Something to put on your “Man Toys” list. Never know when you might need some aerial surveillance of something or someone, and the best part is you can own it off the books. -SF The palm-sized ONAGOfly is an affordable GPS-enabled drone that automatically takes photos using smile and obstacle recognition technology. Normally the Federal…
Category: Intelligence Tradecraft
Espionage Files: Richard Sakakida Spied on the Imperial Japanese Right Under Their Noses
The Nisei war hero endured torture and near-starvation, yet passed valuable intelligence to the U.S. Army It was 1942, not long after the fall of the American stronghold of Corregidor that guarded Manila Bay in The Philippines. U.S. Army Sgt. Richard Sakakida was in the hands of the dreaded Kempeitai, the Imperial Japanese military…
World War II History: Planting Dragon’s Teeth in the Enemy’s Garden, The Jedburghs
The SOE and OSS Operations during World War II have been a fascination of mine since I was a boy. In fact I am currently working on a trilogy of fictional short stories based on their amazing operations. The Jedburghs are an integral part of this history.-SF …
America was Founded on Secrets and Lies
Espionage, kidnapping, and the dark art of Spycraft is as American as George Washington. With all due respect to early-American hagiographer Parson Weems, George Washington knew how to tell a lie. In fact, he told a lot of them. Moreover, talent for deception was shared by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, all of whom, to…
The Espionage Files: Lessons from My Father; How to Run a Secret Agent
Editor’s Note: The following conversation has been excerpted from the playwright John Hadden’s Conversations with a Masked Man: My Father, the CIA, and Me published by Arcade Publishing, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing. In the book, Hadden interviews his father about the latter’s long career in the CIA, the intricacies and follies of espionage, and…
Tradecraft: 5 Ways to Spot a Liar
Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to tell if someone is lying? We’re going to see what the research has to say on detecting lies, avoiding deception and more. And this is the industrial strength package. We’ll look at how to avoid being deceived by the pros in this arena: con artists. To get the real answers,…
Crusader Corner: FBI Unable to Crack San Bernardino Killers Cell Phone
Wow. Mind Boggling. One of the biggest, bloated bureaucracies on the planet and we cannot crack a damn cell phone? I mean consider the resources at hand: we have the monstrosity that is the DHS, the NSA, CIA, DIA and still no dice on a cell phone? Something tells me the FBI is back to…
Robot Cockroaches (For Real)
OK, I am giving away my age, but do any of you guys remember the Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons movie Runaway from 1984? OK, before you read this article, watch this clip below… I think it is hilarious to see how people over 30 years ago saw the future and actually nailed it in…
Espionage Files: The CIA’s Phoenix Program in Vietnam and the “War on Terror”
The Phoenix Program in Vietnam in many ways provides a blue print for our own times. Assassinations and torture are the essence of the war on terror. As are death squads and false flag terror attacks. As are mass surveillance of the populace. Thanks to the work of Douglas Valentine in his classic book “The Phoenix…
The Espionage Economy
U.S. firms are making billions selling spyware to dictators. By James Bamford Ricardo Martinelli resides in a condo at the Atlantis, a luxury high-rise on Florida’s Biscayne Bay made famous by the TV series Miami Vice. A hefty, white-haired billionaire, Martinelli, 63, was viewed just a few years ago as one of Latin America’s most…