Dear Readers,
I launched this newsletter two years ago today to offer the public my professional, insider insights into the secret world of intelligence, seasoned by forays into strategic analysis, cold spy cases, and topical musings. As I promised two years ago:
Here we ask the unaskable and say the unsayable without concern for appearance or offense. If you believe the world is exactly as it seems to be, if you buy official stories, if you prefer disinformation to bona fide information, you will be triggered by TOP SECRET UMBRA on a regular basis.
We’re going to dig deep at TOP SECRET UMBRA into sensitive matters that the mainstream media avoids, glosses over, or covers up. We will do this in a spirit of open inquiry, grounded in sometimes unpleasant reality plus deep understanding of how the secret world of espionage actually works.
For too long, mainstream media avoidance of complex and controversial intelligence-flavored issues has relegated these important matters to the fringes, sometimes nut-fringes. Then the MSM has no need to cover them because, of course, only crazy basement-dwellers talk about such things. The antidote to tinfoil and media avoidance is right here.
This newsletter builds on my long experience in national security and intelligence, a couple decades in the Defense Department and the Intelligence Community as a GS civilian, military member, and sometime contractor. I won’t say I’ve seen it all – who has? – but I’ve seen a lot and I’ve experienced it from different hush-hush viewpoints. That’s the perspective you’ll get at TOP SECRET UMBRA.
I think we’ve done all that and then some over the last two years. However, it’s been a tough OPTEMPO given world events that can be fairly termed historic: the COVID-19 pandemic (where’d it come from, anyway?) and its associated cost and chaos; the weird, unsettling ending to the Trump administration (complete with nonexistent Krakens); and of course Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, Europe’s worst war since 1945 (you can only warn people so many times).
As a result, since serving as a one-man intelligence agency (plus my own editor) is difficult sometimes, my output at TSU has focused largely on more-or-less weekly deep-dive analysis in the 2,000-plus word range, usually for paid subscribers. Something like one-third of overall TSU content has been for all subscribers and the public.
It’s time to mix that up and bring this newsletter back a tad closer to my original intent. Starting today, TOP SECRET UMBRA will email to all subscribers a daily, Monday-to-Friday list of important stories that you won’t want to miss if you’re interested in intelligence matters and international security issues. This will be termed YourINT SITREP (with date added).
Every Saturday I will post and email out the usual weekly deep-dive analysis that you’re accustomed to enjoying with your weekend. That will be for paid subscribers. I will also offer periodic Special Reports on topics of high importance which will be open to all subscribers. TSU’s seven-day free trial for the curious will continue.
Allow me to thank everyone who’s been reading TOP SECRET UMBRA over the last two years. Your kind and thoughtful feedback makes it fun and rewarding. I want to offer sincere thanks to all subscribers, especially the paid ones, and above all to my Founding Members whose generous contributions keep this one-spook intel operation going.
Thanks again – and buckle up for the continuing ride on the edge of classification!