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One of the results of the assassination of al-Qaeda leader AYMAN AL-ZAWAHRI in Kabul is that Biden’s leadership probably won’t get back the $3. 5 billion it took from the Afghan people anytime soon.
In February, President JOE BIDEN prevented those U. S. funds, held through the Afghan Central Bank, from falling into the hands of the Taliban and other “malicious actors. “Lives of millions of Afghans, and another $3. 5 billion may be paid to the families of the September 11 victims, that money would be returned to the Central Bank to help Afghanistan’s ailing economy.
A U. S. delegation of senior State Department and Treasury officials met last week with Taliban officials in Uzbekistan to discuss tactics to unfreeze the funds. paintings about those efforts,” according to one reading.
Now that it is known that the space where Zawahri died belonged to an aide to senior Taliban leader SIRAJUDDIN HAQQANI, which seems to indicate that there are transparent links between the Taliban and al-Qaeda, calls for a slowdown will increase.
“The United States suspends its discussion with the Taliban and makes sure that no U. S. aid comes close to the Taliban leaders,” said LISA CURTIS, who was the NSC’s most sensible official for South Asia under the Trump administration. Other Afghans through a distribution mechanism of the United Nations or the World Bank.
The Doha agreement between the U. S. and The U. S. The U. S. and Taliban, negotiated through the Trump administration and accredited through the Biden team, stated that the militants would “prevent any foreign terrorist organization or individual, including al-Qaeda and ISIS-K, from Afghanistan from threatening the security of the country. “The United States, its allies and other countries.
Well, Zawahri in the Afghan capital is the exact opposite of what the Taliban promised to do.
“By protecting the leader of al-Qaeda in Kabul, the Taliban have seriously violated the Doha agreement and have repeated to the world that they will not allow terrorists to use Afghan territory to threaten the security of other countries,” the secretary said. of state said. ANTONY BLINKEN said in a statement.
Obviously, there is euphoria at the thought of having the al-Qaeda leader and anger at the place where they had to kill him. Threats and Challenges program, NatSec Daily said.
His host asked the National Security Council and the State Department if Zawahri’s location meant the end of negotiations over U. S. money. The U. S. and Taliban, or whether management planned to keep the $3. 5 billion for the foreseeable future. The state declined to comment and we heard from the NSC before clicking “sfinish” in this newsletter.
However, the policy is obviously opposed to making any kind of deal in the near future. This helps keep a ton of money out of the hands of the Taliban, but it also hurts Afghanistan’s most vulnerable as the country’s economy continues to collapse.
“The desires of the rest of the Afghan people remain the same or could even increase,” said ASFANDYAR MIR, a senior expert at the U. S. Institute of Peace. The U. S. Taliban without making the lives of ordinary Afghans more difficult. “
DID BIDEN STOP XI FROM HELPING RUSSIA?
Biden “personally told Preaspectnt XI JINPING that if China entered the war in Ukraine on Russia’s side, Beijing would threaten access to its two most vital export markets: the United States and the European Union,” he wrote. “By all indications,” U. S. officials tell me, “China responded by not offering military aid to [Russian President VLADIMIR] PUTIN, at a time when the U. S. was not afraid to help [ Vladimir] Putin . ally.
If this is true, natSec Daily can verify it before publication, this amounts to a remarkable achievement of the US president. It is also attractive to e that Biden would threaten Western industry with China because of the war in Ukraine.
There are other fragments included in the notable editorial, such as the “deep distrust” between the White House and Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY and that “Putin is willing to employ a small nuclear weapon opposed to Ukraine if he sees his army facing certain defeat. “This is no small piece of news, (again) if true, however, Biden can save him from China entering the Ukrainian fray and it would prove to be one of his biggest foreign policy successes.
PELOSI LANDS IN TAIWAN: It happened: Pelosi landed in Taiwan amid warnings from China that she would provoke swift retaliation. The video captured her stepping off an official U. S. government plane. In the U. S. , around 10:55 p. m. Taipei local time.
The congressional delegation he heads issued a statement moments after his arrival.
“The scale of our congressional delegation to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s colorful democracy,” he said. “America’s solidarity with Taiwan’s other 23 million people is more important than ever today, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy. “He also said the scale in “in no way contradicts long-standing U. S. policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, the U. S. -China JOINT COMMUNIQUÉS, and the Six Guarantees. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to replace the prestige quo.
You will be surprised to read that China is not satisfied with Pelosi’s arrival. have buzzed on the middle line dividing the Taiwan Strait, no Su-35 has crossed it. The People’s Liberation Army is also making plans for six live-fire trainings off Taiwan, adding in its sovereign waters.
Protesters, both for and against the visit by Pelosi and others, stood outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei, lined up on both sides of the street. The celebrated Taiwan 101 Tower was lit up with welcome messages for Pelosi.
Pelosi will meet with Taiwanese Speaker TSAI ING-WEN on Wednesday and it is imaginable that she will speak with other local officials and civil society teams before leaving.
BRUNO: THE NEED FOR SPACE DETERRENCE: The CEO of one of America’s largest area liberation corporations says it’s mandatory to have a transparent deterrence strategy to fend off developing threats in the cosmos.
In an interview with NatSec Daily, after writing an editorial about the factor for Space News, United Launch Alliance leader TORY BRUNO said that “our assets are helpless in an orbit,” noting that those in low-Earth orbit are easier to attack than those farther from Earth. Speaking specifically about the threats posed by Russia and China, he added: “They know that we have targets in each and every orbital regime. “
Asked if he was worried about a first attack on American assets in the space of his life, Bruno replied, “Only if deterrence fails. “
“We have strategies, some of which I can’t communicate, that make those assets less vulnerable and the attacks more attributable, that are evolving right now,” Bruno said. Having the Space Force committed to this factor is smart. This is what the CEO noted, since there is now a military force that is not distracted by other vital missions. But what Bruno encourages the public and personal sectors to perceive is the “how to do” deterrence in space.
“If we want to keep the peace here on Earth, surely we must first maintain peace in the area,” he concluded.
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RUSSIA SAYS US IS ‘DIRECTLY INVOLVED’ IN UKRAINE: The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Tuesday that the US ability to provide real-time intelligence to US-supplied Ukrainian HIMARS infantrymen to kill Russian troops means the US is a belligerent party, Reuters reported.
“All of this undeniably proves that Washington, contrary to what the White House and Pentagon claim, is concerned about the standoff in Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
This comes a day after the Pentagon announced additional $550 million in aid for Ukraine, including more ammunition for HIMARS. Russian officials have claimed in the past that NATO is waging a proxy war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the United States announced on Tuesday that it had sanctioned 3 oligarchs and 893 officials of the Russian Federation, among the targets.
CYBERATTACK ON TAIWAN PRESIDENT’S WEBSITE: Taiwan’s president’s online page went dark Tuesday due to an alleged distributed denial-of-service attack, with other government websites also affected, our own MAGGIE MILLER reported.
The attack came hours before Pelosi’s stopover in Taiwan, and the Chinese government threatened to take action to respond to the trip. Taiwan presidential office spokesman CHANG TUN-HAN showed the DDoS attack on the office in a Facebook post and noted that two hundred times more traffic to the online page than normal, and that it was carried out through an organization outside Taiwan.
NBC News reported that other Taiwanese government sites were also inactive before Pelosi’s visit, adding the Department of National Defense, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport, where Pelosi’s plane landed.
L3HARRIS SELECTED FOR ARMED SURVEILLANCE: U. S. Special Operations CommandUU. se has decided on the AT-802U Sky Warden manufactured through L3Harris Technologies and Air Tractor for the Armed Overwatch program.
“The indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract will be worth up to $3 billion,” L3Harris said Monday. The initial award of the program contract is $170 million,” reported STEPHEN LOSEY of Defense News. “Initial production of the Sky Warden will take up position at Air Tractor’s Olney facility. L3Harris will then modify those aircraft in the Armed Overwatch project setup at its modification center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, starting in 2023. L3Harris said the works will also be placed at its other sites in Greenville, Rockwall and Waco, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee.
“SOCOM anticipates that the single-engine Sky Warden, as an afsOC armed surveillance aircraft, will provide close air support, precision movements and armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions for counterterrorism operations and abnormal warfare,” Losey added.
RISCH WANTS A VOTE FOR NATO MEMBERSHIP: Senator JIM RISCH (R-Idaho), the most sensible Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is calling on his colleagues to vote soon on approving Sweden and Finland’s membership in NATO.
“It is imperative that the Senate hold a vote on #Finlande’s membership and #Suède to the @OTAN this week. With 2/3 of the #OTAN’s members already ratified, the United States is catching up. The United States will have to show leadership and act temporarily in NATO with those new members,” he tweeted.
Officials in Helsinki and Stockholm told NatSec Daily that they expect all 30 NATO members to give the green light to their country’s club until the end of the year. The decision on when the United States will be one of the 30 remains open: the Senate is suspended. next week, he still has to vote on the PACT Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. However, Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER said the club could be voted on as soon as Wednesday.
“THERE’S NOTHING TO UNDERSTAND”: Your host has a journalist because he’s bad at math and has blurry eyes when it comes to budgets. That’s why, when Senator PAT TOOMEY (R-Penn. ) said he opposed the law to relieve veterans suffering from the effects of cutting and burning into a budget “thing,” his host didn’t know what to do with it.
So NatSec Daily called Rep. JIM HIMES (D-Conn. ), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, who relentlessly criticized Republicans for their sweeping change in the bill. I asked him to consult me through Toomey’s budget court cases as if he was five years old, but there was a challenge with that request,” he said.
“There is nothing to understand,” he said. The PACT Act is an authorization bill, Himes said, and no budget can be spent unless it is clarified by officials. There is nothing in the law that goes through this procedure or, as Toomey says, sneaks into $400 billion in unrelated expenses.
“I can’t do what you ask me to do because I can’t perceive what the hell Toomey is referring to,” Himes concluded.
He has no inside information, but Himes reported that 25 Republicans revoked their vote in retaliation because Schumer and Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W. Go. ) they agreed on a big bill. ” The trend here looks ugly,” Himes said.
It looks like the bill will go to a vote this week, and is expected to pass after Republicans were defeated for not voting last time.
– Lieutenant General MICHAEL LANGLEY has been introduced through the Senate to lead U. S. Africa Command. The first black four-star general in Marine Corps history.
– Lieutenant General BRYAN FENTON has been introduced by the Senate as head of the United States Special Operations Command. He succeeds retired Army General RICHARD CLARKE.
—NADINE NALLY is now a cyber advisor to the Director of Network Assessment at the Ministry of Defence. Nally, army officer, most recently top director of defense innovation and cyber policy at the National Security Council.
— NANCY PELOSI, The Washington Post: “Why am I leading a congressional delegation to Taiwan?”
— DANIEL BYMAN, Foreign Policy: “Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Legacy of Terror”
— EDWARD LUTWAK, Tablet: “Why am I banned in Ukraine?
— U. S. -Based Economic and Security Review PanelUS and China, 9:30 a. m. : China Policy Challenges in 2022: Zero COVID, Ukraine and Pacific Diplomacy
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 9:30 a. m. : Nomination Hearing: NATHANIEL FICK will be Goodwill Ambassador for Cyberspace and Digital Policy.
Transition to a new concert related to defense or foreign policy?Email me at [email protected] to include in the next edition of the newsletter.
And thanks to my editor, John Yearwood, who never knows what I mean.