Black Ops & Intel

CIA Base in Afghanistan: Day in the Life

It has been almost 14 years since the attacks of 9/11/2001, and during that time, America’s intelligence professionals at the CIA, mostly from the Counterterrorism Center and the Near East Division — though from the other Divisions within the National Clandestine Service, as well — have been on the front lines of the War on […]

Two Counterterrorism Models, One Way Forward

In CIA Director John Brennan’s recent speech and Q&A session at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), as well as in his recent address to agency personnel at CIA headquarters, the head of America’s leading human intelligence agency discussed the way forward for the agency, the grand restructuring of its workforce, and how it operates against the […]

CIA Again Reliant on Liaison for Interrogations

During his recent speech and accompanying question and answer session at the Council on Foreign Relations, CIA Director John Brennan made a seemingly rare public admission regarding the way the agency handles detentions and interrogations of terrorism suspects.  Brennan stated the CIA had overcome the recent termination of its enhanced interrogation program by returning to […]

The Top 4 Things You Need to Know About Intelligence Gathering and Use

Inscribed on the CIA’s original headquarters building in Langley is a passage from the gospel according to St. John: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” This unofficial Agency motto alludes to the truth and clarity that intelligence provides to decision-makers, similar to the “knowledge is power” mantra. But […]

TALOS: Special Operations Powered Armor, or Just Another Boondoggle?

The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) is an attempt to deliver to the individual Special Operations soldier a powered suit which would essentially give him super-human strength, speed, render him bullet and blast proof, and include a suite of sensory equipment (such as thermals, night vision, ect) which would enhance his ability to identify, […]

The Fish and the Sea: Community and the Terrorist Safe Haven

The Chinese leader and father of the Chinese Revolution, Mao ZeDong, when speaking on irregular warfare said, “The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea.” Recent events in France have come to reinforce that such an attack can come at any time, and that the attackers can and will use […]

Opinion: The U.S. Needs a New Hostage Rescue Policy

Months ago, the American public found out that the Obama administration ordered a full review of our current hostage rescue policy. We’re still waiting on the findings. I have never agreed with our hostage rescue policy; whether that’s due to its impracticality or my own callousness and low sympathy is debatable. To change the policy we must first clearly […]

The Future of U.S. Special Operations in Yemen

Yemen has been one of those battlefields in the War on Terror that we never really committed many troops for, but the small presence we do have on the ground there is imperative to keeping our boots on the throat of our enemy—similar to other operations in the Philippines, Somalia, Pakistan, and North Africa. U.S. […]

Iranian Qods Force Senior Officer Killed by ISIS, Western Media Sleeps

On December 27, 2014, BG Hamid Taghavi (aka Taqavi) of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force (QF) Ramazan Corps was allegedly shot by an ISIS sniper in Samarra, Iraq. His funeral was held in Tehran on December 29, 2014. This was the most senior Iranian officer killed in Iraq since the Iran/Iraq war in the […]