New in SpyWeek: Kyiv Shocker, Gabbard Mess, Kid to Run DHS Counterextremism

Welcome to SpyWeek, our weekly newsletter, where we look at news from the intersection of intelligence, foreign policy, and military operations.

LITTLE MOSSAD: CIA veterans were kvelling over the operation Ukrainian intelligence managed to pull off at multiple sites deep inside Russia that took out a sizable chunk of the Kremlin’s fleet of strategic nuclear bombers. “​​The Little Mossad is growing up fast,” Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA senior operations officer who served in counterterrorism roles in the Middle East, wrote on X.

A satellite image showing Russian aircraft targeted by Kyiv’s drones at Engels Air Base in Russia. As many as 41 may have been damaged across the country in Putin’s ‘Pearl Harbor.’ (Maxar Technologies)

A year and a half in the making, the drone attack on June 1, dubbed "Operation Spider Web,” earned massive respect from within global intel circles for Ukraine’s security service, the SBU. “The SBU has transformed during the three-year war into the sharp tip of Ukraine’s spear after decades of being maligned as corrupt, shot through with traitors and more focused on chasing political opponents than security threats,” the Wall Street Journal reported.  Deploying drones concealed in trucks to strike four Russian airfields, the attack damaged 41 nuclear bombers and other surveillance aircraft, the SBU said.

Mike Baker, a former CIA covert operations officer, called it “brilliant … on par with Hezbollah pager operation.” Speaking on Fox News, Baker added, “This has shaken Putin more than anything.” Another CIA ops officer and prolific Substacker, Michael Sellers, also couldn’t hold back: “This was truly a beautiful operation, and the timing was perfect.”  More could be coming. “The front line inside Ukraine will remain a hellscape of drones and artillery,” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote. “But covert operations could expand into a ‘dirty war’ beyond the front, with more targeted killings, sabotage, and strikes on countries that supply arms to Ukraine and Russia, respectively.”

SKIES GROUNDED: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has shut down the controversial TSA “Quiet Skies” program, which in 2024 briefly targeted future DNI Tulsi Gabbard and her husband. The watch list contains information on people “reasonably suspected” of being involved in terrorism or what it calls “related activities,” such as suspicious travel. Noem says the program cost taxpayers $200 million and failed to stop a single terrorist. Gabbard was briefly placed on the list last year and was surveilled on flights and followed outside the airport. According to Gabbard, she was placed on the list for criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris. The New York Times reported that additional scrutiny stemmed from her attendance at a 2024 Vatican event linked to a Russian-Belgian businessman on an FBI watch list, not political retribution. Then there were her trips to Russia and Syria. In 2015, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project published what it said was a social media post in which the businessman appeared to pose with, and praise, Igor Girkin, a former Russian intelligence officer who helped Moscow annex Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

MORE GABBARD: The DNI has installed one of her top advisers inside the office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General—while he still reports to her. The IG is supposed to be independent, but Dennis Kirk’s sudden arrival just happens to coincide with an investigation into the now-notorious Signal chat where officials discussed an impending U.S. strike on Yemen, which accidentally included a journalist. Gabbard says she’s cleaning up a politicized office. Critics say she’s just putting a leash on the watchdog. In a podcast interview with SpyTalk’s Michael Isikoff, the Senate intelligence committee's top Democrat, Mark Warner, called for Gabbard’s resignation.

No love lost: Warner questioning Gabbard during her conformation hearing (SSCI screen grab via Raw Story).

NSA POWER PLAY: The NSA briefly flirted with installing a “chief operating officer” to manage the agency’s vast eavesdropping agency. Politico reported the discussions sparked a panic among Trumpworld allies who saw it as an attempt to take advantage of a leadership vacuum that might ace them out. “For those close to Trump, the worry was that the proposal to create a chief operating officer was meant as a vehicle for career NSA officials to counterbalance Trump’s incoming picks for the agency,” Politico reported. Trump fired NSA Director Timothy Haugh and Wendy Noble, its deputy director, in April at the urging of right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer. The agency backed off its plan to install a COO, insisting there was never any plan for a parallel chain of command. Just your standard totally-normal internal power struggle at America’s biggest eavesdropping agency. Nothing to see here.

EUROPE ON EDGE: As Trump’s second term roils U.S. intelligence, European allies are quietly panicking. The Washington Post reported that Germany, still relying on a CIA tip about a Russian assassination plot against a top weapons exec, is confronting how little intel it generates on its own. Across the continent, spy chiefs fear purges being carried out by DNI Tulsi Gabbard will degrade U.S. capabilities. Britain is trying to cultivate closer ties. Last month CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, and podcaster-turned- FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, dined with King Charles III and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Windsor Castle and later met with a gaggle of allied spy agency chiefs.  Oh, to be a fly on those walls.

BUDGET BOOMERANG: President Trump’s 2026 federal budget would slash more than half a billion dollars from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, cuts that Director Kash Patel initially told a House Appropriations panel would imperil the bureau’s mission. Patel later recanted, telling the Senate Appropriations Committee that he would “make the mission work on whatever budget we're given.” Trump’s budget proposal would also cut more than 2,000 FBI personnel and $491 million from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

CARTEL CRACKDOWN: The House Intelligence Committee has launched a new bipartisan task force to go after Mexican drug cartels blamed for flooding the U.S. with fentanyl. Lawmakers say the effort will zero in on how the cartels exploit weak intelligence coordination—and push for new tools to treat the fentanyl crisis as a national security threat. The task force will be led by Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a former Navy SEAL. The task force will identify legislative actions to combat the threat from cartels, including narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, and the arms trade. The Washington Post reported last week that “The U.S. government’s average monthly seizures of fentanyl at the Mexican border have dropped by more than half — from 1,700 pounds in 2024, to 746 pounds this year,” according to CPB data. It’s a “mystery,” officials said.

DIPLOMAT SPY: Former CIA Director William J. Burns is writing a memoir about his years leading the intelligence agency in the Biden administration. Random House announced Tuesday that it would publish Diplomat Spy: A Memoir of Espionage in Revolutionary Times.  Burns said he hopes to illuminate the work of the men and women of the CIA and “the crucial connection in this revolutionary new era between spycraft and statecraft.”

NEW CIA SPYMASTER: CIA Director John Ratcliffe has finally gotten someone to run the agency wing responsible for recruiting foreign spies and running covert operations to confuse or destabilize adversaries. The Financial Times described the nominee as “an intelligence operative who heads a critical station in a Middle East country” and who is “extremely popular with rank-and-file case officers.” The FT and other news organizations are not publicizing his name because the person remains under cover. Ratcliffe had previously called CIA ops veteran Ralph Goff out of retirement to be DDO, but the choice was nixed for reasons that remain unclear.

FBI PURGE: A senior FBI agent has resigned after he says he was targeted for demotion because of his friendship with a former FBI agent turned Trump critic. The New York Times reports that Michael Feinberg said he was threatened with a lie-detector test over the nature of his ties to Peter Strzok, which he said are entirely social. Strzok, who helped oversee investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails and the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, was dismissed after it was disclosed that he had exchanged messages disparaging Trump with a colleague. Feinberg denounced the FBI as an organization that had begun “to decay.” Also expected to retire was Stanley Meador, who was criticized for a controversial  2023 memo issued by the office he headed in Richmond, warning of possible threats posed by “radical-traditionalist” Catholics.

“AGROTERROR” ARREST: FBI Director Kash Patel warned of what he called a “direct threat to national security” after two Chinese nationals were charged with allegedly smuggling a "dangerous biological pathogen" into the United States to study at the University of Michigan. Prosecutors say Yunqing Jian, 33, a University of Michigan scholar, and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, brought the fungus fusarium graminearum from China into the United States in July 2024. The pathogen causes a devastating disease in wheat and barley. A U.S. Attorney in Michigan, Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr., described it as a “potential agroterrorism weapon.”  The 25-page criminal complaint does not allege that the defendants had any plans to spread the fungus beyond a laboratory at the University of Michigan. Still, it says Liu was aware of the restrictions on the material and hid it in a wad of tissues in his backpack. Jian was being held without bond while awaiting a detention hearing. Her boyfriend has returned to China.

LEARNING CURVE: Thomas Fugate, a 22-year-old with no apparent national security expertise, is the new Department of Homeland Security official overseeing the government’s main hub for terrorism prevention, including an $18 million grant program intended to help communities combat violent extremism. Fugate’s LinkedIn résumé (now removed) cited no management experience, only several internships with hard-right organizations like the Heritage Foundation.  He also listed himself as the owner/operator of a lawn maintenance company.  His new job will include responsibility for the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships. “Known as CP3, the office has led nationwide efforts to prevent hate-fueled attacks, school shootings and other forms of targeted violence,” ProPublica’s Hannah Allam reported. “News of the appointment has trickled out in recent weeks, raising alarm among counterterrorism researchers and nonprofit groups funded by CP3. Several said they turned to LinkedIn for intel on Fugate — an unknown in their field — and were stunned to see a photo of ‘a college kid’ with a flag pin on his lapel posing with a sharply arched eyebrow. No threat prevention experience is listed in his employment history.”

Thomas Fugate (Instagram)

HOMEGROWN THREAT: A Michigan man was convicted by a federal jury for attempting to provide material support to ISIS and possessing a destructive device, highlighting ongoing concerns about domestic radicalization and terrorism-related activities within the United States. Aws Naser, 37, became radicalized and frequently posted extreme Islamist ideological content on his YouTube channel and other social media platforms. He was convicted after a five-week trial.

TICE UPDATE:  Top secret Syrian intelligence files confirm for the first time that missing American journalist and former Marine captain Austin Tice was imprisoned by pro-Assad forces after vanishing near Damascus in 2012. The BBC uncovered the documents, which showed that Tice was held and interrogated by a paramilitary force loyal to Assad, the National Defence Forces, despite years of Syrian government denials. A former member of the NDF told the BBC "that Austin's value was understood" and that he was a "card" that could be played in diplomatic negotiations with the United States. The report confirms suspicions that a video posted online showing Tice blindfolded and with his hands bound being forced to recite an Islamic declaration of faith by a group of armed men was staged. The BBC says that Tice briefly escaped from a detention facility near Damascus but was later recaptured. After the regime’s collapse in December 2024, prisons were emptied—but Tice was not found.  His fate remains unknown.

NSC PURGE: Israeli officials are expressing growing concern over a major shake-up in Trump’s National Security Council. Senior Middle East experts Eric Trager and Merav Ceren were among dozens ousted last week in what insiders called a “Deep State” purge. Trager led the Middle East and North Africa portfolio, while Ceren, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, handled Israel and Iran, and had survived earlier internal purges. Their firings mark a shift as skeptics of America’s role in the region gain traction under Secretary of State and Acting National Security Adviser  Marco Rubio. Ceren, falsely accused of being tied to Israel’s defense ministry, had previously drawn fire from both political extremes. Another high-profile figure expected to depart is Morgan Ortagus, deputy to special envoy Steve Witkoff, whose remit is the Lebanon portfolio. 

POCKET LITTER: 

• Ali Farhat, 59, a dual U.S.-Lebanese citizen, was indicted in Virginia for using a Lebanese electronics firm to funnel equipment and cash to Hezbollah’s media arm, Al Manar TV.

• Police received a swatting call targeting FBI Director Kash Patel’s Las Vegas home on June 3, but confirmed it was a hoax before deploying units. According to KLAS-TV, the false report claimed a crime was in progress—part of a growing trend of harassment-by-911 aimed at high-profile officials.

Jeff Stein contributed to this story.

Is there something we missed? Or something you would like to see more of? Send your tips, corrections, and thoughts to SpyTalk@protonmail.com.