COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating The case of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is a grim lesson in what happens when the security safety net has holes. Long before the smoke cleared on Boylston Street in April 2013, long before the manhunt in Watertown gripped the nation, warnings had come in. They arrived not …
Read More »Rhodesian Bush War: The Battle of Hill 31
What began as a routine track near the Mozambique border turned into a sustained engagement on broken ground where visibility collapsed and distance closed quickly. by Talor Sanders Dawn broke over the Honde Valley under a gray sky, mist clinging to the ridges along the Mozambique border. For the Rhodesian …
Read More »The Bomb That Couldn’t Be Disarmed: The Harvey’s Casino Extortion Plot
by Jose Campos It started under cover of darkness. In the early hours of an August morning in 1980, three men in white jumpsuits rolled a steel box into Harvey’s Resort Hotel and Casino in Stateline, Nevada. They told casino staff it was an IBM copy machine. It wasn’t. Inside …
Read More »Crossings in Wartime: The Shadow Pipeline Out of Ukraine
Smuggling networks led by fixers like Oleg move men through checkpoints, vehicles, and terrain, turning border enforcement into a market for escape. by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU – Oleg did not ask many questions when the calls came in. He listened, noted what mattered, and moved on to the next name …
Read More »Alone in the Sahara, SAS Corporal Jack Sillito Survived the Impossible
In 1942, Jack Sillito found himself alone in the Libyan desert, more than 100 miles from camp, with a flask of water that soon ran dry. What he did next became the standard every SAS soldier after him was measured against. by Gatimu Juma He raised the rock above his …
Read More »The Sands of Agadez: Where a Woman Knows More Than She Should About Gun Lords and Mercenaries
by Carl Hancocks For the past four years, the city of Agadez has been what could barely pass as home for a woman without a name. Nigerian, she fends for herself as a sex-worker, but that was not how she arrived in this place. Her story is that of a …
Read More »A Nuclear Blast Would Bring Hell on Earth: Blinding Light, Searing Heat, and Intense Winds
The degree of hazard depends on the type of weapon, height of the burst, distance from the detonation, hardness of the target, and explosive yield of the weapon. by Susan Katz Keating Russian President Vladimir Putin again raised the specter of nuclear war when he announced that a conventional attack …
Read More »The Trench Broom: 12-Gauge Shotguns in the U.S. Military
by Austin Lee From the muddy trenches of World War I to the urban battlegrounds of modern conflicts, the 12-gauge combat shotgun has earned a fearsome reputation as America’s close-quarters and door-breaching weapon. Winchester M97 and M12 trench guns, with accessories. Chambered for the 2.75-inch shell loaded with nine pellets …
Read More »Scam at 17,000 Feet: The Helicopter Rescue Racket Inside Nepal
Investigators say false emergencies in the Himalayas had little to do with survival. by Gatimu Juma The radio call came in around noon from the approach to Everest Base Camp in Nepal. The tour guide spoke in urgent, desperate tones. A trekker was down. He was a British man in …
Read More »The Guns of 1916: Ireland’s Easter Rising Was Fought With Smuggled Rifles, Stolen Revolvers, and Improvised Weapons
by Susan Katz Keating The Asgard came in low, riding heavier than it should have for a vessel of its size. Below deck, rifles were stacked four feet high. The ship sailed into Dublin Bay, through one of the most consequential gun-running lanes in modern military history. THE ARMS SITUATION …
Read More »
Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers

