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July 4 Terror Panic Based on Report that Said Don't Panic: Read It Here
No one who was watching television news last week missed the Independence Day threat alert from the FBI and homeland security: ISIS was coming; it was our hallowed holiday; it was the one-year...
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Drone of the Day: ScanEagle
Rent a drone. Things became so bad in Afghanistan and Iraq—last time that is, before the surge and before the sausage factory could churn out enough official drones—that the military started renting...
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American Kids, Too Weak for War, Cost Taxpayers $1.7 Billion A Year
Some bracing facts for Monday: Only one-third of America’s youth meet the minimum qualifications to even join the military and once the recruits are enlisted, another one-third of them wash out before...
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Watch The Manchurian Candidate With A Military Brainwashing Expert
We’re screening The Manchurian Candidate (the good one) tomorrow night at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn as part of our It’s A Conspiracy series. Joining us to talk after the film is none other than...
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Army Plans to Cut 57,000 Positions by 2018
The Army announced last week that budget cuts would necessitate the reduction of the regular army from 490,000 to 450,000 soldiers by the end of fiscal year 2018. An additional 17,000 civilian...
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U.S. Military Considers Allowing Transgender People to Die on Its Behalf
The Pentagon is in the final stages of ending a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, according to senior officials who spoke with the Associated Press. An announcement is expected...
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Drone of the Day: The Drone We Might Use If Iran Is Lying
This is CICADA. Half science project and half special access program of the highest classification, CICADA represents a new class of “swarm” drones and unmanned capabilities that are unlike anything...
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America Used to Give Out Weird Participation Awards for Nuclear Tests
Remember when you were a kid and you got a “participation award” for just showing up to your soccer games? Well, the US government had a similar certificate that it’d hand out. As you can imagine, it...
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Drone of the Day: Phantom Eye
Phantom Eye (or something like it) will someday be the bloated centerpiece of defending the United States (and its allies) from Russian or Chinese nuclear attack. Carrying what’s called a directed...
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How My Grandfather Helped Nixon Visit China
On this day in 1971, President Richard Nixon, to the complete surprise of the American public, announced that he would be visiting communist China in 1972. It was an abrupt, about-face departure from a...
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Israeli Commandos Assassinated A Syrian General At His Own Party
Seven years ago, an Israeli Special Forces team near Tartus, Syria’s second largest city and a popular vacation spot, somehow managed to get near the house of a Syrian general while he was hosting a...
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Drone of the Day: Fire Scout
Just because something works, we don’t necessarily need it. Such is the case with Fire Scout, a Navy unmanned helicopter that operates from small ships, though it can fly 115 miles or so from its...
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How to Defeat ISIS with Twitter Trolls
With all the handwringing over how ISIS is “winning” on social media, recruiting young people using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, one policy wonk thinks we should fight back. He’s got disturbingly...
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ISIS Didn't Actually Tweet a "Warning" About the Chattanooga Shooting
This afternoon, an apparent ISIS supporter tweeted the above image along with the text “O Americans Dogs soon YOU Will see wonders #Chattanooga #USA #ISIS,” and some in the right-wing media reported...
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Drone of the Day: Orion
A flight of 80 hours and almost three minutes. More than three days. That’s the world record the Orion drone set last December, more than doubling the previous record set by a Global Hawk in 2001. It’s...
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In Bernie's Defense (Corner)
Now that candidate Bernie Sanders is drawing crowds in the tens of thousands, it’s time to recognize that what he says will have an influence in the 2016 presidential campaign. On defense and national...
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At Least 115 Killed in Iraq in Devastating ISIS Car Bombing
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a car bombing at a market in Khan Bani Saad, in Iraq’s Diyala province, that killed at least 115 adults and children on Friday, Al Jazeera reports. The...
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LA Freeway Looks Post-Apocalyptic After Drones Delay Firefighters
Dozens of charred, abandoned cars made for a surreal landscape after a massive wildfire swept across a major Southern California freeway yesterday afternoon. Early this morning officials confirmed that...
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Drone of the Day: Pointer
Little heralded or known, in the actual revolution that brought small drones into virtually every combat unit of all four military services, Pointer was a pioneer. Developed first for the Marine Corps...
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Drone of the Day: Puma
Who even knew that Puma was an acronym—Pointer Upgrade Mission Ability— or that it has become the standard small drone of special operations forces? It provides capabilities never before available in...
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Drone of the Day: Shadow
If one drone could be a tank, it would be the Shadow. A hardy and known king of the battleskies, the Shadow is one of the few combat drones that demands its own unit to operate, and it’s assigned as...
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Drone of the Day: Bat AKA Sand Dragon, formerly known as Killer Bee
All rounded edges with a futuristic shape and look, the Northrop Grumman Bat drone looks like something out of the UFO crowd’s wet dream. Read more...
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I Ate Hot Dogs From An R/C Oscar Mayer Hot Dog Drone And It Was Amazing
It’s National Hot Dog Day, which is our most truly American holiday. Plenty of nations celebrate independence, presidents, and arbors... but how many celebrate encased meat? I enjoyed the day by eating...
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Drone of the Day: Blackjack
The Blackjack (RQ-21A) was deployed last year. For the Navy and Marine Corps, it fulfills a requirement for a small tactical unmanned aircraft system (STUAS) to follow-on to the ScanEagle . And it is...
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My Departure from Gawker
Since my letter to friends is now up on Poynter I might as well share it with my readers. More to come on the state of national security reporting and a proper good bye in the coming days.Read more...
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