Tag: Military Intelligence

US ‘just about’ ready to lift Ukraine intel freeze, Trump says ahead of Saudi meet

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

US ‘just about’ ready to lift Ukraine intel freeze, Trump says ahead of Saudi meet

The U.S. is “just about” ready to lift its freeze on intelligence sharing with Ukraine, President Donald Trump said Sunday, as American and Ukrainian negotiators prepare for bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia intended to move toward a peace deal to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion.

…

The U.S. delegation in Saudi Arabia will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz. The Ukrainian team will be led by Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office. The U.S. side is expecting Ukraine to show willingness to make peace, Trump suggested on Sunday.

…

Trump and his top officials have said that both Ukraine and Russia will be expected to make concessions in pursuit of a peace deal to end Moscow’s invasion, which itself is only the latest chapter in more than a decade of cross-border aggression.

Trump last week suggested in a post to Truth Social that he was “strongly considering large-scale sanctions” and tariffs on Russia until a deal is reached, adding that Moscow “is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now.” Trump also told a joint session of Congress he had received “strong signals” that Russia is ready to make peace.

…

The Kremlin has also cited a September 2022 Ukrainian decree in which Zelenskyy declared negotiations with Putin “impossible,” after Moscow claimed to have annexed four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions.

On Monday, Peskov told journalists that Russia’s read on this week’s meeting “is not important.”

“What is important here is what the United States expects at various levels,” he continued. “We have repeatedly heard statements that the U.S. expects the Ukrainians to demonstrate their desire for peace. That’s probably what everybody is waiting for. Whether the members of the Zelenskyy regime really want peace or not. Of course, this is very important and it is necessary to decide.”

The false narrative that Trump has ended regime change ops, & the covert nature of the empire’s next actions

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
The terrorists that escorted John McCain to Syria were financed by Moti Kahana. Source.

The false narrative that Trump has ended regime change ops, & the covert nature of the empire’s next actions

Anyone who’s simply saying Donald Trump has dismantled USAID, without including the other parts of this story, is putting forth a narrative of false hope. The potential for ending U.S. imperialism’s global destabilization efforts cannot be found within any top-down policy change; it can only be found within the effort to overthrow our capitalist state. The Trump White House hasn’t been pressured into dismantling the regime change network, and if Trump were to do this, the imperialist deep state would assassinate him. The thing he’s actually done is transfer resources from the State Department and its non-governmental organizations, to the covert operations programs of the CIA. Which means the destabilization efforts are now going to be much better hidden, and those who oppose them will need to be more diligent in detecting and exposing them.

Read More »

Listening to Soldiers Of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Opening quote.

Soldiers Of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire

Related:

The Rand Corporation: The Think Tank That Controls America (archived)

By the 1960s, America’s rivals were paying attention. The Soviet newspaper Pravda nicknamed RAND “the academy of science and death and destruction.” American outfits preferred to call them the “wizards of Armageddon.”

US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait, China Responds (+the U.S. is not obligated to defend Taiwan)

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

US Navy Aircraft Transits Taiwan Strait, China Responds

The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft transited the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday.

…

Around once a month, U.S. military ships or aircraft pass through or above the waterway that separates democratically governed Taiwan from China – missions that always anger Beijing. China claims sovereignty over the island of Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the strait is an international waterway.

Read More »

South China Sea: US troop aid may reassure Philippines but will prod China, analysts say

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Has anyone realized that by disclosing the existence of “US Task Force Ayungin,” Biden admin implicitly recognized Philippines’ sovereignty over a disputed SCS feature?

Washington has never taken a position on SCS territories(but it has in ECS). This is a clear signal to China.*

Derek J. Grossman, RAND

South China Sea: US troop aid may reassure Philippines but will prod China, analysts say (archived)

The Philippines has said the US task force only offered support – in the form of intelligence and surveillance – and did not directly take part in its resupply missions to BRP Sierra Madre, the retired warship, but analysts suggested that China’s leadership could see it in a different light.

…

Zheng said the revelation about the American task force meant the US was likely to be more engaged in the drawn-out maritime conflicts in the region, even suggesting that Washington would “be the first to take part in the command and planning of Philippine maritime activities”.

…

Ding Duo, deputy director of the Centre for Oceans Law and Policy at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies in Hainan, said the presence of a special task force showed that Washington and Manila had long cooperated on resupply operations to Second Thomas Shoal.

…

“Such support emboldens the Philippines and is not conducive to China and the Philippines managing their differences,” Ding said. “The US involvement has also squeezed the political space for internal coordination and decision-making within the Philippines.”

…

He said it was also possible that American troops could be on Philippine ships and involved in front-line action “using a covert or concealed identity to participate in Philippine maritime operations” in future.

He said the US could “only intervene [in South China Sea disputes] in a covert manner and so it took the form of a task force”.

Related:

Read More »

Philippines’ Aggressive Territorial Claims In South China Sea: A New Threat to Regional Stability

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed a new Navy chief (Rear Admiral Jose Ma. Ambrosio Ezpeleta) amid tensions in the South China Sea, which include a number of maritime drills which are perceived as provocations by Beijing. One such military exercise earlier this month, for instance, included drills to simulate seizing an island in the disputed South China Sea. Last month Manila held military exercises in the same Sea together with Canada, Japan, and the United States, as part of Exercise Sama Sama 2024. The Philippines are also officially expanding their maritime claims. These developments are all connected.

Philippines’ Aggressive Territorial Claims In South China Sea: A New Threat to Regional Stability (archived)

Related:

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China

False report of 40 NK casualties prompts Seoul to warn against Ukrainian disinformation

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Source

False report of 40 NK casualties prompts Seoul to warn against Ukrainian disinformation

What’s important is that the initial report came from the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council’s Center for Countering Disinformation. Disinformation refers to doctored or false information deliberately propagated by a state actor to maliciously influence another country. In the initial stages of the war, the Ukrainian government posted a video of the “Ghost of Kyiv,” a legendary fighter pilot who allegedly shot down six Russian fighter jets in 30 hours. Yet the actual existence of such a pilot has never been confirmed. 

Considering such developments, South Korean intelligence officials have adopted a skeptical stance when it comes to reports from Ukraine. It’s gotten to the point where Korean intelligence officials are telling reporters to hold off on relaying reports about North Korean troops from Ukrainian officials until they receive third-party confirmation, because Ukraine makes “fake news” at the state level. This means we have to carefully consider the source of the information and the intentions behind it. 

Previously:

Pentagon-Linked Think Tank Proposes Disinfo Campaign Against Russia, North Korea