The Origins of Coffee
Silencio Calm Chaos Medium Roast Coffee. National Coffee Day is observed on September 29th in many countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. For many of us though, every…
Aaron Bank: Father of the Green Berets
Aaron Bank standing alongside German defectors recruited for Operation Iron Cross in WW2. Bank is at left in the first rank Photo: US Army. De Oppresso Liber” — Motto of…
OSS Dirty Tricks Department: America’s WW2 Q Branch
OSS Gallery at the CIA Museum. Photo: Central Intelligence Agency. Difficulties existed only to be surmounted, and there was no setback that a little thought and determination could not overcome.”…
The Legacy of Antonin Scalia and the Intelligence Community
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (2013). Photo: US Supreme Court Collection. Antonin Scalia, the late Supreme Court justice who died in 2016, was known for his originalist interpretation of the Constitution…
Eugene Fodor: Travel Writer and Spy
Monument “Thank you America” to remember freedom from Nazis by US Army in May 1945. This monument takes place at important Pilsner crossing “U Práce”. Photo: Ondrej.konicek. CC BY-SA 3.0.…
The Iconic Aston Martin DB5 of James Bond Fame Turns 60
Aston Martin DB5.Photo: © Copyright Aston Martin. Used by permission. Ejector seat? You’re joking!” — Sean Connery as James Bond in Goldfinger. “I never joke about my work, 007.” —…
Secret War of the Spymasters: How British Security Co-ordination Shaped World War II
Winston Churchill takes aim with a Sten gun during a visit to the Royal Artillery experimental station at Shoeburyness in Essex, 13 June 1941. Churchill established the BSC in May…
Coffee Shops and Espionage
Café de Flore, 172 boulevard Saint-Germain (Paris, 6e). Photo: Celette. CC BY-SA 4.0. The habits and language of clandestinity can intoxicate even its own practitioners.” — William Colby Coffee shops…
The Arizona Rangers: From Frontier Justice to Modern Law Enforcement
Arizona Ranger William K. Foster on right with Winchester Model 1895 rifle. Foster enlisted in the Rangers in 1903. Deputy Sheriff C. H. Farrnsworth is on left with Marlin rifle…
Parisian Coffee Houses and the Intellectuals who gathered and produced works of thought and art
Parisian cafés, renowned for their social egalitarianism, emerged as pivotal centers for Republican agitation and organization during the tumultuous period of the French Revolution. A disgruntled royalist of that era…