State Secrets: Hiring Criminals for Targeted Killings (and more)
The intersection of state and criminal threats
From the Insight Monitor archives, here's a look at how states employ criminals for targeted killings and transnational repression:
newsletter.insightthreatintel.com/p/state-secr...
01.10.2025 12:50 — 👍 11 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Challenge coin to commemorate lives lost in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Think I’ll keep this one. Thank you @colinpclarke.bsky.social and The Soufan Center for inviting me to share some thoughts at the Global Summit on Terrorism and Political Violence.
11.09.2025 19:43 — 👍 13 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
💪
27.06.2025 17:12 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Finally, someone talking sense. Unsurprisingly, it’s the excellent @colinpclarke.bsky.social
23.06.2025 22:57 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Terrorism Means Something Different Now
The firewall between violent nonstate actors and conventional warfare has become highly permeable.
A warning from @colinpclarke.bsky.social and Chris Costa amid threats from #Iran backed non-state actors: "Even as terrorism remains a live issue, there is a clear mismatch between the level of the threat and the resources allocated to combat it." @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/25/c...
26.06.2025 13:50 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Opinion | How Iran Might Strike Back
Very proud of my former student @colinpclarke.bsky.social for his opinion piece in the @nytimes.com identifying what Iran is likely to do after being bombed by the US. One option: attacking US bases in Middle East, which is underway right now.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/o...
23.06.2025 17:12 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
The New Orleans Attack: The Technology Behind IS-Inspired Plots - GNET
Today, Clara Broekaert and @colinpclarke.bsky.social analyse the horrific New Year's Day attack in #NewOrleans. They explore the pivotal role tech played in carrying out this - and other - Islamic State-inspired plots. gnet-research.org/2025/01/30/t...
30.01.2025 18:49 — 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
Opinion | We Still Haven’t Figured Out How to Beat ISIS
Stripping the Islamic State of its self-proclaimed caliphate is not the same as beating it.
The continued threat posed by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) aka "ISIS-K" should be among the Trump Administration's top counterterrorism priorities upon assuming office in January. www.nytimes.com/2024/03/31/o...
18.11.2024 18:26 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Israeli Strikes in Lebanon Stir Fears of Sectarian Strife
Lebanon’s religious fault lines are straining as Israel’s war with the Hezbollah militant group grinds on.
Israeli airstrikes are hitting deep into Lebanon, targeting single Hezbollah members among displaced families, killing scores of civilians.
Such attacks have made Lebanese wary of sheltering Shias. Some say that's exactly what Israel wants. Our story:
www.wsj.com/world/middle... #iran #israel
18.11.2024 08:47 — 👍 41 🔁 27 💬 4 📌 2
Hizballah infographic on its ops the past two months
17.11.2024 12:18 — 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Historian & Arabist
Independent analyst on Jihadism, History, Arabic & Islamic Studies
Publications available via https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6691-1988
Journalist @HLN_BE. Here I report on extremism/terrorism of all kinds, mostly in English.
National security, technology, California. Cinder co-founder, led DOI at FB, created Palantir disaster relief, Research Director at CTC @ West Point.
Assistant professor of political science at Northwestern, studying hostage taking in international security. Director with Bridging the Gap, contributor to Good Authority. She/her. Hiking, biking, mostly plants 🌱 #COYS
Attorney & advisor on industry, investment, and war. DC and NYC based.
Formerly OSC, JSOC, NCTC, and 101st Airborne. Hoya, Eli, Orange. Life long New Yorker.
“A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world”
UChicago political scientist, amateur bee photographer, Carnegie South Asia nonresident scholar, despairing Bulls fan, public school parent, etc. http://www.paulstaniland.com
US Army Goodpaster Scholar, Wargamer, & Paratrooper | USMA ‘09, KCL War Studies ‘15, G’town SSP ‘20 | PhD Student @ Duke PoliSci | Personal Acct per DoDI 5400.17
Researching political warfare, counterterrorism, and international order.
PhD candidate, Princeton University
https://www.catrinadoxsee.com/
Director, Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism & Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University; Adjunct Professor, Pepperdine University
We arm leaders with the information they need to tackle the toughest policy problems. Nonprofit, nonpartisan. Core values = quality & objectivity.
www.rand.org
associate director @ RAND | defense strategy | data science | special operations | former OSD policy | usual caveats
I study drugs, high-risk activism, and political violence. I support my students and my country. I reject 47’s efforts to turn our country into a competitive authoritarian regime.
Researching how terrorists think and act.
KCL War Studies PhD and postdoc / CSNS / XCEPT
Someone who follows geopolitical and geo-economic trends and studies how national security decisions get made. All comments are personal opinions and do not reflect any official/institutional views.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikolas-gvosdev-925485301/
Founder & CEO Moonshot
www.moonshotteam.com
Our mission is to end online harms, applying evidence ethics & human rights.
Comparative civil-military relations, defense manufacturing, political violence, electoral politics, and foreign policy. Regional foci on South Asia and Latin America, but also the "global south."
Leads AEI’s foreign and defense team, author of The State and the Soldier, contributing writer at The Atlantic. 2025-2026 Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress. Californian. https://www.aei.org/profile/kori-schake/
she/her | editor for global history & politics at Columbia UP 📚 writer and nerdy feminist 🤓 extremely online 📱
https://linktr.ee/caelyncobb
Distinguished University Professor of psychology who studies terrorism, school safety, and a few other things📍Atlanta, GA. Recipient of the 2024 FBI Director's Community Leadership Award. This is a personal account. Author of TERRORIST MINDS.