Author: Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr.

Four Years of Wrongful Detention for the Citgo 6

November 21 marked four years since U.S. nationals Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cardenas, José Pereira, Tomeu Vadell, José Luis Zambrano, and Alirio Zambrano traveled to Venezuela for a CITGO Petroleum business meeting and were not allowed to come home.  After being invited to Venezuela, masked security agents detained all six men and imprisoned them on specious charges without due process or access to a fair trial.  As a fifth Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we continue to seek their unconditional return and the release of all U.S. nationals wrongfully detained overseas.    

The U.S.  will continue to relentlessly pursue the release of these individuals.  To the Venezuelan authorities who have imprisoned them, we ask that they be allowed to return to the United States to reunite with their families.

On the Situation in the South China Sea

Two days ago, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Coast Guard blocked and used water cannons against Philippine resupply ships en route to Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea.

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The United States stands with our ally, the Philippines, in the face of this escalation that directly threatens regional peace and stability, escalates regional tensions, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law, and undermines the rules-based international order.

On July 12, 2016, an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, delivered a unanimous and enduring decision firmly rejecting the PRC’s claims to Second Thomas Shoal and to waters determined to be part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.  The PRC and the Philippines, pursuant to their treaty obligations under the Law of the Sea Convention, are legally bound to comply with this decision.  The PRC should not interfere with lawful Philippine activities in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

The United States stands with our Philippine allies in upholding the rules-based international maritime order and reaffirms that an armed attack on Philippine public vessels in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S. Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.

The United States strongly believes that PRC actions asserting its expansive and unlawful South China Sea maritime claims undermine peace and security in the region.

Chinese coal is among the most polluting in the world with a high sulfur content that is destroying the quality of winter air in cities across China while also impacting other areas of the world. Air pollution from China is present along many parts of the western coast of the United States Yet, despite previous pledges, after this year’s COP26 conference which ended last week China is refusing to reduce the amount of coal it uses. Repudiation of the conference agreement will dramatically impact whether the world can reach its goal to cap global warming, according to US officials. This was despite China’s instance of a last-minute change to the agreement that reworded it from “phase out” to a “phase down” in the use of fossil fuels. China also refused to sign a pledge to stop building new coal-fired “unabated” plants. These types of projects in the US and elsewhere require carbon recapture methods to reduce air pollution.

Coal supports 57% of China’s energy consumption and generates 70% of the country’s electricity. Today it operates just over half of the entire world’s operating coal-generating plants. Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pointed out on Monday that China is making “incremental changes” in its coal usage. In reality the country will not be initiating a coal reduction program until at least 2026. In part this is due to the number of newly built coal-fired plants that still have a long lifespan. Zhao said that these plants can operate through at least 2040.

As the world phases out the use of coal China is facing a shortage and scrambling to obtain more supplies for this winter. It is negotiating long-term contracts with Moscow to develop new coal deposits in Russia and buy additional supplies that it considers critical to its economic modernization programs. The coal crisis may serve to push the two communist giants closer together as it forms a win-win situation for both – simply put Russia needs money and China needs coal. According to Russia’s Deputy Primte Minister, Alexander Novak, “New long-term contracts will be considered in this regard, along with joint development of coal deposits in Russia, the Zashulanskoe coal deposit in the Trans-Baikal region in particular,” which is in eastern Siberia.

China’s coal demand and increased need for LNG is raising the cost of energy in Europe this winter, further stressing global supply chains, and creating strained relations among the large economies attempting to recover from the global pandemic. According to Jack Sharples, an expert at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, “The global energy price rally has affected economies all over the world, as the prices of oil, coal, and gas have risen.”  

Chinese imports of coal from Russia have tripled compared to last year, according to Chinese customs data. “The rising cost of natural gas has also given Moscow and Gazprom, its state-run gas company, additional leverage over Brussels as it pushes for final approvals for its new and controversial Baltic Sea gas pipeline to Germany, Nord Stream 2, which will bypass Ukraine,” according to Reid Standish of Radio Free Europe. 

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Chinese imposition of an unofficial ban on the importation of Australian coal has further exacerbated the energy crisis in China. It also added stress to Central Asian coal producers who are unable to increase production in the short-term due to the logistics of transporting larger quantities. Constraints on the coal supply have caused China to increase its purchases of foreign LNG. Beijing has ordered state-run companies to buy energy at the highest premium costs, if necessary, further driving up global supply costs and constraints. 

Russia now exporting 60% of its production of oil and gas to China. According to Standish, “Russia also is looking at how to ramp up its coal supplies to China and is currently investing $10 billion into railroad infrastructure in its Far East in order to meet future Chinese needs before the country progresses on its transition to alternative energy sources. It appears that it may be a cold winter not only in China, but in many other areas of the world with diminished long-term prospects for improving air quality. 

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. 

 Photo: Pixabay

There has been little media discussion of the important milestone event celebrated today. 

This is the 400^th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, celebrated in 1621. There are reasons that the biased media has made little note of this extraordinary day.

For the American left, it is an inconvenient commemoration. The achievements of those early settlers on the unforgiving shores of the Northeast represent the principles of courage, self-reliance, devotion to higher principles, and hard work that are the precise opposite of what Progressives prescribe.

The Native Americans taught the Pilgrims much on how to survive in what was to the settlers a strange new world. But those daring men and woman were basically on their own.

The story is eminently well known: A group seeking to practice their religion freely left Europe on a risky journey across a perilous sea, to settle in a land they knew very little about.  They embarked on their endeavor not with the help of, indeed, in spite of, government. While they were not the first Europeans to arrive in the New World, their voyage was a key factor in the future settlement of the North America continent.

They did not expect to be supported or assisted by any government agency upon their arrival.

As the debate over the Biden-encouraged illegal immigration rages on, many on the left attempt to equate it to earlier periods of immigration, from the Pilgrims straight through to the 20^th Century. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

The very first immigrants to arrive in the Americas probably travelled across the then-frozen Bering Strait, sometime between 10,000-40,000 years ago.  They faced a dramatically different landscape, molded by a harsh ice age. Gigantic animals, including dire wolves, mammoths, short-faced bears, and others who were both a threat and a source of food and materials roamed the land.

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In so many ways, those first arrivals were far more courageous and adventurous than our current society would dare to be. Despite the harshness of their environment and life style, they spread across two continents and developed diverse societies. They developed cultures that had admirable accomplishments and ideas. Some of their concepts were inspirational to the founding fathers of the United States. It is a tragedy that the history between the native and European cultures includes so much bad dealing on the part of the newer arrivals.  What happened to Indian society may have been inevitable.  The way it happened was unnecessary and lacked morality.

Columbus opened up the new world for European immigration. From his first voyage in 1492, an unprecedented period of exploration and development occurred.  The vast distance separating the Old World from the New gave birth to societies that were significantly different from those they left behind. It wasn’t just societies that were changed. Individuals were different as well. Benjamin Franklin noted that Americans were a new type of people, and required their own nation independent of European masters.

Far too many of the illegals pouring across the U.S. southern border arrive not seeking adventure, but a handout.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIRUS), in a report generated BEFORE the massive Biden wave of illegal immigration, outlines the extraordinary fiscal burden imposed on U.S. taxpayers by unauthorized arrivals:

“At the federal, state, and local levels, taxpayers shell out approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegal aliens. That amounts to a tax burden of approximately $8,075 per illegal alien family member and a total of $115,894,597,664. The total cost of illegal immigration to U.S. taxpayers is both staggering and crippling. In 2013, FAIR estimated the total cost to be approximately $113 billion. So, in under four years, the cost has risen nearly $3 billion.”

Thanksgiving commemorates the gratefulness of an adventurous people seeking to build a new life through the sweat of their brow and the hard work of their hands, a trait that came to symbolize much of what is good about Americans. It is a trait progressive have rejected.

Illustration: Pixabay

The vast spending proposed by the Biden Administration ignores crucial defense needs. As the recent shocking Chinese hypersonic missile test reveals, the United States no longer has a technological advantage over its key adversaries China and Russia.

Nor is there a numerical advantage. Moscow fields a larger nuclear force, Beijing, a larger navy.  

Combined with the growing nuclear might of North Korea and the coming atomic weaponry Iran will field, and the size of their militaries, the U.S. and its allies are facing considerable danger.

In 2018, the National Defense Strategy Commission  stated:

“The security and wellbeing of the United States are at greater risk than at any time in decades. America’s military superiority—the hard-power backbone of its global influence and national security—has eroded to a dangerous degree. Rivals and adversaries are challenging the United States on many fronts and in many domains. America’s ability to defend its allies, its partners, and its own vital interests is increasingly in doubt. If the nation does not act promptly to remedy these circumstances, the consequences will be grave and lasting.”

The Heritage Foundation has added additional substance to the discussion. Its recently release Index of Military Strength as outlined troublesome details about the status of America’s armed forces.

Both the Air Force and the Space Force are rated as “weak,” and the Navy is deteriorating. The Index found “that as currently postured, the U.S. military is only marginally able to defend America’s vital national interests, and the majority of the services are trending in the wrong direction. These are worrisome findings, made worse by the limited ability of allies to meaningfully contribute to shared security interests. Meanwhile, America’s key adversaries—China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—‚are actively making clear advances in their military capabilities, with China reportedly launching a new hypersonic missile just this past week.”

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This is how Heritage summarizes the status of each branch:

Army: Marginal. The U.S. Army is aging faster than it is modernizing, receiving an overall “Marginal” rating. A force only about 62% the size it should be earns the service a “weak” rating for capacity. However, 58% (18) of its 31 regular brigade combat teams (BCTs) are at the highest state of readiness, thus earning the Army a score of “very strong” on readiness and conveying the sense that the service knows what it needs to do to prepare for the next major conflict.

Navy: Marginal, Trending to Weak. The Navy is rated “marginal” on a downward slope to “weak” in readiness. It desperately needs a larger fleet of 400 ships, but current and forecasted levels of funding will prevent this from occurring for the foreseeable future.

Marine Corps: Strong. The Marine Corps rating is an improvement from its 2021 Index rating of “marginal.” The score changed for two reasons: 1) The 2021 Index changed the threshold for capacity, lowering it from 36 infantry battalions to 30 battalions in acknowledgment of the Corps’ argument that it is a one-war force that also stands ready for a broad range of smaller crisis-response tasks, and 2) because of the Corps’ extraordinary efforts to modernize and enhance its readiness during the assessed year.

Air Force: Weak. This Air Force rating is a downgrade from an assessment of “marginal” in the 2021 Index. Though the Air Force possesses 86% of the combat aircraft that this Index recommends, public reporting of the mission readiness and physical location of these planes indicates that it would be difficult for the Air Force to respond rapidly to a crisis. Its ability to recruit and retain pilots adds to its challenges.

Space Force: Weak. The Space Force receives its first score in this year’s Index. While it has transitioned missions from the other services without interruption in support, it does not have enough assets to track and manage the explosive growth in commercial and competitor-country systems being placed into orbit. The majority of its platforms have exceeded their planned life span, and modernization efforts to replace them are slow and incremental. The force also lacks defensive and offensive counter-space capabilities.

Nuclear Capability: Strong, Trending to Marginal. Progress in modernization efforts, combined with assurances from senior leaders that the forces remain reliable, warrants a more optimistic assessment than previous editions. The conditional score reflects today’s greater risk of a degradation in nuclear deterrence. Current forces are assessed as reliable today, but nearly all components of the nuclear enterprise are at a tipping point with respect to replacement or modernization, and have no margin left for delays in schedule.

Almost daily we are reminded that America is not the country in which you and I grew up. There are cultural trends that clearly show we are a nation rapidly changing, and not for the better. Somehow, the Left finds it offensive to portray America in a positive light. To do so is to convey a sense of American superiority; that we view American culture as exceptional. No change more clearly reflects this way of thinking than the recent announcement by Jim Lee, Chief Creative Officer for DC Comics, that Superman will no longer be fighting for “Truth, Justice and the American Way, but rather for “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow.” Why the change? Is the American Way no longer worth defending? Is it racist? Does it imply white nationalism?

According to Variety, the change is meant “to better reflect the storylines that we are telling across DC and to honor Superman’s incredible legacy of over 80 years of building a better world.” I think there is something much larger and more sinister at play- and it’s by design. Granted, the original mantra didn’t begin with the first Superman comic books, but rather from the Superman radio serial in the early 40’s as a way to support the American war effort. “The American Way “motto was revived for the “Adventures of Superman” TV series starring George Reeves that began airing in the late 1950’s.

All of the mantras for which Superman has fought over the decades have included “truth” and “justice. “The change in the Man of Steel’s mission statement may seem benign, but it is part of a growing trend in this country to downplay America’s achievements and to show disdain for the principles that made us great.

 No part of our culture is safe from so-called “wokeness,” which is plaguing our great nation. Everything that Americans hold near and dear is under attack: our Constitution, our institutions (especially churches), the Founders, Christopher Columbus, are all in the Left’s crosshairs. Now, even Superman has fallen prey to this new zeitgeist in which any mention of America is considered offensive.

Another example of this massaging of the language is the National Recreation and Parks Association’s (NRPA) new instructions on how to speak in “woke” terms. According to a column in Red State by Mike Miller, the new language guidelines include tips such as no longer using the term “Americans” to describe Americans and making sure the term “white” is lowercase while the word “Black” is capitalized.

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As the Daily Wire reports: “the new Equity Language Guide for parks and recreation professionals includes meticulous instructions on what words are acceptable or unacceptable when speaking about race, age, gender, sexual orientation and ability.” Evidently, referring to Americans as Americans isn’t inclusive enough. As the guide instructs: “When we talk about parks and recreation serving communities, we are usually talking about how they serve all people, whether or not they are a U.S. citizen.” First of all, a non-profit, which is what the NRPA is, shouldn’t be “serving” anyone who is NOT a U.S. citizen. Also, because the term “alien” is offensive (according to the guide) when referring to people, it should not be used even when referring to plants. These people are insane. The NRPA wants us to believe that this is all to illustrate how language changes over time. Nonsense.

If we really wanted to be sticklers about language usage and grammar, we would banish the term “woke” from our lexicon. It is an example of Ebonics and makes a mockery of the King’s English. The drive to marginalize American culture, as the announcer for The Adventures of Superman might have described it, “is more powerful than a locomotive” and is happening “faster than a speeding bullet.”It’s up to each of us to be the cultural Marxists’ kryptonite.

Ted Flint is a a broadcaster, podcaster, and contributing columnist for the BMG Network.

Illustration: Pixabay

Nero’s fiddling is an apt metaphor for the misplaced priorities of the progressive movement in American politics.

While America’s enemies abroad gain major advancements in military strength, the Biden Administration delivered to Congress a defense budget that essentially reduced the Pentagon’s purchasing power by 3%.

It wasn’t part of a general belt-tightening. In fact, even as the U.S. endured  a $28 trillion debt, the White House actively pursued a stunninng $3.5 trillion legislative initiative intentionally mislabeled as infrastructure, to obscure its real goal: a massive giveaway more designed to a model disastrously employed in Venezuela now and the Soviet Union in the past.

While both Social Security and Medicare face solvency crises in the coming years, which will rob U.S. citizenry of the returns they worked long and hard for, the left proposes granting access to similar benefits to those who never earned them.

Paying for those schemes prioritizes raising taxes over job creation. The sophomoric attempt to hike corporate taxes to pay for these schemes simply chases employment overseas, since the U.S. would have the highest rates of any of its trading partners. The downward spiral would be swift and devastating.

U.S. students are falling  behind their global peers in key areas such as crucial math and science instruction. Their ability to knowledgeably participate in civic activities is endangered by the  progressives who dominate the educational establishment, who prefer to turn their time, attention and resources to a bevy of divisive  propaganda subjects, including the utterly false 1619 curriculum, “critical race theory,” and sexual instruction better left to parents.

Included in the list of misplaced priorities is an unrealistic approach to environmental issues. Yes, attention must be paid to the health of the planet. But pretending that the current, actual needs of humanity for energy can be ignored is sheer nonsense. Programs that halt gas pipelines, fracking, and other forms of carbon-based fuel production, or make the use of gasoline and heating fuels too expensive for vast portions of the population, is elitist arrogance at its worst.  The priority should not be inducing needless suffering. It should be developing the clean energy of the future, including fusion, and those currently available,  nonpolluting sources of today, such as nuclear.

Solar and wind power are of limited use, but they will never produce the amount of affordable power required, and have their own, serious environmental issues. At best, they provide limited amounts of expensive and unreliable energy.

These nation-wide topics gain much of the attention but must share the stage with the misplaced priorities of local, leftist-run state and local governments in matters ranging from ridiculous transportation choices, offensive schemes to alter the character of middle-income communities, and ignoring the reality of crime.

Consider the ludicrous emphasis on bike lanes. Bicycles are used for commuting by less than 1% of the population in most major cities, but an inordinate amount of road space is devoted for their use.

Programs, such as those enacted in California and elsewhere to eliminate single and two family homes in favor of scatter-site housing for the indigent  ignores the hopes and dreams of American families, substituting the  goals of developers who can contribute heavily to politicians over the good of local residents.

Progressives continue to favor the welfare of criminals over the rights of victims and the safety of society as a whole.

The ideology over actual accomplishment is clearly seen in cities like New York, where the City Council, ignoring skyrocketing crime, a failed educational system, and numerous other major issues, spends its time debating whether to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson from its chambers.

The left’s misplaced priorities endanger national security, the U.S. economy, and the personal safety and finances of the American people. 

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Illustration: Pixabay

Russia Conducts Destructive Anti-Satellite Missile Test

On November 15, 2021, the Russian Federation recklessly conducted a destructive test of a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile against one of its own satellites.

This test has so far generated over fifteen hundred pieces of trackable orbital debris and will likely generate hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris.  The long-lived debris created by this dangerous and irresponsible test will now threaten satellites and other space objects that are vital to all nations’ security, economic, and scientific interests for decades to come.  In addition, it will significantly increase the risk to astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station and other human spaceflight activities.  The safety and security of all actors seeking to explore and use outer space for peaceful purposes has been carelessly endangered by this test.

The events of November 15, 2021, clearly demonstrate that Russia, despite its claims of opposing the weaponization of outer space, is willing to jeopardize the long-term sustainability of outer space and imperil the exploration and use of outer space by all nations through its reckless and irresponsible behavior.

The United States will work with our allies and partners as we seek to respond to this irresponsible act.  We call upon all responsible spacefaring nations to join us in efforts to develop norms of responsible behavior and to refrain from conducting dangerous and irresponsible destructive tests like those carried out by Russia.

New Sanctions Following Sham Elections in Nicaragua

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The United States is acting to promote accountability for Nicaraguan officials in the wake of the November sham election in Nicaragua.  This week, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions against the Nicaraguan Public Ministry and nine Nicaraguan government officials.

On November 7, the Ortega-Murillo government held an election that denied Nicaraguans their ability to vote in free and fair elections, following months of repression and the imprisonment of 39 individuals, including seven potential presidential candidates, opposition members, journalists, students, and members of civil society.  For years, the Ortega-Murillo government chipped away at Nicaragua’s democratic institutions and allowed corruption and impunity to reign.

As a result, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against the Nicaraguan Public Ministry and nine Nicaraguan officials.  The Public Ministry played a primary role in the regime’s arrests of potential opposition presidential candidates, other leaders of civil society, the private sector, students, and journalists in advance of the elections. The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated the nine Nicaraguan officials pursuant to E.O. 13851 for being officials of the Government of Nicaragua or having served as officials of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007.  These nine individuals facilitate the Ortega-Murillo regime’s repression, including its human rights abuses, or manage institutions that finance the undemocratic Ortega-Murillo regime or otherwise sustain it at the expense of the Nicaraguan people.  For a complete list of new sanctions, see the Treasury release.

With these new sanctions, the United States, joined by our international partners, continues to take concrete actions to respond to the Ortega-Murillo government’s attacks on civil liberties and free and fair elections.  We welcome that Canada and the United Kingdom also imposed targeted measures today.  As the OAS General Assembly made clear on November 12, under President Ortega and Vice President Murillo, the Nicaraguan government moves toward further isolation if it continues to undermine democracy and deny Nicaraguans their human rights.  We stand with the region in calling for a return to democracy in Nicaragua and the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners.

Illustration: Pixabay

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with the letter “C.” 

Remember the children’s guessing game? Today it is no longer solely a way to pass time on a long road trip. There is a new reality confronting the United States as “C” — China — expands and deepens it spy operations across the country. Under the Trump Administration FBI Director Chris Wray says it opened a new spy case against China every 10 hours. Today that number remains high with the FBI opening a new case of suspected Chinese spying every 12 hours. Less than a week ago the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced “A federal jury… convicted Yanjun Xu, a Chinese national and Deputy Division Director of the Sixth Bureau of the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, of conspiring to and attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. The defendant is the first Chinese intelligence officer to be extradited to the United States to stand trial.” He will not be the last as the US Government is ramping up efforts to constrain Chinese state-sponsored spying against American commercial interests and governmental entities.

Out of necessity the US developed a coordinated response to the Chinese threat which today includes over 50 government agencies that share information and investigative resources. According to a source inside the FBI, over 25 years ago China already had more than 5,000 suspected agents operating in the Washington, DC area alone. They were known as the xiǎo yú or “little fish,” (小鱼) with each member of the school responsible for picking up a small bit of information that China then gathered and put together like pieces of a puzzle. Today that number may be much higher, and it certainly reaches across the entire nation.

“American culture is open and sharing, making it relatively easy for the Chinese government to acquire commercial intelligence. Often the technical guys don’t realize the danger when they share a small fact about their research… China collects from a lot of cutting-edge engineers,” according to one intelligence source.  The FY 2021 budget provides funding for a total of 978 FBI special agents across the entire Bureau making collaboration and coordination of its resources critical to pushing back against Chinese spying. 

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According to publicly available information, there were 160 incidents of spying against the United States since 2000. Of those, 24% occurred between 2000-2009 and 76% occurred between 2010-2021, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) survey. Eight-nine of these occurred after President Xi Jinping took power, CISC reports. In addition, the survey identified more than 1200 cases of intellectual property theft litigation brought by US companies against Chinese entities in either the US or Chinese legal systems. The total number probably is much higher. Bill Evanina, a former top-level official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said the  Yanjun Xu case “is going to be… used for decades as the proof that the Chinese Communist Party uses a whole of government approach to steal our technology.” 

Information released earlier this year by DOJ suggests that about 80% of all its economic espionage prosecutions would benefit the Chinese state and about 60% of all trade secret theft cases involve the coordination of theft with China.The CIA recently established the China Mission Center which, according to CIA Director William Burns, will refocus Agency efforts at countering the threat from China. That means recruiting and training people in the language and culture of China. It will take time and scarce resources. According to one former CIA agent, the ideal candidate would be a fluent Mandarin speaker, with an advanced degree in artificial intelligence. Hopefully, some of those American children who grew up innocently playing “I spy” will choose to serve their country as patriotic adults.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Friday, she presents key updates on China

The final frontier… where no one has gone before… except that Russia has this week and it created a huge problem that will impact every nation on earth for years. 

On Monday US officials announced the discovery of a dangerous new debris field in space containing thousands of pieces of “space junk” ranging in size from tiny specks to several feet in width. Astronauts working in the International Space Station were forced to take shelter as a precaution. A minute part of the newly discovered debris cloud passing at more than 17,000 mph could have punctured the space station killing all on board. It originated from irresponsible state behavior when Russia tested a direct ascent, kinetic anti-satellite weapon known as an ASAT. By blowing up Kosmos 1408, one of its defunct satellites orbiting earth, Russia not only created more debris, but it also upped the ante in weaponizing space. 

At immediate issue is the increase in pieces of debris it knowingly added to an already overcrowded debris field. A single orbiting paint chip off a man-made object only 0.5 mm in diameter can puncture a space suit, according to Tim Nelson, writing in The Space Review. It happened in 1983 when a chip hit the Space Shuttle Challenger causing $50,000 worth of damage. It’s not an isolated incident. There are numerous cases of fragmentation debris destroying made-made objects in space. This summer a piece of debris 0.5 cm (0.2-inch) wide punched a hole clean through a robotic arm on the space station. 

Russia’s weapon test this week risks destroying global communication satellites that support GPS, communications systems, and weather forecasting satellites. The economic loss of GPS alone is estimated to cost the United States up to $1 billion a day, according to a June 2919 RTI study commissioned by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). A 30-day outage during planting seasons for American farmers, according to NIST, could exceed $45 billion in a single month. Unlike the ASAT weapon, debris from a spacecraft deorbiting naturally burns up quickly just as ships at sea sink and debris from aircraft falls to earth. The weightless environment of space, however, enables even minuscule pieces of debris to orbit earth at high speeds for years. 

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Russia knew well in advance that the kinetic force of a high-velocity object destroyed by its ASAT weapon test this week would result in a debris field with a collisional cascading effect. An exhaustive 1989 study on space debris by Howard Baker points out that such debris can last “anywhere from a million to 10 million years.” The Kessler Syndrome, developed by NASA scientists Donald Kessler and John Gabbard, explains that reaching a critical mass of orbiting debris earth is being sped up as small pieces of debris hit each other and further divide into even more pieces. Each spec of debris, like that from the ASAT test this week, acts like a missile with impressive explosive power. Russia exponentially increased the chances of a future collision and moved the world dangerously closer to a time when space will be an unusable wasteland.                                                                                                                           

Simply calling on Russia to abide by the rules of customary international law is not enough to curb its behavior. In 1978 the Soviet Union accepted financial responsibility for the Kosmos 954 satellite incident in which Canada claimed damage. The punitive costs did not stop Moscow then and it won’t now. Stronger action is needed. Putin has moved Russia from responding to a presumed accidental collision over 40 years ago to an offensive weapons test in 2021 that poses a threat to the safety of the entire planet. With the future of state-to- state conflict moving into space, technology developed to track small objects now must be evaluated in a new light as it could be weaponized by nations such as Russia and China to attack satellites and cover up additional ASAT tests. International space law does not appear capable of changing Russian behavior. It is up to the leaders of the free world to hold Russia accountable. Putin needs to be made to recognize that the final frontier of space is the province of all mankind. 

Photo: International Space Station. jeopardized by debris from Russian ASAT test.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Thursday, she presents key updates on Russia.

Bullets and bombs are still vital to winning wars, but just as airplanes and submarines revolutionized combat in the last century, artificial intelligence is doing the same in the 21^st. Across the planet, from the Pentagon in Washington to researchers in the Middle East, specialists are looking at this worrisome new sphere of combat.  

Ehab Khalifa’s study on Military Cyber Threats found that “Cyber attacks have evolved from destroying and stealing data, to controlling weapons and infrastructure… An example of such cases are the Stuxnet and Flame virus that affected the Iranian nuclear program, and the successful operation to control American RQ-170 Drone by the Iranian authorities. With the development of cyber power to be a military doctrine in defense and attack strategies, it has become an indispensable factor in military operations, as cyber attacks could include espionage, military and strategic data stealing and corruption, denial of service attacks, or even control on command and control systems. It is also contributing to the reinvention of international relations tools and the rejoining of new security concepts, like cyber diplomacy, cyber warfare, and cyber intelligence.”

Attacks by hostile governments and criminal networks on civilian and Defense Department cyberspace assets are constant threats. As artificial intelligence grows in cyberspace and as it matures to enterprise scale, it, too, will become a target, said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael S. Groen, the director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, speaking at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit.

“Our networks are a core piece of our warfighting architecture. Our networks are weapons, and, so, we have to treat them like weapons… we have to plan to protect them, make them resilient because everything that we’re going to do in an artificial intelligence or data-driven way will depend on the security [of] those networks,” he said.

As a result, the Pentagon has paid a lot of attention to network security, shoring up things like zero-trust architecture, cloud security, the transport layer, switching and routing.

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Adversarial AI has its own unique challenges like data poisoning, spoofing and deep fakes, according to General Groen. Detecting threats and anomalous activity on the network at high operating tempos, such as in warfighting, is important, he said. Artificial intelligence can aid humans in monitoring the network for threats. The Department of Defense (DoD) notes that doing so is a task that’s may be beyond the physical and mental ability of humans. DoD is working closely with U.S. Cyber Command, network managers and others to make this happen.

The department isn’t going to flip a switch and suddenly turn on AI, he according to the General.   It will use an incremental approach, starting AI at a small scale for the most pressing problems and then finding other ways to use AI to make processes work better in an ethical framework.

David McKeown, DOD’s chief information security officer and deputy chief information officer, noted  that seven “pillars” make up DOD’s cybersecurity architecture.

“The priority … is that we’re able to detect advanced persistent threats trying to attack our network, advanced persistent threats that have successfully hacked our networks and their lateral movements inside of our networks. The Pentagon has historically been very good at perimeter defenses, it has a lot of tools that it has deployed…We’re successful with 99.9% of all attack vectors. But there is this advanced capability that nation-state actors have [in which] they can get a foothold through a variety of means — phishing, brute force attacks on vulnerabilities that are on servers, web attacks and hacking the code. And once they get a foothold, what we’ve found over time is we have to struggle to find them and then finally, eradicate them from an app on the network and have confidence that they’re gone from the network.” 

Photo: Department of Defense