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Distinguished Intelligence Cross
The Distinguished Intelligence Cross is the highest decoration awarded by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. It is given for "a voluntary act or acts of extraordinary heroism involving the acceptance of existing dangers with conspicuous fortitude and exemplary courage". Only a handful of people have been awarded this medal in the history of the agency, most posthumously. As a consequence, it is one of the rarest awards for valor in the United States. The cross is the agency's equivalent of the military's Service Cross, i.e., Navy Cross, Army Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross. The agency has two awards for valor; the other is the Intelligence Star, which is analogous to the military's Silver Star. Known recipients * Leo F. Baker, posthumously for the Bay of Pigs invasion * William F. Buckley * John T. Downey * Richard Fecteau * Wade C. Gray, posthumously for the Bay of Pigs invasion * James Monroe, CIA paramilitary officer during Vietnam War * Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and conducting covert operations. The agency is headquartered in the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia, and is sometimes metonymously called "Langley". A major member of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA has reported to the director of national intelligence since 2004, and is focused on providing intelligence for the president and the Cabinet. The CIA is headed by a director and is divided into various directorates, including a Directorate of Analysis and Directorate of Operations. Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the CIA has no law enforcement function and focuses on intelligence gathering overseas, with only limited domestic intelligence collection. The CIA is responsibl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Francis Buckley
William Francis Buckley (May 30, 1928 – June 3, 1985) was a United States Army officer in the United States Army Special Forces, and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station chief in Beirut from 1984 until his kidnapping and killing in 1985. Buckley's cover was as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy. He was kidnapped by the group Islamic Jihad in March 1984, and held hostage and tortured by Aziz al-Abub. Hezbollah later claimed they executed him in October 1985, but another American hostage disputed that, believing that he died four months prior, in June. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery and is commemorated with a star on the Memorial Wall at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Early life and education Buckley was born in Medford, Massachusetts, on May 30, 1928. He grew up on south Main Street in the neighboring town of Stoneham. He graduated from high school there in 1947, and then joined the United States Army. He began as a military po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Qala-i-Jangi
The Battle of Qala-i-Jangi in Afghanistan (sometimes also referred to as the "Battle of Mazar-i-Sharif") was a six-day military engagement following an uprising of prisoners of war who had been taken into custody by U.S.-led coalition forces on 25 November 2001. The battle took place from 25 November to 1 December, in northern Afghanistan. It followed the intervention by United States-led coalition forces to overthrow the Taliban's Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which had been harboring al-Qaeda operatives. More than 400 foreign fighters surrendered outside Mazar-i-Sharif and were held at Qala-i-Jangi fortress by the Afghan Northern Alliance forces, where they were interrogated by the anti-Taliban warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum's fighters and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) personnel hunting al-Qaeda suspects. The prisoners, who had not been searched properly when they surrendered, violently revolted and the ensuing fighting escalated into one of the bloodiest engagements of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nairobi
Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper had a population of 4,397,073 in the 2019 census. Nairobi is home of the Parliament Buildings (Kenya), Kenyan Parliament Buildings and hosts thousands of Kenyan businesses and international companies and organisations, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON). Nairobi is an established hub for business and culture. The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) is one of the largest stock exchanges in Africa and the second-oldest exchange on the continent. It is Africa's fourth-largest stock exchange in terms of trading volume, capable of making 10 million trades a day. It also contains the Nairobi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1998 United States Embassy Bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 220 people were killed in two nearly simultaneous car bomb, truck bomb explosions in two East African capital cities, one at the Embassy of the United States, Dar es Salaam, United States embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the other at the Embassy of the United States, Nairobi, United States embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah were deemed responsible with planning and orchestrating the bombings. Motivation and preparation Many American sources concluded that the bombings were intended as revenge for U.S. involvement in the extradition and alleged torture of four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) who had been arrested in Albania in the two months prior to the attacks for a Returnees from Albania, series of murders in Egypt. Between June and July, Ahmad Isma'il 'Uthman Saleh, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar, Shawqi Salama Mustafa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience. As of 2023, the ''Post'' had 130,000 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscribers, both of which were the List of newspapers in the United States, third-largest among U.S. newspapers after ''The New York Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. In 1933, financier Eugene Meyer (financier), Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy and revived its health and reputation; this work was continued by his successors Katharine Graham, Katharine and Phil Graham, Meyer's daughter and son-in-law, respectively, who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev Pragad, the president and chief executive officer (CEO), and Johnathan Davis, who sits on the board; each owns 50% of the company. In August 2010, revenue decline prompted Graham Holdings, the Washington Post Company to sell ''Newsweek'' to the audio pioneer Sidney Harman for one US dollar and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities. Later that year, ''Newsweek'' merged with the news and opinion website ''The Daily Beast'', forming The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, later called ''NewsBeast''. ''Newsweek'' was jointly owned by the estate of Harman and the company IAC (company), IAC. ''Newsweek'' continued to experience financial difficulties, leading to the suspension of print publication at the end of 2012. In 2013, IBT Media acquired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Activities Center
The Special Activities Center (SAC) is the center of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to a 2015 reorganization. Within SAC there are at least two separate groups: SAC/SOG (Special Operations Group) for tactical paramilitary operations and SAC/PAG (Political Action Group) for covert political action.Daugherty (2004) The Special Operations Group is responsible for operations that include clandestine or covert operations with which the US government does not want to be overtly associated. As such, unit members, called Paramilitary Operations Officers and Specialized Skills Officers, do not typically wear uniforms. If they are compromised during a mission, the US government may deny all knowledge. The group generally recruits personnel from special mission units within the U.S. Special Operations community. SOG Paramilitary Operations Officers account for a majority of D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Vogle
Gregory W. Vogle (born 1958) is an American intelligence officer who served as the Director of the National Clandestine Service from January 29, 2015, until August 2017. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, the nation's highest intelligence award for valor, often described as a Medal of Honor equivalent, for his actions to defend Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his troops against an attack on their position by the Taliban in Tarinkot, Afghanistan. Career After graduating from the Citadel, Vogle served in the United States Marine Corps as an infantry officer from 1981 to 1986. Vogle joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1986 as a paramilitary operations officer within the CIA's Special Activities Division (SAD) and deployed to Africa, Bosnia, Pakistan and Middle East. He worked with various parties in the United States Intelligence Community, including the United States Department of Defense. Rescue of Hamid Karzai On October 9, 2001 Hamid Karzai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Fecteau
Richard G. Fecteau (born 1927) is an American Central Intelligence Agency operative who was captured by the People's Republic of China during a CIA-sponsored flight in the Korean War. News of the capture of Fecteau and John T. Downey reached the United States in November 1954, sparking a nearly two decade battle of wills between the U.S. and the PRC. Fecteau was released in December 1971. He later worked as an assistant athletic director at his alma mater, Boston University, retiring in 1989. CIA career He joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) soon after Boston University and became one of two CIA Paramilitary Officers in Special Activities Division (the other was John T. Downey, a Yale graduate) who survived the shoot-down of their Civil Air Transport C-47 spy-collection mission over the People's Republic of China in November 1952. In December 1954 Radio Peking announced that Fecteau and Downey had been convicted of spying and were sentenced to 20 years and life impriso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John T
John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Epistle of John, often shortened to 2 John * Third Epistle of John, often shortened to 3 John People * John the Baptist (died ), regarded as a prophet and the forerunner of Jesus Christ * John the Apostle (died ), one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ * John the Evangelist, assigned author of the Fourth Gospel, once identified with the Apostle * John of Patmos, also known as John the Divine or John the Revelator, the author of the Book of Revelation, once identified with the Apostle * John the Presbyter, a figure either identified with or distinguished from the Apostle, the Evangelist and John of Patmos Other people with the given name Religious figures * John, father of Andrew the Apostle and Saint Peter * Pope John (dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bay Of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called or after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States of America and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF), consisting of Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, Clandestine operation, clandestinely and directly financed by the U.S. government. The operation took place at the height of the Cold War, and its failure influenced relations between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union. In 1952, the pro-American dictator General Fulgencio Batista led a 1952 Cuban coup d'état, coup against President Carlos Prío Socarrás, Carlos Prío and forced Prío into exile in Miami, Florida. Prío's exile inspired Castro's 26th of July Movement against Batista. The movement succeeded in overthrowing Batista during the Cuban Revolution in January 1959. Castro nationalization, nationalized American businesses, including banks, oi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
