China is stepping up their game and timeline for War. -SF China’s cyber attacks against U.S. government and private sector databases are part of a major intelligence-gathering operation and are likely to continue, according to a new report by a cyber security firm. Chinese hackers stole health care data pertaining to some 80 million Americans…
Category: Counterintelligence
Espionage Files: “Eyewash” and How the CIA deceives it’s Own Workforce about Ops
Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.” Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure,…
Cold War Files: Forgetting Castro’s Crimes
‘Fighting Over Fidel: The New York Intellectuals and the Cuban Revolution’ Between the Old Left and the New Left, between the radicalism of the 1930s and the radicalism of the 1970s, there comes the curious figure of Fidel Castro. A celebrated revolutionary thinker. The absolute ruler of Cuba—and, for a time, the man believed to…
Cold War Files: The Cuban Army Abroad; Castro’s Foreign Cold Warriors
“Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, Castro was only too eager to export revolution to the Third World. Often this support even came in the form of combat troops to lend a hand to various Marxist uprisings.” AMERICA WAS STILL REELING from its humiliation in Vietnam in 1976 when hawks within the administration of President Gerald Ford were pushing for the United…
Military History: The Easter Offensive 1972, A Failure to Use Intelligence
This article was originally published in the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, 1998. It was not Intelligence (evaluated information of the enemy) that failed. The failure was [that of] the commanders and certain G2s, who did not act on the intelligence they had. –Colonel Robert S. Allen, on The Battle of the Bulge1 Like the Battle…
Chinese Military Revamps Cyber and Intelligence Capabilities
This story reminds me of Paul Newman’s famous line in the scene from Cool Hand Luke where the “Road Boss” with the Mirror sun glasses Shoots a bird flying with a rifle with one shot: “That man don’t say much, but I think he just said something right there….” The Chinese are continuously making statements…
Preparing for the Next BIG War
As a footnote to this this list I would add the ability for our Military and Intelligence Agencies to Operate within the same parameters as the Russian, Chinese and Iranian Military operates; in a “hybrid” 4th Generational Capacity, where war is waged against your adversary in every facet of their society; Financial, Social, Political, Religious…
The CIA’s Constant Battle Between Secrecy and Effectiveness
In his masterwork, On War, Carl von Clausewitz discussed the inner logic of war. He maintained that it is a logic of maximum violence without pause, violence that ceased only with the utter and permanent subjugation of the adversary. However, he also noted that war is the continuation of policy through other means. These…
West Ignoring Grave Threat from ISIS in Libya, Israeli Terror Experts Warn
Well we have a POTUS that does not even listen to Military Advisors and people waaaaay smarter than him, so good luck on him listening to Israel, a country with more experience fighting terror than anybody in the world. -SF Libya is the only place outside Iraq and Syria where the jihadi group controls territory,…
Regimes and Revolt: Authoritarian Ways of Counterinsurgency
Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from the author’s article in the Journal of Strategic Studies, “‘The People are Revolting’: An Anatomy of Authoritarian Counterinsurgency.” Scores of dead civilians, smoldering wastelands where villages used to be, a cowering people, and a regime thriving on tyranny and fear — these are the images evoked by the mention…