Category Archives: Failed foreign policy

Yes, China is Surrounding the S. China Sea, but what about Florida?

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The two faced dragon….tie to really recalibrate the relationship between the United States and China AGAIN….Previously n this website, I have discussed not only by a post but several times on radio about how the former intelligence/snooping base owned by Russia in Cuba known as the Lourdes SIGINT station was sold to China….no one in media or the national security realm seems to give it much attention…but now…we have an additional problem with China and that is the Bahamas.

How about the largest Chinese embassy in the world with hundreds of Chinese intelligence officers deployed there…..Embassy of China in Nassau in Nassau, Bahamas (Google Maps)

In part from FNC:

“The People’s Republic of China has been making diplomatic, economic and even military and quasi-military inroads into the Caribbean, South and Central America for the past couple of decades,” retired Rear Adm. Peter Brown, former Homeland Security advisor to President Donald Trump, told Fox News Digital.

Brown pointed to the rise in dual-use infrastructure projects along the Bahamas coastline, which is located just 50 miles off the coast of Florida.

“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination for the People’s Republic of China to use its commercial footprint in the Bahamas to monitor, exploit and perhaps even do worse to [the] U.S.,” he said. Pointing to the Chinese-controlled British Colonial Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, Brown said that its location directly across from the U.S. Embassy could give way to intelligence gathering on U.S. personnel.

The hotel is owned by a Chinese company, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, which has raised geopolitical concerns given its location. Fox News Digital has reached out to the British Colonial Hotel for comment.

China has invested heavily in the Bahamas through a range of additional high-profile projects, including a $40 million grant for a national stadium, a $3 billion mega-port in Freeport, and $40 million for the North Abaco Port and Little Abaco Bridge.

In 2019, now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned in a Miami Herald op-ed that the devastation caused by the natural disaster could create an opening for the People’s Republic of China to use aid as a Trojan horse to gain a foothold near American shores.

“By targeting the Bahamian government in this period of crisis, Beijing would be making the same opportunistic play to access critical foreign infrastructure,” Rubio wrote in 2019. “But in this case, the national security threat is especially perilous, as it would give China a foothold just 50 miles from the coast of Florida.”

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How about another look at things in the Caribbean…Chinese expansion

Chinese Expansion in the Caribbean (Extra) - Virtual Mirage

China’s Influence in the Caribbean:

China is a member of both the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and an observer at the Organization of American States (OAS). Alongside Italy and Germany, China is the third largest shareholder at the CDB with 5.6% of overall shares, exponentially higher than the majority of Caribbean countries.

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) engagement in the Caribbean has largely focused on investments in infrastructure and developing trade relationships. As of 2022, ten Caribbean countries have signed up to Belt and Road (BRI) – Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname.

The PRC is working towards diminishing the region’s ties to Taiwan as the region contains the largest bulk of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies. Today, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, and Belize remain the only Caribbean nations that recognize Taiwan.

China’s Trade and Economic Investment in the Caribbean

While the Caribbean’s trade with China has grown at a slower pace than overall trade with the region, it increased from $1 billion in 2002 to $8 billion in 2019, with an estimated $6.1 billion in Chinese exports and $1.9 billion in imports.

China is a major trading partner of Cuba’s and Chinese businesses are involved in the Cuba’s telecommunications, tourism, mining, and energy sectors.

Cuba is highly dependent on China and ongoing economic challenges resulted in the reconstructing of an estimated $4 billion in debt to China in 2011 and another restructuring in 2015. For more reading click here.

The U.S. Must Join China’s Belt and Road In Developing The Caribbean ...

The U.S. Must Join China’s Belt and Road In Developing The Caribbean ...

Homan and Noem in NY for Illegal Migrant Operations

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The operations in New York included criminal and civil law enforcement actions. A ruthless leader of Tran de Aragua, Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco was arrested who is/was wanted for kidnapping a woman from Aurora, Colorado also with the help of the DEA in an apartment building in the Bronx.

It is important to know however just what law enforcement is up against in New York as noted below as an example:

 

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ABC News:

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined an immigration enforcement operation in New York City on Tuesday.

Noem posted a brief video of an arrest to her social media account.

The secretary is witnessing both criminal and civil enforcement operations, according to sources familiar with the actions in New York.

The criminal case involves a member of a Venezuelan gang that took over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, the sources said. One alleged gang member was arrested in the Bronx.

The New York division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it was working with partners at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to assist the Department of Homeland Security with enforcement efforts.

***.Violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua recruiting NYC migrants for ... TdA recruiting migrants

There have been recent arrests in New York of a Venezuelan fugitive and TdA gang member. ICE published this example from May of last year in New York:

NEW YORK — On May 10, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York City arrested an unlawfully present Venezuelan citizen and member of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal organization. Johan Jose Cardenas Silva is wanted by Peruvian authorities for conspiracy, assault and aggravated theft. Cardenas was also one of eight noncitizens arrested by the New York City Police Department March 27 and charged with criminal possession of a weapon-second degree: loaded firearm; criminal possession weapon-second degree: loaded firearm on school grounds; criminal possession-controlled substance-5th: intent to sell; and act in manner injure child less than 17.

ERO New York City officers assigned to its Long Island office arrested Cardenas upon his release from Nassau County Correctional Center pursuant to an administrative warrant of removal. He is detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

“This international fugitive mistakenly thought he could waltz into the United States to not only evade justice in other countries, but to continue his criminality with impunity,” said ERO New York City Field Office Director Kenneth Genalo. “His history of lawless behavior and membership in a violent international criminal organization clearly demonstrate that he is a serious threat to the public safety.”

U.S. Border Patrol officials encountered Cardenas in Del Rio, Texas, Oct. 4, 2022, and determined he unlawfully entered the United States and issued him a notice and order of expedited removal.

On Jan. 19, 2023, ERO San Antonio served Cardenas a notice to appear with a list of free legal services and filed it with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). On March 30, 2023, an immigration judge ordered Cardenas removed from the United States.

On Oct. 5, 2023, Cardenas was released from Stewart County Detention Center on an order of supervision to report to New York City; however, he never reported as directed.

On March 27, NYPD arrested him for the crimes of criminal possession of a weapon-second degree: loaded firearm; criminal possession weapon-second degree: loaded firearm on school grounds; criminal possession-controlled substance-5th: intent to sell; and act in manner injure child less than 17. On this same date, the Bronx Criminal Court arraigned and released Cardenas on his own recognizance before an immigration detainer could be lodged. Due to the New York state’s Protect Our Courts Act, ERO New York City was precluded from arresting Cardenas upon his release.

On April 1, the Nassau County Police Department arrested and charged Cardenas with the crimes of grand larceny in the fourth degree: value property greater than $1,000 and petit larceny. On that same day, ERO New York City lodged an immigration detainer with the Nassau County Jail against Cardenas’ release.

On April 9, ERO New York City received notification that Cardenas was an international fugitive wanted by Peruvian authorities on an arrest warrant issued in October 2018.

On April 30, the First District Court of Nassau County convicted him of petit larceny and sentenced him to 60 days of imprisonment. More here.

Biden’s Admin Lost 291,000 Unaccompanied Migrant Children

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Remember when the Democrats launched a huge attack on President Trump for disconnecting families/children of illegal migrants? Well…hold on…seems things are bubbling to the surface that the Biden administration and that pesky Border Czar, Kamala don’t care about who they lost….noting that an estimated 290,000 children have been exploited, trafficked or are in a forced labor condition.

Where is the joy now Kamala? Where is the child safety of these unaccompanied children? Inspector General Joseph Cuffari did the investigation and is shouting for immediate action. That ‘border bill’ that was killed and blamed on Trump never addressed the matter of the chaos and scandals at the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

DHS Secretary Defends Response to 20-Year-High Surge of Unaccompanied ...

38 Senators wrote a letter about this chaos and failure…radio silence from the FBI, DHS, HHS and the White House. Note the Department of Justice such as it is…does not care either. Human Rights? nah….

READ THE INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT HERE

Table 1. UCs transferred to ORR, FYs 2019-2023 FY UCs released to ORR FY 2019 67,987 FY 2020 15,128 FY 2021 120,859 FY 2022 127,057 FY 2023 117,789 Total 448,820

Source: DHS OIG analysis of ICE data

According to OPLA officials, ICE ERO has no authority over UCs beyond managing their immigration cases. Therefore, even if ICE were to identify UCs in unsafe conditions, the agency has limited authority to respond. ICE personnel at two field offices affirmed this and explained they had identified UCs in unsafe conditions but were unable to intervene. One ICE officer expressed concern with not being able to take action in a case involving a UC whose sponsor claimed the UC was in an inappropriate relationship with her husband.

Also included in the report is this text:

We issued this management alert as part of an ongoing audit of ICE’s ability to monitor UCs who were released from DHS and HHS custody between FYs 2019 and 2023. The objective of our ongoing audit is to determine ICE’s ability to monitor the location and status of UCs once released or transferred from DHS and HHS’ custody. As part of our audit, between October 2023 and May 2024, we: • Interviewed more than 100 officials from ICE ERO, OPLA, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Center for Countering Human Trafficking, as well as external stakeholders from DOJ and HHS. The interviews included meetings with ICE field offices located in Miami, Los Angeles, St. Paul (Minnesota), Philadelphia, San Diego, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, New York, and Chicago. • Reviewed relevant laws, reports, and policies, such as the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Immigration and Nationality Act, appropriations acts, prior DHS and HHS OIG reports, and internal ICE policies and handbooks. Additionally, we reviewed and analyzed multiple memorandums of agreement between DHS and HHS regarding UCs. • Reviewed and analyzed ICE data to determine the number of UCs ICE released to ORR from FY 2019 through FY 2023, UCs not served NTAs to date, and UCs who did not appear in court. We conducted this work pursuant to the Inspector General Act of 1978, 5 U.S.C. §§ 401-424, and in connection with an ongoing audit being performed according to generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require we plan and perform our audit work to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. Additional information and recom

Biden Secretly Altered U.S. Nuclear Strategy

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Note there is no mention of Iran and it’s advance toward a viable delivery of the weapon. Just a couple of weeks ago –>

CNN — 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that Iran’s breakout time – the amount of time needed to produce enough weapons grade material for a nuclear weapon – “is now probably one or two weeks” as Tehran has continued to develop its nuclear program.

The assessment marks the shortest breakout time that US officials have ever referenced and comes as Iran has taken steps in recent months to boost its production of fissile material.

“Where we are now is not in a good place,” the top US diplomat said at the Aspen Security Forum Friday.

“Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” he said.

“They haven’t produced a weapon itself, but that’s something of course that we track very, very carefully,” Blinken added.

Blinken said the policy of the US is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and that the administration would prefer to stop that from happening through diplomacy.

Over a year ago a top US Defense Department official said that Iran could now produce “one bomb’s worth of fissile material” in “about 12 days.”

The Biden administration engaged in more than a year of indirect negotiations with Iran aimed at reviving the Iran nuclear deal, from which the US withdrew in 2018 under the Trump administration.

Those efforts collapsed in late 2022, as the US accused Iran of making “unreasonable” demands related to a probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN nuclear watchdog, into unexplained traces of uranium found at undisclosed Iranian sites. In the months that followed, the administration maintained that the Iran nuclear deal was “not on the agenda.”

President Biden has reportedly altered the U.S. strategic nuclear plans toward opposing China’s burgeoning nuclear arsenal and preparing for possible nuclear coordination between China, Russia and North Korea.

According to a report Tuesday evening in The New York Times, the highly classified “Nuclear Employment Guidance” was altered in March without any public announcement.

“The document, updated every four years or so, is so highly classified that there are no electronic copies, only a small number of hard copies distributed to a few national security officials and Pentagon commanders,” the Times reported.

Congress is expected to be notified of the changes in unclassified form before Mr. Biden’s term in the White House ends in January.

But, The Times reported, two separate top officials have received permission to refer to the changes in public speeches, albeit only in “carefully constrained, single sentences.”

“The president recently issued updated nuclear-weapons employment guidance to account for multiple nuclear-armed adversaries,” said Vipin Narang, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology nuclear strategist who served in the Pentagon.

“In particular,” he added, the guidance reacted to “the significant increase in the size and diversity” of China’s nuclear arsenal.

Pranay Vaddi, the National Security Council’s senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, referred to the document in June, saying it emphasizes “the need to deter Russia, the PRC and North Korea simultaneously,” using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

Pentagon officials have warned for years about a nuclear-arsenal breakout from China.

Although Beijing has had nuclear weapons since the 1960s, for decades it had only a minimal deterrent force that barely measured up to the arsenals of Britain and France, much less those of the U.S. or the Soviet Union/Russia.

But the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, testified to Congress in February that the size and rapid pace of Beijing’s nuclear buildup is “breathtaking.”

Current Chinese strategic stockpiles are estimated to be around 500 warheads and will increase to as many as 1,500 by 2030, with the most dramatic move being the building of more than 300 intercontinental ballistic missile silos in western China.

The war in Ukraine has Added to the Food Crisis/Inflation in the U.S.

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It is well known that Russia had been stealing Ukrainian cargo ships loaded with wheat and other food commodities and then reselling as their own. When it comes to the supply chain related to food, transportation and inflation, neither Biden nor Harris have bothered to report this crisis much less punish Russia for such actions.

But let us understand what Ukraine supplies to not only Africa but to the global inventory and supply in the first place…adding to the shortages in total.

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How could the war in Ukraine impact global food supplies?

Both Ukraine and Russia are some of the world’s largest food exporters. How could global food be impacted?

By: Hannah Ritchie
March 24, 2022

Ukraine has been one of the world’s largest contributors to the World Food Programme – the UN agency that provides food aid to countries in crisis. The Head of the WFP – David Beasley estimates that it provides 40% of its wheat.

The war has now reversed this flow: the WFP is now working to provide Ukrainians with the supplies they need in this crisis.

The war in Ukraine could have profound impacts on global food supplies, with far-reaching consequences for hunger and food security across the world. But it doesn’t have to – there is time to react and to contain a larger crisis.

In this article, I present the data we need to understand the scale of their contribution, and which countries are most reliant on Ukraine for their food supplies.

Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s largest exporters of cereal crops and oils

Ukraine and Russia both play a major role in global food markets. They are net exporters of several of the leading cereal crops: wheat, maize (corn), and barley. Both are also dominant exporters of sunflower oil, one of the world’s dominant vegetable oils. Some countries – such as India – rely heavily on imports of sunflower oil for domestic food supplies.

In the charts I show their contribution to global food exports (how much is traded between countries); and global food production.

The charts show that in 2019 around one-quarter of global wheat exports come from Ukraine and Russia. One-fifth of global maize, and barley too. They are the source of nearly two-thirds of traded sunflower oil, with Ukraine alone accounting for almost half of global exports.

Which countries are most reliant on food imports from Ukraine and Russia?

The potential impacts of reduced food outputs from Ukraine and Russia will not be felt equally everywhere. Some of the most vulnerable are countries that import directly from these countries.

But it will not be contained to these direct importers. Food prices are rising, which means that all countries that are net importers of these commodities could feel significant impacts.

To identify the countries that are most vulnerable – and might need assistance in the months ahead – I have brought together country-by-country import data from these key crops. In the data explorer below you can see the global situation for a range of commodities and metrics.

You can see which countries import the most wheat, maize, barley or sunflower oil; which countries import from Ukraine and/or Russia; and how dependent they were on imports for the domestic supply.

We can see, for example, that many countries across the Middle East and North Africa rely heavily on wheat imports from Ukraine and Russia; they supply more than two-thirds of imports in Egypt, Libya and Lebanon. For maize, the reliance on Ukraine and Russia has a larger geographical reach with countries across East Asia and Europe also importing a large share from them.

To maintain consistency between production, domestic supply and import metrics I have sourced all of the underlying data for these calculations from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. It is all based on physical units i.e. tonnes of crops.