Camp Trump in Poland?

Posted on September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 by Denise Simon

The left’s heads are already exploding on that one and yet the White House is seriously considering the offer.

A major invitation has been presented by Poland to the United States that includes an investment by Poland of $2 billion for a U.S. military base in the country. Poland wants more arms and they are launching more advanced military projects. The threat to Poland? Yuppers….Russia.

In photos: Polish President Andrzej Duda visits White ...

President Andrzej Duda, of Poland visited the White House to nurture and advance the relationship between the two countries. The offer and investment to/for the United States was made last May and there is major urgency given the annexation of Crimea and the constant aggression of Russian in the whole region. Poland by the way has been paying more that the required share, which is 2% of GDP to NATO.

Beyond just a military base, Poland is including hospitals, schools and gyms for all military personnel and families. The formal offer was made to the United States Congress. The Defense Minister for Poland has made an official visit to the U.S. previously to make this offer and joint military policy.

Meanwhile, it was just a few days ago that Secretary of Defense Mattis condemned Russia for doing influence peddling in Macedonia. Russia is meddling in the voting and election process in Skopje. Pro-Russian groups have been dispatched to Macedonia to even plant the seed of Macedonia changing the name of the country to North Macedonia….huh really?

Yes, and Russia has swooped into Macedonia with major disinformation campaigns and the U.S. has given the tiny country $5 million in security assistance annually for decades.

Further, the joint military games between China and Russia have alarmed many countries including the United States where the Air Force is taking an aggressive posture.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson on Monday called for growing the Air Force from its current size of 312 operational squadrons to 386 by 2030, as it prepares for a possible conflict against a major nation such as China or Russia.

This 24 percent increase in squadrons is the centerpiece of the service’s “Air Force We Need” proposal, which has been in the works for six months. This proposal seeks to lay out what it would take for the Air Force to fight a peer adversary and win, as well as defend the homeland, provide a credible nuclear deterrent, counter a medium-sized rogue nation that might try to take advantage of the Air Force’s focus on the major adversary, and fight violent extremists such as the Taliban and the Islamic State.

This follows the National Defense Strategy that the Pentagon unveiled earlier this year, which is structured around the need to shift away from the violent extremist fight and instead focus on deterring or fighting nations with significant, well-developed militaries.

In her keynote address at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space, Cyber Conference, Wilson referenced the massive Russian military exercises launched last week, involving more than 300,000 of their troops, and China’s unveiling of its first aircraft carrier and its ongoing militarization of islands in the South China Sea to extend its long-range bombers’ reach.

“We must see the world as it is,” Wilson said. “That was why the National Defense Strategy explicitly recognizes that we have returned to an era of great power competition.”

Hey Moscow, What About the ‘neuroweapons’ Used in Cuba attacks

Posted on September 11, 2018September 11, 2018 by Denise Simon

General view of the U.S. Embassy in Havana after the U.S. government pulled more than half of its diplomatic personnel out of Cuba in September 2017. (Photo: Ernesto Mastrascusa/Getty Images)

Primer:

Neurotechnologies as Weapons of Mass Disruption or Future Asymmetric Warfare: Putative Mechanisms, Emerging Threats, and Bad Actor Scenarios

Intelligence agencies investigating mysterious “attacks” that led to brain injuries in U.S. personnel in Cuba and China consider Russia to be the main suspect, three U.S. officials and two others briefed on the investigation tell NBC News.

The suspicion that Russia is likely behind the alleged attacks is backed up by evidence from communications intercepts, known in the spy world as signals intelligence, amassed during a lengthy and ongoing investigation involving the FBI, the CIA and other U.S. agencies. The officials declined to elaborate on the nature of the intelligence.

The evidence is not yet conclusive enough, however, for the U.S. to formally assign blame to Moscow for incidents that started in late 2016 and have continued in 2018, causing a major rupture in U.S.-Cuba relations.

Since last year, the U.S. military has been working to reverse-engineer the weapon or weapons used to harm the diplomats, according to Trump administration officials, congressional aides and others briefed on the investigation, including by testing various devices on animals. As part of that effort, the U.S. has turned to the Air Force and its directed energy research program at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, where the military has giant lasers and advanced laboratories to test high-power electromagnetic weapons, including microwaves.

Although the U.S. believes sophisticated microwaves or another type of electromagnetic weapon were likely used on the U.S. government workers, they are also exploring the possibility that one or more additional technologies were also used, possibly in conjunction with microwaves, officials and others involved in the government’s investigation say.

The U.S. has said 26 government workers were injured in unexplained attacks at their homes and hotels in Havana starting in late 2016, causing brain injuries, hearing loss and problems with cognition, balance, vision and hearing problems. Strange sounds heard by the workers initially led investigators to suspect a sonic weapon, but the FBI later determined sound waves by themselves couldn’t have caused the injuries. More here.

*** Truth be told, this investigation and the details are rather disjointed and weird.

Four scientists, including the first doctor to examine the diplomats reporting symptoms in Cuba, took part in a Pentagon-sponsored teleconference on Friday, where they announced new research results, including what they determined to be the probable use of “neuroweapons” in what they called the Havana Effect.

At issue are the more than two dozen U.S. government officials stationed in Havana, who have described hearing strange sounds, followed by a combination of medical symptoms, including dizziness, hearing loss and cognitive problems. More recently, a similar case has been reported in a U.S. embassy worker in Guangzhou, China. For months, a mix of secrecy and speculation has surrounded those incidents, including an increasingly popular theory that the diplomats were the victims of microwave weapons.

Michael Hoffer, an otolaryngologist at the University of Miami, who was the first to conduct tests on the embassy workers, said on the Friday call that the diplomats are suffering from a “neurosensory dysfunction,” which is primarily affecting their sense of balance.

The Friday call was organized as part of a study program sponsored by the Pentagon and titled “Probable Use of a Neuroweapon to Affect Personnel of US Embassy in Havana: Findings, Pathology, Possible Causes, and Disruptive Effects.”

A Pentagon official told Yahoo News that the briefing was offered by the scientific team for interested people in the Defense Department and was to gain “general knowledge” about their findings. “This didn’t have an operational element,” the official said. Read on from here.

More Photos From 9/11, 17 Years Later

Posted on September 11, 2018September 11, 2018 by Denise Simon

The attack(s) continue to claim victims years later due to developing illnesses. Many may be unaware that post 9/11, illness claimed the lives of 3 FBI agents.

There is a fund with more than a billion dollars that has been available to survivors to have financial aid assisting in medical needs. Congress funded this account and frankly, Saudi Arabia and Iranian al Qaeda supporters should be funding this.

Meanwhile, for those too young to remember, share the following please:

The September 11th attacks took the lives of more than 3,000 Americans, and transformed the US in countless ways.

It sparked the Global War on Terror (which the US is now fighting in 76 countries), and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

It led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Patriot Act.

And it also fundamentally changed New York City.

In honor of the 17th anniversary of the horrific attacks, we compiled 17 photos showing how Manhattan’s Financial District and skyline have changed since 9/11 as the city rebuilt Ground Zero. See for yourself:

Here’s an aerial view of the Twin Towers on a peaceful June day in 1999.

Associated Press

But that skyline was horrifically shaken a little more than two years later.

Associated Press

You can see the stark difference between this August 30, 2001 photo and a photo taken from the spot 16 days after the attacks. It would take several months for rescuers to go through the rubble.

Reuters

In December 2003, a design for the new One World Trade Center was finally unveiled.

An aerial view showing the footprint of the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan, with the Hudson River, left, on Friday Sept. 10, 2004.
Associated Press

In addition to the 1,776 foot One World Trade Center building, the site would also come to include four other World Trade Center buildings, a 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center, a WTC Transportation Hub, and Liberty Park.

Sources: New York City Port Authority, Curbed

But about four years after the unveiling, the site still looked about the same, as construction was hamstrung by lawsuits, budget overruns, design changes, and a recession.

Photo shows the World Trade Center site, center, surrounded by skyscrapers in New York in Aug. 29, 2007.
Associated Press

Source: Time

In 2009, the 9/11 memorial pools was starting to take shape.

Associated Press

The Freedom Tower was just starting to rise from the rubble.

Cranes work at the World Trade Center site on Jan. 27, 2009.
Associated Press

In June 2010, the skyscraper was slowly rising.

Associated Press

By July 2011, the memorial waterfalls were being tested, and One World Trade Center’s facade was beginning to reflect the sky.

Associated Press

Here’s the Manhattan skyline in August 2011. You can see the unfinished tower beginning to peek over the other skyscrapers.

One World Trade Center towers over the lower Manhattan skyline, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011 in New York. The skyscraper is now 76 floors and will reach 104 floors.
Associated Press

The memorial waterfalls officially opened in September 2011, and the museum, seen on the right, opened in May 2014.

The September 11 Museum entrance pavilion, right, sits next to one of the September 11 Memorial pools, at the World Trade Center Monday, April 14, 2014.
Associated Press

By November 2014, One World Trade Center was completed, as was 4 World Trade Center (left) and 7 World Trade Center (right.) But 3 World Trade Center, seen here with the crane above it, still wasn’t finished.

A construction crane works on top of the rising steel frame of Three World Trade Center, center, November 20, 2014 in New York.
Associated Press

The WTC Transportation Hub, on which the soaring white Oculus was built, was also under construction in late 2014.

The WTC Transportation Hub and One World Trade Center as seen from Church Street, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014, in New York.
Associated Press

The hub officially opened in June 2016, when 3 World Trade Center was still under construction.

3 World Trade Center, center, reaches its full height of 80 stories in New York in this June 22, 2016 photo.
Associated Press

The $50 million Liberty Park also opened in June 2016. From there, visitors can get an overhead view of the Ground Zero memorial.

A visitor to Liberty Park take a selfie, Wednesday, June 29, 2016, in New York. The one-acre, elevated Liberty Park opened to the public Wednesday.
Associated Press

Source: Gothamist

It took 3 World Trade Center another two years to be completed. This June 8, 2018 photo shows 3 World Trade Center, One World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial, and Liberty Park finally complete.

In this June 8, 2018 photo, 3 World Trade Center, second from right, joins its neighbors One World Trade Center, left, and 4 World Trade Center, right, next to the September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York. The center’s latest skyscraper opens Monday.
Associated Press

And the Manhattan skyline was forever changed.

New World Trade Center Tower in June 7, 2018.
Associated Press

Then there was the Pentagon:

The FBI released 27 new photos of the Pentagon on 9/11

FBI

The FBI has released 27 new photos of the Pentagon on 9/11 after it was struck by a plane that was hijacked by five terrorists.

Five al-Qaeda terrorists took over American Airlines flight 77, which was traveling from Washington DC to Los Angeles, as it flew over eastern Kentucky. They then turned it back towards Washington, D.C., eventually crashing it into the Pentagon, killing 184 people.

The pictures released by the FBI show debris from the plane, the Pentagon on fire and crews putting out the blaze and cleaning up the damage.

Debris from American Airlines flight 77.

FBI

More debris from the flight, which appears to be part of the body of the plane.

FBI

The red “C” in the American Airlines logo is clearly visible in this picture.

FBI

Dark smoke billows up over the flames still burning.

FBI

Crews working to put out the blaze.

FBI

Crews use heavy machinery to clean up the damage.

FBI

A large hole in the wall, which appears to have been caused by blowout.

FBI

A side view of the blowout hole.

FBI

Crews inspecting the damage.

FBI

Workers using more heavy machinery to clean up the damage.

FBI

Firefighters gazing down at the wreckage.

FBI

The Pentagon, seen at a distance, still smoldering.

FBI

Crews still going through the wreckage.

FBI

Crews in Haz Mat suits walking near the damage.

FBI

Workers shoveling up the ash and small debris.

FBI

Workers holding an American flag near the site.

FBI

Workers still picking up the debris.

FBI

A view inside the Pentagon.

FBI

Another view of the inside of the Pentagon.

FBI

A view from inside the Pentagon looking out.

FBI

A view from the top of where the plane struck the Pentagon.

FBI More here.

Trends in Chinese Military Worrying the U.S.

Posted on August 21, 2018August 21, 2018 by Denise Simon

WASHINGTON —

China is not an enemy, but it is certainly an adversary of the United States, and the Defense Department’s 2018 report to Congress examines the trends in Chinese military developments.

Congress mandates the report, titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.” While the report highlights military developments, it also addresses China’s whole-of-government approach to competition.

China’s economic development is fueling extraordinary changes in relationships it maintains around the world, according to the report. On the face of it, China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative sounds benign – it looks to build infrastructure for developing countries and Chinese neighbors.

Chinese leaders have funded serious projects as far away as Africa under the initiative. They have built roads in Pakistan and made major inroads in Malaysia. China has a major stake in Sri Lanka. Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Laos and Djibouti also are involved.

The Chinese government seeks to overturn the established international order that has kept the peace in the region since World War II and allowed Asian countries to develop.

But “One Belt, One Road” money and projects come with strings. The “one road” leads to China, and nations are susceptible to Chinese influence on many levels – political, military, and especially, economic.

Economic Clout

In 2017, China used its economic clout in South Korea as a bludgeon to get Seoul to not allow the United States to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system in the country as a counterweight to North Korea’s nuclear missile program. The Chinese government informally lowered the boom on South Korea economically to influence the THAAD decision.

South Korean cars and other exports were embargoed. About a quarter of all goods South Korea exports goes to China, so this had an immediate effect on the economy. In addition, tourism suffered, as nearly half of all entries to South Korea are from China, and South Korean retail stores in China were crippled.

The South Korean government decided to allow the THAAD to deploy, but China’s economic muscle movement had to be noted in other global capitals.

South China Sea

“In its regional territorial and maritime disputes, China continued construction of outposts in the Spratly Islands, but also continued outreach to South China Sea claimants to further its goal of effectively controlling disputed areas,” the DoD reports says in its executive summary. In other words, China is using military power and diplomatic efforts in tandem to claim the South China Sea.

The People’s Liberation Army has come a long way from the human-wave attacks of the Korean War, and Chinese leaders want to build a military worthy of a global power. “Chinese military strategy documents highlight the requirement for a People’s Liberation Army able to secure Chinese national interests overseas, including a growing emphasis on the importance of the maritime and information domains, offensive air operations, long-distance mobility operations, and space and cyber operations,” the report says.

Chinese military planners looked at what the United States accomplished in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991 and charted their way forward. The PLA is fundamentally restructuring to challenge and beat any military in the world.

The PLA – still the largest force in the world – actually cut people to streamline command and control and modernize forces. The Chinese seek to win at all levels of conflict, from regional conflicts to wars with peer competitors. “Reforms seek to streamline command and control structures and improve jointness at all levels,” the report said. The PLA is using realistic training scenarios and exercising troops and equipment regularly.

New Capabilities

China is investing billions in new capabilities including artificial intelligence, hypersonic technology, offensive cyber capabilities and more. China also has launched an aircraft carrier and added many new ships to the PLA Navy. The Chinese Navy is more active and making more port calls than in years past. Further, the PLA Marine Corps is expanding from 10,000 personnel to 30,000.

The PLA Air Force has been reassigned a nuclear mission, giving China a nuclear triad — along with missile and subs — for the first time.

Cyber operations play a significant role in the Chinese military. The PLA has a large corps of trained and ready personnel. Cyber espionage is common, and there are those who believe China was able to get plans of the F-35 Thunderbolt II joint strike fighter, which they incorporated into its J-20 stealth fighter.

The U.S. National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy recognize that China and Russia are strategic competitors of the United States. Still, the United States must engage with China, and maintenance of cordial military-to-military relations is in both nations’ best interests.

“While the Department of Defense engages substantively with the People’s Liberation Army, DoD will also continue to monitor and adapt to China’s evolving military strategy, doctrine and force development, and encourage China to be more transparent about its military modernization,” the report says.

The United States military will adapt to counter and get ahead of moves by any competitor, DoD officials said.

Is that Russian Submarine Threat Still out There?

Posted on August 21, 2018August 21, 2018 by Denise Simon

It is not just the U.S. Navy that is on alert. Europe’s top Navy Commander:

NAPLES, Italy — Russia is deploying more submarines to the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and North Atlantic than at any time since the Cold War as part of a growing power game driving the U.S. to revive a decommissioned fleet and NATO to strengthen its naval defenses, the Navy’s top commander in the theater said.

Russia is upgrading its submarine forces and improving their missile capabilities, all while relations between Moscow and NATO remain tense over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, Adm. James Foggo, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa, said in an interview earlier this month.

“The illegal annexation of Crimea … that certainly has put a strain on our relationship,” Foggo told Stars and Stripes. “It’s their bad behavior, not ours. It’s the things they are doing.”

The Navy is reviving 2nd Fleet, though on a smaller scale than the one deactivated in 2011, to supply more ships in what Foggo described as growing competition between Russia and NATO in the Atlantic Ocean.

The renewed 2nd Fleet will be a Norfolk, Va.-based joint forces command, with many details yet to be worked out, Foggo said, adding that Navy leaders will know more after NATO’s July summit in Brussels. More here.

***

This is not really a new condition, it has been going on for a few years without any real U.S. response that is until the Omnibus was passed where monies were allocated for air-dropped sonobuoys that can detect submarines and transmit data back to motherships. The warnings began with Russia, operating in the Mediterranean where missiles were fired into Syria on several occasions.

The United States and Britain have been playing cat and mouse with Russia in several locations. Under Exercise Dynamic Mongoose, 10 NATO countries have been practicing hunting tactics of stealth submarines off Norway’s coast.

This past April, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $1 billion contract for a hypersonic cruise missile.

The Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon program is one of two hypersonic weapon prototyping efforts being pursued by the Air Force, and comes in addition to the Tactical Boost Glide program, which the Air Force is working on with DARPA and Raytheon. The service plans to have a prototype ready by 2023.

The Tactical Boost Glide is designed to operate at 5 times the speed of sound to enhance current military systems.

The United States has 70 nuclear powered submarines and 52 attack submarines along with 4 cruise missile armed submarines and 14 ballistic missile submarines. They all patrol bodies of water across the globe.

Russian Subs Are Reheating a Cold War Chokepoint - Defense One photo

Adm. John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations has confirmed increased foreign submarine operations.

According to GlobalFirePower.com, North Korea has the world’s largest submarine fleet by raw numbers with 76, though most of Pyongyang’s fleet consists of shorter-range, electric-diesel coastal patrol craft. China and Russia, both with modern nuclear-powered fleets that rival the U.S. fleet, have 68 subs and 63 subs, respectively.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with the Frankfurt Allgemeine and other news outlets in December, said the Kremlin is investing heavily in its submarine fleet, with 13 delivered since 2013. NATO countries, he said, have let their underwater firepower lag. “We have practiced less and lost skills,” the NATO chief said.

A particular point of concern, said one former high-level U.S. Navy official, is that Moscow may be attempting to tap into or sever some of the 550,000 miles of underwater fiber-optic cables that span the Atlantic and Arctic sea lanes.

“Russians have had a capability … to do things with these cables for the last 20 to 30 years,” said Tom Callender, who once served as head of capabilities for the Navy’s deputy undersecretary office and is now a senior defense fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

“Russians have had a capability … to do things with these cables for the last 20 to 30 years,” said Tom Callender, who once served as head of capabilities for the Navy’s deputy undersecretary office and is now a senior defense fellow at The Heritage Foundation.More than 95 percent of the global internet traffic — military and civilian, classified and unclassified — is transmitted across the network of submerged cables along the ocean floor, according to Washington-based tech firm TeleGeography. The quantity is massive compared with just a decade ago, when just 1 percent of all online traffic went through the cables.

Seabed vulnerability

The majority of the 285 underwater cables in place crisscross beneath heavily trafficked sea lanes of the Atlantic and Arctic regions. According to TeleGeography, the longest single cable stretches 24,000 miles and relays internet traffic and other electronic communications from Europe, Asia and Africa.

The scale and scope of global communications moving through the network of cables — some of which are only 2 inches thick — present a lucrative target that is vulnerable to attack by U.S. adversaries. It also poses a significant challenge to U.S. forces defending the lines. Read more detail here.