“Rachel was a warm and compassionate young woman, and an officer of unbounded potential. We miss her still and will remember her always. She is our 87th star.”
CIA Director General Michael V. Hayden May 21 2007
The Memorial Wall is a memorial at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia. It honors CIA employees who died in the line of service. There are 140 stars carved into the white Alabama marble wall. At least eleven represent women.
September 30 2023 — Rachel Alexandra Dean joined CIA in January 2005. She died on September 30 2006 in a car accident while on temporary duty in Kazakhstan. She was 25. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
“For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty years. They worked by a hundred thousand men at a time, for each three months continually.”
Herodotus (484 – c. 425 BC)
Pyramids of Giza, soaring above the city of Cairo, Egypt
September 29, 2025 — A ‘Fermi Question’ asks for a quick estimate of a quantity that seems difficult, or even impossible, to determine precisely. Fermi’s approach to such questions was to use common sense and rough estimates of quantities to piece together a ball-park value. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“Agency heads at the time created a politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process around an issue essential to our democracy.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe (July 2, 2025)
July 6, 2025 — This week, the CIA concluded a critical internal review casting serious doubts on the integrity of past intelligence narratives—highlighting strong circumstantial evidence that former CIA Director John Brennan played a central role in shaping, and possibly fabricating, key political allegations. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“The siren howled. But I just sat there for a few seconds, staring at the big, back-lit, red screen with the word ‘LAUNCH’ on it.”
Colonel Stanislav Petrov
Stanislav Petrov, a former lieutenant colonel for the Soviet Air Defence Forces, is credited with correctly recognizing a false alarm while manning an early-warning missile defense system, thereby averting a Soviet retaliatory strike and nuclear war.
September 26 2025 — On September 26 1983 — just three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 — Stanislav Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to five more.
Petrov judged the reports to be a false alarm and his decision is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its NATO allies that could have resulted in large-scale nuclear war. Investigation later confirmed that the Soviet satellite warning system had indeed malfunctioned. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“Sarkozy has to give back the money he accepted from Libya to finance his electoral campaign. We financed his campaign and we have the proof… The first thing we’re demanding is that this clown gives back the money to the Libyan people.”
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (March 2011)
After becoming president in 2007, Sarkozy welcomed Gadhafi to France with high honors later that year.
September 30 2016 — French news website ‘Mediapart’ has uncovered hard evidence documenting the funding of Sarkozy’s presidential campaign (2007) by Colonel Gaddafi.
UPDATE (March 1 2021) — Today, a Paris court found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence.
UPDATE (September 30 2021) — Today, Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison for illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 re-election bid.
UPDATE (May 11 2023) — France’s financial crimes prosecutors (PNF) said Sarkozy and 12 others should face trial over accusations they sought millions of euros in financing from the regime of then Libyan leader Gaddafi for his ultimately victorious campaign.
UPDATE (August 25 2023) — Sarkozy to face 2025 trial over alleged Libya funding
“The Vatican should ensure that the historical record is clear and that justice is served before making any determinations on Baudouin’s virtue and legacy. Ultimately, calls for postponing the beatification process are not about undermining Baudouin’s personal faith or commitment but about ensuring that historical accountability is upheld. The moral weight of a saintly title demands scrutiny free from unresolved allegations of wrongdoing, especially when they involve matters of life, death, and global justice.”
Intel Today (January 22, 2025)
Congo’s prime minister Patrice Lumumba with UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in 1960. (Photo: Ben Martin / Getty)
September 24, 2025 — On January 22, 2025 — coinciding with the anniversary of President Truman’s creation of the Central Intelligence Group — I published an opinion piece on the proposed beatification of King Baudouin I of Belgium. Today, several experts write on this subject and Belgian newspaper La Libre is organizing a poll. At the time, I argued that any decision should be suspended until a full and transparent investigation into the death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was completed. I stand by that position. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
“Now, 40 years later, there is a scientific and historical consensus that it was a nuclear test and that it had to be Israeli.”
Avner Cohen
(September 22 2019)
U.S. Vela satellite
September 22 2025 — A CIA-sponsored panel of well-respected scientists concluded that a mysterious flash detected by a U.S. Vela satellite over the South Atlantic on the night of September 22 1979 was likely a nuclear test. Four decades later, this mysterious double flash still matters, and the debate is not over. Where science, espionage, and global intrigue collide, fascination never fades. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“Marseille boys members of GAL killed him [Pierre Goldman] with Maïone, who also talked about a commandant, a former member of the SDECE [French Secret Service], without revealing to me his identity.”
Libération (April 2006)
Pierre Goldman (June 22, 1944 – Assassinated September 20, 1979)
September 20 2023 — Who killed Goldman? Of course, I am not talking about the French singer — Jean-Jacques — who is one of the most loved personalities in France. I am talking about his brother Pierre, a French left-wing intellectual who was convicted of several robberies and mysteriously assassinated on September 20 1979. The case has never been solved.
By the way, although Jean-Jacques never spoke about his brother, many believe that the song “Puisque tu pars” is about Pierre. I left a couple of messages for JJ Goldman knowing full well that he would not reply. I hope that he will speak about his brother one day… “But not too late.” Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“Raufer established three new facts, all of them pointing — for the first time — to Libya as the culprit of both Pan Am 103 and UTA 772. These facts are false. (…) If that story gains credibility in the media and becomes the ‘new truth’, we will be forced to revisit our position regarding Libya and Gaddafi.”
French Intelligence (DST) Note to French President Francois Mitterrand (June 1991)
Rescuers stand near the wreckage of the French UTA DC-10 flight 772 in the Tenere desert, on September 22, 1989
September 19 2020 — It has been called the greatest murder investigation in French history. When a suitcase bomb destroyed French Airlines UTA Flight 772, killing all 170 passengers and crew on board, it triggered a decade long search for accountability. At the conclusion of the investigation, the French investigative magistrate judge — Jean Louis Bruguiere — determined that the Libyan State was directly responsible for the bombing of UTA Flight 772. Case closed?
Not everyone is convinced. Pierre Péan, one of the greatest French investigative journalists, came to the conclusion that Thomas Thurman — a Federal Bureau of Investigation explosives expert — fabricated false evidence against Libya in the investigations of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 . Péan is certainly not alone to suspect foul play. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Intel Today 