US, NATO not prepared for an EMP: Pentagon analyst

Important Takeaways:

  • NATO’s perennial cycle of eastward expansion has been disastrous for European security, and “spells the beginning of the end of NATO as we know it,” Michael Maloof, senior former Pentagon analyst previously underscored.
  • A launch of an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon at a height of about 200 miles from a satellite to explode a nuclear device up in orbit would knock out all the electronics of NATO countries, including the US, Michael Maloof, former Pentagon senior security policy analyst, told Sputnik.
    • “Look, in the United States alone on the East Coast, 70% of the US population relies on the Eastern grid. Around 90% of all US bases rely on energy from the local community grids. If those are knocked out, there’s no communication. And the United States is not geared up for that,” he added
  • Looking ahead, he predicted that fissures could tear the alliance apart.
    • “NATO’s going to probably begin to fracture and splinter into more regional defense alliances in the years to come,” Maloof speculated, suggesting that it might begin with the Scandinavian countries and then spread to the Eastern European countries.

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Chinese influence surrounds the Panama Canal; US purchase could be a bulwark to Beijing’s control and leverage

Important Takeaways:

  • “Unfortunately, the Chinese Communist Party is just filthy all over there. They control the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal — both the Atlantic and Pacific ends,” Johnson said, describing the current scope of Chinese influence.
  • “Lots of reports about China cozying up to Panama, having more and more influence over how the canal is operated, and 40 percent of all American container loads that leave our country go through the Panama Canal. It is an asset that is uniquely important to us,” he said, explaining that “73 percent of all the traffic in the Panama Canal is American traffic, either imports or exports, overwhelmingly American energy, liquefied natural gas and American agricultural products.”
  • “And as you noted, we used to control the thing until 1999,” he said, asserting that he believes President-elect Donald Trump “should have the ability to go evaluate whether or not we can get a willing buyer, willing seller situation.”
  • Host and Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle noted that he witnessed the Chinese influence firsthand when visiting the canal in 2017.
  • “I think most of, if not all of the ships were all carrying Chinese flags. I was just blown away by it,” he remarked.
  • “Well, and you’re right to bring up how many ships are flagged with the Chinese flag,” Johnson responded, although he explained that the scope of the issue is much bigger.
  • “And this is not just a problem for the Panama Canal. It’s a problem for supply chains. Generally, during COVID, you had Chinese carriers who were discriminating against American goods at our own ports,” the congressman said, revealing that 60 percent of U.S. container loads that were going back to Asia “were going back empty at a time when American ag[ricultural] products were rotting on the dock, literally rotting on the dock. They were doing that purposely.”
  • “My bill, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, passed last Congress, was signed into law and really forced the Chinese to start to treat us more fairly

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Another cyberattack as US State Department points finger at China in hacking the Treasury Department

Data Breach Cyber Attack Image: Alexandre Marchi/dpa/picture alliance

Important Takeaways:

  • The Treasury Department said Monday China hackers broke into its systems earlier this month.
  • In a letter informing lawmakers of the breach, the department said Chinese hackers remotely accessed Treasury workstations and stole unclassified documents.
  • The hack is being treated as a “major cybersecurity incident.”
  • The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said China “has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks, and we are even more opposed to the spread of false information against China for political purposes.
  • “We have stated our position many times regarding such groundless accusations that lack evidence,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.
  • The department said it was working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to assess the exact scope of the hack.

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Russia warns citizens not to visit US and Washington says Americans have been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia as escalating confrontation teeters

Red Square Moscow

Important Takeaways:

  • Russian and US diplomats say the relationship is worse than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis…
  • “In the context of the increasing confrontation in Russian-American relations, which are teetering on the verge of rupture due to the fault of Washington, trips to the United States of America privately or out of official necessity are fraught with serious risks,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told a news briefing.
  • “We urge you to continue to refrain from trips to the United States of America and its allied satellite states, including, first of all, Canada and, with a few exceptions, European Union countries, during these holidays,” she said.
  • Both Moscow and Washington say their citizens have been wrongfully imprisoned and their diplomats harassed increasingly as relations soured, though they both defend convictions by their own justice systems.

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Three Americans freed from Chinese prison after more than 10 years of being locked up on bogus charges

US and China flags

Important Takeaways:

  • The Biden administration has secured the release of three Americans from detention in China in exchange for unnamed Chinese persons held in the U.S.
  • China released Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung after years of diplomatic negotiations between the administration and Chinese officials.
  • The U.S. government considered the trio to be wrongfully detained on bogus charges. Mr. Swidan had been detained since 2012 on a drug conviction, while Mr. Li and Mr. Lueng were accused of espionage.
  • Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said Wednesday he worked for years to release Mr. Li, a Long Island resident. He also credited President Biden for raising the detainees’ plight with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
  • “For the families of those Americans newly freed by the Chinese government, this Thanksgiving there is so much to be thankful for,” Mr. Schumer said. “Soon, Kai Li will finally be reunited with his family because President Biden and his Administration also kept the faith and never stopped working to secure Mr. Li’s release and the release of other Americans wrongfully detained by the Chinese government.”
  • The Congressional-Executive Commission on China in September said there are more Americans held in China than anywhere else in the world.

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As China builds up military, US make’s emergency plans with Japan and Philippines over Taiwan

Important Takeaways:

  • The United States is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of an emergency over Taiwan, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
  • A US Marine regiment which possesses the multiple-launch HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) would be deployed along Japan’s Nansei island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said.
  • From an early stage, if a Taiwan contingency becomes highly imminent, temporary bases will be set up on inhabited islands based on US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations, the report added.
  • Japan’s military is expected to mainly engage in logistical support for the marine unit, including supplying fuel and ammunition, it said.
  • Kyodo added that the US Army would deploy Multi-Domain Task Force long-range fire units in the Philippines.
  • Asked about the report on Monday, Beijing’s foreign ministry said that Taiwan is an “inalienable part of China’s territory”.
  • “China firmly opposes relevant countries using the Taiwan issue as an excuse to strengthen regional military deployment, provoke tension and confrontation, and damage regional peace and stability,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
  • China is building up its military capacity while ramping up pressure on self-governed Taiwan.

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Putin is testing new missiles on Ukraine

Important Takeaways:

  • Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia tested a new intermediate range missile in a strike on Ukraine.
  • In a surprise address to the nation, the Russian president warned Moscow “had a right” to use the missile and other weapons against countries that have allowed Kyiv to use their missiles to strike Russia, such as the US and Britain.
  • Ukraine used British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike inside Russia for the first time, a day after using US-made ATACMs to hit a military facility 110km from the Ukrainian border.
  • Putin’s surprise address came after Ukraine accused Russia of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads, for the first time in the war.
  • UN weapons experts had initially cast doubt on the claim by saying that under an international convention, the Kremlin would have to inform the US more than 24 hours ahead of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile.

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Is Ukraine trying to hold the US hostage? The Times of London reported that if Washington withdraws from Ukraine War it will build nukes to defend itself

Zelensky with Trump

Important Takeaways:

  • Ukraine has the resources and expertise to indigenously produce a large quantity of nuclear weapons at short notice if it was forced to do so, a briefing document meant for top government figures allegedly says, a report states.
  • A briefing produced for the Ukrainian defense ministry allegedly explaining to policy makers that the country could rapidly develop rudimentary nuclear bombs from spent fuel rods and long-range ballistic missiles to carry them states this could be achieved in just months.
  • Claimed as an exclusive by The Times of London, the document is presented by the newspaper as illustrating a potential backstop for the country to defend itself from the Russian Federation if the United States under a Trump Presidency withdrew military support. President Trump has made clear he wishes to bring peace to Europe quickly, but has not yet revealed how. Many of the options open to him do not align with the official Kyiv policy as the only acceptable end to the war being total victory over Russia.

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Not so iron clad US threatens to cut off weapons supply to Israel while escalation with Iran and Hezbollah is at an all-time high

Terminal High Altitude Area Defence THAAD anti missile system

Important Takeaways:

  • The US has issued a stark ultimatum to Israel, warning it must relax restrictions on the flow of aid into and around Gaza lest it face being cut off from arms imports.
  • The threat, delivered in a letter penned by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, constitutes Washington’s strongest warning to Israel over the worsening humanitarian situation in the Palestine enclave.
  • Washington’s top diplomat cited the strict controls Israel is imposing, including ‘burdensome and excessive’ restrictions on import materials and the denial of most humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza.
  • ‘Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for US policy… and relevant US law,’ the letter concluded, citing a section of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits military aid to countries that impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
  • It comes at a time when the threat of escalation in the Middle East appears at an all-time high.

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Biden Administration: “Our trust of the Israelis is very low right now and for a good reason”

Biden and Netanyahu

Important Takeaways:

  • US officials tell Axios that the Biden administration is increasingly distrustful of what Israel is saying about its military and diplomatic plans.
  • Two of the officials tell the outlet that White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Friday that the US expects “clarity and transparency” from Israel over its plans for a potential attack on Iran after Tehran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel last week.
  • The officials note that any Israel strike would have an impact on US forces in the region.
  • An official says that Sullivan’s message was a signal that if the US is not given a heads-up as to Israel’s plans, it won’t necessarily join a coalition to defend Israel against a potential future attack from Iran.
  • The report says the US is also concerned about the most recent operation launched by the IDF in north Gaza, despite the fact that Israel has told Washington that the evacuation orders for civilians there will not lead to a permanent displacement of the population.
  • “They tell us what we want to hear — the problem is lack of trust,” a US official says.

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