Intelligence historian, former intelligence officer. Also live on the borderlands of military history. Former Historian at the International Spy Museum. University educator. I wish I were in Seattle. The cat is Boadicea.
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In the IC, I spent a few years watching (para)military responses to unrest in the USSR and then Russia. Moscow would usually deploy military units from elsewhere to deal with unrest, thinking they'd have fewer inhibitions about cracking heads than local units.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, says he was denied a meeting with career intelligence workers because Laura Loomer objected.
“A Hidden Camera Protest Turned the Tables on China’s Surveillance State” Li Yuan for @nytimes.com
This should be fun. I encourage all to come!
That's be best part!
KASIE HUNT: Over the summer you said, “There’s no vaccine that’s safe and effective”. Do you still believe that? RFK JR: “I never said that.” KASIE HUNT: “Play the clip.” RFK JR (clip): “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.” (March 2024) ht: @cwebbonline.com
IIRC, the US once did something similar with an SR-71 and a big speech by Fidel Castro.
🚨 SAVE THE DATE: OCTOBER 18. Millions of Americans took to the streets in June to drown out Trump’s birthday parade. As Trump’s regime escalates his authoritarian power grab, we’re gathering again on 10/18 for a nationwide day of peaceful protests to say NO KINGS: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i...
I’m pretty sure the US never seized Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in 1898. 🙄
Violating the posse comitatus act is a felony by the way. Hegseth has criminal liability here. Trump doesn't thanks to the Supreme Court. Not like anyone will actually prosecute them anyways.
There’s been a lot of wishful thinking and outright misinformation about the Texas GOP’s new gerrymander. The bottom line: The map may disappoint the GOP, but it won't backfire on them. Our new piece explains why the map is *not* a dummymander.
I speculated last night that Trump might be announcing today that he is going to send the military into Chicago, and his Truth Social account is posting rants about Chicago this morning:
⁉️ Earlier this year we saw Blaise Metreweli selected as the next "C". But how do you appoint an SIS/MI6 Chief? In this Diplomacy & Statecraft article, we use archival material to study the process and the role of officials in picking "C". The article is free to read: 🔗 t.co/PzFDdPcg2i
1965 Cryptanalysis Training Workbook Released by the NSA In the early 1960s, National Security Agency cryptanalyst and cryptanalysis instructor Lambros D. Callimahos coined the term "Stethoscope" to describe a diagnostic computer program used to unravel the internal structure of pre-computer…
More framing like this, please www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/u...
Agree. And Hegseth strikes me as about as feckless as Malenkov in that movie.
The last couple years of Portuguese Prime Minister Salazar's life are a remarkable example of strangeness along these lines.
With the MO GOP moving forward with a new gerrymander, you'll want to check out our complete guide to how *every* blue state (and a few purple ones) can respond. Most, however, face legal obstacles to drawing a new map. They can be overcome, but it often takes years.
Nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are speaking out, saying Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is endangering the health of Americans. abcnews.go.com/Health/forme...
The war that touches us all. www.iiss.org/research-pap...
The document in question is below. It's a report from a human source (or possibly a foreign liaison service). It is not the CIA's considered analysis. Also, it's not about "Argentina," it's about one particular unit. This report could be golden, could be garbage. Is there supporting evidence? 2/2
Per the Daily Mail, "Argentina planned to massacre hundreds of British and American citizens living in the country on the eve of the Falklands War, according to newly discovered CIA documents." Maybe. 1/2
The latest issue of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence is now available, featuring several interesting Open Access articles. Enjoy! www.tandfonline.com/toc/ujic20/3...
Available to pre-order on Amazon
NEW: The standards of the US Telephone Security Group (TSG), to prevent phones from being turned into a listening device: www.electrospaces.net/2025/08/prev...
Dame Stella Rimington said in a video for the International Spy Museum said something to the effect that if he’d worked for her, she’d be forced to resign as head of MI5 after one of his “successes.”
A new and very informative posting by the Sigint Historian, which sets Sigint history in perspective and generally offers reflections for historians. siginthistorian.blogspot.com/2025/08/reco...
I'm investigating Rediffusion Films, the film arm of Rediffusion London, whose first production was Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn (1966). I'm curious about whether they ever made anything else - anybody know? I'm looking at some press cuttings which indicate they wanted to continue if DIWDIM did well...
New addition Journal article: Standards of Admissibility for U.S. Intelligence as Evidence in International Criminal Proceedings by Hawthorne Ripley (published 01-08-2025) https://journals.law.harvard.edu/hrj/wp-content/uploads/sites/83/2025/05/04_HLH_38_1_Ripley167-222.pdf
Really good discussion with historian Roger Launius on the history of NASA
Tensions rise between Gabbard and CIA chief after her disclosure of undercover officer's name, insiders say www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...
DEVELOPING: Advocates are seeking a court order to block the Trump administration’s effort to deport hundreds of unaccompanied minor children to Guatemala. Judge abruptly moved 3 pm hearing up to 12:30 after she was notified that some children “are in the process of being removed" today.
stopicealert.ddns.net/login/?alert...
🧵 Authoritarianism, Democratization, and Coalition Politics. The consensus around here is, more or less, that the United States is currently a consolidating authoritarian regime controlled by a mix of reactionary populists and fascists.
And that gets at a larger point. Competitive authoritarian regimes benefit from reduced social trust — which is why they actively try to destroy it.
The worse news: the bulk of successful cases had a "white knight" — and international power who facilitated the regime transition through some combination of pressure, brokering deals, and carrots. Guess who that white knight usually was?
🧵My God in heaven. Tears as I type. 📢 HOW TO HELP END IT -go to groundavelo.org for resources, maps, actions -I'll share details+insights from @indivisible.org #NoKings #OneMillionRising in this 🧵 Note: Protests have already led Avelo to end services to the W Coast (www.kqed.org/news/1204838...)
Just finished this great book about the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the CDC by @marynmck.bsky.social. Worth a read! #MedSky #IDSky #BookSky
If you're a journalist trying to piece together what the hell just happened in Sana'a, I've been following Houthi politics on a daily basis for a very long time and have a lot to say about who got killed, just sayin'
UPDATE: The firefighter Trump’s ICE goons arrested in Washington was on track for legal status. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Oh, that makes good sense. Thanks! By the way, I love what you do here.
I wish I knew this guy.
Why was there a tradition in such magazines of showing the month of publication but not the year?
Check out my Patreon for a free, long-ish essay on how we are inclined to misinterpret the familiar, with a bonus photo of my cat not enjoying early Elvis. www.patreon.com/posts/137434...
The diaries of the Minnesota school shooter go for over 250 pages. I've spent the last few days reading them. The writing is full of self-hatred, detailed planning, and obsessions with inflicting pain & suffering. From Julie Bosman, me, and Jeff Ernst: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/u...
This is fascinating.
None. It's not a question of compromise with them, it's a question of not insisting they fight with us when their inclination is to fight our common enemy. If they want to fight our enemy, I say let them. That doesn't mean we have to compromise on anything.
Every time your electricity bill goes up for the next 10 years, it can be traced back to this Administration’s actions. They are making solar and wind power illegal to build in the United States. They are artificially restricting supply while demand is going up.
We made common cause with Stalin to defeat Hitler and it was the right thing to do. We made common cause with Mao to defeat the Soviet Union and it was the right thing to do. The same logic applies intra-nationally.
🧵Tips on how to deal with the non-stop influx of bad news from Cindy Otis, who worked for the CIA and is now a writer:
Only way in or out of Takoma Metro Station is by police.
Academia murder book: an apparently normal department til the last 15 pages when during finals students ask why their classes weren't held and the tenured faculty realize they didn't notice the adjunct was murdered a week into the semester. Then the book ends, because they don't really care either.
HAPPENING NOW: Hello from the media room in DC district court, where Judge Jia Cobb is set to hear argument on Lisa Cook's motion for a temporary restraining order to block her removal from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. I'm here for @lawfaremedia.org. Follow along ⬇️🧵
Bob Dylan backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California in ?1986?.
@markstout.bsky.social chapter 5 has an excellent intelligence section from the German perspective definitely worth reading. Fyi
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
1. Modeling data does not a historical argument make. 2. Lefebvre might have written an early classic, but his sources are not the complete 'archive' of Great Fear rumors. 1/n
Amen.
The suit argues: (1) Trump didn't have cause for firing Cook (as required by the Federal Reserve Act); (2) Cook didn't get notice & a hearing (as required by the Federal Reserve Act); & (3) Cook didn't get notice & a hearing (as required by the Due Process Clause).
Monarez is playing her weak hand perfectly, and should be a model for institutional resistance for the next four years: 1. Make them fire you 2. Don’t go along to get along 3. Don’t apologize, have confidence in your own integrity and the importance of your role 4. Always escalate the conflict
We are not bending the knee. My response to AG Bondi and President Trump.
There's bits of one at Hastings. But yes, the Dark Ages is not a useful term, from what I understand from colleagues who work on this stuff.
The funny thing is, the best thing CIA analysts could do to subvert the Trump administration is give them relentlessly cheery analyses about how everything that Trump cares about is going great. They might even be able to get some promotions out of the whole thing.
A wonderful opportunity:
From the archive - The #Soviet #Sixties pod.fo/e/25a032
NEW: Trump claims his takeover of Washington, D.C. has been great for the city's restaurants. Nope. They're suffering. www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-s...
I was hoping that the Greenland madness had abated. A key unanswered question in this piece is who is behind these operations. Are they seld-initiated? Did Trump recruit amateurs to do this a la FDR? Is this a CIA endeavor?
oh shit, a state prosecutor may actually do the thing
Attention scholars of History/Social Studies Education
"But after attorneys general and governors from about two dozen blue states sued in federal court and won an injunction, the balance flipped. Of the five states with the most canceled grants, four are led by Republicans: Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio"
I know I’m behind the times but how can radar detect an undersea drone? Looking for a wake or something? Or did he mean sonar?
HUGE FLIP: Democrat Catelin Drey wins deep-red state Senate seat in Iowa, breaking the GOP's supermajority. Drey won by 11 points in a district Donald Trump carried by 11 points last year. It's another massive overperformance. The Iowa GOP should be very worried for the midterms. Our full writeup:
Oh, so that’s the problem. He doesn’t know what capitalism is.
www.notus.org/trump-white-...
Good news for audiobook fans: @jrogg.bsky.social 's marvelous history of US intel is now available from Audible: www.amazon.com/Spy-State-Hi...
US Air Force spent 7 hours sniffing for nuclear decay today, low over central Baltic Sea. About 5000m NE of Gotland and down to 1500m closer to Kaliningrad. The plane is a highly specialized one.
I'm thrilled and honored to see that my book, Weapons in Space, has been placed on the Chief of the Air Staff's (U.K. Royal Air Force) 2025 reading list. airspacepower.com/wp-content/u...
I have signed the open letter in support of continued independent access to the BBC Written Archive Centre. The BBC WAC is such a brilliant resource with such a helpful staff, and it has been so useful to my research in the past - indeed its materials are integral to my current book project.
Another super article from Huw Dylan and @kloosha.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
My new article on Substack! Part 2 of "11 Lithuanian #KGB Counterintelligence Operations against the West in 1955" Based on my research at Hoover Archives, Stanford University. @socintelhist.bsky.social The link: tinyurl.com/29m9jjxk
"The Federal Prosecutor General announced Monday that Martin D., a former contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, faces charges of acting as an agent for a foreign intelligence service". www.politico.eu/article/germ...
Our article w/Huw Dylan Unveiling Russian Intelligence Failures in the Ukraine Conflict: A Strategic Culture Perspective is out, demonstrating how Russian intelligence’s strategic culture shaped its key failures in 2022. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @kcsi.uk @warstudieskcl.bsky.social
New addition Journal article: How to deceive: a supply-side approach by Ron E. Hassner (published 22-08-2025) https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2025.2546248
New addition Thesis: FRIENDLY SPIES State Responses to Incidents of Potential Intelligence Crisis With Allies - ProQuest by Emily M. Kulenkamp (published 01-08-2025) https://www.proquest.com/openview/7c16d8343945998a14193c31a07e6bd1/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
New addition Book: Japanese Spy Gear & Special Weapons: How Noborito's Scientists and Technicians Served in the Second World War and the Cold War by Stephen C. Mercado (published 04-08-2025) https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Japanese-Spy-Gear-Special-Weapons-Hardback/p/53074
New addition Journal article: The Ottoman Military Intelligence Department and Naval Intelligence, 1914–1918 by Somer Alp Şimşeker, Mustafa Yeni (published 03-07-2025) https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2025.2527479
He’s right. There’s some excellent work on this subject by a number of Carthaginian scholars.
I'm happy to help.
www.cfr.org/article/inte...
@socintelhist.bsky.social
Oh, and there's a very good section about the Reagan/Casey era in Jeff Rogg's also quite readable new book "The Spy and the State" on basically civil-intel relations in the US.
...analytic disputes of the era, too. Other folks will probably have useful suggestions.
...both have useful and very readable sections on the Reagan/Casey years. (I should have tagged @davidpriess.bsky.social!) Bob Gates' first memoir has his particular perspective on things. Those are things that jump out, looking at my book catalog. There is a bunch of literature on various...
Good question. Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars" is excellent though it's a bit of a commitment. Milt Bearden's "The Main Enemy" is a great read for the operators' perspective from that time. David Priess' "The President's Book of Secrets" and Chris Andrews' "For the President's Eyes Only"...
Say what you will about Ronald Reagan, he had better speech writers than Trump and he appreciated good rhetoric in a way that Trump couldn't even begin to comprehend. Reagan remarks to CIA officials on June 23, 1982.
Do it!
The letters are here, in case anyone cares. www.cia.gov/readingroom/...
Two identical letters of March 19, 1984 from CIA director Casey to the intel committee chairs. The one to the HPSCI chair starts "Dr. Mr. Chairman" which is then crossed out by Casey who handwrites "Ed" [Boland], as is common practice. The one to the SSCI chair is straight "Dear Barry" [Goldwater].
“Thank GOD the National Guard is here while I EAT MY PIZZA,” shouts a woman at Red Light on 14th in DC as yet another trio of guardsmen walk by.
Bolton Investigation Linked to Overseas Intelligence www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/u...