Catfished?

Remember when I posted about Epieos? I looked up a couple of email addresses besides my own. That was after I used InfoTracer (a data broker). It was only $2 to do a search. Be sure to cancel right afterward, or you’ll end up paying a monthly fee. I still need to opt out so they don’t sell my personal data.

Do they really think that I’m stupid, though? I do online research for a hobby. The Substack subscription came the day after my article was published on Antiwar.com. My blog gets spammed every week, sometimes twice a week. Every week, someone tries to shut my blog down with a denial-of-service attack. This, ever since I started researching “Project Myoushu,” last year. Of course, I’m going to be suspicious!

This particular scam may be unrelated, but I’ve been suspicious ever since they contacted me. I’ve only told them what I’ve said here, in personal posts that are now private. No, I didn’t fall for the bullshit about me being interesting (or being beautiful), and them wanting to be in a relationship, when they don’t even know me!

Their email doesn’t come up with anything, except for their Google Maps and Calendar, which are both empty. Their IP is located at Google. The Dalles Google Data Center in Oregon to be exact (per InfoTracer). Google is registered with MarkMonitor (a U.S. government contractor).

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

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

by Tina Antonis

Maritime clashes between the Philippines and China had been mostly over the Philippines’ military outpost, BRP (BRP—Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas, which translates to “Ship of the Republic of the Philippines”—the ship prefix for the Philippines) Sierra Madre, in the Spratly Islands, which is disputed by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan (a province of China, as recognized by the United Nations’ Resolution No. 2758), and Vietnam. The BRP Sierra Madre was intentionally run aground on a reef near the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands, in 1997, so that the Philippines could stake their territorial claim.

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

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:

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[11-23-2022] Pilipinas Conference 2022

Pilipinas Conference 2022: “Onward to New Beginnings: Sustaining and Improving Philippine Development”

Light Up the Gray Zone: Leveraging Publicly Available Data to Deter Intrusions into Philippine Waters

Col. Raymond Powell, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation (Project Myoushu), Stanford University, California, USA

Major Angela Smith
US Army Officer, Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation (Project Myoushu), Stanford University, California, USA

Related:

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea