Jordan intercepts bird carrying messages between terror operatives as group attempts to bypass Western intel gathering its channels of communication are increasingly monitored by coalition forces, the Islamic State is reportedly turning to low-tech solutions in its efforts to avoid detection. The Telegraph reported that homing pigeons bearing messages between IS operatives were recently captured…
Category: Counterintelligence
Espionage Files: The Life of the Modern Spy
The days of spy vs. spy of the Cold War are over. The enemies changed and technology revolutionized the world … and not always for the better. But spies remained an important part of the modern battlefield. This week on the War College Podcast, Jamillah Knowles chats with Reuters reporter and author Stephen Grey about his…
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…
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…
The Surveillance State: Spy Chief Might Reveal Number of “Accidentally Surveilled”” Americans
“U.S. Persons Caught INCIDENTALLY in Internet Surveillance…” HA!! Where have we heard that before? -SF Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Monday his office is considering options to obtain and publicly disclose an estimate of the number of U.S. persons caught incidentally in Internet surveillance intended for foreign targets. “We are looking at…
Espionage Files: A Day In The Life of a Spy
The complex life of a CIA officer is unveiled in this fascinating AMA on Reddit, which reveals an existence that is both terrifying and amusing, but never boring. Names, places, and timelines are redacted, but that doesn’t lessen the impact of his words, as it’s easy to assume his involvement in a number of covert operations that have…
A New Generation of Unrestricted Warfare
In 1999, two Chinese colonels wrote a book called Unrestricted Warfare, about warfare in the age of globalization. Their main argument: Warfare in the modern world will no longer be primarily a struggle defined by military means — or even involve the military at all. They were about a decade and a half before their…
Espionage Files: Pakistani Spies Behind the 2009 FOB Chapman Attack?
Anybody who has done any amount of serious reading about 9/11 knows that Pakistan is an ally of the U.S. in name only; they have been supplying the Taliban with intel and arms for decades and indeed did support Bin Laden and his ilk during the early parts of the War in Afghanistan in 2003…
Espionage Files: Ex-Mossad Chief Meir Dagan and The Limits of Power
On March 17, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan passed away at the age of 71. An examination of Dagan’s career illuminates how creative thinking and bold approaches can enable intelligence organizations to adjust to changing environments, while at the same time demonstrating that the use of power has its own limitations. It also sheds light…
Espionage Files: Pakistani Intelligence Possibly Financed 2009 CIA Outpost Bombing
Pakistan’s powerful spy agency may have provided the funding for a deadly 2009 suicide attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan that ranks as one of the deadliest days in the agency’s history, according to a newly declassified State Department cable. The heavily redacted cable, sent about two weeks after the attack on Dec. 30,…