Co-founder of The High Side. Author of Relentless Strike - The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command: amzn.to/1QNSYb7. RTs are not endorsements.
Washington, DC
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Burglaries, surveillance, state-actor-level phone hacking. Havana Syndrome victims returned home, only to be targeted in a campaign of intimidation that the FBI and CIA seemed to have little interest in solving. New from @JackMurphyRGR and me: thehighside.substack.com/p/l…
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U.S. killed a top al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, reports say news.yahoo.com/us-killed-a-t… via @Yahoo
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Asked directly whether he was relieving Crozier "because he cc'd too many people," Navy Sec. Modly answered: "because to me that demonstrated extremely poor judgement in the middle of a crisis, because what it's done, it's created a firestorm." So in other words, yes.
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Pentagon Sends Team to Niger to Find Out What Happened nbcnews.com/news/africa/pent…
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How a secretive special ops unit of killer drones decimated ISIS news.yahoo.com/how-a-secreti… via @YahooNews
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.@nytimes reporting that JSOC has deployed Delta and SEAL Team 6 elements to Cyprus "in case they are needed to evacuate American citizens from the region." If you were a paying subscriber to thehighside.substack.com, you'd have known that five days ago, courtesy of @JackMurphyRGR
NEW -- 5 U.S. Special Operations troops killed in helicopter crash in eastern Mediterranean Sea. Nighttime crash under investigation, Pentagon says
nytimes.com/2023/11/12/us/po…
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McMaster trashes Trump%27s Afghan peace plan news.yahoo.com/mc-master-tra… via @YahooNews
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The Navy SEALs allegedly left a man behind in Afghanistan. Did they also try to block his Medal of Honor? newsweek.com/navy-seals-seal…
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This is an amazing reporting job by @JackMurphyRGR and @zachsdorfman:
'Conspiracy is hard': Inside the Trump administration's secret plan to kill Qassem Soleimani news.yahoo.com/conspiracy-is… via @YahooNews
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Former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden just now: "If there were a second Trump administration, intelligence would be dead."
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When VPOTUS Bush visited Sudan in March '85, his photo ops promoted U.S. aid. But the real action was behind closed doors, where, according to CIA’s chief of station, Bush “operated like a case officer” to convince Pres. Nimeiri to let CIA evacuate hundreds of Jewish refugees.1/2
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Pentagon secretly struck back against Iranian cyber spies targeting U.S. ships news.yahoo.com/pentagon-secr… via @YahooNews
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With the news that more W. House staffers, incl. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have tested positive, I'm re-upping this story I wrote with @hunterw 'Safer than your local grocery store': How the Pentagon kept the virus at bay as the White House struggled... news.yahoo.com/safer-than-yo…
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I should add: Ludwig Faistenhammer is still with us and turned 100 last month, when I interviewed him for our series.
Colonel Ludwig Faistenhammer (right): a German immigrant who returned to fight the Wehrmacht as a tank commander in the Battle of the Bulge and served in Korea before going Special Forces. Led the combat jump at Bu Prang in Vietnam and commanded 10th Group in a divided Germany.
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Her Title: Cryptologic Technician. Her Occupation: Warrior. nyti.ms/2UPXYU1
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Colonel Ludwig Faistenhammer (right): a German immigrant who returned to fight the Wehrmacht as a tank commander in the Battle of the Bulge and served in Korea before going Special Forces. Led the combat jump at Bu Prang in Vietnam and commanded 10th Group in a divided Germany.
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How did the unit allow the guy to take command a few months after he received a general officer memorandum of reprimand?
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THREAD: Willie Merkerson was inducted last week into the Ranger Hall of Fame. He’s already in the halls of fame (or equivalent) for Special Forces, CIA Ground Branch and Army Officer Candidate School. To find out why, read IN THE KILL ZONE: The Life and Times of Willie Merkerson.
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Now I’ve watched it a dozen times. It’s not even a foul. Exactly the sort of bad/biased decision that VAR was supposed to eradicate. More proof that the big decisions will disproportionately go to the so-called “big six”
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Got off a transatlantic flight this evening and was a bit surprised at the number of new subscriber emails I’d received from Substack. This explains it. Anyway, more to follow in the next few weeks, but I’m very excited to be working with @JackMurphyRGR.
This is a bit premature but before Twitter collapses, if you would like to keep up with the reporting of Sean Naylor and I you will be able to find us at The High Side which is a national security news outlet we are developing. Subscribe!
thehighside.substack.com/p/w…
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Former counterterrorism chief: Trump defeat may prompt right-wing terror attacks news.yahoo.com/former-counte… via @YahooNews
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I missed this yesterday. Former head of Joint Special Operations Command and U.S. Special Operations Command weighs in on Defense Secretary Esper's use of the phrase "battle space" to describe American neighborhoods in which protests are occurring:
The “battle space” of America??? Not what America needs to hear...ever, unless we are invaded by an adversary or experience a constitutional failure...ie a Civil War...
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In the wake of #Trump and Hegseth speaking out against women in combat, the Army published, and then quietly removed, an online article about women in Delta Force, written by one of those women. We saved it for you. The latest by @JackMurphyRGR and me. thehighside.substack.com/p/d…
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Thank you! Playoffs make a mockery of the principle of league football, which is that the number of points you have at the end of the season determines your success. Now the 3rd best team in the league risks missing promotion due to injury, a poor ref decision or a loss of form.
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Jim was an absolute rock star. A Vietnam vet who made Capitol Hill Books my absolute favorite place to hang out on the Hill for the entire time that he owned it (I moved away in 2018). He could affect a curmudgeonly air but his heart of gold was never far from the surface. RIP.
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As a reporter whose first big interview was with Neil Peart (in 1983), this @strombo conversation with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson made my week. Brilliant stuff and well worth your time if you're a @rushtheband fan or just interested in music.
This one’s real special.
@rushtheband’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson join me at my house for an exclusive in person sit down conversation on the eve of the release of their 40th anniversary edition of Moving Pictures.
Friday 10am ET / 7am PT
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Contrary to the article, the SOF Truths weren't "designed" by SOCOM, they were written in '87 by the late ret. Army Col. John Collins while he was at the Congressional Research Service. For 21 years SOCOM only adopted the first four, only accepting the fifth under ADM Eric Olson.
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SEAL Team 6 and a Man Left for Dead: A Grainy Picture of Valor nyti.ms/2bO908m
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I'm really looking forward to this. (FYI, You have to click on the picture of the much-better-looking @andymilburn8 to get to the link.)
Join us at 8PM EST on Saturday w/ @SeanDNaylor Relentless Strike: The unauthorized history of JSOC | Sean Naylor (part ... piped.video/RzJVKiB06j0 via @TheTeamHousePod
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For several weeks, @JackMurphyRGR was collecting string on what U.S. special operations were doing in response to the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's response. We finally published that article in The High Side yesterday afternoon. Click on the link in @mirkel's tweet below:
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EXCLUSIVE: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.
therecord.media/hegseth-orde…
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I'm half really looking forward to this, and half terrified of the infinite number of ways I could screw up. Either way, it should be interesting viewing.
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I enjoy your feed but if you're going to reproduce material from my book "Not A Good Day To Die" I wish you'd at least give me credit.
2002: Before everything was turned in to conventional army the US- SF units with assistance of Langley defeated Taliban & Al Qaeda in short period of time. Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership ran away and were hiding in FATA’s tribal belt areas and Iran.
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Neil was my first big interview. In '83, in the bowels of Wembley Arena after a sold-out show. I was 16, working for @hotpress. Scores of people were waiting to talk to him, the band was throwing a big party later that night, but he patiently answered all my q's. A true gent. RIP
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Great post. Another highlight worth mentioning was his full-length-of-the-field run (in mid-July, in the 89th minute) to provide the assist for Hernandez to score the key promotion goal away at Swansea in 2020.
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In all seriousness, the book came out more than 16 years ago, so in case it passed you by then (or you were too young to care): amazon.com/Not-Good-Day-Die-…
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Glad to finally get The High Side off the ground with @JackMurphyRGR! For your weekend reading pleasure:
It's happening folks. Sean and I have published our first article on The High Side detailing Biden's secret visit to Ukraine and the relationship between the Secret Service and JSOC. Many more stories are currently percolating.
thehighside.substack.com/p/b…
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Do away w/ single-entity MLS structure, so fans don't feel like puppets on a string. THEN pro/rel, real transfer mkt.
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Looking for something in-depth to read this weekend? Try the 7-part (and counting!) "In The Kill Zone" series by me and @JackMurphyRGR about the life and times of SF & CIA legend Willie Merkerson. It's got everything: a DSC that many think should be a MoH; a combat jump that 1/4
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Hard to believe it's been 20 years this week since Army Times photographer @wazinny and I were embedded for Operation Anaconda, at the time the largest battle of the Afghan war, and the Army's highest-altitude battle. 8 U.S. KIA. I wrote a book about it: amazon.com/Not-Good-Day-Die-…
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Proud to work on this with the amazing @zachsdorfman and @Isikoff. A lot of hard work.
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Farke has to go. That ponderous, plodding football is a crime when you’ve got players of the skill and pace of Summerville, James, Gnonto, Rutter, Gray and Joseph at your disposal. Mark Jackson’s just won the treble in Australia. I’d be willing to give him a chance.
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Exclusive: The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. A Yahoo News investigation. news.yahoo.com/exclusive-the… via @YahooNews
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She also seemed to suggest that in his role as secdef he would ensure that the COVID-19 vaccine would be "delivered equitably to all," which seems like an odd responsibility for a defense secretary.
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The Soviets wanted to infiltrate the Reagan camp. So, the CIA recruited a businessman to bait them. news.yahoo.com/russians-targ… via @YahooNews
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One of Trump’s ambassadors beat and “kidnapped” a woman as part of the Watergate cover-up: reports newsweek.com/donald-trump-wa…
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How did two operators from Canada’s JTF-2 special mission unit end up fighting on a CIA covert action mission in Afghanistan? It’s part of Jack Murphy’s and my inside look at the JSOC Omega program. Read it on The High Side. #CANSOF
thehighside.substack.com/p/z…
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You forgot Scott Carson (4 England caps) and Charlie Crew (1 Wales cap), plus (as others have said) Charlie Cresswell, Jonny Howson and Leif Davis, among others.
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Targets in Cuba, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Korea; exercises run by mysterious men in black; Tudor watches as an E&E plan – the crazy story of Special Forces’ Green Light program, better known as the “backpack nukes.” By @JackMurphyRGR: thehighside.substack.com/p/r…
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Favorite memory? I interviewed Neil Peart in the bowels of Wembley Arena after one of the London shows. I was 16 and it was my first big interview. He was an absolute class act and gave me lots of time. Brilliant show as well.
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@JackMurphyRGR's fascinating tick-tock of how the chances of a possible JSOC hostage rescue mission in Gaza waxed and waned.
Gaza Hostage Crisis Led To "Unprecedented" Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 Deployment open.substack.com/pub/thehig…
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Great shout-out for @JackMurphyRGR's and my story in @TheHighSideNews about the CIA's elite all-Afghan humint unit that tried to recruit one of Daniel Pearl's killers: "a fascinating report ... You'll want to read to the end." The story is here: thehighside.substack.com/p/t…
New in SpyWeek: Trump's Not So Civil War with Obama's CIA, FBI and DoJ, by @SpyTalker spytalk.co/p/new-in-spyweek-…
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In a First, Army Selects Pilot to Command Delta Force open.substack.com/pub/thehig…
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Turkish Officials Say Khashoggi Was Killed on Order of Saudi Leadership nyti.ms/2C6xur1
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That’s on Farke. Wrong subs and very poor tactics. Blackburn happy to give corner after corner away because they know we hardly ever score from set pieces (which is on the coaching staff).
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Why isn't Gaetano Berardi on your list for Leeds? He's an international defender who's been injured all season, supposed to return to fitness in February.
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Another fascinating must-read from @zachsdorfman
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I really hope Farke doesn't regret switching around the best central defensive partnership in the division. That seems like it's asking for trouble. I'd rather have started Firpo at left back, played Byram at right back and moved Archie into midfield.
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The Army gave Willie Merkerson 2 years to get a 4-yr degree at Hofstra in his early 30s. He got TWO degrees while playing on the varsity football (he was a letterman) and track and field teams. Find out more in Part 3 of @JackMurphyRGR's and my series:thehighside.substack.com/p/i…
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Trump's baseless election attacks undermining U.S. image abroad news.yahoo.com/trumps-basele… via @YahooNews
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Pakistan's intelligence service may end up the real winner in the Afghan peace deal, at least for... news.yahoo.com/pakistans-int… via @Yahoo
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I deleted a tweet with some incredible footage of civilians taking out armored vehicles with Molotov cocktails because several sources claimed it was from 2014. My apologies.
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Exclusive: Russia carried out a 'stunning' breach of FBI communications system, escalating the sp... news.yahoo.com/exclusive-rus… via @Yahoo
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