Brigade 2506: CIA-Sponsored Cuban Exile Brigade
The SU-100 from which Fidel Castro reportedly shelled the freighter Houston during morning of 17 April 1961, Photo: Whoisjohngalt / CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED. “Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat…
The Bureau of Military Information: First Formal American Intelligence Agency
Col. George Henry Sharpe sits at far left with other members of his “Bureau of Military Information”, John C. Babcock, unidentified officer, and Lt. Col. John McEntee, February 1864. Photo…
The Intelligence Support Activity: America’s Most Secret Tier 1 Unit
The capture of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on 13 December 2003. The operation, codenamed Operation Red Dawn, was executed by Task Force 121—an elite and covert joint special operations…
The Evolution of Technology in Intelligence Gathering
Headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade, Maryland. Photo: National Security Agency. Espionage and intelligence gathering, the art of obtaining secret information without the permission of its…
The Office of Naval Intelligence: America’s Oldest Permanent Intelligence Agency
Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), attends the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Naval Maritime Intelligence Center (NMIC) in Suitland, Maryland on 14 January 2009. U.S. Navy photo…
The 13th Department: Top Secret KGB Assassination Unit
The Lubyanka building (former KGB headquarters) in Moscow. Photo: A.Savin / CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED. The KGB was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991.…
Bill Stirling and the 2nd SAS
SAS patrol in North Africa during WWII (1943). Photo: Keating (Capt) No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit – This photograph E 21337 comes from the collections of the Imperial…
Detachment A: The Secret Cold War Green Beret Unit
Checkpoint Charlie was on Friedrichstrasse, near Kochstrasse. It was the only crossing between West Berlin and East Berlin that could be used by Americans and other foreigners, and by members…
The Monuments Men: The Heroes Who Rescued Europe’s Treasures from the Nazis
The Monuments Men outside Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany, 1945. Photo: US Army. “In the areas ravaged by bombings and gunfights, there are monuments that are dear to the people of those…
Jack Barsky: Cold War KGB Spy
Midtown Manhattan with the Empire State Building and Lower Manhattan with One WTC (background).Jack Barsky worked as a sleeper agent / illegal for the KGB in New York City. Photo:…