10 Years Ago Today — PT35B, Lockerbie, and a Kafkaesque Metamorphosis

“Ludwig is probably the most experienced person I ever dealt with on the Lockerbie case. He is a nuclear scientist, and for years he has run a successful blog, IntelToday. I think that you should meet him.”

Email to Masud’s Defense Lawyers
George Thomson
Lockerbie Investigator
March 9, 2026

July 8, 2026 — Ten years ago, Intel Today did not yet exist. The blog was born on July 14, 2016. At the time, I was experimenting with WordPress and learning the tools. The precursor to Intel Today was an early project called PT35B — a reference to the infamous tiny fragment that played a key role in allowing the FBI to connect the Lockerbie case to Gaddafi. To mark this anniversary, I have decided to reproduce that post, together with the remarkable comment written by Lockerbie investigator George Thomson. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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The Holy Grail — The CIA Wall, The KRYPTOS Sculpture, & The Lockerbie Tragedy — Part II : President Bill Clinton visits the CIA (January 4, 1994)

“The 56 stars carved into the wall here in this lobby remind each who passes by this place of the ultimate risks of intelligence work.”

President Bill Clinton
CIA Headquarters
(January 4, 1994)

July 6, 2026 — Over the last three decades, I have devoted much time to several distinct stories: the CIA Memorial Wall (and the associated Book of Honor), the KRYPTOS sculpture, and the Lockerbie tragedy. In my wildest dreams, I never expected that these stories would one day come together. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — Remembering Iran Flight 655 (July 3 1988) [UPDATE : FBI Feared Iranian Retaliation After Flight 655 — But Found No Evidence]

“I will never apologize for the United States — I don’t care what the facts are…
I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.”

George H. W. Bush
August 7 1988

July 3, 2026 — On July 3 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by a missile cruiser fired from the USS Vincennes under the command of William C. Rogers III. The shoot-down of Iran Air flight 655 may have been an “accident”, but Tehran saw it otherwise. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today

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65 Years Ago — Hounded by the FBI, Nobel Prize Ernest Hemingway Ends His Life (July 2, 1961)

“The FBI’s surveillance substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide.”

A. E. Hotchner — Hemingway’s friend and collaborator over the last 13 years of his life

American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961) working at a portable table while on a big game hunt in Kenya, September 1952. (Photo by Earl Theisen/Getty Images)

July 2 2021 — On October 28 1954, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Ernest Miller Hemingway “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.” On July 2 1961, Ernest Hemingway was found dead of a shotgun wound in the head. Hemingway was aware of his long surveillance by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, who were suspicious of his links with Cuba, and it has been argued that this surveillance may have pushed him to the brink. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — Kim Philby Revealed as Cambridge Five Member (July 1 1963) [UPDATE : A Cold War Mystery: The 1947 CIG Flight to Addis Ababa]

“Tell them Jesus Christ only had twelve, and one of them was a double agent.”

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
— Upon learning that Philby was a spy for the Russians

Harold Adrian Russell “Kim” Philby (January 1 1912 – May 11 1988)

January 23 2021 — On January 23 1963, Kim Philby vanished from Beirut, failing to meet his wife for a dinner party at the home of Glencairn Balfour Paul, First Secretary at the British Embassy. On July 1 1963:, the British Government admitted that the former MI6 officer, still described at the time as a former diplomat, had spied for the Soviet Union before defecting to Moscow. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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June 30 — International Asteroid Day [Tunguska — June 30 1908]

“We really need an internationally agreed and coordinated strategy for the development of asteroid litigation technology and very importantly the implementation of procedures for an emergency deflection scenario.”

Alan Harris

June 30 2019 — Asteroid Day (also known as International Asteroid Day) is an annual global event which is held on the anniversary of the Siberian Tunguska event that took place on June 30, 1908, the most harmful known asteroid-related event on Earth in recent history. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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The Holy Grail — The CIA Wall, The KRYPTOS Sculpture, & The Lockerbie Tragedy — Part I : Getting started [The STAR of William Francis Buckley (May 30, 1928 – June 3, 1985)]

“Despite a government-wide rescue effort, Bill died in captivity on June 3, 1985. The CIA that year held a memorial service and honored him with a star on the Memorial Wall and with the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, the CIA’s highest honor.”

William F. Buckley

CIA website

June 29, 2026 — Over the last three decades, I have devoted much time to several distinct stories: the CIA Memorial Wall (and the associated Book of Honor), the KRYPTOS sculpture, and the Lockerbie tragedy. In my wildest dreams, I never expected that these stories would one day come together. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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Lockerbie — BBC and Netflix release first-look pictures of new documentary [UPDATE : The Bombing of Pan Am 103 Will Finally Premiere on Netflix on July 30, 2026]

“Cretton [Real name : Swiss Inspector Hans Knaus] expressed his concerns (…) The first was that the CIA had planted the chip [PT/35(b)] in the wreckage found at Lockerbie. [Detective Superintendant (SIO) Stuart] Henderson and I told him this thought had also crossed our minds. Neither of us believed the CIA or any government official would do such a thing, but we had discussed the possibility.”

FBI Agent Richard Marquise

Dick Marquise (Patrick J Adams); DS Ed McCusker (Connor Swindells); Tom McCulloch (Kevin McKidd) (Image: Mark Mainz/BBC/Netflix)

March 28 2025 — The BBC and Netflix have released first-look pictures of The Bombing of Pan Am 103, the forthcoming drama based on the “true story of the bombing of a passenger flight over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988” and the quest to bring the perpetrators to justice. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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The Holy Grail — The CIA Wall, The KRYPTOS Sculpture, & The Lockerbie Tragedy

Nothing is more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

Arthur Conan Doyle

June 22, 2026 — Over the last three decades, I have devoted much time to several distinct stories: the CIA Memorial Wall (and the associated Book of Honor), the KRYPTOS sculpture, and the Lockerbie tragedy. In my wildest dreams, I never expected that these stories would one day come together. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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CIA Memorial Wall — Star 27 : Paul C. Davis (Vietnam – June 21 1971)

Among the more than fifty-eight thousand Americans who gave their lives [to thwart the advance of communism in Southeast Asia] were eighteen members of the Central Intelligence Agency, their sacrifices marked by stars carved into CIA’s Memorial Wall.”

CIA and the Wars in Southeast Asia (1947–75)
Studies in Intelligence (2016)

June 21, 2026 — Paul Claude Davis served as a paramilitary officer in the CIA. He was killed in Vietnam on June 21, 1971, when he stepped on a landmine. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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