The United States has lost effective control of its low-altitude domestic airspace. Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS)—ranging from hobbyist platforms to sophisticated state-sponsored fixed-wing assets—operate with near-total impunity over the Continental United States (CONUS), targeting military installations, power grids, and political leadership. Current Department of War, DHS, and Law Enforcement (LE) response is constrained not by technology, but by a catastrophic legal deadlock. Unless immediate legislative and regulatory “overhauls” are enacted to grant kinetic and electronic interference authority to local command and LE, adversaries will continue to map vulnerabilities in real-time, preparing the ground for high-consequence disruption or attack. The homeland is no longer a sanctuary; it is an unmonitored front line.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Normalized Penetration: The presence of unidentified sUAS over critical CONUS infrastructure is no longer episodic; it is a normalized, daily operational reality. Adversaries have successfully transitioned from probing defense perimeters to establishing a persistent surveillance and signaling presence over strategic nuclear, power, and command hubs.

• The Legislative ‘Kill Switch’: The primary barrier to neutralizing domestic drone threats is not a lack of kinetic technology but a paralysis induced by antiquated 20th-century legal frameworks (Title 10/18/49). These laws inadvertently protect hostile electronic systems operating over U.S. soil.

• Domain Awareness Collapse: Current C-UAS (Counter-UAS) detection architectures are fragmented and reactive. The U.S. currently lacks a unified, integrated “air picture” below 2,000 feet for domestic airspace, leaving a decisive domain blind spot exploited by both state and non-state actors.

SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT: THE LOW-ALTITUDE SIEGE

CommandEleven monitors a escalating cycle of sUAS incursions over key CONUS strategic assets. What began as anecdotal reports of “nuisance” drones has evolved into coordinated, sustained, and technologically advanced campaigns. The geography of these incidents confirms the strategic intent:

Strategic Nuclear & Command Facilities

The 2024 New Jersey incident, initially downplayed, involved dozens of large, fixed-wing drones operating simultaneously over dozens of distinct high-value targets, including military installations (Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst), research centers (Picatinny Arsenal), and commercial hubs (Port Newark). Incursions over Barksdale AFB (Global Strike Command) and the Pantex Plant (nuclear assembly) have become frequent, showcasing the ability to probe the most sensitive security layers.

The National Capital Region (NCR)

The NCR is now regularly challenged. Recent incidents involve sUAS loitering at specific altitudes over residential areas of cabinet-level leadership (McNair) and key command centers (Andrews AFB). The signaling is unmistakable: if we cannot secure the skies over Washington D.C., we cannot project power globally.

The Tactical Shift

We have observed a distinct move from simple commercial quadcopters to larger, high-speed, long-endurance platforms that exhibit advanced electronic warfare (EW) resilience. These systems are optimized to bypass traditional perimeter radars—which were historically set to filter out small clutter like birds—and to operate autonomously, making standard radio frequency (RF) jamming largely ineffective.

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THREAT ACTORS AND CAPABILITIES: THE GREY ZONE

CommandEleven categorizes the domestic sUAS threat landscape by actor intent and technical footprint. The critical challenge is attribution ambiguity, allowing adversaries to exploit the “grey zone” between criminal activity and state espionage.

State-Sustained Espionage (The ‘Silent Hand’): China & Russia

Primary Intent: Signature Intelligence (SIGINT), Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT), and real-time mapping of operational response.

Capabilities

• HALE/MALE Mother ships: High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) or Medium-Altitude (MALE) platforms operating just outside controlled airspace, acting as relational “relays” or “mother ships” for smaller sUAS swarms.

• SIGINT collection: Advanced sensors tuned to “sniff” electronic emissions. Following the 2025/2026 incidents, it is confirmed that PRC assets are mapping the F-22’s specific radar and communication signatures at Langley, seeking to decipher stealth encryptions.

• EW Resilience: These drones utilize encrypted control links or inertial navigation systems, rendering standard commercial C-UAS “jammers” useless. They are hardened against electronic interference.

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Proxy Retaliation & Signaling: Iran

Primary Intent: Retaliation for Op. Epic Fury and signaling the capability for “mirror responses” against critical U.S. infrastructure.

Capabilities:

• Asymmetric Swarms: Utilizing low-cost, attritable drone technology, Iran has demonstrated (via proxy actions in the Middle East and implied CONUS activity) the ability to saturate an area with dozens of drones, overwhelming detection and defense systems.

• Loitering Munitions: While not yet kinetically deployed CONUS, the technology to convert standard sUAS into “kamikaze” drones is readily available. The presence of these platforms over power substations and refinery hubs is a non-verbal threat.

Transnational Criminal Organizations (The ‘Technological Agnostics’): Cartels

Primary Intent: Smuggling, counter-surveillance, and technology transfer for profit.

Capabilities

• Advanced Payload Delivery: Cartels have years of operational experience using heavy-lift sUAS for drug delivery along the border. They have now adapted this technology for reconnaissance and counter-surveillance against U.S. law enforcement.

• Logistical Support: Crucially, cartels serve as a technology conduit. CommandEleven has observed indicators suggesting hostile state actors (such as Iran) leverage cartel-managed smuggling networks to position and operate advanced sUAS technology within CONUS, providing a plausible layer of deniability.

Ideological Extremists & ‘Lone Wolves’

Primary Intent: Disruption, terror, and soft-target attack.

Capabilities

• Low-Barrier to Entry: Using $1,000 off-the-shelf drones, these actors can disrupt airport operations (as seen globally), target public gatherings, or attempt primitive payload attacks on infrastructure. They are unpredictable and difficult to track.

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THE DETECTION AND KINETIC GAP: BLINDED AND RESTRAINED

Current C-UAS deployment is reactive, fragmented, and paralyzed by the clash between 20th-century law and 21st-century threats.

The Domain Awareness Crisis

The fundamental tactical challenge is identification. We cannot engage what we cannot differentiate.

• Radar Gaps: Traditional military radar systems, designed to detect aircraft or missiles, often filter out low-speed, small-radar-cross-section (RCS) targets. Upgrading these systems creates thousands of “false positives” from birds or weather.

• Fragmentation: C-UAS sensors (RF scanners, radar, optical) are rarely integrated. A base may have RF detection but lack the radar to track the location, or vice versa. The U.S. currently lacks a unified, real-time “low-altitude air picture” across the country, preventing the recognition of coordinated, multi-city events.

Counter-UAS Mechanisms and their Failings CONUS

The Department of War has an arsenal of C-UAS tech, but its use within the homeland is legally restricted or tactically dangerous.

• Electronic Jamming (RF Jamming): The most common tool. It severs the link between the operator and the drone. Problem: Ineffective against autonomous/pre-programmed drones. Furthermore, domestic use risks widespread “collateral electronic damage”—jamming civilian 911 services, cell towers, hospital telemetry, or commercial aviation GPS near bases. Commanders are hesitant to utilize EW authority due to immense liability.

• Cyber Takeover (e.g., D-Fend Solutions): The “cleanest” solution, hacking the drone’s signal and forcing it to land. Problem: Highly effective but requires specific signal signatures and is often limited by legal restrictions on “accessing an electronic device without authorization” (Title 18 violation).

• Kinetic Engagement (Shooting down): Missiles, high-power microwaves (HPM), lasers (HEL), and physical interception (net guns). Problem: High risk of falling debris (”collateral damage”) in populated areas. Shooting down a $500 drone with a $2 million missile is an economic defeat. More critically, how do you determine “hostile intent” if the drone is just hovering? Legally, shooting down an unauthorized drone is currently equivalent to shooting down a civilian helicopter.

THE LEGAL BLACK HOLE: WHY WE HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING

The single greatest challenge to effective domestic C-UAS operations is not technical; it is the U.S. Code. Three primary areas of law create a paralysis that foreign adversaries readily exploit.

Title 10 vs. Title 18: Military vs. Law Enforcement Jurisdictions

• The Posse Comitatus Constraint: The military (Title 10) is restricted from conducting domestic law enforcement. When a drone is detected over a base, the military may have C-UAS authority. But if the operator is 500 yards off-base, they are in the jurisdiction of local police, who lack C-UAS technology or authorization.

• No Cross-Boundary Authority: A military base cannot jam signals or deploy kinetic C-UAS assets that interfere with civilian airspace or infrastructure off-post. This creates a recognized sanctuary for drone operators.

Title 49: The FAA and the “Aircraft” Problem

• Every Drone is an Aircraft: Under the FAA (Title 49), any Unmanned Aircraft System, from a child’s toy to a fixed-wing asset, is legally defined as an “aircraft.”

• The Sabotage Act: Consequently, 18 U.S.C. § 32 (The Aircraft Sabotage Act) makes it a federal crime to damage, destroy, or disable any aircraft. Shooting down a hostile surveillance drone over a nuclear storage site, without specific authorization from the highest levels of government, is technically a federal felony.

Title 18: Wiretap and Hacking Constraints

• The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA): Using RF scanners to identify a drone or its operator, or “hacking” the drone to divert it, often requires decoding encrypted signals. These actions can be interpreted as violations of federal wiretap and “computer fraud and abuse” laws (Title 18), especially for law enforcement agencies (LEAs). Agencies are terrified of the legal liability associated with “listening” to commercial signals.

The ‘Hostile Intent’ Paradox

Military ROE typically allow engagement upon detection of “hostile intent.” However, current domestic ROE for sUAS requires a physical weapon to be visible—a bomb or a gun. A drone conducting 3:00 AM surveillance at 4,000 feet, mapping base entrances and response times, is “unauthorized” but not “hostile.” Commanders have no authority to neutralize the threat until after a kinetic act has occurred. Adversaries know this. They are playing a legal game they have already won.

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ENHANCEMENTS AND SOLUTIONS: THE LEGISLATIVE OVERHAUL

CommandEleven asserts that we must move from a posture of protection (of the drones’ legal status) to a posture of neutralization of the threat. The following legislative and operational enhancements are mandatory for CONUS security.

Immediate Legislative Action (U.S. Code Revision)

• Define “Hostile Airspace Incursion”: Congress must legally redefine domestic low-altitude airspace over critical installations. Any unidentified sUAS entering a 5-mile radius of a designated Tier-1 base (strategic nuclear, command hub, NCR facility) must automatically be categorized as demonstrating “hostile intent,” bypassing the current “weapon visible” standard and granting immediate kinetic/electronic engagement authority to the local commander.

• Carve-Outs for C-UAS Operations: The Aircraft Sabotage Act (Title 18 § 32) and the ECPA must be immediately amended to create explicit exemptions for C-UAS operators (both military and authorized LE). If a drone is flying in restricted airspace, neutralizing it via jamming, cyber-takeover, or kinetic fire must be legally categorized as a defensive act, immune from federal criminal and civil liability.

Unified Authority and Responsibility (DHS/DOJ Integration)

• Pre-Authorization Framework: The current process for authorizing C-UAS activity (Title 10/Title 50 coordination) takes hours or days. We need a “Pre-Authorization Framework” that grants standing, instantaneous C-UAS authority to specific local and state LE agencies and military commanders for critical infrastructure, activating automatically upon detection of an uncooperative sUAS.

• Title 10 Cross-Boundary Authorization: Grant Title 10 commanders the authority to neutralize sUAS operators and assets located off-base if they are actively engaging or surveilling the installation, creating a tactical “buffer zone” and dissolving the operator sanctuary.

Mandatory Domain Integration (DHS/FAA)

• Integrated Domestic Air Picture: The FAA and DHS must integrate all military, commercial, and civilian radar and sensor data into a unified low-altitude “threat picture.” This real-time data fusion is necessary to recognize patterns, coordinate multi-jurisdictional responses, and differentiate between a lost hobbyist and a PRC surveillance campaign.

• Universal Remote ID Enforcement: While the FAA has Remote ID rules, enforcement is non-existent. Implementation must include mandatory, passive detection systems at all critical sites that automatically flag any drone not broadcasting its ID as non-cooperative, simplifying the hostile intent determination.

Directed Energy First (Technical Strategy)

• Transition from Jamming to Directed Energy: Given the risk of collateral electronic interference, CONUS bases must prioritize high-power microwave (HPM) and high-energy laser (HEL) C-UAS systems. These tools offer highly precise “surgical” neutralization of drones with minimal electronic fallout, but their widespread deployment is currently hindered by cost and—as always—legal/regulatory uncertainty.

CONCLUSION

The drones over CONUS are the “balloons” of the low-altitude domain, testing resolve with every passive flight. The US is not experiencing a failure of technology; it is experiencing a catastrophic failure of courage at the legislative and regulatory level. America’s adversaries have adapted to asymmetric warfare faster than we have adapted our legal code to recognize it.

The homeland is no longer buffered by two oceans. The US strategic nuclear centers and leadership’s homes are visible, in real-time, to Beijing, Tehran, and the cartels. The current legal paralysis is not an acceptable risk; it is a tactical surrender of domestic sovereignty.

CommandEleven assesses that the next stage of the sUAS siege will transition from passive surveillance to active electronic or kinetic disruption. We are on the clock. The choice is between rewriting laws today, or recovering debris from critical infrastructure tomorrow.

Stay vigilant,
Khalid Muhammad, Founder
CommandEleven Intelligence

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INTRO: WHAT THE MEDIA GETS WRONG

Our objective has always been to help people understand what the mainstream media either doesn’t understand, is purposely misrepresenting, or actively failing to inform the public about. In most cases, they don’t even understand what they are reporting. This is especially true when it comes to Iran’s military structure.

CommandEleven wrote an in-depth study into Iran’s Mosaic Defense doctrine. With a distributed, decentralized command structure, defeating or decapitating an army becomes significantly more difficult. This approach was shaped by lessons learned during the Iran-Iraq War and repeated Israeli strikes.

Iran cannot defeat a foreign army through conventional means—but it can wear down and defeat that same army using Mosaic Defense.

IRAN’S TRUE POWER STRUCTURE

When most people talk about Iran’s military, they point to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which holds more real power than both the Iranian government and the conventional army.

The IRGC generates billions through internal and external operations, funding black ops and expanding influence. Over time, it has developed a highly effective asymmetric warfare model—one that many nations still fail to fully understand.

Most analysts mention proxy groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. But they often overlook key elements of Iran’s broader network:

• Liwa Fatemiyoun (Afghanistan)

• Liwa Zainabiyoun (Pakistan)

• Popular Mobilization Units (Iraq)

• Kata’ib Hezbollah (Iraq)

And most critically—they ignore the Basij Force.

THE BASIJ FORCE: ORIGINS AND PURPOSE

The Basij Force was established in November 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the creation of a 20-million-person “people’s army.”

Its mission: defend Iran against both foreign invasion and internal dissent.

This is not just a militia. It is the regime’s paramilitary enforcement arm, designed to be mobilized at any time.

COMMAND STRUCTURE

The Basij command structure is simple but effective:

• Supreme Leader

• IRGC Commander-in-Chief

• Basij Commander

Iran is divided into 32 IRGC provincial commands, each overseeing Basij battalions within its area of operations.

SIZE AND SCALE

The true size of the Basij remains intentionally opaque.

• 90,000 active members (CSIS estimate, 2005)

• 300,000 reservists

• Up to 1 million rapid mobilization

Internal sources suggest the real number fluctuates between 1.5 and 3 million personnel, organized into approximately 2,500 battalions.

This force operates independently but in coordination with the IRGC and Iranian military.

TACTICAL STRUCTURE

The Basij is divided into four primary formations:

Imam Ali Battalions
Elite, heavily armed anti-riot and internal security units. First responders to urban unrest and infrastructure protection.

Imam Hussein Battalions
Combat veterans trained alongside IRGC Ground Forces. Focused on repelling invasions and conducting asymmetric warfare.

Ashura (Male) & al-Zahra (Female) Battalions
Neighborhood-level units responsible for local defense, surveillance, and ideological enforcement.

Beit-al-Moqadas Units
Rapid-deployment reserves used to reinforce frontline units during crises.

Additional branches embed within schools, universities, healthcare, and government sectors to monitor and influence society.

A NATIONWIDE SURVEILLANCE MILITIA

This is a force of millions—trained, ideologically driven, and embedded across every level of Iranian society.

They are present in:

• Cities and villages

• Schools and universities

• Mosques and government offices

• Factories and infrastructure sites

Mosques serve as command-and-control hubs for intelligence, recruitment, and surveillance.

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MEMBERSHIP TIERS

Basij membership is structured into three levels:

Tier 1: Volunteers
Unpaid but receive state benefits, job preference, and social advantages.

Tier 2: Active Members
Uniformed personnel who complete a 45-day training program combining ideology and military basics.

Tier 3: IRGC-Selected Members
Elite tier integrated with IRGC leadership and military pathways.

ROLES AND OPERATIONS

The Basij performs multiple roles simultaneously:

• Internal surveillance and informant networks

• Riot control and suppression of dissent

• Combat operations (Iran-Iraq War, Syria)

• Counterinsurgency against ethnic groups

• Disaster relief and civil services

• Foreign deployments within the Axis of Resistance

They are both a security force and a social control mechanism.

TRAINING AND INDOCTRINATION

Basij members receive two primary forms of training:

Ideological-Political Training
Focuses on absolute loyalty to the regime. Requires ongoing re-certification.

Combat & Tactical Training
Ranges from basic instruction to advanced capabilities including:

• Riot suppression

• Urban warfare

• Crowd control

• CBRN defense

DECENTRALIZED STRUCTURE: BUILT LIKE A SLEEPER NETWORK

The Basij hierarchy is structured as follows:

Federal → Provincial → Cities → Districts → Neighborhood Bases → Cells

This mirrors how sleeper cell networks are organized globally.

Members are trained to blend into civilian life, making them difficult to identify.

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WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

There are three reasons this matters:

1. In the event of a U.S. ground invasion, the Basij would be among the first forces encountered across Iran’s terrain.

2. Elements of the Basij are deployed internationally, including in Latin America and potentially within the United States for training and operational roles.

3. Iran has successfully built a multi-generational citizen militia embedded within society—raising the question of whether such a model could exist elsewhere.

THE BIGGER QUESTION

Iran has operated a decentralized, ideologically driven militia network inside its own borders since 1979.

That means decades of recruitment, indoctrination, and deployment capability worldwide.

The real question is not whether this model works.

The question is: how far has it already spread?

WHAT COMES NEXT

We will address that question—and whether a similar model could exist in the United States—in Part II.

Khalid Muhammad
Founder & Executive Director
CommandEleven

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Your employer becomes the compliance officer in the third phase. We already live in a world where HR departments enforce ideological standards that go far beyond the workplace. Crisis conditions normalize accelerated enforcement. Noncompliant employees will be identified, flagged, and removed - all under the banner of keeping the organization safe.

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Joe Kent resigned yesterday as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center

That should stop every American in their tracks.

Not because resignations in Washington are rare. They’re not.

Not because bureaucrats don’t posture. They do.

But because Joe Kent is not some anonymous suit playing politics from behind a desk.

Joe is a good man. I know him personally.

He’s a former Green Beret. He served in the intelligence community. He understands the cost of war in ways most people talking about this issue never will. He’s carried the burden of service. He’s lived in the threat environment. He has seen what most Americans only hear about in headlines.

And in one of the highest counterterrorism positions in the United States government, his job was not to guess. His job was to assess.

As Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe sat in a role designed to fuse intelligence from across the U.S. intelligence community and ensure decision-makers had the clearest possible picture of threats to the homeland. The NCTC is part of the ODNI structure and is responsible for integrating and analyzing terrorism intelligence from across agencies.  

That matters.

Because when a man in that seat resigns and says, publicly, that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation,” Americans should ask a very simple question:

Then why are we at war?

Reuters, AP, and ABC all report that Kent resigned today over the administration’s Iran war policy and that he explicitly said he could not support it “in good conscience.”  

That is not a casual statement.

That is not a partisan statement.

That is a man with access, context, and experience saying: this doesn’t add up.

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The Lie of Clean War

There is a dangerous fantasy in modern American foreign policy.

We keep pretending that if the strike is precise enough, the target is important enough, and the operation is clean enough, then the consequences will be limited, controlled, and temporary.

That’s not how war works.

Especially not in the Middle East.

You can kill a commander. You can destroy a facility. You can degrade a military capability. You can even remove a leader.

What you cannot do is bomb an ideology out of existence.

If the ideology is jihad, there is no neat calendar date for when the war ends.

There is no ribbon-cutting ceremony for peace.

There is no press conference where evil says, “Understood. We’re done now.”

That’s not how radicalized movements work. That’s not how blood feuds work. That’s not how generational grievance works. And it sure as hell isn’t how revenge works in honor cultures shaped by decades of conflict.

America can declare an operation over.

That doesn’t mean the war is over.

It just means the next phase has begun.

And the next phase is often the one that shows up in airports, embassies, soft targets, lone-wolf plots, proxies, cyber disruption, and the radicalization of young men who grew up watching their fathers, uncles, and grandfathers die under Western bombs.

That is not sympathy for the enemy.

That is strategic reality.

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America First… Or Just Another Slogan?

This administration ran on ending endless wars.

A lot of Americans supported that because they were tired of watching our sons fight wars with no defined end state, no accountability, and no honest explanation of what “victory” even means.

That frustration is legitimate.

So when the same political movement that promised restraint suddenly escalates a conflict with no obvious off-ramp, people are right to ask whether “America First” was a governing principle… or just a campaign slogan.

That is not weakness.

That is not disloyalty.

That is citizenship.

And if Joe Kent - someone inside the machine, someone trusted enough to hold one of the top counterterrorism posts in the country - looks at the intelligence picture and concludes there was no imminent threat, then the burden of proof is now on the people who chose escalation.

Not on the American people.

Not on veterans.

Not on grieving Gold Star families.

Not on the men who already paid for Washington’s mistakes in blood.

The Question Nobody Wants to Ask

If there was no imminent threat, then what actually drove this?

That question makes people uncomfortable.

Good.

It should.

Because if U.S. policy is being shaped by foreign influence, ideological pressure, lobbying power, media narratives, or the emotional momentum of alliance politics rather than a clear and immediate threat to the American homeland, then we have a profound moral and constitutional problem.

That does not mean every criticism of a foreign ally is righteous.

It does not mean every theory floating online is true.

And it certainly does not mean we should descend into lazy scapegoating, tribalism, or conspiracy.

It means something simpler:

America’s sons should never be sent to die for a war that has not been honestly explained to the American people.

That should not be controversial.

That should be the bare minimum.

The Biblical Problem: Vengeance Masquerading as Wisdom

This is where the issue gets bigger than geopolitics.

This is a biblical issue.

Because nations, like men, are tempted by the same things:

• pride

• fear

• vengeance

• self-righteousness

• the illusion of control

Scripture is full of warnings against leaders who act without wisdom, without restraint, and without reverence for the consequences of their power.

“Blessed are the peacemakers…” (Matthew 5:9)

That verse doesn’t mean weakness. It doesn’t mean surrender. It doesn’t mean refusing to confront evil.

It means peace is not made by impulse.

It is not made by ego.

It is not made by vengeance wearing a uniform.

And Proverbs tells us:

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

That may be the most relevant verse in American foreign policy.

Because there is always a way that seems right in the moment:

• Hit them first

• Decapitate leadership

• Show strength

• Reassert deterrence

• Send the message

And sometimes force is necessary. Sometimes it is righteous. Sometimes it is unavoidable.

But if there is no imminent threat…

If there is no clear constitutional mandate…

If there is no defined end state…

If there is no realistic plan for what comes after…

Then what we are calling strength may actually be recklessness.

And what we are calling justice may actually be vengeance.

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The Men Who Know the Cost

One thing I’ve learned in and around this world is simple:

The men most eager for war are usually the men least likely to pay for it.

The men who understand the cost tend to speak with more caution.

That doesn’t make them cowards.

It makes them honest.

Joe Kent knows what war costs. He knows what terrorism looks like. He knows what retaliation looks like. He knows what intelligence looks like when it’s real and when narratives start outrunning facts.

So when a man like that walks away, Americans should pay attention.

Not because he is infallible.

But because good men do not usually leave high office in the middle of a war unless they believe something has gone deeply wrong.

What Happens Next

If this war continues, the military may achieve tactical wins.

That’s what our military does. Better than anyone on earth.

Targets will be hit. Networks will be disrupted. Capabilities will be degraded.

But the question was never whether America can hit targets.

The question is whether the people sending those orders understand the second- and third-order effects.

Do they understand what happens when ideology outlives the strike package?

Do they understand what happens when martyrdom becomes recruitment?

Do they understand what happens when domestic security gets harder because foreign policy got sloppier?

Do they understand what happens when Americans can’t move abroad freely, when embassies harden, when travel risk increases, when proxies activate, when homegrown radicals feel called to action?

War may be “over” for Washington long before it is over for the rest of us.

Final Thought

A nation is judged not just by its strength, but by its restraint.

Not just by what it can do, but by whether it should.

Joe Kent’s resignation should force a national pause.

If a man in one of the highest counterterrorism roles in America is willing to say, publicly, that Iran was not an imminent threat, then every elected official, every journalist, every veteran, every pastor, and every citizen should be asking the same question:

Were we led into another war that should never have happened?

And if the answer is yes, then the issue is bigger than Iran.

It means America still hasn’t learned the lesson.

We keep mistaking power for wisdom.

We keep mistaking vengeance for justice.

We keep mistaking action for leadership.

And eventually, nations that refuse restraint don’t just export chaos.

They bring it home.

Stay vigilant,
Mike Glover
Founder

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The 2011 Arbabsiar plot is the most important single data point in understanding the realistic potential for an Iranian-directed terrorist attack on the United States homeland. It is not important because it succeeded. It is important because it failed for exactly one reason: the Mexican cartel contact that Mansoor Arbabsiar recruited to carry out the operation was a DEA informant. Remove that one contingency and the plan proceeds.

A sitting Saudi ambassador to the United States is assassinated in a crowded Washington, DC restaurant during lunch service. American civilians die. And the operational architecture responsible is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, acting through a Texas-based Iranian-American asset, using Los Zetas cartel logistics purchased for $1.5 million.

That is not a theoretical threat scenario.

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It is a documented conspiracy that reached operational maturity before law enforcement interdicted it.

Understanding exactly how it was built — and how it would be built differently, more effectively, and at greater scale in the current environment — is not an academic exercise.

It is a baseline threat assessment that should anchor every serious analysis of Iranian capabilities and intent against the United States.

This threat matrix provides that baseline.

It then applies it to the current operational environment — Epic Fury, direct US-Iran military conflict, degraded IRGC command structure, 31 autonomous regional commanders — and arrives at a sober conclusion: the conditions that made the Arbabsiar plot possible in 2011 are more favorable to Iranian operational planning today, not less.

The Plot: Operational Anatomy

Origins and Recruitment

The Arbabsiar plot originated, in late 2010 or early 2011, when Mansoor Arbabsiar — a 56-year-old naturalized US citizen of Iranian origin, residing in Corpus Christi, Texas, and running a series of failing small businesses — was recruited by a cousin who was an IRGC officer. The cousin introduced Arbabsiar to Gholam Shakuri, identified in the federal indictment as a senior official of the IRGC Quds Force, and to a second, unnamed Quds Force officer whose role was more senior still.

The operational idea was straightforward, if audacious: recruit a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, on American soil. The target was not selected arbitrarily. Al-Jubeir was one of the most prominent symbols of the Saudi-American relationship that Tehran had identified as a direct threat to Iranian regional interests. His assassination in Washington would simultaneously humiliate the United States on its own territory, terrorize the Gulf Arab diplomatic community, and deliver a psychological blow to the Saudi government at a moment of heightened Iranian-Saudi sectarian tension in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

The choice of a cartel execution mechanism was equally deliberate. Iranian intelligence had assessed that the Quds Force lacked the domestic operational infrastructure in the United States to carry out a high-profile assassination without the operation being traced back to Iranian handlers. But Los Zetas — one of Mexico’s most brutally effective trafficking organizations, which had by 2011 established documented operational reach inside the United States — could theoretically be acquired for cash, much like Tren de Aragua (TdA) today.

The tradecraft logic was: buy the capability through a deniable commercial transaction.

If the operation was successful, the murder looked like a cartel killing. If it was interdicted, the connection to Tehran required an investigative chain that might not be publicly established before the political damage was already done.

The Operational Network

Mansoor Arbabsiar served as the primary asset and point of contact. His role was not to carry out the assassination himself. His role was to be the interface (2nd tier handler) between the IRGC handlers in Iran and the cartel contact in Mexico — leveraging his American residency, his US passport, and his ability to move freely between the United States, Iran, and Mexico without triggering immediate intelligence community attention.

Gholam Shakuri was Arbabsiar’s primary Quds Force handler. Shakuri maintained communication with Arbabsiar through secure phone calls and provided operational direction, including the specific authorization to proceed once a reliable cartel contact appeared to have been secured. Shakuri’s role was not passive management. He was an active operational participant who approved the funding structure, sanctioned the target, and was in direct communication with Arbabsiar as the plot developed.

Brigadier General Abdul Reza Shahlai is widely assessed by US intelligence to have been the architect of the plan at the IRGC command level. Shahlai was not named in the initial public indictment, but was identified in subsequent US government actions, including a State Department terrorism designation and a $15 million reward offer. His role was strategic conception and command authorization — the decision to attempt a cartel-facilitated assassination on American soil was not a field improvisation by Shakuri. It was an approved Quds Force operation with senior command backing.

The cartel contact — presented to Arbabsiar as a Los Zetas-connected individual capable of organizing the assassination — was in fact a DEA confidential informant. This single fact is the entire reason the plot failed.

Not disrupted by sophisticated SIGINT.

Not interdicted by FBI surveillance of Iranian-American networks.

It was stopped by an informant who happened to be in place when Arbabsiar made his approach.

Target Selection

Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir was selected for a combination of symbolic and strategic reasons. As Saudi Arabia’s envoy to Washington, he embodied the US-Saudi security partnership that had become the primary external constraint on Iranian regional ambitions. He was a high-profile public figure — a regular fixture in Washington diplomatic and media circles — whose death on American soil would create maximum political shock. The choice of a diplomatic target also triggered Article 22 of the Vienna Convention, potentially dragging other Gulf Arab states into the political fallout and amplifying the coercive message to Riyadh.

The preferred attack venue was a specific Washington, DC restaurant where al-Jubeir was known to dine regularly. The method discussed was a bomb — a device to be detonated in the restaurant during lunch service. Arbabsiar was recorded telling the DEA informant that other patrons would likely be killed and that this was acceptable collateral damage. The IRGC handlers, when briefed on the probability of civilian casualties, reportedly did not object.

This point is worth holding. The IRGC sanctioned a mass casualty attack on a civilian restaurant in a major American city in order to kill one Saudi diplomat.

The constraint on the operation was not moral. It was logistical and financial.

Funding

The financial architecture of the plot was simple. The IRGC agreed to pay $1.5 million to the cartel for the assassination. Half was to be paid upfront — $500,000, transferred to a bank account specified by the DEA informant. The other $1 million was to follow upon completion of the operation.

The $500,000 payment was actually transferred to an account controlled by the DEA. Its origin was traced to Iranian-linked financial intermediaries using wire transfer channels that routed funds through third-country accounts. The transaction demonstrated that the IRGC had established the financial infrastructure to move operational cash into the United States through mechanisms that cleared standard banking compliance filters.

At $1.5 million total for a high-profile assassination, the Arbabsiar plot was extraordinarily cheap for the strategic effect it was intended to produce. The IRGC was purchasing a capability — cartel operational reach inside the United States — that it could not replicate through its own domestic infrastructure, at a price that represented a fraction of a single day’s Quds Force external operations budget.

Interdiction and Prosecution

Arbabsiar was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on September 29, 2011, upon returning from a trip to Mexico, where he had met with the DEA informant. He confessed almost immediately and cooperated extensively with investigators. His rapid cooperation, essentially talked without prompting, is itself an operational data point.

He was not a trained intelligence officer.

He was an asset: a civilian with family IRGC connections, recruited for a specific operation, with no counter-interrogation training.

Arbabsiar pled guilty in October 2012 to conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism. He was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. Shakuri was indicted in absentia and has never been apprehended. He remains in Iran. Shahlai has never faced charges in a US court and continues to operate from within Iran with a $15 million reward on his head.

The operational failure rate of the plot: one out of one attempts.

But the operational failure was not a capability failure.

It was a fortune-in-the-informant failure.

Those are different things.

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What Failed, What Didn’t, and Why It Matters

The Arbabsiar plot is frequently characterized as amateurish. The characterization is superficially accurate and analytically misleading.

Arbabsiar was, by all accounts, a poor operative - disorganized, incautious, and catastrophically wrong in his assessment of his cartel contact.

These are real operational deficiencies.

The plot, however, was not amateurish in its concept.

Its concept was sophisticated:

• use a deniable civilian asset to bridge the gap between IRGC command and a criminal organization capable of executing violence inside the United States

• pay for the capability through financial intermediaries that obscure the state-sponsor nexus

• select a target whose assassination achieves strategic objectives that no military operation could plan for mass casualties as an acceptable byproduct

This is professional operational planning at the strategic level. The failure was in the execution asset, not in the design.

The IRGC learned specific lessons from the failure.

It learned that:

• civilian assets without professional tradecraft training are a liability

• cartel acquisition approach requires thorough vetting of the intermediary before commitment

• the United States law enforcement response, which was rapid, thorough, and publicly prosecuted, meant that future operations required better operational security discipline

What Tehran did not do was abandon the concept.

The Quds Force’s ongoing assassination campaign against US officials, current and former, documented across 2024 and 2025, demonstrates that the strategic intent has not been moderated.

The operational apparatus has evolved.

The Modified Plot: 2026 Environment

The operational environment in March 2026 is fundamentally different from the environment in which the Arbabsiar plot was conceived. It is different in ways that make an IRGC-directed attack on the United States homeland more likely, more operationally sophisticated, and more difficult to interdict than the 2011 attempt.

Four structural changes define the current environment.

Command Decentralization: 31 Autonomous Regional Commanders

The most consequential operational change for US threat assessment purposes is the decentralization of IRGC command authority following Epic Fury strikes on Iranian command nodes. The intelligence assessment of 31 autonomous regional IRGC commanders now operating with degraded central direction from Tehran represents a fundamental shift in the threat model.

In 2011, the Arbabsiar plot required authorization from Quds Force command — specifically from Shahlai at the senior command level. That authorization chain was a constraint: it meant the operation was controlled, deliberate, and tied to a central decision-making process that weighed risks. Thirty-one autonomous commanders operating without full central oversight means that the authorization constraint is degraded. Individual commanders with resources, assets, and a sufficient grievance can potentially initiate operations that neither reflect Tehran’s current strategic calculus nor would be sanctioned under normal command discipline.

The threat profile this creates is not a single, strategically calibrated IRGC operation against the United States. It is a distribution of potential actors with varying degrees of ideological commitment, operational resources, and risk tolerance — some of whom may assess that retaliation against the United States is both justified and achievable regardless of Tehran’s current diplomatic or military posture.

Escalation Doctrine and Activation Threshold

In August 2025, Iran had threatened to activate its Western Hemisphere network in response to direct US military action has been overtaken by events.

Operation Epic Fury is not a threat of military action.

It is ongoing military action.

The activation threshold has been crossed.

The specific mechanism for that activation — which assets, in which geographic locations, against which targets, at what timing — is the operational question.

But the strategic decision to activate, if Iran is operating under its stated doctrine, has already been made or is under active consideration.

The Arbabsiar-style operation is no longer a contingency plan. It is a live operational option that has been promoted up the priority queue by the current conflict.

Enhanced Cartel Infrastructure and the Current Border Environment

The cartel infrastructure available to an IRGC operational planner in 2026 is more capable, more deeply embedded in the United States, and more diversified than it was in 2011.

Three developments are particularly significant.

First, the fentanyl precursor supply chain has created a new layer of Iranian-linked commercial relationship with Mexican trafficking organizations. IRGC-affiliated chemical and financial intermediaries are documented participants in the precursor supply chain that feeds Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG fentanyl production. This is not an operational alliance. It is a commercial relationship — but commercial relationships create personal contacts, demonstrated reliability, and a basis for deeper operational cooperation that did not exist when the Arbabsiar plot was conceived.

Second, the capacity of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG to operate inside the United States has grown substantially since 2011. Both organizations maintain domestic cells in dozens of American cities, with personnel who are physically resident inside the United States and capable of providing local logistics, surveillance, and — if required — violence. The 2011 Arbabsiar plot relied on the premise that Los Zetas could send an execution team across the border. An updated version of the same plot has more options: cartel-affiliated personnel are already in place.

Third, the US-Mexico border environment has been politically and operationally disrupted by the fentanyl and migration crisis to the extent that intelligence coverage of cross-border movement is stressed. The same channels that move fentanyl north move people in both directions. The Arbabsiar case established that the IRGC is aware of this. A more capable operation would exploit it.

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Operational Sophistication: Lessons Applied

A 2026 version of the Arbabsiar plot would not make the same operational mistakes.

The core operational failures — a cartel contact who was an informant, an asset who confessed immediately upon arrest, a financial transfer traceable to Iranian-linked accounts — are individually addressable with better tradecraft.

A professionally designed 2026 operation would:

• use a vetted, tested intermediary rather than a cold approach to a criminal contact

• use cryptocurrency (specifically USDT on Tron, the same infrastructure already documented in use by IRGC-linked operators in Venezuela) for financial transfers rather than wire transactions

• use a US-based operational asset with professional counter-interrogation training rather than a civilian businessman recruited for his family connections

All three of these improvements are available to the IRGC.

The Quds Force’s Unit 840 has been running sophisticated external operations against Israeli, Saudi, European, and American targets for a decade. The tradecraft level demonstrated in the MI5-documented twenty-plus Iranian-facilitated plots in the UK in 2025 is categorically more sophisticated than what Arbabsiar represented.

The Complex Coordinated Attack Scenario

The final and most consequential analytical question is not whether the IRGC can replicate the Arbabsiar plot more successfully. It is whether the Arbabsiar model can be scaled into a complex, coordinated, multi-target attack that produces strategic rather than merely tactical effect.

The answer, based on the documented capabilities and the current operational environment, is yes — and the architectural components for such an attack exist in the network that is already in place.

Target Set Architecture

A complex coordinated attack on the United States would not target a single individual at a restaurant. It would target a set of locations and individuals whose simultaneous disruption produces a strategic message: that the United States is not safe from Iranian retaliation on its own territory, and that the cost of Epic Fury extends beyond the battlefield.

The most plausible target set includes:

• senior government officials and their known public venues

• critical infrastructure nodes in major metropolitan areas where Hezbollah pre-positioned networks have been documented by the FBI

• high-visibility symbolic targets (financial district locations, transportation hubs) whose disruption generates media amplification disproportionate to the physical damage

• drawing on the cartel domestic cell infrastructure — targets in American cities where cartel-affiliated personnel are in place and can provide local logistics

The Cartel Roles: Division of Labor

In a complex coordinated attack scenario, different cartel organizations would contribute different capabilities based on their respective competencies.

Sinaloa Cartel — the most globally connected of the Mexican trafficking organizations, with financial networks that reach across multiple continents and a demonstrated capacity for sophisticated logistics — provides the financial infrastructure component. Sinaloa’s money laundering operations, which run through cryptocurrency exchanges, shell companies in multiple jurisdictions, and the US domestic banking system, can move funds that look like narco-trafficking proceeds rather than state-sponsored terrorism financing. An IRGC operational payment routed through Sinaloa’s financial infrastructure is materially harder to identify as an Iranian state payment than a wire transfer from an Iranian-linked account.

CJNG (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación) — the most militarily aggressive of the current major Mexican cartels, with demonstrated willingness to engage Mexican military and law enforcement in direct armed confrontation — provides the domestic operational capability component. CJNG maintains cells in more than 35 US cities as of 2025 law enforcement assessments. Its personnel are familiar with surveillance, evasion of law enforcement, and organized violence at a professional level. An operation that requires armed action inside the United States does not need to import personnel across the border if CJNG domestic cells are available for hire.

Los Zetas remnants and successor organizations (CDN, CJNG sub-factions) — the northeastern corridor organizations with the most developed human smuggling infrastructure along the Texas and Arizona border — provide the personnel movement component. If an operation requires moving IRGC-trained operatives from Mexico into the United States without going through documented border crossings, the smuggling infrastructure of northeastern cartel organizations is the mechanism.

The operational logic of the division of labor is:

• Sinaloa handles money

• CJNG handles local execution assets

• Los Zetas (northeastern corridor organizations) handle cross-border personnel movement if needed

The IRGC handler — operating from outside the United States, communicating through encrypted channels, with financial transfers routed through cryptocurrency intermediaries — never enters US territory at all.

The Hezbollah Domestic Network Component

The cartel component of the attack is the logistics layer. The intelligence and target development layer is provided by a different part of the network: the Hezbollah pre-positioned infrastructure inside the United States that FBI and NCTC assessments have documented for two decades.

Hezbollah maintains individuals in the United States who have been trained in surveillance, target development, and operational planning. They are not currently activated. They are in a persistent stand-by state — living ordinary civilian lives, maintaining cover, waiting for an activation order that, under normal operational circumstances, never comes. Under a direct US-Iran conflict scenario, the activation threshold changes. The FBI has acknowledged, under congressional testimony, that it maintains active investigations into Hezbollah-linked individuals in the United States.

The number of such individuals who are not under active investigation is, by definition, unknown.

In a complex coordinated attack scenario, the Hezbollah domestic network provides: pre-attack surveillance of high-value targets; real-time intelligence on law enforcement response patterns; and potentially, individuals capable of direct action if the cartel execution component encounters problems. This is not speculative. It reflects the documented architecture of Hezbollah’s global pre-positioned network, applied to the United States geographic context.

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The Attack Sequence

A conceptual attack sequence for a complex coordinated operation derived from the Arbabsiar model would proceed as follows.

Phase 1 (months 3–6 before execution): IRGC handler outside the United States — operating from Venezuela, Lebanon, or a third-country safe haven — identifies operational objectives and makes contact with cartel intermediary through an established commercial relationship (precursor supply chain, cryptocurrency exchange). The financial arrangement is structured through USDT transactions that route through OTC brokers in Caracas or the TBA, making the funds appear as narco-trafficking proceeds.

Phase 2 (months 2–3 before execution): Target development. Hezbollah-linked domestic assets, operating under standing surveillance cover, develop detailed intelligence on target movement patterns, security arrangements, and vulnerability windows. This intelligence is transmitted to the handler through encrypted communication channels that do not require direct contact between the US-based surveillance asset and the cartel execution element.

Phase 3 (weeks 2–4 before execution): The CJNG domestic execution cell is activated and given target packages developed in Phase 2. Cell members, who are already in the United States and have no documented terrorism nexus, acquire materials locally through channels that produce no suspicious purchase patterns. If additional specialized personnel are required, the northeastern corridor smuggling infrastructure moves them across the border during the pre-execution window.

Phase 4 (execution day): Simultaneous or near-simultaneous attacks at 3–5 locations in 2–3 American cities. The simultaneity is the force multiplier — it overwhelms the initial law enforcement response, creates the media saturation that turns a tactical event into a strategic crisis, and makes attribution more complicated in the immediate aftermath.

Phase 5 (post-attack): Iran denies all involvement. The attribution chain — IRGC handler outside the US, cryptocurrency financial transfers, cartel execution cells with no direct Iranian contact — requires investigative work that takes months and produces a narrative that is inherently less clean than “Iran attacked America.”

Tehran calculates that the combination of deniability and the US-Iran conflict context gives it operational room that the 2011 environment would not have provided.

Assessment and Conclusions

The Arbabsiar plot is not a historical artifact. It is a design document.

It documents that the IRGC Quds Force, at the command level, made a strategic decision to attempt a mass casualty attack on US soil using cartel logistics. It documents that the financial infrastructure for that operation was in place and functional. It documents that the asset network — civilian Iranian-Americans with IRGC family connections — is a real recruitment pool. And it documents that the single point of failure was an informant who happened to be in place when the approach was made.

In 2026, the strategic conditions that made the Arbabsiar plot attractive to IRGC planners are more acute, not less. The United States is in direct military conflict with Iran. The IRGC’s command structure is decentralized, creating actors with both motivation and reduced central accountability. The cartel infrastructure available for operational acquisition is more capable and more domestically embedded. The cryptocurrency financial rails are more mature and harder to trace. The Hezbollah pre-positioned domestic network is a standing capability that has been maintained specifically for escalation scenarios.

The FBI has been tracking this. The NCTC’s September 2025 warning about AQ rebuilding for a major attack — which also noted the Iranian threat landscape — reflects the intelligence community’s awareness that the threat is live. MI5’s documentation of twenty-plus Iranian-facilitated plots in the UK in 2025 provides a validated operational tempo that translates directly to a Western Hemisphere threat estimate.

The Arbabsiar case failed because of one informant. The baseline probability of a 2026 repeat operation featuring the same fatal single point of failure is not zero. It is also not the question that should drive threat planning.

The question is: what is the probability that a more sophisticated version of the same concept — one that has had fifteen years to learn from the 2011 failure and is now operating in a direct conflict environment — encounters exactly the right informant at exactly the right moment before it reaches execution?

The answer is not reassuring.

Stay vigilant,
Khalid Muhammad, Founder
CommandEleven Intelligence

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Your employer becomes the compliance officer in the third phase. We already live in a world where HR departments enforce ideological standards that go far beyond the workplace. Crisis conditions normalize accelerated enforcement. Noncompliant employees will be identified, flagged, and removed - all under the banner of keeping the organization safe.

While most of the media and talking heads provide opinions and thoughts on the terror attack after it happens, with a preponderance of evidence to argue, that is armchair quarterbacking. Once the attack happens, the intelligence agencies have failed and breaking down the attack is the only thing left.

Over the past 14 months, there have been:

• the New Orleans terror attack, which was brushed under the rug, without any real investigation

• the “Halloween plot,” which brought minor arrests within the United States, but the network was left unhampered due to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), being unable to coordinate the intelligence gathering

• the arrests of “terrorists” in Los Angeles planning to blow up a bridge, which also disappeared

Being able to identify a terror attack before it happens is a skill very few individuals and organizations possess.

This article will give you the signals, signs, you need to identify so you can protect yourself and your family when the attack happens, when you are on the X.

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DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps keep our work independent. Thank you for your support.Language Becomes More Operational Than Ideological

In normal-state periods, the dominant content type is ideological and propagandised to recruit and motivate members to the terror group, whereas operational content appears in proportionately lower volume.

This ratio changes when operational activity (terror attack) is approaching, where calls to action become more specific, urgency framing escalates, and timeline language shifts from indefinite to immediate.

This shift is consistent and detectable against a baseline. Detecting it requires monitoring, quantitative content classification, and language-specific capability in original-language materials.

What we are talking about is known in the intelligence world as “chatter", and when chatter increases, most intelligence agencies become increasingly more active.

The problem for intelligence agencies is being able to distinguish chatter from real intelligence.

This signal typically appears four to eight weeks before operational activity becomes visible.

Supporter Channels Shift from Public to Encrypted

What’s significant is not the existence of encrypted channels - it’s the migration: when substantive guidance to active participants, specific operational coordination, and financial instructions that were previously in accessible channels start disappearing.

Detecting the migration requires knowing what was in the public channels before. The signal is only visible if you’ve been monitoring consistently enough to notice that content is disappearing, not just what content is appearing.

For the past 3 years, terror groups have been active on all social media platforms, from Facebook and X to Instagram and Bluesky, making it easy to track, but difficult to infiltrate. Many groups have also held private X Spaces with members without being banned by the platform. In the past joining these groups was easy once you found them, but for the past 2 years, for operational security (OpSec), these is a clear vetting process, including phone calls and in person meetings before people are allowed into the groups.

These same terror groups are active on the following encrypted platforms Telegram, SimpleX, Threema and some are using Signal.

This signal typically appears three to six weeks before operational activity.

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While the Pakistan Air Force and UAVs launched attacks on 7 terrorist camps and training facilities spread along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Taliban was awakened to the fact that Pakistan was not being facetious in its threats of punitive damage.

As expected, the Taliban cried foul claiming innocent civilians had been targeted, terrorist right organizations and pro-Taliban political parties in Pakistan were quick to condemn the comprehensive strikes on the terror camps.

Pakistan’s Kinetic Strikes on Afghanistan

In October 2025, Pakistan launched a multi-day campaign with both the Pakistan Air Force and UAVs targeting terror camps along the border and carrying out decapitation strikes in Kabul, Kandahar and other areas of Afghanistan where Taliban leadership was known to be hiding. While the decapitation strikes were not successful, the number of terror camps that were decimated from the Pakistan border to Kandahar represented Pakistan’s first campaign, which was so extensive against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), its leadership and the Afghanistan Taliban leadership.

The strikes inside Afghanistan were only stopped when Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and China involved themselves as mediators, both publicly and in backchannels. Pakistan held to a basic demand – stop the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and their affiliated groups from crossing the border to attack Pakistan or face consequences.

Most of our regular followers on social media and viewers on Survival Dispatch News will recall during the October 2025 kinetic strikes on terror camps in Afghanistan, CommandEleven argued, first, the cessation of kinetic strikes was a mistake. The Taliban was stuck in a position where they would either give up their support for the multiple terror groups targeting Pakistan from Afghanistan’s soil, with Taliban support.

Those terror groups included, but are not limited to, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group (HGBG), the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), Majlis-e-Askari Karwan (MEK), Ittihad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan (IUMP), the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA, and all their affiliates and paper organizations, created to strike Pakistan without being claimed by the major terror groups.

All of these groups have deep inroads with the Taliban leadership, support from al Qaeda and Haqqani Network command based in Afghanistan.

Since the October 2025 kinetic strikes, the TTP, HGBG and affiliated groups have carried out guerrilla warfare attacks on Pakistan’s military convoys, installations and soldiers, as well as law enforcement spread across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Baluchistan. In the past month, ISKP became active again, targeting a Shia Mosque in Islamabad, the nation’s capital.

Recent Kinetic Attack

On 22 February, Pakistan’s selective and intelligence-based kinetic strikes were directed at the following targets in Paktika, Nangarhar, and Khost:

- Urgun and Murgha (Paktika province) – 2 TTP bases and another unit based in a local clinic

- Barmal – a madrassa (religious school) being used by the Taliban’s “Special Brigade of Mansoori Corps”

- Khogyanu (Nangarhar Province) – a border installation was neutralized

- Barmal (Khost Province) – a training facility known to be used to train TTP, Haqqani Network and al Qaeda operatives, was neutralized

- Ghani Khelo (Nangarhar Province)

- Murgha (Paktika province) – the residence of Akhtar Khalil, a key TTP planner, trainer, commander and head of the Majlis-e-Askari Karwan (MEK). Akhtar Khalil, along with 23 terrorists, was killed in the strike

- Khost Province - 1^st Infantry Division of the Taliban better known as the 2^nd Brigade of the Khalid bin Walid Corps, based out of Kunduz province

- Bihsud (Nangarhar Province) – 2^nd Public Order Battalion of the Taliban

The strikes successfully neutralized over 90 TTP, ISKP, HGBG, and AQ commanders, among the hundreds of dead terrorists in the camps. 3 AQ commanders, who were recently moved from Baghlan province to this area are also missing.

It should also be noted the strikes came after the United Nations Security Council Analytical Support and Monitoring Team report reinforced Pakistan’s position, stating “a wide range of member states consistently report that ISKP, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), al Qaeda, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Jamaat Ansarullah, Ittihad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, and others are present in Afghanistan. Some groups have used or are continuing to use Afghanistan to plan and prepare external attacks.”

The Taliban Response

As expected, the Taliban leadership cried foul, claiming women and children were targeted (see examples above), and a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty for Pakistan to carry out kinetic strikes on their soil, promising retaliation for the attacks. In their initial statements, the Taliban attempted to paint the attacks as strikes on innocent civilians, apparently not coordinating their propaganda with the TTP, who issued a statement that all the camps struck were military camps being used to train terrorists.

During a supposed meeting, held in Kabul, on Monday, 23 Feb, Haibatullah Akhundzada, Sirajuddin Haqqani, Mullah Yaqoob, and Abdul Ghani Baradar, as well as other senior Taliban leaders in attendance. There are reports close aides of Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of the TTP, and Basher Zeb, the leader of the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) were also in attendance.

These are the same Taliban and terror group leadership that ran to bunkers when Pakistan started kinetic strikes in Afghanistan.

The whereabouts of Noor Wali Mehsud are still unknown after reports he was snatched after leaving a meeting of TTP commanders in Khost.

Sources claim the meeting turned into heated arguments.

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Mumbai was the first test, or example, of how the terrorists had modified their warfare capabilities. The attack, while planned by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was not a single group exercise. LeT ground assets spent close to 2 years carrying out surveillance and counter-intelligence activities in Mumbai, building a comprehensive understanding of:

• capabilities of law enforcement to react to a terror attack

• identifying ingress and attack locations where significant damage could be delivered before the attacker was neutralized

• defining a rally point (or siege location) that would deliver the greatest psychological impact both to India and globally

• understanding the number of terrorists needed to carry out the attack

With this information being gathered and continually transmitted to LeT leadership in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, LeT enlisted al Qaeda’s leadership in Afghanistan to organize the attack itself. Keeping in mind AQ has always believed a “spectacular attack” model, where they are able to deliver significant impact on a single target with limited loss of resources, the AQ leadership took over command and control of the operation.

When Mumbai was carried out, the ingres point from the ocean, selected for its vulnerability. Once ashore, the 10 terrorists split into 5 teams, dressed in denim jeans, t-shirts, and Hindu religious wristbands, so they blended in with the city’s population making detection more difficult. Each terrorist was carrying a backpack loaded with a folding stock AK-47 or AK-56, multiple pistols, grenades, rations, ammunition, and communication equipment, including satellite phones to maintain communications with their commanders in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Communications were used by the commanders monitoring live Indian news broadcasts and social media news feeds to gather live intelligence during the attack. First, they built a massive base of intelligence on the entire city of Mumbai, then they use Indian television and social media to provide their terrorists with up-to-date information to increase the complexity of the attack for local law enforcement.

Communications were also used to provide psychological encouragement to young, inexperienced terrorists to continuing killing civilians and law enforcement.

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The 5 teams were quickly moved through the city, with 2 teams taking taxis - one to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and hospital, the other to the Oberoi Trident Hotel. Both of these teams planted timer-based improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the taxis, while the other 3 teams moved on foot – one to the Nariman House, one to Leopold Café, and the other to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

In the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, 2 attackers calmly, over 20 minutes, calmly moved through passenger halls and terminals, shooting anyone they encountered. The Railway and local police were sorely under-equipped for what they were facing and were outgunned. When the terrorists left the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, 58 were dead and hundreds injured.

These attackers moved to the Cama and Albless Hospital, intermittently shooting Mumbai residents and structures, until they reached the hospital. Even though the hospital administration had received alert calls and locked the doors of wards, the terrorists moved through the hospital and terrorists were still able to kill guards, police, take hospital employees as hostages and exit the complex to move to their next target.

A second group of 2 terrorists attacked the Leopold Café, where they detonated a grenade and indiscriminately opened fire on the crowded café, killing ten and wounding dozens. This group left the café and move toward the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, their primary target. Eyewitnesses reported that one of the terrorists made a phone call prior to starting the attack, coordinating and getting instructions from their commanders.

While moving towards the hotel, this group placed an IED on a road, which failed to detonate.

In the Oberoi Trident Hotel, the terrorists entered the lobby, opening fire and throwing grenades into crowded restaurants and cafes within the hotel, before taking up positions in the higher floors of the hotel to continue their attack via indiscriminate gunfire and grenades. In the span of 15 minutes, 2 IEDS dropped outside the hotel detonated, making police entry into the hotel more difficult.

During these attacks, the Mumbai police, the Quick Response Force, and the Anti-Terrorism teams were all easily encountered by the terrorists and neutralized. From 9:20 pm on the November 26^th to 2:40 pm on November 28^th, the 2 terrorists were able to effectively counter police, Marine commandos, National Security Guard’s counter-terrorism team, killing 30 and wounding 20, before being neutralized.

At 9:44 pm on November 26^th, 2 terrorists entered the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and opened fire into the crowded lobbies and restaurants. At the same time, the 2 terrorists who had attacked the Leopold Café entered the hotel via another entrance and fired on those around the swimming pool area, before joining the first 2 terrorists to form a four-man assault team.

When police entered the hotel, they were met with assault fire and grenades pinning them down. With the commanders watching the entire attack on live television, the terrorists were told to start fires on the different floors of the hotel so the international media would broadcast the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was on fire.

The interesting part of this attack is the terrible response of the local law enforcement, even the Marine commandos and Indian Army, even though calls were made for urgent assistance and hostages being tied up and moved to secure locations under terrorist control.

From 9:44 pm on November 26^th to 8:50 am on November 29^th, the 4 terrorists were able to take over 150 hostages, killing 30 guests, staff and security personnel and wounding hundreds more, before being neutralized by the National Security Guard commandos.

What Do We Know …

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Iran is not a paper tiger. It is not a brittle regime one protest cycle away from collapse just because Western media gets excited when videos of burning hijabs hit social feeds. That fantasy is dangerous.

Iran is a hardened, adaptive, ideologically driven state that has spent decades preparing for one thing: survival through conflict. Its system is built to absorb pressure, crush dissent, destabilize enemies, and fight a long, ugly regional war that it believes favors patience, attrition, and political exhaustion.

That model has worked for them before, and they believe it will work again.

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Protest Crackdowns Are Not a Sign of Collapse

In recent weeks, Tehran blamed the Trump administration and the United States for “orchestrating” unrest that left more than 3,000 Iranians dead. The rhetoric was heated. Threats of retaliation were loud. Then the temperature appeared to drop.

That pause was not weakness.

It was classic Iranian strategy. Absorb the shock. Apply overwhelming internal force. Restore control. Posture externally. Then quietly reposition for the next phase.

Iran does not lash out emotionally. It stabilizes first, then recalculates.

Iran’s Military Is Built for Regional War, Not Parades

Iran’s conventional forces are often dismissed because they do not resemble NATO militaries. That comparison is irrelevant.

Between the regular Iranian army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Tehran fields roughly 600,000 active personnel, backed by hundreds of thousands of reserves and Basij paramilitary forces. Their air force is dated but functional for regional defense. Their navy is purpose-built for asymmetric warfare in the Persian Gulf. Their missile forces are among the largest and most capable in the Middle East.

Iran is not trying to win a beauty contest. It is trying to make war costly.

Missiles, Drones, and Special Operations Are the Real Threat

Iran’s true strength is not tanks or fighter jets. It is missiles, drones, and special operations.

They possess thousands of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles capable of striking every U.S. base in the region, Israel, and large portions of southern Europe. These systems are not symbolic. They are operational, drilled, and embedded in hardened underground infrastructure specifically designed to survive preemptive strikes.

Their drone program has matured into a global export enterprise. Shahed and Mohajer platforms are cheap, expendable, and lethal. They overwhelm air defenses through saturation and persistence. Ukraine has already shown the world how effective these systems can be against technologically superior militaries.

The Quds Force Builds Wars, Not Raids

At the center of Iran’s external power is the Quds Force, the IRGC’s expeditionary arm.

This is not a Western-style commando unit. It is a hybrid organization combining special operations, intelligence, political warfare, and insurgency management. The Quds Force does not conduct isolated missions. It builds durable proxy armies.

Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Houthis in Yemen. Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

These are not loosely affiliated groups. They are trained, funded, armed, and strategically guided by Iranian operators. This gives Tehran a deniable, scalable, multi-front strike capability that no other regional power can match.

Iran Will Fight a War of Exhaustion, Not a Decisive Battle …

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A Period of Sustained Instability

We are entering a period of sustained instability, and pretending otherwise does not serve anyone. The indicators heading into 2026 point toward more conflict, more disorder, and less institutional reliability at every level. This is not fear driven analysis. It is pattern recognition.

A World Operating on the Edge

Abroad, the United States is operating at the edge of escalation in multiple regions without clear public consensus or congressional clarity. Counterterrorism operations remain active because groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda never disappeared. Cartels are increasingly treated as national security threats, which carries predictable consequences, including retaliation that does not respect borders. History tells us that external pressure eventually creates internal friction.

The Misread Threat Landscape at Home

At home, the threat landscape has been badly mischaracterized for years. Americans were told that the primary danger was narrow, ideological, and largely theoretical. Meanwhile, political extremism, institutional failure, and social fragmentation accelerated in plain sight. Public trust collapsed not because people became irrational, but because systems repeatedly failed under stress.

Institutional Failure and Downward Responsibility

The lesson from the past year is simple. The government, from federal agencies down to local bureaucracies, does not reliably act in the best interest of families. Sometimes it is incompetent. Sometimes it is captured by incentives that reward dysfunction. Sometimes it is openly hostile to accountability. Regardless of the reason, the outcome is the same. When things go wrong, responsibility flows downward.

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You Are Your Own First Responder

You are your own first responder.

That reality does not begin with gear, uniforms, or fantasies about joining something bigger. It begins with the smallest and most important unit you have direct control over, your family. A disciplined individual creates a stable household. Stable households create resilient communities. Resilient communities reduce chaos long before any outside authority shows up.

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The holiday season creates predictable vulnerabilities due to crowded public spaces, disrupted routines, and widespread distraction. Maintaining situational awareness during this period is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce risk, protect your family, and avoid becoming an easy target.

Situational Awareness During the Holidays

The holiday season is meant to be a time for family, friends, and loved ones. It is a time when people slow down, gather together, and focus inward. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most vulnerable times of the year for Americans.

Travel increases. Public spaces are crowded. Routines are disrupted. Attention drops. Phones come out. Heads go down.

The Threat Environment Is Not on Pause

At the same time, recent events tell a different story than the one most people are paying attention to. A National Guardsman attacked. U.S. soldiers targeted overseas in Syria. An attack in Australia, a Western ally. These incidents were carried out by radical jihadists and received little sustained coverage by the national media. That lack of attention does not reduce the risk. It increases complacency.

This is not about fear. It is about awareness.

Crowds, Chaos, and Opportunity

The days leading up to Christmas are some of the busiest of the year. Christmas Eve alone is one of the highest volume shopping days in the country. Stores are packed. Parking lots are full. Highways are congested. People are rushed, distracted, and mentally checked out. These conditions create opportunity, not just for criminals, but for anyone looking to exploit crowds and predictability.

When Vulnerability Shifts to the Home

Then Christmas Day arrives. Most people are home. Families are piled together in one location. Schedules are known. Movement patterns are obvious. That does not mean you should live in fear inside your own home, but it does mean understanding that vulnerability shifts from public spaces to private ones.

Preparedness is about recognizing those shifts.

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Why Situational Awareness Matters Most

If you want to be better prepared this holiday season, I linked a video in the description outlining five practical steps. One of the most important is situational awareness, because it costs nothing and works everywhere.

Situational awareness starts with understanding where you are and what is normal for that environment. A mall, an airport, a grocery store, or a holiday market all have baseline behaviors. Most people are shopping, browsing, moving with purpose, and interacting with products or staff.

When someone deviates from that baseline, it should register.

Behavior Over Appearance

This is not about profiling people. It is about observing behavior.

Pay attention to individuals who are not shopping or moving with purpose. People pacing back and forth without a clear reason. People standing idle while watching others instead of merchandise. People who appear nervous, agitated, or fixated on entrances, exits, or security personnel. These behaviors are not automatic threats, but they are anomalies worth noticing.

Distraction Is the Enemy

The fastest way to miss these indicators is distraction.

Cell phones are one of the biggest killers of situational awareness. When your eyes are locked on a screen, your brain is not processing the environment around you. You lose reaction time and awareness. Simply keeping your head up and your phone down creates an immediate advantage.

Small Habits Create Time and Options

Pay attention to where you are. Identify exits without obsessing over them. Keep track of where your family is in relation to you. Notice sudden changes in noise, movement, or energy in a space. These are small habits that give you time and options if something goes wrong.

Trust Your Instincts

Trust your intuition. If something feels off, do not rationalize it away because you do not want to appear rude or overreact. Leaving a store, changing locations, or creating distance costs you nothing. Staying because you are worried about social discomfort can cost you everything.

Preparedness Protects Joy

The holidays should be about joy, not anxiety. Preparedness does not ruin that. It protects it.

Do not be an easy target. Pay attention. Stay present. Take care of your people.

If you want the full breakdown, the five tips are linked in the YouTube video in the description.

Godspeed,
Mike Glover
Founder

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On my latest Monday SITREP on Patreon, I talked about immigration. Not in talking points. Not in slogans. But in realities that most people would rather avoid, because sitting with those realities forces hard decisions instead of emotional ones.

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When “Humanity” Becomes a Shield for Harm

We’ve allowed the standard for our country to be nullified in the name of “humanity.” And the uncomfortable truth is this: modern illegal immigration, as it exists today, is one of the most inhumane systems on the planet.

That statement alone offends people. But offense isn’t evidence, and discomfort doesn’t make something untrue.

Exploitation at Scale, Disguised as Compassion

What we are witnessing at our border is not compassion in action. It’s exploitation at scale.

Cartels have turned the humanitarian instinct of Americans into a cash cow. They profit from desperation. They smuggle young girls. They traffic families. They weaponize hope. They convince poor souls, many of whom don’t speak the language and don’t understand the risks, to hand over their entire life savings for a promise of a better future that rarely materializes as advertised.

That’s not mercy. That’s a con.

And we’ve enabled it.

A Nation of Immigrants—Not a Nation Without Laws

The United States is a nation of immigrants. That has always been true. But it has never meant we are a nation without laws.

Somewhere along the way, we allowed those two truths to be framed as opposites. As if compassion requires the abandonment of order. As if enforcing laws is an act of cruelty. As if saying “no” is morally inferior to saying “yes” regardless of consequence.

That framing is false. And dangerous.

Open Borders Don’t Reduce Suffering—They Multiply It

A country without borders is not humane. It is negligent.

Open-border policies do not remove suffering; they redistribute it, amplify it, and concentrate it among the most vulnerable. Women. Children. The desperate. The unprepared. They suffer first, and they suffer worst.

The Unspoken Reality: Chaos Invites the Malicious

And then there’s the part nobody wants to say out loud.

When you create an uncontrolled flow of people into a nation, you do not just invite the desperate. You invite the malicious. Cartels. Criminal networks. Opportunists. And yes, foreign adversaries who understand exactly how to exploit chaos.

I’ve worked in enough unstable regions of the world to recognize this pattern. No serious nation leaves its borders undefended. Not because they hate outsiders, but because sovereignty is the foundation upon which security, stability, and generosity are built.

The Difference Between Immigration and Exploitation

There is a difference between lawful immigration and unchecked movement. Between asylum and exploitation. Between compassion with structure and chaos disguised as empathy.

We’ve allowed our morality to be manipulated. We’ve confused feelings for principles. We’ve been told that enforcing immigration law is unkind, while ignoring the fact that the absence of enforcement has produced the most brutal outcomes imaginable.

The Brutal Consequences of an Unenforced System

Children separated not by border agents, but by cartels. Women assaulted en route. Families extorted. Lives lost in deserts and rivers. Futures traded for empty promises.

At some point, moral posturing has to give way to moral responsibility.

A nation cannot survive without laws. And a nation that refuses to enforce its laws will not remain a nation for long.

The National Dilemma: Complex but Unavoidable

This is the conundrum. This is the dilemma. It is complex. It is layered. And it deserves more than slogans and outrage.

But complexity does not excuse paralysis.

Ignoring the Crisis Accelerates National Decline

If we do not mitigate this issue. If we do not reduce it. If we continue pretending that ignoring the problem is kindness, we will accelerate our own decline. Economically. Socially. Culturally. From within.

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True Humanity Is Disciplined, Not Reckless

True humanity isn’t reckless openness. It’s disciplined compassion.

It’s a system that protects citizens while offering lawful, structured pathways for those who genuinely seek a better life. It’s borders that deter exploitation. It’s policies that remove incentives for cartels. It’s enforcement that restores credibility.

You cannot save everyone by sacrificing the foundation that allows you to help anyone at all.

The Inflection Point We Can No Longer Ignore

We are at an inflection point. And pretending otherwise doesn’t make us virtuous. It makes us complicit.

A nation of immigrants can also be a nation of laws.

It must be, or it will cease to exist as either.

Mike Glover
Founder

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What is happening in Europe right now is a preview of what can happen anywhere when mass migration outpaces a country’s ability to integrate, vet, and enforce its own laws. This is not about culture. It is not about race. It is about systems, capacity, and the rule of law. When a nation takes in more people than it can responsibly absorb, the equation always breaks the same way. Social services collapse. Police forces become overwhelmed. Political leaders shift priorities to avoid unrest. Citizens lose confidence. And in the vacuum, opportunists, criminals, extremists, and hostile foreign networks find space to operate.

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The Rise of a Two-Tier System in Europe

Friends of mine in Britain, men who never cared about politics a day in their lives, are suddenly telling me the reality on the street has changed. They are being asked to comply with laws and restrictions that are not being enforced against new arrivals. They see a two tier system forming in front of them. One standard for the citizen who follows the rules. Another for the migrant who enters without documentation, refuses to assimilate, or brings with them the same conflicts that tore apart the region they fled. This does not mean every migrant fits that description. Many do not. But it does mean the system built to handle a trickle is now overwhelmed by a flood.

Paris as a Case Study in Cultural Abandonment

Jeff, a former senior CIA case officer, talked recently about his trip to Paris. The France he knew from his time in Europe is not the one he walked through on this trip. Entire districts looked more like North Africa than Western Europe, and the feeling he described was not cultural diversity. It was abandonment. Communities that used to feel like Paris now feel like enclaves cut off from the rest of the city, with no expectation of adopting local norms or respecting local laws. It is not the presence of other cultures that is creating tension. It is the absence of a shared standard. When the law is not enforced equally, the society fractures.

Why Americans Should Pay Attention

What concerns me is not that America will become Europe overnight. What concerns me is that the same political pressures and the same refusal to speak honestly about capacity, security, and integration already exist here. We are watching record numbers of migrants enter the United States. We are watching cases of individuals with criminal or extremist ties slip into the country. We are watching resources get stretched, border agents overwhelmed, and city budgets explode. We are watching politicians treat the situation as a moral messaging campaign instead of a national security problem.

The Cost of Uncontrolled Migration

The lesson from Europe is simple. A nation can welcome newcomers, but it cannot absorb uncontrolled migration without a cost. When leaders refuse to admit this, citizens are the ones who pay the price. They lose safety, stability, and trust in their institutions. They are told to stay silent or be labeled hateful. Meanwhile, the people crossing borders illegally or claiming asylum under false pretenses face no accountability at all.

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America’s Warning — and Last Chance to Choose Reality

For America, this is the warning. If we continue down this path, we will see the same divides that Europe is struggling with. Parallel societies. Political tension. Erosion of the rule of law. And eventually, the kind of instability that cannot be walked back with speeches or hashtags.

This Is Not Fearmongering — It’s Pattern Recognition

This is not fearmongering. This is an honest assessment based on patterns that have already played out overseas. When a country loses control of its borders, it loses control of its future. Europe is showing us what happens when leaders choose ideology over reality. America still has time to choose differently.

Mike Glover
Founder

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I’ve been warning about this shift for years. And now the early signs are unmistakable.

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Inflation Is Quietly Eroding Your Buying Power

Even when government inflation numbers appear to “cool,” the real cost of living never drops. Food prices only move in one direction: up.

Why?

• Endless money printing to fund debt

• Higher feed, fuel, and labor costs

• Supply chain disruptions

• Global instability impacting imports and exports

The government will never let the dollar default, but it will continue printing money into oblivion — destroying the value of every dollar you save or earn.

We are rapidly approaching a future where:

• A cup of coffee costs $10 to $100

• A single pound of beef costs $100 to $500+

• Everyday groceries become luxuries

• Families are priced out of the very basics of survival

That is what a modern famine looks like — not empty shelves, but unaffordable shelves.

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Why Meat Will Become the New Gold

Protein is the most expensive, resource-intensive food to produce. As inflation spikes, meat prices spike first and hardest.

And once they rise, they never return to normal levels.

We’re already seeing warning signs:

• Ranchers leaving the industry

• Shrinking cattle herds

• Rising feed and water costs

• Consolidation among mega-producers

• Increasing global demand competing for limited supply

This makes high-quality animal protein one of the most reliable inflation-hedge assets in existence — second only to precious metals.

But metals won’t feed your family.
Stored meat will.

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CarniVault freeze-dried meats are built for exactly this environment.

They offer:

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• Prices locked in at today’s dollar — not tomorrow’s

Every bag of CarniVault is essentially food insurance — but better, because it’s not just insurance you pay for… it’s insurance you get to eat.

In a world where currency buys less every year, long-term protein storage becomes a financial strategy, not just a preparedness item.

This Is a Narrow Window — and It Won’t Last

Once the financial famine accelerates:

• Food producers will raise prices

• Supply chains will tighten

• Freeze-drying demand will surge

• Stock becomes harder to secure

• Prices will reset to much higher levels

People who prepare now will be the winners.
People who wait will pay multiples later — or go without.

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The Bottom Line

The financial famine is not a theory. It’s not fear-mongering. It’s economics.

A world of $20 eggs, $50 chickens, and $500 beef is not unrealistic — it’s the logical endpoint of currency devaluation and rising production costs.

But you can protect yourself.

You can shield your family.

And you can convert today’s dollar into tomorrow’s food supply while it still holds value.

CarniVault exists for this exact moment in history.

Stay alert, stay informed & stay prepared …
Mike Glover

A 20 year old National Guard soldier, Sarah Beckstrom, died on Thanksgiving. An American in uniform. A young woman who stepped up to serve her country. Her death received almost no national attention.

The silence from mainstream media is becoming predictable. It only amplifies when the story touches immigration, border security, or extremist threats that conflict with the preferred narrative. If the facts point toward a failure of policy or the danger of unchecked entry into the country, the story disappears.

We are watching this in real time. And it should concern every American.

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Coexistence and Reality

Let me make something clear. I served alongside Muslim soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the bravest men I fought with in Iraqi Special Operations now live here as legal, vetted, contributing American citizens. They are truck drivers, business owners, fathers, and husbands. To say Muslims cannot assimilate is simply untrue. I have seen the opposite with my own eyes.

But that does not erase what is also true. There is a radical arm of the Islamic movement that has existed since the beginning. A jihadist ideology that has driven violence for centuries. The extremists who subscribe to this ideology are not interested in coexistence. Their worldview is built on the destruction of the nonbeliever.

Understanding this is not bigotry. It is basic national security.

A Persistent and Expanding Threat

This threat is not new. It is not emerging. It is not going away. It has adapted over generations, and it has used chaos and access as a weapon. With a border that is wide open, inconsistent vetting, and millions entering the country without identification or background checks, that access has increased.

The part that should worry every American is not just the threat itself. It is the way our institutions treat it. Media outlets ignore the indicators. Government officials downplay the warnings. Anyone who speaks up is labeled political. Meanwhile, the risk continues to rise.

Conditions for Catastrophe

We are creating the conditions for a catastrophic attack. Something on the scale of a 9 11 style event is not far fetched. It becomes more possible when the systems meant to protect us are weakened by denial and silence.

This is not about demonizing peaceful Muslims. It is about acknowledging that extremist ideology exists and has historically targeted the United States and its allies. It is about recognizing that ignoring reality is not compassion. It is negligence.

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When Institutions Fail

A nation that fails to secure its borders cannot protect its people. A media that refuses to report inconvenient threats cannot inform the public. A government that downplays extremist networks cannot prevent the next attack.

Security is not political. It is survival.

The Cost of Denial

If we continue to pretend the threat is imaginary, we will pay the price in American lives. We have been here before. We know how this story ends when warnings are ignored. The question now is whether we act while we still have time.

Mike Glover
Founder

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BLUF

This document presents a detailed analysis and strategic recommendation for enhancing U.S. homeland defense in anticipation of a complex, multi-phased jihadi terrorist attack orchestrated by Al Qaeda and affiliated groups. The author emphasizes the urgency of the threat, expected within a 90-day window (November to February), and advocates for the adoption of a “Total Defense” model, a comprehensive civil-military integrated defense approach practiced in several European and Baltic nations, as the most effective response framework.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps keep our work independent. Thank you for your support.Why Latin America?

Key Insights and Threat Assessment

● The impending Al Qaeda-led coordinated attack will target at least 15 U.S. cities simultaneously with teams of 5-10 terrorists. The initial assault is expected to mimic the 2008 Mumbai attacks, focusing on soft targets such as shopping malls, hospitals, schools, places of worship, concert halls, and government buildings.

● Attack methods will include:

○ Automatic weapons, grenades, IEDs, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs)

○ Concealable suicide vests (likely peroxide-based and undetectable)

○ Vehicle-borne attacks (box trucks, vans for ramming pedestrians)

○ Impersonation of law enforcement, medical, or construction personnel to sow confusion

○ Secondary ambushes targeting first responders

○ Potential hijacking of commercial aircraft to cause mid-air and ground casualties.

● Terrorist training involved resident 2- 6 weeks urban close-quarters battle (CQB) at Tier-1 and Tier-2 indoor facilities, indicating highly prepared attackers.

● A select set of dozens, perhaps more of terrorists are trained in improvised explosives device (IED) construction.

● A select set of dozens of terrorists are trained in acquisition,construction, assembly, deployment of S-Vest.

● The threat extends beyond Al Qaeda to include homegrown violent extremist groups (HVEs) and foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) such as Mexican cartels (now designated FTOs), ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, and various splinter factions.

● Still concern over ongoing U.S. funding to Taliban and ISIS/AQC ($85 million weekly), suggesting the government’s strategy is appeasement rather than direct confrontation, allowing enemy elements to strengthen within U.S. borders.

Total Defense Model: Core Concepts and Application

Total Defense is a holistic national security framework that integrates military, civil society, political, and economic efforts to protect territorial integrity and societal stability. It emphasizes:

● Civil-Military Integration: Coordination between military units (including specialized quick reaction forces), civilian defense organizations, law enforcement, and local government agencies.

● Population Involvement: Empowering civilians through training, preparedness, and voluntary organizations to serve as a “home guard” or resistance force.

● International Cooperation: Close collaboration with neighboring countries (Canada, Mexico) and allied nations to counter cross-border asymmetric threats.

● Multi-Agency Intelligence Sharing: Re-establishing and enhancing communication channels among U.S. agencies (CIA, DEA), foreign governments (e.g., Mexico), and law enforcement to improve situational awareness and rapid response.

● Deterrence and Resistance: Developing a robust defense/resistance capability to impose significant costs on any invading or occupying force, deterring aggression.

Several European and Baltic countries practice Total Defense, such as Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, and Indonesia, providing models for U.S. adaptation.

Image Source : Army & Joint Doctrine

Since I first became aware of the impending threat of an Al Qaeda masterminded plot, to launch a grand jihadi, complex, coordinated assault on US homeland soil, I’ve pondered the fact that this can’t and won’t be effectively stopped or thwarted. The operation is already in motion. Many had already come to that conclusion, such as Survival Dispatch News (SDN) and their panel of experts who I’ve listened to daily for months. Furthermore I was not privy to the whole plan or at least the desired outcome which is, after the first major main-event attack (consisting several targets/states), in the following days, weeks, months and perhaps years, there will be a subsequent volley of random continual sporadic attacks instilling a maximum level of fear and eminent peril among the U.S populace (something never felt), highly likely resulting in ‘whole of society paralysis’ directly impacting the economy.

As the attack window has now narrowed down to approximately ninety-days (90 days) (Nov-Feb) timeframe, all of my continued training, experiences, current research, and studying ( for a solution) have come to one conclusion. “Total Defense”, a model followed by many European/Baltic countries, seems to be the only feasible approach to an integrated homeland defense plan. A few of these countries are: Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Indonesia, Lithuania, Norway. Several have published their unclassified plans via the web, not exactly the best OPSEC practice, but necessary to reach the whole populace.

We can’t simply rely on the US federal government or even our local government (s) to protect all of us citizens or our families. We must be proactive in our approach to combat this ever present threat we all collectively face one way or another.

Taking from a section of Doctrine, “the Resistance Operating Concept” by Otto Fialla, I believe the “Total Defense” model is the best course of action for the United States Civilian Homeland Defense model. That coupled with sections taken from the U.S Army Counterinsurgency Manual and building off the Civil-Military Operations handbook. For this paper, I also draw from the Foreign Internal Defense & Security Forces Assistance (SFA) model used by U.S Forces on foreign governments. FID is a U.S. DOD term, doctrinally defined as, “the participation by civilian and military agencies of a government in any of the action programs taken by another government or other designated organization, to free and protect its society from subversion, lawlessness, insurgency, terrorism, and other threats to their security.

”SFA, FA activities aim to help partner nations (PNs) develop capabilities to defend against both internal and trans-regional threats and enhance interoperability with U.S. forces. However new policy must be made because current DOD policy mandates that SFA activities involve Foreign Security Forces (FSF)., For our purposes we’d (civilian/defense/resistance) be assisting the U.S federal government against foreign insurgents, FTO enemy combatants, clandestine agents, facilitators and homegrown violent extremist (HVE) forces like Anarchist, ANTIFA, BLM, CodePink, Trantifa; Anti-Racist Action (ARA) Network; ArmedQueers; JohnBrown-G.C, SRA, Arm Your Friends, Huey P. Newton Gun Club & Redneck Revolt, Communist (CPUSA, DSA ,RevCom) Marxist-(BLM, PSL) (SJP, JV4P), Islamist (CAIR, MSA, MPAC, MAS, PYM, PYL, PFLP, SunriseMovement), Mexican FTOs-Sinaloa (CDS), CNJG,Venezuelan-De Soles, Al Qaeda (AQC, AQAP, AQIM,AQE,AQL), ISIS/IL/KP, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Shabab and conglomerate Army of Islam.

There will likely also be splinter factions of aforementioned groups in addition to local territorial community based street gangs all requiring attention. Some of these groups’ intent is US government overthrow, mayhem, anarchy, destruction, others like insurgents want church explosions, ambushed cops, active attack shooters, terrorized school-houses, destroyed hospitals to prevent trauma-care, house to house slaughters, mass casualties and suicide bombings at crowded events. The desired means is to bring bloodshed and warlike scenery to our lands, to the place we live, work and where our children learn and play, so that we may learn a lesson, by paying in civilian blood for our decades of US foreign intervention.

Image Source : Army & Joint Doctrine

Total Defense plays a crucial role in shaping a comprehensive National Defense Strategy. Its primary objective is to galvanize all necessary resources and support to safeguard the nation and its territorial integrity from armed threats. This approach emphasizes collaboration with other nations, whether on domestic soil or in international contexts, to enhance and uphold security, freedom, and autonomy.

By prioritizing this cooperative framework, Total Defense aims to create an environment that allows for optimal military maneuverability and informed political decision-making, thereby ensuring that the nation is well-prepared to respond to any potential aggression internally or externally. Cohesion with our neighbors like Canada and Mexico are paramount since many of the asymmetric threats we face emanate from or use these nation states as launching points, homebase etc. Effective international law enforcement and intelligence capabilities can’t be overlooked since Mexican Cartels are now deemed foreign terrorist organizations (FTO’s) an upgrade in state department designations from the former TCO or DTO, they pose imminent threat to the U.S. Aside from thousands of US troops on the SouthWest border we also have at least one (1) Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (SFOD-A) within Mexico assigned to advise/assist Mexican Marines by providing training, target package building and acquisition and disruption of operations conducted by Mexican FTO’s.

Moreover, Total Defense necessitates the establishment of a robust and unwavering defense/resistance capability that can be mobilized against any adversary occupying national territory. This capability must be sufficiently formidable to convey to potential aggressors that any attempt to invade or attack will incur significant costs, both in terms of resources and human lives.

The effectiveness of this defense/resistance hinges on the nation’s ability to maintain a state of readiness, ensuring that its forces are not only prepared to engage but also capable of sustaining prolonged efforts against an occupying force. It’s my understanding that the Trump administration through the Secretary of War (Pete Hegseth) and Army (Dan Driscoll) have developed specialized quick reaction force (QRF) National Guard Units ready to be regionally deployed within each state in the event it’s required. However, I feel this is insufficient for the coordinated and complex attack events expected within 90 days of this report. (Sarah Adams-Askari-Media Group/Khalid Muhhamad-Command Eleven, LTG Michael T. Flynn-Americas Future)

We must establish this capability in each state of the union. These units should coordinate with civilian homeland defense groups, or Mutual Aid Groups (MAGS), CERT Teams or even Sheriffs’ posse, to adequately affect by bolstering the security posture of any given area of a community’s operations.

In addition to domestic preparedness, the Total Defense strategy must be complemented by a suite of diplomatic, political, and economic initiatives undertaken by the state and its international allies. These measures, which can be executed bilaterally or multilaterally, are essential for deterring potential aggressors. Such deterrence strategies may include formal agreements among allied nations to coordinate responses against any acts of aggression, thereby reinforcing a collective security framework. Recently the State Department has opened communication channels back up and resumed sharing intelligence resources between the Central Intelligence Agency and Drug Enforcement Agency and Mexican government. These lines of communication are essential to successful operations. Communication was terminated a few years back at the direction of former Mexican President AMLO.

By integrating these diverse elements, Total Defense seeks to create a comprehensive and resilient posture that effectively protects national interests and promotes stability in the face of external threats. Within this model we have seen DJT conducting high level meetings with Syrian leader Al Julani who no doubt is still not only an operative, but a commander for Al Qaeda.

He (Al Julani) recently came to a high-level delegation meeting at the NY United Nations building several weeks back. Additionally, he recently attended another solo meeting at the Whitehouse (10/11/25). Unbelievably, we are still funding the Taliban regime and by proxy ISIS and AQC to the tune of Eighty-Five Million Dollars cash per week ($ 85m) leading me to believe the U.S government still plans to simply appease the threat, while they (Islamic Army/AQ/ISIS) continue to purposely and strategically maneuver into attack positions favorable to the enemy that’s already within our borders, in significant numbers (1500-7k jihadis).

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The attack plot includes coordinated strikes on at least 15 US cities simolteneusly using trained jihadi terrorists, in teams of 5-7 or 8-10 man teams; Initial attack will be a Mumbai, India attack style event. Conducting attacks on soft targets like shopping malls, concert halls,large/popular hotels, civic centers, hospitals, churches, elementary schools, high schools, universities, synagogues etc. They’ll be using fully automatic weapons, grenades, IED’s,rocket proppeled grenades (RPG’s) concealable suicide vest (S-Vest) (undetectable) likely peroxide based, and large vehicles (boxtruck/van/truck) for ramming pedestrians in high-foot traffic or crowded zones. They plan to impersonate Law Enforcement Officers or Security Officers or Construction workers (CalTrans) or Medical (paramedics) personnel and uniforms in an effort to cause more confusion and create an easier environment to target and kill civilians at will. Expect secondary ambush style attacks on responding LE and all first responders (Medical/Fire). Initial attack may include plot to high-jack multiple commercial aircraft, causing mass casualties mid-air and subsequent casualties below from falling aircraft debris. Suggest LE pre-staging outside attack locations (incident perimeter), Leaving room for explosives IED stand-off distance from “on scene” and prior to insertion of specialized SWAT. Beware of Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIEDs) upon initial approach. Beware of high-ground vantage points and elevated structures in urban environments and check for hidden/recessed snipers layer(s). All units should have at least one (1) AR-15 weapons system in their patrol vehicle, with ample ammunition to withstand and dominate a sustained firefight. Level-4 hard plate body armor should be donned prior to any lethal engagements. Terrorists have been scenario based trained in urban close quarters battle (CQB) at Tier-1,2 indoor training facilities. Tertiary attacks will likely include house to house home-invasion style slaughters, resembling October 7th style attacks, if given the opportunity. (J.Robert; Askari Media)

Civil defense serves several critical objectives aimed at safeguarding the civilian population during times of conflict. Its primary goals include ensuring the uninterrupted operation of essential public services, mitigating the adverse effects of warfare, and enhancing the operational effectiveness of armed forces.

“The establishment of municipal or regional reinforcement pools for rescue services, medical services (e.g., the designation of a hospital in a designated civil defense region as a war hospital), and home protection organizations.” (Fialla)

By fostering a culture of personal preparedness among our citizens such as encouraging the stockpiling of weapons, ammunition, less-lethal, non-lethal instruments, non-perishable food, bottled water, medical supplies, and batteries or other fuel/energy sources, civil defense initiatives not only alleviate the strain on national defense resources but also empower individuals to take an active role in protecting/defending their own country and personal-private domain/interest. This proactive approach cultivates a higher sense of responsibility and increased readiness among the populace, which is vital in times of crisis, which we are bound to face in the near future.

In addition to individual preparedness, civil defense encompasses the mobilization of both governmental and non-governmental organizations to support wartime efforts. This may include the formation of municipal or regional support networks for emergency services, such as designating specific hospitals as war facilities within civil defense zones. Likewise since hospitals are on the adversarial targeting list, common sense says they should be afforded proper Anti-terrorism measures and security protection teams. More of the same for churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques, shopping centers, malls, government buildings and more.

Furthermore, the establishment of home protection organizations (veterans, neighborhood watch, citizen patrols, CERT Teams ,Local Ametour-Radio Clubs, (ARRL,CLEMARS, MARS) Civil Air Patrol, ROTC units, reserve police, auxiliary police, police cadets, sheriffs posse, Team Rubicon, Red Cross, NGO’s) and the development of shelters and evacuation plans are essential components of a comprehensive civil defense strategy.

To ensure that the individual citizenry are equipped to fulfill their designated roles during emergencies, basic training and educational programs are absolutely necessary, thereby enhancing the overall resilience of the community. Fitness should be key. Medical training is an imperative. Beginning with a simple “Stop The Bleed” course of instruction all the way to advanced “Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), newer TECC, EMT 1-3, or even Paramedic. Another imperative would be Basic Firearms Safety or Weapons Handling course all the way to Advanced Pistol, Basic Carbine, Designated Marksman, Tactical Carbine II, or Close Quarters Battle (CQB). Other courses like basic Fieldcraft, Individual Movement Techniques, Small-Medium Game Hunting, Fishing/Trapping (all source), Wilderness Survival Training, Urban Tactics, Map/GPS Reading, Combatives training, i.e Jiu Jitsu/Krav Maga/Boxing), Drone Operations, HAZMAT, CWMD, CBRNE, Escape Evasion (EE), Counter-Custody, Lock-picking, Basic Surveillance Ops, Urban Reconnaissance, Canning/Jarring, Surveillance Detection.

Voluntary organizations, such as home guards and defense leagues, play a significant role in the broader framework of civil defense, particularly within the Total Defense concept. These groups often consist of large numbers of dedicated individuals who are motivated to strengthen their collective resolve to defend their nation as a whole, but more important to them, focusing on their home community.

By engaging citizens in civil defense activities to be pro-active defenders, these voluntary organizations not only contribute to the preparedness of the community but also foster a spirit of unity and cooperation or “Esprite de Corps” and an overall sense of purpose. The involvement of such organizations is crucial in building a robust civil defense infrastructure that can effectively respond to the many challenges posed by conflict, ultimately this will ensure the safety and security of our respective civilian populations.

Military defense plays a crucial role in safeguarding a nation’s security through collaboration with both internal civil partners (interagency like) and external allied nations. The primary aim is to maintain a highly responsive military force capable of deterring potential aggressors and defending the nation against any form of attack.

Civil-military operations (CMO) are traditionally conducted outside the United States with a Host Nations (HN) government, for our purposes CMO are activities where military forces interact with the US civilian population and organizations to minimize interference with internal U.S civil-military operations and maximize civil support for them.

These operations are conducted during various situations, such as combat against foreign insurgents/operatives, counter-insurgency, and humanitarian assistance, and involve activities like establishing relations, providing aid during natural disasters, and managing governance until civilian authorities can resume full control. (DSCA) CMOs use specialized military units (like civil affairs forces ‘CA’, Special Forces ‘SF’, psychological operations ‘PO’) and coordinate with civilian agencies, NGOs, and local governments to achieve objectives.

Image Source : Civil-Military Operations-IW 201-DSCU

Civil-Military Operations (CMO) play a pivotal role in both conventional warfare and irregular warfare (IW) scenarios. In the context of IW, CMO are essential for establishing and nurturing relationships with local populations and institutions. This engagement is crucial for gathering intelligence, enhancing local capabilities, and bolstering the legitimacy of governance in partner nations. By focusing on the underlying factors that contribute to instability—such as economic challenges, governance issues, and social discontent CMO works to undermine the influence of irregular adversaries, thereby creating a more favorable environment for stability and peace.

In addition to their primary functions, CMO supports a variety of other IW initiatives. For instance, they facilitate stabilization efforts, assist in security sector reform, and provide vital

services within Foreign Internal Defense (FID) operations. These activities are designed to improve the living conditions of the civilian population, which in turn fosters a sense of security and stability. By addressing immediate needs and enhancing the quality of life, CMO contributes to a broader strategy that aims to reduce the appeal of extremist groups and other adversarial elements that thrive in unstable environments.

The integrated approach of CMO is crucial for achieving sustainable success in IW operations. By aligning military objectives with overarching political, economic, and social goals, CMO helps to create a comprehensive framework for peace and stability. This synergy not only enhances the effectiveness of military efforts but also ensures that the initiatives undertaken are relevant and beneficial to the local populace. Ultimately, the success of IW strategies hinges on the ability of CMO to foster trust, build resilience, and promote governance that is responsive to the needs of the community, thereby laying the groundwork for enduring peace. CMO capabilities should be implemented prior to conflicts.

This involves not only achieving military victories to uphold national sovereignty and territorial integrity against insurgents but also preparing for various scenarios, including the establishment of stay-behind forces and a national (COIN) (FID style) defense/resistance capability in the event of partial/full enemy occupation. The military’s readiness extends beyond combat; it encompasses the protection of national sovereignty, the prevention and resolution of conflicts, and the support of civil authorities during times of crisis or warfare.

The effectiveness of the Total Defense concept hinges on the active participation of the population, which must be willing to embrace their individual and collective defensive responsibilities during both peacetime and national emergencies. This commitment is essential for fostering a culture of resistance against potential aggressors. Comprehensive training and educational initiatives can equip individuals and communities with the necessary skills for resistance activities, thereby reinforcing their resolve to defend the nation. (ROC)

A robust civil defense framework is built on social cohesion, the preservation of shared cultural values, and equal access to state services, which collectively enhance the population’s ability to withstand external threats. This social defense is vital for ensuring that all citizens feel included and empowered in the face of adversity. (Fialla)

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Furthermore, according to the ROC cultivating a strong sense of national pride and mutual respect is integral to developing the will and determination needed to navigate crises effectively. This psychological defense contributes significantly to the collective strength and commitment of the populace, instilling faith in their ability to overcome challenges. Proactive planning and preparation during peacetime, such as the strategic storage of essential resources like food and fuel, are critical components of national resilience. These measures not only bolster the society’s capacity to endure crises or warfare but also serve as a deterrent against potential aggressors, reinforcing the notion that a prepared and united populace is a formidable barrier to conflict.

‘Understanding, Defining, and Differentiating Resilience and Resistance.’

“Resilience encompasses a society’s capacity to endure and adapt in the face of challenges, playing a crucial role in national defense strategies. It not only aids in deterrence but also facilitates the restoration of national sovereignty following periods of conflict or occupation. This concept can be understood as the collective strength and determination of a populace to preserve their way of life, demonstrating both the will and capability to resist external pressures. Resilience reflects a society’s ability to recover from adversities, ensuring that its core values and structures remain intact despite facing significant threats.”(Fialla)

“In contrast, resistance emerges as a direct response from a sovereign state and its citizens when confronted with threats to their autonomy and independence. Effective resistance requires proactive measures and comprehensive planning across governmental and societal levels to establish organized efforts against an occupying force. The dynamics of resistance are influenced by various factors, including the geographical context and the historical relationship between the oppressor and the population. This interplay shapes the strategies employed by those resisting, highlighting the importance of understanding local conditions and sentiments in formulating effective responses.”

“It is essential to differentiate resistance from other forms of conflict, such as terrorism, insurgency, or revolution. While resistance aims to restore the status quo that existed prior to conflict, it can manifest in various forms, including both armed and unarmed actions, as well as nonviolent and violent methods. The primary objective remains the reclamation of sovereignty and independence, distinguishing it from other movements that may seek broader systemic change. By recognizing these distinctions, policymakers and scholars can better appreciate the complexities of societal responses to threats and the multifaceted nature of resilience and resistance in the context of national security.“ (Fialla)

An American Exceptionalist type “national identity” supported by a quasi-faith inspired, American Principled, (with unity in mind), backed by America’s guiding core values. This is commonly known as “national cohesiveness”, which are known and time-tested requirements for a robust national defense as they maintain/strengthen the population’s resilience and overall motivation to resist both physical aggression via insurgency and also ideological Marxist/Islamist subversion, sedition, and propaganda. The majority of the U.S citizenry espouses a Christian ‘based’ religious ideology, albeit there are many like, Assemblies of God; Churches of Christ;African Methodist Episcopal Church;Adventism, Anabaptism; Nondenominational Christianity; Catholicism; Orthodoxy; Protestantism, Anglican/Episcopal;

Lutheran;Methodist; Baptist; Reformed/Calvinist: Includes Presbyterian, Pentecostal; Non-trinitarian Restorationism; Church of the East, therefore it makes best sense to re-enforce, support and champion the premise of these ideals from which the country was founded. For the purposes of response teams and faith, “So long as there’s an understanding, there’s something much bigger than us or perhaps, you’ve chosen the wrong team.”

It is vital for nurturing a spirit of resilience among the citizenry. This identity can be developed through a range of initiatives, such as educational programs focused on factual history and traditional U.S patriotism that resonate with the cultural values of the nation. Furthermore, it is imperative to engage transparently with the American minority communities (Naturalized/legal/In process) to ensure their meaningful and continued future involvement in civic and governmental processes.

Moreover, it is essential to separate political agendas from national defense policies, thereby fostering a more cohesive message that promotes civic involvement through local organizations, including youth scouting, sports leagues,combat sports,teenCERT, CAP, SeaCadets, Jr.LifeGuards, Church YouthGroups, KoC Forestry Service programs and other community-oriented associations. These initiatives can effectively cultivate a sense of patriotism that transcends political divides, inspiring citizens to actively support national resistance efforts. Free and fair elections are an imperative, with valid voter identification (ROC)

The psychological preparation of the population is a very serious and critical component that should commence well before any conflict arises. This preparation should involve instilling a sense of patriotism and good citizenship within the educational framework, particularly at the primary and secondary school levels, to equip children with the resilience needed to counter adversarial US state sanctioned (Smith-Mundt) and foreign propaganda (CCP-MSS/SVR/IRGC/MOIS) in addition to information warfare narrative campaigns that flow to the US daily via satellite, print, digital, social media, podcast, Fm/Am radio, and TV broadcast mediums. Each household should have 1-2 people fully trained on Psychological First Aid or Disaster Management or Crisis Management, training on “Use of the Incident Command System” utilized world-wide. FEMA has many free online legacy courses on these topics. Radio Communications is another topic of training as is Hazard Mitigation. There are several sources for Psychological First Aid (PFA) training. If unable to take it In-Person from a local community medical training provider there are at least two versions online available free including at least 2 mobile apps.

Perhaps mandatory participation and re-institution of the U.S ‘Pledge of Allegiance should be enacted to restore acceptable levels of patriotism in grades (K-12) after of course closing down the Department of Education, totally purging teachers UNIONS (AFT, NEA, ASCD, NBPTS,CECS, local school boards of Marxist indoctrinators. Have JROTC students provide back-up support roles to high school campus security or School Resource Officer (s) during incidents training regularly. Re-establish Army and Air-Force, Navy and Coast Guard JROTC programs in ALL high schools nation-wide, if feeling lucky or if, there’s any measure of success in high schools (past shows there is), expand to junior high schools ASAP; Expand existing youth/adult programs like U.S Air Force Auxiliary (CAP) & Coast Guard Auxiliary with a clear pathway to U.S military enlistment/commissioning for Cadets and an EXIT pathway for Active Duty service personnel leaving military service (out-processing).

Have new veterans fresh from service perform mandatory mentorship for Cadets (13-21 yrs) within the whole Cadet Corps (JROTC, Citadel, West Post etc) this would be dual use as the veteran (s) mentoring youth will also help the vet feel valued with a sense of purpose, long after military service leading to better psychological health. Provide additional plans to pay vets to mentor youth. Make it mandatory for University’s to host ROTC programs on campus in exchange for federal funding (foreign students prohibited from training). Each campus unit can be charged with safety/security for their campus or at minimum provide auxiliary/reserve support role functions when required to campus Police Departments.

However, the process of psychological preparation does not cease with the outbreak of hostilities; it is vital for “the ‘resistance/defenders” to sustain popular support throughout the duration of conflict. Therefore, ongoing initiatives that reinforce national identity and civic responsibility will be essential in maintaining morale and unity among the populace, ensuring that citizens remain committed to the cause of resistance/defense even in challenging times.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT program) is an excellent way to get several groups made up of community members trained on Medical/Casualty Triage, First AId, Light Search & Rescue, Perimeter Security, Damage Assessment and more. Other training like Texas A& M “Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events” (CRASE) or Fire As A Weapon, “Active Attack for Communications” They have civilian and LE versions and host courses in person and remote. They also have a Train-the-Trainer certification so that you may host your own course. Members of the tactical training community should create a standardized training protocol for training and personnel vetting. Those same tactical trainers should be contracted with through the defense department (DoD) to employ services in each state etc.

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Official and public encouragement of young people to participate in activities like scouts or a national defense (TeenCERT) or civic support league can reinforce patriotic sentiment. Even youth sports leagues like baseball, basketball, football, wrestling are perfect physical activities to teach and demonstrate team-building, unity of effort, esprit de corps, excellence, team pride.

Emphasizing a ‘national identity’ like America the Beautiful instead of support for a specific government in power will certainly help overcome some citizens’ reluctance to support a defense/resistance because of dislike for the current government, hence drawing both political parties together.

I should add that The American Civil Defense Association (TACDA) is an excellent resource for National Defense Preparedness offering years of journals, knowledge, available online, live webinars for training etc. Additionally, Survival Dispatch News (SDN) produces many digital print

And high quality video training on survival topics as well as product reviews and testing, scenario testing, Red-Teaming, TTPs, Best practices, threat warning, intelligence.

Finally, the government should communicate the existence of potential external threats to its own population, along with its plans for the population and military to counter or mitigate those threats through preparedness, training, and the necessary institutional and legal structures and policies to develop, establish, and conduct resistance if and when necessary. Clearly this has not occurred on any significant level.

Yes, we have private civilian organizations such as Survival Dispatch News that have covered the upcoming attack extensively and from many perspectives desperately warning the public along with many other individuals with far less reach and we had the National Counterterrorism Center issue one (1) single memo of warning, but this threat data is not being parroted by the many state level Fusion centers; which should flow down data to our average law enforcement patrol units, counterterror units, detectives bureaus, SWAT and other unique units that are either first responders or field intelligence collectors. Information and intelligence dissemination is critical to successfully tackling this grave challenge we face. Preparedness hinges on intelligence flow which is non-existent due to the level of fear and public opinion it may create should the government decide to warn. Leveraging government and private stakeholders is key to effective mass communications.

Godspeed,
Jesse Robert, ATO II, CAS

WORKS CITED

-Otto Fialla-Published by JSOU-Joint Special Operations University-U.S Army-The Resistance Operating Concept-(ROC) https://jsoupess/48/ROC_final_cc.pdf

Otto C. Fialla-Special Operations Command-Europe-U.S-Army-SOCEUR-Briefing-(UNCLASSIFIED) https://U-SMA-Brief-SOCEUR-Resistance-Operating-Concept.pdf

STAS-Technical Report- TR15-7NATO-Conceptual Framework-Total Defence-nllp.jallc.nato.int/iks-152-all.pdf

Dec 1, 2020 - The Comprehensive Defence Handbook-Allied Special Operations Forces Command-www.nshq.nato.int/Library/DownloadFile/e8a86ab2-cbf4-900e-3fcc-c3daa451c067

U.S Army NORTH, Defense Support of Civil Authorities DSCA-Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officers-(EPLO-)https://www.arnorth.army.mil/JFLCC/JFLCC

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Before we get started, its required to point out Hezbollah has been present in Latin America since the 1990s, which will be covered in detail later in the next part of this series.

Iran’s choice of Latin America is not accidental, opportunistic, nor transactional. They have a strategic plan for the region, which will deliver potentially the largest and most successful foreign investment outside the Middle East.

In 2005, Iran became an observing member of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA). Iran’s entry was considered a political-economic alliance, but it was the foundational move to establish their own networks and create co-dependency among the illicit networks of the member nations. The “transformation” of Latin America, for Iran, was a strategically critical element of foreign policy traced back to the 2007 UN arms embargo. The embargo forced Iran to rapidly develop its procurement network in Latin America to access minerals, metals, materials, and technology to support its own weapons programs. By 2009, the IRGC had an extensive, mostly covert, network spread across Latin America, including front companies, shadow banking, and dual-use state-owned enterprises. From 2005-2009, Iran nearly doubled the number of its embassies in Latin America from six to eleven. By 2010, the relationship has matured into a network with mutual dependencies in trade, military cooperation, and illicit activities.

2013 brought the infamous “Soleimani Shift” to the region, focusing on developing illicit networks and working with drug cartels. The Soleimani Shift saw the Quds Force more involved in criminal activity supporting Hezbollah. When the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed in 2015, the Soleimani Shift spiked IRGC activities as it sought to legitimize its presence to evade additional sanctions through “legitimate trade,” when the arms embargo was lifted in October 2020.

When the UN arms embargo was lifted in October 2020, Iranian activity in Venezuela expanded to over 2.35 million barrels of fuel, its first supermarket, shipping of perishable goods, and over 40 chartered commercial flights to Venezuela, carrying Iranian technicians. Venezuela, in return for these goods and services, sent US$ 500 million in gold back to Iran in the first six months.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps keep our work independent. Thank you for your support.Why Latin America?

Iran has taken advantage of the US abandoning Latin America, using it as its best weapon against the United States. If it were to lose that weapon, Iran would have no meaningful way to threaten the United States that would be taken seriously. A stepped program of religious, cultural, political, diplomatic, economic and military activities was implemented to further develop ties across the entire region.

Religious Ties

Iran has always leveraged their own Shi’a expatriate community to export their revolution. The goal is to infiltrate existing intuitions and networks to ensure this community is directly aligned with Iran’s narrative. While Iran leverages their Shi’a community, it also exports religion to the masses, developing systems to train and support clerics, spread across Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Guyana, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil.

Cultural Connection

While exporting religion will only be able to reach a limited group, Iran focuses on creating cultural and political ties with left-leaning communities. It has opened over 100 cultural centers across Latin America. Iranians sell the revolution as a social movement, not an Islamic uprising, that rose up because of exploitation of their natural resources by a foreign government. The message resonates in Latin America because it is their struggle as well, making it easier for Iran to find friends and financiers.

Iran has also invested heavily into media platforms such as, teleSUR, and HispanTV to broadcast their message to a large population, who are not all adherents to “send a strong message” that resonates with them. This increased their reach and audience to Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and El Salvador.

Political Support

One effect of Iran’s campaign is to exert its influence over Shi’a communities in Latin America, which has directly seen more Shi’a Latin American candidates in local office. The 2020 Brazilian election was heavily populated with Hezbollah proxies from different political parties. An additional benefit for the Shi’a expatriate community was the wealth and influence they were able to gain and exploit various circles of influence.

Diplomatic and Economic Ties

After building cultural ties, Iran focused on developing diplomatic and economic relations, which would start to legitimate and formalize its presence. Interestingly, while the US decreased their presence and the waning Monroe Doctrine, most Latin Americans still predominantly favor the US despite their political differences.

Military Ties

Once Iran was fully entrenched diplomatically, they began to develop in the military domain. Iran currently has a defense attaché in Venezuela, Brazil, and Ecuador. Additionally, President Nicolas Maduro announced the creation of a new Scientific-Military Commission within the Venezuelan Armed Forces, with military advisors from Iran, Russia and China, defense cooperation becomes more important. The IRGC has maintained covert activities in Venezuela since 2006.

Defense cooperation had previously included military industrial exchanges on UAVs, jet aircraft engines, ammunition manufacturing, and helicopter parts.

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Iran’s Deeping Ties with Venezuela

In 2020, when Venezuela was facing gasoline shortages, having the largest reserves petroleum reserves in the world, the state-owned Petroleós de Venezuela (PDVSA) was not able to refine its heavy crude due to mismanagement and corruption. The Maduro regime turned to Iran to partner and provide fuel. Tareck El Aissami, the new oil minister, and Alex Saab, a Lebanese-Columbian businessman and the regime’s special envoy to Iran, worked out an oil-for-gas deal.

Within 45 days, Mahan Air, Iran’s airline, flew seventeen flights and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) sailed five tankers from Iran to Venezuela to provide Chinese parts, Iranian technicians, and approximately 1.5 million barrels of gasoline to Venezuela. Even though the refineries were not functional months later, the Iranian regime received nine tons, the equivalent of approximately US$500 million, in gold bars as payment. Four Liberian flagged tankers were seized by the United States, which were described as the “largest US seizure of Iranian fuel” to date.

The entities involved – Mahan Air, NIOC, and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) – are all sanctioned by the OFAC for their connections to the IRGC.

Much like Syria, the IRGC’s ability to operating in Venezuela is due to Hezbollah’s network, which will be discussed in detail in the next part of this series. Hezbollah’s influence with the Lebanese ex-patriate communities provides Iran a significant gateway to grow in Venezuela. Pivotal businessmen like Alex Saab facilitate Iran’s growing portfolio. Saab was arrested in June 2020 in Cape Verde, on eight counts of money laundering, which forced Maduro to find other Lebanese businessmen to continue to grow the portfolio.

One such facilitator is Lebanese-Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil Mazjoub, and his brother Khaled, who have amassed a massive commercial empire in the shadows of the both the Chávez and Maduro regimes. The Khalil Mazjoub brothers are also well connected in Bolivia, receiving numerous preferential business deals from the Evo Morales regime. A close relative of the brothers in Lebanon, former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, is under OFAC sanctions for “providing material support to Hezbollah” and other corruption charges. Majed is a master of Middle Eastern networking with the trust, access, and placement within the Venezuela to develop Iran’s “commercial operations” within the Maduro regime.

Part of this cooperation was a new Iranian supermarket, Megasis, launched in July 2020 in Caracas. Based on reports from the Wall Street Journal, the supermarket is a “division” of Etka, the Iranian retail chain, which is a subsidiary of the Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) in Iran. Since 2006, MODAFL has partnered with the Venezuelan Company of Military Industries (CAVIM), Venezuela’s defense logistics company, to set up “military projects” to cover up financial transfers through PDVSA’s commercial exchange with China.

The depth of Iran’s cooperation with the Maduro regime, layered within illicit finance connections of facilitators and Hezbollah’s established crime-terror network, creates a tier-one security concern for the United States that is multi-faceted, easy to pivot and provides numerous opportunities through military and illicit tactics to target US interests.

How Does Iran Launder Funds?

IRGC launder their oil profits via narcotics networks through a sophisticated mixture of energy smuggling, front companies, and proxy militias that convert the sanctioned oil income into transnational criminal revenue. These mechanisms integrate the IRGC’s illicit oil trade with global narco-trafficking economies across the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. By selling their oil via shell companies, front traders, and ship-to-ship transfers using forged documents and reflagged vessels, oil revenues are blended with criminal funds from narcotics and contraband markets to hide their source, including barter trades in cash, commodities, or gold conducted through intermediaries in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and China. These proceeds are redirected through Hezbollah controlled financial hubs in Lebanon, where currency is converted and laundered through front import-export firms and parallel banking systems, similar to cryptocurrency and hawala networks.

The IRGC is also known to route their oil revenues via the Houthis and Shi’a militias in Iraq and Syria. These groups manage smuggling pipelines that traffic methamphetamine, heroin, and Captagon from Afghanistan and Iran into the Middle East and Europe. Ships carrying both crude oil and narcotics regularly depart from Iranian ports like Bandar Abbas and Chabahar, using cash settlements to conceal profits within IRGC controlled trade infrastructures. Hezbollah operatives act as brokers, investing IRGC oil profits into cocaine shipments sourced via Latin America, specifically Columbia and Venezuela, merging oil and drug revenue cycles.

The money is laundered through a multi-layer “trade-based” system – IRGC oil shipments generate off-book revenues that are deposited into front companies or exchanged with drug proceeds. These funds are passed through layered financial institutions and hawala networks in Dubai, Muscat (Oman), and Beirut before entering in the real markets disguised as legitimate trade income or humanitarian financing. Hezbollah’s banking networks and exchange houses are key to laundering the funds.

Ultimately, this process sustains Iran’s proxy militias by funding arms trafficking, training and political subversion. It also weaponizes narcotics as both a funding and a destabilization tool. This cross-convergence of oil smuggling and drug trafficking routes reinforces the IRGC’s independency from Iran’s central government, maintaining its own revenue stream to finance regional and global asymmetric warfare.

Evidence linking IRGC to Drug Trafficking Routes

There have been numerous media, intelligence, seized shipments and US congressional hearing that have established IRGC operatives links to drug trafficking routes from the Middle East to Latin America and the Caribbean.

In early 2025, Syria TV confirmed the IRGC had revived narcotics trafficking networks in the eastern Syria Deir ez-Zor region, using female operatives, with forged Syrian passports, to smuggle Captagon and other drugs across Iraq and Lebanon, with over seven million pills and 27 kilograms of narcotics trafficked via tunnels connected to Iraqi supply routes. These operations not only serve a financial objective, but also reestablish IRGC military and intelligence footholds in conflict zones.

Throughout 2025, in Yemen, intelligence and naval monitoring identified IRGC smuggling vessels transporting both weapons and narcotics to the Houthis, confirming Iran’s reliance on narcotics to finance proxy wars.

In Latin America, IRGC and Hezbollah operatives have embedded themselves in Latin America’s narcotics trade. In Venezuela, Hezbollah’s Unit 910, funded and directed by IRGC, used state-backed drug routes and forged passports to move black cocaine, a compressed, low-detection cocaine, across the region and into the Western hemisphere. Intelligence reports have also connected Venezuela, Hezbollah and FARC in cocaine transportation from the Apure region using both maritime and aerial routes into Central America and the Caribbean.

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Hezbollah’s drug syndicate has been directly connected with Ecuador, Columbia, and Curaçao, with specific operatives handling both the financial and logistical operations for IRGC entities. IRGC has also been linked to Hezbollah in using the Tri-Border Area - Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay – as a major staging ground for drug and money laundering to support the IRGC global operations.

• Terrorism and sanctions-evasion have proven a broader criminal-finance scheme that intersect with illicit drug networks, demonstrating how the IRGC exploit criminal infrastructure to move funds and materials globally.

• Hezbollah’s global criminal support networks tie to drug trafficking, money laundering, and other illicit activities that propagate revenue directly to the IRGC front entities. The proceeds, front companies, and international networks are used to fund extremist operations solidly linking criminal enterprises with state actors.

• Narcotics trafficking serves as one component of a multi-faceted funding and logistics system for IRGC and their proxies. Since these operations are highly clandestine and involve multinational actors to carry out sophisticated movement of money, front entities, cross-border smuggling, and align with terrorist-financing objectives.

This brings us to the end of Part III of this series. Part IV will delve into Hezbollah’s Unit 910’s links to Latin America, the operational and financial structure.

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Regards,
Khalid Muhammad

Keep reading below …

While we understand the FBI initiated the movement for the arrests, the local LEOs are credited for the actual arrest. Here’s our problem with the entire thing:

• Of 5 attackers (“Conspirators” in the FBI language), only 2 were wrapped up. We’ve heard that 2 additional attackers were swept up in New Jersey attempting to flee Syria via Turkey to join ISIS for training, but that makes the whole story more questionable

• There was mention a “handler” in New York City, that was visited by one of the attackers for his blessing to “carry out the attack.” He is still at large.

• There was also mention of contacts with Syria and Iraq, including the fact that one of the attackers had recently returned from Syria. Those connections were not followed up on because the FBI didn’t coordinate with the ODNI, the NCTC, of the CIA, all of which are responsible for tracking and monitoring foreign terror groups. These will be lost in the shadows.

• It’s very odd for “terrorists” to be using WhatsApp for communications. From al Qaeda to the Islamic State, the communication platform of choice nowadays is either Telegram or Sessions, both encrypted. WhatsApp has been a known security problem for many years, and the terror groups themselves don’t use them for communication, which makes us wonder - why were the Detroit attacker using it.

• Additionally, when you read the indictment and see some of the “transcribed” message between the attackers - they look very scripted. The scripting makes us wonder if they are using the same strategy as the Taliban are using in Afghanistan - show what you aren’t going to do, and discuss in person what you are going to do. For online communications and telephonic (cell/mobile), have a script for the conversation, so if anyone is monitoring, they learn nothing about the real plan.

• Looking at the pictures of the attackers, there is ZERO, and we mean ZERO operational security (OpSec) being practiced, meaning targeting and finding them would be very easy.

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From an intelligence point of view, there are too many questions that are raised, including the guns and ammo purchases, shooting ranges and basic behavior that would identify them as threats.

There is a lot more questionable information in the Department of Justice indictment below. Yes, the DoJ has taken this down from their website, so you can get a copy of the 73-page document below.

The attack model was exactly as we have been describing on our Survival Dispatch broadcasts at 7 pm EST every weekday.

When you read and start to connect the dots from the indictment, you will find more questions than answers.

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Thanks for reading Overwatch with 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

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Khalid Muhammad

Isis Detroit Arrest Indictment

3.4MB ∙ PDF file

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The latest proof is disturbing. Chinese coders worked inside Microsoft environments tied to U.S. defense cloud systems for close to a decade. Not hacking from the outside. Not probing from afar. Physically embedded in the supply chain and inside the software ecosystem that our military and government depend on.

That is not an attack. That is positioning. In the military we call that shaping the battlefield.

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Imagine a foreign adversary having a quiet set of keys to your ammunition bunkers, communication lines, drone control systems, and classified transport channels. Not to disrupt yet, but to wait. To stay in the shadows until timing matters most. Cyber is terrain and they dug into ours years ago.

This is not paranoia. It is strategy. Chinese doctrine is clear. Win without fighting. Gain access. Burrow in. Wait patiently. Then exploit when the United States is fractured, distracted, or vulnerable.

The public sees cyber attacks like ransomware on hospitals and corporations. The real threat is silent persistence. Access with intent. Code that sleeps. Implants that activate later. Quiet footholds in systems that keep America running.

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This Microsoft revelation should be an alarm bell. It is likely not the only one. We have hardware from China in our telecom infrastructure. We have DJI pulling location and imagery from American skies. We have TikTok harvesting the behavior and psychological patterns of our children. We have smart devices, cameras, routers, industrial components, and critical electronics with Chinese chips and firmware inside them.

We allowed the adversary to build into our nervous system. Now we are shocked when we learn they planted sensors in the nerve endings.

We still do not have meaningful policy to fix this. There is no hard ban on Chinese chips in national infrastructure. There is no accelerated removal of foreign firmware from semiconductor supply chains. We are reacting instead of shaping. Congress argues while the battlefield moves.

This is not about fear. It is about reality. Cyber is the new high ground. The nation that owns it owns the fight. China has been building positions for a decade while our government debated what to call it.

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We do not need outrage. We need action.

• Remove foreign code from critical systems.

• Ban adversary controlled firmware from power, telecom, and transportation networks.

• Stop allowing Chinese owned apps and platforms to shape, track, and manipulate American minds.

• Develop real cyber industrial policy that supports U.S. semiconductor and software sovereignty.

• Demand accountability from corporations that gave access away in the name of efficiency and cost savings.

The next conflict will not start with missiles. It will start with switches that do not turn on. Communications that suddenly fail. Power grids that glitch. Military systems that freeze. Confusion, not explosions, is the opening move in modern war.

The seeds are already planted. The question now is simple. Will we dig them out before they grow into something we cannot control?

The world is changing. America can either wake up or get caught sleeping.

And in war, sleeping is losing.

Godspeed,
Mike Glover
Founder

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton now faces charges for allegedly storing and sharing classified documents from home—an echo of the broader insider-risk problem haunting Washington. The same government that demands citizens safeguard their private data can’t seem to keep its own secrets locked down. Bolton’s case isn’t an isolated lapse. It’s a symptom of a much deeper vulnerability: the human factor inside America’s intelligence and defense community. When those entrusted with the nation’s secrets become careless—or compromised—the entire security chain fractures.

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Meanwhile, U.S. forces have quietly been waging a parallel war few Americans know about. Since September, at least sixty-one suspected traffickers have been killed in strikes across the Pacific and Caribbean. These aren’t conventional cartel takedowns—they’re part of a growing Pentagon campaign linking narco-trafficking to national security. The blurred line between drug smuggling and terrorism has forced U.S. military planners to treat cartels as transnational insurgent networks. Every shipment, every vessel, every encrypted satellite call could be the next node in a hybrid war where profit meets ideology.

But perhaps the most dangerous front isn’t on the sea—it’s in the cloud. The Pentagon recently halted a decade-old Microsoft program after investigators discovered Chinese coders—potentially intelligence assets—had contributed to the software running sensitive Department of Defense systems. That revelation exposes how deeply foreign infiltration has penetrated America’s digital bloodstream. The nightmare scenario isn’t just stolen code. It’s foreign access to defense networks, supply chains, and real-time operational data.

Policymakers now warn that Chinese access to U.S. data and control over connected devices poses a direct national-security threat. As Americans fill their homes with smart cameras, phones, and IoT devices built abroad, the line between convenience and compromise grows razor-thin. Every connected appliance, every household sensor, and every cloud login becomes a potential listening post.

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From insiders mishandling secrets to foreign adversaries embedding code in defense software, America’s security perimeter is collapsing inward. The war has moved beyond battlefields—it’s in our homes, our networks, and our everyday lives.

The question isn’t whether these multi-vector threats will continue—they already are. The question is how long before America admits that its digital dependencies, political divisions, and complacent trust in globalized systems are the very weaknesses being exploited.

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The battlefront of the 21st century is invisible, persistent, and already inside the gates.

For a deeper dive into this evolving threat landscape, listen to the latest episode of The Mike Force Podcast, featuring a leading cybersecurity expert on how Americans can harden themselves before the next wave hits.

Godspeed,
Mike Glover
Founder

The federal government shutdown talks have once again collapsed overnight, setting a record for gridlock in Washington. With no resolution in sight, the political impasse is beginning to ripple through critical sectors — from defense contracting to federal law enforcement operations. Contingency planning now includes furloughs for thousands of civilian employees tied to intelligence and defense agencies, a move that would degrade operational readiness across the board. The paralysis in D.C. isn’t just a budget issue anymore — it’s a national security threat.

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Meanwhile, the FBI is quietly expanding its domestic terrorism monitoring operations, standing up new “regional cells” across three field offices. These units are focused on tracking politically motivated lone-actor violence — a category that has grown dramatically in recent years. The Bureau’s latest data indicates an uptick in ideologically driven threat activity across both the far-left and far-right spectrums, though the political optics of such expansion remain controversial. For a nation struggling with trust in institutions, a broadened surveillance posture risks widening that divide.

In the private sector, a major U.S. telecom provider has detected probing and mapping activity on backbone infrastructure, traced to a foreign state actor. Analysts warn that these actions represent pre-intrusion reconnaissance — the stage before a potential large-scale cyber or hybrid attack. The Department of Homeland Security, already stretched thin, is preparing a “border surge” this week amid intelligence suggesting coordinated smuggling efforts linked to overseas unrest cycles. The concern is that adversaries could exploit a distracted or partially shutdown government to push operations across multiple domains — kinetic, cyber, and informational — simultaneously.

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Globally, tensions continue to climb. In the Middle East, a new round of drone strikes and rocket exchanges threatens to expand regional conflict zones. China, for its part, escalated military pressure around Taiwan following a recent U.S. diplomatic visit, deploying carriers and conducting joint bomber patrols meant to signal deterrence readiness. Russia mirrored this pattern with strategic bomber drills along the Arctic corridor — a thinly veiled nuclear message that complements ongoing aggression in Ukraine.

Across Europe, cyber campaigns have intensified, with coordinated attacks striking at both governmental and financial institutions. Intelligence analysts attribute the wave to state-linked operators acting in concert. One alarming figure stands out: a 42% increase in foreign-linked cyber intrusion attempts on U.S. infrastructure in the past 90 days. The trend line is steep, and it’s accelerating.

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As I said on the Mike Force Podcast this week, gray zone conflict isn’t the prelude to war anymore — it is the war. Every nation is now engaged in hybrid warfare: cyber, information, and economic pressure campaigns that blur the lines between peace and conflict. America is absorbing simultaneous hits in every domain, and while most of these operations stay below the threshold of open war, the cumulative effect is destabilizing.

When the pendulum eventually swings back, the retribution and escalation will be dramatic.

And one last note — our warning order went out for Nigeria. Reports confirm the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians there, with violence bleeding into neighboring countries. President Trump has stated clearly that if the Nigerian government fails to intervene, the United States will.

Stay vigilant. The fight is already here — it just doesn’t always look like one.

Godspeed,
Mike Glover
Founder