Some useful resources to follow the actuality of intelligence, counter-terrorism, defense and strategic affairs. As a lot of websites and blogs exist on those matters we only mention here the organizations and blogs we particularly appreciate or we work with.
Amicale des Anciens des Services Spéciaux de la Défense Nationale (France)
L’Amicale des Anciens des Services Spéciaux de la Défense Nationale (France) regroupe d’anciens membres des services de sécurité et de renseignement dépendant du ministère de la Défense et du ministère de l’Intérieur. Véritable mémoire vivante du renseignement français, on y trouve aussi bien des anciens de la France libre ou des réseaux clandestins créés sur le sol français par le colonel Rivet ou le capitaine Paillole que des civils ou militaires ayant servi au SDECE, à la DSGE, à la DST ou ailleurs.
International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association (ICTOA)
The International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association (ICTOA) is a Non-Profit association founded by members of the New York City Police Department. The ICTOA is comprised of law enforcement personnel, firefighters, military, first responders, private/corporate security, and other related professionals.
IALEIA
IALEIA is the largest professional organization in the world representing law enforcement analysts. It is based in the United States, and is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation. IALEIA is managed by an international Board of Directors consisting of nine elected IALEIA members. Several board members are also supported by volunteer committees. IALEIA also has an Executive Advisory Board appointed by the President. IALEIA supports regional chapters throughout the world. IALEIA has a certification program for analysts, a code of ethics, and bylaws that provide structure for the organization. We represent law enforcement analysts in a variety of venues, and provide an environment of community by establishing regional chapters.
Digital Archive
The September 11 Digital Archive uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the history of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania and the public responses to them. Funded by a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and organized by the American Social History Project at the City University of New York Graduate Center and the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, the Archive is contributing to the on-going effort by historians and archivists to record and preserve the record of 9/11 by collecting and archiving first-hand accounts, emails and other electronic communications, digital photographs and artworks, and a range of other digital materials related to the attacks.
Federation of American Scientists
Secrecy News, a publication of the Federation of American Scientists, reports on new developments in government secrecy and provides public access to documentary resources on secrecy, intelligence and national security policy. It is written by Steven Aftergood.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy
Agentura.Ru
Agentura.Ru is an Russian web-site founded in 2000 as internet-community of journalists monitor and write about Russian, American, British, and other Western security and intelligence agencies. Editor of Agentura.Ru is Andrei Soldatov, deputy editor - Irina Borogan. The website reports in Russian and in English.
Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) is a non-profit research group founded by Steven Emerson in 1995. It is recognized as the world's most comprehensive data center on radical Islamic terrorist groups. For more than a decade, the IPT has investigated the operations, funding, activities and front groups of Islamic terrorist and extremist groups in the United States and around the world. It has become a principal source of critical evidence to a wide variety of government offices and law enforcement agencies, as well as the U.S. Congress and numerous public policy forums. Research carried out by the IPT team has formed the basis for thousands of articles and television specials on the subject of radical Islamic involvement in terrorism, and has even led to successful government action against terrorists and financiers based in the United States.
http://www.investigativeproject.org
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
FDD is a non-partisan institution focusing on national security and foreign policy. FDD was founded by a group of former U.S. officials and visionary philanthropists shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001 to help free nations defend themselves.
FDD’s scholars represent a range of perspectives, but all agree:
http://www.defenddemocracy.org
Quilliam
Quilliam is the world’s first counter-extremism think tank set up to address the unique challenges of citizenship, identity, and belonging in a globalised world. Quilliam stands for religious freedom, equality, human rights and democracy.
Challenging extremism is the duty of all responsible members of society. Not least because cultural insularity and extremism are products of the failures of wider society to foster a shared sense of belonging and to advance liberal democratic values. With Islamist extremism in particular, we believe a more self-critical approach must be adopted by Muslims. Westophobic ideological influences and social insularity needs to be challenged within Muslim communities by Muslims themselves whilst simultaneously, an active drive towards creating an inclusive civic identity must be pursued by all members of society.
Quilliam seeks to challenge what we think, and the way we think. It aims to generate creative, informed and inclusive discussions to counter the ideological underpinnings of terrorism, whilst simultaneously providing evidence-based recommendations to governments for related policy measures.
http://www.quilliamfoundation.org
al-Wasat
Looking around the blogosphere, we at al-Wasat saw a good deal of specific coverage of certain issues – the Middle East, South Asia, CT, COIN, etc. But we have not seen a website that brings different perspectives on these separate but interrelated issues together. We wanted to change that.
Our goal was to bring together some articulate, interesting, and occasionally funny individuals to write about radicalization, counterterrorism, terrorist ideology, Muslims in the West, and regional issues, all in one blog.
Abou Djaffar
Ancien responsable de structures d'analyse au Ministère de la Défense, ancien diplomate, spécialiste des questions de terrorisme et de guérillas, Abou Djaffar porte un regard froid - cynique diront certains - sur le jihadisme, ceux qui le pratiquent, ceux qui le combattent et ceux qui tentent désespérément de s'en tenir loin. Il ne refuse pas non plus, de temps à autre, de se livrer à quelques modestes développements sur la vie internationale voire, plus rarement, sur la vie nationale.
Cinéphile attentif, lecteur compulsif, Abou Djaffar est un républicain enragé, un démocrate exigeant et suspicieux au mauvais esprit chevillé au corps. Patriote lucide, il juge que le temps de la grandeur solitaire de la France est passé et qu'il faut désormais construire l'Europe sans rejeter l'alliance naturelle avec les Etats-Unis ou renier son histoire. A ce titre, il n'a que mépris pour les vieilles badernes de tous bords, les gaullistes dévoyés, les souverainistes de la droite extrême ou les altermondialistes de l'extrême-gauche. Il émet par ailleurs de vigoureux doutes à la lecture des argumentaires des réchauffistes.
Abou Djaffar pense ce qu'il écrit - ce qui est un minimum, écrit ce qu'il pense - ce qui est mal vu, refuse les commentaires - afin de préserver ses nerfs, et encourage les mails - souvent passionnants et argumentés et auxquels il répond courtoisement dès qu'il a 5 minutes.
http://aboudjaffar.blog.lemonde.fr
Le blog de Jean Guisnel
Le blog de Jean Guisnel,grand reporter au service Monde du Point, qu’il a rejoint en 1996. Journaliste depuis 1972, spécialisé dans les questions stratégiques et de sécurité, Jean Guisnel est également l’auteur d’une quinzaine d’ouvrages sur ces thèmes.
http://www.lepoint.fr/chroniqueurs-du-point/jean-guisnel
Le blog de Jean-Dominique Merchet
Le blog de Jean-Dominique Merchet, journaliste à Marianne. Jean-Dominique Merchet s’occupe des questions militaires depuis une vingtaine d'années.
http://www.marianne2.fr/blogsecretdefense
Le blog d’Alain Chouet
Le blog d’Alain Chouet, ancien chef du service de renseignement de sécurité de la DGSE.
