Counterintelligence

...an interesting way for criminals and terrorists to pay, to launder money and to fool stupid greedy people who think that a diamond gives them some kind of extravagant aura. My last paper is about this illegal and unethical trade in the Dark Web. But before Dark Web comes the Surface Web and there you find millions of tenders - many of them look reliable as this one on the Chinese trading platform Alibaba: One company in the Dark Web, which offers gold and diamonds, claims to deliver the products from the US or from Germany: "llicit diamond trafficking evades regulation on dark we" is published in the OSINT Snapshot section of Jane's Intelligence Review .

Reading the new "European Commission contribution to the European Council" on EU-China – A strategic outlook I can only say: Very well done, all you panda huggers in the EU Commission! "A strategic outlook"...Wait, what is strategy? There are numerous definitions and I don't talk about war and Carl von Clausewitz or Liddell Hart. But even Wikipedia is able to explain - citing a book of Lawrence Freedman - that "Strategy generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources). Strategy can be intended or can emerge as a pattern of activity as the organization adapts to its environment or competes." And - citing Mintzberg and Quinn - "it involves activities such as strategic planning and strategic thinking." When I read this EU paper I hardly see any strategic planning or strategi

A well informed source told me last night that a part of the video of the mosque attack appeared - bus this time with the background music of Rammstein, the controversial German band. I checked the board where it was uploaded and beside a lot of the other horrible rightwing stuff this video is still available.  The length of the video is 03 min 11 sec and shows the known extreme violence. In the background one can hear the song "Feuer Frei" of the German band Rammstein.Tracking down German members of this international rightwing community is important, because it is not about cynicism and funny Meme culture anymore, it's about serious acts of violence, terrorism and mercenaries. Therefore it is important to read US indictments on some US militant rightwing members, who travelled via Germany to the Ukraine. For those dangerous and criminal persons is only one place the right one:

For decades, bioweapons have been an integral part of nation states' arsenals. Their efficiency for military purposes has often been disputed, as they are not only too slow from a tactical point of view but also complicated to use. Consequently, very few states have actually employed bioweapons in the past. During the Second World War, the Japanese military used various pathogenic agents, such as for cholera or the plague, to harm the Chinese population. The Cold War saw a number of accidents in laboratories and on testing grounds in the Eastern Bloc, during which anthrax and smallpox were released, resulting in a number of deaths and injuries. Nowadays, various states have opaque or secret programmes for developing bioweapons, the trade of which increases the risk of proliferation. So far, there have merely been rumours about the misuse of genetic research in the military realm and for operations contrary to international law. Apparently, the North Korean biol

Beside drugs, fake IDs and pornography there is a lot more to find in the Dark Web. I searched for my own small nuclear bomb - and I was successful! My new paper for Janes Intelligence Review can be find in their great new section: Jane's OSINT snapshots are brief analyses of recent national security-related news using lesser-visited online sources and anybody who is interested in going deeper into it might take a look into "Dark web market trades illicit nuclear materials and knowledge". A lot more data and information about this subject, which I collected and analysed, are not to read in this paper. Plausible requests about more details are welcome: I compiled a restricted background report about it, which will not be published in the public.

...sind in vielen - nicht allen - Fällen ein interessantes Objekt für vertiefte Recherchen. Ebenso wie in London oder Paris, aber auch Madrid und Lissabon tummeln sich darunter einige Figuren, die in direkter oder indirekter Verbindung zu gewissen Staaten und deren Vertretern stehen. Diese Vertreter können Oligarchen sein, die beispielsweise mit der russischen Mafia kooperieren oder sehr gute Verbindungen dorthin aufweisen. Andere Investoren haben Geschäftspartner, die in staatlichen Geheimdiensten beispielsweise Russlands, Chinas, Frankreichs oder auch Israels gearbeitet haben oder dies immer noch tun. Manche Investoren wiederum sind selbst Mitglieder solcher Geheimdienste - oder sie waren es in der Vergangenheit. Manche Investoren bemühen sich, den Schleier der Diskretion zu wahren und ihn keinesfalls zu lüften. Damit erreichen sie allerdings häufig das Gegenteil: Journalisten und Behörden werden misstrauisch und nehmen ihre Ermittlungen auf. In einem Artikel des Tagesspiegels g

Die Nähe zahlreicher deutscher Politiker und Wirtschaftsvertreter zu Russland ist schon lange kein Geheimnis mehr. Allen voran Gerhard Schröder, der nicht ohne Grund als der erste Vasall Putins bezeichnet wurde. Der massiven Einflussnahme Russlands auf deutsche Entscheidungsträger könnte besser Paroli geboten werden, wenn sich in den Büros der zuständigen Entscheidungsträger die Erkenntnis durchsetzen würde, dass es hierfür Expertise benötigt. Graue Juristen und noch grauere Verwalter können per se davon nichts wissen. Das bestätigen leider alle in den Medien zitierten Stellungnahmen und diverse sonstige, spaßige Verlautbarungen. Staatssekretäre und Minister halte ich dafür auch ungeeignet, denn sie wollen gerne schnellstmöglich in die Wirtschaft, um in der Schweiz mit gewissen Oligarchen Tee trinken oder für osteuropäische Plutokraten Lobbyarbeit betreiben zu können (Die Beispiele dafür würden diesen Blog endgültig sprengen). Zumindest eine Einladung für den prorussischen Valdai Disk