All the mistakes that led to DC plane crash as it is revealed air traffic controller left early

05:27 EST 31 Jan 20251/2

An air traffic controller was reportedly allowed to leave their post early just before American Airlines Flight 5342 collided in midair with a military helicopter over Washington DC.

Insiders and a preliminary internal FAA report have started to reveal catastrophic failures leading up to the aviation disaster that killed 67 people, including three soldiers, Wednesday night.

The collision took place as the American Airlines flight, carrying 60 passengers and four crew, made its final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport shortly before 9pm ET.

That night, an air traffic controller was left to handle both helicopter traffic and manage planes - which should have been a divided duty - according to The New York Times.

Those tasks are usually handled between two people from 10am until 9:30pm, according to the report.

After 9:30pm the duties are typically combined and left to one person as the airport sees less traffic later in the night.

A supervisor reportedly decided to combine those duties before the scheduled cutoff time however, and allowed one air traffic controller to leave work early.

The FAA report said that staffing configuration 'was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic'.

It remains unclear why the supervisor allowed the worker to clock off early on Wednesday night, just before the midair collision.

Chilling minute-by-minute timeline of tragic DC plane crash

It has also emerged that the Army helicopter, which was carrying three soldiers, involved in the collision might have also deviated from its approved flight path.

The outlet again spoke with insiders that said the Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter was not on its approved route and flying higher than it should have been.

Approval had been given for the helicopter to fly no higher than 200 feet along the east side of the Potomac River, where it would have avoided the passenger jet.

The pilot of the helicopter confirmed sight of the American Airlines flight and was told to stick to their predetermined route and go behind the plane.

Sources said the pilot did not stick to the path however and was a half-mile off course as well as being at an altitude above 300 feet.

A senior Army official told The Times that the pilot of the Black Hawk had flown the route before and was well aware of the tight altitude restrictions and routes.

As the jet approached the runway, those onboard had asked air traffic control to change their runway, according to an FAA report.

The plane, a Bombardier CRJ700, had been cleared to touch down on Runway 1, the main airport thoroughfare, but the controller then asked the pilot to land on Runway 33.

A source told The Times that such a move is routine especially with regional jets, and that the decision might have been made to prevent clogging on the main runway.

Five current and former controllers also told the outlet thatthe lone controller in the tower should have been more proactive in directing the two away from each other.

The darkness could have played a part in what made it so difficult for both pilots to actually gauge their distance apart, they added.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14345293/catastrophic-mistakes-Washington-DC-plane-crash.html

>>22475969

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Reagan National has been understaffed for many years, with just 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023 - well below the target of 30 - according to the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan submitted to Congress.

The situation appeared to have improved since then, as a source told CNN the Reagan National control tower was 85 percent staffed with 24 of 28 positions filled.

Chronic understaffing at air traffic control towers is nothing new, with well-known causes including high turnover and budget cuts.

In order to fill the gaps, controllers are frequently asked to work 10-hour days, six days a week.

The two aircraft had collided in a huge fireball that was visible on dashcams of cars driving on highways that snake around the airport, before plunging into the river.

On Thursday morning officials confirmed all 67 on both the plane and helicopter had perished, with their rescue mission then becoming a recovery operation.

Investigators made a break through later that night, after they had pulled 40 bodies to shore, when they found two black boxes from the American Airlines flight.

A flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were pulled from the river by salvage teams.

This will be of monumental assistance to authorities as they investigate what exactly happened in the moments leading to disaster.

The identities of those who died in the collision have started to trickle out, with DailyMail.com revealing the identities of the pilot and first officer.

Among the crash victims were people from Russia, China, Germany and the Philippines, including young figure skaters.

Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, and First Officer Samuel Lilley had been in charge of the flight from Wichita, Kansas, to the capital.

Two Chinese nationals were among the victims of the crash, the Chinese Embassy in the US said in a statement, without providing further details.

In an situation eerily similar to what happened on Wednesday night, a Republic Airways flight had to abort landing at the airport on Tuesday after a helicopter appeared near its flight path.

Flightradar data for the flight shows the plane had been travelling from Windsor Locks in Connecticut to the city and had to dramatically gain altitude shortly after descending on Reagan National Airport. It eventually landed safely.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14345293/catastrophic-mistakes-Washington-DC-plane-crash.html

>>22475242 Watters: This DEI thing isn’t a race thing. Biden instituted DEI quotas at the FAA in order to recruit workers who were deaf, vision impaired…PN

video attached

https://x.com/molmccann/status/1885306862465085601

>>22476042

All the things Bidan did were obviously treason and to weaken our country in everyone possible. In other words, Obama's wet dream to destroy the country, he never believed the US was Excellent, so he went about every way through Bidan Admin to put us in to destroy every level of our country. When the research is done on every plan under Joe and their diabolical plot, Obama did it all. When will his birth country will reveal he was never American and never legal to be President. If it's proven everything and anything Obama did will be reversed. I hope he, Bidan and everyone in their Admin are prosecuted to the highest extent of the law.

Helicopters flying along Potomac frequently pose dangers to passenger jets Corridor for helicopters intersects with the flight path where an Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines jet crashed Wednesday. WAPO. 1/3

By Lori Aratani, Carol D. Leonnig, Ian Duncan and Michael Laris On Tuesday night, just 24 hours before a deadly collision between a military helicopter and a regional jet at Reagan National Airport, a different passenger jet coming in for a landing at the airport alerted the tower it had to abort.

The reason: risk of possible collision with a helicopter. A similar situation played out less than a week earlier, on Jan. 23, when a flight from Charlotte suddenly pulled out of its approach at National. The captain informed passengers that he was tracking a helicopter and needed to abort the landing.

“They had to circle back around because there was a helicopter in the flight path,” Richard Hart, a passenger returning from a business trip, recalled the pilot announcing. “At the time I found it odd. …

Now I find it disturbingly tragic.” The two scrubbed landings within a week illustrate the heightened danger posed by frequent military helicopter flights adjacent to the busy airport, which have been the source of close calls and worries about crashes for years.

The U.S. Army Black Hawk that crashed into an American Airlines regional jet Wednesday night and killed 64 people, as well as three Army crew members on the chopper, had been flying along the east bank of the Potomac River in a flight corridor designated for low-flying helicopters.

The narrow lane for helicopters keeps them away from jetliner flight paths in much of National’s airspace, but it intersects with the path of aircraft on the southeastern approach to Runway 33, which is where American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita was attempting to land Wednesday.

Frequent military training and other flights around the airport have prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to place an air traffic controller dedicated to helicopters in the National Airport tower to manage the hazards, a person who is familiar with tower operations said.

But staffing levels were “not normal” inside the tower at the time of Wednesday night’s accident, and no single controller was assigned to helicopter flights, according to an air traffic safety report described to The Washington Post.

When the crash occurred around 8:50 p.m. Wednesday, the job of managing helicopters in the vicinity was being handled by a controller who was also managing other air traffic, said the person,who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

According to a 2023 report to Congress, 50 entities operated roughly 88,000 helicopter flights within 30 miles of the airport between 2017 and 2019, based on FAA data. The largest percentage were tied to the military, but others included flights by medical operations, state and local law enforcement, and federal agencies.

Some experts in aircraft safety raised questions about procedures and helicopter flight patterns. Jim Brauchle, an Air Force veteran who flew cargo planes and now represents plane crash victims as an attorney at Motley Rice, citing maps for aircraft in the area, said planes approaching Runway 33 fly north on the eastern side of the Potomac River, then bank left as they descend.

https://archive.is/0GTQt

>>22476192

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“That helicopter route goes right underneath the final approach,” he said. “I was kind of taken aback by that.”Even if airplane and helicopter pilots are doing everything right, he said, they “potentially only have separation of a couple hundred feet. Why is this routing so close together?”

Investigators are still trying to determine what led to the midair collision, which caused a fireball in the air and sent pieces of aircraft plunging into the icy Potomac River. After searching the river all night, officials said early Thursday morning they did not expect to find any survivors.

The crash is likely to be the deadliest in the Washington area since Air Florida Flight 90 struck the 14th Street Bridge just after takeoff from National Airport. Seventy-four of 79 passengers and crew members died in the crash on Jan. 13, 1982.Four motorists on the bridge were killed.

Investigators said thecrash was caused by a combination of pilot error and improper deicing procedures amid a snowstorm and freezing temperatures. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said early Thursday that after the FAA “studies what happened, we will take appropriate action, if necessary, to modify flight paths and permissions.”

Wednesday’s crash happened on a clear but windy night, after air traffic controllers directed the American pilots to land at one of the airport’s smaller runways, a shift to the east that put it closer to the Army helicopter approaching on that side of the river.

It meant the helicopter’s route would cross the regional jet’s approach for landing on National’s Runway 33.The special helicopter routes are designed to give the military access to various military basesalong the Potomac River, said Michael McCormick, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who specializes in air traffic control.

According toa person familiar with operations at the airport, who spoke on the condition of anonymitybecause of the ongoing investigation, conflicts between helicopters and jets often occur but are resolved with the helicopter swerving away or by the airliner circling and attempting a new landing approach.

The helicopter routes are meant to help “create as much certainty as you can in a three-dimensional safety environment,” said a former FAA official, whospoke on the condition of anonymityto discuss sensitive issues relating to the crash.

"They want you as far to the east, and as far away from the approach path, as possible,” the former official said. But questions have also been raised about whetherthere may also be structural problems at play— whether helicopter traffic over the Potomac is kept far enough away from the commercial planes coming in over the river so they can land on National’s Runway 33.

A 2021 report by the Government Accountability Office noted that “in airspace near Reagan National and the Potomac River, FAA further limits the maximum altitudes for helicopters where helicopter routes overlap with commercial passenger airplane operations to ensure the safety of all aircraft.”

Wednesday night, air traffic controllers were in communication with the military helicopter, with a pilot confirming he could see the airliner and would avoid it, according to radio communications archived by LiveATC.net.

https://archive.is/0GTQt

>>22476200

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That would be enough for air traffic controllers to be confident the situation was being handled safely, said Scott Dunham, a retired National Transportation Safety Board investigator.

Some, however, havetheorized that the helicopter pilot could have confused the plane the tower was referring to with another aircraft in the area. Craig Alia, a retired Black Hawk pilot, said that on a clear night like Wednesday, the helicopter crew would have had good visibility.But he said the combination of city lights and busy skies can make it hard for pilots to understand the traffic patterns around them.

"When you get in that area, there’s a lot of congestion, a lot of times when you get a warning of an aircraft, you’re trying to figure out which aircraft,” said Alia, who is now the deputy commandant of cadets at Virginia Tech.

On Tuesday night, the evening before the fatal crash, the pilot of Republic Airways Flight 4514 from Connecticut told the National Airport traffic controllers that it had to divert.

“We had an RA with a helicopter traffic below us,” said a female voice in the cockpit, according to the audio recording of air traffic control traffic. “RA” is the code for the automated emergency alert that pilots receive when their aircraft is at risk of collision with another nearby aircraft, known as a resolution advisory.

The twin-jet Embraer ERJ 175 was heading south along the Potomac River corridor toward its planned landing at National at the time, flight tracker maps show. Just as the aircraft neared Arlington Memorial Bridge, however, a male voice in the cockpit alerted the tower they would have to “go around.” The plane took a sharp turn to the west, according to flight tracker maps of the aircraft’s path that night, and later landed safely at National at 8:16 p.m.

A spokesperson for Republic Airways said the company was reviewing The Post’s questions and the details of the incident and could not immediately comment. American Airlines did not respond to questions about Hart’s account of the diversion of its jet from Charlotte on Jan. 23, after the plane encountered a helicopter.

Hart, who works in real estate and lives in Rockville, Maryland, frequently takes regional jets in and out of National. “I’m on those jets all the time, so it hits home,” he said.“This was what was happening to us, though we didn’t crash, thank God. It’s terrible.”

https://archive.is/0GTQt

President Gustavo Petro urges undocumented Colombians in the US to return home

By Zoe Hussain

Published Jan. 31, 2025, 9:34 a.m. ET

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has urged undocumented Colombians in the United States to quit their jobs “immediately” and return to their homeland, according to a statement he made on X Friday morning.

Petro added that the country’s Department of Social Prosperity would offer credits to returnees who enroll in its programs, the post said.

Colombian migrants deported from the US arriving in Bogota, Jan 28

Colombian migrants deported from the US arriving in Bogota, Jan 28

“Let’s build social wealth in Colombia,” the statement read, translated from Spanish.

The statement comes just days after Petro caved to President Trump’s request to accept flights of undocumented migrants from the U.S. after Trump threatened to impose emergency tariffs of up to 50% on the South American country for refusing to cooperate.

Following the threat of tariffs, Petro even offered up the official Colombian presidential plane to help shuttle migrants back to the country, calling it a response to “the Government’s commitment to guarantee decent conditions.”

The White House confirmed late Sunday that Colombia had agreed to accept the migrants after all and Washington would not impose its threatened penalties.

Two Colombian Air Force planes landed in Bogota on Tuesday following the diplomatic spat with more than 200 migrants — many of them women and children.

Petro welcomed them with a post on X, saying they are now “free” and “in a country that loves them.”

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said none of the 200 Colombians who were returned on Tuesday had criminal records in the US or Colombia.(The crime is they walked over the border illegally. And how would they know if they had a criminal record in US. They don't so the FM told a lie)

Migrants aboard the flights were shackled “from our feet, our ankles to our hips, like criminals,” one of the migrants, José Montaña, told the AP. (200 hundred illegals against two pilots and few guards would not be safe if unshackled. I think Petro and his team will hear from Trump Admin. Boo Hoo Petro!.)

Trump recounted the conflict with Petro at a policy conference for House Republicans held at his Doral golf club Monday evening — maintaining migrants should be restrained when flying back home for security reasons.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/31/world-news/president-gustavo-petro-urges-undocumented-colombians-in-the-us-to-return-home/

Chuck Todd to Exit NBC News

1/2Jan. 31, 2025

Chuck Todd, the former “Meet the Press” moderator, is leaving NBC News, he told colleagues in a memo issued Friday, a movehe’s making in order to pursue ventures outside the NBCUniversal empire.Kek.

Todd had in recent weeks been meeting with other news outlets and potential employers, according to people familiar with the matter.His current contract with NBC Newshad been expected to lapse atsome point after the 2024 election.

“There’s never a perfect time to leave a place that’s been a professional home for so long, but I’m pretty excited about a few new projects that are on the cusp of going from ‘pie in the sky’ to ‘near reality,’ Todd told NBC News staffers in a memo Friday. “So I’m grateful for the chance to get a jump start on my next chapter during this important moment.” (He's going to Substack I bet.)

He said his “Chuck Toddcast” podcast would be “coming with me,” and urged colleagues to “stay tuned for an announcement about its new home soon.” Todd plans “to continue to share my reporting and unique perspective of covering politics with data and history as important baselines in understanding where we were, where we are and where we’re going.”

Popular on Variety

“We’re grateful for Chuck’s many contributions to our political coverage during his nearly two-decade career at NBC News and for his deep commitment to Meet the Press and its enduring legacy,” NBC News said in a statement. “We wish him all the best in his next endeavors.”

Many personnel at traditional TV outlets have explored opportunities with digital or new-tech outlets in recent months, a nod to the more difficult economics of national newsgathering in the current climate. Jim Acosta, the CNN anchor, announced earlier this week that he was leaving the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed network to launch his own Substack. Don Lemon and Megyn Kelly are among the ranks of well-known TV anchors who have moved on to digital media.

When he moderated “Meet The Press,” Todd demonstrated an entrepreneurial streak, bringing the long-running Sunday program into podcasting and even launching a film festival.Kek again

“Everyone is trying to figure out how to get in front of millennials. I think the millennial generation learns as much visually as they do the old-fashioned way, by the book,” Todd told Variety in 2017. “We are no longer in the business of telling people how they should consume information. Our job is to provide depth and information in any way they want to consume it.”

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/chuck-todd-exit-nbc-news-1236273148/

>>22476325

2/2

He told staffers he expected to continue to try to build new media businesses. “The media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust of viewers/listeners/readers and I’m convinced the best place to start is from the bottom up.

At my core, I’m an entrepreneur(Kek) — I spent my first 15 years professionally working for the company that started the political newsletter craze that dominates today. And this is a ripe moment,” he said, adding: “The only way to fix this information eco system is to stop whining about the various ways the social media companies are manipulating things and instead roll up our collective sleeves and start with local.

National media can’t win trust back without having a robust partner locally and trying to game algorithms is no way to inform and report. People are craving community and that’s something national media or the major social media companies can’t do as well as local media.”

Todd joined NBC News in 2007 as a political director, after having spent 15 years working at National Journal and leading the “The Hotline,” an early digital newsletter focused on inside-the-Beltway maneuvers. In 2008, he was named chief White House correspondent. In 2014, he was elevated to top duties at “Meet The Press,” succeeding David Gregory. He expanded the program by doing a regular daytime hour on MSNBC called “MTP Daily,” a program that was eventually moved over to the live-streaming service NBC News Now.

Once a regular presence on across the NBCUniversal portfolio,Todd has been less visible in recent months. He ceded the “Meet the Press” chair to Kristen Welker in 2023.

Even so, he remains a long-time student of politics, and his knowledge and contacts as well as the public’s familiarity with him, would help other potential employers or help him launch his own ventures.

He still knows how to make a splash.

In March, Todd appeared on “Meet The Press” and protested the hire announced at that time of Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican National Committee chair who had been named an NBC News contributor. “You got put into an impossible situation, booking this interview, and then all of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under you, and you find out she’s being paid to show up?” Todd said to Welker.

NBC News subsequently reversed its decision, after staffers began to protest, most notably on MSNBC programs.

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/chuck-todd-exit-nbc-news-1236273148/

The misspelled his name: It's Cuck Toad

31 Jan, 2025 04:02

Ukrainian fighter confesses troops raped and tortured Russian civilians(GRAPHIC VIDEO, it doesn't work)

One of the perpetrators has admitted that Kiev sent his unit to “cleanse” a small village in Kursk Region

A Ukrainianmilitary unit raped and killed eight women and murdered at least 14 other civilians in the villageof Russkoye Porechnoye, a captured Ukrainian soldier has admitted during interrogation by Russian investigators.

Russkoye Porechnoye,home to around 300 people, fell under Kiev’s control in August last year during a Western-backed incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. Russian forces liberated the settlement earlier this month, where they discovered decomposing corpses of civilians stashed in basements throughout the village.

On Friday, the Russian Investigative Committee released new evidence on the massacre, including footage of the interrogation of Yevgeny Fabrisenko, a soldier with the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade. Fabrisenko stated that he was deployed to the village on September 28 alongside his immediate commander and two other soldiers.

According to Fabrisenko, theircompany commander explicitly ordered them to “cleanse”the village of Russian civilians. The unit remained in Russkoye Porechnoye until October 3, during which they raided homes, raped women, and executed men on sight. Those who resisted were tortured and killed he admitted.

In several gruesome videos released by the investigators on Friday, Russian troops can be seen inspecting the village and trying to count the heavily-decomposed and mutilated bodies they found in multiple cellars.

Fabrisenko described how he and his comrades raped eight women before forcing them to their knees and shooting them in the back of the head.

In total, theunit killed nearly two dozen civilians, including eight women, 11 men, andthree elderly women, he said. Most victims were shot, while six were forced into a basement andkilled with a hand grenadeby the team’s leader.

Fabrisenko was captured by Russian forces in late November after he got lost while relocating between positions and accidentally ran into a Russian reconnaissance unit.

The Ukrainian serviceman has fully confessed to his crimes and now faces a life sentence on multiple charges, including terrorism and rape.

Moscow has strongly condemned the massacre in Russkoye Porechnoye, with senior officials suggesting the killings could constitute genocide.

Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the incident further confirmed the “terrorist and neo-Nazi essence of the Kiev regime.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/611953-kursk-village-ukrainian-massacre/

31 Jan, 2025 11:32

Ukrainian army faces ‘desertion crisis’ – Guardian

Kiev’s troops are abandoning their posts due to internal disarray and Russia’s battlefield advantage, the outlet has reported

The Ukrainian military is grappling with a significant desertion crisis which could worsen if the conflict with Russia continues, The Guardian reported on Friday. The issue has recently garnered international attention following reports of mass desertions from aFrench-trainedUkrainian brigade.

The Guardian interviewed two Ukrainian soldiers who had abandoned their posts, citingdisorganization within the armyand the overwhelming strength of Russian forces. One of them described chaotic command structures and a lack of essential supplies, while the other highlighted the psychological toll of facing a well-equipped adversary.

There is a pervasive fear among potential recruits, a stereotype that “if you join up, you will be dead in five minutes,” Andrey Grebenuyk, a sergeant major of an infantry battalion, told the publication.

The 155th Mechanized Brigade, trained in France, has faced scrutiny due to reports of mass desertions and internal mismanagement. Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation launched a probe into the allegations last week.

In response to the recruitment shortfall, the Ukrainian parliament is debating measures to attract more recruits. Reforms are being finalized to encourage 18- to 25-year-olds, currently exempt from mobilization, to enlist voluntarily.

Ukraine’s commissioner for protecting service members’ rights, Olga Reshetilova, suggested to The Guardian that therecruitment crisis could be alleviatedif Kiev’s allies deployed their own troops. European leaders have been discussing the potential deployment of a peacekeeping force to Ukraine, contingent upon an eventual ceasefire agreement with Russia.

Earlier this month, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky suggested that at least 200,000 allied troops might be necessary to ensure a peace deal is secure. However, a NATO deployment could provoke a significant response from Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously cautioned against such an “extremely dangerous step,” warning that it could potentially lead to “a global catastrophe.” Putin has also dismissed the idea that Western troops could alter the situation on the battlefield.

Aleksey Zhuravlev, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma’s Defense Committee, stated last week that if the US-backed military bloc or an individual member country sends troops to Ukraine, Russia could announce a new stage of mobilization as it would see the move as direct aggression.

Zhuravlev went on to stress that Russia had enough reserves and resources to respond to any potential NATO deployment.

https://www.rt.com/news/611968-ukrainian-army-desertion-crisis/

(So the North Koreans killed etc., was doubtful it ever happened, reported by Western Press)

31 Jan, 2025 14:55

Russian drone silences Ukrainian communications (MOD VIDEO)

A precision strike has disabled an antenna vital for Kiev’s military in Kursk Region, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow

The Russian Defense Ministry released a video on Friday, showing a drone attack on a Ukrainian military communications antenna in Kursk Region. Kiev’s troops invaded the Russian region in August and have suffered heavy losses trying to hold on to part of the territory, according to the ministry.

Filmed from a first person view (FPV) drone, the footage shows the aircraft darting towards a dish mounted on a metal frame tower. The ministry said the strikedisrupted communicationsfor Ukrainian forces in the vicinity.

According to the ministry, the operation was executed by troops from theRubicon military research center, a specialized drone warfare unit focused on developing new battlefield tactics involving unmanned aircraft.

Ukraine launched the incursion into Kursk Region last August. Kiev officials said they intended to use the captured territory as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia.

Moscow has countered that the operation diminishes the likelihood of negotiations, and accused Ukrainian troops of committing war crimes against Russian civilians.

According to the Russian military, the incursion has resulted in significant Ukrainian casualties, which it estimates at over 56,400 as of Friday.

https://www.rt.com/russia/611984-ukrainian-communications-cut-kursk/

31 Jan, 2025 02:01

Pentagon staff still using DeepSeek – Bloomberg

US military personnel have reportedly utilized an early version of the Chinese startup’s AIfor months

Pentagon staff have been downloading an early versionthe Chinese generative artificial intelligence model DeepSeek onto their workstations since the fall of 2024, according to Bloomberg. The Pentagon’sIT experts only moved to partially blockthe app's usage after its recent surge in popularity.

Earlier this month, the Chinese startup unveiled its latest open-source AI model, R1, which its creators claim has outperformed leading products from US developers, including OpenAI’s flagship o1, in some cases. The model’s accessibility – allowing anyone to download and run it on their own servers for free – has stirred the open-source community and triggered a sell-off of US tech stocks on Monday.

The Defense Information Systems Agency(DISA), which manages the Pentagon’s IT networks,moved to block access to the DeepSeekwebsite late on Tuesday due to multiple defense employees having used the latest AI chatbot for at least two days, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing unnamed US officials.

DISA experts are now assessing the extent of employees’ direct use of DeepSeek through web browsers. When accessed via the company’s website or its popular apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play, DeepSeek’sprivacy policy indicated that user data is stored on serversin China and governed under Chinese law.

Despite the restrictions, thousands of Pentagonemployeescontinue to use the Chinese-trained AI through the authorized web platform Ask Sage, which provides access to multiple models, including DeepSeek, hosted on its own US-based servers.

Some US military personnel downloaded an earlier version of DeepSeek onto their workstations as early as the fall of 2024, according to Bloomberg sources. At the time,the connection to China was allegedly “not evident” to Defense Department security teams, and the downloads did not raise immediate concerns. (Are they fucking kidding at the Pentagon, not worried about internet programs into their system from China, the DOD? This is nuts, if true.)

The growing interest in DeepSeek has prompted the US military to locate and remove code from China-origin chatbots on employees’ machines. The Navy has banned any use of DeepSeek, citing security and ethical concerns related to the model’s origins.The Air Force has not issued specific guidanceon DeepSeek but prohibits the use of sensitive public information in commercial generative AI systems without proper approvals.

OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman has acknowledged that DeepSeek R1 is an “impressive model, particularly in terms of what they’re able to deliver for the price.” The Chinese startup claims it developed a competitive AI model without access to cutting-edge US chips for just $6 million.

US President Donald Trump, who has designated AI development as a top priority for his administration, called DeepSeek’s launch a “wake-up call” for the American AI industry. Last week, he announced Stargate, an initiative to build data centers across the US to serve as the backbone for future AI projects, with an investment target of up to $500 billion.

https://www.rt.com/news/611956-pentagon-using-deepseek-ai/

(Hegseth should set up website for the public to report what Pentagon staff are doing behind his back and jeopardizing their entire system! Sounds like the staff at DOD and the military is rebelling against Trump Admin, and why to heck can play with it during a work day?)

>>22475640 The Ukrainian news outlet Strana has published leaked details of President Trump’s alleged plan to end the war in Ukraine in 100 days.PN

CIA is embedded and controls Ukrainian propaganda, so the CIA leaked it out. Radcliffe needs to shut them down. Many said the CIA will cover up what they are really doing and Radcliffe wouldn't even know. I hope Radcliffe's Admin are retired CIA because they have no intention of following his orders.

Alina Habba rips Dems for turning confirmations in a ‘Broadway show’

Trump counselor Alina Habba joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss her take on Democrats' criticism of the president's nominees and her reaction to far-left scrutiny of how he has responded to the plane crash in Washington, D.C.

7:00

https://youtu.be/8QBO3RnF6Yc

>>22476728

The guy at Fox interviewing her is snarky and correcting her. Fox fighting Trump Admin as usual