A veteran of the National Security Agency remembers a colleague’s son. Chris was responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) support to the Navy’s SEAL Team 5 in Afghanistan, which meant he deployed with them on operations. During one of many operations, on 10 March 2013, the team came under attack from insurgent forces. Source: What...
Category: United States
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Politics of Oil: CITGO Bond Holders Facing a Guaido Haircut
Reuters reports that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has hired Cleary Gottlieb, a Washington law firm skilled in debt negotiations, to help him on the path he hopes will bring him to power. The most immediate task for a potential restructuring is protecting Citgo, a U.S. refiner owned by PDVSA [Venezuela’s state-owned oil company]. The...
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The Power Politics Behind the Blacklisting of Huawei
The rise of surveillance capitalism in the 21st century has been very good for the world’s intelligence agencies, and vice versa. Maybe too good. Google has become an indispensable partner of the National Security Agency. The CIA has “relied exclusively” on Amazon for a $600 million cloud computing system. Israel’s intelligence services have birthed a...
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Iranian Special Forces Have Not Attacked Americans Since the 1990s
In the growing confrontation between the United States and Iran, the Iranian special forces, known as the Qods Force, will play a leading role in defending Iran. [For more on the Qods Force and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, click here.] While the U.S. officials have claimed knowledge of specific and credible threats...
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Inside SEBIN, Venezuela’s Powerful Intelligence Agency
At the heart of the struggle for power in Venezuela is SEBIN, the country’s premier security service. In late April, the United States hoped the defection of SEBIN director general Manuel Christopher Figuera would set up a popular uprising to oust embattled president Nicholas Maduro. That didn’t happen. SEBIN’s role, for better or worse, remains...