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#espionage

16 posts12 participants1 post today

Today in Labor History July 25, 2010: WikiLeaks published classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history. The leak included 91,000 Afghan War documents, covering the period from January 2004 to December 2009. Prior to the release, WikiLeaks made the logs available to “The Guardian,” “The New York Times” and “Der Spiegel.” The Times said the leak "offers an unvarnished and grim picture of the Afghan war." The Guardian called it "one of the biggest leaks in U.S. military history ... a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and NATO commanders fear neighboring Pakistan and Iran are fueling the insurgency." The documents also revealed that U.S. military contractors had hired local male child prostitutes.

As a result of the leaks, the U.S. government launched a criminal investigation into Wikileaks, and its founder, Julian Assange, who spent years under British custody. And the U.S. fought aggressively to get him extradited to the U.S., where he would face multiple life sentences for espionage.

Watch the original leaked footage here: youtu.be/5rXPrfnU3G0?t=2

"Fire Ant’s operations are characterized by infrastructure-centric TTPs, enabling activity beneath the detection threshold of traditional endpoint controls, highlighting critical blind spots of conventional security stacks."

Sygnia, from yesterday: Fire Ant: A Deep-Dive into Hypervisor-Level Espionage sygnia.co/blog/fire-ant-a-deep

More: Prolonged Chinese Cyber Espionage Campaign Targets VMware Appliances infosecurity-magazine.com/news #cybersecurity #infosec #VMWare #espionage

"To fully chronicle the ordeal the people of Rongelap went through in the years since the United States deliberately poisoned them would require an entire book. The day after the explosion, islanders suffered vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, severe burns. Two days after the explosion, the American military evacuated everyone, telling them to bring nothing but the clothes on their backs." —Dan Kois for Slate

slate.com/news-and-politics/20

Slate · In 1985, a Group of Spies Had a Target—and a Plan. It Turned Into One of the Most Sensationally Botched Crimes of the Century.By Dan Kois

Jack Debaut is caught in a deadly game of betrayal and secrets.
Enemies hide in plain sight, and time is running out. Can he uncover the truth before it’s too late?

📖 From Terror to Valor is a pulse-pounding thriller packed with action, suspense, and twists that will keep you hooked.

🔗 books2read.com/fromterror2valor

books2read.comAvailable now at your favorite digital store!From Terror to Valor: Echoes and Shadows by John A. Mulhall

Oh, *The New Yorker* is having a midlife crisis about the CIA's future 😱. It’s like pondering whether your blender will become self-aware and start making smoothies of #espionage 🕵️‍♂️. Spoiler: It's still a shady blender, just with a side of presidential drama! 🍹👀
newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07 #TheNewYorker #CIA #MidlifeCrisis #PresidentialDrama #ShadyBlender #HackerNews #ngated

The New Yorker · What Will Become of the C.I.A.?By Keith Gessen
Continued thread

According to Lobenwein & Rous, two forms of espionage can be distinguished, espionage in the true sense, which aims to obtain secret information of others, and counter-intelligence, which seeks to ward off such attacks on one's own information security. Around 1650, one can see a turning point towards a greater professionalisation of espionage.

Interestingly enough, research is presuming a caesura in the development of early modern diplomacy at about the same time, without the two having been discussed together so far. (7/7)

#emdiplomacy #NewDiplomaticHistory #diplomacy #history #histodons #earlyModern #espionage

@MaxWeberStiftung @histodons @historikerinnen @earlymodern @womenknowhistory

Continued thread

Lobenwein and Rous emphasise that, when studying diplomatic practice and the transfer of information, the interplay between orality, writing and other media is crucial; this also applies when dealing with the practices of espionage. Information that was supposed to remain secure was mainly transmitted orally. (6/7)

#emdiplomacy #NewDiplomaticHistory #espionage #history #histodons #earlyModern #InformationSecurity

@MaxWeberStiftung @histodons @historikerinnen @earlymodern @womenknowhistory

Continued thread

The accquistion of information was the most important function of early modern diplomats which was facilitaded through the establishment of permanent embassies from the 15th century onwards and discussed in numerous contemporary handbooks and treatises on early modern diplomacy. The boundaries between overt and covert, legal and illegal information gathering were fluid. This ambiguity finds expression in the term honourable espion which was coined by Pierre Ayrault. (5/7)

#emdiplomacy #emdiplomat #diplomat #diplomacy #NewDiplomaticHistory #espionage #history #earlyModern #Histodons

@MaxWeberStiftung @histodons @historikerinnen @earlymodern @womenknowhistory

Continued thread

Sunday evening is often crime time on the telly but early modern diplomacy offers crime and thrillers, too.
Therefore, we do not want to miss the opportunity to continue our countdown by introducing two more of our handbook authors to you. Please welcome Elisabeth Lobenwein and Anne-Simone Rous! (2/7)

#earlyModern #diplomacy #emdiplomacy #NewDiplomaticHistory #history #histodons #espionage

@histodons @historikerinnen @earlymodern @womenknowhistory

Started watching the relatively obscure 1980s spy series "Mr Palfrey", and the head of MI6 was played by this actor. I kept thinking she looked awfully familiar but couldn't quite place it.

Looking it up, she's Caroline Blakiston, who around about the same time was filming "Return of the Jedi" in London. It's the original Mon Mothma and playing a very similar character too.