BOSTON — The information needed to decipher the last remaining unsolved secret message embedded within a sculpture at CIA headquarters in Virginia sold at auction for nearly $1 million, the auction house announced Friday. The winner will get a private meeting with the 80-year-old artist to go over the codes and charts in hopes of … Read more
It comes with a side of spies. Long Island’s newest steakhouse is a fascinating nod to the Culper spy ring, a local group of Revolutionary War double agents whose heroic espionage efforts saved the colonial forces on multiple occasions. “As we were going through school, we learned about the spy ring and the effect it … Read more
Christina Hillsberg joined the CIA as an eager 21-year-old in 2006. She spent more than a decade there: traveling undercover to CIA stations across the globe, meeting with clandestine sources in cafes and hotel rooms and recruiting “assets” who would provide secrets and information to the US government. It was thrilling, dangerous, sometimes scary work. … Read more
Secret agent silks. “The White Lotus” Season 3 has a connection to a real life unsolved mystery about the disappearance of a suspected American spy living in Thailand — and it all has to do with the show’s costumes. “White Lotus” costume designer Alex Bovaird revealed that for Season 3, she turned to a Thai … Read more
The deputy director of the CIA confirmed that the planned terrorist plot at Taylor Swift’s shows in Vienna earlier this month was intended to kill “a huge number” of people – including Americans. David S. Cohen revealed at the Intelligence and National Security Summit, as seen in a video on CSPAN, that the information Austrian … Read more
A former Central Intelligence Agency operative is sharing intel on her dating life. As an agent, Brittany Butler Jennings kept her job title top secret, vetting her love interests before disclosing her work to avoid raising “too many eyebrows.” The Charleston, South Carolina, resident, who worked at the CIA for nine years, called her job … Read more
If you can’t keep up, sit this one out. The Central Intelligence Agency is seeking candidates for an “executive protective agent” role who are patriotic, trustworthy and, most importantly, fit enough to complete 27 sit-ups and 18 push-ups in just 1 minute. An executive protective agent “provides 24/7/365 armed protection for Intelligence Community leaders world-wide. … Read more
Eloise Page had a master’s degree in political science from George Washington University, but when she started her career at the CIA’s predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), in 1942, it was as a secretary. Page worked for OSS head ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan, and in her secretarial role she came to learn everything about … Read more
When Michael G Vickers was 17, he decided he might like a career in the CIA. “I imagined myself doing things that only a James Bond could do,” he writes in “By All Means Available – Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Specials Operations, and Strategy” (Alfred A. Knopf). “Diving headfirst through a window and coming up … Read more
As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sat in his wheelchair in the Oval Office, dictating a letter to his secretary, in sneaked William Donovan, the head of the Office of Strategic Services, armed with a loaded pistol. At Donovan’s feet was a bag of sand. As the president continued working, oblivious to Donovan’s presence, the OSS … Read more
Kudos to Milo Ventimiglia for smoothly switching gears from angst-ridden Jack Pearson to con artist Charlie Nicoletti in his new ABC romantic dramedy “The Company You Keep.” The series, premiering Feb. 19 at 10 p.m., frees Ventimiglia to unbuckle Jack’s suffocating, overwrought “This Is Us” straitjacket and breathe — and he exhales with an easygoing, … Read more
Noah Centineo’s journey from a rom-com king to the lead in the Netflix spy thriller “The Recruit” is a bit of a bumpy ride. Centineo, who starred in “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” is miscast here in a series that’s confused not only about its leading man, but about its genre. “The Recruit” … Read more