On This Day — KRYPTOS Sculpture Dedication Ceremony at the CIA (November 3 1990) [UPDATE : And Then Came a ‘Gigantic Mistake’… As Always!]

Posted on November 3, 2025 by L

“Maybe you’re mistaken–maybe this first part of the Kryptos code is really not a polyalphabetic Vigenere Tableau after all — maybe it’s a different type of code entirely. Or maybe it is a Vigenere code, but it’s been double or triple encoded — or maybe it was encoded backwards.”

David Stein
CIA analyst
Directorate of Intelligence

 

November 3 2025 — Kryptos, the sculpture by American artist Jim Sanborn on the grounds of the CIA in Langley, Virginia, has revealed a major surprise. Of its four encrypted sections, the first three had long been solved. The final section, one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes, has now been uncovered — thanks to an unexpected “gigantic mistake.” Always expect the unexpected! Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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From Wikipedia to Grokipedia, From Chomsky to Sarkozy… [Is Wikipedia left-leaning?]

Posted on November 2, 2025 by L

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on…”

Noam Chomsky
The Common Good, 1998

November 2, 2025 — On July 26, 2007, I published an article highlighting suspicious edits made to certain Wikipedia entries. The date was not chosen at random. Exactly sixty years earlier, on July 26, 1947, President Harry S. Truman had signed the National Security Act, which established the Central Intelligence Agency. Two decades later, the questions raised by that story remain just as urgent. In an era globally defined by disinformation, this moment marked an early warning. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — US Detonates First Thermonuclear Weapon (November 1, 1952)

Posted on November 1, 2025 by L

“The island of Elugelab is missing.”

Gordon Dean
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission
summarizing the events to President Eisenhower

Ivy Mike (yield 10.4 mt) — an atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the U.S. at Enewetak Atoll on November 1st 1952 — was the world’s first successful hydrogen bomb.

November 1st 2025 — On November 1st 1952, the United States detonated  the first full-scale thermonuclear device on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean, as part of Operation Ivy. It was the first full test of the Teller–Ulam design, a staged fusion device. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — Hemingway Wins Nobel Prize (October 28 1954) [Was Hemingway pushed to suicide by the FBI?]

Posted on October 28, 2025 by L

“Hemingway may have said ‘yes’ to the Soviet recruitment pitch, but unless there is some additional trove of material in the NKVD archives that argues otherwise, it is clear Hemingway was never a productive Soviet agent.”

CIA website
Intelligence in Literature and Media

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)

October 28 2025 — 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.” 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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Revisiting Havana Syndrome: Moscow Death Ray vs. CIA Hoax [UPDATE — Full Circle in Langley: Brennan’s Judgment Day ]

Posted on October 27, 2025 by L

“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

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CIA Memorial Wall — Stars 82 & 83 : Christopher Glenn Mueller and William “Chief” Carlson (Afghanistan — October 25, 2003)

Posted on October 25, 2025 by L

“The bravery of these two men cannot be overstated. Chris and Chief put the lives of others ahead of their own. That is heroism defined.”

George J. Tenet
Director of Central Intelligence
(May 2004)

October 25 2025 — Mueller and Carlson were paramilitary contractors from Special Activities Division, killed in an ambush in Afghanistan on October 25, 2003. On May 21, 2004, these officers’ stars were dedicated at the CIA memorial ceremony. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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CIA Memorial Wall — STAR 28 : David Lee Konzelman (Texas – October 24, 1971)

Posted on October 24, 2025 by L

“I heard one day that one of our local operations had gone awry, that a helicopter had been forced to make an emergency landing, hurting someone in the process. It turned out to be much worse than that. Dave had been horribly burned by a white phosphorous grenade. It was a windy day, and the helicopter pilot had apparently requested that a smoke grenade be thrown to show him wind direction as he landed in a small area. A white phosphorous grenade had been used by mistake.”

A friend of Dave Lee Konzelman David

October 24, 2025 — David Lee Konzelman died on October 24, 1971, at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas from injuries sustained on September 13, 1971. The injuries occurred when a phosphorus grenade exploded in his hand while he was serving in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — The Beirut Barracks Bombings (October 23, 1983) [Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad?]

Posted on October 23, 2025 by L

“Though he never said so explicitly, President Ronald Reagan ended America’s military commitment to a strategic mistake that was peripheral to America’s interests. Three-and-a-half months after the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. military personnel — and after repeatedly pledging not to do so — Reagan ordered the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Lebanon.”

Foreign Policy

October 23 2025 — The Beirut barracks bombings were terrorist attacks that occurred on October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces — members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF) — killing 241 U.S. and 58 French servicemen, six civilians, and the two suicide bombers. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — Pablo Neruda Awarded Literature Nobel Prize (October 21 1971) — Was Neruda a KGB Agent? [UPDATE : Forensic probe confirms Neruda was poisoned]

Posted on October 21, 2025 by L

“And you’ll ask: why doesn’t his poetry
speak of dreams and leaves
and the great volcanoes of his native land?
Come and see the blood in the streets.”

I explain a few things
Pablo Neruda

October 21 2025 — Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician. On October 21 2018, The Spy Museum tweeted: “Today in SpyHistory – The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to former KGB agent and Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, 1971.” Really? Where is the evidence that Neruda was a KGB agent? Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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CIA Memorial Wall — STAR 30 : John Peterson (Laos – October 19, 1972)

Posted on October 19, 2025 by L

“They blinked. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I turned to the stars and whispered, ‘John’s star is here.’ I moved to the wall and gently touched the star I knew was his. They followed me, Lora’s small hand lovingly and gently taking mine. Tyler slipped his arm protectively around me, both sharing my newly revealed sadness.”

Martha Peterson

October 19, 2025 — John Peterson, a CIA paramilitary operations officer, was killed in action in Laos on October 19, 1972, during the Vietnam War. His death occurred while conducting a mission against North Vietnamese forces as part of the CIA’s operations supporting local militias along the Ho Chi Minh trail. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today

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