Dr Robert J Bunker

C/O Futures, LLC: Homeland and National Security, Threat Groups (Gangs, Cartels, Terrorists, et al), Tech & Weaponry, Concepts, Narratives, Epochal Change

[Dr Robert J Bunker @DocBunker]

A new C/O Futures, LLC (@CO_Futures_LLC) report is now out: David A. Kuhn et al., The Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Assassination Operation: 27 November 2020—Absard, Iran. 17 March 2021: 69 pp, https://t.co/hSuFirzlEs

[Small Wars Journal @smallwars]

“Reforge the Beret: Special Forces and the Education Cognitive Warfare Demands”

“The decisive terrain of strategic competition is the cognitive domain,” writes Col. (Ret.) William Lyons in this #SWJEssay. Here, Special Forces hold a comparative advantage.

But to realize this advantage, he argues, we need a PME system that actually teaches for the next war, not the last one.

#SOF @USSOCOM @norwichnews
https://t.co/jq6SCROIfE

[Dr Robert J Bunker @DocBunker]

We have lots of cool free research at the C/O Futures @CO_Futures_LLC website: Robert J. Bunker and John P. Sullivan, "CJNG Improvised Armored Fighting Vehicles (IAFVs) with M134 Minigun Main Armament". C/O Futures Cartel Research Note Series. 15 Oct 2023, https://t.co/LrdYjWvWai

[David Hambling @David_Hambling]

A Ukrainian drone bomb using a fence post spike looks crude (and has a crude name to match) but this penetrating munition threatens to negate most current counter-drone protection. No wonder the Russians are worried - story below

[Small Wars Journal @smallwars]

🧵“Stars and Signals: Why Operational Advantage from Satellites and Drones Decays Faster Than We Think”

👤Michael Posey, Naval Flight Officer; @us_awc
👤David Zesinger, U.S. Space Force Space Operations Officer; @us_awc

In February 1944, 🇫🇮Finnish defenders lit deceptive fires on Helsinki's outskirts, drew Soviet bombers off-target, then followed the returning fleet back to their bases and hit them on the ground.

That's the logic of degrading decision coherence in action.

What can this teach us about modern warfare?

A thread. 🧵

@NATO @DefenceFinland @FinnishAirForce #SWJEssay #SpaceForce #EW #NATO
https://t.co/XSl6uKvlGh

[Small Wars Journal @smallwars]

“The most consistent agreement across every audience – #SOF operators and COCOM staffers alike – is that cognitive threats are real and current military institutions are poorly organized to recognize (let alone resist) them.”

That’s what Jeremiah "Lumpy" Lumbaca, PhD., a retired @USArmy Green Beret, has to say about cognitive warfare.

“What Teaching Cognitive Warfare Taught Me About Cognitive Warfare” is full of this and other critical lessons. 📕

@IrregWarfare
@LumpyAsia
@USSOCOM
#SWJPerspectivepiece
#CognitiveWarfare

https://t.co/Mi6u36Z0w1

[Small Wars Journal @smallwars]

“Victory is often decided not by destroying platforms, but by shaping the conditions under which an adversary must make decisions,” write Michael Posey and David Zesinger.

“The Russia-Ukraine War suggests that the advantage will go to the force that maintains decision coherence, namely the ability to outthink the opponent, the longest, as operational advantages from satellite and drone effects will be fleeting.”

Read this #SWJEssay to understand how we got here– and what @NATO should do to prepare.

📰“Stars and Signals: Why Operational Advantage from Satellites and Drones Decays Faster Than We Think”

@us_awc @USSF_SSC
https://t.co/XSl6uKvTvP

[Dr Robert J Bunker @DocBunker]

I'll be providing Cartel Weaponized Drone Threats training (.12) to US LE at this CGIA conference during a 2 hour block along with some C/O Futures @CO_Futures_LLC PHY AI Drone Weaponization program updates for domestic early warning counter-terrorism/counter-cartel purposes.

[Dr Robert J Bunker @DocBunker]

From about 5 years ago @smallwars @CO_Futures_LLC -- still relevant: "Mexican Cartel Use of Social Media." Global Network on Extremism & Technology (GNET). 23 March 2021, https://t.co/JH3ZGTghQL

[ElGuzman @FuriaNegra77]

Fuerzas de seguridad integradas por la Guardia Nacional, el Ejército Mexicano y la Policía Estatal aseguraron en Huajicori y Acaponeta 15 artefactos explosivos artesanales, 50 cargadores, 1,586 cartuchos y equipo táctico. #Nayarit

[Small Wars Journal @smallwars]

Rhett Alden Price, "2006 or 2026? Will the Sheinbaum Administration adopt a Calderón-Era Security Doctrine?" EL CENTRO| PEER-REVIEWED. 9 June 2026, https://t.co/fP1rvjUKjl

[Small Wars Journal @smallwars]

"Inside El Mencho’s altar: faith amid cartel violence (featuring Dr. Robert J. Bunker)." EL CENTRO| NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS| THE DISCOURSE. 7 June 2026, https://t.co/J0HEWDclRu

[Small Wars Journal @smallwars]

💡 Ideas don't wear rank.

New from @DavidMaxwell161: How Small Wars Journal democratized strategic thought after 9/11, turning captains, scholars, operators & retirees into a marketplace of ideas that shaped doctrine, debate, & adaptation in real time.

A must-read on the power of open discourse.

#SmallWarsJournal @ASU

https://t.co/tIMfYR5QFr

[New York Post @nypost]

California Navy sailor, 25, 'caught in ISIS plot to kill Special Forces using rocket-propelled grenades and drones' https://t.co/N99SBBIq7y

[Pernicious Propaganda @natsecboogie]

From @pegavisaorjnews we have a photo of a traficante from Comando Vermelho w/ a drone detection device in Complexo da Penha, Rio de Janeiro.

The device is a Terjin PL2 Pro handheld drone locator. It is a Chinese product w/ a claimed range of 1-2 km within urban environments.

[Tony Seruga @TonySeruga]

🚨 “I WISH I COULD KILL 300,000,000 AMERICANS” — FBI Just Took Down Three U.S. Citizens Funding ISIS RPG and Drone Attacks on Our Troops. This Is What Happens When the DOJ Actually Does Its Job.

💥FBI BUSTS ISIS TERROR CELL ON AMERICAN SOIL — THREE U.S. CITIZENS PLOTTED RPG AND DRONE ATTACKS ON OUR TROOPS ☠️

Three radicalized American citizens — not foreign infiltrators, but homegrown traitors radicalized right here on U.S. soil — were arrested in simultaneous FBI raids across Kansas and California early Friday morning. Their mission? Fund ISIS. Buy RPGs. Send drones to kill American servicemembers. And they came terrifyingly close.

🔥 THE PLOT, UNPACKED

The three jihadist wannabes — Bisaam Ghafoor (21, Leawood, KS), Elias Shamsaldeen (21, Porterville, CA), and Bereen Dzayee (25, Lakeside, CA) — spent over a year on Discord and encrypted messaging apps coordinating a multi-pronged material support operation for ISIS. Here’s what the DOJ complaint lays out:

- They pledged bay’ah (allegiance) to ISIS leadership — not in private whispers, but publicly on social media. Shamsaldeen did it openly in October 2025.

- They sent over $2,000 to someone they fully believed was an active ISIS operative — with Ghafoor personally handing a wax-sealed envelope containing $250 cash to an FBI undercover agent at a Kansas City mosque in May 2026, then sending another $200.

- Shamsaldeen drove 90 miles to a crypto ATM at a gas station, attempting to launder his donations beyond traceability. He successfully sent $1,590 through a financial app to an FBI undercover account, believing it was buying drones to rain hell on American troops.

- Ghafoor’s name was literally written in Arabic on an RPG projectile — a weapon he was told would be used to kill U.S. servicemembers overseas. His response? He celebrated it, calling it “sick” — in the enthusiastic, not disturbed, sense of the word.

🩸 THE CHILLING WORDS

These aren’t allegations of abstract sympathies. The FBI has the receipts. Direct quotes from the complaint:

Ghafoor: “I have always wanted to kill a female soldier by beheading.”

Ghafoor: “I wish I could kill 300,000,000 Americans.”

That’s not hyperbole. That’s not a kid trolling on Discord. That’s a 21-year-old American citizen fantasizing about decapitating a female U.S. service member and exterminating the entire population of the United States.

Shamsaldeen: Expressed a desire to stab and injure a U.S. servicemember he encountered at a business. He also told the group that his own mother encouraged her children to grow up and kill Americans.

Dzayee: Suggested U.S. Special Forces — specifically Green Berets — should be the drone targets. He also coordinated the money transfers, telling the group to call it “charity” and adding: “In my head it’s charity.”

And here’s the kicker — Dzayee himself acknowledged the gravity. He and Ghafoor called what they were doing “treason” and admitted it was “bigger” than their existing fraud scheme. They knew exactly what they were. They said it out loud. And they kept going anyway.

🎯 THE STING: HOW THE FBI GOT THEM

The investigation began in March 2025 with a single anonymous tip about pro-ISIS social media posts. Within months, the FBI had:

- Infiltrated their Discord and messaging groups
- Deployed undercover agents and confidential human sources
- Tracked Shamsaldeen’s 90-mile crypto ATM pilgrimage via surveillance
- Captured Ghafoor on tape, handing cash to an agent inside a mosque
- Documented every pledge of allegiance, every violent fantasy, every dollar sent

FBI Director Kash Patel didn’t mince words:

“These subjects allegedly swore allegiance to ISIS, plotted multiple attacks, and even targeted U.S. servicemembers — but this FBI stopped them cold.”

Acting AG Todd Blanche put the broader mission in perspective:

“This administration has put terrorists, cartels, and gangs on notice. Today’s arrest makes clear our commitment to taking down terrorist networks — anywhere.”

And the most haunting line from Blanche, which should sear itself into every American’s consciousness:

“Young men in their 20s completely indoctrinated by terrorism and by terrorists and actually spending money to actually follow through on these attacks. It’s a good reminder to Americans that this fight is not over.”

🇺🇸 THE DEEPER TRUTH NOBODY WANTS TO SAY

Here’s what the sanitized headlines won’t tell you: all three are U.S. citizens. Born or naturalized right here. One of them — Dzayee — appears in photos wearing a U.S. Navy sailor’s uniform, confirmed by neighbors and a former classmate. These aren’t foreign agents sneaking across the border. These are products of the American system, radicalized internally through their teachers and online echo chambers while the previous administration’s DOJ and intelligence agencies were busy hunting grandmothers at school board meetings and labeling concerned parents “domestic terrorists.”

The Biden-era FBI spent years telling us the greatest terror threat was white supremacy in the heartland. Meanwhile, actual jihadist cells were forming on Discord, pledging allegiance to ISIS leadership, and wiring money for RPGs and drones — right under their noses.

This bust happened because the Trump DOJ and Kash Patel’s FBI actually prioritized counterterrorism rather than treating it as an inconvenient distraction from political prosecutions.

⚖️ WHAT HAPPENS NOW

All three face charges of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization — a charge that carries up to 20 years in federal prison. The case is being prosecuted in the District of Kansas by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Rask and Michelle MacFarlane, alongside the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

They’re innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But the complaint is devastating. The paper trail is massive. And the confessions are on tape.

📢 THE TAKEAWAY

The war didn’t end when we pulled out of Afghanistan. It didn’t end when Baghdadi ate a suicide vest in a Syrian tunnel.

The ideology metastasized. It’s on Discord. It’s in mosques in Kansas City. It’s in the mind of a 21-year-old in Leawood who dreams of beheading female soldiers.

But here’s the difference between then and now: this administration is actually hunting them. Not lecturing us about Islamophobia. Not deflecting to “stochastic terrorism” from political opponents. Actually doing counterterrorism.

This is what law and order looks like. 🇺🇸

#ISISBusted #LawAndOrder #FBI #ToddBlanche #KashPatel #NationalSecurity #MaterialSupport #HomegrownTerror #AmericaFirst #TrumpDOJ #Counterterrorism #GreenBerets #ProtectOurTroops #WakeUpAmerica #DiscordJihad #Treason #JusticeServed #StopISIS

[Dr. Death & Divinity @AndrewChesnut1]

Inside El Mencho’s altar: faith amid cartel violence
Chesnut said El Mencho, raised in the deeply Catholic Mexican state of Michoacan, echoes other criminal actors who’ve balanced villainy and veneration, bypassing traditional religious.."

https://t.co/17Zwfxy36H via @usatoday

[Dr Robert J Bunker @DocBunker]

@AndrewChesnut1 @CO_Futures_LLC Yes, I think the reporter did an excellent job with the article.

[Dr Robert J Bunker @DocBunker]

Marc Ramirez's interview of Robert Almonte, Andrew Chesnut, and I @CO_Futures_LLC : "Inside El Mencho’s altar: faith amid cartel violence." USA Today. 7 June 2026, https://t.co/BpxTmSJMxG

[Dr Robert J Bunker @DocBunker]

C/O Futures is providing this specialized 4 hour training at the School Safety Conference in Temecula, CA on 22 June 2026, https://t.co/o74ZkT2ayA

[Dr Robert J Bunker @DocBunker]

@natsecboogie Also I'm not seeing CDS factional patches for droneros units as of yet-- but better OPSEC it appears.