News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.
1. Exclusive: Coalition calls on Biden to form disinformation task force
2. Putin Just Doesn’t Care - Murder, mayhem—so what? He's trying to make a point.
3. China Expands Disinformation Campaign to Undermine International Xinjiang Outcry
4. When It Comes to Political Warfare, China is at the Head of the Class
5. Russia’s Sputnik V Skews Stats to Falsely Trash Pfizer Vaccine
6. 'Ghostwriter' disinformation campaign rages on as Biden prepares for NATO trip
7. Chinese workers allege forced labor, abuses in Xi’s ‘Belt and Road’ program
8. Facebook says it removed the internet's 12 most prominent anti-vaxxers. 10 are still on the social network.
9. Biden leaves China a Xinjiang terrorism problem with US exit from Afghanistan
10. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker - Late April Trends (link to complete roll-up)
11. Opinion: Regime change in China is not only possible, it is imperative
12. Biden’s first 100 days on the global stage were the easy part
13. Pentagon chief calls for ‘new vision’ for American defense
14. State Briefing on SECSTATE Trip to the G7
15. Biden’s Foreign Policy Takes a Back Seat to Domestic Priorities
16. Senate Intel leaders say mysterious directed energy attacks appear to be increasing
17. How a brutal assault led a woman to one of the CIA's most valuable Russian spies
18. Davidson, handing INDOPACOM’s reins to Aquilino, takes one last jab at China
19. Secretary of Defense Remarks for the U.S. INDOPACOM Change of Command
20. FBI and CIA are urged to boost intel gathering on foreign White supremacist groups
21. He mentored decades of Army Rangers. At 94, he’ll receive the Medal of Honor.
22. As counterterror missions fade, special operations finds time to fix its own problems
23. Nathan Chapman: Remembering the first US soldier killed in Afghan war as troops pull out after 2 decades
24. From "Stability Operations" to "Stabilization Activities:" Why and How the Department of Defense changed its Doctrine and Policies
25. Candid reflections on Afghanistan from those whose lives were changed forever by the war
26. ‘Congratulations, You Killed Osama bin Laden’
27. Teamwork Led Us to Bin Laden and Can Keep America Safe
28. Donald Kirk: How anti-Asianism explodes in wake of the 'China virus'
29. "Oh So Social" Conversation: Osama bin Laden Raid - 10 Years Later (OSS Society)
1. Exclusive: Coalition calls on Biden to form disinformation task force
Reprise the Active Measures Working Group from the Raegan-Bush years? Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications: How One Interagency Group Made a Major Difference
By Fletcher Schoen and Christopher J. Lamb Strategic Perspectives 11
Matt Armstrong can weigh in on the merits of doing so.
Quote from Matt's 2017 testimony: "We have remarkably little relevant experience in combating the political warfare being waged against us today. We may imagine that the United States Information Agency and the Active Measures Working Group are guideposts, but USIA was never intended nor fit for that purpose and the Active Measures Working Group was a very small and very reactionary operation. Neither is a useful model of proactive and unified defense, let alone offense."
Axios · by Ina Fried
2. Putin Just Doesn’t Care - Murder, mayhem—so what? He's trying to make a point.
spytalk.co · by Jeff Stein
3. China Expands Disinformation Campaign to Undermine International Xinjiang Outcry
Note this is from Radio Free Asia and this is broadcast into China.
4. When It Comes to Political Warfare, China is at the Head of the Class
oodaloop.com · by Emilio Iasiello · April 23, 2021
Excerpts: “This raises into question President Biden’s strategy to use coalitions to reign in and contain adversaries. While many may join in curtailing countries like Iran and North Korea, China’s burgeoning status as a global leader and its strong economy may present benefits that far outweigh any preferred courses of action against it. China’s influence operations and disinformation/misinformation campaigns are exactly the types of activities Beijing will use to cast doubt and sow division in order to weaken the resolve of some of the more malleable alliance members. This may result in the White House settling for a mild Plan C when it comes to addressing China instead of going with a strong Plan A.
China’s political warfare embodies the types of activities Beijing implement against such an alliance. They will be used to cast doubt and sow division to weaken the resolve of some of the more malleable members. What’s more, political warfare (in tandem with its broader “Three Warfares” strategy) exemplifies the tenets expressed in Chinese writings of “winning a war without fighting.” When it comes to shaping perceptions, China has excelled in the information space. If the United States does not put up is own counter to these activities, it may find itself incorrectly thinking its strength remains behind a Maginot Line that’s crumbling from its base.
5. Russia’s Sputnik V Skews Stats to Falsely Trash Pfizer Vaccine
polygraph.info · by William Echols · April 28, 2021
Excerpts: “U.S. officials have previously accused Russian intelligence of running disinformation campaigns to undermine faith in the Pfizer vaccine.
Polygraph.info previously noted that the state-owned Russian Gazette published an article in February claiming 64 people in Sweden had died from side effects of the Pfizer vaccine, despite the fact that Sweden’s medical watchdog found that none of the deaths were vaccine-related.
A study by The Alliance for Securing Democracy, which is affiliated with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, found that “Pfizer received by far the most unfavorable coverage of any vaccine, particularly from Kremlin-funded outlets and Iranian state media and government accounts.”
6. 'Ghostwriter' disinformation campaign rages on as Biden prepares for NATO trip
cyberscoop.com · by Sean Lyngaas · April 28, 2021
A 33 page PDF of a report on "Ghostwriter" is at this link.
Excerpts: “The Ghostwriter activity is the kind of foreign disinformation that Joe Biden will be up against as he prepares to make his first overseas trip as U.S. president in June. Biden will attend a NATO summit in Brussels where is expected to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to the transnational bloc.
NATO has long been a fixation for Ghostwriter operatives. They forged a letter last year from the NATO secretary general to Lithuania’s defense ministry purporting to announce the withdrawal of NATO troops from that country. But the attackers have also veered into pure domestic politics by hacking Polish politicians’ Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to smear them or to attack social activists in Poland, according to FireEye.
7. Chinese workers allege forced labor, abuses in Xi’s ‘Belt and Road’ program
The Washington Post · by Lily Kuo and Alicia Chen · April 30, 2021
I hope the Global Engagement Center is including this in its themes and message planning. Of course we want these messages to come from other sources than simply the USG so hopefully articles like these will have legs.
8. Facebook says it removed the internet's 12 most prominent anti-vaxxers. 10 are still on the social network.
Mashable · by Matt Binder
Excerpts: “The Center for Countering Digital Hate and Anti-Vax Watch are urging the big social media platforms to take action and enforce their own policies.
“Big Tech promised to protect public health by taking enforcement action against known, repeat-offender vaccine disinformation superspreaders. Yet, so far, they have failed to finish the job,” said CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed in a statement. “The CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram know exactly who is violating their terms of service. Their lies cost lives, and social media companies’ refusal to remove them has dire consequences. Big Tech must stop profiting from the spread of this disinformation.”
Mashable has reached out to Facebook regarding the actions the company took as mentioned at today's hearing and will update this post when we hear back.
9. Biden leaves China a Xinjiang terrorism problem with US exit from Afghanistan
SCMP · by Maria Siow · May 01, 2021
An interesting perspective I had not considered.
10. Biden Administration Foreign Policy Tracker - Late April Trends (link to complete roll-up)
FDD · by Jonathan Schanzer · April 30, 2021
11. Opinion: Regime change in China is not only possible, it is imperative
The Globe and Mail · by Roger Garside · April 30, 2021
Wow. Now here is a provocative new book with a very provocative thesis.
Maybe there is a role for Gene Sharp's From Dictatorship to Democracy . I wonder if Sharp is cited in his book.
A coup is one way in which change can come. Another possibility is that Mr. Xi’s opponents will prevent his reappointment as general secretary of the Communist Party at its next national congress in November, 2022, and will use that occasion to launch China onto the path of change. That congress is a crucial point on China’s timeline to the future, because the reappointment of Mr. Xi would raise the prospect of him remaining leader for life and make his removal thereafter much more difficult.
The potential benefits of an orderly transition from dictatorship to democracy in China test the limits of the imagination. They include peace based on trust; a great extension of the domain of democracy and the rule of law; and a liberation of the creative genius of the Chinese people in the arts and sciences to match that which has already occurred in the field of economic activity. To achieve this outcome will require a degree of skill and courage on the part of all those engaged in shaping our future seldom seen in history. But my faith in humanity is strong enough to allow me to believe it is within our grasp.
12. Biden’s first 100 days on the global stage were the easy part
NBC News · by Alexander Smith · May 1, 2021
Yes it is a complex world out there.
Excerpts: “But explaining how you're going to solve the world's intractable puzzles is a lot easier than actually solving them.
If these obstacles were daunting when Biden was Obama's vice president, they have gained a new complexity now.
America finds its global dominance challenged, and there is now far more domestic scrutiny on foreign commitments than the relative leeway in the years after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Babones believes.
"It's just a more complex world," von Hippel at RUSI said. "The U.S. is not as strong as it was four years ago, and it needs to compromise more and be a different type of superpower."
13. Pentagon chief calls for ‘new vision’ for American defense
Star-Advertiser · by Cindy Ellen Russell · May 1, 2021
Excerpts: “U.S. military isn’t meant to stand apart, but to buttress U.S. diplomacy and advance a foreign policy that employs all of our instruments of national power,” Austin said.
He chose to spell out his ideas at Pearl Harbor, at the center of U.S. military power in the Indo- Pacific region, reflecting U.S. concerns that China’s rapid modernization and growing assertiveness make it a powerful adversary. Notably, Austin in his speech did not explicitly mention China or North Korea.
In his first four-plus months as defense secretary, Austin has focused less on big policy pronouncements and more on immediate issues like the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and internal issues like extremism in the military, as well as launching broad reviews of defense strategy.
...
Austin said U.S. defense will continue to rest on maintaining deterrence, which he described as “fixing a basic truth within the minds of our potential foes: The costs and risks of aggression are out of line with any conceivable benefit.”
To keep that deterrent effect, the U.S. military must use existing capabilities, develop new ones and use all of them in new and networked ways — “hand in hand with our allies and partners.” This should be accomplished in alignment with U.S. diplomatic goals and efforts, he added, in order to prevent conflict from breaking out in the first place.
“It’s always easier to stamp out a small ember than to put out a raging fire,” he said.
14. State Briefing on SECSTATE Trip to the G7
Excerpts: “On the agenda for this year’s G7, it will be filled with weighty issues, including COVID-19, economic recovery and growth, the climate crisis, human rights, food security, gender equality, and more. The list of challenges is long, but our partnerships are deep and strong to tackle these challenges.
Our approach to responding is just as important, in fact, as the challenges themselves. We’ll discuss geopolitical challenges from the perspective of collaborative and multilateral strength. We will affirm the values our nations share, such as media freedoms and how to protect them. We will discuss a sustainable recovery from the pandemic and how to develop greater resilience going forward.
The pandemic and the climate crisis are the latest reminders that we are bound together in a global community. Our history of shared values with our G7 partners will be a firm base as we work to meet these global challenges.
Briefing With Acting Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip T. Reeker and International Organization Affairs Senior Bureau Official Erica Barks-Ruggles on the Secretary’s Upcoming Travel to the United Kingdom for G7 Meetings and Ukraine - United States Department of State.”
15. Biden’s Foreign Policy Takes a Back Seat to Domestic Priorities
WSJ · by Warren P. Strobel and Vivian Salama
We cannot conduct effective foreign policy if our domestic house is not in order. On the other hand we have to walk and chew gum at the same time.
16. Senate Intel leaders say mysterious directed energy attacks appear to be increasing
CNN · by Jeremy Herb
Strange, troubling, and begs the question, if real, what are we going to do about this?
Excerpts: “The Pentagon and CIA have separately set up task forces to address the issue, and the State Department named a senior official to lead the department's response. CIA Director William Burns said during his confirmation hearing that he would review the evidence on the alleged attacks on CIA personnel overseas.
...
"We have been working quietly and persistently behind closed doors on this critical issue since the first reports, and pressed Director Burns on it during the recent Worldwide Threats hearing, in both open and closed session," the spokesperson said. "The Committee will continue to hold events and briefings on this subject and we will follow the evidence wherever it may lead and ensure anyone responsible is held to account."
17. How a brutal assault led a woman to one of the CIA's most valuable Russian spies
news.yahoo.com · by Jenna McLaughlin and Sean D. Naylor
Truth is stranger than fiction. A long, fascinating read.
Excerpt: “Unperturbed, Sales began her own investigation. Over the next several years, she pieced together documents Mikhaylov had left behind, conducted her own interviews and scoured the internet for information. Sales eventually came to believe the CIA had helped her former tenant move to the United States, and is protecting him as part of a legal maneuver roughly similar to the Justice Department’s witness protection program. The reason, she argues, is that he’s the son of one of the agency’s most valuable assets of the past two decades.
18. Davidson, handing INDOPACOM’s reins to Aquilino, takes one last jab at China
Stars and Stripes · by Wyatt Olson · May 01, 2021
Excerpt: “Make no mistake, the Communist Party of China seeks to supplant the idea of a free and open international order with a new order, one with Chinese characteristics, one where Chinese national power is more important than international law,” he said during an afternoon ceremony that included remarks by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
19. Secretary of Defense Remarks for the U.S. INDOPACOM Change of Command
21. He mentored decades of Army Rangers. At 94, he’ll receive the Medal of Honor.
The Washington Post · by Dan Lamothe · April 30, 2021
Another great American who is going to finally get what he deserves.
22. As counterterror missions fade, special operations finds time to fix its own problems
militarytimes.com · by Meghann Myers · April 30, 2021
23. Nathan Chapman: Remembering the first US soldier killed in Afghan war as troops pull out after 2 decades
meaww.com · by Shubham Ghosh · April 29, 2021
It was an honor to serve with Nate in 1-1 SFG in Okinawa. He was our communications sergeant in C-1-1 just before he PCS'd back to Fort Lewis and was selected for this mission (after he of course volunteered for it).
But we should all be troubled by this concluding section: “Chapman’s family kept on suffering
In July 2012, the CBS News carried a report that spoke in detail about the difficulties that Chapman’s widow Renae went through after his death. Besides the tragedy of losing a loved one who she said “was funny”, Renae has also found it challenging to get the benefits from the veterans affairs department that were promised to Chapman’s family. Ranae, who faced medical hardships after her husband’s passing away, was quoted as saying by CBS News: “They clerical error you to death. They paperwork you to death.”
She said she hadn’t got the payments she owed for dental work because the VA department “insisted” that Nathan died a year earlier than he did and that meant some of her benefits were well past their expiry date. She also said she did not get medical benefits because the department thought she had conditions that were outside the purview of primary health insurance, something she denied. Ranae, who attended former president George W Bush’s State of the Union speech as a guest of former first lady Laura Bush in 2002, has also been made to prove to the department that she has not married again. Ranae told the network that she feels for those thousands of soldiers who return home from the battlefield with a bruised body and psyche and feared that they are not going to get the help they need.
24. From "Stability Operations" to "Stabilization Activities:" Why and How the Department of Defense changed its Doctrine and Policies
linkedin.com · by Robert Burrell · April 30, 2021
Excerpts: “Whether or not these changes were needed following the Long War remains in question. Historically, the U.S. military has a mixed record on stabilization, with some very positive results. The two prevalent case studies remain the great successes in Japan and Germany following World War II. There also remains many issues unresolved about exactly how the State Department will implement its new responsibilities, particularly on a massive scale like that conducted in Iraq or Afghanistan. Another key question regards how the State Department will operate in non-permissive environments to achieve stabilization.
In conclusion, the Department of Defense, State Department, and USAID – all joined at the hip – have set out on a new direction in regard to stabilization, a collaboration which was long overdue and appears very promising. At the same time, the history behind how and why these changes took place are also important to understanding where the U.S. Government is headed.
25. Candid reflections on Afghanistan from those whose lives were changed forever by the war
militarytimes.com · by Howard Altman · April 29, 2021
26. ‘Congratulations, You Killed Osama bin Laden’
Politico · by Garrett M. Graff · April 30, 2021
Another long very interesting read.
27. Teamwork Led Us to Bin Laden and Can Keep America Safe
defenseone.com · by Leon E. Panetta and Jenny Bash
28. Donald Kirk: How anti-Asianism explodes in wake of the 'China virus'
wacotrib.com · by Donald Kirk
29."Oh So Social" Conversation: Osama bin Laden Raid - 10 Years Later (OSS Society)
Register at this link.
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“To fight the good fight is one of the bravest and noblest of life’s experiences. Not the bloodshed and the battle of man with man, but the grappling with mental and spiritual adversaries that determines the inner caliber of the contestant. It is the quality of the struggle put forth by a man that proclaims to the world what manner of man he is far more than may be by the termination of the battle.
It matters not nearly so much to a man that he succeeds in winning some long-sought prize as it does that he has worked for it honestly and unfalteringly with all the force and energy there is in him. It is in the effort that the soul grows and asserts itself to the fullest extent of its possibilities, and he that has worked will, persevering in the face of all opposition and apparent failure, fairly and squarely endeavoring to perform his part to the utmost extent of his capabilities, may well look back upon his labor regardless of any seeming defeat in its result and say, ‘I have fought a good fight.’
As you throw the weight of your influence on the side of the good, the true and the beautiful, your life will achieve an endless splendor. It will continue in the lives of others, higher, finer, nobler than you can even contemplate.”
- Hugh B. Brown