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Articles by Mark Stout
How the CIA and MI6 Learned the Hard Way that Covert Action Is Hard
Seldom do we get as detailed an account of a covert action as we do in this compelling new book on CIA and MI6 operations against communist Albania during the early years of the Cold War. It is not a pretty picture. Throughout the book, author Stephen Long more than justifies his claim that “the Albania operation was a bitter and wasteful encounter for all the parties involved.” The story is fascinating to read in much the same way that it is hard to look away from a car wreck.
U.S. Intelligence Agencies Have Not Aged Well
Jeffrey Rogg’s new book addresses American intelligence history from the founding of the Republic to present times. Despite its vast sweep, “The Spy and the State” is not an unmanageable tome because Rogg examines that history through a particular lens, that of civil-intelligence relations, an understudied analog to civil-military relations.
Business Investment in Solar and Battery Storage
Commercial and industrial electrical rates are rising, and this trend is expected to accelerate due to the massive energy demands from new data centers supporting the AI industry. For example, the Texas electrical grid is projected to need to double its capacity by 2030 to meet this new demand. This significant capital investment in grid infrastructure will likely be funded by existing ratepayers, as large tech companies often negotiate special rates and tax abatements.
“Hard work:” Symphonic Band prepares for the Spring Concert
The N.C. Central University Symphonic Band is preparing for their annual spring concert. It will take place on April 3 at 6:00 p.m. in the Event Hall in NCCU’s New Student Center. The concert is free and open to the public. Under the direction of Jovan Wilson, NCCU professor and band director, this ensemble has been rehearsing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays since January. When the band didn’t rehearse together, students practiced individually, in duos, or in trios.
Chatter: World War I and Intelligence in American Memory, with Mark Stout
Published by The Lawfare Institute in Cooperation With World War I was a seminal event for American national security and foreign policy, as the United States deployed nearly two million soldiers and sailors to Europe and engaged in the most intense overseas combat in its history up to that point. Yet the development of modern American intelligence just before and during the war, and even the magnitude of the war itself, have been largely forgotten by the US public.
U.S. Bank National Association v. Truficient Energy Solutions LLC
Plaintiff: U.S. Bank National Association doing business as US Bank Equipment Finance Defendant: Truficient Energy Solutions LLC Case Number: 3:2023cv02187 Filed: October 3, 2023 Court: US District Court for the Northern District of Texas Presiding Judge: Ed Kinkeade Nature of Suit: Contract: Negotiable Instrument Cause of Action: 12 U.S.C. ยง 1725 Collection under Contract Guaranty Jury Demanded By: None RSS Track this Docket This docket was last retrieved on October 3, 2023.
Kulp Minerals LLC v. Apache Corporation
Kulp Minerals LLC v. Apache Corporation Plaintiff: Kulp Minerals LLC Defendant: Apache Corporation Case Number: 2:2023cv00408 Filed: May 10, 2023 Court: US District Court for the District of New Mexico Presiding Judge: Damian L Martinez Referring Judge: Kevin R Sweazea Nature of Suit: Contract: Other Cause of Action: 28 U.S.C. § 1441 Petition For Removal--Other Contract Jury Demanded By: None RSS Track this Docket Docket Report This docket was last retrieved on May 10, 2023.
Urban Delivery Solutions Initiative Impact Report
Emissions produced by MHDVs need to be a priority for Canada’s climate ambitions as they account for approximately 35% of national transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, the largest of any sub-sector. Goals and regulations are coming in to require more electric vehicles, and the Urban Delivery Solutions Initiative is working to support businesses and fleet operators who will be affected.
Bad Spy, Bad - An American Narrative
Karel Koecher was a horrible choice to become an intelligence officer for any self-respecting spy service. Born in 1934, he grew up in Czechoslovakia and was always in some kind of minor trouble with the authorities. Disgruntled at the shackles placed on him by a repressive one-party state, he reasoned that he would have the greatest amount of personal freedom if he wormed his way into the Czechoslovak security service, the StB. Koecher did in fact land a job there.
Comments - Bad Spy, Bad - by Mark Stout - SpyTalk
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Bad Spy, Bad
Share Karel Koecher was a horrible choice to become an intelligence officer for any self-respecting spy service. Born in 1934, he grew up in Czechoslovakia and was always in some kind of minor trouble with the authorities. Disgruntled at the shackles placed on him by a repressive one-party state, he reasoned that he would have the greatest amount of personal freedom if he wormed his way into the Czechoslovak security service, the StB. Koecher did in fact land a job there.
Inside the Hunt for Russia’s ‘Fourth Man’ Within the CIA
By Mark Stout In the 1950s, the British intelligence community and the British press were riveted on the subject of espionage. Two diplomats, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, had defected to Moscow and it was clear that they had spied for the Soviets from within the heart of Britain’s national security establishment. But was there a “Third Man?” Suspicion soon centered on Kim Philby, the former MI6 liaison officer to the CIA and confidant of the agency’s top mole hunter, James Angleton.
Another Russian Mole at CIA?
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Intelligence and culture: an introduction
ABSTRACT This special issue presents a breadth of scholarly work on the relationship between intelligence and culture. There are several cultural pathways to approach intelligence – the culture of intelligence, being the internal culture of intelligence bodies; intelligence and culture, being how the intelligence community works outwardly with cultures; and intelligence in culture, considering how intelligence is portrayed outside of its own community.
World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence
Description Praise Table of Contents Ask an American intelligence officer to tell you when the country started doing modern intelligence and you will probably hear something about the Office of Strategic Services in World War II or the National Security Act of 1947 and the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency. What you almost certainly will not hear is anything about World War I.
Urban Delivery Solutions Initiative Impact Report
In 2021, the Urban Delivery Solutions Initiative made meaningful contributions to support an efficient and low-carbon urban freight system in Canadian cities. To help businesses and fleet operators test and scale up short-haul, return-to-base ZEVs, including electric cargo bicycles, in Canadian cities, the Pembina Institute and UDSI partners developed tools and resources, and conducted research to inform public policies and best practices.
Reducing Truck Emissions in Montreal
Publication - Nov. 23, 2021 - By Andréanne Brazeau, Annick Di Lalla Jalon, Mark Stout The movement of goods in Montreal and the province of Quebec is a growing source of urban congestion, road safety concerns, and carbon emissions — fuelled by the growth of e-commerce and doorstep deliveries. Nevertheless, the movement of freight in cities and its congestion and climate-change implications have not received significant policy attention until recently.
Long-haul trucking fleets take emission reductions into their own hands
Freight trucks play a critical role in our society by ensuring the smooth and efficient movement of goods.
Intelligence and the Biden Administration
January 20, 2021 After four…strange years, what can we expect from the Biden administration on the intelligence front? From key appointments to the strategic context, from insurrection to counter-intelligence, our guests have you covered. Carmen Medina, David Priess, and Mark Stout join Ryan for this episode
Can United States intelligence community analysts telework?
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the shutdown of much of daily life. Most Americans are subject to ‘shelter in place’ orders and many are teleworking. Cancelled school terms, social engagements, sporting events, election rallies and postponed primaries will take their toll on the American social fabric, economy, and political processes. There will be real impact to U.S. intelligence collection operations, particularly clandestine operations, as well.
20 Clever, Easy Tricks to Shave Years Off Your Home
Curate your art collection Nothing says, “We’ve been here forever,” like walls crowded with pictures and art. “We recommend hanging art on only one side of a hallway wall,” says Moreno. “It makes the hallway look wider.” In a room, always leave one wall blank, so the eye has somewhere to rest. “You don’t need to fill every inch,” she says.
The National Security Case for Immigration: How Immigrants and Minorities Have Boosted U.S. Hard Power
President Donald Trump’s recent comments at the CPAC convention were unsurprisingly lurid but reflect widely held fears about the dangers that immigrants pose to life and limb in America. The president told a parable about a snake who asks to be taken into a woman’s home and then bites her.
The Adventures of Intel in Trumpland - War on the Rocks
The Adventures of Intel in Trumpland Weeks before Donald Trump took office, Ryan convened a group of professionals from in and around the intelligence community to talk about the incoming president’s approach to intel (“He’s Just Not That Into You: Trump, Intel, and the American Presidency“). In today’s episode, Ryan brought the same group of people together (minus one). Tune in to hear Carmen Medina, Mark Stout, and Mark Zaid chat (over drinks, of course) about how the president has done so far.
Suicide is not a war-winning strategy - War on the Rocks
World War I is like cricket. The British find it mesmerizing and the Americans find it frightfully dull. Furthermore, in the minds of Americans, cricket and World War I led to much more exciting, dare we say, better things: baseball and World War II, respectively. Well, Americans are absolutely correct in their views about cricket. Let’s just put that out there. However, they are flat wrong about WWI.
Mr. Bin Laden, Are We to the Caliphate Yet? - War on the Rocks
The members of the Al Qaeda-inspired jihadist movement exist along a continuum of commitment to instrumental thought. At one end are warriors who see participation in violent jihad as an expression of identity and faith. For these expressive warriors, the question of victory is remote. Theirs is a micro-level war oriented around issues such as maintaining solidarity with their friends, demonstrating bravery, and getting martyred.
Kicking Butt While Not at War - War on the Rocks
Between two great battles in Belgium—Waterloo and Mons—Britain enjoyed what Karl Polanyi called, “a phenomenon unheard of in the annals of Western civilization, namely a hundred years’ peace – 1815-1914.” Except that there was the Crimean War in which Britain took part from 1854 until 1856. And the Boer War (1899-1902). Oh, and of course the Anglo-Zulu War (1879).
Clemency for Edward Snowden and Philip Agee? - War on the Rocks
In the spirit of Jonathan Swift, I have a modest proposal. Now that right-thinking people such as the New York Times, the Guardian and Esquire have agreed that Edward Snowden should receive clemency, I am obliged to agree. I only humbly propose that Philip Agee should, nay must, receive comparable treatment. Some readers may not remember Philip Agee, a former CIA case officer, who died in Cuba in 2008 at the age of 72.
The Leaks That Hurt Us All
Like most news junkies in the United States, I was mesmerized yesterday by the leaked transcripts of President Donald Trump phone conversations with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (no, we won’t link to them here). However, I had no business reading those transcripts and unless you are a U.S. government official with the appropriate clearance, neither did you. They should never have been leaked in the first place.
Leave the Bureau of Consular Affairs in the State Department
The question of who gets a visa to visit the United States has been a security issue at least since the country was seized by the fear of infiltration by German spies during World War I. In this era of terrorism and Trump, it has come to be one of the foremost security issues of our day. For a century now, the State Department has been at the center of the process, in coordination with various U.S. intelligence services.
The Big Breach: Donald Trump and the Return of Ideological Espionage
A controversial celebrity and major leaks of national security information have been on the American mind recently. No, I do not refer to Edward Snowden, but to Donald Trump. Not long ago, some people in media and national security circles worked themselves into a lather over the fact that Donald Trump will — assuming that tradition holds — soon be offered classified intelligence briefings as the nominee of the Republican party.
(W)Archives: Is That a Submarine or Just the Whiskey Talking? - War on the Rocks
Last weekend, news broke that the Swedish navy was conducting a search for a Russian submarine inside Swedish waters. Unnamed sources told Swedish newspapers that the search was launched after the interception—presumably by the Swedish signals intelligence service, the FRA—of a Russian language distress call and apparent responses from Kaliningrad, Russia, home to a Russian naval base. The Swedish government also released a photograph that showed something in the water, but it was not clear what.
(W)Archives: The Battle of Okinawa and the Obscenity of War - War on the Rocks
On April 1, 1945 the U.S. Tenth Army, consisting of an Army corps and a corps of Marines, started coming ashore on Okinawa after a lengthy period of naval bombardment of the island and its 130,000 Japanese defenders. Operation ICEBERG was underway. This was the last great island battle of the Pacific War. The Americans wanted air fields on Okinawa from which they could attack the main islands of Japan. Of course, the defenders fought tenaciously to stop them. Theirs was a losing effort.
World War I and the birth of American intelligence culture
Historians and practitioners generally date the origins of modern American intelligence to the Office of Strategic Services (1942–1945) and the National Security Act of 1947 which created the CIA and the U.S. Intelligence Community. These claims are CIA-centric and focus on interagency structures. However, modern American intelligence actually has deeper roots of a cultural nature. An observable American intelligence culture was in place by the end of World War I.
He's Just Not That Into You: Trump, Intel & the American Presidency
One thing is clear about President-elect Donald Trump: He is skeptical of the U.S. intelligence community. With the aid of a bottle of bourbon, War on the Rocks assembled a top-notch group of experts to talk about what Trump means for the intelligence community.
The Danger of Inadvertent War in the Next Four Years
In 1914, Austria-Hungary launched what it thought would be a short punitive war against Serbia. The next thing it knew, it was involved in a war against Russia, Italy, France, Britain, and then the United States. Four years later, Austria-Hungary ceased to exist. If the Austro-Hungarian government had known where its Balkan intervention would lead, it would never have launched it. But it didn’t know. World War I was an inadvertent war.
Were Hillary Clinton’s Emails Classified? Where You Stand Depends on Where You Sit
The debate about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server is generating a great deal of heat, but not much light. Let’s start off by stipulating that having an email server in your home for the purposes of doing your job is a monumentally bad idea if you are a government official, even if you never put a single classified fact on it. Any intelligence service would love to have access to the private emails of the foreign minister of a target country.
When the U.S. Government Took on the Sinister Santa Claus Threat
Do you always feel a little Grinchy at Christmas? Have you always suspected that Santa Claus was probably up to no good? Then we have the historical document for you. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI) to promote an understanding at home and abroad of American policies and of the American war effort. An interesting part of the OWI was the Rumor Project that tracked rumors, jokes, and anecdotes that were circulating in the country.
12 Other Clashes and Close Calls with the Russians
The shootdown yesterday of a Russian aircraft by a Turkish F-16 is a worrisome development, but historically speaking, incidents involving the United States or NATO countries and Soviet or Russian forces have been fairly common. These include ground, naval, and air incidents. Indeed, there was a long tradition of the Soviet Union shooting at aircraft and people who entered their territory or even come close to it. Even in the post-Soviet era there have been similar incidents with Russian forces.
The Vatican's Cloak-and-Dagger War Against Hitler
In histories of the Second World War, the Vatican has not fared well. Pope Pius XII has been condemned as “Hitler’s Pope ” and the Church castigated for not doing enough to avert war and save the victims of the Third Reich. Enter Mark Riebling’s new book, Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler.
(W)Archives: Knowledge Wins
One of the most famous American posters of the World War I era depicts a soldier climbing up stairs made of books toward a bright future, all under the bold slogan “Knowledge Wins.” That is a slogan that we here at War on the Rocks firmly believe in. We know that it is impossible for any country to have a sound foreign and defense policy or to properly conduct its military operations without a solid basis of knowledge and insight.
Cybersecurity over Sazeracs
We got together a great panel of experts to talk all things cybersecurity, with a little bit of ClintonEmail.com and comedy troupes mixed in. Listen here to Jason Healey of the Atlantic Council, Shane Harris of The Daily Beast, and John Amble and Mark Stout, both of War on the Rocks, as they talk about cyber over drinks. (And yes, only Jason had a Sazerac, but alliteration won out over absolute accuracy.
Advice for France in its "War on Terror" - War on the Rocks
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. As the French add manpower to the security and intelligence services and enact new legislation to support counterterrorism, they should be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that all those who worked against terrorism before 7 January somehow failed in their duty.
(W)Archives: Junk Science and Russian National Security
During his marathon annual press conference in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sees Western perfidy wherever he looks, mentioned further evidence of the West’s ill intentions toward Russia: “We have heard it even from high-level officials, that it is unfair that the whole of Siberia with its immense resources belongs to Russia in its entirety.” He was referring to an alleged statement made by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Wisconsin DOT fails to make the case for I-94 expansion
The state Department of Transportation has failed to make a compelling case for widening I-94 between the Marquette and Zoo Interchanges. Much of the department's faulty rationale for expansion was, unfortunately, echoed in this paper's recent editorial in favor of an at-grade expansion of I-94 to four lanes in each direction ("Our View: Wisconsin DOT should reject double-deck option for I-94").
(W)Archives: “Drop One on Stalin”
Senior American diplomat Victoria Nuland was embarrassed earlier this year when someone (by which I mean the Russians) publicly released a recording of a phone call between her and U.S. Ambassador Ukraine George Pyatt in which she said “F— the EU.” Not long after, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was caught on tape by someone (by which I mean the Russians) saying “screw it, we should take up arms and kill the goddamned katsaps”—a pejorative term for Russians—“along with their...
ISIS: This Too Shall Pass
The spectacular advances by ISIS forces in Iraq in recent days have been a catastrophe for Iraq and a major setback for American interests but they are not the end of the world. ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) now holds substantial swathes of territory and may have something like $2 billion in cash, a fleet of armored vehicles and probably more small arms than it knows what to do with.
(W)Archives: Manning Up
Seventy years ago today, American, British, and Canadian forces under the overall command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed on the beaches of Normandy, beginning the liberation of France from the Nazis. Though they came at a horrible cost, the landings were a success. June 6th, 1944, will live forever as one of the greatest triumphs in western military history. But it might have gone very differently.
Keep Fighting: Why the Counterinsurgency Debate Must Go On
Counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine in general and the military’s FM 3-24 in particular have been the subject of extensive and often vitriolic debate in recent years. Now the debate is finally subsiding, but not in a satisfactory way. It must not be allowed to die yet. The broad cycles of the counterinsurgency debate have followed a dialectical process as so many other historical and political debates do.
Understand our wars and enemies? Nah...
The always worthwhile Docex Blog has brought to my attention an impending missed opportunity for historians, and members of the strategic studies and national security fields. I refer to the imminent fate of the Conflict Records Research Center (CRRC). This organization, housed at the National Defense University in Washington, will soon go out of business unless Congress acts—and that hasn’t been happening much recently.
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