The other day I watched a 2 hours special that 48 Hours did back in May titled “The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs” combined with another HBO documentary from 2013 about the CIA and Terrorism called “Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden“. These two documentaries show the in-depth process of how raw intelligence from the field…
Category: Tradecraft
5 Life Lessons Learned from USMC Scout Sniper School
A former Marine scout sniper shares life lessons from the Marine Corps’ Scout Sniper Basic Course. There is no shortage of popular culture lionizing snipers. From movies to books, legendary exploits are laced with evocative imagery. Alone, unafraid, heroically holding back enemy hoards with only a bolt gun. This captivation is not without good cause,…
Surveillance State: Hackers Have Found a Pulsating New Way to Spy on You on Your Phone and FitBit
Hackers may be pickin’ up good vibrations from your phone. All the better to surveil you with, my dear. Researchers at the Electrical and Computer Engineering school of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discovered that the vibration motor in your devices can operate like a microphone, according to the researchers’ paper. That means, if…
Surveillance State: DIVA Software Designed to Spot Suspicous Behavior BEFORE it Happens
The program is called Deep Intermodal Video Analytics—or DIVA—and it seeks to locate shooters and terrorists before they strike. The intelligence community is working on amping up people-recognition power to spot, in live videos, shooters and potential terrorists before they have a chance to attack. Part of the problem with current video surveillance techniques is the difficulty…
Espionage Files: Counterintelligence for U.S. Companies Operating Abroad
In January, the CEO of American Superconductor publicly detailed how traditional economic espionage methods carried out by a small Chinese firm resulted in over a billion dollars in loss to his company. Since at least 2011, much attention has been given to the rampant cyber espionage threat against U.S. firms, ultimately pushing U.S. businesses to…
Surveillance State: Warrantless Cell Tracking Now Legal
One more thing to check off in that very short list of “Reasonable Expectations of Privacy”. Whats Next I wonder? -SF A split federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that police do not need a search warrant before obtaining cell tower location data that can trace the long-term movements of a suspect’s mobile phone, while conceding…
Survival: The Cautionary Tale of Geraldine Largay
This story is a hard lesson in NEVER overestimating your Survival Abilities and Skill Sets. What is amazing is her remains were found 3,000 feet (1,000 yards) from the MAIN TRAIL. It reminds me of a line from the 1997 movie THE EDGE: “People that are lost in the wilderness die from SHAME.”-SF A lost…
Armed Citizen Corner: Never Have a “Favorite Weapon”
This short story reinforces the USMC Training mantra “One Mind, Any Weapon”. Never lock yourself into a box with your firearm training. Don’t get hung up on the Tool..Always Train to WIN THE FIGHT, REGARDLESS OF THE TOOL!-SF “Favorite” Weapons! by John Farnam | 23 May 2016 “Warriors should not have ‘favorite’ weapons.”…
Guerilla Warfare History: Pictorial History of the IRA and “The Troubles”
From 1968 to 1998, Northern Ireland was the battleground of a guerrilla war known as The Troubles. On one side was the Protestant majority called the Unionists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. On the other side were the Nationalists, a Catholic minority who sought to become part of the…
Street Smarts: Top “10 Codes” Every CO Should Know
Stores, hospitals, entertainment venues, and other places where the public are together in large numbers, use secret codes to pass information between store employees. These are meant to be a secret as they don’t want to alarm the non-staff members or alert someone (like a thief) to the fact that they have been noticed. Many…