U.S. to Base Rockets/Satellite Launches in Brazil

Posted on March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 by Denise Simon

A few months ago, Vice President Pence traveled to Latin America with a specific visit to Brazil to discuss the location of a U.S. military base in Brazil. President Bolsonaro has waffled somewhat on this possibility, however, it is advancing. The mission for both the United States and Brazil is to counter China and Russia’s military influence in Latin America. Truth be told, the Brazilian military high command is against this ambition unless Russia displays further aggression….

(ummm, they have)

Anyway….under the guise of a space program, the U.S. and Brazil have finalized the agreement for a U.S. space technology/military program in Alcantara, Brazil.

Located out of the Forca Aerea Brasileira, the Brazilian Air Force base in Alcantra Launch Center, Equatorial launches are beneficial so close to the equator due to the speed of the earth’s rotation, saving at least 30% on fuel.

Scott Pace, executive director of the US National Space Council, said on 18 March at a Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) industry group event that the TSA could be signed later that day. The remaining hurdle is approval by Brazil’s congress, David Logsdon, head of CompTIA’s Space Enterprise Council, told Jane’s after the event. Coincidently, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro is in Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump.

A TSA prevents unauthorised access to and transfer of protected technologies. US companies are interested in flying out of ALC due to its location for equatorial launches. Equatorial launches are advantageous as the Earth spins the fastest at the equator, giving launches an extra boost to reach orbit.

However, ALC’s remote location poses a challenge. Flying out of ALC would require US companies to first fly into Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo before connecting to a flight to ALC, adding an extra day of travel. An industry source told Jane’s that it is still challenging for US companies to close their business case with flying out of ALC due to the distance between the two countries, corruption, Bolsonaro’s mercurial personality, and the tendency of Brazilians to run hot-and-cold when dealing with the US.

However, the source said if a company can work out the logistics and partner with an honest local broker, the 30% efficiency savings for launching that close to the equator can be a major incentive.

Brazil can currently launch small rockets for this same base for what is known as microsatellites. Brazil is investing with partners an estimated $300 billion for the joint or multi-lateral launch business. When General Mattis was still the Secretary of Defense, he signed a Space Situational Awareness agreement during his own visit to Brazil. This is an effort to do real-time tracking of other rogue satellites, data of objects in space and debris.

Not to be overlooked, both Boeing and Lockheed Martin went to the Alcantara Space Center last December along with Vector Launch, Inc. to determine costs of payloads. Brazil appears to have a new corporation called Alada and yet another named Embraer SA to advance the aerospace programs along with seeking investors.

Marines Prepare for Exercise Pacific Blitz

Posted on March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 by Denise Simon

The Marine Corps’ top general on the west coast is readying his Marines for the next big war against a near peer competitor, and one of his main concerns is figuring out how to alter the mindset of troops that have been fighting insurgencies since 9/11.

“If anything my problem is getting people out of the mindset of [counterterrorism] and making sure they’re thinking about near peer adversaries in their training programs,” Lt. Gen. Joseph Osterman, commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, California, told Task & Purpose in an interview on Friday.

Exercise Pacific Blitz is one program in particular that is currently doing just that, involving thousands of Marines, sailors, and coast guardsmen training in and around southern California.

The joint exercise not only brings together a large number of personnel but various assets as well, including Navy ships and landing craft, CH-53 helicopters, V-22 Ospreys, F-35s, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), a ground-based artillery system the Marines have previously test-fired from amphibious transport ships.

US Marine Corps Sgt. Demarcus Tunstall, a motor transport operator assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion, during convoy training at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, January 16, 2019.
US Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. Brendan Mullin

The bigger picture goal: Getting a large force like the 50,000-strong I MEF from sea to shore in a contested environment, described by the general in a press release as leveraging “a Marine land component as part of our larger goal of sea control.”

Osterman even said personnel were being put ashore at nearby San Clemente Island to build aircraft runways — seemingly a throwback to the Marine Corps’ island-hopping campaigns of World War II.

“It’s not part of the exercise necessarily but that’s kind of one of the things we’d have to do on these remote islands is build runways. So it’s somewhat tangentially aligned,” Osterman said. “We’re doing connector capability between islands.”

In February, Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller told Task & Purpose the Corps had begun to move its training to a more traditional fight instead of what grunts would face against unsophisticated enemies in the Middle East, most notably in using more advanced enemies in force-on-force training against Marines going through pre-deployment training at 29 Palms, California.

“They had aircraft. They were able to jam [communications]. We had aircraft. And we fought force on force,” Neller said on the sidelines of the 2019 West Conference in San Diego. “Marine infantry now, they’ve gotta look up” since enemies in Syria and Iraq have increasingly used unmanned aerial vehicles, and near peers will have assets such as attack helicopters and artillery.

A Marine from Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 303 during a bridge reconstruction project at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, March 7, 2019.
US Navy/Mass Comm. Specialist 1st Class Aaron Bewkes

As Osterman explained, Marine grunts now need to be learn to counter enemy drones, prepare for their GPS or communications to be jammed, and understand that enemy artillery, aircraft, or reconnaissance capabilities will be much more advanced if they’re up against an adversary like China or Russia.

“We haven’t had to worry about that for two decades,” Osterman said. “The Taliban doesn’t have any satellites up there.”

Some of Osterman’s Marines have already had a taste of that in Syria, where state and non-state actors have employed high-end anti-aircraft systems, GPS jamming technology, or hacking, for example.

“The Special Purpose [Marine Air Ground Task Force] we send to Central Command is engaged in all of that. High end, you know, kinetics in Syria, all the way down through advising the Iraqi forces. It’s one where we’ve gotta do it all, frankly.”

“Instead of having a forward operating base out there that they’re living out of and doing operations they’ve actually got to constantly be moving because if they sit too long the enemy artillery is going to take them out,” Osterman said of tactics Marines are beginning to think about. “So that gets them almost a little bit, back to [their] roots.”

Read the original article on Task & Purpose.

DIA: Ron Rockwell Hansen, Pleads Guilty

Posted on March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 by Denise Simon

We can’t know the extent of insider threats. The matter of China infecting our intelligence agencies and paying for spying continues.

Frankly, as compared to Jonathan Pollard, 180 months in prison for Hansen is hardly enough. Pollard was released after 30 years but remains on house detention. Pollard aided an steadfast ally, Israel….China is hardly a friendly country to the United States.

Man Who Tried To Spy For China To Face Charges In Utah | KUER 90.1

Anyway….

SALT LAKE CITY – A former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer, taken into federal custody by the FBI in June 2018 as he was preparing to board a flight to China, pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to attempting to communicate, deliver, or transmit information involving the national defense of the United States to the People’s Republic of China.

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 59, a resident of Syracuse, Utah, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City. The plea agreement includes a stipulated sentence of 180 months, subject to the approval of the Court. Sentencing in the case is set for Sept. 24, 2019, at 2 p.m.

Hansen pleaded guilty to the lead count of a 15-count indictment returned in June 2018, charging him with attempt to gather or deliver defense information, acting as an agent of a foreign government, bulk cash smuggling, structuring monetary transactions, and smuggling goods from the United States. Federal prosecutors will ask the Court to dismiss the remaining counts of the indictment at sentencing, however, the plea agreement includes an agreement that relevant conduct can be considered by the Court in determining the reasonableness of the sentence.

Hansen retired from the U.S. Army as a Warrant Officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence. He speaks fluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian, according to court documents. Upon retiring from active duty, DIA hired Hansen as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006. Hansen held a Top Secret clearance for many years, and signed several non-disclosure agreements during his tenure at DIA and as a government contractor.
As Hansen admitted in the plea agreement, in early 2014, agents of a Chinese intelligence service targeted him for recruitment, and he began meeting with them regularly in China. During these meetings, the agents described to Hansen the type of information that would interest Chinese intelligence. Hansen stipulated that during the course of his relationship with Chinese intelligence, he received thousands of dollars in compensation for information he provided them.

Between May 24, 2016, and June 2, 2018, Hansen admitted he solicited national security information from an intelligence case officer working for the DIA. Hansen admitted knowing that the Chinese intelligence services would find the information valuable, and he agreed to act as a conduit to sell that information to the Chinese. He advised the DIA case officer how to record and transmit classified information without detection, and how to hide and launder any funds received as payment for classified information. He admitted he now understands that the DIA case officer reported his conduct to the DIA and subsequently acted as a confidential human source for the FBI.

Hansen admitted meeting with the DIA case officer on June 2, 2018, and receiving individual documents containing national defense information that he had previously solicited. The documents he received were classified. The documents included national security information related to U.S. military readiness in a particular region — information closely held by the federal government. Hansen did not possess a security clearance nor did he possess a need to know the information contained in the materials.

As a part of his plea agreement, Hansen admitted he reviewed the documents, queried the case officer about their contents, and took written notes which contained information determined to be classified. He advised the DIA case officer that he would remember most of the details about the documents he received that day and would conceal notes about the material in the text of an electronic document he would prepare at the airport before leaving for China. He admitted he intended to provide the information he received to the agents of the Chinese Intelligence Service with whom he had been meeting. He also admitted knowing that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation.

Hansen was arrested June 2, 2018, on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Wash., to board a connecting flight to China.

As a part of the plea agreement, Hansen has agreed to forfeit property acquired from or traceable to his offense, including property used to facilitate the crime.

The case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert A. Lund, Karin Fojtik, Mark K. Vincent and Alicia Cook of the District of Utah, and Trial Attorneys Patrick T. Murphy, Matthew J. McKenzie and Adam L. Small of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington assisted with this case.

The prosecution is the result of an investigation by special agents of the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Counterintelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Introducing the Cheollima Civil Defense

Posted on March 18, 2019March 18, 2019 by Denise Simon

Do you wonder if anyone in North Korea wants to overthrow the Premier Leader, Kim Jong Un? The answer is yes.

What does Madrid, Spain have to do with North Korea? The constant communications channels betwee the United States and North Korea are centered in Madrid, where Kim Hyok Chol, a former ambassador is based. What is not reported is the North Korean embassy in Madrid was raided last month. Eight people inside were beaten and interrogated by a group of alleged thugs just before the Trump Un summit. Embassy employees were gagged and computers along with cell phones were stolen and the attackers apparently sped away from the embassy in diplomatic vehicles. Police did investigate after calls were made to law enforcement.

photo

Oh yeah, there are many that are aware of this event that are blaming the CIA.

But hold on, let’s go deeper.

The Cheollima Civil Defense operation was launched in 2017. This group is committed to overthrowing lil Kim. They on occasion go by another name, that being Free Joseon. In March of 2017, there was a video uploaded. Allegedly, Kim Han-sol was behind the video due in part to his father being killed in Malaysia in 2017 when 2 women attacked him at the airport, rubbing his face with the VX nerve agent.

Cheollima Civil Defense assists people attempting to defect from North Korea. By the way, the word/term Joseon is the very old historical name for Korea. There has been chatter for more than a year that the South Korea spy agency is behind Cheollima. Furthermore, the group has from time to time coordinated with the Netherlands, China and the United States for helping with security and protection.

It is thought that the leader of Cheollima, Kim Han-sol fled to the Netherlands and continues to operate from there under the local government’s protection. Other family members likely fled North Korea via Taiwan and may also be under Dutch protection.

The intrigue of diplomacy, dissidents and spying.

Chinese Cheating for US Student Visas

Posted on March 12, 2019March 12, 2019 by Denise Simon

Sheesh, more cheating….and just think of the growing number of Democrats calling for the ICE agency to be abolished. Remember too that California had that whole birthing tourism scandal for foreign Chinese illegals.

5 arrested in scheme that hired people to take English proficiency exam on behalf of Chinese nationals seeking student visas

LOS ANGELES – Federal authorities this morning arrested five defendants linked to a scheme that helped Chinese nationals obtain student visas by hiring individuals who used fake Chinese passports to take an English proficiency test for the foreign students.

The arrests were made pursuant to a 26-count indictment returned on Friday by a federal grand jury. The indictment charges the defendants with conspiring to use false passports, using false passports, and aggravated identity theft as part of the scheme to impersonate Chinese nationals who were required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) to obtain a student visa.

This case is being investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s Fraud Detection National Security Section. The Educational Testing Service, which administers the TOEFL exam, has provided assistance during the investigation.

“On top of allowing students to cheat their way into our top universities, schemes such as this exploit our nation’s legal immigration system and threaten our national security,” said Joseph Macias, Special Agent in Charge for HSI Los Angeles. “As this case shows, we will move aggressively to identify and prosecute those who engage in fraud and corrupt the immigration process for profit.”

The five defendants were taken into custody this morning without incident. They are:

Liu Cai, 23, of Woodland Hills, who allegedly facilitated the scheme, took at least five TOEFL exams himself and is residing in the United States on a student visa;

Quang Cao, 24, of San Francisco, who allegedly took at least four TOEFL exams with false identification, and who was arrested today in Stockton, California;

Elric Zhang, 24, of Los Angeles, who allegedly took at least five TOEFL exams as part of the scheme;

Mohan Zhang, 24, of Cerritos, who allegedly took at least two TOEFL exams under the names of foreign nationals; and

Samantha Wang, 24, of Corona, who allegedly took at least two TOEFL exams.

The four Southern California defendants are expected to be arraigned on the indictment this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Cao is expected to make an initial appearance this afternoon in the Eastern District of California.

The sixth defendant in the case – Tuan Tran, 33, who allegedly took at least one TOEFL exam with a false identification document – is believed to be currently residing in Taiwan.

The United States requires foreign citizens who wish to enter the United States on a temporary basis to study at a college or university to first obtain an F-1 student visa. To obtain a student visa, foreign citizens must first apply to study at a school that has been authorized by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) to enroll foreign students. In the United States, many SEVP-certified schools require foreign citizens whose first language is not English to certify proficiency in English by achieving a particular score on the TOEFL.

When the foreign national goes to a TOEFL testing location, the test taker must present an original, non-expired, government-issued identification document recognized by their home country. According to the indictment, all six defendants used counterfeit People’s Republic of China passports to impersonate 19 different Chinese nationals at various TOEFL testing locations in and around Los Angeles.

The indictment further alleges that Cai paid for and registered 14 Chinese nationals for TOEFL exams over a one-year period in 2015 and 2016. Following the tests, Cai allegedly paid three co-defendants approximately $400 per test from his PayPal and Venmo accounts.

The conspiracy count in the indictment carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. The charge of using a false passport carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory consecutive two-year sentence.

This matter is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Kyle J. Ryan of the General Crimes section.