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Inside “Scattergood,” the oldest structure on the CIA’s campus

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When buying a house on 30 wooded acres in northern Virginia, the last thing you might expect to get is a nosy neighbor.

But after Margaret Scattergood and Florence Thorne moved into their new home in 1933, they got more than they bargained for – an entire campus full of spies.

“We tried to make sure that we didn’t impede or encroach on their life too much,” said CIA Public Affairs Officer Janelle Neises, who has served as the house’s historian. “We tried to consider them sort of a part of our organization while letting them live their lives very separately at the same time.”

“In fact, a lot of our officers became friends with especially Margaret towards the end of her life,” she said. “They would come out and see if she needed help with yard work, or if she needed help with getting her groceries.”

The women lived in the house for more than a decade, hosting family members and holding events like weddings, dinners and birthday parties. They called their property, which was surrounded by rolling vegetable gardens and lush orchards, “The Calvert Estate.” 

Then, in the late 1940s, the U.S. government came knocking.

The Scattergood-Thorne House on the property of the CIA, as of 2011, used as a conference center since the passing of Ms. Scattergood in 1986
The Scattergood-Thorne House on the property of the CIA, as of 2011, used as a conference center since the passing of Ms. Scattergood in 1986.

HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images


The Federal Highway Administration began buying up the land – at the time mostly farmland – in McLean, Virginia. Scattergood and Thorne struck a deal with the government, selling the house and grounds for $55,000 – but demanding they be allowed to live out their lives on the property.

At the time, the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) headquarters were in downtown Washington, DC, in a section of town called Foggy Bottom. The agency had taken over the buildings of its predecessor organization, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was set up in 1942, during World War II. Soon after OSS’s dismantlement, the CIA was established in 1947.

“It became very obvious in the 1950s that we needed more space,” Neises said. “Director [Allen] Dulles really wanted us to be in a safe environment…He found this land and thought it was the perfect place for the CIA’s new headquarters building.”

Neises said the area was appealing because of the relative safety it would afford CIA employees – set back in a wooded area, with the Potomac River on one side – while still in reasonable proximity to Washington, DC, where officials would have to go to brief policymakers and the president.

The agency began moving its employees into the Headquarters Building in 1961.

“And so, as crazy as it sounds, we had this family, these two women, and sometimes their family members, living on our secure compound,” Neises said.

“I’m not aware of any other intelligence community partner –  the FBI or the State Department or [National Security Agency] that has a house where people actually lived on their property while they were doing their missions,” she said. “So it’s something that’s very unique.”

Nick Blanchet, Scattergood’s great-grand-nephew, was one such family member. For a few years in his 30s, he lived with his “Aunt Marge” on the property.

“I really enjoyed tea time, which was sherry time for Aunt Marge,” he said, laughing. “She liked to have her glass of sherry.”

Blanchet recalled some of the intimate family moments – including his wedding in 1983 – on the property grounds, all with CIA expanding its campus right next door. 

“It was such a beautiful place,” he said. “It was completely private, but I think the CIA could tell what was going on,” he added, laughing. 

Asked why he thought that was, he shot back, “Because they’re the CIA!”

Neises denies officers ever spied on the women.

“We have officers who still remember Margaret and talk of her,” she said, “It was just friendships.” 

A committed Quaker and fluent French speaker, Scattergood traveled to France to help refugees during World War I. After the war ended, she drove a truck full of rabbits and chickens to refugee areas. In her youth, she drove across the U.S. in a Ford Model T, with four tires strapped across it.

“I asked her about driving across [the] country, I asked her why there’s so many tires,” Blanchet said, “And she said, ‘Well, there weren’t any garages. If you got a flat, you had to fix it yourself!'”

“They were incredible women, pioneers in the labor movement,” Neises said. “Both of them went to college in the late 1800s, which was kind of a big deal for the time.”

After Scattergood met Thorne, in 1926, the two fought for workers’ rights at the American Federation of Labor (AFL). 

“Florence is really interesting in the fact that the work that she did at the AFL actually led to legislation for Social Security, workers’ compensation, and really made a difference when it came to child labor laws,” Neises said. “These were two women who sought out not just adventure, but making the world better.”

After Thorne passed away in 1973, at the age of 95, family lore says Scattergood may have opened her doors to political refugees known as Sandinistas from Nicaragua, where, at the time, CIA was covertly backing an opposing rebel group – the Contras. 

“There are rumors that Sandinistas showed up at the CIA,” Neises said. “We don’t have any records of them actually coming onto the compound.” 

“[M]aybe they tried, but there’s nothing in our records that say they actually came here and met with Margaret,” she continued, adding, “…but it wouldn’t surprise me if Margaret was helping people that she thought needed help.”

While Scattergood, a pacifist, held views that were in tension with some of the CIA’s activities at the time, her family and CIA officials say her relationship with the agency was not contentious. 

“[I]n fact, Director [William] Casey invited Margaret to celebrate her 90th birthday up in his dining room,” Neises said. 

When Scattergood passed away in 1986, at age 92, the CIA officially took over the house and its grounds. 

For a time, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said: “It went to the dogs.” 

“It became the location for our K-9 unit,” he explained. “They had an obstacle course outside. And then, in the house, we would plant fake explosives for the dogs to identify and find.” 

“We rely on these dogs here, on the compound, but also overseas, to keep our officers safe,” he said.   

“[T]he floors were just destroyed by the dogs,” Neises said. “[Y]ou can imagine all of the scratches that they had, running up the beautiful set of stairs.”

After about a decade of hosting canine inhabitants, the house fell into disrepair. It was near demolition, until “Mike M.”, a senior officer, and then CIA’s director of support, intervened. 

“I think Mike was aware of the history of this beautiful house and saw that it could be a very useful place for the agency to have…as a place for people to get away a little bit,” Cohen said. 

After an archeological study was completed to ensure it was structurally sound, the house was renovated from top to bottom. Upstairs bedrooms now look more like boardrooms; the family kitchen is now outfitted for professionals.

But some things stayed original, including the grand central banister, the wrought-iron windows, and a secret little spot in the basement where a part of the original foundation is preserved. The house has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historical landmark, according to Neises. 

Only one door in the house stays locked. Officials said behind it is a functioning office for onsite support staff – denying it conceals a sprawling Situation Room or other secret CIA artifacts.

In 2004, the house was fully reopened, and renamed: “The Scattergood-Thorne Conferencing Center.” The first-ever event held on its grounds was a ribbon-cutting with the then-Director George Tenet and about 50 guests. 

The second was Mike M.’s retirement ceremony. 

In 2005, it convened every living CIA director for a “farewell ceremony” for the title of “Director of Central Intelligence.” The director’s title was changed to “Director of the Central Intelligence Agency” after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was stood up in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. 

“You had everyone from President George Bush ’41 to the current director at the time,” Neises said. “Before they came to the house, they actually met on the seventh floor, which is where the director’s office is… and then took a shuttle bus to the house.”

The property served a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was securely outfitted for use as an office by then-Deputy Director Vaughn Bishop.

“It was decided that to keep our top two, our director and our deputy and their staffs [safe], that we needed to split them up because… their offices are connected, basically,” Neises explained. “And to make it safer, we had Vaughn move out to the Scattergood house.”

“At one point, they baked cookies in the kitchen,” she said. “You know, you can’t do that on the seventh floor, you can’t just walk into a kitchen and put some cookies in the oven.”

The house also served as a dedicated space for the Biden Presidential Transition Team. 

“[Y]ou had members of the outgoing team and the incoming team that also needed to come out for meetings and briefings,” Neises said. “And so having this house kept all of those people from coming in and out of the main headquarters building, which is where a large part of our workforce is, and so that kept them safer.”

Today the property is used for strategic meetings, including a Senior Leadership Seminar led by CIA Director William Burns, as well as an annual meeting with the agency’s chief of stations from all around the world. 

“Scattergood lends itself to being a place where conversations happen because there are no phones, there are no computers, there’s no distractions. And so all you have is that human interaction and talking,” Neises said. “[W]hen you add into the mix the variety of the types of people we have here at Scattergood…you’re going to get some of the most interesting and possibly important conversations that happen in this country.”

“There have been some very important dinners and other events that have been hosted here for foreign visitors,” Cohen added, though he declined to name or confirm any specific guests. 

While most of its visitors and events today remain a secret, the house stands as a reminder of the trailblazing women whose names and legacies it still bears. 

“I think Margaret and Florence would appreciate the fact that the CIA took such care of the house,” Neises said. “We were able to bring it back to its former glory.”

“And then as far as what happens inside of the house, I would hope that they would appreciate the human connections that we try to make here,” she added, “That the people coming into this home love this country…and that everyone here has the intentions of making the world safer.”



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Python squeezes Thai woman in her kitchen for 2 hours before she’s rescued by police

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Bangkok — A 64-year-old woman was preparing to do her evening dishes at her home outside Bangkok when she felt a sharp pain in her thigh and looked down to see a huge python taking hold of her.

“I was about to scoop some water and when I sat down it bit me immediately,” Arom Arunroj told Thailand’s Thairath newspaper. “When I looked I saw the snake wrapping around me.”

The 13-to-16-foot-long python coiled itself around her torso, squeezing her down to the floor of her kitchen.

“I grabbed it by the head, but it wouldn’t release me,” she said. “It only tightened.”

Thailand Snake Attack
A photo provided by Kunyakit Thanawtchaikun shows a python coiled around the torso of Arom Arunro, squeezing her down to the floor of her kitchen in Samut Prakan province, Thailand, Sept. 17, 2024.

Kunyakit Thanawtchaikun/AP


Pythons are non-venomous constrictors, which kill their prey by gradually squeezing the breath out of it.

Propped up against her kitchen door, she cried for help but it wasn’t until a neighbor happened to be walking by about an hour and a half later and heard her screams that authorities were called.

Responding police officer Anusorn Wongmalee told The Associated Press on Thursday that when he arrived the woman was still leaning against her door, looking exhausted and pale, with the snake coiled around her.

Police and animal control officers used a crowbar to hit the snake on the head until it released its grip and slithered away before it could be captured.

In all, Arom spent about two hours on Tuesday night in the clutches of the python before being freed.

She was treated for several bites but appeared to be otherwise unharmed in videos of her talking to Thai media shortly after the incident.

Encounters with snakes are not uncommon in Thailand, and last year 26 people were killed by venomous snake bites, according to government statistics. A total of 12,000 people were treated for venomous bites by snakes and other animals 2023.

The reticulated python is the largest snake found in Thailand and usually ranges in size from 5 to 21 feet, weighing up to about 165 pounds. They have been found as big as 33 feet long and 287 pounds.

Smaller pythons feed on small mammals such as rats, but larger snakes switch to prey such as pigs, deer and even domestic dogs and cats. Attacks on humans are not common, though do happen occasionally.

There have also been fatal attacks in Indonesia, where a woman was found inside the belly of a reticulated python that swallowed her whole in June — the fifth person to be devoured by one of the snakes in the country since 2017.



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After Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, Memphis officer texted photo of bloodied man to ex-girlfriend, she testifies

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A former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of the badly injured man on the night he was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton following a traffic stop, according to trial testimony Wednesday.

Brittany Leake, a Memphis officer and Demetrius Haley’s former girlfriend, testified during the criminal trial that she was on the phone with Haley when officers pulled Nichols over for a traffic stop. She said she heard a “commotion,” including verbal orders for someone to give officers his hands.

The call ended, but Haley later texted the photo in a group chat comprising Haley, Leake and her godsister, she testified. Prosecutors displayed the photo for the jury. It showed Nichols with his eyes closed, on the ground with what appeared to be blood near his mouth and his hands behind his back.

Leake said that when she saw the photo, her reaction was: “Oh my God, he definitely needs to go to the Med.”

The Med is shorthand for Memphis’ trauma hospital.

The fatal beating, caught on police bodycams and street surveillance cameras, has sparked protests and calls for police reform. Officers said they pulled over Nichols for reckless driving, but Memphis’ police chief said there was no evidence to substantiate that claim.

Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith are on trial after pleading not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his civil rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering. Their trial began Sept. 9 and is expected to run three to four weeks. 

Tyre Nichols
Former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of jury selection for the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn.

George Walker IV / AP


The Memphis Police Department fired the three men, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., after Nichols’ death. The beating was caught on police video, which was released publicly. The officers were later indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.

During her testimony Wednesday, Leake said she deleted the photo after she saw it and that sending such a photo is against police policy.

“I wasn’t offended, but it was difficult to look at,” she said.

Leake said Haley had sent her photos before of drugs, and of a person who had been injured in a car accident.

Earlier Wednesday, Martin was on the witness stand for a third day. Defense attorneys tried to show inconsistencies between Martin’s statements to investigators and his court testimony. Martin acknowledged lying about what happened to Memphis Police Department internal investigators, to try to cover up and “justify what I did.”

But Martin said he told the truth to FBI investigators after he pleaded guilty in August, including statements about feeling pressure on his duty belt where his gun was located during the traffic stop, but not being able to see if Nichols was trying to get his gun. Martin has testified that he said “let go of my gun” during the traffic stop.

Martin Zummach, the attorney for Justin Smith, asked Martin if he knew of any reasons why Nichols did not simply say, “I give up.”

“He’s out of it,” Martin said. “Disoriented.”

Martin testified that the situation escalated quickly when Haley pulled his gun and violently yanked Nichols from his car, using expletives and failing to tell Nichols why he had been pulled over and removed from the vehicle.

“He never got a chance to comply,” Martin said.

Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.

Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggled with his injuries. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.

An autopsy report shows Nichols – the father of a boy who is now 7 – died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.

Jesse Guy testified that he was working as a paramedic for the Memphis Fire Department the night of the beating. He arrived at the location after two emergency medical technicians, Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge.

Guy said he was not told about the medical problems Nichols had experienced before he arrived, and that Nichols was injured, seated on the ground and unresponsive.

Nichols had no pulse and was not breathing, and it “felt like he was lifeless,” Guy said.

In the ambulance, Guy performed CPR and provided mechanical ventilation, and Nichols had a pulse by the time he arrived at the hospital, the paramedic said.

Guy said Long and Sandridge did not say if they had checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not report if they had given him oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s lawyers whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said yes.

Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies after Nichols died. They have not been criminally charged.

The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas.

Federal prosecutors have previously recommended a 40-year sentence for Martin. A date has not been set in state court yet.

Nichols worked for FedEx, and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography. The city of Sacramento, where Nichols grew up, named a skatepark in his honor. “Tyre fell in love with skateboarding at a young age and it wasn’t long before it became a part of his lifestyle,” states the resolution approved by the city council. He had a tattoo of his mother’s name.

“Tyre Nichols’ family have been praying for justice and accountability from the very beginning of this tragedy,” Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the civil rights attorneys representing Nichols’ family, said in a statement when the trial began. 



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Boeing set to start large-scale furloughs due to machinists strike

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Boeing’s CEO said Wednesday that the company will begin furloughing “a large number” of employees to conserve cash during the strike by union machinists that began last week.

Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said the people who would be required to take time off without pay starting in coming days include executives, managers and other employees based in the U.S.

“While this is a tough decision that impacts everybody, it is in an effort to preserve our long-term future and help us navigate through this very difficult time,” Ortberg said in a company-wide message to staff.

Boeing didn’t say how many people will face rolling furloughs, but the number is expected to run into the tens of thousands. The aerospace giant had 171,000 employees at the start of the year.

About 33,000 Boeing factory workers in the Pacific Northwest began a strike Friday after rejecting a proposal to raise pay by 25% over four years. They want raises of at least 40%, the return of a traditional pension plan and other improvements in the contract offer they voted down.

Boeing's Seattle Workers Walk Out In First Strike Since 2008
Workers picket outside a Boeing in Everett, Washington, on  Sept. 16, 2024. 

Scott Brauer / Bloomberg via Getty Images


The strike is halting production of several airplane models including Boeing’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max. The company gets more than half of the purchase price when new planes are delivered to buyers, so the strike will quickly hurt Boeing’s cash flow.

Ortberg said selected employees will be furloughed for one week every four weeks while retaining their benefits. The CEO and other senior executives will take pay cuts during the duration of the strike, he said, without stating how deep the cuts will be.

All work related to safety, quality, customer support and certification of new planes will continue during the furloughs, he said, including production of 787 Dreamliner jets, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.

Ortberg said in a memo to employees that the company is talking to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers about a new contract agreement that could be ratified.

“However, with production paused across many key programs in the Pacific Northwest, our business faces substantial challenges and it is important that we take difficult steps to preserve cash and ensure that Boeing is able to successfully recover,” he said.

Boeing’s chief financial officer warned employees earlier this week that temporary layoffs were possible.

The company, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, but has most of its commercial-airplanes business located in the Pacific Northwest, is also cutting spending on suppliers, freezing hiring and eliminating most travel.

Despite two full days of talks assisted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the union said Wednesday that no resolution had been reached and no additional negotiations were scheduled, according to CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV.

Striking workers are picketing at several locations in the Seattle area, Oregon and California. The union, which recommended the offer that members later rejected by a 96% vote, is surveying the workers to learn what they want in a new contract. The union’s last strike at Boeing, in 2008, lasted about two months.

If the walkout doesn’t end soon, Boeing’s credit rating could be downgraded to non-investment or junk status, which would make borrowing more expensive. Shortly after the walkout began Friday, Moody’s put Boeing on review for a possible downgrade, and Fitch said a strike longer than two weeks would make a downgrade more likely.



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