The Holy Grail — The CIA Memorial Wall, the KRYPTOS Sculpture, & the Lockerbie Tragedy — Part III: Hitting the Jackpot — NSA MEMO to Crypto Amateurs

Posted on July 14, 2026 by L

“The fifth paragraph seems to be a yet-undefined system that may require an unusual plain-text key. This part may be unbreakable.”

CIA KRYPTOS
Sculpture Study Group
NSA Memorandum
18 November 1991

July 14, 2026 — A Very Special Post for Our 10th Anniversary — 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 imagined that these stories would one day converge. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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CIA Memorial Wall — Three Stars, No Answers: Revisiting the CIA Plane Crash in Candor, North Carolina (13 July 1978)

Posted on July 13, 2026 by L

“I have become so jaded about our government since all this happened. I have become very skeptical. They tell you what they want you to know whether there’s a grain of truth or not. A lot of times, they don’t tell you anything.”

Velma Waymire
(Sister of Berl King)

July 13, 2026 — On July 13, 1978, at approximately 9:30 PM, a de Havilland Canada DHC‑6 Twin Otter (tail number N‑76214) crashed near Candor, a remote area of North Carolina. The aircraft, officially registered to Coastal Air Services, was reportedly conducting a CIA mission of undisclosed nature. Nearly five decades later, the circumstances surrounding the flight remain classified. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today

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On This Day — French Spooks Sink the Rainbow Warrior (July 10 1985)

Posted on July 10, 2026 by L

“The truth is cruel. Agents of the French secret service sank this boat. They were acting on orders.”

Laurent Fabius
Prime Minister
September 22 1985

Fernando Pereira died aboard the Rainbow Warrior.

July 10, 2026 — The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior — codenamed Opération Satanique — was a bombing operation by the Action branch of the French foreign intelligence services — La Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) — carried out on July 10 1985. In 2005, two decades after the bombing and nine years after Mitterrand’s death, French newspaper Le Monde published a leaked document revealing that the late president had personally approved the sinking of the ship. The newspaper obtained a handwritten account of the operation, written in 1986 by Pierre Lacoste, who was sacked as head of the secret services. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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The CIA Memorial Wall — Book of Honor Star 81 : Gregg Wenzel [Numbers Don’t Lie: The Evolution of Eligibility for the CIA Memorial Wall]

Posted on July 9, 2026 by L

“Gregg was born on the 18th, this event in his honor is on the 18th and the number of his star on the Memorial Wall at the CIA in Langley is 81, which, in reverse, is also Chai. Gregg lived life to the fullest.”

Mitchell Wenzel
(Father of Gregg)
May 18 2015

Gregg Wenzel (November 18, 1969 – July 9, 2003)

July 9, 2026 — After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Gregg Wenzel decided to serve his country and became a member of the CIA in the first post-9/11 recruitment class. At the age of 33, Gregg Wenzel was killed in a car accident on a dark, two-lane road in Addis Ababa [Ethiopia] on July 9, 2003. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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

Posted on July 8, 2026 by L

“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)

Posted on July 6, 2026 by L

“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]

Posted on July 3, 2026 by L

“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)

Posted on July 2, 2026 by L

“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]

Posted on July 1, 2026 by L

“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]

Posted on June 30, 2026 by L

“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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