Dispatches

by Susan Katz Keating Did a Russian assassination team inflict the mysterious Havana Syndrome on American targets, or has an innocent unit been framed, as Moscow would have us believe? Here is one Red flag to consider. It comes in the form of a decades-long Soviet offensive that the Kremlin …

ANALYSIS by Susan Katz Keating A Virginia man was arrested in connection with pipe bombs planted in Washington, D.C., the FBI confirmed. The devices – set outside the Republican and Democratic national party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021 – have haunted investigators for nearly five years. Even with Brian Cole …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating Something strange crackled through the shortwave radio bands coming out of Russia this summer. 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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …