TYB!!!
QuintessenceLabs Secures Funding from In-Q-Tel
Leader in quantum cybersecurity lands strategic investor and expands quantum-safe portfolio
“QuintessenceLabs is successfully harnessing quantum physics to address hard security problems in both today’s environment and in future environments that may well include a credible quantum computing threat”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200219005233/en/QuintessenceLabs-Secures-Funding-In-Q-Tel
A fight over Jewish identity is going to determine America’s future
https://forward.com/opinion/440054/a-fight-over-jewish-identity-is-going-to-determine-americas-future/
https://twitter.com/jdforward/status/1230183058994843649
Blown CIA Operation Cause for Concern
The Washington Post exposed an intelligence operation that actually helped America.
We have been discussing the Spygate scandal, abusive investigations, and the need for accountability for a while. But we also have been very quick to caution Patriots that we should not let the misdeeds done against President Donald Trump keep the intelligence community from doing what has to be done to protect this country.
Therefore, it’s concerning to see the lack of outrage over The Washington Post’s recent exposé on one CIA operation that had, for decades, been providing intelligence. The short version is that the Central Intelligence Agency had covertly purchased — and has since sold — a company specializing in encryption and used its control to gain access to secrets.
Americans now know about it, and so do the enemies the CIA spied on via this program. While it certainly gives us context about the Trump administration’s push against Huawei’s involvement in 5G systems, that context is not enough of a benefit for the cost that the knowledge of this program imposes.
Was this a shady operation? Not as shady as other methods to obtain information over the years. It certainly wasn’t enhanced interrogation in terms of controversy and betrayed Patriots. The CIA pretty much ran an encryption company and used that ownership to gain access to secrets. Only bad guys got “hurt” in this operation.
Do we really want to know how intelligence agents convince people to betray their countries? The sources don’t always give us information out of the goodness of their hearts or their love for Liberty and peace. Sometimes we pay them off with money. Other times we resort to blackmail — like giving a potential source the choice of telling secrets he knows or having some of his dirty secrets exposed. For the extremely hard cases like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, we turned to enhanced interrogation.
American intelligence agencies need to acquire information from people not inclined to yield it. For decades, the CIA’s ownership of an encryption company not only gave us direct access to secrets, it gave our intelligence community a look into the advancement of encryption technology, which is arguably as important as reading the other side’s “mail” for so many years. This was an intelligence bonanza for America, and a legitimate operation, unlike Spygate.
The fact of the matter is that we live in a world with a lot of countries that have no love for us. We also have to deal with the threat of terrorism. We need the intelligence community focused and ready to deal with those threats. Exposing programs makes it harder to protect the country, and The Washington Post should be ashamed of having done it.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/68672-blown-cia-operation-cause-for-concern-2020-02-19
WSJ reporters' credentials revocation not retaliation for US designation of Chinese media: observer
WSJ reporters’ press credentials revocation not retaliation: observer
While the US criticizes China for "suppressing freedom of speech," Washington is actually authorizing espionage activities against Chinese media on US soil, said Chinese experts, after the US State Department announced it would designate five Chinese media outlets as foreign missions. While protesting against the US latest move, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that China reserves the right to respond further to this matter.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made remarks at a routine press conference, and he said that China expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the US decision and therefore "reserves the right to respond further to this matter." While the US has always glorified itself on its press freedom, it interrupts Chinese media outlets' normal operations in the US, which is unreasonable and unacceptable, so "we urge the US to take off ideologically colored glasses and abandon the zero-sum Cold War mentality," Geng said. The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it will begin treating five major Chinese state-run media entities - the Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network (CGTN), China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corp and Hai Tian Development USA, Inc - with US operations the same as foreign embassies, requiring them to register their employees and US properties with the US State Department, Reuters reported. Shen Yi, head of Fudan University's Cyberspace Governance Research Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday that although the US move actually identifies Chinese media outlets and their employees in the US as "proxies or agents of foreign governments," which means US intelligence agencies are authorized to conduct spying activities against them. "Not only will this affect the activities of Chinese journalists in the US, but also US citizens legally employed by these Chinese media outlets, and the US interviewees who communicate with Chinese media could also be targeted by the FBI and CIA," Shen said. "Tensions between the two superpowers have escalated since President Donald Trump came to office three years ago, with disputes ranging from trade tariffs to accusations of Chinese spying in the US and to US support for Taiwan," Reuters reported. It is not hard to imagine who came up with this idea, Shen said, adding: "Mike Pompeo, the head of the US State Department, who was once director of the CIA, is a man whose brain is filled with a Cold War mentality." When the US lectures or accuses China on the issue of "freedom of speech," Washington is doing nasty and terrible things to contain Chinese media outlets that express their voice in the US, and this is truly ironic and hypocritical, said Chinese experts. The five entities' US operations will have to disclose their personnel rosters and hiring and firing decisions, and register properties in the US that they rent or own with the State Department, the officials with the US State Department were quoted as saying. They will also have to seek advance approval before they lease or purchase new US properties, Reuters reported citing these officials.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1180108.shtml
Former CIA director Petraeus talks Middle East @ Yale
“Las Vegas rules don’t apply in the Middle East,” Petraeus said.
Former CIA Director David Petraeus spoke about current events in the Middle East to a crowd of nearly one hundred in a packed Horchow Hall Tuesday evening.
During the talk, foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius asked Petraeus questions about the recent assassination of the Islamic Revolutionary Gen. Qassem Soleimani and the soon-expected Afghanistan peace plan. The event — titled “The Middle East in Crisis: A Role for America?” — was sponsored by the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs as well as the nonprofit advocacy group Justice for Kurds. Petraeus, who served 37 years in the U.S. military, assumed command of coalition forces during the surge in Iraq and Afghanistan. He then served as director of the CIA, attended graduate school at Princeton University and after various academic positions, now serves as chairman of the KKR Global Institute, an investment firm.
“Las Vegas rules don’t apply in the Middle East,” Petraeus said in response to Ignatius’ opening remarks. “What happens there doesn’t stay there.”
Ignatius opened the talk by asking how Americans can view ongoing war in the Middle East given that it has lasted 20 years, costs trillions of dollars and that it has taken thousands of lives.
Five thousand troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan, and questions about ways to reduce the number of troops deployed continue to emerge.
“The war in Iraq is still going on, and no one wants to end endless wars more than those fighting them,” Petraeus said. “But if you take your eyes off the enemy, they will come back.”
At the talk, Petraeus said that replacing U.S. soldiers with advisors is a possibility, though a careful scrutiny of the cost and the motivation behind such an initiative would be necessary.
Petraeus suggested that ungoverned spaces will be exploited by Islamic extremists and that the U.S. must lead and do something of value. He stated that military response requires a “civilian military campaign” against their “industrial strength insurgency” and that the commitment must be sustainable in “blood and expenditure.”
Ignatius also brought up the soon-expected peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban regarding the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. While this agreement would start the process of withdrawal, Petraeus emphasized the complexity and number of parties involved, including nearby actors like Pakistan.
Still, Petraeus said that “no wants to end endless wars more than those fighting them.”
Ignatius then turned the conversation to the recent assassination of Soleimani, Petraeus’s adversary in Iraq.
The two discussed why Soleimani was not assassinated earlier and the precedent set by President Trump’s decision to kill him. Petraeus, who saw Soleimani as a “military target,” suggested that he may have done the same “if we could have gotten the X on him.”
Although the talk was mainly attended by graduate students and faculty, a number of interested undergraduates were also in attendance.
“Even though the talk was not catered to an undergraduate audience — with a lot of prominent ambassadors and global affairs master’s students there — I was really impressed by it,” Zach Zabib ’22 said. “It was such a cool opportunity to hear from someone who had so much influence in the [Middle Eastern] region.”
Some students said they particularly enjoyed Petraeus’ comments on the future of warfare in the Middle East.
Brigitte Fink ’20, for example, noted that ISIS’s efforts in online propaganda have persisted, despite territorial loss.
“In the talk, Petraeus highlighted one of the biggest emerging issues in the future of modern war, the use of social media platforms by extremist organizations,” Fink said. “It was interesting to hear Petraeus’ thoughts on this emerging and challenging threat, and how social media companies need to do more to address extremist content on their platforms.”
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2020/02/19/former-cia-director-petraeus-talks-middle-east/
How John Bolton won the war on Iran policy
Upshot -
Less than five months later, however, Bolton was out as national security adviser, after what Trump said were “many disagreements” between the two of them. One of those was Bolton’s oft-stated desire for regime change in Tehran, a goal Trump publicly said he did not share.
But with that key exception, Bolton succeeded in shaping the direction of Trump’s Iran policy, gradually overriding resistance from the Defense Department and the rest of the government.
However, the former administration official pointed out that Bolton was able to achieve his goals only because they largely coincided with Trump’s. He noted that the administration’s policy has been moving in the same direction since Trump took office, through four national security advisers and a succession of different heads of the Pentagon and the State Department.
“There’s one common denominator throughout the spectrum of time,” he said. “It’s the president.”
https://news.yahoo.com/how-john-bolton-won-the-war-on-iran-policy-182909208.html