22 Jul, 2023 04:15

US creates permanent pandemic agency

The office will take over the duties of the White House Covid-19 response team

The US government has launched a new agency to prepare for pandemics and other “biological threats,” with President Joe Biden tapping a retired Air Force general to spearhead the project.

The White House announced the creation of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR) on Friday. The agency will be tasked with devising a response to public health crises, coordinating scientific research and medical efforts against pandemics, and providing regular reports to Congress.

“This will be a permanent office in the Executive Office of the President charged with leading, coordinating, and implementing actions related to preparedness for, and response to, known and unknown biological threats or pathogens,” the White House said in a press release.

The new office will beheaded up by Retired Air Force Major General Paul Friedrichs, who currently serves as a special assistant to President Joe Biden and the Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the White House National Security Council. Friedrichs previously worked as a joint staff surgeon at the Pentagon, where he also advised the military’s Covid-19 task force.

The OPPR will formally come into existence on August 7, after which Friedrichs will begin assembling a team. His responsibilities will include ensuring the Strategic National Stockpile is well-equipped with medical supplies, and working with Congress to procure funding for US preparedness efforts, according to the New York Times.

In addition to crafting a government response to future pandemics, the agency will confer with industry, the scientific community and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop the “next generation of medical countermeasures,” including vaccines. Its work will focus on Covid-19, monkeypox, polio, avian and human influenza, and RSV, among other pathogens.

Taking over the role of the White House’s Covid-19 response team, which was shuttered in May, the office was created under a sweeping government spending package enacted in late 2022. It will be required to submit a “preparedness review” to lawmakers every two years, and a separate “outlook report” every five years.

https://www.rt.com/news/580099-us-permanent-pandemic-office/

22 Jul, 2023 09:42

Kiev strikes ammunition depot in Crimea – official

Governor Sergey Aksyonov has ordered a mass evacuation from the danger zone

A Ukrainian drone strike has resulted in an explosion at an ammunition depot in the central part of the Crimean peninsula, Governor Sergey Aksyonov said on Saturday. According to preliminary information, the incident has not resulted in any casualties, he added.

Writing on Telegram, Aksyonov said the detonation had taken place in the Krasnogvardeysky district. “A decision has been made to evacuate the population within a 5km radius from the site of the emergency and place them in temporary accommodation facilities,” he added.

The governor stated that the authorities had also suspended rail traffic in the area in order to “minimize risks,” while expressing hope that the emergency would be dealt with quickly.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have confirmed the strikes,claiming that they “had destroyed an oil depot and Russian military warehouses”in the area.

Crimea has repeatedly been targeted by Ukrainian drone and missile attacks since Moscow launched its military operation against Kiev over a year ago. On Thursday, Aksyonov said a Ukrainian UAV raid on the peninsula had killed a teenage girl and damaged several administrative buildings.

Earlier this week, a sea drone strike on the Crimean Bridge – which Russia called a Ukrainian terrorist attack – damaged one section of the roadway and claimed the lives of a married couple from Belgorod Region, as well as injuring their 14-year-old daughter.

Kiev stopped short of claiming responsibility, but celebrated the incident, while Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky later called the bridge a legitimate military target.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the raid as a “terrorist attack”that was pointless from a military standpoint, adding that the bridge has not been used for transporting military materials for a long time. In the aftermath of the incident, Moscow launched several “retaliatory strikes” on targets in Ukrainian port cities.

https://www.rt.com/russia/580106-kiev-strikes-ammunition-depot-crimea/

22 Jul, 2023 09:31

Ukraine attacks Russia's Belgorod region with cluster munitions – governor

A village in Belgorod Region was targeted with the controversial weapon, Vyacheslav Gladkov says

Ukraine has targeted a village in Russia’s Belgorod Region with cluster munitions, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

At least three cluster munitions were employed by the Kiev forces during a large-scale attack on the settlement of Zhuravlevka, Gladkov wrote on Telegram on Saturday.

According to the governor,21 artillery shells and ten mortar rounds were also fired at the village. It was also targeted with a single kamikaze drone.

There were no casualties or damage in Zhuravlevka as a result of the shelling, he said.

Smaller artillery,mortar and drone attacks targeted at least a dozen other settlementsin Belgorod Region on the same day, Gladkov wrote.

In the village of Ilek-Penkovka, 12 households were affected by an explosion, with the facades of buildings being damaged and windows shattered, he said, adding that injuries had been avoided.

The US announced the delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine earlier this month, with President Joe Biden describing it as a stopgap measure that was necessary due to a shortage of regular artillery rounds among Kiev’s Western backers.

The controversial shells, which contain multiple bomblets that are dispersed over a large area, have been banned in more than 100 countries. However, neither Ukraine, the US, nor Russia are signatories of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM).

Washington admitted that it was aware of the increased risk posed by cluster munitions for the civilian population, but claimed that Kiev had pledged to deploy them responsibly and steer clear of densely populated areas.

On Thursday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the Ukrainian forces had begun using US-supplied cluster munitions on the battlefield. They were doing so “quite effectively,” he claimed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin noted last week that the US itself had earlier branded the use of cluster munitions “a crime,” saying this was exactly how he regarded the delivery of such weapons to Kiev by Washington.

The Russian military has a “sufficient” stock of cluster munitions, which itcan also put to use in a tit-for-tat responseto such weapons being deployed by Ukraine, the president warned.

(Ukraine attacking inside of Russia will just accelerate the military)

https://www.rt.com/russia/580105-cluster-munitions-belgorod-ukraine/

21 Jul, 2023 23:15

North Korea fires multiple cruise missiles – Seoul

The latest weapons test comes shortly after Pyongyang threatened Washington with nuclear retaliation

North Korea launched several cruise missiles early on Saturday, according to Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff, marking yet another show of force in response to the docking of a US ballistic missile submarine in South Korea for the first time in decades.

The launches were detected at around 4am local time, the Yonhap News Agency reported on Saturday morning.

On Thursday, North Korea threatened a nuclear response if the US deployed aircraft carriers, bombers, and missile submarines in South Korea, according to a statement shared by state media channel KCNA.

North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam accused Washington and Seoul of going “beyond the ‘red line’ in their military hysteria,”and argued that the deployment of nuclear submarines and other strategic assets would fall under the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons specified in North Korean military doctrine.

Pyongyang claims that despite repeated warnings, Washington and Seoul held a meeting of the new “nuclear consultative group” on July 18 to allegedly discuss the use of nuclear weapons against North Korea. On Wednesday, the DPRK fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, in an apparent show of force against the perceived provocation by the United States and South Korea.

The latest spike in tensions comes after theUSS Kentucky docked in Busan, marking thefirst port callon the peninsula by a US nuclear ballistic missile submarinesince the 1980s. The Ohio-class submarine can carry up to 20 Trident II D5 intercontinental missiles.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby insisted on Friday that Washington is ready for negotiations “without preconditions to denuclearize the peninsula,” while arguing that the deployment of a nuclear-capable submarine was necessary to protect not just allies, but also 38,000 US troops and their families in South Korea.

https://www.rt.com/news/580096-korea-cruise-missiles-threat/

22 Jul, 2023 06:06

Sale of US nuclear submarines stalled

The nuclear-powered subs are set to be transferred to Canberra as part of the three-way AUKUS pact

Republican lawmakers have blocked a plan to fast-track sales of US attack submarines to Australia, urging the White House toapprove additional military spendingto expand America’s own fleet.

The move is being led by GOP Senator Roger Wicker, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who outlined his rationale during an interview with Politico on Friday.

“It makes sense to be surewe have enough submarines for our own security needsbefore we endorse that pillar of the [AUKUS] agreement,” he told the outlet, referring to the submarine sale. “The president needs to submit a supplemental request to give us an adequate number of submarines.”

Though Wicker could not say how much spending would be needed to build additional subs, he added that the White House must also approve “a plan for the industrial base to actually get there.” He said he intends to send a letter to President Joe Biden in the coming days to make his case, alongside fellow Republican Senator Susan Collins.

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal last week, Wicker argued that Washington is slated to transfer three nuclear-powered Virginia-class attack submarines to Canberra “even beforewe have met our own Navy’s requirements,” citing military reports suggesting thePentagon needs at least 66 subs. Wicker noted that there are currently 49 in the US fleet, calling to step up production to 2.5 Virginia-class submarines per year.

Commenting on the hold-up, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles suggested he was not concerned by the GOP opposition, saying he was still “very confident” the submarine transfer would go through.

The weapon sale represents one leg of the three-way AUKUS security agreement signed with Australia and the UK in 2021. The deal also aims to facilitate the transfer of nuclear technology from Washington to Canberra with help from London, which will ultimately be used to build nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.

However, the pact has also been described by some officials as a way to deter China, which has condemned the AUKUS deal for helping to proliferate nuclear technology around the globe, warning it would kick off an “arms race”in the Indo-Pacific.

https://www.rt.com/news/580100-us-submarine-sale-stalled/

ODNI Releases 2023 FISA Court Compliance Audit, Opinion and FISC Reauthorization – 117 Page PDF

July 21, 2023 | Sundance | 113 Comments

If anyone else wants to climb in here and read this report [pdf DATA HERE], drop your review notes in the comments. It’s going to take me a day or two to finish making all my notes.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence [ODNI] has released a 117-page April 2023 order/opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISC] about the compliance audit conducted by internal review as the U.S. intelligence agencies seek reauthorization. Everything FISC happens in secret, and the report is heavily redacted; however, some interesting information can be obtained if you read the report carefully.

Here’s an example. The FISC is now agreeing with the NSA and FBI that all search logs and audit trails should be erased after 10 years from query. That means every audit trail from the period up to August 2013 is about to be erased.That means almost all of the Obama era search queries will disappear before the next administration takes office.

They are not erasing our data; they are erasing the logs of their search inquiries into our data. FU!

Readers here know my position. I do not believe the FISA court is needed; nor do I believe the NSA, FBI, NCTC or CIA should have any search access to the metadata [full scope electronic records] of American Citizens without a court order.

The DOJ and FBI should go to the ordinary federal courts for search warrants. The CIA and National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) both have foreign service missions, so they do not need access to American citizen metadata (702 acquired). Why would theCIA and NCTC need to snoopinto the private data of American citizens when theirlegislative authority forbids them from conducting domestic surveillance? Additionally, the NSA should not contain a lifetime repository for all electronic records of American citizens. That’s my opinion.

Link to Document. Dig in Anons

https://www.intel.gov/assets/documents/702%20Documents/declassified/2023/FISC_2023_FISA_702_Certifications_Opinion_April11_2023.pdf

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/07/21/odni-releases-2023-fisa-court-compliance-audit-opinion-and-fisc-reauthorization-117-page-pdf/

>>19222143

Reading this doc and the court is generous to agencies,while assuming they will obey the rules, definitions etc written in the law!.

They disregard that FISA searches and queries have been overused, misused and intentionally disobeyed to gather dirt on opponents regardless of the law for 30+ years.

The court think that defining more details will stop the DS from continuing to misuse the NSA database, simply because no one has been prosecuted for breaking the law. There seems to be no punishment in this document for the Intelligence Community for ignoring the 4th amendment constantly. So once again they are arguing over definitions without consequences.

We are fucked as long as FISC can be duped, lied to and as long as FISA is allowed. Get rid on FISC that will make the IC to do hard work to try bring political persecution.

This sucks as far as I can tell. But I’m only on page 74