawyer and the Swedish foreign ministry confirmed the man’s passing – but again, without IDing him. Police told local media that “there is no suspicion that a crime has been committed.” The BBC quoted former foreign minister Carl Bildt describing the mystery man as a “tragically deceased ambassador.”
GIVE US MORE DIPLOMAT X4: Diplomacy may not be having a banner year around the globe in places like Ukraine or the Middle East – but it is doing well in the world of entertainment. Reports are in that the popular Netflix series “The Diplomat” has been renewed for a fourth season before season three even premieres. The way things work in the streaming business, no one knows (or will say) when the third season for the show (that stars Keri Russell, Rufus Swell and Allison Janney) will start — but we’re guessing soon. If you haven’t seen season two yet – spoiler alert – you might want to skip the next couple sentences. Netflix, in describing the upcoming season, says “Ambassador Kate Wyler (Russell) lives the particular nightmare that is getting what you want. She just accused Vice President Grace Penn (Janney) of hatching a terrorist plot and admitted she’s after the VP job. But now the President is dead and Kate’s husband Hal (Sewell) may have inadvertently killed him.” Don’t you hate it when that happens?
CRUISE FEELS THE NEED: Tom Cruise has told reporters that on the heels of the release of his most recent (and allegedly last) Mission Impossible flick, he is thinking about potential angles for a third Top Gun film. As Cruise himself noted, it took about 35 years to do the second “Top Gun: Maverick.” At that rate – Cruise would be in his late 90s when the next one comes out – and we’re betting he’d still be doing his own stunts. (Planning to see Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning this weekend? Drop us a note and tell us what you think at thedeaddrop@thecipherbrief.com)
ON THE MOVE: Tracking even more movements in the national security community:
Matt Hartman, who has served as Deputy Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity at CISA, is leaving the Agency at the end of the month.
Marci McCarthy has been named Director of Public Affairs at CISA.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting / weird stuff we discovered:
A VERY RUSSIAN ENDING: Some stories we come across sound too “on-the-nose.” Too stereotypical to be real – but we guess there is a reason that stereotypes exist. Take this story: Vladimir Nedoshivin, a retired 74-year-old engineer who was one of the designers of Russia’s Islander missile that has been creating so much havoc in Ukraine, died recently. But no – there is no evidence that his death was the work of Kyiv. Instead – according to multiple press accounts, Nedoshivin was not a particularly pleasant fellow and reports suggest that he struggled with alcohol abuse in his golden years. We’ve uncovered in source material that recently the ex-engineer was spotted by a fellow resident relieving himself in his apartment building’s stairwell. The much younger person (who was ironically identified as a plumber) reportedly threw Nedoshivin down the stairs – and he died a few days later. Guess there are no windows in stairwells.
ARMY UNIT SAYS ‘HECK NO’ TO CURSING: The 43rd Adjutant Battalion at Fort Leonard Wood recently issued a directive telling personnel there to knock off the G.D. cussing. Starting this darn minute, the place has been declared a “profanity free campus.” Oh, and rude gestures are banned too. The good news is that the policy apparently only applies “while operating in official capacities during duty hours.” The directive even lays out a four-strike policy where soldiers get counseled on the first violation, receive a written reprimand on the second, get punished on the third and on the fourth infraction – are subject to “separation for misconduct based on a pattern of behavior.” We swear this is true.
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