...which we shed light on here: They were not only “advised” by CIA paramilitaries, but directly paid and formally controlled by them, even after they were ostensibly integrated into the Afghan NDS after a disastrous shootout between a CTPT and the Kandahar police in 2009.

Since 2022, Matthieu Aikins and I have been investigating the CIA’s Afghan surrogate commandos, known in Afg as the Zero Units but officially called the CTPTs by the CIA. These units’ existence has been publicly known since 2010, but their relationship with the CIA is still an official secret...

Trump, July 19: "All three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED. It would take years to bring them back into service." Witkoff, Sunday: "They're probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material."

“Rarely in modern times has the United States prepared to conduct a major act of war with so little explanation and so little public debate.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/u...

Breaking News: President Trump told reporters that he was considering a limited military strike on Iran to pressure it into a deal amid negotiations on its nuclear program.

You see this in Iraq, Afg, and every other civil war. Thanks to @pjmatt.bsky.social for pointing out the examples in “The Hardest Place” of the US military and CIA being unwittingly weaponized in timber business disputes (Korengal) and to settle old grudges from the 1980s jihad (Waygal):

This is what a large proportion of the violence in internal conflicts looks like: a state relying on regular people for intelligence, regular people weaponizing the state within their own communities, and security forces not knowing/caring what’s motivating the sources whose information they act on.

WATCHDOG REPORT: Giving U.S. military commanders clear, specific procedures to follow in the critical hours after service members unexpectedly go missing could improve the odds of saving their lives.

Our dataset, while only identifying a small fraction of the US weaponry that has been deployed in Gaza, provides new insight into a number of deadly strikes where US weapons likely killed civilians. Read the investigation by @easybakeovensz.bsky.social here: www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its escort ships deployed to the Caribbean will be sent to the Middle East and are not expected to return to their home ports until late April or early May. The ship’s crew was informed of the decision on Thursday, U.S. officials said.

US military averaged just under one air strike per day in Somalia in the first month of 2026. The highest or second-highest monthly Somalia strike numbers ever, rivaled only by Dec 2025. 2025, the highest year for Somalia strikes yet, had 140+ strikes (10-15 most months).

“Authorities traced one of the .50-caliber guns used in the assault to a store in Texas. The owner, investigators found, had sold nearly 500 guns that ended up in the hands of the C.D.N., including a .50-caliber machine gun and at least six .50-caliber rifles.”

So uh Ring just up and said they've got a huge centralized private surveillance network they can leverage all at once huh

In praise of librarians

MK-84 2,000-pound bomb with a JDAM kit hitting a building in Gaza after an IDF notice. Bellingcat recently asked the IDF about the lack of evacuation distances in public evacuation notices in Gaza, which are included in notices in Lebanon, so interesting to see a 100m distance in the notice here.

Our updated tracker of the Trump administration boat strikes is here. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The latest U.S. strike on a suspected drug smuggling boat has killed two people in the Pacific, this one authorized by the Marine general who took command of military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean earlier in the day. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/u...

REPORT: National Guard members deployed to Washington, D.C., have broken up fights, administered opioid overdose medication and helped deliver a baby, but they have not had a measurable impact on crime reduction. Read more: www.stripes.com/theaters/us/... #Flashes

“So to say there are terrorists — when they actually worked alongside our military and intelligence community to kill terrorists — doesn’t make any sense,” Mr. McCaul said. via www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...

Add the CIA World Factbook to the long and growing list of disappearing government datasets: www.cia.gov/stories/stor...

Kenyan forces, in partnership with the United States, broke ground this week on a $71 million upgrade project at a strategic airfield that plays a key role in U.S. Africa Command's Somalia operations.

For the 40th anniversary, I interviewed six Black journalists who covered it in some capacity. BTW, the PPD dropped the bømb from a PA state helicopter. www.phillytrib.com/news/local_n...

Had no idea how *small* the RQ-170 (stealthy batwing drone used over places like Iran and North Korea, and during JSOC’s Abbottabad and Caracas raids) is. Crazy to see it with a Reaper and pickup trucks in the background for size comparison.

Images of the immigration crackdowns in Minneapolis and across the U.S. have been compared to those from the country’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The helmets, camouflage and tactical gear all look straight from the battlefield. nyti.ms/4a9SH22

Former Marine infantry NCO T.M. Gibbons Neff breaks down the remarkable amount of expensive stuff DHS agents in Minneapolis have on their rifles and what it is supposed to be for

Breaking News: The number of Russian and Ukrainian troops killed, wounded or missing during nearly four years of war has reached nearly two million, a study says.

“There are two types of people to whom these messages will quickly look familiar,” Oren Segal, a vice president for counterextremism at the Anti-Defamation League, said of the panoply of postings, “white supremacists, and those who study white supremacists.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved the deportation of five student activists last year after receiving memos describing their participation in pro-Palestinian protests and their writings about the war in Gaza, according to government documents unsealed by a federal judge on Thursday.

I know people are looking for digital security guides and checklists in light of the FBI seizing devices of a Washington Post reporter. Here’s a guide I wrote for @gijn.org in 2024, which remains up to date and relevant. gijn.org/resource/int...

Newly unsealed evidence makes it even clearer that Rubio and Noem knew they were targeting students based solely on their political speech and that they knew this policy was unconstitutional. They just didn’t care. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...

The House Armed Services Committee has sent two bipartisan requests to the Pentagon seeking answers about its plan for Stars and Stripes and how it will ensure the outlet's congressionally mandated independence amid efforts to "refocus" its content. (from @svetashko.bsky.social)

Detail I learned today about the Caracas raid: more than 20 of the Delta Force operators earned their Combat Infantryman Badges on the raid (as in, they did not previously have them). An illustration of how GWOT combat experience has aged out of the force, even JSOC units.

The conduct of ICE agents during the government's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis evokes the attacks by police officers in Birmingham, Alabama, on civil rights protesters in 1963, experts said following a federal judge's ruling on the agency's behavior.

"You asked us to go. We went": Danish soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting America's wars. Now Trump's America is threatening to go to war against Denmark. Danes feel betrayed and bewildered. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/w...

Top U.S. Catholic clerics said that the U.S.'s “moral role in confronting evil around the world” is in question for the first time in decades. nyti.ms/4bDP7iK

I love the people who get on social media and respond to a post with “You shouldn’t have said ABC, instead you should have said XYZ.” Like, no my dude. My account is where I write what I want to write, your account is where you write what you want to write.

Now the actual military has to dress like it’s not the military cuz federal law enforcement agencies dress too much like the military

The Coast Guard has always done far more vessel boardings at sea than the Navy, but the post-9/11 creation of the MSRTs gave the service the ability to use insertion tactics primarily used by special operation forces to take down ships more safely and quickly www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/u...

🚨🚨You can now schedule an appointment to browse at our Rare Book Department in Hyattsville!🚨🚨 book.squareup.com/appointments...

EOD job security x ♾️

Last week, DOD announced the nomination of Air Force JAG Col. Christine Piper for brigadier general. Now that announcement has been pulled from the DOD website.

In case you missed… Pentagon prosecutors have put forth their latest proposed trial start date for four prisoners at Guantánamo Bay who are acccused of plotting or conspiring in the 9/11 attacks: Jan. 11, 2027.

REPORT: The Coast Guard is years behind on its annual reporting requirements to Congress regarding sexual misconduct in the ranks and could do more to improve the effectiveness of reforms implemented in the wake of an exposed cover-up, according to two reports released by a government watchdog.

“Some of the messages I’ve been hearing from Iran is a sense of betrayal by President Trump... They thought they were going out there with him behind their backs.” My latest for @rollingstone.com on America's lack of good options in Iran. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

BREAKING | The Pentagon has suggested it would take over editorial content decision making for Stars and Stripes in a statement from the Defense Department’s top spokesman.

Denmark announced on Wednesday that it is increasing “military presence in and around Greenland in the coming period, involving aircraft, ships, and soldiers.” President Trump has repeatedly criticized the Danes for not doing enough to protect Greenland.

BREAKING: Hundreds of sensitive U.S. records obtained by WIRED undercut the Trump administration’s claims portraying Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua as a unified terrorist force invading the country. Intelligence agencies spent much of 2025 unsure TdA even functioned as an organization on U.S. soil.