CIA honors its fallen at annual Memorial Wall ceremony

NEWS AND OPINION:

The Central Intelligence Agency conducted an annual solemn ceremony to remember, honor, and celebrate courageous CIA officers who died serving their country. The ceremony took place Friday in front of the agency’s marble Memorial Wall, which has commemorated fallen officers since its dedication nearly 50 years ago in July 1974.

When the Memorial Wall was dedicated that year, it bore 31 hand-carved stars. The wall currently bears 140 stars, each representing a fallen officer. No new stars were added to the wall this year, the agency said.

“We never take for granted the safety of our people, and we go to great lengths to prepare for every eventuality. But danger is part of the job, and it has never deterred us from our vital mission. From our very first operation, CIA has never shied away from the difficult, the demanding, or the dangerous,” CIA Director William J. Burns told employees, retirees, and family members who had assembled for the occasion.

Agency leaders also read aloud the names of the 140 fallen officers. CIA began conducting the memorial ceremony in 1987 and added the tradition of inviting families of fallen officers to the ceremony in 1990. The practice of reading fallen officers’ names aloud began in 1995.

Find the agency at CIA.gov.

ON THE RADAR

AI anyone? Rep. Mark E. Green, Tennessee Republican and House Committee on Homeland Security chairman, has announced that there will be a full panel hearing on Wednesday with a telling title: “Advancing Innovation (AI): Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Defend and Secure the Homeland.”

The hearing will also review the cybersecurity implications for AI development, deployment, and use in general.

“Artificial intelligence is not only revolutionizing the productivity and efficacy of our industry sectors, but it has the potential to be a turning point for the homeland security mission,” Mr. Green said in a statement shared with Inside the Beltway.

“I look forward to examining ways AI can fill workforce gaps, enhance our collective cyber defense, and spur innovation in a way the American people can trust,” the lawmaker noted.

SEEKING THE VEEPS

The upcoming presidential debates are in the serious planning stages at the moment, set for June 27 and Sept. 10. Now come the vice presidential debates. Things are, in a word, percolating.

Fox News’ chief political anchor Bret Baier announced Friday that Fox News Media has sent a letter to the respective campaigns of both President Biden and former President Donald Trump. The network has requested that Fox News moderate a vice presidential debate when the time comes, to be staged at Virginia State University.

Fox News has offered to moderate the debate on July 23, Aug. 13 or a date following the Republican and Democratic conventions. Mr. Trump has already accepted that invitation.

“On behalf of the future Vice President of the United States, who I have not yet chosen, we hereby accept the Fox Vice presidential debate, hopefully at Virginia State University, the first historically Black college or university to host a debate. Date to be determined. I urge Vice President Kamala Harris to agree to this,” Mr. Trump told Fox News in a written message that Mr. Baier read aloud on camera.

“We’ll see what else happens. This is a strange dynamic in getting these things locked down. But we’re doing it in short order,” the anchor also noted.

TRUMP GETS A BOOST

Meanwhile, a major broadcast network has some promising news for the nation’s 45th president and his vigorous campaign to return to the White House. There’s a public trust factor at work in the campaign.

“U.S. adults trust former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden on the issue of inflation by a double-digit margin, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll this month, which found that price increases remain a top concern for voters, with less than six months to go until Election Day,” ABC analyst Max Zahn wrote in a report released Saturday.

“In all, 85% of poll participants said inflation is an important issue, making it the second-highest priority among adults surveyed. The top priority, the economy, also relates to individuals’ perceptions of price increases,” he said.

But wait, there’s more.

“On each of those issues, the economy and inflation, adults surveyed by ABC News/Ipsos said they trusted Trump over Biden by a margin of 14 percentage points,” Mr. Zahn noted.

The ABC/Ipsos poll of 2,260 U.S. adults was conducted online April 25-30.

FLORIDA GETS VISITORS

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis must be doing something right. His state is getting more visitors than ever — and they are arriving by the millions.

“Once again, Florida leads the nation as an unrivaled destination for tourists. These record-breaking numbers show that our work has made the free state of Florida even more attractive to visitors,” Mr. DeSantis said in a written statement released by his office on Friday.

So what kind of numbers are we talking about here?

“According to revised figures for 2023, Florida welcomed 140.6 million visitors, marking an increase of 2.3% from 2022’s record-breaking figure and establishing a new benchmark for visitation to the state. Domestic visitation reached an all-time high, with 129.1 million domestic visitors choosing to come to Florida in 2023, along with 8.3 million overseas visitors and 3.2 million Canadian visitors,” noted an advisory issued by the governor’s office.

“The momentum of this unprecedented growth carried into the first quarter of 2024, with domestic visitation hitting a new high of 37.2 million, the highest ever recorded for a single quarter,” the advisory said.

POLL DU JOUR

26% of U.S. adults say that, outside of attending religious services, they pray “several times a day.”

14% say they pray “once a day” outside services.

12% say they pray “a few times a week.”

6% say they pray “a few times a month.

3% say they pray “once a week.”

16% say they “seldom” pray.

22% say they “never” pray.

3% “don’t know” about the issue.

SOURCE: An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,830 U.S. adults conducted May 12-14.

Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin, and on Facebook @HarperUniverse.