Dead Drop: August 9

MORE THAN STARS ON A WALL:  Fifty years ago, The Central Intelligence Agency first dedicated a memorial wall in their Langley, Virginia headquarters with 31 stars engraved on it – each one symbolizing the life of an Agency officer who died in the line of duty. Today, there are 140 stars. PBS News Hour recently reported on the power and meaning of the wall by interviewing Tim Johnson, the artisan who is responsible for the nerve-wracking task of etching new stars in the wall – as well as Calista Anderson, whose mother was a CIA officer who was killed in Khost, Afghanistan in 2009, and Tim Welch, whose father was the CIA station chief in Athens, Greece when he was assassinated in 1975. CIA Director Bill Burns also appears in the story, making clear “the wall is not an abstraction” and that “each of the stars has a profound human story behind (it.)”  The PBS video is worth a watch.

RIDICULOUS RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA: (Is there any other kind, you ask?) Media Monitor Julia Davis has captured yet another example of Russian State TV talking heads saying ridiculous stuff.  In a recent post, she noted that a Putin propagandist declared that the United States is ruled by a “Satanic cult”. This is a propagandist who assured the viewing audience that Russia is fighting to defend “religious values.” But wait, there’s more.  According to Davis, another presenter on the same program, said that many Americans aspire to be just like Vadim Krasikov, the convicted Russian assassin who was freed in the recent prisoner swap. Why?  Because then, they would be able to kill anyone that they deem to be lowlife. Krasikov was praised on the program for killing a “lowly, dirtbag.” And there’s more propaganda where that came from in Davis’s new book: In Their Own Words. You can listen to The Cipher Brief’s Cover Stories podcast with Davis, available wherever you listen to podcasts.  (Trust us: this one’s worth adding to your playlist.)