“Dear Molly, Could you tell us how many stars on the Memorial Wall are known to represent women? Regards, Intel Today”

Intel Today — Question to Molly Hale (Feb. 4 2019)

May 20 2021 — On February 4 2019, CIA Molly Hale went digital. I could not resist firing the very first question on Twitter! How many CIA women are honoured by a star on the CIA wall? A few weeks later, we got the answer to that question… And much more! Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: CIA Honors its Fallen in Annual Memorial Ceremony (May 21 2019) — [UPDATE : 135 STARS?]

RELATED POST: The CIA Book of Honor — Gina Haspel Visits Auburn University

RELATED POST: Mother, Daughter, Sister, SPY – Women of the CIA

RELATED POST: CIA : A Few Good Women

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A special page  “CIA Book of Honor” has been created. This will allow you to find easily the references to the stars we have already written about. I will try to keep this page up to date.

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“In our HQs lobby, a wall w/black stars carved into white marble stands as a humble memorial to our fallen officers. There are currently 129 stars; 91 are unclassified. Out of those, 11 represent women”

Molly Hale — March 22 2019

This story clearly shows that when you collect the facts patiently and accurately, you can make pretty good predictions.

Here is a extract of my Diary page for May 20 2019.

I have long argued that the CIA was “hiding” the identity of a female officer recently honoured by a star on the Memorial Wall. 

In September 2016, Abigail Jones published a piece in Newsweek titled “Women of the CIA.”

Jones wrote: “The Memorial Wall, in the lobby of the CIA in McLean, Virginia, has 117 stars, honoring the agency officers who’ve died in the field. Eleven represent women.”

I have written a series of post about the CIA women honoured with a star on the agency’s Memorial Wall. And, to the best of my knowledge, only 10 were known to have been “killed in the line of duty.”

On March 22 2019, the CIA confirmed that 11 stars represent women.

Then, on May 20 2019, the Washington Post revealed the name of the mysterious star. And, as I suspected, her story is rather unusual.

The daughter of Egyptian immigrants, Ranya Abdelsayed (DOB 04/28/1979) joined the CIA in 2006. On August 28 2013, while serving in Afghanistan, she committed suicide. 

As I wrote recently, there are three kinds of people. Those who understand events before they happen. Those who only understand events after they have happened. And there are some people who never understand events, even after they have thoroughly explained.

On the day the Washington Post revealed the story, some ‘experts’ wrote that a star for Ranya Abdelsayed had just been added to the CIA wall!

Abdelsayed was honoured at the 2014 Memorial Ceremony (May 19, 2014), and her name was added to the Book of Honor in 2017.

In September 2020, Yahoo News revealed the names of 4 CIA officers who died in a September 2008 mission. 

“In 2008, six anonymous stars were added to the wall. Four of them belong to Stephen Stanek, Michael Perich, Jamie McCormick and Daniel Meeks.”

As the readers of Intel Today know, I have built a timeline of the CIA Memorial Wall post 9/11.

According to this timeline, it is clearly not true that six anonymous stars were added to the wall in 2008.

My work is certainly not perfect. In this game, you do the best you can with the information available to you. Still, the timeline is almost certainly ‘about’ right.

Assuming that the Yahoo News story is true, these FOUR anonymous stars could NOT have been added in 2008. FULL STOP!

Once again, this is a reminder of the importance to build the most accurate timeline you can manage.

And of course, one must always go back and correct the errors whenever necessary.

As CIA psychologist Richards “Dick” J. Heuer has beautifully demonstrated, most people are unable to do so…

“So, the conclusion is rather obvious. Either, I have so far missed the story of a woman CIA officer known to be honoured by a star. Or else, the name of that person has not so far been declassified and in this case, someone has been nutty and passed classified information to Abigail Jones in 2016.”

Intel Today (Feb. 19 2019)

REFERENCES

Have a Question About the CIA? Ask Molly! — CIA Website

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Two Years Ago — Washington Post Reveals 11th CIA Female Star Identity (May 20 2019)