Sure, but he seems very eager to steer the thing towards external interests and sabotage rather than this being an isolated incident. Sounds to me that he is fishing for scapegoats in general...
I read it as a general motivational tactic. Everyone else is out to get us. We need to pull together. They want us to fail, let's prove them wrong. From coaches or CEOs. This is essentially newspaper clippings in the locker room.
On reading your comment I re-read the letter to confirm that he doesn't imply this anywhere.