7 Feb, 2023 17:23

Kamala Harris hid from reporters for a year – NYT

The US VP has deliberately avoided interviews since her “disastrous” 2021 attempt to outline border policy, according to a report

American Vice President Kamala Harris dodged most media appearances for an entire year after what was widely considered a “disastrous” 2021 TV appearance in which she failed to coherently explain the Biden administration’s strategy for the US-Mexico border, the New York Times (NYT) reported on Monday.

Harris “all but went into a bunker for about a year” after her infamous interview on the border crisis with NBC’s Lester Holt, the NYT revealed. The paper cited “White House officials” who explained that she was worried about “making mistakes and disappointing [US President Joe] Biden.”

Since the NBC interview, in which Harris repeatedly claimed “we’ve been to the border” while Holt gently reminded her that she had not, the VP’s television appearances have been few and far between. She did just five more media spots in 2021, one of which was a chat with a middle school student on YouTube, and booked only five major appearances for the entirety of 2022 – all within the first four months of that year.

According to the NYT, even Harris’ “allies” have grown weary of waiting for the VP to distinguish herself politically, even though she was once considered Biden’s obvious successor. “I can’t think of one thing she’s done except stay out of the way and stand beside him at certain ceremonies,” Democratic fundraiser John Morgan told the outlet.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently struggled to name a single accomplishment by Harris when asked about her progress on the migrant crisis, an issue she was assigned in the first months of Biden’s presidency. Last year saw record numbers of illegal immigrants enter the US via the Mexican border.

Harris did not win a single state primary when she ran for president in 2020, dropping out of the race before in-person voting began due to staffing and funding issues as well as poor poll numbers.

Democrats areincreasingly questioning(yeah right, they all knew she the puppet with no skills) whether Harris has the “force, charisma and skill to mount a winning presidential campaign,” the Washington Post reported recently, and the question of who could replace the aging Biden remains unanswered. Just 37% of Democrats polled last month by the Associated Press said they wanted the president to run for reelection.

(OK when NYTs & WAPP get involved the Shadow President has told them to hit hard; both must be eliminated!)

https://www.rt.com/news/571130-kamala-avoids-reporters-border-biden/

7 Feb, 2023 18:43

Pentagon grounds aircraft after reassessing crash risk – media

The US military reportedly plans a clutch redesign for its tiltrotor V-22 Ospreys, months after concluding they were safe to fly

Anundisclosed numberof the US military’s V-22 Osprey rotorcrafts have been grounded due to safety concerns, as the Pentagon works to resolve an issue with clutch failures, an unidentified defense official told Military.com and other media outlets on Saturday.

“This recommendation is based on a progressive increase in hard clutch engagements and ongoing engineering analysis,” the source said. The official declined to say how many of the aircraft were affected or how long they’re expected to be out of service.

The shutdown order affects V-22 Ospreys that have exceeded a certain number of flight hours – the official wouldn’t say how many – and those units will be temporarily fixed by replacing a part that has been deemed prone to early failure. A complete redesign of the aircraft’s clutch system is in the works to provide a permanent solution.

At issue is an “input quill assembly” that connects the V-22’s engines to its gearbox. The part can cause “hard clutch engagement”when it fails, making it difficult for pilots to balance power between the Osprey’s twin engines. One airman told Military.com of his experience with such a failure, which “blew everything apart” in the gearbox, dumping buckets of oil and forcing an emergency landing.

A V-22 crashed last March in Norway, killing the four US Marines who were aboard. Five Marines were also killed when their Osprey crashed near Glamis, California last June. Previous Osprey crashes that killed or injured US service members occurred in Australia and Syria in 2017, in Japan in 2016, and in Hawaii in 2015.

The Pentagon hasn’t linked those casualties specifically to hard clutch engagement, but the failure has been confirmed in at least four incidents since 2017, including two earlier this year.

The tiltrotor V-22 is a hybrid aircraft, offering the utility of a helicopter that can take off and land vertically, as well as the higher speed and longer range of a turboprop plane. Costing about $70 million per unit, it’s the primary assault support aircraft for the US Marine Corps, and it’s also used by the Navy and the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).

The AFSOC cleared its Ospreys to resume operations after a two-week safety review in August. American allies including Israel and Japan have bought V-22s. The White House squadron reportedly uses Ospreys to fly staffers and journalists on trips in which they follow the president’s helicopter.

(News is getting worse for the military)

https://www.rt.com/news/571134-pentagon-grounds-v22-ospreys/

Intel Community Says They Discovered Prior Chinese Spy Balloon Operations, Only After President Trump Left Office

February 6, 2023 | Sundance

This is so stunningly incredulous, and transparently politically orchestrated, it’s laughable.

The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) defended the actions of the Biden administration last Saturday by saying three Chinese spy balloons had previously been deployed during the Trump administration. However, President Trump and all national security heads including Mike Pompeo (CIA), Richard Grenell and John Ratcliffe (DNI) denied ever hearing about these balloons.

To reconcile the claim of historic Chinese spy balloon operations, against the denials and absence of briefings for the Trump IC officials, the current Intel Community (and Biden Administration) are now claiming they only discovered the prior balloon flights *AFTER* President Trump left office.

(Seriously, is someone holding a gun to their heads to release this most imbecilic and transparent lie? And who is that someone?)

Oh, and due to national security issues, theIC cannot explainhow they found out after the fact.

Yes Alice, that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.

WASHINGTON DC – The Biden administration is willing to brief former Trump officials on newly discovered intelligence that China sent spy balloons into U.S. airspace during their time in charge.

The offer, described by senior Biden administration officials on Sunday night, comes as former President Donald Trump and senior members of his national security team say they were never briefed on such an incursion by a Beijing-sent aircraft.

“This information was discovered after the prior administration left. The intelligence community is prepared to offer key officials from the Trump administration briefings on [China’s] surveillance program,” one of the officials said. The official, along with several others, asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive information.

Briefers would also be willing to discuss Beijing’s similar operations in East Asia, South Asia and Europe over the last several years, the official said.

The proposal to brief the Trump officials is the latest development following the military’s shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday, seven days after it entered U.S. airspace. Republicans and former Trump officials said this week that they would have downed the airship as soon as it appeared, and criticized President Joe Biden for waiting until the balloon was over water before bringing it down.

Yet on Saturday, a senior Defense Department official said that Chinese spy balloons entered American airspace three times during Trump’s tenure and once before during the current administration. The administration officialsdidn’t detail how they learnedof those events long after they happened.

Still, it helps explain why five senior Trump administration officials POLITICO spoke with on Sunday said they were never told of such incidents occurring when they were in office. “This never happened. It would have never happened,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday. (read more)

You know when Politico is questioning the story, it’s bad!

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/president-trump-seriously-meh-e1621129056278.jpg

Balloons for spying, countering drones and psychological warfare, Chinese military writings reveal

For PLA, inexpensive, low-risk spy and electronic warfare platforms can stay aloft for years

By Bill Gertz.1 of 2

China’s People’s Liberation Army plans to use high-altitude balloons to counter long-range U.S. drones, launch psychological warfare operations and gather intelligence, a review of Chinese military and technical writings reveals.

Beijing also reportedly test-fired a hypersonic missile from an airship in 2018, highlighting the military’s interest in multiple uses for lighter-than-air aircraft.

The U.S. decision to dispatch an F-22 to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the Carolina coast Saturday, after it traveled across the country from northern Montana, has focused new attention on the capabilities and threats posed by helium-filled, maneuverable craft.

Defense officials said little intelligence could be gained from sensitive military sites along the path despite the delay in knocking out the balloon. The maneuverable craft’s sensors fell into relatively shallow waters intact and are expected to be recovered.

The sensor package, which the Pentagon insisted was monitored and neutralized during the cross-country spying mission, could provide details on its multiple optical systems and its satellite communications links. Another Chinese surveillance balloon was detected recently over Central and South America, the Pentagon said without elaborating.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning denied to reporters again Monday that the balloons are used for spying, and Chinese officials said the Biden administration “overreacted” to the incident.

Yet a 2020 report by four Chinese technicians with the Aerospace Information Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed key details on Chinese high-altitude balloon sensor capabilities and missions. The report said high-altitude balloons operating in so-called near space — 12 to 62 miles high — offer advantages over reconnaissance aircraft or satellites.

The pilotless, high-altitude balloons can conduct relatively cheap, sustained flights for “months or even years,” the report said.

“Compared with other air vehicles, the high-altitude balloon has long endurance time, which can achieve sustained and wider coverage for regional observation and detection,” the study said.

Intelligence balloons carry heavier loads than satellites, and their signal strength and observation range and accuracy from near space are significant. The balloons can be recycled at low cost and minimal risk, unlike satellites, the report said.

Countering drones

A Chinese military report from 2013 identified a major mission for military balloons: countering U.S. reconnaissance drones, including the Air Force’s long-range Global Hawk and the stealth Sentinel.

The Chinese balloon that was shot down on Saturday flew over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, where 150 Minuteman III nuclear missiles are deployed. The balloon was not within surveillance range of the two bases for Global Hawk drones: Grand Forks Air Force Base in northeastern North Dakota and Beale Air Force Base north of Sacramento, California.

The report in the bimonthly journal Aerospace Electronic Warfare, published by Institute 8511 of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., said a near-space balloon could be valuable in detecting U.S. stealth drones by “looking downward.”

“It is very difficult to evade detection by a space-borne system or a near space system looking down from above,” the report said. “Space systems include early-warning satellites, early-warning airplanes, early-warning airships and early-warning balloons.”

The objective is to place electronic jammers on the systems. The report said satellite communication links with drones are “easily susceptible to jamming.”

High-powered jammers on the ground or placed on balloons can disrupt both uplink and downlink signals from drones.

The Chinese military is aiming to neutralize drones that carry synthetic aperture radar, electro-optical cameras and infrared cameras by using electromagnetic and optoelectrical jamming equipment.

A 2021 report on global counterspace capabilities by the Secure World Foundation stated that cyberattacks could be launched from weather balloons against ground stations that are used to communicate and control orbiting satellites. The report said multiple attacks on command and control links for NASA satellites from 2007 to 2009 were traced to China.

Adversaries could disrupt satellite operations by attacking land-based command-and-control systems or data relay stations.

“Techniques could include flyovers with manned aircraft, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or weather balloons,” the report said.…

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/6/balloons-spying-countering-drones-and-psychologica/

>>18302613

2 of 2

Testing hypersonics

China also has employed a high-altitude balloon to test a hypersonic missile — an ultra-high-speed maneuvering strike weapon that can evade current air and missile defense systems, according to a report Monday in the Financial Times.

A military division of Chinese state television revealed in September 2018 the use of a balloon as a launch platform for a hypersonic missile. It included video of a balloon that appeared identical to the one downed by the U.S. F-22 fighter over the weekend. The video showed a balloon with three kinds of weapons.

China’s military also plans to use high-flying balloons for information warfare.

A 2009 report by the Chinese National Defense University outlined the use of balloons for “psychological attack.”

“Psychological attack is an important means of information attack,” said the report, titled “Lectures on Joint Campaign Information Operations.”

PLA information warfare involves “soft-strike” and “hard-strike” methods to shock the enemy psychologically and invoke long-term fear “to achieve the goal of victory without battle,” the report said.Tools include propaganda aimed at influencing public opinionthrough leaflets, pictures, broadcasts, television, computer networks, audiovisual periodicals and the internet.

Other methods involvehologram image weapons, laser dazzlers, noise simulators, electronic whistles, “thinking control weapons” and virtual reality.

These arms, the theory goes, can be used to attack and intimidate the enemy and create fear and confusion to undermine war-fighting will and operational capabilities.

“Third is employing aerostat weapons to implement psychological attacks against the enemy,” the report said. “Aerostat weapons are lighter-than-air weapons such as balloons and kites and installing a delivery or dispensing device and noise-making equipment and dispense psychological warfare propaganda products so as to conduct psychological intimidation against the enemy.

“Employ high tech means to control the altitudes, directions and dispensing time-opportunities of the aerostat dispensing equipment will gain even better psychological warfare attack results.”

Jennifer Zeng, an online blogger, identified one manufacturer of Beijing’s surveillance balloon fleet as a Chinese company linked to the PLA. The China Zhuzhou Rubber Research and Design Institute Co. Ltd. is a government-owned military research institute, Ms. Zeng reported. She cited an archived website that Chinese censors have since deleted.

A document from the company revealed that China Zhuzhou Rubber is a designated research and production arm of the China Meteorological Administration and the Military Equipment Development Department of the Battlefield Environment Protection Bureau of PLA.

Another Chinese company linked to surveillance balloons is the Hangzhou LaserFleet Space Technology Co. Ltd., in Shenzhen, China. The company provides high-speed internet access for “stratospheric aircraft, tethered balloons, suborbital spacecraft, space stations and microsatellites.”

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/6/balloons-spying-countering-drones-and-psychologica/

>>18302613

This article is important because it exactly mirrors the psychological ops the Bidan Admin has been doing daily to American Citizens since Jan 2021. Day after day they intentionally destroy something or someone important in society, or a norm of safety.

Bidan and team are doing Chinese Water Torture on America hourly and daily.

Its obvious with the constant lies and removing anything that will make Americans feel safe. Bidan let that balloon fly to break us down even more and make us feel hopeless.

He has taking his marching orders from China and will willingly do it for money, satanism and power. He and they hate America.

7 Feb, 2023 21:07

Americans threatened by dissent – Kissinger

The former US secretary of state said the country suffers from ‘domestic division and international disorder’

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger chided the nation’s political establishment for its failure to demonstrate “domestic cohesion,” warning an audience at a Sunday event celebrating former president Ronald Reagan that the country could not afford to isolate itself.

Because the US is “suffering” from “domestic division and international disorder about arguments about who we are and what we stand for,” it “finds it difficult to muster the domestic cohesion necessary to face the challenges ahead of us,” the former national security adviser told onlookers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

These, Kissinger said, included a “challenge to world order” from China, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, and the apparently imminent development of “the world’s most devastating weapons” by Iran – to say nothing of artificial intelligence (AI), which the former diplomat warned was “transforming human consciousness itself.”

“Each of these pressing developments requires a combination of strength and conciliation,” he said, reminding the assembled Reagan fans that the former president “knew that America needed to be powerful in substance and in mind to protect world order – by force, if necessary.”

The deceased former president, who would have been 112 years old on Sunday, never wavered in his beliefs that “America is most secure and prosperous when it is the leader in shaping a stable world” and that “a stable world could not be based on American isolationism,” Kissinger claimed.

While the 99-year-old ex-diplomat described Reagan as a “peacemaker,” the conservative icon’s presidency saw the US invade Grenada, send thousands of troops to the Middle East, and attempt to overthrow the government of Nicaragua by funding, training and arming Contra militias through the CIA.

During Reagan's presidency, Kissinger chaired the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, which accused the Soviet Union of exploiting political unrest in the region while glossing over the US’ – and specifically Kissinger’s own – support for military dictatorships like Augusto Pinochet’s Chile and the right-wing death squads of El Salvador in the name of fighting communism.

Last month at the World Economic Forum, he publicly embraced the idea of Ukrainian membership in NATO, reversing course on the opposition he had voiced during the previous conference, when he called for an end to the conflict as soon as possible lest Russia be driven into the arms of China.

(Fuck off Kissinger)

https://www.rt.com/news/571138-kissinger-reagan-foreign-policy-challenges/