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Russians Work Their Quads: Boot Camp for Killer Drones

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Russian soldiers have been working their quads – the drone version. We snagged this vid from their Ministry of Defence, showing a quadcopter threading its way through a makeshift obstacle course in the woods. The setup looks crude, almost laughably so, with planks nailed into frames, …

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Soldier of Fortune Was Forged in the Fires of Vietnam

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Fifty years of Soldier of Fortune brings one question repeatedly to my inbox: Where did this all begin?  The answer is not a mystery; it’s history. Soldier of Fortune grew from Vietnam, and its legacy still drives us today. To understand Soldier of Fortune, you have to …

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Unstable Bombs Tick Silently Across Colombia

Why I’m more focused on the bombs that didn’t explode COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating At least 19 people are dead in Colombia, and more than 70 are wounded, after dissident guerrillas staged twin attacks on Thursday. A Black Hawk helicopter was brought down with a drone. A truck bomb ripped …

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Who Reads Soldier of Fortune? 50 Years on, We Open the Files

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating As Soldier of Fortune marks its 50th year, I often am asked, Who reads your magazine? It’s a fair question; one that is rooted in the publication’s history.  Created in 1975, Soldier of Fortune sprang up from the aftermath of Vietnam. It began as a critical …

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Manhattan Shooting Spree Proves What We Already Know: Gun Laws Don’t Stop Criminals

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Another day, another tragedy involving a firearm — this time in New York, where a shooter opened fire in a state that boasts some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Once again, the laws that are couched as meaning to “protect” innocent people did …

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Is the US Headed to Civil War? Here’s How to Tell

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating My inbox is overflowing. In the wake of current events, some of my correspondents fear that the U.S. will implode. One reader, “Freaked Out,” writes: “I saw the story about you in The New Yorker magazine, and you talked about riots and civil war. Are we …

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No Kings, No Credit: Lenin’s Old Playbook Gets a Reboot, Without the Byline

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating I’m told that Vladimir Lenin has been spotted racing through American streets with fire in his eyes, trying to make it to the revolution – but they started without him. Poor Vlad. He dragged himself out of the mausoleum, dodged Teslas and taco trucks, only to …

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Built in Silence, Delivered in Fire: Israel’s ‘Rising Lion’ Will be Studied for Years to Come

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating It was designed in the shadows and delivered in fire. Operation Rising Lion is more than a military strike – it’s also a case study in elite-level warfighting, a stunning demonstration of what happens when clandestine missions, surgical airpower, and special operations converge with precision and …

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Same Spy, Different Day: The Recurring Shock of Chinese Espionage

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating The gatekeepers in the U.S. security world are suffering from a dangerous case of collective amnesia when it comes to China. Witness the shocked undertones surrounding reports on two recent cases of Chinese nationals being charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States. The …

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The ‘Doomsday Radio’ is Alive – With Russian Mind Games

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Something strange crackled through the shortwave radio bands coming out of Russia last week. The long-dormant station UVB-76  –  known to old intelligence hands as the “Doomsday Radio” – buzzed to life on June 4, and began broadcasting again. The transmission was cryptic. The voice …

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