You’ve heard of Blackwater, the private military company, that the Bush administration deployed in Iraq . Erik Prince, the founder of the notorious, since renamed firm, has tried to persuade President Trump to privatize the war in Afghanistan by hiring his new PMC to wage war on the Taliban. The same phenomenon can be seen...
Author: Jefferson Morley (Jefferson Morley)
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Who Is Spying on Citizen Lab, the Cybersecurity Watchdog?
Citizen Lab, based out of the Munk School at the University of Toronto, has for years played a leading role in exposing state-backed hackers operating in places as far afield as Tibet , Ethiopia and Syria . Lately, CItizen has drawn attention for its repeated exposés of an Israeli surveillance software vendor called the NSO Group, a firm whose wares have...
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‘Potentially Dangerous Situation’: Congress Must Revisit National Emergencies Act
The National Emergencies Act is a little- known law that’s been getting a lot of attention. Passed in 1976, the law empowers the president to declare a “National Emergency,” which gives him or her statutory authority to transfer surplus weapons, deploy troops for disaster response, and the like. The law is so often invoked–an average...
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Washington Post’s Remarkable Story on the Kennedy and King Assassination Letter
One national security veteran told me it is the most remarkable story he has seen in the mainstream media in the past 50 years. It appeared in The Washington Post online edition on Friday, headlined Kennedy, King, Malcolm X relatives and scholars seek new assassination probes. Written by Tom Jackman, the story reported on the open letter...
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MI6 on YouTube: James Bond Need Not Apply
This ad (or advert as they say in the U.K.) attempts to put a human face on British intelligence. It starts ominously, a man of color and threatening music. It trolls the James Bond vision of intelligence work (“It’s not about finding the button on your ejector seat”), in favor of kinder gentler stuff. “It’s...