As if Illegal Mass Surveillance does not have enough downside, now it has also become a National Security risk??? -SF Federal officials fear that national security may have been jeopardized when the company building a sensitive phone-number database violated a federal requirement that only U.S. citizens work on the project. The database is significant because…
Author: The Tactical Hermit
Armed Texan and Part-Time Bard.
Military Defense News: The Ma Deuce is Getting a Facelift
The Army is developing a .50-cal that’s over 25 pounds lighter than its iconic predecessor, and just as powerful. Like most of us, the U.S. Army is trying to shed weight before the summer hits, with plans to unveil a new lightweight .50-caliber machine gun within the next few months. Although it will likely take…
Espionage Files: How the CIA Writes History
Excellent read on the dark History of CIA and one of their most influential and controversial figures. -SF LAST SUMMER I PAID a visit to Georgetown University’s Lauinger Libraryas part of my research on legendary CIA counterspy James Jesus Angleton. I went there to investigate Angleton’s famous mole hunt, one of the least flattering episodes of his…
Examining Terrorist Tactics: Hezbollah Develops New Skills in Syria
When Hezbollah first intervened on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Israeli defense analysts saw the foray as a blessing – better to have their Lebanese arch-enemy entangled in a war in Syria. But there is increasing concern that Hezbollah is getting valuable battlefield experience in Syria, especially when it comes to large-scale,…
Another Reason to be Armed: Armed Property Owner Ends Manhunt
GASTON, S.C. (WIS) —A Gaston man says his Second Amendment right helped land two men behind bars. Two Lexington County men were arrested after a high-speed chase near Gaston Thursday afternoon. Police say it was a simple attempted traffic stop that turned into a high-speed chase. “This chase started because Gaston police attempted to make…
Military Defense News: World Map of Camo Patterns
For all you camo junkies out there. Be advised some artistic license was taken with this rendering! -SF A Reddit user uploaded this map of the world onto the network’s “MapPorn” subreddit. The image displays every country covered in the same camo pattern as its armed forces, though the disclaimer in the bottom left notes that…
Holocaust History: How my Grandmother’s Chutzpah Helped Japan’s Consul Save Thousands of Jews
The story of Rachel Sternheim may answer a long-unsolved mystery surrounding the rescue of 6,000 Lithuanian Jews from the Nazis The story of Chiune Sugihara – the Japanese consul in Kovno, Lithuania, who disobeyed his government’s orders in 1940 and issued transit visas through Japan to thousands of Jews seeking to flee war-torn Europe —…
Military History: The Saga of the Six-Legged Soldiers
The U.S. Army Wanted to Conscript Insects to Fight the Viet-Cong But the six-legged soldiers weren’t terribly reliable! Mao Tse-Tung famously wrote in On Guerrilla Warfare that guerrillas are proverbial fish who have to swim in the water of the people in order to win their struggle against powerful governments. “It is only undisciplined troops who…
Modern Crime: The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking
Diplomats and top officials from governments around the world gathered last week at United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss what to do about the global drug problem. Over the course of four days and multiple discussions, the assembled dignitaries vowed to take a more comprehensive approach to the issue than in years past…
Espionage Files: Ex-Cia Officer to be Extradited to Italy to Stand Trial
I have been following this case since 2003. This is an interesting but tragic story in how espionage blowback has NO statute of limitations. For those of you who want to read the backstory on this, check out A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial.-SF An appeals court in Portugal has ruled that…