EPITAPH

Memorial Wall Honor for CIA Officer Who Died by Suicide Stirs Controversy

Some are calling for her star to come off the wall, but former CIA Director John Brennan defended it.

A star on the CIA memorial wall for an agent who died by suicide is stirring controversy. Ranya Abdelsayed, 34, took her own life in 2013 after a year in Afghanistan—and her death is marked by one of the 129 stars on the wall. Former CIA Director John Brennan told The Washington Post he has no doubt Abdelsayed’s death was linked to the stresses of a dangerous assignment tracking Taliban members and other targets. But others are saying the honor is misplaced. “There’s been an erosion of understanding in CIA leadership for at least two decades about what the wall is for and who is it that we’re commemorating,” retired CIA historian Nicholas Dujmovic told the Post. “Now we have a suicide star on the wall. That’s not what the wall is for.”