By Hammerhead The world is becoming louder and “noisier” than ever before. This year seems like one of the noisiest ever simply because it is an election year, and that by default means you are going to have a whole lot of people talking but a majority of them not really saying anything worth remembering….
Cold War Files: Some Obscure Cold War History (In Comics)
The World’s Highest War … in Comics ‘Siachen: The Cold War’ depicts a pointless conflict In 1984, India and Pakistan went to war over the Siachen Glacier. A 2003 ceasefire halted most of the fighting, but troops from both sides are still facing off and losing more soldiers every year to the climate, altitude and…
Military History: “Stalingrad on the Yangtze”, The Battle of Shanghai 1937
Today Shanghai is a hub of international trade and culture and one of the world’s great cities. But in 1937, it was a battlefield. Imperial Japanese troops fought the Chinese Nationalist army in the seaside metropolis in one of history’s most terrible battles. Westerners watched from their neighborhoods as two ancient rivals fought a new…
Cold War and Espionage Files: The Last Casualty of the Cold War
Cold War Memories: The Last Casualty In March of ’85 I had a chance to go hang out in Copenhagen for a week with some friends. Buffoonery was the only thing on the agenda and my travel partner and I were masters of it. It had been months since either of us had been…
Modern Crime: The Case of the Gucci Heels and 66 Pounds of Cocaine
A flight attendant ditched her designer heels and fled the Los Angeles International Airport on Friday night, leaving behind two bags stuffed with 66 pounds of cocaine and many questions about her apparent role in a large-scale drug smuggling operation. The flight attendant, who has not been publicly identified, was still on the lam as…
Military Weapons from the Past: The British Sten Mk. VI(S) Sub-Machine Gun
The Royal Small Arms Factory built the first suppressed Sten submachine gun following a request from the Special Operations Executive — Britain’s World War II commando headquarters — for a weapon for clandestine missions demanding lots of firepower. Early experiments with suppressing the Thompson submachine gun — the weapon British commandos preferred earlier in the…
Military History: Battleground Dublin, Remembering the O’Connell Street Landmarks of 1916
“To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the Irish building supply company Chadwick’s is offering MilitaryHistoryNow.com this infographic exploring some of the O’Connell Street landmarks that were damaged and destroyed during the battle.” FOR MANY, Dublin’s famous O’Connell Street is considered ‘ground-zero’ for the Easter Rising of 1916. At the start of the five-day insurrection, which ran…
Why Have Domestic Assassinations Disappeared?
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘assassinate’ as a transient verb meaning,“to murder (a usually prominent person) by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons.” The high-water mark of the 1960’s, demonstrated the frequency of domestic assassination attempts. However, not since theattempted assassination of President Regan in 1981 have we experienced an attempt on U.S. soil (that’s…
Military Defense News: Increase, Don’t Decrease Marine Lethality
On February 2, the Senate Armed Services Committee heard conflicting testimonyfrom the Army and Marines about integrating women into the infantry. The Marine Corps had opposed the change, drawing the ire of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. So he took gender integration a giant step farther, ordering the Marines toabolish their separate male and female boot…
Crusader Corner: No Perfect Defense
With all of the “Noise” surrounding the Brussels Terror Attack, here is one interview with a Brit Spook that offers some useful intel and information. -SF The Cipher Brief: First Paris, then San Bernardino, then Brussels. How widespread are Islamic State networks in Europe, and can we expect these kind of attacks to continue? Quite…