Tag Archives: Featured

The rifle is billed as a domestic weapon, but building the production capability required Belarus to look beyond its borders, sources say. by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU – When Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko visited a weapons plant in the Minsk region over the summer, he was shown a rifle presented …

by John Gartner As I sat looking out the port side window of the Dakota, I could see below me the vast expanse of Lake Cahora Bassa dam. The grey skeletal branches of long-drowned trees dotted the shoreline and seemed, in my reverie, to be reaching imploringly skyward. The surface …

U.S. Marines put field-expedient charges to work at a demolition range during exercise BALTOPS 26. by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU — The steel beam lay twisted in the mud outside Skrunda, Latvia, its center torn open by an expedient cratering charge. Moments earlier, it had served as a target during a …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating The work has been called the most dangerous form of journalism. Amid my daily influx of emails, text messages, and phone calls, I frequently am hit up by people who want to go downrange under my name. They approach me with variants on the following requests. …

From a mark of cowardice in World War I to a sniper’s calling card in Vietnam, the white feather crossed generations and battlefields to become a symbol of defiance. by Jose Campos A single feather, plucked from a bird and handed to a recipient, once carried enough weight to end …

by Susan Katz Keating For decades, war correspondents earned the right to carry a PRESS credential into dangerous places. Now outsiders, operatives, and opportunists are seeking the same protection without earning it, because in conflict zones a press card can open doors, lower rifles, and get you out of a …

From the helmets of the 101st Airborne in Normandy to a psychological weapon and morale booster in Vietnam, one playing card became a military legend. by Jose Campos The body lay in the jungle on the losing side of a firefight between American and Viet Cong fighters. On the dead …

Editor’s note: Longtime CIA covert operations officer James Parker Jr. often talked to me about his days in Southeast Asia, including the secret war in Laos. He told stories of another case officer and former Green Beret, George Washington Bacon III, who became a mercenary in Angola. Here is an …

by “Sol Prendido” One of the most influential capos in Mexico’s history met a tragic end – and so did his doctors. One of the most powerful drug lords in Mexico was Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was born in Navolato, Sinaloa, in 1956. El Señor de los Cielos (Lord of …

The first CIA officer killed in the line of duty rode for six months across deserts and mountains while escaping Communist China. by Stephen Caldwell Douglas Mackiernan rode at the front of the caravan, pushing his horse across the frozen Tibetan plateau. The animals were thin, the men exhausted, and …