Last week lead developer Mitch Kotler was on vacation so there were not any major features pushed out. We did, however, have some discussions about standardizing how we note and store agency data. We’d love your feedback.

One of the more fascinating revelations in the Central Intelligence Agency’s archives is the fact that, on two separate occasions, the Agency has had the White House bury time capsules of CIA materials in the walls of their buildings. The first box was jokingly referred to by Director Allen Dulles as containing “secrets,” and that came amazingly close to being true. The second, placed by one of Dulles’ successors, was nearly a plot device in a spy thriller, thanks to a suggestion that they place the true names of every Agency employee within the box.

Like a live action Twitter feed, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, for years, had been tasked with the responsibility of collecting and disseminating news and information from countries around the world to the various agents of the U.S. government. But by the late 70s, Central Intelligence Agency was having trouble keeping these employees, more compelled by journalistic drive than cloak-and-dagger caper, interested and on top of their games.

The Central Intelligence Agency, like all government agencies, produces a huge amount of paperwork. Faced with this quantity of paper, the CIA published a classified collection of essays that was aimed at improving the literary quality of the documents that the Agency was creating.