A CIA outfit nicknamed the Marco Polos (started by Billy Waugh) got eyes on Bin Laden in Pakistan in 2005, confirmed by CTC initially, but later refuted. I sat on this story for about a decade but here it is, with help from @seandnaylor.bsky.social thehighside.substack.com/p/hunting-bi...

In 2005 a CIA team in a remote valley in Pakistan got eyes on Bin Laden, confirmed above 90% certainty by the analysts...but was it really him? Controversial within the CIA and unreported until now. thehighside.substack.com/p/hunting-bi...

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This is a great read

Lots of talk today about the "Zero Units" in Afghanistan. @jackmurphyrgr.bsky.social and I discussed them in our article on @thehighside.bsky.social about JSOC's Omega teams. Zeroed Out: How JSOC’s Omega teams enabled the CIA’s Afghan militias: thehighside.substack.com/p/zeroed-out...

Veterans of the war in Afghanistan, particularly those who fought in Kunar and Nuristan, will want to read this one. Years after leaving these valleys, an important story is told about Bin Laden’s post-9/11 life Highly recommended piece from @jackmurphyrgr.bsky.social & @seandnaylor.bsky.social

Our latest story by @seandnaylor.bsky.social and @jackmurphyrgr.bsky.social about how a chance sighting in a Pakistani bazaar prompted some in the CIA to believe that for the first time in years they'd picked up bin Laden's trail. And then someone told the head of the ISI...

Driving through a remote Pakistani village near "the roof of the world" in 2005, two CIA men were convinced they saw bin Laden and had pictures to prove it. @jackmurphyrgr.bsky.social and I tell you what happened next. And yes, we have the pics. Only on @thehighside.bsky.social

Once CIA saw itself as above politics. But Ratcliffe is a political animal. CIA trained the shooter to kill and evacuated him and tens of thousands of others who served the US in Afghanistan. They will now be collectively punished by the POTUS who signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban.

"a single person of this demographic may have committed a crime, therefore we must punish the entire demographic" is a policy response you may recognize from fascist governments dedicated to ethnic cleansing elsewhere.

What are we doing here folks?

“Biden Asylum Cases” is NYT’s framing for a story pegged to a man who got asylum 3 months into the Trump administration www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/u...

I found this terribly sad. A young woman with her life ahead of her, and she becomes one of the last American victims of the Long War.

“But other observers have heavily criticized the program, in part due to numerous war crimes allegations aimed at the militias… ‘They did more harm than good,’ said an academic who worked closely with coalition forces in the field in Afghanistan”

More on the Omega units here from @jackmurphyrgr.bsky.social and me on @thehighside.bsky.social: thehighside.substack.com/p/zeroed-out...

Yeah. I received a copy of his NSU-03 ID badge this morning from one of his former advisors—there’s no doubt about it.

New article tomorrow early AM on @thehighside.bsky.social with @seandnaylor.bsky.social. It is a Bin Laden story I've had to sit on for about ten years. Spicy content, and we've got the pics.

“It’s hard to find anyone outside Mr. Trump’s inner circle of solicitous advisers who considers the killings legal. The administration has notably declined to publicly disclose the memo that purports to advance a legal rationale for the strikes.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/o...

No idea why an Afghan refugee shot National Guard soldiers within walking distance of the White House, but this new USCIS directive was revealed on Monday. Worth noting.

Cannot overstate how, from my perch as a national-security reporter, this would have been an earth-shattering scandal in a prior era.

Grand opening, grand closing. X quietly disabled a new feature that showed which country an account was posting from when it revealed that lots of popular right wing MAGA accounts were being run from foreign countries like India and Nigeria.

All this shows is that the US has no idea what it’s doing and it’s being played by Moscow. Complete humiliation.

Whether it's Barack Obama wearing a tan suit to a press conference or Donald Trump calling for the execution of Democrats, both presidents engaged in norm-busting behavior.

Got an interview for you tonight with retired Major General Pete Gallagher who served as a signals officers in both Army SMUs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt8i...

Less than 24hrs ago we were told “he was controversial. Things happen” about another political assassination. Dude still has his job from what I’ve read.

To negotiate a trade deal with the President of the United States, the Swiss government arrived with a "special Rolex desktop clock" and "a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar" www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...

5 headlines tonight on Charlotte Observer’s homepage: “Manolo's Bakery closes to protect customers” “Church members flee as federal agents arrive” “Super G executive describes agents dragging out teen employee” “Border Patrol questions people at Walmart” “Border Patrol sweep sparks fear”

Let this be a lesson to MAGA-style goons: Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million over law enforcement raid on a small-town newspaper apnews.com/article/kans...

I have, for fucking years, heard about this but with the same issue. Every time I ask whistleblowers to provide me with actual facts they go silent.

The foreign election interference that no one wants to talk about.

You spend your adult life fighting against a dictator with opulent, garish tastes. You finally prevail and walk the insides of the dictator’s abandoned palaces: gaudy, obscene, covered in gold bought with the people’s money. And then the next thing you know…

It still blows my mind that the lawless government paramilitary stormtroopers from every 1990's conspiracy theory have arrived and all the don't tread on me 1776 people just pulled a fade.

Latest Army general to be jammed up over alleged wokeness is Pat Work, who led the Ranger company that fast-roped into the Korengal to recover the bodies during Operation Red Wings and was the 82nd brigade commander who dug ISIS out of Mosul

This is quite a story: the US employed every strongarm tactic available, including personal threats against delegates and their families, to derail an agreement on reducing shipping emissions that was almost finalized. on.ft.com/47lq3dZ

"the documents were so restricted that top Justice Department security officials reacted with surprise to the code names: They had never heard of them before. Some involved special access programs that required the president or a cabinet member to grant approval to view."

Remember, they're currently arguing that Biden's pardons are illegitimate because he signed the actual forms with an autopen. Trump, meanwhile, repeatedly insists he knows nothing at all about one of his very controversial pardons. Never heard of the guy! Sorta seems like a problem.

Defense Department officials do not know who they have killed in the military strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, according to Democratic lawmakers.

So this seems illegal as fuck...

I wrote this essay for @justsecurity.org after the first lawless US maritime strike on September 2nd. Unfortunately, it is once again relevant—with the now 14th lawless strike. www.justsecurity.org/120568/carib...

New: Videos show ICE/CBP agents are scanning peoples' faces on the street to verify citizenship. ICE has tool to instantly look up unprecedented number of databases with just a photo “I’m an American citizen so leave me alone” “Alright, we just got to verify that” www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

today in DC i saw National Guard troops picking up litter and standing around aimlessly 🫡

WILD story. A DHS officer shot at a man he thought was fleeing (a judge dismissed all charges). Bullets went into the driver's side window, through his jacket collar, and into the empty passenger seat. An MPD cop on the scene says he was ordered not to put it in the police report.

No space for Green Beans Coffee, Rip Its or Pringles?!