Via: Matthew Bracken Substack Circa 1997, I was in Panama, on the Caribbean side, getting my boat ready to transit the canal to the Pacific. I was walking from Colon’s old so-called yacht club (now long gone) through an industrial port area to get to Colon City. When I was passing about…
Category: Private Military Contractors
Security News: Private Security Companies Flourish South of the Border
This article originally appeared at InSight Crime. The growing number of private security firms in Guatemala speaks to the state’s inability to provide protection for its citizens, but this booming industry is vulnerable to criminal co-option and could generate security concerns of its own. Guatemala now has over 200 private security firms and 150,000 security…
Cold War Files: The Cold War’s Deadliest Battleground
When young Americans are taught about the Cold War, we learn that it was exactly that — a decades-long standoff based on the threat of war, one without mass casualties, tanks and guns. Sure, there were spies, assassinations and intrigue, but even history teachers who cover proxy wars tend to leave out one whopping chapter:…
Espionage Files: Surveillance For Hire In Africa
In July 2012, one year after the Arab Spring shook Arab regimes around the world, an email appeared in the inbox of Mamfakinch, a Moroccan online publication critical of the government. Under the subject line “dénonciation” — French for “denunciation” — was a single sentence. “Please don’t use my name or anything else, I don’t want any trouble.” And…
Espionage Files: The Man Who Seduced the US Navy’s 7th Fleet
He tempted his targets with the high life; whiskey, cigars, prostitutes and cash. His moles fed him bundles of military secrets and law enforcement files. All so he could rip off the Navy on an industrial scale for years and years. Now, the depth of the corruption is being exposed as the investigation reaches into the highest…
PMC News: Eric Prince and His Proposed Private “Air Force”
You probably remember Blackwater, the notorious U.S. mercenary company that rose to fame — or infamy, as it were — during the Iraq war. You might also remember Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater in 1997. Prince had no choice but to sell his company after a spate of shootings involving Blackwater…
This Norwegian Mercenary Instagrams His War on ISIS
A veteran of the war in Afghanistan is using social media to document and fund his one-man fight against ISIS. A millennial soldier of fortune who goes by the name ‘Mike’ is waging an independently funded war against the Islamic State. While his real identity remains anonymous, the Norwegian fighter came to Norway as an…
Moscow Mercenaries in Syria
As Syrian forces push their advantage against the Islamic State, it is increasingly clear that there are Russians on the ground with them. Some are Spetsnaz special forces, there for recon and forward air control, but others are mercenaries, working for a shadowy outfit in St. Petersburg. Increasingly, the Kremlin is waking up to the…
Cold War Files: After-Action-Report (AAR) of a Rhodesian Ambush
Imagine initiating an ambush with a 40 mike-mike training round. That would be a Bad Thing. This ambush, as remembered by our friend and former Rhodie troopie Nick Bliksem, is just about as bad (but not quite). This was during the “Second Chimurenga” period of the Rhodesian Bush War, back when Jimmy Carter was POTUS,…
Crusader Corner: Tracking Down Salah Abdeslam
Man Hunting, The Sport of Security Forces Bottom Line Up Front Intelligence agencies must cooperate more rapidly and proactively to counter ISIS’ rapid and haphazard operational tempo. Clandestine operatives must rely on support networks that include overt members of the public. These networks are easily mapped out based on metadata available to nation state…