Author: Max Lauker

Max Lauker served in the Swedish Armed Forces, 2002-2018. Primarily serving in Special Purpose Units belonging to the Norrland Dragoon Regiment, Arvidsjaur. Later serving in Stockholm and Karlsborg with units included under the special operations and intelligence umbrella. Several deployments over the years include Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and the former Eastern Block leading numerous covert operations. Now working in the private security sector with Intelligence as his main discipline.
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Using ‘Whiteness’: Defeating the Apartheid Intelligence System (II)

We continue this week with an extract from Bob Newland’s life and experience, and his efforts in fighting the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

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Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

Using ‘Whiteness’: Defeating the Apartheid Intelligence System (I)

Following the Rivonia Trial in 1964, the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) were either in prison serving life sentences or in exile.  Their underground organisation was crushed. The mass organisations of the African people were banned. A young saboteur from Durban, Ronnie Kasrils, was tasked by Oliver Tambo with finding a way to carry out propaganda exercises in South Africa keeping the name of the ANC alive while they regrouped and reorganised.

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Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

Combat Trauma – A Not-So-New Phenomenon

Before the launch of Number 788 and conscious of the impacts of conflict and trauma especially those caused by war, and other military operations, your war diarists wanted to publish a column on combat trauma & PTSD.

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Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

The Dawn of the Special Purpose Units & the International Ranger Platoon

This was the dawn of the International Ranger Platoon that formed the embryo of the future Swedish Special Forces. 

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Past, Present & Future The War Diaries

A Snap Shot of War from the Diaries and Letters of Generals and Soldiers 

Our reflections on war are captured in different ways. The diaries of generals often read like the works of ancient Greek heroes. Brimming with purpose and almost unconscious of the human cost, they sometimes win and often lose, crushed by the Herculean weight that they try to lift. 

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