Security

Buzzed by the Bear… On Sept. 23, 2024, a U.S. Air Force F-16 operating under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command, was conducting a routine intercept of a Russian Tu-95 aircraft in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), when a Russian Su-35 air superiority fighter craft conducted …

by Heath Hansen Tim Foley is the founder and leader of Arizona Border Recon (AZBR), a private group that patrols the U.S. Southern border. Members gather intelligence about activity there, and share their findings with federal and local officials. Most of what they encounter involves human trafficking and drug smuggling. …

The fact that a high-profile lone wolf attack may not be based on any clear motive doesn’t worry some terrorist groups. They will still claim the perpetrator as one of their own, to gain maximum publicity. by Jeffrey D. Simon For many Americans, the events of September 11, 2001, were the first …

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 …

by Elon Perry Recruiting an informant is a long and complex process. There is one phenomenon that worries Hamas almost as much as the Israeli military in Gaza: the thousands of informants who risk their lives for Israel. Without their work, none of the operations to kill senior Hamas officials …

by Elon Perry The Israeli commandos wrote their farewell letters to be delivered only in the event they were killed on the high-stakes operation. Then they boarded their flights to Uganda, for a rescue raid that stunned the world. Told by a former IDF commando. Sunday morning, 27 June 1976. …

by Susan Katz Keating Skeptics quickly raised questions about the vehicle. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dmitry wrote. “There’s a lithium battery in there, and if it gets depressurized, it will start a fire that can’t be put out.” Ramzan Kadyrov, who leads Russia’s Chechnya region, took to …

The Wagner group continues to run training centers in Russia, despite the deaths of the organization’s founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin in an August plane crash. One school, Octagon, trains operators to use kamikaze drones. A correspondent from RFE/RL signed up for the course. Here is his report. His name …

by Susan Katz Keating Thirteen years ago today was a horrific event in the annals of Naval Special Warfare. On Aug 6, 2011, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, was shot down in Afghanistan. In the process, 30 American military servicemen and a U.S. military working dog were …

by Boris Egorov At the end of 1980, on the outskirts of Moscow, a number of Soviet policemen picked an argument with a KGB major. They had no idea what dire consequences the encounter would have for them and the entire Soviet police force.  On the morning of December 27, …