Blog Archives - Page 8 of 9

The Libyan Conundrum

On March 10, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, was castigated for stating that Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, if left to its own devices, would eventually prevail. Clapper has made some ridiculous statements in the past, but this isn’t one of them. Only in Washington would telling the truth be deemed irresponsible. Fast forward to today, and Gadhafi has retaken critical cities and an oil refinery lost to the rebels, and shows no signs of backing down. Looks like Clapper was right on this one. During my book [...]

By Brad Taylor|2011-03-14T08:05:16-04:00March 14th, 2011|Blog|1 Comment

Covert Action and Special Operations: Fact and Fantasy
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Covert Action and Special Operations: Fact and Fantasy

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Covert Action and Special Operations: Fact and Fantasy

In 2009, right after I finished One Rough Man, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh claimed that George W. Bush had run an “executive assassination ring” reporting directly to Dick Cheney, which might be continuing to this day under a new administration. I couldn’t believe it. The story sounded remarkably like the fictional unit I’d created for my novel. Given my background, I suppose what I should do is wink and nod, neither confirming nor denying his allegations. After all, that would be the best for book sales. “No, [...]

By Brad Taylor|2017-11-17T18:04:35-05:00January 31st, 2011|Blog, Featured|8 Comments

Lethal Truth

We’re one month from the book launch, and in the three years since I started writing my novel about a fictional counter-terrorist unit called the Taskforce, I’ve been amazed at the number of news stories that have basically stated a unit like the one I’ve created really exists. They’ve asserted that the CIA has “assassination squads” planning to kill terrorists without any congressional oversight, in defiance of the assassination ban in Executive Order 12333. That Special Forces have been running amok in foreign lands, ignoring all aspects of [...]

By Brad Taylor|2011-01-13T08:40:22-05:00January 13th, 2011|Blog|5 Comments

American Christmas Spirit

With the holiday season upon us, I wanted to take a moment to highlight what makes the United States great: The indomitable spirit of the average American. Whether conquering the frontier or the beaches at Normandy, you can count on Americans to never give in. Never quit. Take this guy for instance—no matter what obstacles are placed in his way, or obstacles not in his way that he chooses to find, he will not stop on the way to his objective. It’s pure American can-do attitude at its finest. [...]

By Brad Taylor|2010-12-17T14:37:54-05:00December 17th, 2010|Blog|0 Comments

I’m in Israel. Go ahead and touch my junk.

Over the past three days, I’ve heard a plethora of talking heads say we should forego scanners and pat-downs in the United States in favor of the “Israeli Model” of airport security, including profiling. They hold-up Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv as the shining example of success, and I agree 100%. Let’s do that, but we need to be honest about what that means and not pick and choose pieces of Israel’s security, which is what’s currently happening. For the record, Israel’s security is MORE invasive than [...]

By Brad Taylor|2010-11-18T23:59:44-05:00November 18th, 2010|Blog|3 Comments

Don’t Touch My Junk

When it comes to security, Americans have the shortest memory span of anyone on earth. We’re the first to start screaming about individual rights whenever we have to suffer any interruption in our daily routines, and also the first to scream for someone’s head when a terrorist attack is “allowed” to occur. Last weekend, a man refused to enter a full body scanner at a San Diego airport, then refused to allow a pat-down in lieu of the scan, claiming both bordered on sexual molestation, and uttering his [...]

By Brad Taylor|2010-11-16T21:21:19-05:00November 16th, 2010|Blog|1 Comment

Where’s Waldo?

The big story in the news yesterday was that NATO officials had necked down the location of Osama bin Laden, along with his brethren, to a stretch of the lawless lands of Pakistan. The news was immediately followed by rejoinders of American officials about the accuracy of the reports. After recent admissions by our own CIA that we haven’t had any intelligence on bin Laden for years, it was another ghost story that left a majority of Americans scratching their heads. I mean, really, with all of our [...]

By Brad Taylor|2010-10-19T17:07:36-04:00October 19th, 2010|Blog|5 Comments

American Islamophobia

The phrase Islamophobia is all the rage right now, even gracing a recent cover of Time magazine, with erudite scholars disdaining the uneducated, irrational fear of Islam which is apparently permeating American society. They bemoan the undercurrent of the ordinary American’s suspicion of Islam, yet the Muslim community itself does nothing at all to combat those suspicions. The dictionary defines “phobia” as “a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.” Thus, if I saw a single picture [...]

By Brad Taylor|2010-10-06T23:58:42-04:00October 6th, 2010|Blog|4 Comments

When free speech gets ridiculous

What on earth is the Dove Outreach Church in Florida gaining by burning the Qu’ran? It literally boggles my mind. At first, I thought it was a joke. I mean, really, who goes around burning the religious tomes of other faiths? Well, communists, I suppose. And Nazis. Come to think of it, in a supreme bit of irony, the Taliban we’re fighting in Afghanistan does this very thing. Actually, the similarities between this church and radical elements of Islam are pretty striking. For instance, the Dove Church claims [...]

By Brad Taylor|2010-09-09T01:05:49-04:00September 9th, 2010|Blog|0 Comments

In the news

Two blogs in one week. A record for me, driven by two news articles I recently read that really struck my funny bone, despite their serious nature. The first story was about Iran celebrating the creation of an unmanned bomber in which Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, proudly proclaimed it his “ambassador of death”. Really, I’m not making that up. It’s like he watched a bunch of cheesy 1960s James Bond knock-off movies and decided to emulate the evil-doers on screen. All that was missing was him saying, “And unless [...]

By Brad Taylor|2010-08-25T16:28:59-04:00August 25th, 2010|Blog|0 Comments

Covert Action and Special Operations: Fact and Fantasy

Into the Gray Zone

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