đŸ”” CIA HQ Armed Standoff

Author

Citizen Frank
March 19, 2025

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, March 19.

 

An armed man was seen making threats at the gate of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters in McLean, Virginia, leading to a large police presence, including the Fairfax County Police Bomb Squad.

A CIA spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek in an email statement Wednesday: “There is an ongoing incident that law enforcement is currently responding to outside CIA Headquarters. Additional details will be made available as appropriate.”

Around 3:30 p.m. ET, the Fairfax County Police posted an update on social media that “the barricade incident has been resolved. The suspect surrendered to FCPD negotiators and is in custody.”

The National Archives on Tuesday released thousands of pages of declassified records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The records were posted to the National Archives’ website, joining recently released records posted in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2017-2018.

Most of what the government released tonight is not new — in fact, much of what has attracted attention on social media and in news reports has long been in the public domain, except for minor redactions, such as the blacking out of personally-identifiable information of CIA sources or employees, including names and addresses, which have now been disclosed.

President Donald Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning, describing the hour-long conversation as “very good” in a social media post and calling peace talks “very much on track.”

The call came a day after Trump’s lengthy conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to a 30-day pause to attacks on energy infrastructure but not the broader ceasefire that Ukraine and the U.S. had agreed to a week earlier.

Trump said “much of the discussion” was based on that call with Putin “in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs.”

The Pentagon said Tuesday it will cut between 50,000 and 60,000 civilian jobs — or 5% to 8% of a workforce that includes thousands of veterans — through firings, resignations and a hiring freeze to meet Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s goal.

Hegseth’s office said nearly a month ago, in February, that it was starting those cuts by firing 5,400 probationary employees. The figure was announced after reports emerged of an initial plan to just fire huge swaths of civilian workers, which raised concerns inside the Pentagon.

Now that court cases have forced the Trump administration’s widespread government firings to halt, a top defense official told reporters that the Pentagon will focus largely on getting to that 60,000 figure by either incentivizing employees to leave or not hiring new employees. However, both of these methods also have major caveats.

The IDF announced on Wednesday it expanded ground operations in central and southern Gaza over the past 24 hours, aiming to broaden security zones and create a partial buffer between northern and southern Gaza.

As part of the operation, IDF forces regained control of key areas along the Netzarim Corridor, the military said.

Additionally, the Golani Brigade has been deployed to the southern sector and remains on standby for further operations in Gaza. The IDF reiterated that it will continue targeting terrorist groups in the enclave to protect Israeli citizens.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from suddenly canceling three multibillion-dollar clean energy grants on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan found that the EPA had likely violated the law by issuing identical termination letters to Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, which said their grants were terminated, effective immediately.

The grants, part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program authorized under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, were awarded to fund efforts for clean energy projects across the country. Climate United received $6.97 billion, Coalition for Green Capital $5 billion and Power Forward $2 billion.

Riley Gaines marked three years since she raced against trans swimmer Lia Thomas by celebrating Donald Trump’s decision to cut $175million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania.

Gaines has been at the forefront of the fight to ban trans athletes from competing in women’s sports since she competed against Thomas at the 2022 NCAA Championships.

Thomas swam for UPenn in the 200-yard final that day, which saw her tie with Gaines for fifth place.

InfoWars host Owen Shroyer became the latest victim of a “swatting” incident at his home in Austin, Texas in what he calls a “terrorist attack” perpetrated by leftist extremists.

A fake police report claiming Shroyer had shot someone led to a full-blown armed raid on his residence, with at least a dozen officers storming his home with weapons drawn.

Shroyer took to social media to describe the horrifying ordeal.

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