How do you learn to fly a kamikaze drone? In Russia, one answer lies inside a secretive training program run by Octagon, a drone school linked to remnants of the Wagner Group. Though Wagner technically no longer exists, Octagon claimed to continue running combat drone courses in Russia, even after Wagner …
Read More »The FBI Failed to Examine Evidence in Clinton Email Investigation
by Susan Katz Keating The FBI failed to fully investigate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and her mishandling of highly classified information while serving as Secretary of State, according to a newly declassified government report. The report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General was released on Monday …
Read More »I Went Looking for Smugglers on the Border – Here’s What I Found
by Heath Hansen It’s not often that the absence of a story makes my day, but today that’s exactly what happened. I had a free afternoon and decided to head Southeast, into the San Diego Mountains, looking for any indications of illegal entry, or drug smuggling, into the United States. …
Read More »Marines Play Hide-and-Shoot in the Philippines
by Jose Campos PALAWAN, Philippines -In the sweltering heat of Palawan, the defenders went to work, one palm frond at a time. Members of the U.S. Marine Corps and Philippine Marine Corps went to ground, to dig and disguise fighting positions ahead of a live-fire counter-landing drill at Quezon. The …
Read More »A Bomb in the Briefcase: When Iran Planned to Launch a Terror Attack in Paris
The plot involved members of an Iranian sleeper cell, authorities said. Book review by Tom Squitieri There are some who believe nations of the world have been unfair to Iran, that the nation has been maligned, miscast, and put in a corner for economic and political reasons of others. Reading …
Read More »‘Mercenaries, Gunslingers, and Outlaws’: Staring Down Death From Above
by Robert M. Kurtz Excerpted from Mercenaries, Gunslingers, and Outlaws: Two Years as a Security Contractor in Iraq. Whoever set up the last IED that directly targeted my vehicle showed a little more ingenuity than usual. We were somewhere just outside of Bagdad; all the convoys seem to run together …
Read More »When an Ex-KGB Man Helped Stage a Daring Heist in Soviet Moscow
by Nikolay Shevchenko It was late evening when a cash truck pulled up in front of a fancy department store on Mozhayskoye Highway in Moscow. Leaving two partners behind in the truck, the third guard stepped over the store’s threshold to collect the cash that had piled up there throughout …
Read More »Blood on the Highway: The Cartel War to Seize Power in Sinaloa
by Jose Campos A growing alliance of criminal groups has emerged to wrest control from Los Chapitos. The firefight began on the main federal highway in Mexico, and it didn’t let up for hours. Long after dark, the sound of gunfire echoed through Mocorito in Sinaloa, turning the stretch of …
Read More »Mysterious ‘Red Mercury’ Was the Shadow World’s Answer to a Mad Scientist’s Dream
by Susan Katz Keating The promise of Red Mercury infiltrated the underworld of gullible would-be tyrants, despots, and autocrats, sparking imaginations and a frenzy of deal-making. But what was this mysterious substance? It was the ultimate black market sensation. A substance so powerful it could transform even a lone terrorist …
Read More »Operation Nimrod: When the British SAS Rescued Hostages From Iranian Embassy Siege
by Robert McAlister Editor’s Note: Six armed men on April 30, 1980 stormed the Iranian embassy in London. The men were Iranian Arab terrorists campaigning for sovereignty of Khuzestan Province. They took hostages, and issued demands. Enter the British Special Air Service (SAS) and Operation Nimrod. British crisis expert Robert …
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