9238 Tags
poetry
5 Articles
Yes, the CIA had a classified Valentine’s Day poem
On Valentine’s Day eve 1976, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a column by Bob Lancaster, in which the veteran humorist bemoans having the flu. In a self-described malaise, Lancaster ponders what a Valentine’s Day card would look like written in a such a sour state, and then - capturing the post-Church Committee zeitgeist - pens one for our “secret admirers” at the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Lancaster would no doubt be delighted to know that his sweethearts at the CIA were so smitten by his sentiment that they kept a copy, and it remained classified for just shy of 30 years.
Quoth the █████: Read the CIA’s declassified computer-themed Edgar Allan Poe parody
In the eerie depths of the Central Intelligence Agency’s declassified archives, a document came rapping, rapping at our browser window. “POEDGR,” the Agency’s computer-themed “The Raven” parody which might be the first poem to have its rhyme scheme thrown off by a FOIA exemption.
The CIA College Tour: The case of the “Jabberwocky 13”
In 1981, a group of Brown University students found a creative way of protesting a lecture by Central Intelligence Agency Director William Casey. Then, in keeping with the CIA’s campus fixation, the Agency kept tabs on the students as they defended their free speech rights.
A single FCC complaint regarding the 75th Golden Globe Awards, arranged as a poem
Despite the attention garnered on social media, the Federal Communications Commission received only four complaints regarding the 75th Golden Globe Awards, according to a recently completed FOIA request. However, one of those complaints really manages to stand out as something special, and as such, we’re going to try something a bit different.
The truly terrible Cold War poetry hidden in the CIA’s archives
As we’ve written about before, the Central Intelligence Agency’s obsessive scrapbooking led to the preservation of quite a few bizarre artifacts in its declassified archives - and perhaps none are stranger than this collection of terrible topical poems, which, through tortured rhyming couplets, offer the author’s takes on geopolitics, race relations, and the merits of “Captain Kangaroo.”
3 Requests
Rejected
Nicholas Marritz sent this request to the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America
No Responsive Documents
Nicholas Marritz sent this request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States of America
No Responsive Documents
Nicholas Marritz sent this request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States of America