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John Schindler Profile picture
John Schindler
@20committee
KuKservative about town, historian, author, provocateur, bon vivant, polyglot, counterspy, cat guy. Former NSA, NAVSECGRU, NWC. My #realtalk feed: @thespybrief
ElMo Flonzelay-Quixote 🇺🇦 (❁´◡`❁) Profile picture Becky Werner Profile picture Adam Smithee Profile picture Sue Strong @strong_sue@mastodon.sdf.org 🇺🇦 Profile picture CHEW Profile picture 17 subscribed
Oct 8, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
A bit of Intel #realtalk: It's obvious that Israel profoundly misjudged the level of threat HAMAS presented. It's not clear what role intel, per se, played in this. Israeli intelligence (SHABAK + MOSSAD + AMAN) are very good but not omniscient, not even next door in Gaza. /1 Indeed, Israeli intel's look into Gaza is less effective than in the West Bank, where it's a lot easier for SHABAK especially to collect. There was surely SIGINT + HUMINT + IMINT that, in hindsight, will reveal HAMAS' intentions. Were they known before? We don't know that yet. /2
Sep 21, 2023 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
I don't see how Justin's getting out of this mess without US/UK help. India's not backing down and Trudeau has better information than "We just know, ok" this diplomatic mess isn't getting any movement out of the hole Justin drove Canada into.

The intelligence here is key... It's a very rare thing for any country to openly accuse another of arranging an assassination on their soil. Especially when it's a friendly, fellow Commonwealth country that's strategically valuable to the US and the West due to the rising China threat. Bad timing, Justin. /2
Apr 14, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Brief thread: I realize many Americans hear "National Guard" and conjure up images of good ol' boys playing Army on the weekend. In reality, the Guard and Reserve possess a lot of intelligence and related (IO, etc) units which are fully integrated into broader DoD/IC missions... These specialized units often add considerable value to the IC since certain esoteric skill sets (languages, IT) frequently reside more easily in the Reserve Component (RC) than the active force. Don't write them off or think they're unimportant. They're all over the country...
Nov 11, 2022 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Five Things to Know About World War 1

It's Veterans Day in the USA, what was previously known as Armistice Day, commemorating the end of WW1 on this day in 1918. So it's the right time for a short thread on what everybody should ponder about the misnamed War to End all Wars. /1 1) WW1 involved more than the Western Front. While it was less of a "world war" than WW2 (arguably less than the Seven Years War), it still had a lot going on beyond France and Flanders. The war was decided in the West but the Anglosphere pays little attention to other fronts./2
Apr 19, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Here, on Earth, no legit military historians believe that. In truth, Wehrmacht tactical leadership was generally more flexible and fast-moving than US/UK in WW2 (and certainly than the Soviets). Put Auftragstaktik in the Google sometime, Mike. Ton of literature exists on this. Also, about "Hitler’s army fell apart in 1944-1945": here, again, on Earth, that never happened. The Wehrmacht had to be beaten into submission to the bitter end in the heart of the Reich in APR 1945. Had they fallen apart the war might really have been over by Xmas '44 as hoped.
Mar 30, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
UPDATE: Since my piece was published 4 hours ago, Bratislava has announced the imminent expulsion of up to 35 Russian "diplomats" from Slovakia.

The EU's unprecedented PNGpalooza of Russian spies rolls onwards and upwards thanks to Putin's Ukraine War.

topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/pngpalooza-s… Source below

cc @_JakubJanda

spectator.sme.sk/c/22873806/slo…
Mar 16, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
So @amconmag we need to talk. I oppose a Ukraine NFZ as needless and reckless. Stupid, in fact. But you here are telling Estonia, a tiny country that has suffered horribly under Moscow's thumb: "Someone should remind them of their place" (classy HED).

theamericanconservative.com/articles/eston… Relatives of mine, people I love, escaped Estonia, barely, ahead of the Red Army, in 1944. Others did not. We never heard from them again. They disappeared in the GULAG. As did Estonia's entire government. No known grave for any of them. So, they're kinda touchy. Weird, I know.
Mar 14, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I did warn everyone...

"Since Schindler’s piece—little-noticed at the time—the evidence of Putin’s religious motivations has grown overwhelming." Thanks to @DavidAFrench for noticing.

For those wanting more of my analysis, I've expanded on the 2014 piece David cited recently with 3 more articles

Open (1/3)

topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/putins-attac…
Feb 20, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Sort of. Amusing story requiring a brief thread. Tito AKA Josip Broz fought in WW1 with the Austro-Hungarian Army, as an NCO with the 25th Croatian Home Guard Regt (25.dp) of the 42nd Division (the so-called Devil's Division). He fought in Serbia AUG-DEC 1914 then in the East... His unit was sent into the frozen hell of the Carpathians in JAN 1915, and he was captured by the Russians, wounded, in late MAR. He was sent to a POW camp in Serbia, where he was eventually converted to Communism, and he (or somebody) didn't return to Croatia until 1920...
Jun 14, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
There is no real news about Ukraine and NATO, folks. This is old stuff, reheated. MAP for Kyiv has been NATO policy since 2008.

Putin isn't threatened by this at all. Don't believe idiot pols & dumber journalists. Read the actual NATO communique:

nato.int/cps/en/natohq/… 👇

Jun 6, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
When one encounters flat-earthism of this degree, a small thread is needed. The SVR (former KGB PGU) has admitted Julius Rosenberg was their star spy. He gave Moscow The Bomb. They've bragged about it. His handler wrote about it in his memoir.

cc @JamesSurowiecki Not only was Julius guilty of espionage for Moscow -- Ethel was too. We know this. Denying it is a lie at this point.

topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/ethel-rosenb…
Apr 15, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Folks, I told you *BEFORE* Trump was even elected that Kilimnik was GRU and the likely RIS guy inside the Trump campaign due to his close, longstanding relationship with Manafort:

This is not news...I got a lot of trolling for this at the time.

20committee.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/how… 21 AUG 2016:

"During his years in Kyiv, Manafort’s translator & sidekick was Konstantin Kilimnik, who had spent several years with GRU. To anybody familiar with Russian intelligence, Kilimnik was very likely Manafort’s spy-handler. At best, he was an access agent for GRU..."
Apr 15, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Indeed, we all knew this was coming. Yet we must also blame NATO + EU for 2+ decades of refusing to seriously ponder -- or even really discuss -- the grave geopolitical problems stemming from the 1990s Wars of Yugoslav Succession. For 2+ decades the NATO/EU line, parroted by almost all Western think-tanks, can be translated into 3 points:

1. Serbs are bad, therefore any discussion of their political role is suspect. Don't ever worry about the rights of Serbs outside Serbia. Tito's borders must be eternal.
Apr 10, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
11 years ago today the Polish government was decapitated by a catastrophic plane crash in Russia. Serious questions linger about what really happened at #Smolensk -- questions that the MSM and elite influencers will attack you for even asking. 1/3

observer.com/2018/05/eviden… In 2010, the notion of hidden Kremlin involvement in #Smolensk seemed fanciful. After Moscow's murderous lies about MH17 (299 dead), after GRU assassins used novichok in Salisbury, it's the idea that Russia didn't have some role in the Smolensk tragedy that seems far-fetched. 2/3
Feb 20, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Helpful update here. However, a couple comments.

1st, you don't need a KGB insider to tell us what Trump's secret relationship with the Kremlin was.

It's obvious to anyone serious versed in CI issues relating to Russia and its special services (a small group, I know)... In short, the KGB back in the 1980s wanted Trump as an agent of influence (агент влияния), an Armand Hammer 2.0 for Moscow, but he wound up as a confidential contact (доверительный контакт) because Don's so unreliable and unpredictable.

It's all here:

topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/words-matter…
Dec 10, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
There is a serious point here. Since 2016, too much of the MSM & Democrats have decided that anything that's mentioned by Kremlin-controlled or Kremlin-friendly outlets is off-limits and ipso facto untrue.

This is about politics, not disinformation.

Let me explain... There is a clear distinction among counterpropaganda professionals between (actual) fake news and regular old disinformation, which often contains a fair amount of truth. The former includes outright fabrications, eg the Seth Rich deception, which was authored by the Kremlin...
Nov 7, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Let's be clear: This is bonkers. No such NSA program exists, nor could it exist, legally. NSA has no domestic intelligence mission, it is a FOREIGN intelligence agency.

The Upside-Down lunatics need to cut it out.

While NSA+CYBERCOM have a role now in protecting the integrity of our elections, that is a defensive mission aimed at deterring and diminishing HoIS operations against US campaigns and the election itself...that has NOTHING to do with the actual voting process or counting votes.
Aug 17, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Please don't scream this.

I'm sorry, Cheri, but this simply isn't true.

This is not what NSA thinks.

RIS did cyber-recon on some US voting systems in 2016. They didn't mess with voting. Nor is there any indication they plan to in 2020.

#Facts, please.

Please pay attention to what NSA & CYBERCOM are saying about election security. It's not 2016 anymore. They're devoting enormous effort to maintaining the integrity of our elections ===>

cyberscoop.com/election-inter…
Jun 18, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
With this retweet Trump has really outdone himself.

This is almost too perfect for words.

Who is this Blumenthal guy? Which one, you ask?

Let me explain... Image Gotta love the irony: Max's father Sid Blumenthal (remember him? you should...) has spent the last 3 years trying to stand up every last morsel of the Steele Dossier and prove Donnie is an SVR agent....
May 13, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Unlike 99.999% of the people commenting on this story I've actually done SIGINT "unmaskings" for NSA, which makes me what @RadioFreeTom would call an Expert, so I have a couple comments on this story...

1st, Mike Flynn's notorious call to RU Amb Kislyak, which got this whole furball rolling, was on 29 DEC 2016...and a lot of these unmasking requests are wayyyyy before that. Back to 30 NOV, in fact.

Hmmmmm.....
Mar 3, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Google Isonzo, especially Caporetto, and get back to me, smart guy.

You'll enjoy this one, @PikeGrey1418