Dead Drop: May 3

CIAO TO CIAOMF: The CIA Officers Memorial Foundation held its annual fundraising dinner at an undisclosed location late last week and honored the foundation’s former chairman, John McLaughlin, by presenting him with their Richard M. Helms award.  A record, 800 people packed the event which was emceed by former Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet.  Current CIA Director Gina Haspel was among the speakers, lauding McLaughlin’s service as a former Acting and Deputy CIA Director, educator at Johns Hopkins, and leader of the Foundation, which provides educational support for the children and spouses of fallen Agency officers. Haspel also lauded McLaughlin’s expertise as a magician – a skill he demonstrated during his acceptance remarks.  Jeffrey Smith, a former General Counsel of the CIA and a retired partner at the Arnold & Porter law firm, has succeeded McLaughlin as Chair of the CIAOMF board. Also honored at the event was the Foundation’s president, Jerry Komisar who is stepping down after a very successful eight and a half years. Under Komisar’s leadership, the Foundation has grown dramatically.  During the current academic year, 55 students received scholarships valued at more than $1,235,000.  A successor to Komisar has not yet been named.

LOOK, UP IN THE SKY! ITS NOT A BIRD, NOT A PLANE: The Navy is working on new guidelines for its personnel, telling them how to report “unidentified aircraft.” It seems there is something of a stigma associated with reporting UFOs – but there are a lot of instances of sightings of inexplicable things.  Apparently, the Navy is trying to reduce that – and suggesting to its personnel “if you see something, say something.” Of course, this openness only goes so far, the Washington Post reported Thursday that while the Navy will be assembling these reports – they have no intention of making them public.  Maybe they don’t want us to know. This week we also saw reports that an Oxford University professor says that space aliens are already here and are breeding with Earthlings to create a new race which can tackle climate change and the threat of nuclear weapons.