The Libyan branch of ISIS staged a gruesome attack Wednesday on government-security headquarters in the western city of Sabratha. According to the AP, the group beheaded 12 officers before taking control of the complex. “A second security official said that the militants used the headless bodies of the officers they killed to block the roads…
Tradecraft: Escape and Evade Danger
A Special Forces veteran explains what you need to know to successfully evade and avoid Danger If you run scared, you’re going to die. This is the rule of thumb when it comes to evasion, and there’s a reason for it. If you’re confronted with a threat you can’t overcome, you should escape it….
MARSOC: 10 Year Anniversary Tribute
[A fitting Tribute to an organization that has been putting the “Bad” in Bad Ass for over 70 Years. Semper Fi! Keep up the Good Work Fellas. -SF] MARSOC Raiders from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan talk about the unit’s legendary past. Marine Raiders, past and present, look back on their legacy in a…
Why You Should Side With Apple and Not the FBI in the San Bernardino I-Phone Case
I have the utmost respect for Bruce. The man knows his stuff and is the final word in topics of this sort. -SF By Bruce Schneier Earlier this week, a federal magistrate ordered Apple to assist the FBI in hacking into the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple will fight this order…
World War I History: Six Facts About the Forgotten battle that Ended the Great War
“Conventional wisdom holds that World War One ended in the west with the collapse of the Hindenburg Line; in reality it was a comparatively small clash in one of the war’s forgotten fronts that precipitated the downfall of the Central Powers.” WHEN GERMANY signed the Armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, the Central Powers were still in a…
Brush-Up on Your History: History’s Most Infamous Act of Mass Cannibalism
On February 19, 1847, the first rescue party reached 45 pioneers stuck in the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains of northeast California. They’d been stranded there with virtually no food or supplies for four months, and lost 36 companions, many of whom they ate in order to stay alive. You’ve likely heard of the Donner party…
Dose of Truth: Accepting the Possibility of a “Central American Spring”
Central Americans May Be Ready for Their Own Arab Spring The spread of gangs, the U.S. narcotics trade, and rampant corruption are major factors contributing to mass migration and alarmingly high levels of violence. Tens of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans, many of them unaccompanied minors, have arrived in the United States in recent years,…
Only 1% Are Preppers
No one really knows how many preppers exist in the world, but it is safe to say that there are more than three million in the United States alone. Even though this sounds like a huge segment of the population, this is still only slightly more than 1% of the total US populace. So, the…
Military Weapons from the Past: The DP Machine Gun aka “Stalin’s Phonograph”
Since 1928, the battlefields of the world have seen an oddball Soviet-era weapon that proves the truth of the old saying, “Looks aren’t everything.” Its nickname was once “Stalin’s phonograph” — and the staccato tune it plays is the sound of automatic fire. Used by the Russians to gun down both the Finns and the Nazis,…
PMC’s Return to Iraq
Behind the president’s directive to ‘accelerate’ the counter-ISIS campaign came a surge in the number of contractors assisting in the campaign against ISIS. The number of private contractors working for the U.S. Defense Department in Iraq grew eight-fold over the past year, a rate that far outpaces the growing number of American troops training and…