Mark Stout
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markstout.bsky.social
Mark Stout
@markstout.bsky.social
Intelligence historian, former intelligence officer. Also live on the borderlands of military history. Former Historian at the International Spy Museum. University educator. I wish I were in Seattle. The cat is Boadicea.
Reposted by Mark Stout
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For Your Eyes Only: paywalled journals and global scientific inequity
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Diamonds Are Forever: challenges in long-term sustainability for aspirational open access financial models
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Goldfinger: Bitcoin & the Semiotics of Digital Goldbugs
December 26, 2025 at 6:10 PM
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No Time To Grade
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You Only Review Twice
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The Grant Is Not Enough
December 26, 2025 at 8:34 PM
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Looking for a Christmas miracle for a kitty (aging parent situation) for Baltimore pals: (1/2)

""My mom can no longer keep Angelo (alas!!!) and we are looking to rehome him. Angelo is a total sweetheart. He is 6 years old, gentle, playful, friendly, and a lovebug."
December 25, 2025 at 2:07 PM
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Can we fill the TL with suggestions of untapped archives/collections? That would be a lot of fun! I think there's quite a bit of material in the Gregory Bateson papers at UCSC Special Collections that has yet to be written about.
In the spirit of the season, I want to offer my fellow historians and other scholars the gift of an amazing, largely untapped archive.

Ladies and gentlemen, the John Doar Papers at Princeton. 🗃️
December 26, 2025 at 5:20 PM
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Moonraker: Reconsidering Wiltshire Folkloric Traditions.
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Tomorrow Never Hires
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Best, Russia
December 26, 2025 at 6:06 PM
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New: Read the translated KGB training manual on how the Soviets categorized white Westerners they looked to recruit, according to four basic personality types. Some unintentionally hilarious stuff in here, all analyzed by Mike Miller, a recent retiree from the CIA and a cognitive psychologist.
December 11, 2025 at 9:04 PM
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A Christmas week legal miracle--one that those of all faiths can enjoy:

Trump's targeting of our client @markzaidesq.bsky.social incl pulling his security clearance was enjoined as unconstitutional retaliation

A great win for him, for us @democracydefendersfund.org & for the superstar legal team👇
December 24, 2025 at 11:04 PM
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"This very readable book discusses numerous pathologies that have afflicted the relationships between American intelligence agencies and the president, the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the American people."

@markstout.bsky.social reviews "The Spy and the State" by Jeffrey P. Rogg.
U.S. Intelligence Agencies Have Not Aged Well
A review of Jeffrey P. Rogg, “The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence” (Oxford University Press, 2025).
www.lawfaremedia.org
December 26, 2025 at 3:42 PM
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This top secret document of #KGB's 7th Department (surveillance) in Kaunas, Lithuania explains how they disguised a photo camera in a handbag.

The document is not dated but, based on its position in the file, I suspect that it was written in 1956.
December 25, 2025 at 7:56 PM
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I did not understand this: one of the five Europeans the US has barred from traveling to the United States...is a permanent resident who lives with his family in the US.

Now he is worried about being arrested and deported for the crime of monitoring online hate.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...
Judge Blocks Detention of British Researcher Who Scrutinizes Online Hate
www.nytimes.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:55 AM
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Canada isn’t really reacting to Trump's Greenland grab.

The U.S. is actively eroding international norms that have held the global order since WWII.

We're reacting to that.

1/5
With the U.S. threatening to take over the Arctic island, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she shared the federal government's full support for the sovereignty of Greenland in a conversation with the Danish foreign minister.
youtu.be/AC2pUW5JuSs
Anita Anand stands up for Greenland’s sovereignty
YouTube video by CBC News: The National
youtu.be
December 26, 2025 at 4:17 AM
What the AZ GOP is trying to do here smacks of what the Soviet Union did during the 1970s: start treating dissent as a mental health problem. Many dissidents ended up in psychiatric hospitals.
Shamp’s Senate Bill 1070 would direct the #Arizona Dept of Health Services to conduct or support research to “advance the understanding of Trump Derangement Syndrome, including its origins, manifestations and long-term effects on individuals, communities and public discourse.”
Arizona lawmaker wants state to study ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’
What, your heart isn't bursting with love for the commander in chief? Are you feeling OK?
www.phoenixnewtimes.com
December 26, 2025 at 12:59 AM
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I've made it. I've been quoted in a History .com article.

And it's an excellent one on the FBI's investigatory interest in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)!
When 'It's a Wonderful Life' Came Under FBI Scrutiny
An FBI report suggested the beloved holiday film was subversive.
www.history.com
December 12, 2025 at 6:14 PM
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For a Christmas miracle, you guys could help me get a more respectable number of followers. I post about historical memory of George Washington and slavery and various museum/public history topics. Some of the posts are good.
December 25, 2025 at 5:10 PM
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New addition

Journal article: Collaborating with the East German Secret Police by Alison Lewis (published 13-11-2025)

https://brill.com/view/journals/eceu/52/2-3/article-p191_003.xml
brill.com
December 25, 2025 at 10:19 AM
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Turkey arrests 115 IS suspects 'planning New Year's attacks'

www.bbc.com/news/article...
Turkey arrests 115 IS suspects 'planning New Year's attacks'
Turkish authorities say firearms were seized and efforts to trace further suspected members are continuing.
www.bbc.com
December 25, 2025 at 3:22 PM
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December 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
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Merry Christmas to all who seek peace, joy and love.
December 25, 2025 at 2:13 PM
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Court orders whistleblower attorney Mark Zaid’s clearances reinstated.

READ: ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov
December 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
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Axios has the SCOOP that Bari Weiss is planning to overhaul the standards and practices unit at CBS News -- which is something I reported last month.

www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...
Bari Weiss wants to take down ‘too much power’ CBS News Standards unit: sources
EXCLUSIVE: Internal rumblings within the newsroom come after the S&P head resigned and the network disbanded its vaunted Race and Culture unit.
www.the-independent.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I hope someone is saving copies of all of these incorrectly redacted Epstein documents because you have to know that DOJ is going to undo this Tuesday AM if they're not at work on it already.
Ok. Now had a chance to check and, well, at least some docs do appear to be straight up classic redaction fail. And there are some *interesting* bits here.

www.justice.gov/multimedia/C...
December 23, 2025 at 5:34 AM
Does anyone have a sense of whether Trump’s battleship is an idea the Navy had genuinely been working on for a while? Or is this just a PowerPoint deck somebody threw together late last week after a couple beers?
December 23, 2025 at 12:56 AM
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Trump is reportedly designing the look of the new ships himself.

Anyhow, the Vasa Museum is pretty cool if you’re ever in Stockholm
December 22, 2025 at 11:37 PM
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2nd wild story from the French National Archives, CARAN reading room, ca 1980s/1990s. A shriek from the far end of the room. A reader had found a large, dead, decomposing rat in her archival box. Of course, many of us rushed to see it, till the présidente de salle grabbed the box & shooed us away.
December 22, 2025 at 11:22 PM