By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on September 6, 2015
Everyone Who Questions Russia’s Story About the 1999 Apartment Bombings Dies
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Tag Archives: FSB
Film Review: Citizenfour (2014) by Laura Poitras
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on February 6, 2015
Produced and directed by Laura Poitras, a Berlin-based, American-born producer and director, who has made numerous films attacking America’s foreign policy, Citizenfour rounds out a trilogy that started in 2006 with My Country, My Country about the U.S. regency in Iraq, and had its last instalment in 2010 with The Oath, a film that apparently follows two al-Qaeda members in Yemen and concludes they’re not such bad chaps.
The target this time for Poitras is the National Security Agency (NSA). Continue reading
Beware of Tyrants Bearing Gifts: Assad and Intelligence on the Islamic State
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on November 2, 2014
An ally against the Islamic State? Not quite.
The United States signals intelligence (SIGINT) apparatus in Syria, which monitors the communications of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has “yield[ed] unexpected intelligence over the Sunni jihadists that has helped guide American military operations in Syria and Iraq,” the Wall Street Journal print edition reported yesterday, based on high-level leaks. Continue reading
Russian Intelligence and the War In Syria
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on October 21, 2014
Abu Omar a-Shishani, while in Georgian military, now as I.S. leader in Syria/Iraq
The Syrian rebellion, on Oct. 5, took over areas of Tel al-Hara, near Nawa, a major town twenty miles north of Deraa City, which is a strategic gateway to the road networks that keep the Assad regime alive in Deraa Province. The videos (1/2/3) showed FSA-branded rebels like Liwa al-Furqan and Jabhat Thuwar as-Suriya (the Syrian Revolutionaries’ Front) in control. Jabhat an-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, had an important presence, but it was not dominant. So this seemed like good news on its own terms.
Two days later the plot thickened when a further video was uploaded to YouTube, showing the rebels touring a captured regime intelligence station in Tel al-Hara: Continue reading
Book Review: The Snowden Operation (2014) by Edward Lucas
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on August 1, 2014
“Snowden is a pawn in a hostile and continuing intelligence and information-warfare operation“
So concludes Edward Lucas in a fascinating and easy-to-read brief look at the greatest intelligence disaster the West has ever experienced. Continue reading
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