On This Day — Remembering Nelson Mandela (July 18, 1918 – Dec. 5, 2013) [Mandela and Lockerbie]

Posted on July 18, 2025 by L

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
(July 18, 1918 – Dec. 5, 2013)

July 18, 2025 — On August 5 1962, Mandela was posing as a chauffeur when his car was stopped at a roadblock by the police in the eastern city of Durban. Three decades later, on February 11 1990 Mandela walked out of prison and embarked on a decade of historic endeavor. Mandela spent almost 30 years in jail just for being a decent man. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On this Day — Remembering the crash of TWA 800 (July 17, 1996) [The Striking Similarities of Pan Am 103 and TWA 800 — and a Warning About Air India Flight 171]

Posted on July 17, 2025 by L

“The FBI didn’t want to hear about anything but a missile or a bomb, because otherwise there was no FBI case. Their conduct was disturbing from the very beginning.”

Senator Chuck Grassley
Chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on administrative oversight

Washington Post
(May 9 1999)

November 18 2024 — Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA 800) was a Boeing 747-100 which exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996. On November 17 1997, the FBI formally ended its 16-month investigation into the crash of TWA flight 800. FBI agents concluded there was no evidence it was a criminal act. Despite clear scientific evidence, many people still believe to this day that the plane was brought down by a terrorist bombing or a missile strike. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_Today

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

Posted on July 13, 2025 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, 2025 — 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 Captain Alfred Dreyfus Is Convicted of Treason (January 5 1895) [Politicization of Intelligence] UPDATE — Honoring Truth and Justice: France Adds July 12 to National Commemorations

Posted on July 12, 2025 by L

“Officers new to counterintelligence and overwhelmed by the scope of what they need to learn often ask the same question: ‘Where do I start?’ The best place might be the Dreyfus affair.”

The Lessons for Counter-Intelligence
of the Dreyfus Affair

CIA Website

Alfred Dreyfus (January 9, 1859 — July 12, 1935)

January 5 2023 — On January 5 1895, Dreyfus was summarily convicted in a secret court-martial, publicly stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in French Guiana. Following French military custom of the time, Dreyfus was formally degraded by having the rank insignia, buttons and braid cut from his uniform and his sword broken, all in the courtyard of the École Militaire before silent ranks of soldiers, while a large crowd of onlookers shouted abuse from behind railings. Follow us on twitter: @Intel_Today

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Revisiting Havana Syndrome: Moscow Death Ray vs. CIA Hoax [UPDATE : Brennan to Face Justice? FBI Investigates Former CIA Chief Over Russiagate Deception]

Posted on July 9, 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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1975: The Year of Intelligence [What the Church and Pike Investigations Revealed — and Why Their Warnings Still Matter]

Posted on July 8, 2025 by L

“If this government ever became a tyranny… the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back.”

Senator Frank Church
1975

July 8, 2025 — The year 1975 marked a watershed moment in the history of American governance. For the first time, the covert operations and unchecked authority of the U.S. intelligence community were subjected to sweeping public and legislative scrutiny. Through the landmark investigations of the Church Committee, the Pike Committee, and the Rockefeller Commission, the veil was lifted on decades of clandestine activity—revealing a pattern of surveillance, manipulation, and covert intervention both at home and abroad. Often referred to as “The Year of Intelligence,” this extraordinary period triggered a fundamental re-examination of how democratic societies should balance national security with civil liberties. It laid the foundation for modern intelligence oversight—and raised questions that remain urgent to this day. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today

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Revisiting Havana Syndrome: Moscow Death Ray vs. CIA Hoax [New Revelations on John Brennan & Russiagate]

Posted on July 6, 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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Poetry as a Lens for Intelligence Work [What Intel Analysts Could Learn from Madsen’s Poetry?]

Posted on July 5, 2025 by L

“If you stare into the smoke long enough,
you start to see a better life
burning on the other side.
I’ve been clean, but never clear.”

Venice Poets Night
Michael Madsen
(1957 – 2025)

July 5, 2025 — As I have explained many times before, the worlds of poetry and intelligence overlap far more often than one might naively believe. The poetry of Michael Madsen offers surprising and poignant lessons for an intelligence analyst. Searching for the truth matters. But doing it for the right reason matters even more. There is a profound difference between having a clear mind — being objective, methodical, by-the-book — and possessing a clean spirit — being emotionally or morally grounded. One must strive to do the right thing for the right reason. If you aim to please your masters, you will find evidence of WMDs in Iraq. You will ignore the obvious clues — as the FBI did in the Lockerbie case. You will find evil hiding in the smoke — as some have claimed in the Havana Syndrome. Let us now read together one of Madsen’s beautiful, unpublished poems. 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, 2025 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 2019 — 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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On This Day — Hounded by the FBI, Nobel Prize Ernest Hemingway Ends His Life (July 2, 1961)

Posted on July 2, 2025 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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