Occupied France, 1944. Francis Cammaerts stepped from a train onto the railway station platform in Avignon. Almost immediately, German security forces at a checkpoint became suspicious and asked for his papers. The son of a Belgian poet and English actress, he was everything you would never expect in a secret agent. Cammaerts had been a pacifist and conscientious objector…
Category: Espionage Files
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…
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…
Cold War Files: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet ‘Death Star’
The ambitions of the United States and the Soviet Union, late in the Cold War, to launch massive weapons into outer space sounds like a fever dream today. Few however know just how serious it got, with the USSR making impressive progress on plans for a so-called “Red Death Star” to be launched into orbit….
Inside an IS Terror Weapons Lab
Experts describe the footage obtained by Sky News of a “jihadi technical college” as an intelligence gold mine. Terror group Islamic State is employing scientists and weapons experts to train jihadists to carry out sophisticated “spectacular” attacks in Europe, while also modifying weapons systems capable of targeting passenger jets and military aircraft. From a “jihadi…
Cold War Files: Declassified: U.S. Military’s Secret Cold War Space Project Revealed
Newly released documents describe the U.S. Air Force’s secret cold war project known as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) A newly released treasure trove of historical data reveals intriguing details about a secret Cold War project known as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). The U.S. Air Force’s MOL program ran from December 1963 until its cancellation in…
Cold War Files: Gary Powers, The U-2 Spy Pilot the U.S. Did Not Love
Steven Spielberg’s most recent movie, Bridge of Spies, tells the story of a Cold War prisoner exchange between the Soviet Union and the US. The deal allowed US spy plane pilot Gary Powers to return home – but once there he faced a chorus of criticism. Gary Powers had been in flight for four hours…
Russia’s GRU Chief Dies Unexpectedly
The Kremlin says the head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, which is known as the GRU, has died unexpectedly. A statement posted on the Kremlin website on January 4 said that General Igor Sergun, 58, had suffered a “sudden death,” but gave no details as to the cause, timing, or circumstances. The state-run news agency…
Cyber-Espionage: The Biggest Dangers are the Ones You Will Never Know About
For years, I slept fitfully after a “friend” told me that it wasn’t the noisy mosquitos buzzing in my ears at night that were a problem. Instead, it was the female mosquitos that made no noise at all but laid eggs in your ears at night. That image wrecked my sleep until the Internet helped…
Ankara’s Hidden Hand: Turkish Covert Ops Then and Now
To put it mildly, Turkey has been substantially involved in Syria since the eruption of the Arab Spring in 2011. After Turkish F-16s recently downed a Su-24 Russian tactical bomber over the region where Turkmen anti-Assad groups are based, Turkish President Erdogan tacitly confirmed Turkey’s covert support for Syrian rebels fighting against Damascus, stating that “anyone…