Podcasts about national security council nsc

Jewish communities, students and those traveling have been warned about heightened security concerns approaching the Passover Holiday. Israel's National Security Council (NSC) has said that Iran, Hamas and other terror groups could be targeting Jews across the world because of the situation in Gaza. In the United States, there seems to be more evidence of foreign funding and organization for anti-Semitic protests and violence at campuses and universities. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Michael Masters, the National Director & CEO of the Secure Community Network, the official safety and security organization of the Jewish community in North America, who says the increased aggression towards Jewish communities and students is rooted in foreign funding and organization, and shares what his organization does to help secure Jewish gathering places. Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jewish communities, students and those traveling have been warned about heightened security concerns approaching the Passover Holiday. Israel's National Security Council (NSC) has said that Iran, Hamas and other terror groups could be targeting Jews across the world because of the situation in Gaza. In the United States, there seems to be more evidence of foreign funding and organization for anti-Semitic protests and violence at campuses and universities. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Michael Masters, the National Director & CEO of the Secure Community Network, the official safety and security organization of the Jewish community in North America, who says the increased aggression towards Jewish communities and students is rooted in foreign funding and organization, and shares what his organization does to help secure Jewish gathering places. Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jewish communities, students and those traveling have been warned about heightened security concerns approaching the Passover Holiday. Israel's National Security Council (NSC) has said that Iran, Hamas and other terror groups could be targeting Jews across the world because of the situation in Gaza. In the United States, there seems to be more evidence of foreign funding and organization for anti-Semitic protests and violence at campuses and universities. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Michael Masters, the National Director & CEO of the Secure Community Network, the official safety and security organization of the Jewish community in North America, who says the increased aggression towards Jewish communities and students is rooted in foreign funding and organization, and shares what his organization does to help secure Jewish gathering places. Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alexander Vindman, a Ukrainian American who was born in Kyiv, is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former director for European affairs with the U.S. National Security Council (NSC). As a foreign area officer specializing in Eurasia, he served in the U.S. embassies in Kyiv and Moscow. Mr. Vindman received a Master of Arts degree in Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian studies from Harvard University. He also has a doctoral degree in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University. In this interview, Mr. Vindman discusses why the Trump Administration is putting pressure on President Zelenskyy to accept its framework for an initial 30-day ceasefire and an eventual peace agreement with Russia. He also reviews overall relations between the U.S. and Ukraine. He is the author of a new book "The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine”. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vindman

In this episode, we sit down with Toby Perkins MP, Chair of Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee, to discuss how he and his colleagues plan to hold the Government accountable for its ambitious Net Zero commitments.The Government's advisory body, the Climate Change Committee, has now recommended emissions reductions for the Seventh Carbon Budget (2038-2042) —the next milestone in achieving Net Zero by 2050. Ministers must decide how much of this advice to adopt before presenting a legally binding carbon budget to Parliament for approval. Yet, in 2021, MPs spent just 17 minutes debating the Sixth Carbon Budget Order, a move later criticised by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for its lack of scrutiny. With Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband now leading the Government, how will parliamentary oversight of climate policy change? Will MPs take their role more seriously this time? We also examine an escalating dispute between the Government and Parliament's National Security Committee. The Government has refused to allow Jonathan Powell, the new National Security Adviser (NSA), to give evidence to the Committee and has stopped sharing National Security Council (NSC) agendas — breaking a decade-long tradition of confidential engagement. Every NSA since 2010 has testified before Parliament, yet Ministers now argue Powell is a special adviser, not an official, and should not be subject to scrutiny. Critics, however, warn that this move weakens transparency and parliamentary oversight at a time of heightened public concern over defence and security. Matt Western MP, Chair of the NSC, argues that restricting access to the NSA could leave Parliament in the dark on key national security decisions. Finally, we speak to Simon Hart, former Conservative MP and Chief Whip, about his newly published political diaries—packed with eyebrow-raising revelations, from Ministers getting stuck in brothels at 2am to tantrums from sacked colleagues. But beyond the scandalous anecdotes, Hart delivers a serious message: political parties need to improve candidate selection, manage MPs' expectations, and ensure future politicians are mentally resilient enough to handle the intense pressures of modern political life.____

US-China relations during the Biden administration was marked by growing competition and rivalry. Many of the aspects of US-China relations of the first Trump presidency were retained by the Biden administration. We have now returned to a second Trump administration. What are we likely to now see in US foreign policy under a second Trump presidency; what will US-China relations likely be going forward? What will be the state of relations of each with players in Europe and in the Indo-Pacific? To examine these critical matters, it was with great pleasure that I invited my colleague Rush Doshi into the Virtual Studio for our new Season 3 of podcasts of ‘Shaking the Global Order'. Today's podcast with Rush explores these critical global power issues. Rush Doshi is the C.V. Starr senior fellow for Asia studies and director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also an assistant professor in the Security Studies Program in Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service. Rush was deputy senior director for China and Taiwan on the National Security Council (NSC) from 2021 to 2024, where he helped manage the NSC's first China directorate. He is the author of The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order (Oxford University Press, 2021). So, let's join Rush in the Virtual Studio to examine all these issues.

Adam Lovinger is the Vice President for Strategic Affairs at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. In 2017 Lovinger was Senior Director for Strategic Assessments at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC). From 2006-2017 he provided direct support on long-term U.S. national security strategy to the Secretary of Defense from the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA).Lovinger is the author of “The Insider Threat: How the Deep State Undermines America from Within”ORDER: https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/the-insider-threat/?srsltid=AfmBOor7fwXDLBbTTMHfZLDXQtZFYubjI5UQNOhSZue9U2xqozSxPOS0SUPPORT OUR WORK https://www.judicialwatch.org/donate/thank-youtube/ VISIT OUR WEBSITE http://www.judicialwatch.org

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 2: 4:05pm- Speaking with the press from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump addressed the mysterious drones spotted flying over New Jersey. He explained: “The government knows what is happening…for some reason they don't want to comment.” 4:10pm- Listeners weigh-in on what they think should be done regarding the drones flying over New Jersey. Will the federal government do anything to resolve this issue? 4:15pm- In a hidden camera interview released by O'Keefe Media Group, “Henry Appel, an advisor at the National Security Council (NSC), offered a candid and troubling perspective on President Joe Biden's current health and mental state. Appel, who works within the Intelligence Programs Directorate, has a direct responsibility for providing senior policymakers with sensitive and classified information. His recent comments shed light on the serious concerns surrounding Biden's ability to perform as president.” You can find the interview here: https://okeefemediagroup.com/shocking-undercover-video-joe-biden-is-dead-national-security-council-advisor-inside-the-white-house-details-biden-cant-say-a-sentence/ 4:30pm- Assemblyman Mike Inganamort—Representing New Jersey's 24th Legislative District—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss the drones flying over NJ every night for the past 4-weeks. He explains: “this has gone on way too long” and “this is not a problem [President Joe] Biden seems eager to solve.”

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (12/16/2024): 3:05pm- On Monday, Donald Trump spoke with reporters at a press conference held at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida where he announced that Japanese tech company SoftBank would be investing $100 billion in U.S. based projects over the next 4-years. The investment is expected to result in the creation of 100,000 new jobs. 3:10pm- ABC News has reached a settlement with Donald Trump—agreeing to pay his presidential foundation and museum $15 million after anchor George Stephanopoulos repeatedly, and falsely, claimed the president-elect had been found liable for the rape of E. Jean Carrol. 3:15pm- While speaking with the press on Monday, Donald Trump defended Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—his pick to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Trump dismissed rumors that the Polio vaccine was in jeopardy of disappearing under Kennedy's potential leadership. 3:20pm- Speaking with the press from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump addressed the mysterious drones spotted flying over New Jersey. He explained: “The government knows what is happening…for some reason they don't want to comment.” 3:25pm- While appearing on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas slammed Rep. Jeff Van Drew and bizarrely claimed he doesn't have the authority to shootdown suspicious drones. Mayorkas called on Congress to authorize an expansion of his powers. 3:40pm- Police Say Teenage Student Opened Fire at Wisconsin Christian School. Michael Levenson of The New York Times reports: “A juvenile opened fire at a Christian school in Madison, Wis., on Monday morning, killing at least two people, the authorities said. Police officers found the suspect dead inside the school soon after responding just before 11 a.m. local time. The police said at least six more people were injured in the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, where about 390 children from kindergarten through 12th grade had just begun their final full week of classes before winter break.” You can find updates on this developing story here: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12/16/us/abundant-life-school-shooting-wi 4:05pm- Speaking with the press from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump addressed the mysterious drones spotted flying over New Jersey. He explained: “The government knows what is happening…for some reason they don't want to comment.” 4:10pm- Listeners weigh-in on what they think should be done regarding the drones flying over New Jersey. Will the federal government do anything to resolve this issue? 4:15pm- In a hidden camera interview released by O'Keefe Media Group, “Henry Appel, an advisor at the National Security Council (NSC), offered a candid and troubling perspective on President Joe Biden's current health and mental state. Appel, who works within the Intelligence Programs Directorate, has a direct responsibility for providing senior policymakers with sensitive and classified information. His recent comments shed light on the serious concerns surrounding Biden's ability to perform as president.” You can find the interview here: https://okeefemediagroup.com/shocking-undercover-video-joe-biden-is-dead-national-security-council-advisor-inside-the-white-house-details-biden-cant-say-a-sentence/ 4:30pm- Assemblyman Mike Inganamort—Representing New Jersey's 24th Legislative District—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss the drones flying over NJ every night for the past 4-weeks. He explains: “this has gone on way too long” and “this is not a problem [President Joe] Biden seems eager to solve.” 5:00pm- Pastor Corey Brooks—CEO of Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny)—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his recent editorial for Fox News: “Jordan Neely's father played a role in his death. Don't ignore America's fatherhood crisis.” You can read the full article here: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jordan-neelys-father-played-role-his-death-dont-ignore-americas-fatherhood-crisis 5:20pm- ...

Jon Schanzer, FDD Senior Vice President for Research, delivers timely situational updates and analysis on the war in the Middle East, followed by a conversation with Eyal Hulata, FDD Senior International Fellow and former Israeli national security advisor and head of Israel's National Security Council (NSC) under Prime Ministers Bennett and Lapid.Learn more at: fdd.org/fddmorningbrief

After a year of fighting between Israel, Iranian proxies, and now Iran itself, it's still unclear how this war will end. Hezbollah and Hamas are militarily devastated. The Iranian regime has never looked weaker. But the Israel-Hamas war is also nowhere close to being settled, Israel is only now beginning its operations in southern Lebanon, and the world is still awaiting Israeli retaliation for Iran's October 1 missile attack. In this episode of WTH Live! Elliott Abrams, David Deptula, and Eyal Hulata join Dany at AEI to discuss what the future of Israel's de facto war with Iran should and will look like. Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He previously served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in the administration of Donald Trump.Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula (Ret.) serves as the Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Gen. Deptula was the principal attack planner for the Operation Desert Storm air campaign, commander of no-fly-zone operations over Iraq in the late 1990s, director of the air campaign over Afghanistan in 2001, and has served on two congressional commissions charged with outlining America's future defense posture. Gen. Deptula retired from the Air Force in 2010 after more than 34 years of distinguished service.Eyal Hulata is a senior international fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Eyal previously served as Israel's national security advisor and head of Israel's National Security Council (NSC). During his tenure, Eyal coordinated the national effort on Iran, coordinated the maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and co-headed the Strategic Consultation Group with his American counterpart, Jake Sullivan. Read the transcript here. Subscribe to our Substack here.

In retrospect, Israel should not have endured a year of Hezbollah missile attacks that decimated its northern region before fighting back, Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies said on the Haaretz Podcast, but waiting appeared to be the best strategy following the Hamas attacks of October 7. After that trauma, "the decision of the Israeli cabinet was to focus on the war against Hamas in Gaza. And I thought that this was the right decision, because we had no other choice but to go after Hamas and try to save our hostages," and the north, from where Hezbollah began firing on October 8, "would be a secondary front," said Mizrahi, a veteran of Israel's security establishment who served in the Israel Defense Forces for 26 years and spent 12 years in the National Security Council (NSC) in the Prime Minister's Office. "So for 11 months, the IDF adapted the strategy they called an 'aggressive response' to the attacks of Hezbollah, and refrained from deviating from the rules of the game that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was shaping." Nasrallah "realized that this kind of war of attrition is the best way... to weaken Israel and help Hamas in the war," she said. "It would have been desirable to act more forcefully earlier, but I think it's unfair to judge it in retrospect," adding, "it was impossible to estimate that we are going to have such a series of successful operations as we have had" over the past month. Recent deadly missile and drone attacks, however, point to the fact that Hezbollah is far from being defeated. They are clearly able to continue attacking Israel, "and I think they are going to do that until the last day and the last missile that they have," said Mizrahi. The U.S. has been pushing since early in the war to pursue a cease-fire agreement that would resolve all of Israel's conflicts with Iranian proxies –both Hamas and Hezbollah. The Netanyahu government has consistently resisted this pressure, and the current campaign in the north is designed to sever the linkage between the conflicts in the north and the south. "There are differing opinions in Israel on this matter," Mizrahi said. "I don't believe that the link between the arenas will advance the hostage deal. And in my opinion, we should look to separate the arenas. I say: If the late Nasrallah and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar want this linkage between the fronts so much, it must not be so good for Israel." She believes that linking the two war fronts "serves Sinwar because he wants a regional war," and believes it could help guarantee "the survival of Hamas." In her view, each front should be dealt with separately, and the relative success against Hezbollah in the north, should lead, if possible, to a resolution before the more complicated matter of Gaza. While Israel's ability to influence events in Lebanon after Hezbollah's weakening is limited, Mizrahi says the opportunity to try to free Israel's northern neighbor from Iran's grip shouldn't be squandered. "Following the war, there will be a competition for the future of Lebanon, mainly between two main parties. One is the U.S. and the West," and the other is "Iran and the Shi'ite axis. "We cannot leave Lebanon for the Iranians, and this is why I think that it's required that the West," along with moderate Arab countries, "use all their means to prevent the complete fall of Lebanon into the hands of Iran." The ongoing war in Lebanon presents an "opportunity," Mizrahi said, which the Western world must grab in order to "shape a new political system in Lebanon in which Hezbollah and Iran are not so influential."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight Friday at 9 PM EST! We look at project Bluebook! Checkout Grizzly's Store! https://grizzlyllc.myshopify.com The United States Air Force retired to the custody of the National Archives its records on Project BLUE BOOK relating to the investigations of unidentified flying objects. Project BLUE BOOK has been declassified and the records are available for examination in our research room. The project closed in 1969 and we have no information on sightings after that date. The National Archives has received numerous inquiries concerning documents identified as "MJ12" and "Briefing Document: Operation Majestic 12." We have made extensive searches among the records in our custody of the U.S. Air Force and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to identify these documents. The Truman and Eisenhower Libraries have also searched their holdings for any references to, or copies of, the documents. In addition, the records of the National Security Council (NSC) for the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations are in the custody of the National Archives. Searches were made of the indexes to the NSC's Policy Paper and Meeting Minute files under the subjects MJ-12, majestic, unidentified flying objects, UFO, flying saucers, extraterrestrial biological entities, and Aquarius. These searches were all negative except for a Memorandum for General Twining, from Robert Cutler, Special Assistant to the President, Subject: "NCS/MJ-12 Special Studies Project" dated July 14, 1954. The memorandum, one page, refers to a briefing to take place on July 16. The memorandum does not identify MJ-12 or the purpose of the briefing. https://grizzlyllc.myshopify.com https://paranormalhub.com/grizzly-hunt Free Conceal Carry Laws of The USA From USCCA! Know The Laws Of Each State For Free! https://uscca.co/GRIZZLY-7015b000005mKPLAA2 For Trail Cams and More Click the Link Below! Blaze Video Inc. ⁠https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1879540&u=3878666&m=117504&urllink=&afftrack=⁠ For Tac Lights and Camping and More, Click the Link Below. EcoGear FX, Inc. ⁠https://shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=481056&m=70349&u=3878666&afftrack=⁠ For Blinds, Waders, Outdoor Gear, Range Finders and More! Click Below! Tidewe ⁠https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1447058&u=3878666&m=92895&urllink=&afftrack=⁠ For Survival Gear, Camping and More Click here click below! Survival Frog LLC... https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=564389&u=3878666&m=51591&urllink=&afftrack= For Bags and Backpacks and More Click The Link Below! https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1243597&u=3878666&m=82802&urllink=&afftrack= For Dash Cams, Monitors and Much More Click The Link Below! https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1579252&u=3878666&m=87684&urllink=&afftrack= For Digital Picture Frames, Microphones, Ring Lights and Much More Click The Link Below! https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1968845&u=3878666&m=87684&urllink=&afftrack= For Backback, Bladders, Gloves, Hammocks, and Camping Accessories, Click the link Below! https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=2298688&u=3878666&m=139327&urllink=&afftrack= --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/grizzly-onthehunt/support

This Day in Legal History: National Security Act of 1947On July 25, 1947, Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947, a landmark legislation that restructured the United States' military and intelligence operations in the post-World War II era. This pivotal act established the National Security Council (NSC), which would advise the President on security matters, and created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to gather and analyze foreign intelligence. The Act also led to the formation of the Department of Defense, unifying the previously separate Department of War and Department of the Navy, and creating the National Military Establishment. This new establishment comprised three separate departments: the Army, the Navy, and the newly-formed United States Air Force. Additionally, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were established to ensure coordinated military strategy among the services. The National Security Act of 1947 fundamentally reshaped the U.S. defense and intelligence framework, reflecting the changing nature of global threats and the need for a cohesive national security strategy in the early Cold War period. This legislation laid the foundation for the modern American military and intelligence community, shaping U.S. defense policy for decades to come.Walt Disney Co. must face a lawsuit backed by Elon Musk over the firing of Gina Carano, a former star of “The Mandalorian.” A federal judge in Los Angeles, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, ruled against Disney's motion to dismiss the case, stating that Disney did not prove that employing Carano was an act of First Amendment-protected expressive association. The judge noted that Disney had not shown evidence that it hires actors to promote values like respect, decency, integrity, or inclusion.The case will explore California's protections for employees' political activities outside of work. Carano, a former mixed martial artist, argues she was dismissed due to her political views, which clashed with the show's audience on social media. The incident that led to her firing was a February 2021 Instagram post comparing the treatment of Trump supporters to that of Jews during the Holocaust. Carano claims her male co-stars were not disciplined for their liberal-leaning posts, even when they also referenced the Holocaust. Strained logic, but we live in a time of strained logic.Judge Garnett found that Carano sufficiently alleged her firing could have been to deflect criticism from Disney's business practices and reorganization under former CEO Bob Chapek. Schaer Jaffe LLP represents Carano, while O'Melveny and Myers LLP represents Disney, Lucasfilm, and Huckleberry Industries. The case is Carano v. Walt Disney, C.D. Cal., No. 24-cv-1009, 7/24/24.Disney Must Fight Musk-Backed ‘Mandalorian' Actor Firing SuitThe U.S. Senate is set to vote on two online safety bills targeting the protection of children and teens on social media. Scheduled for Thursday, these bills have garnered broad bipartisan support and are expected to pass. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer emphasized the importance of updating safety measures to address current online threats to children.The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) aims to mandate social media platforms to offer minors options to safeguard their information and deactivate addictive features by default. It also imposes a legal duty on companies to mitigate risks such as suicide and disordered eating among minors.The Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) proposes a ban on targeted advertising to minors and data collection without their consent. It also allows parents and children to delete their information from social media platforms.These bills represent the first significant legislative efforts to ensure online safety for children since the original COPPA was enacted in 1998. Tech companies like Microsoft and Snap have shown support for these initiatives, while Meta Platforms suggested that federal law should require app stores to seek parental approval for downloads by users under 16.US Senate set to vote on two child online safety bills | ReutersBoeing has finalized a guilty plea to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and will pay at least $243.6 million for breaching a 2021 agreement with the U.S. Justice Department. This breach involved allowing potentially risky work at its factories and not ensuring accurate or complete airplane record keeping. Boeing admitted to conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration by making false representations about key software for the 737 MAX.The Justice Department found Boeing violated the deferred prosecution agreement after a January in-flight panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX exposed ongoing safety and quality issues. Additionally, Boeing disclosed false stamping at its 787 plant in South Carolina, leading to further investigations. The company also failed to ensure proper sequence in airplane manufacturing, increasing the risk of defects.By way of very brief background, "false stamping" refers to the practice of improperly marking or certifying parts or components as meeting required safety and quality standards when they do not. This fraudulent activity can involve the use of counterfeit certification stamps or documentation to falsely indicate that a part has passed necessary inspections and tests. Such actions undermine the integrity of the aircraft manufacturing process, potentially compromising the safety and reliability of the airplanes.Boeing agreed to pay a maximum fine of $487.2 million, with a credit for its previous $243.6 million payment, and will spend at least $455 million over the next three years to enhance safety and compliance programs. An independent monitor will oversee Boeing's compliance, with annual progress reports made public. Families of the 737 MAX crash victims can file objections before Judge Reed O'Connor, who will decide on accepting the deal and potential restitution. Boeing's board must also meet with the victims' families within four months of sentencing.Boeing finalizes 737 MAX guilty plea deal, US outlines reasons | ReutersUnited States v. The Boeing Company (4:21-cr-00005)The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is set to implement updates to its health data breach notification rule on July 29, which could lead to increased litigation for companies providing health-related services through mobile apps. These amendments, finalized in April, extend the rule's coverage to companies that aggregate health information from multiple sources, which are not currently governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).The rule mandates that businesses must notify affected individuals and the FTC within 60 days of discovering a breach affecting 500 or more people. Non-compliance could result in civil penalties of up to $51,744 per violation. The FTC's amendments broaden the rule's scope, potentially transforming it from a data security breach rule to a consent requirement for sharing health data.Legal experts have raised concerns about the FTC's lack of a precise definition for "authorized access," which could complicate compliance and lead to fines and litigation. Despite stakeholders' requests for clearer guidelines, the FTC only stated that unauthorized disclosures might include the sharing or selling of consumer information inconsistent with a company's stated policies.The expanded rule could cover around 170,000 additional entities, though industry groups believe this number may be higher. Many of these entities might need to develop robust notification programs, as the new requirements mark unfamiliar territory for some.The updated rule could also increase lawsuits against healthcare-related businesses for exposing user data to third-party advertisers. For example, enforcement actions against GoodRx and Easy Healthcare Corp. cited breaches due to sharing health information with advertisers via pixel tracking technology.The FTC's broad interpretation of "unauthorized access" has significant implications. If a company's privacy policy is not sufficiently descriptive regarding data collection and sharing, the FTC may consider it an unauthorized disclosure. This aggressive stance by the FTC necessitates careful attention from industry players.The rule also raises questions about who is responsible for reporting breaches concerning personal health records (PHR). Companies might struggle to determine whether they are acting as downstream service providers or PHR-related entities, complicating their compliance obligations.FTC Health Breach Rule's New Updates May Spur More Litigation This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Ambassador Cindy Courville joins Mike Shanley to discuss her work as the first Ambassador for the African Union. She talks about what it was like to enter into that role and how she worked with African Leaders to ensure their voices were heard, as well as what it meant to them to have someone assigned to Africa. Ambassador Courville describes the way the relationships have changed throughout different Presidencies and that it is critical to choose our next President based on the needs of other countries. Lastly, Ambassador Courville talks about what someone looking to get started in the development and diplomatic sector should be focused on. Tune in to learn more about the African Union.    IN THIS EPISODE: [1:49] What is Ambassador Courville's view on global security? [2:43] What does she see as the interplay between intelligence and development in promoting development outcomes?  [5:32] What was Ambassador Courville's experience being the first Ambassador to the African Union and what was her role? [9:25] How have the policies changed since the first implemented policies? [14:28] What did it mean to the African Leaders to have an Ambassador assigned to them? [16:25] Has there been momentum on the foundation of engagement with African nations and leaders under the Biden administration?  [19:56] How do the current African leaders see geopolitical options to them in the US, China, and other nations? [24:26] What is Ambassador Courville's insight on good development and the importance of interagency work? [27:25] What is Ambassador Courville's insight to someone that wants to cut development funding or diplomatic funding? [31:53] Ambassador Courville's advice for someone getting started in the development or diplomatic sector.   KEY TAKEAWAYS:  If we fall or shift to a more authoritarian situation, that is not in the best interest of African countries or developing countries in general.  We need to have a democracy and a leadership that is focused on maintaining democracy, not curtailing the rights and freedoms of Americans.  The more politically and economically stable we are, the less you have to use other tools, and you only want to use those other tools in the most extreme situations.    QUOTES: [21:35] “The Africans have been extremely forgiving and understanding. I would say, extremely democratic in their outlook, so they recognize the dynamics and shifts on a level that the average American just doesn't get. I'm not just talking the leadership of Africa, but the people themselves, and so you can't expect them not to engage.” - Ambassador Cindy Courville [24:33] “If I were writing the policy for USAID today, or for the administration, not just for Africa, but in general, I would say we need to increase the size of USAID. USAID's mission is so huge, but the number of personnel and NGOs are great, but we need more continuity in that process.” - Ambassador Cindy Courville [31:19] “We haven't resolved our civil war issues, women's issues, all of those things that are fundamentally part of a democracy.” - Ambassador Cindy Courville   RESOURCES: NSL4A Steering Committee  Aid Market Podcast Aid Market Podcast YouTube   BIOGRAPHY: Ambassador (retired) Cindy Courville, Ph.D. currently serves on the executive board of the National Security Executives and Professional Association (NSEPA) and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS).  Previously Ambassador Courville served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Social Science Foundation Board for the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Within the U.S. government national security enterprise Ambassador Courville has served in a number of positions for nearly 20 years in the Department of State, the National Security Council, the Defense Intelligence Agency , and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  In the academic arena,  Ambassador Courville taught at the National Intelligence University, Occidental College, and Hanover College. Ambassador Courville served as the first U.S. Ambassador to the African Union where she was significantly instrumental in organizing and managing the fiftieth U.S. mission in Africa from November 2006-May 2008.  She led the U.S., European Union, and Non-African Observer countries negotiating efforts to design and implement the Strategic Planning Management Unit to support the African Union Mission to Somalia.  Also, she facilitated engagements with the ambassadors from Algeria, Ethiopia, and Uganda to develop a strategic engagement plan for the launch and sustainment of a Ugandan People's Defense Force led African Union peacekeeping mission to Somalia. In addition, Ambassador Courville led a team of experts that developed a Disaster Readiness Program.  Under her leadership, this effort was fully funded at $1 million to assist the African Union in the creation of a standardized, coordinated system to monitor, address and remedy humanitarian crises in Africa. From 2004 – 2006 at the National Security Council (NSC), Dr. Courville served as the Special Assistant to the President of the United States and Senior Director for African Affairs.  She was responsible for developing and implementing critical strategic bilateral U.S. – Africa policy and relations that contributed to the advancement of U.S.- Africa political, economic, military partnerships, and security alliances.  Dr. Courville served as the White House and NSC lead working in collaboration  with the Nigerian government and the Special Court for Sierra Leone Office of the Prosecutor that helped bring  former  Liberian President Charles Taylor to justice for war crimes at The Hague.  In addition, Dr. Courville led the NSC interagency process that resulted in the U.S. training, airlifting and deployment of African Union troops in Darfur.  Also, she helped to create  and launch the Corporate Council on Africa, a public private partnership in support of the Presidential Malaria Initiative. Ambassador Cindy Courville received her Ph.D. and M.A. in international studies from the University of Denver and received her M.A. and B.A. in political science from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  Also, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Louisiana, selected as  the Korbel School of International Studies 2014 Alumni of the Decade, and received the University of Denver Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award. Ambassador Courville is a Shell Oil Fellow, Ford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow, International Career and Advancement Fellow and Department of Defense Executive Leadership Development Fellow.

Another pandemic will happen. When it does, will we be prepared? What are we doing to make certain that we are? Our guest is the Director of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. Hear about what is being done to facilitate and improve our ability to face another pandemic. Guest:   "Major General (ret) Paul Friedrichs, MD, FACS, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR)"   Major General (ret) Paul Friedrichs, Inaugural Director of OPPR and Principal Advisor on Pandemic Preparedness and Response   Major General Friedrichs is currently Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council (NSC). Prior to joining the NSC, Dr. Friedrichs most recently served as the Joint Staff Surgeon and the medical advisor to the Department of Defense (DoD) COVID-19 Task Force. Throughout his career he has worked closely with Federal, State, Tribal, local, and territorial government partners, as well as industry and academic counterparts and has been active in multiple professional medical societies. Dr. Friedrichs has also overseen the DoD global patient evacuation system, supporting global medical care and numerous interagency domestic and global disaster responses. He led the DoD Task Force which developed plans to implement high reliability medical principles across DoD and stood up the Air Force's first medical analytics capabilities. Over the course of his 37-year career, he has led military hospitals and regional and global health care systems, published multiple medical papers, and consistently sought opportunities to partner with colleagues to improve health care delivery and preparedness. As the United States' representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Committee of Military Medical Chiefs, he worked closely with many of America's closest allies and partners throughout the pandemic and in developing medical support to the Ukrainian military.   Dr. Friedrichs is a board-certified physician who has cared for hundreds of patients in combat and managed broad domestic and global public health threats. He has spent all of his career in public service, having first received his commission through Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1986 and rising to Major General in 2023. During This Episode We Discuss:   Overview of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy What are the goals for the office How will  the office function How will the office coordinate with state health agencies, health delivery systems, medication manufacturers , support and personal protective device manufacturers, research and  testing facilities? The importance of a robust Public Health System. How does a public health system integrate into the office's response policy? What can the office do to facilitate a functioning national,regional and local deployment of response teams? How can we speak to the public, ie messaging about the science of pandemic causation, diagnosis, containment and treatment strategies without the politicalization that occurred with the Covid pandemic? What recommendations and routines does the Air Force use to keep it's personnel healthy?   

Kash Patel joins Liberty & Justice with host Matt Whitaker Season 3, Episode 3. This is Kash's sixth appearance as a L&J guest and is back by popular demand.  Presented by American Cornerstone Institute.  Learn more about ACI at https://americancornerstone.org/  Watch every episode of Liberty & Justice at www.whitaker.tv.  Get Kash's book Government Gangsters here:  Government Gangsters Kash Patel served as the chief of staff to the Department of Defense (DOD), where his responsibilities included implementing the secretary of defense's mission involving three million-plus employees, a $740-billion budget, and $2 trillion in assets. Prior to his experience at the Pentagon, Mr. Patel served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council (NSC). In that capacity, Mr. Patel oversaw the execution of several of President Trump's top priorities, including eliminating Al-Qa'ida and ISIS senior leadership, and safely repatriating dozens of American hostages. As one of the highest-ranking officials at the ODNI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the White House, Mr. Patel gained unique expertise straddling the nexus of government and private sector operations for the defense of our nation to include defense, cyber, and intel. Before joining the NSC, Mr. Patel served as the national security advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), where he spearheaded the investigation into the Russian active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. A native of New York, Mr. Patel graduated from the University of Richmond with a bachelor's in criminal justice and history, received a juris doctor from law school in New York, and a certificate in international law from the University College London Faculty of Laws in the United Kingdom. Mr. Patel left government service in January 2021 and is now in the private sector. He has established the Kash Foundation and FightWithKash.com to continue his work fighting for Americans and holding corrupt government accountable.  https://fightwithkash.com/ Matthew G. Whitaker was acting Attorney General of the United States (2018-2019).  Prior to becoming acting Attorney General, Mr. Whitaker served as Chief of Staff to the Attorney General. He was appointed as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa by President George W. Bush, serving from 2004-2009. Whitaker was the managing partner of Des Moines-based law firm, Whitaker Hagenow & Gustoff LLP from 2009 until rejoining DOJ in 2017. He was also the Executive Director for FACT, The Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust, an ethics and accountability watchdog, between 2014 and 2017.   Mr. Whitaker is the Author of the book--Above the Law, The Inside Story of How the Justice Department Tried to Subvert President Trump.  Buy Matt's book here: https://amzn.to/3IXUOb8 Mr. Whitaker graduated with a Master of Business Administration, Juris Doctor, and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa.  While at Iowa, Mr. Whitaker was a three-year letterman on the football team where he received the prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor. Mr. Whitaker is now a Senior Fellow with the American Cornerstone Institute, Co-Chair of the Center for Law and Justice at America First Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow at the American Conservative Union Foundation. Matt is on the Board of Directors for America First Legal Foundation. He is also Of Counsel with the Graves Garrett law firm.  Whitaker appears regularly t

GPPR Junior Editor Amelie D'Hers (MS-DSPP ‘25) delves into the intricacies of navigating misinformation and its policy implications with Emily Horne, the founder and CEO of Allegro Public Affairs. Emily, formerly the Special Assistant to the President, Spokesperson, and Senior Director for Press at the National Security Council (NSC) in the Biden Administration, and the former Vice President of Communications at the Brookings Institution, engages in a comprehensive discussion. This conversation spans various aspects of the misinformation landscape, from the day-to-day media literacy to National Security.

EPISODE 1901: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Charles Kupchan, author of ISOLATIONISM, about the illusional idealism shaping American foreign policyCharles Kupchan is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government. From 2014 to 2017, Kupchan served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) in the Barack Obama administration. He was also director for European affairs on the NSC during the first Bill Clinton administration. Before joining the Clinton NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the policy planning staff. Previously, he was an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University. Kupchan is the author of Isolationism: A History of America's Efforts to Shield Itself From the World (2020), No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn (2012), How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (2010), The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century (2002), Power in Transition: The Peaceful Change of International Order (2001), Civic Engagement in the Atlantic Community (1999), Atlantic Security: Contending Visions (1998), Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (1995), The Vulnerability of Empire (1994), The Persian Gulf and the West (1987), and numerous articles on international and strategic affairs. Kupchan has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs, Columbia University's Institute for War and Peace Studies, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Centre d'Étude et de Recherches Internationales in Paris, and the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo. From 2006 to 2007, he was the Henry A. Kissinger scholar at the Library of Congress and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. From 2013 to 2014, he was a senior fellow at the Transatlantic Academy. Kupchan received his BA from Harvard University and MPhil and DPhil from Oxford University.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Shownotes and Transcript Tera Dahl has just returned from 3 weeks in Israel where she was reporting for Real America's Voice and Bannon's WarRoom.  Tera returns to Hearts of Oak to share her time travelling throughout the country.  She spent time with soldiers from the IDF, with civilians who are regularly having to use their shelters for protection and with those living in Gaza.  Tera has seen the war up close and her experiences are fresh and raw. Tera Dahl served as Senior Advisor in the Conflict, Prevention and Stabilization Bureau (CPS) at USAID as a political appointee during the Trump Administration. She also served as Deputy Chief of Staff at the National Security Council (NSC) working in the White House under the Trump Administration. She has advised members of congress, staff, and policymakers on complex national security and foreign policy issues. She served as a national security senior advisor to Congresswoman and former Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. She has travelled extensively overseas to areas of conflict and war, raising awareness and reporting from an on-the-ground and frontline perspective, giving a voice to the voiceless. She has helped produce several documentaries going into dangerous situations to uncover the truth and shine a light on darkness. She has spent time camping out on the frontlines embedded with the Peshmerga forces in Northern Iraq during the war against ISIS, on the frontlines with the IDF on the Gaza border, backpacking through the jungles of Burma with fleeing and persecuted Burmese ethnics, and has embedded with U.S. Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. She has travelled to Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria and throughout the Middle East providing humanitarian and medical assistance. She volunteered with the American Red Cross to serve and support U.S. troops overseas during the Global War on Terrorism. Follow Tera on Instagram   https://www.instagram.com/tera_dahl/ Interview recorded 11.12.23 Connect with Hearts of Oak... WEBSITE            https://heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS        https://heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA  https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Support Hearts of Oak by purchasing one of our fancy T-Shirts....  SHOP                  https://heartsofoak.org/shop/ *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and X https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Tera Dahl, it's wonderful to have you back with us. Thanks so much for joining us today. (Tera Dahl) Thank you, Peter, for having me.  Always good to have you. Of course, people can catch you on somewhere where I never delve, which is Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/tera_dahl/ That I think is the best place to find you, Tera. Yes, it is. Yeah.  Apart from on War Room regularly and Real America's Voice. Real America's Voice.  Obviously, all of that. And I know that many of the viewers will have seen your couple of weeks actually long postings from Israel and I'm really delighted that you made the time today to come on and to share some of those experiences because I think you talked to a lot of commentators, military experts, politicians, but actually to talk to someone who's been there on the ground is fairly rare, I think. So, I'm looking forward to finding out, but to tell us how do you get there? I guess you don't just get a, there are lots of flights cancelled. So I guess it's not just a case of going and booking a ticket with any regular airline, is it? You can get there. I went to Greece and then from Athens, then I flew into Israel, but the airlines are limited now. Definitely the US airlines are limited, they do not fly out of Israel. There's options to fly There's a lot of flights still that are coming in and out, but the airport in Tel Aviv was very quiet, but there was more, I think more people and more flights than I anticipated. Okay, what was the conversation? Cause you're, you're no stranger to going to, to war zones. when I was last over after my WarRoom slot, Steve was regaling me with stories of him talking to you in far flung places. So I guess most people would think, oh, it sounds a bit iffy, but for you, it's part of the job, I guess. Yeah, I was in Israel. I have been. I was in Israel in 2014 to cover the Gaza conflict, the war between Israel and Hamas in 2014 for Breitbart News. And that's when I really saw like I had been traveling around the Middle East during the Arab Spring. I had been to Afghanistan and Iraq, really, you know, on the ground with the war on terrorism, but especially especially during the Arab Spring prior to going to Israel in 2014. And really, I just kind of fell into that because I was on the ground in Egypt during the counter revolution when you had the 30 million Egyptians go to the street to call for Mohammed Morsi's ouster, the Muslim Brotherhood's ouster in Egypt. And I saw the way that the media was portraying that situation and how the media was impacting our policy. And I saw that it was impacting the Pentagon. It was impacting Congress because that's how they viewed it. That was their lens on the situation. And so that's how I started to really understand the need for accurate reporting on the ground. Because unless you're on the ground and you really understand the dynamics, you just read what the headlines are. And then you follow the headlines and then you base your decisions upon the headlines. So when you look at Israel, you look at the headlines, you look at the mainstream media. And it always has been going back to 2014 and going back to the Arab Spring and just the coverage from the mainstream media has been pro-Islamist. And that's what I noticed. I noticed that back in 2012, 2013, they were very much pro-Muslim brotherhood. And so when you look at Israel, you look at the war with Hamas, obviously Hamas is the military arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. That is the mainstream media and the angle of it has been very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel, restraining Israel. And so it was so important when I was there in 2014 because I saw that how the mainstream media and a lot of times they report from Gaza. So you have the mainstream media reporters that are actually in Gaza. Well, if you're reporting from Gaza and you're surrounded by Hamas, you're not going to be very pro-Israel. It's going to impact your reporting because you're afraid for your life for one thing. But you also have, it's just the angle of the mainstream media. And so going on the ground for this war, I knew because I had already covered the Middle East conflicts in the war that it's so important to get that perspective, because of you can't just follow the headlines and you're seeing how tainted it is for an example at the hospitals. You know how Hamas uses hospitals and then when Israel hits back at the hospital. Then it's Israel's fault and they get charged with war crimes. Well, actually Hamas uses hospitals and schools for their military headquarters and they launched their rocket attacks from the hospitals, from the schools, and they used the children. And so, Peter, when I went there, I knew it's so important to be able to get on the ground and to be able to write accurately of what's happening. And that's exactly what I saw. And that definitely was worthwhile because it changes your perspective. Can I just ask you, just before getting on to what it was like there, I'm sure the viewers would be curious in how you prep for that, because you're not going into a normal environment. It's not just a tourist or a journalist going to report on an event. It's into a very dangerous situation. How do you prepare? Was it that you had contacts before? Is it Real America's voice making those contacts? Because obviously you don't want to land on the ground and then begin to spend your time building up those contacts and knowing who to speak to. So how do you kind of go about preparing for that? I think with any time that I've travelled overseas in the Middle East, you know contacts, you reach out to them, you reach out to your mutual friends that have contacts in Israel, and then you just kind of start with who you know, and then you build off of that. And that's exactly what, too, on this trip. You have your contacts that I've had through my friends here, and then you let people know that you're coming over, I've been there before, and then you just build on that. And when you're on the ground, it just opens up opportunities because you just build your contacts, your networking on the ground. And one of the important parts of that was going up into the north. I was able to go up into the northern part of Israel with the Christian community. So I wasn't only, I was able to see, spend time with the Arab Muslims that are joining the IDF. I spoke with them. I spoke with the Christian community that also served in the IDF. And of course, the majority of the Jewish community, but I was able to get all those different perspectives. So when we talk about building those contacts, it's important that you meet with all sides. And I've always done that. Like when I went to Syria, as well, I met with the opposition first, who were trying to overthrow Assad, and then I went into Damascus and saw the other side. So that's kind of just how I've always done it is and I depend on the locals, I mean, for someone, I guess, as a woman, going by myself. I definitely, you know, you just have to have your faith in God, and then you just trust people, and you just build contacts and you just build relationships. And what were you kind of expecting when you went out? Because this current situation is simply because Israel have not dealt with the problem previously. And this time Netanyahu I think feels and probably has to actually deal with Hamas living on their border. But what were you kind of expecting when you went over? Because I guess every war situation is different. The relationships with the countries around, the population. The sleeper cells they have, there are so many moving parts to the situation. And what kind of were you expecting before you headed out? I think I knew what to anticipate because I had been there to cover it previously, so I knew what to expect. But as far as when we talk about preparing for this, like going into Israel, you would think there's so many people that were traveling there. I think one of the highest tourism times before everything got cancelled, it was just they were packed with tours. And one thing that is always, since I went there before a couple times, and then now this trip, is that Israel is constantly living under siege. So as, you know, like for me going to visit during a war time, this is the normal for them, Peter. This is how they live. They live under siege. They live every single house, every building, since you land in the airport, has a shelter. No matter where you are, every single place you're at, whether it's a restaurant, whether it's a home, if it's a school, if it's a playground, they all have shelters. And just think about how abnormal that is, is that they get hit. Since Hamas launched the attack on October 7th, they've been hit with 10,000 rockets from Hamas. 10,000 rockets. But it is the normal life for them. And the Iron Dome intercepts the majority of them. But when the Iron Dome does not intercept them, the shrapnel kills people. If that rocket hits, that can take out like a huge, that could kill so many people, those rockets, and they take, you know, you take it for granted because of the Iron Dome. But there's multiple times, even like when I was there for my limited time, that if it wasn't for the Iron Dome, you know, you would have probably, you would have been hit by that, you would have been impacted by the shrapnel. But it's that's not normal. So what they consider normal is not normal. So they constantly so like for me to say, you go over there and it looks like, wow, you're going into a war zone. That's how they live. You know, that's how they live every day of their lives. Their children have to play in playgrounds that are actually shelters because they want the kids to make it, you know, they don't want kids to feel like they're constantly under war and to live in fear. So what they do is they build their playgrounds as shelters. So when the kids are playing in the tunnels, it's actually a shelter for the kids. And so they only have a few seconds when they hear those sirens go off to be able to go into their shelters But that's normal for them So that's something that like it never surprises me just to see how they live their normal their daily lives going to school. Going to their synagogues. Just living their lives going to work and but yet they're constantly under rocket attack, constantly. And even the day after that I left, there was a terrorist attack right in Jerusalem. And that's just, that's how they live. Well, in Israel, there are different parts of the society which engage in this situation differently. You have the military. Maybe you want to just give us some of your thoughts or experiences you were talking to the military, because they are actually on the front line. They're the ones that are trying to remove this, which has been a continual threat against Israel, Hamas. And I saw some of the interviews you had with different individuals in the military. Tell us about those conversations with the military. Well, I think the military is they're very much focused and they're determined and they're resolute on eliminating Hamas. And they're not only on eliminating Hamas, but also Hezbollah. You have to keep in mind too that Hezbollah there's 60 000 Israeli citizens that were evacuated out of the north and another 70 000 that were evacuated out of the south and they're all living in the hotels right now. So you have tens of thousands over, almost 200,000 Israeli citizens that are evacuated right now because of the threat from Hamas and because of the threat from Hezbollah. And so, but their perspective, what they were saying is that they're first focusing on Hamas and they're going to eliminate Hamas because just like in 2014, when they were resolute on eliminating Hamas, and then because of the international pressure, a lot because of the Obama administration. They pulled back and they stopped. Well, look what's happened now, look at what has happened because they didn't finish Hamas back in 2014 or 2021 again and then look at how they use that ceasefire from 2021 basically Hamas was in a ceasefire since 2021 and instead of honouring that ceasefire they used it to rebuild rearm and and plan October 7 and so that's what happens when they say a ceasefire They're rebuilding and rearming and then that's what happened. So you have no option. The military has no option. Israel has no option but to eliminate Hamas and they also have the threat from Hezbollah. So we just to keep in mind to that Hezbollah had, so Hamas used Hezbollah's plan that they have had for over 10 years to invade northern Israel and take hundreds of Israelis hostage, which would put pressure then on the Western countries. That was their plan. And they did drills. They did, planned, like they did the planned training. Previously, back in May 2023, there's video of Hezbollah doing these mock trainings, where it was the same attack that Hamas did on October 7th. And so Hezbollah is a greater threat than Hamas. But the threat right now, the immediate threat, from what my understanding is, is Hamas. They have to eliminate Hamas first, but they will have to deal with Hezbollah. And they'll have to go back to the UN 1701, where Hezbollah is north of Israel. So they're not on the Israeli border and it has to be enforced by the UN but they're gonna have to deal with the threat from Hezbollah because they have the same plan and those, Thousands of Israelis will not move back home until the threat from Hezbollah is completely eliminated as well. So they are getting attacked on all fronts and not to mention the attacks that are coming from the West Bank as well. And that's what I've heard too is that you know, people are asking why how did they miss it the intelligence failure? And it was the biggest intelligence failure. They're saying since 1973. Well, they were focused so much on the West Bank. They were focused so much on the threat from Hezbollah. And they were also allowing thousands and thousands of the Gazan civilians to come in every single day on work visas. And those Gazans that were coming in on work visas turned against Israel. And a lot of them were the ones that were mapping out the exact locations for Hamas's attack on October 7th. So that's what I learned talking to people. Probably one of the most things that I took away was that they realized how wrong they were for this two-state solution, and living in peace side by side because they totally use what they were given to the Gazan civilians because the Gazan civilians, 70% of them support Hamas, and they use that against Israel. And they use that opportunity where they were coming in on work visas, getting money, and they were the ones to turn against Israel and with all of the maps and the locations and commit that atrocious attack. So that is another takeaway, but I have a lot to say on the Gazan civilians too. Well, let me touch on, there's just one other thing you talked about, the military and the country, I guess, was living in a false sense of security because the borders have been fairly peaceful. You've got economic relationships warming up between countries around. And you haven't actually, it's been a long time since I remember hearing of a suicide bomber in Israel on buses or trains which used to hear of fairly often. That seems to be have been eradicated and with the borders more secure than before. Was it simply just a false sense of security? Israel thinking actually we've got economic benefits. And that's going to trump any in-built religious hatred which exists. Yeah, I think it was a false sense of security. And I think a lot too was that they were allowing those, the Gazans to come in on those work visas. And they just didn't think that they would do something, you know, to turn against them when they were allowing so thousands and thousands of them to come in. And one of the, what really stuck out to me was the kibbutz's that were the most attacks, the worst attack that took place, the majority of them were the kind of thinking they call them the liberal, the leftist, because they were, they were the ones reaching out, you know, to the Gazan civilians, to Hamas. Some of them, one example was a lady who used, not only one lady, but there were other women as well, that would, for years, would bring in the civilians to the hospitals and take care of the children in Gaza, and they murdered her. And they murdered a lot of the people at the kibbutz who were the ones that believed that you could live side by side, the ones that believed that you could have that peace. And that is something that even people that believed for years and years and had been involved in some of the peace agreements. They said that was their biggest eye-opener, is how wrong they were, how wrong they were that you could have that two-state solution, and live side-by-side because they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. And that was a big wake-up call. And that's why I think the perspective is so different. And I heard that there has never been more of a unity within Israel to annihilate and eliminate Hamas than there is now. They said over 99% of Israel is all unified, that you have to eliminate Hamas. So not only Hamas, but Hezbollah in the north as well. Let me come back to you on Israeli failing. You mentioned you've got a lot to say on the actual people living in Gaza. I don't even want to call them Palestinians, but I will not even delve down that rabbit hole. But those living in Gaza, they seem to, well, the world seems to want to blame Israel for the problems happening in Gaza under Hamas and the world doesn't seem to actually have any issues with Hamas being the government and democracy not functioning all of that and and it seems as though the people there certainly the media tell us that all their ire and anger is against Israel for their problems and not against Hamas. Tell us about kind of what the conversations, what you learned about actually those people living in Gaza. That was something that I learned right away when we were at the kibbutz. They were talking about how people aren't mentioning, and they weren't talking about the 3,000 Gazan civilians that broke in and breached the wall after Hamas made the initial breach. There were thousands of Gazan civilians, Palestinians, that came in and they stole trucks from the kibbutz's, and they stole and they looted within. They took TVs and they stole things and those were the civilians. And so you see all these pro-Palestinian protests and they're not pro-Palestinian. If they were pro-Palestinian, why doesn't Jordan take them in? Why doesn't Egypt take them in? Why don't these Arab countries take in these Palestinians that they seem to care so much about? Why? They don't want them. Nobody wants the Palestinians because they're 70% pro-Hamas and they're indoctrinated since they're children, which I'd love to touch on the UNHCR funding too, the UN funding where this indoctrination is happening at the schools and it's being funded by the US, by the EU, by the European countries, right? By the Western world for this indoctrination in these schools that is bringing up these little kids to kill Israelis. So the Arab countries, they don't want them, But yet, in the whole world, everybody, it seems to be pro-Palestinian, but they're not pro-Palestinian. They're pro-Hamas and they're anti-Israel. That's what that is. So I don't even call them pro-Palestinian rallies or protests. That's not what they are. They're not pro-Palestinian. They're anti-Israel and they're pro-Hamas. Yeah, we've seen that here. The people there, because the media can tell us that it's sad that the people in Gaza, and obviously you have many civilians caught up in this, civilians on both sides and no one wants a war situation. It's not good for any country but Israel didn't choose this. But you look at the people in Gaza and on one side it's the poor people there, they're living under a difficult government but you've been to Arab Spring, different demonstrations. I know I've had many conversations with those who had lived behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. You have uprisings, you have people uprising to overthrow those above them. And that may not be easy. And maybe me speaking as a Brit, it's easy for me to say that, but that's how history works. And surely the same thing should work in Gaza. If the people are unhappy with those above them, then they should overthrow them. Yeah. And I think actually you're seeing more of that right now. You're seeing where these Hamas members are surrendering in the masses. And I think you're seeing more of the people starting to turn against Hamas. But even like when you look at the statistics and the polling, you have 73% of the people that live in Gaza, the Palestinians, they support Hamas. They're Hamas sympathizers. And a lot of that has to do with the indoctrination and the schooling since they're kids. You see the videos of these children who have, you know, machine guns and they're taught and they're raised to just hate Israelis and they're honoured if they murder Israelis and that's their indoctrination. So you've got to break that ideology. You know, you can definitely eliminate Hamas as an organization, but it's an ideology that you really have to come against, which we've done in the past. You know, look at what we did with Germany and Japan. So you can come against an ideology and that's what you have to do. And so that is, yeah, that is a whole different conversation. Looking at how the people live, that is all, as you pointed out, it's all funded by the West. That perpetual hatred, that perpetual tension, when we have politicians talk about they want peace, but at the same time they're funding a terror organisation and keeping that pocket of evil right on the edge ready to kick off. You're right it does seem to be that the West are guilty of what has happened. The UN is funding it. The UN is funding that ideology. The Western world is funding it. The United States is funding it and under the Trump administration they cut that funding to UNRWA. They cut the hundreds of millions of dollars to UNHCR and Biden immediately restarted that funding again. And that funding goes directly to Hamas and it goes directly to funding that ideology and that's taking place in that school. So if you want to start with one thing to cut, which we could do right now, is eliminate UNHCR, completely eliminate UNHCR, and cut that funding that's going to UNHCR. But right now they're launching, UNHCR has literally launched a Hamas campaign. That's what they're doing. They are the spokespeople for Hamas and when you look them up and you look at the campaign that they're doing right now. You will see how they are basically launching a campaign and it's with US funding and it's with UN funding. So just think of that. We're funding Hamas's campaign. UNHCR, tell us what that stands for.  UN Refugee Program Agency. Okay, that does explain a lot. You mentioned about the Israeli people and a unity behind the government and the military. That hasn't always been the case, and certainly I've seen a lot of self-hatred, maybe mostly from Israelis and Jews who live abroad and look back. But with that unity, then that possibly does mean the job can be done. May tell us about that, your conversations with people. About the unity that's happening in Israel right now? That is something they said, They're 99% unified and Israel too, they were having, they were so divided pre, and this other people will say, well, because the country was so divided before the Hamas attack over the judicial reforms. That was the big focus in Israel. That was really dividing the country. But after this Hamas attack, everyone has been saying they have never seen more unity. And when you get to Israel, that's what you see. You see the Israeli flags all over the country, every building, all the roads. I mean, every car has an Israeli flag. It's that, like you're unified. It was like, it reminded me of September 11th, you know, after September 11th, every single American flag was sold out. Everybody was unified. They were against terrorism and they were unified as a nation and a world. The whole global community was unified. And that's where I don't understand why you're not seeing that now with Hamas attack. Hamas is ISIS. Hamas is ISIS. It's the same funding, it's the same ideology, it's the same groups, the same kind of the countries that are behind it, the terrorist organization, the tactics, the beliefs, the ideology, all of it's the same. So Hamas is ISIS. And the attacks that they did against the Israeli citizens when they killed babies, when they cut open pregnant women, when they raped women multiple times and then burn their bodies, they beheaded people. I mean, that's ISIS. You can't even fathom having anyone that would even think that they could support Hamas right now or support ISIS. Just think of that if you had ISIS supporters, think of the difference in the perspective that you would see if you had all of these students protesting for ISIS, you wouldn't see that. And if you held ISIS beliefs, you would be prosecuted, right? The FBI is going to be hunting at your door if you showed any kind of sympathy with ISIS. But why are they not doing that with Hamas? Hamas is ISIS. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization. They come from the same sources. There's no difference in them, but yet we're allowing this like pro-Hamas. Even in our campuses, sentiment. I mean, you should have the FBI at the door, even having that, just like it was with ISIS. You should have that same mentality towards Hamas. There's no reason in the 21st century to have a terrorist organization that commits those kind of barbaric, inhumane acts. I mean, there's just no, there's no space for that. There should be zero tolerance for that. And the world should be united as we were all united with the United States on 9-11 when we all came together, you know, for the war on global terrorism. That's what we're dealing with. This is a global war on terrorism. That's what we're fighting right now. And there should be no divide in that. And yet you're seeing it all over, especially in the UK. Oh yeah, in the UK. I want to pick up on some of the military in the north and Hezbollah and surrounding, but let me ask you about that world support or pressure, how the media have responded. Europe have always had a very uneasy relationship with Israel. Europe have traditionally sided with Arab nations against Israel. America is quite different and America has generally been a bastion of support for Israel right from the beginning, from the modern day state. But what is that like because you have in campuses, as you see here I guess in the States, a lot of pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian, because people don't know any better. But generally the media, up until, they're still generally holding to be more pro-Israel, although you see that beginning to slip. And with the BBC, it maybe lasted a few days before it slipped, but I think in the US, it's lasted a lot longer. Tell us about that, because not only is there a military war but there's a PR and media war as well. Yeah, and that was where I think it's starting to shift. I think right away there was all of that pressure and people saw that. I think the social media, China was behind a lot of that on TikTok. They were fomenting a lot of that anti-Israel. I think China was a lot behind that, especially on TikTok social media. But I think you're seeing it start to swing now. And I think because people, when they see the videos and when they see it themselves, I think you can't defend it like it was so barbaric and inhumane what they did. No one can defend it so I think that's the difference that you're seeing and that's why it's starting to shift is because It is ISIS and when you when you see what how just that's why, when Hamas did this like 2014 when they launched the rockets and the war in 2014 it was very different because you just look at what, they targeted civilians, they targeted babies, they targeted women, and then they kidnapped them, they kidnapped babies, they kidnapped young little kids. And so that I think people are seeing that anyone that is a human being, right, that has any kind of understanding or emotion, common sense, you have to condemn it. There's just zero tolerance for that. And I think people are starting to see that. And that's why it's important for the actual videos and the reporting to happen, because Hamas is launching this massive information campaign, massive information war, which they've always done. You know, they've always done. And that's why you're seeing even pushback on the mainstream media. You know, when just for a perfect example, I think several weeks ago when you had, Shiva hospital and it was and they were saying that it was Israel that hit it right and it was Hamas but yet look at the condemnation because of the false reporting and they had to push back and to be able to report the truth and you have members of Congress. Rashid Talib, you know who was still not even believing Israel when all the evidence was there, even when the Biden administration themselves, you know came out and said no it wasn't Israel. It was Hamas you know, you still had a member of Congress who was coming out there and spewing these lies against Israel because she's, you know, she's part of that false campaign against Israel. And so I think you can't dispute the evidence. You just can't. No matter what, you just cannot dispute the evidence. And I think that's the information war that Israel is, they still have to battle it. They absolutely have to battle it. And that's why it was important to go on the ground too, because you have to see it yourself. You've got to report it first-hand. And if people were to see what I saw in the kibbutz's and what I heard, that's what will change your perspective. That's what will make you see. And that's why it is so important for the media to report it accurately. Tera, you touched on the opposition in the left in politics, in the media, and we see that as well in Europe and the UK and our media is dominated by those on the left and politics that are on the left. But we're all seeing another curious, I guess, voice come up and that's the voices that have appeared over the last kind of three, three and a half years on the COVID tyranny, demanding freedoms, angry at the restrictions we faced. And there's a lot of anger amongst that group, certainly against Israel, because of how it locked down more than anyone else before. It only allowed one vaccine to be used, the Pfizer vaccine. You didn't have any right to have anything else. It seemed to be a test bed, an experiment. And I think a lot of that anger against Israel, what's happened the last three, four years under that tyranny, has boiled over into hatred of Israel and Jewish haters. And I've realised a lot of those groups are maybe more in the left and they've traditionally had that hatred of Israel. And you see it popping up time and time again, groups that I would be surprised at. I don't know where, are you having that in the US or is the opposition traditionally from the left on the politics and the media? The left and the politics and the media. I think you have, the United States, you have such strong support for Israel. The evangelical church supports Israel. Democrats, Republicans, it's really dividing the Democratic Party. You've got very staunch pro-Israel Democrats, and the Republican Party has always been very pro-Israel. And so I think you do see it on the left. I think you do see it in that more of the Muslim Brotherhood, I think, influence the college campuses is probably the loudest where it's coming from. But again, that's where you have to look at the sources of that. I don't think it comes from the COVID lockdowns. If you're pro-Israel, you know, you just, for me, it's my faith, you know, God will bless Israel. Those that bless Israel be blessed. Those that curse Israel be cursed. And so you support Israel. And it's not because of who the politicians are, it's not who's in office at the time, it's because God blesses those that bless Israel, and you stand with Israel. And it's a biblical mandate. And I know that's where my position stems from, is I'm going to honour God, and I'm going to stand with Israel. And it's not because of the politicians or who's in power or what their policies are. I agree, that's 100% of where I come from, happily call myself a Christian Zionist because of what the Bible teaches. But then you talk to a non-Christian and you say, well, do you pick Hamas or Israel? Take your choice and don't tell me you want to live in Israel because of freedoms, but really want to hate Israel. And that's, yeah, wanting the freedoms, but yet hating it. It's like wanting a pride parade through Gaza. Well, go for it. You could be the first, and I want to be there to film it and see what happens. You have tolerance and freedom in one country across the board, and yet across the border, not only across the border into Gaza, but in West Bank, in many of the surrounding countries, you have little freedoms. Yeah, yeah, you do, you do. But they're a young country, 75 years old. And so they're still growing and like when you look at Israel, it's a miracle, right? Like it's an absolute miracle everything about Israel is miraculous. It was a desert and it's turned into a green land and is you know rivers and streams and lush and green trees and even just being there and you just see how beautiful Israel is and it's the hand of God and it's miraculous and there's no way that anything that Israel could have existed if it wasn't for God's providence in that country and his hand in doing it. 100%. You touched on, just coming near the end, you touched on the north and obviously the Gaza Strip is southwest. You've got the West Bank to the east and you've got up there in the northern border, Lebanon and Syria. You've got two countries which are failed states in effect and with Hezbollah. I mean for a country and a military to be fighting war on one side, but yet they must be ready and prepared at a moment's notice to open up that on a second front. It's horrendous, horrendous pressure and so far it has held off on the North, but as you say, they will have to deal with that. But the Israeli military have shown time and time again that they are able to fight on many fronts, in 48 and in 73, to attack, to fight on every single front and to be able to push that back. But that kind of, maybe touch on that, that constant state of readiness that has to be there. Everything can't just go to Gaza, it has to be prepared, not only in the North Hezbollah, but also on the West Bank border as well. And they are, you know, when I was there too, the IDF was, Hezbollah would launch rockets at Israel and Israel would respond. So they're well positioned to be able to respond to Hezbollah, to be able to eliminate the threat from Hezbollah. Just from what, you know, like, what I was told is that they're going to focus on the closest threat, the immediate threat, and that's eliminating Hamas, because, and that's also a quicker operation than Hezbollah. Hezbollah has about 150,000 rockets. They are a much, much stronger, well-equipped, dangerous force than Hamas. Obviously, they're backed by Iran. But the one thing I think that Israel has right now is like the U.S. Warships have been deployed, and they're not doing, actually, they're not doing the deterrence that they should do. Obviously, our troops in the region have been attacked now, over 70 times every day they're adding to the attacks that are going on right now. So the US needs to do much more deterrence to hold Iran at bay and to prevent Hezbollah from joining the war fully. But I think what's the number one thing right now that is preventing Hezbollah is that Lebanon and the civilians in Lebanon do not want Hezbollah to join the war because they're the ones that will be eliminated. And just like Hamas uses the schools and the civilians and the homes as their headquarters, as their military headquarters, and they hold their rockets and that's where they launch all their attacks and use it as their headquarters, that's exactly what Hezbollah does in Lebanon. And they do it as well in the Christian communities in Lebanon. Then they use the schools and they hold the civilians hostage and they use the civilians as their hostages just like they do. You don't hear about it as much, but that's exactly what's going on in Lebanon. And that's what Hezbollah is doing. They're hiding their rockets in these schools, in the hospitals. So, Lebanon does not want Hezbollah to join this war. And the civilians don't, because when the IDF, then Hezbollah will launch an attack from a Christian community, a village, or an area. And that happened when I was there. They launched it from a Christian area, and then the IDF will respond. And then it makes it look like the IDF is hitting a church. Well, no. Hezbollah was using that church as their headquarters at their launching pad to launch these rocket attacks. So of course, the IDF is going to respond to eliminate the threat, they have to. But that's the tactics that they use. And so I think if you put pressure on Lebanon, and obviously, the Hezbollah has, you know, power and control in Lebanon, but I think that's where you could really deter Hezbollah. And the UN could deter Hezbollah as well, like they already passed in 2006, the UN Resolution 1701 to be able to push Hezbollah up past the Latani River, so they're not on the Israeli border, but it's not being enforced. Hezbollah attacks the UN forces because there's not enough, they attack them. I've seen the videos of them attacking their trucks. So Hezbollah dominates in that area, and they're not even supposed to be in that area. So there are things already that exist that just are not being enforced that could really prevent from Israel having, or from that the Northern Front, really being an all-out war? Just finish off on, where Israel goes the future, because Israel has to come out of this stronger. It has to come out of this having defeated Hamas, and whatever that means for Gaza, that will have to be for others to decide. But militarily and security-wise, has to come out the stronger. And then politically, how do you see that happening? Because Israeli politics has always been fractured. And what Benjamin Netanyahu, who's the great survivor, being what PM, differences a third or fourth time now since 96. And obviously that has to pass over at some point, kind of how did you pick up on that political, obviously there's support for him, what he's doing, he needs to come out of this with a strong legacy, and I guess someone else has to also come up and continue his, I guess his boldness and determination to fight for Israel's security. So let me just touch on that, that political side, what did you feel coming away from your trip on that? I think Israel will come out stronger. I think that you will see something different in Gaza, Hamas will be eliminated and what that is, I didn't get the sense that Israel wants to take over Gaza. I think they don't want to do that. I think you'll have the sovereignty of Israel, you'll have the sovereignty of Israel involved but will that include security will that include Arab countries, you know, you hear talks about maybe Saudi Arabia the UAE. One country that that I don't think should have any Impact at all is Qatar. Qatar should have absolutely no influence in Gaza because Qatar is the Muslim Brotherhood. They are the problem and they should be sanctioned, you know the international community should be sanctioning Qatar but if you have like an Arab force, if you have a UN peacekeeping force, some kind of security, but it's Israel's sovereignty. Israel should control, it's their country, and they should have the decisions and it should be in their control to decide. It's their civilians, it's their people, it's their responsibility to keep the civilians of Israel safe and defend their country. And so the US, I mean, the pressure from the Biden administration in any kind of way against Israel to have that sovereignty, you know, that needs to be pushed back on and that you need to allow Israel to be able to have that sovereignty. And also I think the sovereignty as well over Judea and Samaria, you know, the Palestinian Authority, it's not okay for Israel to live under siege. That's not normal. And they shouldn't have to live that way. They should be able to eliminate the attacks. I mean, just think if we were in Texas and someone in Mexico, or not someone, cartels were launching attacks with rockets every day at Texan citizens. And they couldn't eliminate the threat, but instead they just had to build around it to protect themselves, right? They just had to build an Iron Dome or a defence system to be able to protect from the rockets. Instead of taking out the cartels who's launching the rockets. It makes no sense, you know, take out the threat. And so that's something that we need to get behind Israel and allow them to do that and to support them in doing that. But I think you will see a safer Israel, you'll see more sovereignty, and they should. And that's where I think the international community, I don't understand their position in pressuring for a two-state solution, because there is no two-state solution. It just doesn't exist because the Palestinian Authority is not, there is no structure. It doesn't even, it doesn't make any sense. A, it's unbiblical, right? It's against God. You don't divide God's land. Again, those that bless Israel, like America's policy, I think, is directly impacted by our decisions to bless Israel. But there is just no common sense, viable option with the Palestinian Authority. They just don't have the financial structure right now, and they want to eliminate Israel as well. Tera, really appreciate you coming along and sharing your thoughts on your trip there. So thank you so much for joining us and sharing the stories you had from your trip. Thanks. Thank you, Peter. It's so good to be with you. Thank you.

Colonel James Allen Regenor had a distinguished career, flying tankers and transport aircraft for the U.S. Air Force before serving under President Bush and the National Security Council (NSC). After his time at the NSC, he took command of the 521st Air Mobility Group. He later joined MOOG in their Additive division. Currently, he is the CEO of VeriTX, a company focused on securing the digital supply chain for additive manufacturing and various other files. His career is filled with exciting stories, and he offers valuable insights into an often-overlooked aspect of additive technology.

In this day in history, July 25th, the National Security Act of 1947 was passed. The act linked the military and national security organizations and set the tone for the relationship between the two that persists to this day. The National Security Act of 1947, a cornerstone in the reorganization of the United States' foreign policy and military institutions, led to the establishment of significant bodies such as the National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The NSC was formed to discuss long-term and immediate national security issues, composed of high-ranking officials including the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Director of the CIA. Over time, the significance, autonomy, and influence of the NSC have varied depending on the presidential administration. For instance, Eisenhower used it for key foreign policy decisions, while Nixon and Kissinger transformed it into an active negotiation and decision-implementing organization.The act also birthed the CIA, which became the primary civilian intelligence-gathering entity, evolving from World War II's Office of Strategic Services and other small post-war intelligence organizations. Following this, the Defense Intelligence Agency emerged as the main military intelligence body. In a major reshuffling, the act merged the War Department and Navy Department into a unified Department of Defense, introducing the Department of the Air Force and placing all under the Secretary of Defense. However, individual service secretaries were retained for each military branch. The act was later amended in 1949, granting the Secretary of Defense greater control over individual services and their respective secretaries.As the complexity of compliance and regulatory requirements increases, public companies are increasingly seeking lawyers for their boards. This trend, dubbed the "golden age" for lawyers seeking board seats, arises due to the value of legal expertise in risk analysis and communication in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment. The introduction of lawyers to boardrooms is viewed as a significant asset, given the potential business opportunities and less concern about conflicts impacting current operations. Examples include former Homeland Security Department Chief Jeh Johnson, who serves on several corporate boards while also working as a partner at a law firm.The demand for legal expertise has been driven by market-changing events such as the pandemic, the rise of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity challenges, geopolitical concerns, and debates over environmental, social, and governance issues. Approximately 1,500 board seats open each year, offering lucrative compensation packages. However, the involvement of lawyers in corporate boards also brings potential conflicts of interest that require careful management, especially when companies have ongoing relationships with the lawyers' firms.Moreover, including lawyers as potential candidates for director roles has also assisted companies in responding to calls for greater boardroom diversity in terms of age, ethnicity, gender, and professional perspective. Despite the benefits, it is generally accepted that a lawyer can hold a maximum of three directorships in public companies due to potential conflict of interest. Overall, this shift towards legal expertise in the boardroom represents a significant transformation from previous perspectives, which viewed lawyers as having a too narrow or risk-oriented focus.It's the ‘Golden Age' for Lawyers Seeking Corporate Board SeatsElon Musk's recent decision to rename Twitter as X could face significant legal complications due to pre-existing trademarks owned by companies such as Meta and Microsoft. The letter X is widely used and cited in trademarks across various industries, making it prone to legal challenges. Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney, has identified almost 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that include the letter X. Trademark owners have the right to claim infringement if another brand's usage could lead to consumer confusion. Microsoft has held a trademark for the letter X in relation to its Xbox communication since 2003, while Meta owns a trademark for a blue and white letter X for software and social media usage. However, these companies would likely only pursue legal action if they believe Twitter's use of X threatens their own brand equity. If Musk succeeds in rebranding Twitter, others could still potentially claim 'X' for their own uses.Meta, Microsoft, hundreds more own trademarks to new Twitter name | ReutersU.S. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan disclosed that one of its electronic discovery vendors fell victim to a cyber attack last year, potentially exposing client information. The firm clarified that the attack affected only "a small portion of our clients and matters" and did not impact its own network infrastructure. Fewer than 2,000 individuals were notified about the incident. The data breach occurred in a data center's network used by the firm for document management. Despite being unclear about the specifics of the personal data impacted, the firm has engaged cyber and forensic experts to better understand the extent of the breach and is collaborating with law enforcement authorities to prevent further breaches. This breach is another example of the cybersecurity challenges faced by law firms and other entities managing sensitive and confidential data.Quinn Emanuel reports cyber attack involving 'limited' client data | ReutersThe U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Texas over floating barriers installed by the state in the Rio Grande river to prevent migrants from Mexico. The barriers were installed as part of Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star initiative. They work as large incumbrances in the water, difficult to climb over and dangerous to swim under. If that sounds inhumane, as it is implicitly threatening migrants with death if they choose to try to make a crossing, that's because it is. The federal government alleges that Texas violated federal law by not obtaining necessary federal authorization to install the barrier, claiming it poses risks to navigation, public safety, and humanitarian concerns. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Texas, seeks to remove all obstructions, including the barrier and its related infrastructure. In response to the lawsuit, Governor Abbott accused the Biden administration of failing to enforce immigration laws. Abbott pledged to take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary. The initiative has also drawn criticism from Mexico, which claims the barrier violates a water treaty and may encroach on Mexican territory.US sues Texas over floating border barriers | ReutersIn this week's column I urge the IRS to enforce the limits of 501(c)(3) status, which prohibits charities and religious organizations from engaging in political campaign activity. I point to the recent example of a Las Vegas pastor who hosted a campaign rally for Donald Trump at his church. There is increasing cause for concern over the blurred line between advocacy and political involvement, as more non-profit organizations, including churches and policy think tanks, typically right wing churches and policy think tanks, engage in contentious political issues. The policy rationale behind not taxing religious organizations is the avoidance of government entanglement in religion. Religious organizations are categorized with charitable organizations stemming from the perception that they both provide secular benefits to their communities. The exemption from tax, then, is a kind of end-around for the government to encourage their works without overt sponsorship.It's worth noting there's one point of separation between charitable organizations and some religious organizations. Religious organizations that are deemed “churches” get an additional benefit that even charities don't enjoy: They don't need to file a yearly information return, known as Form 990. For instance, the Muslim Public Affairs Council is a religious organization, tax-exempt under 501(c)(3), but it's not designated as a church. It must file yearly financial reports detailing revenue, assets, expenses, and liabilities, among other things.Church status removes the public reporting requirement and obfuscates what sorts of revenue the organization is raising and where that revenue is being spent. In conjunction with unchecked involvement in the political process, this provides a uniquely dangerous inroad for dark money into politics. In sum, the “church” designation is particularly vulnerable to this kind of abuse, but the IRS needs to revamp its approach to all 501(c)(3) entities and crack down on violations of the restrictions on political intervention. IRS Must Enforce 501(c)(3) Limits for Religious Groups, Charities Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Kash Patel joins Liberty & Justice with host Matt Whitaker Season 2, Episode 23. This is Kash's fifth appearance as a L&J guest and is back by popular demand. Watch every episode of Liberty & Justice at http://www.whitaker.tv.  Get Kash's new book Government Gangsters here:  Government GangstersKash Pramod Patel served as the chief of staff to the Department of Defense (DOD), where his responsibilities included implementing the secretary of defense's mission involving three million-plus employees, a $740-billion budget, and $2 trillion in assets.Prior to his experience at the Pentagon, Mr. Patel served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council (NSC). In that capacity, Mr. Patel oversaw the execution of several of President Trump's top priorities, including eliminating Al-Qa'ida and ISIS senior leadership, and safely repatriating dozens of American hostages. As one of the highest-ranking officials at the ODNI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the White House, Mr. Patel gained unique expertise straddling the nexus of government and private sector operations for the defense of our nation to include defense, cyber, and intel.Before joining the NSC, Mr. Patel served as the national security advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), where he spearheaded the investigation into the Russian active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election.A native of New York, Mr. Patel graduated from the University of Richmond with a bachelor's in criminal justice and history, received a juris doctor from law school in New York, and a certificate in international law from the University College London Faculty of Laws in the United Kingdom. Mr. Patel left government service in January 2021 and is now in the private sector. He has established the Kash Foundation and FightWithKash.com to continue his work fighting for Americans and holding corrupt government accountable..  https://fightwithkash.com/Matthew G. Whitaker was acting Attorney General of the United States (2018-2019). Prior to becoming acting Attorney General, Mr. Whitaker served as Chief of Staff to the Attorney General. He was appointed as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa by President George W. Bush, serving from 2004-2009. Whitaker was the managing partner of Des Moines-based law firm, Whitaker Hagenow & Gustoff LLP from 2009 until rejoining DOJ in 2017. He was also the Executive Director for FACT, The Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust, an ethics and accountability watchdog, between 2014 and 2017. Mr. Whitaker is the Author of the book--Above the Law, The Inside Story of How the Justice Department Tried to Subvert President Trump. Buy Matt's book here: https://amzn.to/3IXUOb8Mr. Whitaker graduated with a Master of Business Administration, Juris Doctor, and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa. While at Iowa, Mr. Whitaker was a three-year letterman on the football team where he received the prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor.Mr. Whitaker is now a Co-Chair of the Center for Law and Justice at America First Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow at the American Conservative Union Foundation. Matt is on the Board of Directors for America First Legal Foundation and is a Senior Advisor to IronGate Capital Advisors. He is also Of Counsel with the Graves Garrett law firm. 

Today's show first looks at the farce that was the supposed Russian coup. Isn't it amazing how so many supposed “experts” were touting it as the fall of Putin and a win for both Ukraine and US foreign policy. Let's not forget the timing of the news cycle and the way the media continues to push any other news story other than the IRS whistleblower bombshells dropped last week by the House Ways and Means Committee. Former and disgraced GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger from the J6 Reality TV Show, literally said Putin was doomed and then added that it is also a loss for people like Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson? Why in the world would he be worried about making Tucker look badly? Seems Kinzinger is allowing Tucker to live rent-free in his own head. Unfortunately for him and most of the other experts, the coup lasted 12 hours and ended with no charges and the head of the Wagner Group getting a full-fledged retirement party. Plus, Putin likely now has total control of the largest and most well-financed military mercenary groups on the face of the planet. Kash Patel was most recently hired in February 2019 as a staffer for President Trump's National Security Council (NSC), working in the International Organizations and Alliances directorate and in July 2019 became Senior Director of the Counterterrorism Directorate. He has long history in the intelligence community and a liaison with the Department of Defense. He sees the events of the Wagner Group as not only a win for Putin but a bad, bad loss for Ukraine. Next, I continue looking at the testimony given by the IRS whistleblowers versus what has been said by both U.S. Attorney from Delaware David Weiss and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. We are definitely in a place where either Weiss lied to his top investigators or Weiss and Garland conspired to deceive Congress. The investigation needs to play itself out, but it seems we have moved from the cover-up of the crimes of the Biden Crime Family to now the cover-up of the cover-up. Regardless, we need to get answers as to who is lying and what will be the consequences. In conclusion, I discuss a recent piece published in American Greatness by Roger Kimball entitled, “A catastrophic implosion...of the rule of law.” We are definitely at a place in our nation where THE rule of law has changed to OUR rule of law. It goes along with my observation that we have moved well into a full oligarchy, where a handful of elites get to rule the rest of us. It's a reminder of how important the 2024 election cycle is going to be in finding patriots who will employ and follow the Constitution in an effort to restrict and restrain this weaponized Executive Branch of our federal government. Take a moment to rate and review the show and then share the episode on social media. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, GETTR and TRUTH Social by searching for The Alan Sanders Show. You can also support the show by visiting my Patreon page!

In this episode Peter Garretson meets with Dr. Ezinne Uzo-Okoro of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). They discuss the White House space policies in the context of the Administration Priorities, including climate, economy and jobs, restoring US global leadership, COVID and infrastructure, and the intention to lead by example. They delve into the broad context of the White House Space Priorities Framework and its emphasis on sustainability, norms and behaviors, earth observation for climate change. They examine the plethora of policy documents and the 'nuts and bolts' of what is involved in originating and coordinating such documents, including aligning with presidential intent, 'reading the room,' bringing together and educating stakeholders, and soliciting feedback including from industry and academia, making a case for guidance, always with the intent to maintain US preeminence at least 10-20 years down the road. They address how such documents are used by federal agencies, allies, and industry, and the relationship of OSTP to the National Space Council (NSpC), National Security Council (NSC), and Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and sometimes the National Economic Council (NEC) and Climate office...as well as the need for patience and grace throughout the 6-12 month coordination process. They explore the historic nature of the National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy and the deliberate choice of the language of 'settlement' in the new National Low Earth Orbit Research and Development Strategy, and the consistent industry-friendly themes across documents of new products and scalable infrastructure, and economic growth. They touch on In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing National Strategy and National In-Space Servicing Assembly, and Manufacturing Implementation Plan, as well as the National Strategy for Advanced Manufacturing and Interagency Roadmap to Support Space-Related STEM Education and Workforce. They also cover the James Webb Telescope and exciting DART mission, the recently updated National Preparedness Strategy & Action Plan for Near-Earth Object Hazards and Planetary Defense—"what's cooler than planetary defense." Along the way they discuss Space-Based Solar Power, Exoplanets, Settlement, Space Weather, regulating novel space activities. They review Ezinne's own career and journey, and her reasons for optimism and philosophy of hard work. They conclude talking about how easy it is to become involved in space, because it is a small community where anyone can play, and secrets of success such as: if you want to go far, go together; that success comes from putting one foot in front of the other; the utility of patience and grace, and that there is plenty of work, so grab an oar!    

Debbie Lerman is a photography-based mixed-media artist in Philadelphia, PA. She graduated with a degree in English from Harvard in 1991 and worked as a freelance writer for 25 years. Debbie writes for the Brownstone Institute and joins me talk about her research into the origins of America's pandemic policies. According to Lerman's research, in a sharp break from official pandemic preparedness plans, the National Security Council (NSC) was put in charge of the pandemic policy in 2020. And Health and Human Services (HHS) was removed as the lead federal agency for the pandemic response and replaced with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who “were like a deer in headlights,” she argues. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/out-of-the-blank/support

Welcome to the Stay on Course podcast with your host Julie Riga. In today's episode, we are honored to have Rear Admiral Garry E. Hall, who is about to release his book called Navigating Leadership: Making A PACT With Excellence.Rear Admiral Garry E. Hall is a distinguished veteran who served 35 years on active duty in the United States Navy. As a naval aviator, he flew anti-submarine warfare helicopters and commanded two squadrons. He also commanded the USS Tarawa LHA 1, which had a complement of 1000 Sailors, 2000 Marines, 32 aircraft, and 3 landing craft.In addition, Rear Admiral Hall received a political appointment to serve as a Senior Director on the National Security Council (NSC) and Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He was responsible for Human Rights, Humanitarian Assistance, Immigration and Migration, Atrocity Prevention, United Nations Operations, Democracies, and Fragile States. He led a team of career professionals dedicated to each of these functional areas.In today's episode, we talk about accountability at work, at home with our families, and with our purpose. Rear Admiral Hall shares his insights and experiences on how we can become accountable leaders and live a fulfilling life.Don't miss this insightful episode with Rear Admiral Garry E. Hall, and make sure to grab a copy of his book, Navigating Leadership: Making A PACT With Excellence.Follow the Stay on Course podcast with Julie Riga for more inspiring conversations and insights.Gary E. Hall - https://www.linkedin.com/in/garryehall/Navigating Leadership: https://www.navigatingleadershipbook.com/The Admirals Almanac Podcast: https://admiral.libsyn.com/To learn more about Julie Riga and her mission to help you Stay On Course, visit her website: www.stayoncourse.ioJulie Riga is a certified coach, trainer, speaker and author with over 20 years of experience in the Pharma Industry. Julie's education is vast with studies that include business, communications, training and executive coaching. Julie started on this journey because she had a strong desire to pass on the knowledge and skills passed on to her by her father, Ennio Riga, and inspirational man who taught her how to keep going irrespective of the challenges that life may present you with.Based in New Jersey, Julie have travelled the world supporting corporations, business leaders and individuals on their journey of empowerment and growth. Discover your purpose, Stay on Course, Leave a Legacy#StayOnCoursePodcast #Accountability #Leadership #NavigatingLeadership #GarryEHall #USNavalAcademy #NationalSecurityCouncil #HumanRights #Accountability #TakeResponsibility #OwnYourMistakes #Transparency #Integrity #Honesty #SelfAwareness #PersonalResponsibility #Leadership #Motivation #Inspiration #Productivity #SuccessMindset #GrowthMindset #SelfImprovement #SelfDevelopment #GoalSetting #ActionPlan #ProgressNotPerfection #Consistency #Discipline #Mindfulness #Wellness #HealthyHabits #PositiveMindset #PositiveChange #Empowerment #julieriga

Sponsor special: Up to $2,500 of FREE silver AND a FREE safe on qualifying orders - Call 855-862-3377 or text “AMERICAN” to 6-5-5-3-2In this episode, I sit down with Brownstone Institute fellow Debbie Lerman to discuss her research into U.S. government documents and the origins of America's pandemic policies.The response to COVID—from lockdowns to mask mandates to vaccine mandates—was actually a national security response, not a public health response, she argues.According to Lerman's research, in a sharp break from official pandemic preparedness plans, the National Security Council (NSC) was put in charge of the pandemic policy in 2020. And Health and Human Services (HHS) was removed as the lead federal agency for the pandemic response and replaced with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who “were like a deer in headlights,” she argues.What really happened in the first few months of 2020?And for years now, scientists have been working on mRNA technology, but prior to the COVID-19 vaccines, nothing had been approved. The pandemic turned into an opportunity, she says, and now—despite growing evidence of critical side effects from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines—Moderna and BioNTech have dozens of new mRNA vaccines and therapeutics in development.

The following conversation is with Charles Kupchan. Kupchan is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government.From 2014 to 2017, Kupchan served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) in the Barack Obama administration. He was also director for European affairs on the NSC during the first Bill Clinton administration.  Before joining the Clinton NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the policy planning staff.  Previously, he was an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.Kupchan is the author of Isolationism: A History of America's Efforts to Shield Itself From the World (2020), No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn (2012), How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (2010) Rate and subscribe if you enjoy the content and follow 'overcoming_the_divide'  on Instagram & Twitter!Time stamps::30 Where is the war heading in its' second year4:20 Should the US pursue for a diplomatic solution now7:05 Shepparding battlefield efforts to peace negotiations 11:40 The possibility of escalation and the use of a tactical nuclear weapon 16:40 Escalation in the war with supplying Ukraine Tanks and the possibility of F16s22:00 France's possible role in a diplomatic solution25:25 Boris Johnson's trip to Ukraine in April of 202228:20 The Nord Stream Pipeline32:45 Best possible case scenario in the next 6-12 months Music: Coma-Media (intro)                 WinkingFoxMusic (outro)Recorded: 3/3

On this joint episode of the China in the World podcast and the U.S.-China Nexus podcast, Eleanor Albert interviews Paul Haenle and two of his former National Security Council (NSC) colleagues, Dennis Wilder and Faryar Shirzad, about U.S. policy toward China during the George W. Bush administration. The three experts assess president Bush's approach to China and the strategic perspective that guided U.S. engagement with Beijing as well as its hedging strategy against the prospect of a more ambitious China. In many respects, Haenle, Shirzad, and Wilder find that the Bush administration's economic and security initiatives served as building blocks for the United States' current strategy in the Indo-Pacific. The conversation touches on the China section of the recently published Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama (2023), an edited volume with 30 commentaries and newly declassified transition memoranda, made public for the first time.The U.S.-China Nexus podcast: https://uschinadialogue.georgetown.edu/podcasts/hand-off-the-china-policy-george-w-bush-passed-to-barack-obamaOrder a copy of Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780815739777/Hand-Off-The-Foreign-Policy-George-W-Bush-Passed-to-Barack-Obama 

In the face of a 'polycrisis' - an energy crisis, a climate crisis, geopolitical conflict and a potential economic recession, what's needed to ensure global cooperation on climate action continues? Learn more from this panel held at the World Economic Forum 2023 Annual Meeting 18 January with top voices, including: Julia Chatterley, Anchor, CNN; Jesper Brodin, Chief Executive Officer, Ingka Group (IKEA); Helena Gualinga, Co-Founder, Indigenous Youth Collective of Amazon Defenders; Anna Borg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vattenfall AB; Jennifer Morgan, State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action, Federal Foreign Office of Germany; John F. Kerry; Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, National Security Council (NSC). This session was developed in collaboration with CNN.

In the face of a 'polycrisis' - an energy crisis, a climate crisis, geopolitical conflict and a potential economic recession, what's needed to ensure global cooperation on climate action continues? Learn more from this panel held at the World Economic Forum 2023 Annual Meeting 18 January with top voices, including: Julia Chatterley, Anchor, CNN; Jesper Brodin, Chief Executive Officer, Ingka Group (IKEA); Helena Gualinga, Co-Founder, Indigenous Youth Collective of Amazon Defenders; Anna Borg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vattenfall AB; Jennifer Morgan, State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action, Federal Foreign Office of Germany; John F. Kerry; Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, National Security Council (NSC). This session was developed in collaboration with CNN. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Show (12/01/2022): 3:05pm- In a 2021 interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained why his company continues to rely on China for manufacturing despite the government's totalitarian and suppressive tendencies. According to a report from CNBC, just prior to widespread anti-government protests Apple limited its iPhone's AirDrop function in China—restricting the communication methods of protesters taking a stand against totalitarian COVID-19 lockdown procedures that have resulted in numerous deaths. CNBC writes that AirDrop, “relies on wireless connections between phones, rather than internet connectivity, placing it beyond the scope of [China's] internet content moderators.” Will Apple continue to support the Chinese government? 3:20pm- While speaking with The Washington Post, Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed that he was “being outgunned by people who are spreading disinformation” on social media. 3:30pm- Speaking with Fox News' Martha MacCallum, National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby was unable to answer why the federal government has vowed to monitor Twitter but has not expressed interest in investigating Apple's decision to deactivate its iPhone AirDrop feature at the behest of the Chinese government.  3:45pm- New Jersey State Senator Michael Testa Jr. joins The Rich Zeoli Show to talk about how Republicans in South Jersey were able to find electoral success during the 2022 midterms—what was the secret? Sen. Testa believes it's important to be unapologetically conservative.  3:50pm- The Supreme Court has decided to review the legality of the Biden Administration's student loan forgiveness program.  4:05pm- The Wall Street Journal's editorial board is warning that Democrats are seeking to “stuff all 12 of Congress's annual, overdue spending bills into a giant ‘omnibus' to finance government through September 2023” prior to losing control of the House of Representatives.  4:10pm- House Democrats have selected Congressman Hakeem Jeffries to become the next House Minority Leader. He will become the first Black leader in Congress, according to The Guardian. After being elected to the position, Rep. Jeffries referred to Nancy Pelosi as a “Speaker for the ages.” 4:15pm- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez' fiancé took to Instagram to explain how to be less racist.  4:30pm- While appearing on Alex Jones' show, rapper Kanye West made numerous, horrifying anti-Semitic comments. 4:40pm- Howard Husock—Senior Fellow in Domestic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute & Author of “The Poor Side of Town and Why We Need It”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to talk about his most recent opinion editorial in The Wall Street Journal, “The Environmental Battle Writ Small: Leaf-Blower.” Read more at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-environmental-battle-writ-small-leaf-blower-wars-eco-hysteria-noise-affluent-municipalities-carbon-preferences-11669666011?mod=opinion_lead_pos7 5:05pm- Henry doesn't know how to change a tire. What other basic life skills is he unable to perform? 5:15pm- On Wednesday, against the advice of his attorney, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried spoke with Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times. During the interview, SBF claimed he did not knowingly "commingle" the funds of FTX and Alameda. He also said he did not believe he is criminally liable for events leading to FTX's bankruptcy.  5:25pm- San Francisco's Board of Supervisors have voted to permit the deployment of lethal robots in extraordinary circumstances. The New York Times wrote: “In 2016, the Dallas Police Department ended a standoff with a gunman suspected of killing five officers by blowing him up with a bomb attached to a robot in what was believed to be the first lethal use of the technology by an American law enforcement agency.” 5:30pm- Jen Psaki suggested that an unnamed source at the Department of Justice told her that Attorney General Merrick Garland will hold former President Donald Trump for his actions on January 6th.  5:50pm- "Who Won Social Media" in the 5 o'clock hour? Rich has to attend a parent teacher meeting tonight and needs to sprint out of the studio when the show ends at 7pm.  5:55pm- It's Time to Reduce the Load! What stories will Rich try to get rid of so Matt stops putting them on his show sheet? 6:05pm- On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal documented the Chinese government's attempts to stifle free speech within its borders and, consequently, end anti-lockdown protests. The WSJ writes, “[t]he Cyberspace Administration of China issued guidance to companies on Tuesday, including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese owner of short video apps TikTok and Douyin, asking them to add more staff to internet censorship teams.” 6:45pm- Jim Cryns—writer for Barrett News Media—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss talk radio and his new book, “Talk to Me: Profiles on News Talkers & Media Leaders from Top 50 Markets.” The book features profiles on Rich, Dom, Dawn, and Nick!

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 1: In a 2021 interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained why his company continues to rely on China for manufacturing despite the government's totalitarian and suppressive tendencies. According to a report from CNBC, just prior to widespread anti-government protests Apple limited its iPhone's AirDrop function in China—restricting the communication methods of protesters taking a stand against totalitarian COVID-19 lockdown procedures that have resulted in numerous deaths. CNBC writes that AirDrop, “relies on wireless connections between phones, rather than internet connectivity, placing it beyond the scope of [China's] internet content moderators.” Will Apple continue to support the Chinese government? While speaking with The Washington Post, Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed that he was “being outgunned by people who are spreading disinformation” on social media. Speaking with Fox News' Martha MacCallum, National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby was unable to answer why the federal government has vowed to monitor Twitter but has not expressed interest in investigating Apple's decision to deactivate its iPhone AirDrop feature at the behest of the Chinese government. New Jersey State Senator Michael Testa Jr. joins The Rich Zeoli Show to talk about how Republicans in South Jersey were able to find electoral success during the 2022 midterms—what was the secret? Sen. Testa believes it's important to be unapologetically conservative. The Supreme Court has decided to review the legality of the Biden Administration's student loan forgiveness program. 

3:05pm- While speaking with the press on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden Administration was “keeping an eye” on Elon Musk-initiated reforms being adopted at Twitter. How will the Biden's Administration determine which reforms are worthy of regulation? What will constitute the promotion of misinformation? Will the federal government ultimately target the dissemination of information that deviates from their preferred narratives? 3:25pm- Elon Musk explained his decision for firing a large number of Twitter employees after purchasing the company—claiming he saw people just sitting around in the office doing nothing! 3:30pm- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) condemned the White House's vow to monitor Elon Musk and Twitter, stating: “Government's going to go after someone who wants to have free speech?...Do they want to go more after American public about whether they can have an opinion on something?...I think they should stop picking on Elon Musk.” 3:40pm- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticized Apple for deactivating iPhone's Airdrop feature in China—restricting the communication methods of anti-government protestors taking a stand against totalitarian COVID-19 lockdown procedures. 4:05pm- World Cup Update: The United States defeated Iran 1-0 in Qatar on Tuesday and will now advance to the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup. 4:15pm- While speaking with Jake Tapper on CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated he is “almost certain” that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) did not fund gain-of-function research that could be responsible for a Wuhan, China lab leak resulting in the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Fauci conceded that the origins of COVID-19 have not been definitively proven but emphasized that it was “molecularly impossible” for the NIH funded virus research to turn into SARS-CoV-2. Is Dr. Fauci at least now acknowledging the NIH funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan?  4:35pm- Two-term Philadelphia City Councilmember Helen Gym has resigned from her position and is now expected to announce a run for Philadelphia Mayor. 4:45pm- When asked whether the White House supported zero-COVID policy protesters in China, National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby stated, “the President is not going to speak for protesters around the world” but did emphasize that the administration supports peaceful protests around the world.  4:50pm- Did Leonardo DiCaprio almost get booted from "Titanic" film for being a diva?  5:00pm- Scott Hodge—President Emeritus & Senior Policy Advisor at the Tax Foundation—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his opinion editorial in the Wall Street Journal, “The Child Tax Credit is a Failed Experiment.” Hodge writes: “Since the child tax credit was enacted in 1997, it has become one of the largest federal income transfer programs. It is one of the leading reasons that more than 40% of all filers pay no income tax. The beleaguered Internal Revenue Service isn't the right agency to play such a big role in addressing poverty.” Read more at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-child-tax-credit-is-a-failed-experiment-expansion-refundable-workforce-handout-pandemic-liability-revenue-social-service-irs-11669645688?mod=opinion_lead_pos5 5:25pm- Prager University's Ami Horowitz asked UCLA students if it was acceptable for a fictional 5-year-old to undergo irreversible gender affirming surgeries—a majority of them endorsed the idea. 5:35pm- MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan says that Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) may not be able to prevent Democrats from upending the filibuster if Senator Raphael Warnock is able to win re-election against Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia. 5:45pm- In what film was Joe Pesci's greatest performance as an actor—Goodfellas? Raging Bull? My Cousin Vinny? All are fine choices. However, Matt idiotically suggests the correct answer is Home Alone! 6:05pm- Ryan Manion—Author of the book, “The Knock at the Door: Three Gold Star Families Bonded by Grief and Purpose”— joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss her work serving as President of the Travis Manion Foundation and Giving Tuesday. Learn more about the Travis Manion Foundation at: https://www.travismanion.org 6:20pm- The Rich Zeoli Show is preempted for sports!

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 2:  World Cup Update: The United States defeated Iran 1-0 in Qatar on Tuesday and will now advance to the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup. While speaking with Jake Tapper on CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated he is “almost certain” that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) did not fund gain-of-function research that could be responsible for a Wuhan, China lab leak resulting in the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Fauci conceded that the origins of COVID-19 have not been definitively proven but emphasized that it was “molecularly impossible” for the NIH funded virus research to turn into SARS-CoV-2. Is Dr. Fauci at least now acknowledging the NIH funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan? Two-term Philadelphia City Councilmember Helen Gym has resigned from her position and is now expected to announce a run for Philadelphia Mayor. When asked whether the White House supported zero-COVID policy protesters in China, National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby stated, “the President is not going to speak for protesters around the world” but did emphasize that the administration supports peaceful protests around the world. Did Leonardo DiCaprio almost get booted from "Titanic" film for being a diva? 

On this episode of the IoT: The Internet of Threats podcast, Michael Daniel, President and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance, joins podcast host Eric Greenwald to discuss the shifting sands of the regulatory landscape in cybersecurity today and the growing prospect of government regulation affecting private-sector cybersecurity practices.    Interview with Michael Daniel:    Prior to his role as President and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance, Michael served as the Cybersecurity Coordinator to President Obama's National Security Council (NSC). His work at the NSC followed a 17-year tenure a Program Examiner and later a Branch Chief for national security programs with the U.S. Government's Office of Management and Budget.  The Cyber Threat Alliance is a non-profit organization that enables cybersecurity providers to share threat intelligence with each other and improve cybersecurity across the digital ecosystem.   In this interview, Eric and Michael discuss: The government's evolving role in cybersecurity regulation, from the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) to Executive Order 14028 How to measure the efficacy of cybersecurity products and practices and the pros and cons of first- and third-party certifications The government's contribution to improving cybersecurity practices by encouraging the adoption and implementation of the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) How SBOMs help us see inside the software we use and address a key weakness in cybersecurity right now   Find Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-michael-daniel-7b71a95/. Learn more about Cyber Threat Alliance by visiting CyberThreatAlliance.org.   Thank you for listening to this episode of the IoT: The Internet of Threats podcast, powered by Finite State — the leading supply chain cyber-security solution provider for connected devices and embedded systems.   If you enjoyed this episode, click subscribe to stay connected and leave a review to get the word out about the podcast. To learn more about building a robust product security program, protecting your connected devices, and complying with emerging regulations and technical standards, visit https://finitestate.io/.

This week, Jon Murchison, Blackpoint's founder and CEO, welcomes Brigadier General Jonathan George to our podcast. He has had an impressive and extensive career, including roles as pilot-in-command and deputy commanding general, and two assignments to the White House. He is presently the Director of Strategic Capabilities Policy for the National Security Council (NSC) in Washington, D.C.  In this episode, Brig. Gen. George talks about his staff assignments including with his time with the U.S. Air Force and in Afghanistan, serving under Presidents Reagan, GHW Bush, and Obama, and shares about the national decision-making process involved in all his years. They also discuss staying on top of technology and establishing the right vision as a leader. And of course, he talks about what it's really like flying a U-2, B-1, and B-2 jet. Be sure to keep an eye out for part two of General George and Jon's conversation in a few weeks! 

Kash Patel (fightwithkash.com) joins Liberty & Justice with host Matt Whitaker in Episode 19.  Kash is the first repeat guest and is back by popular demand.  SAVE MISSOURI VALUES PAC is this week's sponsor.Sign up for the Newsletter at Whitaker.tvKash Patel served as the Chief of Staff to President Donald J. Trump's Department of Defense (DOD), where his responsibilities included implementing the Secretary's mission using our 3 million plus employees, operating a $740 billion budget, and $2 trillion in assets. Managing the world's largest organization required a constant, mission focused, principal-level engagement across all government agencies and the private sector. Our priority at the Department, defend the homeland, protect the U.S. from our enemies, and care for our service men and women.Prior to his experience at the Pentagon, Mr. Patel served as Deputy Assistant to President Donald J. Trump and Senior Director for Counterterrorism (CT) on the National Security Council (NSC). In that capacity, Mr. Patel oversaw the execution of several of President Trump's top priorities, including eliminating Al-Qa'ida and ISIS senior leadership, and safely repatriating of dozens of American hostages. As the top counterterrorism official at the White House, he was responsible for creating and implementing our nation's policy to safeguard the homeland by overseeing the interagency implementation of the national CT strategy. Mr. Patel was also selected to serve as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence. At ODNI, he oversaw all 17 Intelligence Community (IC) agencies, and prioritized intelligence collection to focus on hard targets and global threats.  This allowed him to lead the Director's duty to synthesize our intelligence holdings and create the President's Daily Briefing, which he would then brief to the President and cabinet officials. As one of the highest ranking officials at DOD, ODNI, and the White House, Mr. Patel gained unique expertise straddling the nexus of government and private sector operations/policy for the defense of our nation to include defense, cyber, and intel.           Before joining the NSC, Mr. Patel served as the National Security Advisor and Senior Counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), where he spearheaded the investigation into the Russian active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. Concurrently, he led congressional oversight of sensitive programs for the IC and U.S. Special Operations Forces and worked to enact legislation to fully fund the multi-billion-dollar budgets supporting intelligence and counterterrorism operations worldwide. That role required Mr. Patel to spend a considerable amount of time in more than 40 locations around the world.Mr. Patel joined HPSCI following his tenure as a national security prosecutor at the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Obama administration, where he led investigations spanning multiple theaters of conflict and oversaw the successful prosecution of criminals aligned with Al-Qa'ida, ISIS, and other terror groups. This work necessitated Mr. Patel's presence in locations across the globe, collaborating with host nation governments to successfully prosecute terrorists.  He also served as the DOJ Liaison Officer to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), working with our nation's most prestigious counterterrorism units (special forces) to conduct collaborative global targeting operations against high value objectives, in almosCan I Make You Think?An open look at the hot topics of the day that we discuss from a slightly conservative...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

In this edition, host Jonathan Amarilio and co-host Trisha Rich are joined by Colonel Yevgeny "Eugene" Vindman, who served as a deputy legal advisor on the National Security Council (NSC) and came to national prominence after he and his twin brother, Alexander Vindman, jointly reported former President Trump to the NSC for attempting to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for negative information about his then political opponent, Joe Biden. Colonel Vindman is a JAG Officer and an expert in the law of armed conflict, military law, government ethics, and national security law. He joins the podcast to provide an overview of rules-based international law and the law of war in the context of Russia's War in Ukraine, as well as the United Nations' role in preventing wars of aggression.

In this edition, host Jonathan Amarilio and co-host Trisha Rich are joined by Colonel Yevgeny "Eugene" Vindman, who served as a deputy legal advisor on the National Security Council (NSC) and came to national prominence after he and his twin brother, Alexander Vindman, jointly reported former President Trump to the NSC for attempting to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for negative information about his then political opponent, Joe Biden. Colonel Vindman is a JAG Officer and an expert in the law of armed conflict, military law, government ethics, and national security law. He joins the podcast to provide an overview of rules-based international law and the law of war in the context of Russia's War in Ukraine, as well as the United Nations' role in preventing wars of aggression.

In part two of our conversation with Ashley J. Tellis, we discussed opportunities for the United States and India to expand their relationship through greater cooperation on trade, technology, and security. We also discussed India's views on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the outlook for a visit to India by U.S. President Joe Biden, Pakistan's changing role in Indian security considerations, and more. Ashley holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he served on the National Security Council (NSC) as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. On the NSC he was a top negotiator of the pivotal 2005 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement – a landmark agreement that helped transform the U.S.-India relationship. You can watch the full video of our conversation at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwSvkY8tzvEq21kNOjYILXQ

In part two of our conversation with Ashley J. Tellis, we discussed opportunities for the United States and India to expand their relationship through greater cooperation on trade, technology, and security. We also discussed India's views on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the outlook for a visit to India by U.S. President Joe Biden, Pakistan's changing role in Indian security considerations, and more. Ashley holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he served on the National Security Council (NSC) as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. On the NSC he was a top negotiator of the pivotal 2005 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement – a landmark agreement that helped transform the U.S.-India relationship. You can watch the full video of our conversation at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwSvkY8tzvEq21kNOjYILXQ

The Abraham Accords represent the first public normalization of relations between an Arab nation and Israel since 1994. The future looms on the precipice of change as this joint statement between the State of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States signals an opening between Israel and the Middle East. This is evidenced by the American Jewish Committee's recent announcement of opening a branch in Dubai. As a principal architect of the Accords, Robert Greenway will delve into their growth and evolution to the state of Israel-U.A.E. relations today. As part of the Council's 2022 International Perspectives series, Greenway will advocate for the expansion of The Abraham Accords and the vitality of U.S. leadership in the matter. Drawing on his experience of developing strategies for the Middle East and with over 30 years in public service on the National Security Council (NSC), Greenway will attempt to map how the Accords could continue to alter the path to peace between Israel and the rest of the region. Robert Greenway is the President and Executive Director of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute and an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute. He was previously Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the NSC's Middle Eastern and North African Affairs Directorate. Before being assigned to the NSC, he served at the Defense Intelligence Agency and U.S. Army Special Forces. Greenway has a B.A. from the Virginia Military Institute and an M.A. from Webster University. . . Do you believe in the importance of international education and connections? The nonprofit World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth is supported by gifts from people like you, who share our passion for engaging in dialogue on global affairs and building bridges of understanding. While the Council is not currently charging admission for virtual events, we ask you to please consider making a one-time or recurring gift to help us keep the conversation going through informative public programs and targeted events for students and teachers. Donate: https://www.dfwworld.org/donate

Ashley J. Tellis holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he served on the National Security Council (NSC) as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. On the NSC he was a top negotiator of the pivotal 2005 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement – a landmark agreement that helped transform the U.S.-India relationship. In part one of our conversation with Ashley, we discussed India's strategic calculus around its relations with Russia amid the Russia-Ukraine war. We also discussed the role of India's tensions with China, and how the White House views India's Russia ties. You can watch the full video of our conversation at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwSvkY8tzvEq21kNOjYILXQ

Ashley J. Tellis holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he served on the National Security Council (NSC) as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. On the NSC he was a top negotiator of the pivotal 2005 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement – a landmark agreement that helped transform the U.S.-India relationship. In part one of our conversation with Ashley, we discussed India's strategic calculus around its relations with Russia amid the Russia-Ukraine war. We also discussed the role of India's tensions with China, and how the White House views India's Russia ties. You can watch the full video of our conversation at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwSvkY8tzvEq21kNOjYILXQ

Support the show and receive bonus episodes by becoming a Patreon producer over at: www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com  Archives of terror Archivos del Terror were found on december 22, 1992 by a lawyer and human rights activist, strange how those two titles are in the same sentence, Dr. Martín Almada, and Judge José Agustín Fernández. Found in a police station in the suburbs of Paraguay known as Asunción.   Fernandez was looking for files on a former prisoner. Instead, stumbled across an archive describing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who had been secretly kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay with the help of our friendly neighborhood CIA. Known as Operation Condor.   “Operation Condor was a U.S. backed campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of opponents.”   Let's go back a ways toward the beginning. One day, a young guy, wanted to fuck up the world and created the CIA. JK… but not really.   So we go back to 1968 where General Robert W. Porter said that "in order to facilitate the coordinated employment of internal security forces within and among Latin American countries, we are ... endeavoring to foster inter-service and regional cooperation by assisting in the organization of integrated command and control centers; the establishment of common operating procedures; and the conduct of joint and combined training exercises."   According to former secret CIA documents from 1976, plans were developed among international security officials at the US Army School of the Americas and the Conference of American Armies in the 1960s and early 1970s to deal with perceived threats in South America from political dissidents, according to American historian J. Patrice McSherry. "In early 1974, security officials from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia convened in Buenos Aires to prepare synchronized attacks against subversive targets," according to a declassified CIA memo dated June 23, 1976.   Following a series of military-led coups d'états, particularly in the 1970s, the program was established: General Alfredo Stroessner took control of Paraguay in 1954 General Francisco Morales-Bermúdez takes control of Peru after a successful coup in 1975 The Brazilian military overthrew the president João Goulart in 1964 General Hugo Banzer took power in Bolivia in 1971 through a series of coups A military dictatorship seized power in Uruguay on 27 June 1973 Chilean armed forces commanded by General Augusto Pinochet bombed the presidential palace in Chile on 11 September 1973, overthrowing democratically elected president Salvador Allende A military dictatorship headed by General Jorge Rafael Videla seized power in Argentina on 24 March 1976   According to American journalist A. J. Langguth, the CIA organized the first meetings between Argentinian and Uruguayan security officials regarding the surveillance (and subsequent disappearance or assassination) of political refugees in these countries, as well as its role as an intermediary in the meetings between Argentinian, Uruguayan, and Brazilian death squads.   According to the National Security Archive's documentary evidence from US, Paraguayan, Argentine, and Chilean files, "Founded by the Pinochet regime in November 1975, Operation Condor was the codename for a formal Southern Cone collaboration that included transnational secret intelligence activities, kidnapping, torture, disappearance, and assassination." Several persons were slain as part of this codename mission. "Notable Condor victims include two former Uruguayan legislators and a former Bolivian president, Juan José Torres, murdered in Buenos Aires, a former Chilean Minister of the Interior, Bernardo Leighton, and former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his 26-year-old American colleague, Ronni Moffitt, assassinated by a car bomb in downtown Washington D.C.," according to the report.   Prior to the formation of Operation Condor, there had been cooperation among various security services with the goal of "eliminating Marxist subversion." On September 3, 1973, at the Conference of American Armies in Caracas, Brazilian General Breno Borges Fortes, the chief of the Brazilian army, urged that various services "expand the interchange of information" in order to "fight against subversion."   Representatives from Chile, Uruguay, and Bolivia's police forces met with Alberto Villar, deputy chief of the Argentine Federal Police and co-founder of the Triple A killing squad, in March 1974 to discuss collaboration standards. Their purpose was to eliminate the "subversive" threat posed by Argentina's tens of thousands of political exiles. Bolivian immigrants' bodies were discovered at rubbish dumps in Buenos Aires in August 1974. Based on recently revealed CIA records dated June 1976, McSherry corroborated the kidnapping and torture of Chilean and Uruguayan exiles living in Buenos Aires during this time.   On General Augusto Pinochet's 60th birthday, November 25, 1975, in Santiago de Chile, heads of the military intelligence services of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay met with Manuel Contreras, commander of the Chilean secret police, to officially establish the Plan Condor. General Rivero, an intelligence officer in the Argentine Armed Forces and a former student of the French, devised the concept of Operation Condor, according to French writer Marie-Monique Robin, author of Escadrons de la death, l'école française (2004, Death Squads, The French School).   Officially, the targets were armed groups (such as the MIR, the Montoneros or the ERP, the Tupamaros, etc.) based on the governments' perceptions of threats, but the governments expanded their attacks to include all types of political opponents, including their families and others, as reported by the Valech Commission, which is known as The National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture Report. The Argentine "Dirty War," for example, kidnapped, tortured, and assassinated many trade unionists, relatives of activists, social activists such as the founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, nuns, university professors, and others, according to most estimates.   The Chilean DINA and its Argentine counterpart, SIDE, were the operation's front-line troops from 1976 forward. The infamous "death flights," which were postulated in Argentina by Luis Mara Menda and deployed by French forces during the Algerian War (1954–62), were widely used. Government forces flew or helicoptered victims out to sea, where they were dumped to die in premeditated disappearances. According to reports, the OPR-33 facility in Argentina was destroyed as a result of the military bombardment. Members of Plan Condor met in Santiago, Chile, in May 1976, to discuss "long-range collaboration... [that] went well beyond intelligence exchange" and to assign code names to the participating countries. The CIA acquired information in July that Plan Condor participants planned to strike "against leaders of indigenous terrorist groups residing overseas."   Several corpses washed up on beaches south of Buenos Aires in late 1977 as a result of extraordinary storms, providing evidence of some of the government's victims. Hundreds of newborns and children were removed from women in prison who had been kidnapped and later disappeared; the children were then given to families and associates of the dictatorship in clandestine adoptions. According to the CIA, Operation Condor countries reacted positively to the concept of cooperating and built their own communications network as well as joint training programs in areas like psychological warfare.    The military governments in South America were coming together to join forces for security concerns, according to a memo prepared by Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Harry W. Shlaudeman to Kissinger on August 3, 1976. They were anxious about the growth of Marxism and the consequences it would have on their dominance. This new force worked in secret in the countries of other members. Their mission: to track out and murder "Revolutionary Coordinating Committee" terrorists in their own nations and throughout Europe.Shlaudeman voiced fear that the members of Operation Condor's "siege mindset" could lead to a wider divide between military and civilian institutions in the region. He was also concerned that this would further isolate these countries from developed Western countries. He argued that some of these anxieties were justified, but that by reacting too harshly, these countries risked inciting a violent counter-reaction comparable to the PLO's in Israel.   Chile and Argentina were both active in using communications medium for the purpose of transmitting propaganda, according to papers from the United States dated April 17, 1977. The propaganda's goal was to accomplish two things. The first goal was to defuse/counter international media criticism of the governments involved, and the second goal was to instill national pride in the local population. "Chile after Allende," a propaganda piece developed by Chile, was sent to the states functioning under Condor. The paper, however, solely mentions Uruguay and Argentina as the only two countries that have signed the deal. The government of Paraguay was solely identified as using the local press, "Patria," as its primary source of propaganda. Due to the reorganisation of both Argentina's and Paraguay's intelligence organizations, a meeting scheduled for March 1977 to discuss "psychological warfare measures against terrorists and leftist extremists" was canceled.   One "component of the campaign including Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina envisages unlawful operations beyond Latin America against expatriate terrorists, primarily in Europe," according to a 2016 declassified CIA study titled "Counterterrorism in the Southern Cone." "All military-controlled regimes in the Southern Cone consider themselves targets of international Marxism," the memo stated. Condor's fundamental characteristic was highlighted in the document, which came to fruition in early 1974 when "security officials from all of the member countries, except Brazil, agreed to establish liaison channels and to facilitate the movement of security officers on government business from one country to the other," as part of a long-tested "regional approach" to pacifying "subversion." Condor's "initial aims" included the "exchange of information on the Revolutionary Coordinating Junta (RCJ), an organization...of terrorist groups from Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay" with "representatives" in Europe "believed to have been involved in the assassinations in Paris of the Bolivian ambassador to France last May and a Uruguayan military attache in 1974." Condor's primary purpose, according to the CIA assessment, was to eliminate "top-level terrorist leaders" as well as non-terrorist targets such as "Uruguayan opposition figure Wilson Ferreira, if he should travel to Europe, and some leaders of Amnesty International." Condor was also suspected by the CIA of being "involved in nonviolent actions, including as psychological warfare and a propaganda campaign" that used the media's power to "publicize terrorist crimes and atrocities." Condor also urged citizens in its member countries to "report anything out of the norm in their surroundings" in an appeal to "national pride and national conscience." Another meeting took place in 1980, and Montensero was apprehended. The RSO allegedly promised not to kill them if they agreed to collaborate and provide information on upcoming meetings in Rio.   So, after all of this mumbo jumbo, let's recap.    50,000 people were killed, 30,000 disappeared, and 400,000 were imprisoned, according to the "terror archives."  A letter signed by Manuel Contreras, the chief of Chile's National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) at the time, inviting Paraguayan intelligence personnel to Santiago for a clandestine "First Working Meeting on National Intelligence" on November 25, 1975, was also uncovered. The presence of intelligence chiefs from Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay at the meetings was also confirmed by this letter, indicating that those countries were also involved in the formulation of Operation Condor. Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela are among the countries named in the archives as having collaborated to varying degrees by giving intelligence information that had been sought by the security agencies of the Southern Cone countries. Parts of the archives, which are presently housed in Asunción's Palace of Justice, have been used to prosecute former military officers in some of these countries. Those records were used extensively in Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón's prosecution against Chilean General Augusto Pinochet. Baltasar Garzón interviewed Almada twice after he was a Condor victim.   "[The records] represent a mound of shame and lies that Stroessner [Paraguay's ruler until 1989] used to blackmail the Paraguayan people for 40 years," Almada said. He wants the "terror archives" to be listed as an international cultural site by UNESCO, as this would make it much easier to get funds to maintain and protect the records.   In May 2000, a UNESCO mission visited Asunción in response to a request from the Paraguayan government for assistance in registering these files on the Memory of the World Register, which is part of a program aimed at preserving and promoting humanity's documentary heritage by ensuring that records are preserved and accessible.   Now that we are all caught up, let's talk about a few noteworthy events. First we go to Argentina.   Argentina was ruled by military juntas from 1976 until 1983 under Operation Condor, which was a civic-military dictatorship. In countless incidents of desaparecidos, the Argentine SIDE collaborated with the Chilean DINA. In Buenos Aires, they assassinated Chilean General Carlos Prats, former Uruguayan MPs Zelmar Michelini and Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz, and former Bolivian President Juan José Torres. With the support of Italian Gladio operator Stefano Delle Chiaie and Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, the SIDE aided Bolivian commander Luis Garca Meza Tejada's Cocaine Coup (see also Operation Charly). Since the release of secret records, it has been revealed that at ESMA, there were operational units made up of Italians who were utilized to suppress organizations of Italian Montoneros. Gaetano Saya, the Officer of the Italian stay behind next - Operation Gladio, led this outfit known as "Shadow Group." The Madres de la Square de Mayo, a group of mothers whose children had vanished, began protesting every Thursday in front of the Casa Rosada on the plaza in April 1977. They wanted to know where their children were and what happened to them. The abduction of two French nuns and other founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in December 1977 drew worldwide notice. Their corpses were later recognized among the deceased washed up on beaches south of Buenos Aires in December 1977, victims of death planes.   In 1983, when Argentina's democracy was restored, the government established the National Commission for Forced Disappearances (CONADEP), which was chaired by writer Ernesto Sabato. It gathered testimony from hundreds of witnesses about regime victims and known atrocities, as well as documenting hundreds of secret jails and detention sites and identifying torture and execution squad leaders. The Juicio a las Juntas (Juntas Trial) two years later was mostly successful in proving the crimes of the top commanders of the numerous juntas that had composed the self-styled National Reorganization Process. Most of the top officers on trial, including Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Eduardo Massera, Roberto Eduardo Viola, Armando Lambruschini, Ral Agosti, Rubén Graffigna, Leopoldo Galtieri, Jorge Anaya, and Basilio Lami Dozo, were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.   Following these trials, Ral Alfonsn's administration implemented two amnesty laws, the 1986 Ley de Punto Final (law of closure) and the 1987 Ley de Obediencia Debida (law of due obedience), which ended prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War. In an attempt at healing and reconciliation, President Carlos Menem pardoned the junta's leaders who were serving prison sentences in 1989–1990.   Due to attacks on American citizens in Argentina and revelations about CIA funding of the Argentine military in the late 1990s, and despite an explicit 1990 Congressional prohibition, US President Bill Clinton ordered the declassification of thousands of State Department documents relating to US-Argentine relations dating back to 1954. These documents exposed American involvement in the Dirty War and Operation Condor.   Following years of protests by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and other human rights organizations, the Argentine Congress overturned the amnesty legislation in 2003, with the full support of President Nestor Kirchner and the ruling majority in both chambers. In June 2005, the Argentine Supreme Court deemed them unlawful after a separate assessment. The government was able to resume prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War as a result of the court's decision.    Enrique Arancibia Clavel, a DINA civil agent who was charged with crimes against humanity in Argentina in 2004, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the death of General Prats. Stefano Delle Chiaie, a suspected Italian terrorist, is also said to have been involved in the murder. In Rome in December 1995, he and fellow extreme Vincenzo Vinciguerra testified before federal judge Mara Servini de Cubra that DINA operatives Clavel and Michael Townley were intimately involved in the assassination. Judge Servini de Cubra demanded that Mariana Callejas (Michael Townley's wife) and Cristoph Willikie, a retired Chilean army colonel, be extradited in 2003 because they were also accused of being complicit in the murder. Nibaldo Segura, a Chilean appeals court judge, declined extradition in July 2005, claiming that they had already been prosecuted in Chile.   Twenty-five former high-ranking military commanders from Argentina and Uruguay were charged on March 5, 2013, in Buenos Aires with conspiring to "kidnap, disappear, torture, and kill" 171 political opponents throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Former Argentine "presidents" Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone, both from the El Proceso era, are among the defendants. Prosecutors are relying on declassified US records collected by the National Security Archive, a non-governmental entity established at George Washington University in Washington, DC, in the 1990s and later.   On May 27, 2016, fifteen former military personnel were found guilty. Reynaldo Bignone was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Fourteen of the remaining 16 defendants were sentenced to eight to twenty-five years in prison. Two of the defendants were found not guilty.  A lawyer for the victims' relatives, Luz Palmás Zalda, claims that "This decision is significant since it is the first time Operation Condor's existence has been proven in court. It's also the first time former Condor members have been imprisoned for their roles in the criminal organization."    Anyone wanna go to Brazil?   In the year 2000, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso ordered the publication of some military documents related to Operation Condor. There are documents proving that in that year, attorney general Giancarlo Capaldo, an Italian magistrate, investigated the "disappearances" of Italian citizens in Latin America, which were most likely caused by the actions of Argentine, Paraguayan, Chilean, and Brazilian military personnel who tortured and murdered Italian citizens during Latin American military dictatorships. There was a list containing the names of eleven Brazilians accused of murder, kidnapping, and torture, as well as several high-ranking military personnel from other countries involved in the operation.   "(...) I can neither affirm nor deny because Argentine, Brazilian, Paraguayan, and Chilean soldiers [military men] will be subject to criminal trial until December," the Magistrate said on October 26, 2000.   According to the Italian government's official statement, it was unclear whether the government would prosecute the accused military officers or not. As of November 2021, no one in Brazil had been convicted of human rights violations for actions committed during the 21-year military dictatorship because the Amnesty Law had protected both government officials and leftist guerrillas.   In November 1978, the Condor Operation expanded its covert persecution from Uruguay to Brazil, in an incident dubbed "o Sequestro dos Uruguaios," or "the Kidnapping of the Uruguayans." Senior officials of the Uruguayan army crossed the border into Porto Alegre, the capital of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, with the permission of the Brazilian military administration. They kidnapped Universindo Rodriguez and Lilian Celiberti, a political activist couple from Uruguay, as well as her two children, Camilo and Francesca, who are five and three years old.   The unlawful operation failed because an anonymous phone call notified two Brazilian journalists, Veja magazine reporter Luiz Cláudio Cunha and photographer Joo Baptista Scalco, that the Uruguayan couple had been "disappeared." The two journalists traveled to the specified address, a Porto Alegre apartment, to double-check the facts. The armed men who had arrested Celiberti mistook the journalists for other political opposition members when they came, and they were arrested as well. Universindo Rodriguez and the children had already been brought to Uruguay under the table.   The journalists' presence had exposed the secret operation when their identities were revealed. It was put on hold. As news of the political kidnapping of Uruguayan nationals in Brazil made headlines in the Brazilian press, it is thought that the operation's disclosure avoided the death of the couple and their two young children. It became a worldwide embarrassment. Both Brazil's and Uruguay's military governments were humiliated. Officials arranged for the Celibertis' children to be transported to their maternal grandparents in Montevideo a few days later. After being imprisoned and tortured in Brazil, Rodriguez and Celiberti were transferred to Uruguayan military cells and held there for the next five years. The couple were released after Uruguay's democracy was restored in 1984. They confirmed every element of their kidnapping that had previously been reported.   In 1980, two DOPS (Department of Political and Social Order, an official police unit in charge of political repression during the military administration) inspectors were found guilty of arresting the journalists in Lilian's apartment in Porto Alegre by Brazilian courts. Joo Augusto da Rosa and Orandir Portassi Lucas were their names. They had been identified as participants in the kidnapping by the media and Uruguayans. This occurrence confirmed the Brazilian government's active involvement in the Condor Operation. Governor Pedro Simon arranged for the state of Rio Grande do Sul to legally recognize the Uruguayans' kidnapping and compensate them financially in 1991. A year later, President Luis Alberto Lacalle's democratic government in Uruguay was encouraged to do the same.   The Uruguayan couple identified Pedro Seelig, the head of the DOPS at the time of the kidnapping, as the guy in charge of the operation in Porto Alegre. Universindo and Llian remained in prison in Uruguay and were unable to testify when Seelig was on trial in Brazil. Due to a lack of proof, the Brazilian cop was acquitted. Later testimony from Lilian and Universindo revealed that four officers from Uruguay's secret Counter-Information Division – two majors and two captains – took part in the operation with the permission of Brazilian authorities. In the DOPS headquarters in Porto Alegre, Captain Glauco Yanonne was personally responsible for torturing Universindo Rodriquez. Universindo and Lilian were able to identify the Uruguayan military men who had arrested and tortured them, but none of them were prosecuted in Montevideo. Uruguayan individuals who committed acts of political repression and human rights violations under the dictatorship were granted pardon under the Law of Immunity, which was approved in 1986. Cunha and Scalco were given the 1979 Esso Prize, considered the most significant prize in Brazilian journalism, for their investigative journalism on the case.  Hugo Cores, a former political prisoner from Uruguay, was the one who had warned Cunha. He told the Brazilian press in 1993: All the Uruguayans kidnapped abroad, around 180 people, are missing to this day. The only ones who managed to survive are Lilian, her children, and Universindo.   Joo "Jango" Goulart was the first Brazilian president to die in exile after being deposed. On December 6, 1976, he died in his sleep in Mercedes, Argentina, of a suspected heart attack. The true cause of his death was never determined because an autopsy was never performed. On April 26, 2000, Leonel Brizola, Jango's brother-in-law and former governor of Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul, claimed that ex-presidents Joo Goulart and Juscelino Kubitschek (who died in a vehicle accident) were assassinated as part of Operation Condor. He demanded that an investigation into their deaths be launched. On January 27, 2008, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published a report featuring a declaration from Mario Neira Barreiro, a former member of Uruguay's dictatorship's intelligence service. Barreiro confirmed Brizola's claims that Goulart had been poisoned. Sérgio Paranhos Fleury, the head of the Departamento de Ordem Poltica e Social (Department of Political and Social Order), gave the order to assassinate Goulart, according to Barreiro, and president Ernesto Geisel gave the permission to execute him. A special panel of the Rio Grande do Sul Legislative Assembly concluded in July 2008 that "the evidence that Jango was wilfully slain, with knowledge of the Geisel regime, is strong."   The magazine CartaCapital published previously unreleased National Information Service records generated by an undercover agent who was present at Jango's Uruguayan homes in March 2009. This new information backs up the idea that the former president was poisoned. The Goulart family has yet to figure out who the "B Agent," as he's referred to in the documents, might be. The agent was a close friend of Jango's, and he detailed a disagreement between the former president and his son during the former president's 56th birthday party, which was sparked by a brawl between two employees. As a result of the story, the Chamber of Deputies' Human Rights Commission agreed to look into Jango's death.   Later, Maria Teresa Fontela Goulart, Jango's widow, was interviewed by CartaCapital, who revealed records from the Uruguayan government confirming her accusations that her family had been tracked. Jango's travel, business, and political activities were all being watched by the Uruguayan government. These data date from 1965, a year after Brazil's coup, and they indicate that he may have been targeted. The President Joo Goulart Institute and the Movement for Justice and Human Rights have requested a document from the Uruguayan Interior Ministry stating that "serious and credible Brazilian sources'' discussed an "alleged plan against the former Brazilian president."   If you thought it wasn't enough, let's talk about Chile. No not the warm stew lie concoction you make to scorn your buddy's stomach, but the country.   Additional information about Condor was released when Augusto Pinochet was detained in London in 1998 in response to Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón's request for his extradition to Spain. According to one of the lawyers requesting his extradition, Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, was the target of an assassination attempt. He said that after Franco's funeral in Madrid in 1975, Pinochet contacted Italian neofascist terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie and arranged for Altamirano's murder. The strategy didn't work out. Since the bodies of victims kidnapped and presumably murdered could not be found, Chilean judge Juan Guzmán Tapia established a precedent concerning the crime of "permanent kidnapping": he determined that the kidnapping was thought to be ongoing, rather than having occurred so long ago that the perpetrators were protected by an amnesty decreed in 1978 or the Chilean statute of limitations. The Chilean government admitted in November 2015 that Pablo Neruda may have been murdered by members of Pinochet's administration.   Assassinations   On September 30, 1974, a car bomb killed General Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofa Cuthbert, in Buenos Aires, where they were living in exile. The Chilean DINA has been charged with the crime. In January 2005, Chilean Judge Alejandro Sols ended Pinochet's case when the Chilean Supreme Court denied his request to strip Pinochet's immunity from prosecution (as chief of state). In Chile, the assassination of DINA commanders Manuel Contreras, ex-chief of operations and retired general Ral Itturiaga Neuman, his brother Roger Itturiaga, and ex-brigadiers Pedro Espinoza Bravo and José Zara was accused. In Argentina, DINA agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel was found guilty of the murder.   After moving in exile in Italy, Bernardo Leighton and his wife were severely injured in a botched assassination attempt on October 6, 1975. Bernardo Leighton was critically injured in the gun attack, and his wife, Anita Fresno, was permanently crippled. Stefano Delle Chiaie met with Michael Townley and Virgilio Paz Romero in Madrid in 1975 to plan the murder of Bernardo Leighton with the help of Franco's secret police, according to declassified documents in the National Security Archive and Italian attorney general Giovanni Salvi, who led the prosecution of former DINA head Manuel Contreras. Glyn T. Davies, the secretary of the National Security Council (NSC), said in 1999 that declassified records indicated Pinochet's government's responsibility for the failed assassination attempt on Bernardo Leighton, Orlando Letelier, and General Carlos Prats on October 6, 1975.   In a December 2004 OpEd piece in the Los Angeles Times, Francisco Letelier, Orlando Letelier's son, claimed that his father's killing was part of Operation Condor, which he described as "an intelligence-sharing network employed by six South American tyrants of the time to eliminate dissidents."   Letelier's death, according to Michael Townley, was caused by Pinochet. Townley admitted to hiring five anti-Castro Cuban exiles to set up a booby-trap in Letelier's automobile. Following consultations with the terrorist organization CORU's leadership, including Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, Cuban-Americans José Dionisio Suárez, Virgilio Paz Romero, Alvin Ross Daz, and brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo Sampoll were chosen to carry out the murder, according to Jean-Guy Allard. The Miami Herald reports that Luis Posada Carriles was there at the conference that decided on Letelier's death as well as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455.   During a public protest against Pinochet in July 1986, photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri was burned alive and Carmen Gloria Quintana received significant burns. The case of the two became known as Caso Quemados ("The Burned Case"), and it drew attention in the United States because Rojas had fled to the United States following the 1973 coup. [96] According to a document from the US State Department, the Chilean army set fire to both Rojas and Quintana on purpose. Rojas and Quintana, on the other hand, were accused by Pinochet of being terrorists who lit themselves on fire with their own Molotov cocktails. Pinochet's reaction to the attack and killing of Rojas, according to National Security Archive analyst Peter Kornbluh, was "contributed to Reagan's decision to withdraw support for the regime and press for a return to civilian rule."   Operación Silencio   Operación Silencio (Operation Silence) was a Chilean operation that removed witnesses from the country in order to obstruct investigations by Chilean judges. It began about a year before the "terror archives" in Paraguay were discovered. Arturo Sanhueza Ross, the man accused of assassinating MIR leader Jecar Neghme in 1989, departed the country in April 1991.    According to the Rettig Report, Chilean intelligence officers were responsible for Jecar Neghme's killing. Carlos Herrera Jiménez, the man who assassinated trade unionist Tucapel Jiménez, flew out in September 1991. Eugenio Berros, a chemist who had cooperated with DINA agent Michael Townley, was led by Operation Condor agents from Chile to Uruguay in October 1991 in order to avoid testifying in the Letelier case. He used passports from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil, prompting suspicions that Operation Condor was still active. In 1995, Berros was discovered dead in El Pinar, Uruguay, near Montevideo. His corpse had been mangled to the point where it was hard to identify him by sight.   Michael Townley, who is now under witness protection in the United States, recognized linkages between Chile, DINA, and the incarceration and torture camp Colonia Dignidad in January 2005. The facility was founded in 1961 by Paul Schäfer, who was arrested and convicted of child rape in Buenos Aires in March 2005. Interpol was notified about Colonia Dignidad and the Army's Bacteriological Warfare Laboratory by Townley. This lab would have taken the place of the previous DINA lab on Via Naranja de lo Curro, where Townley collaborated with chemical assassin Eugenio Berros. According to the court reviewing the case, the toxin that allegedly murdered Christian-Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva could have been created at this new lab in Colonia Dignidad. Dossiê Jango, a Brazilian-Uruguayan-Argentine collaboration film released in 2013, accused the same lab in the alleged poisoning of Brazil's deposed president, Joo Goulart.   Congressman Koch   The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents was released in February 2004 by reporter John Dinges. He reported that in mid-1976, Uruguayan military officers threatened to assassinate United States Congressman Edward Koch (later Mayor of New York City). The CIA station commander in Montevideo had received information about it in late July 1976. He advised the Agency to take no action after finding that the men were inebriated at the time. Colonel José Fons, who was present at the November 1975 covert meeting in Santiago, Chile, and Major José Nino Gavazzo, who led a team of intelligence agents working in Argentina in 1976 and was responsible for the deaths of over 100 Uruguayans, were among the Uruguayan officers.   Koch told Dinges in the early twenty-first century that CIA Director George H. W. Bush informed him in October 1976 that "his sponsorship of legislation to cut off US military assistance to Uruguay on human rights concerns had prompted secret police officers to 'put a contract out for you'." Koch wrote to the Justice Department in mid-October 1976, requesting FBI protection, but he received none. It had been more than two months after the meeting and the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington. Colonel Fons and Major Gavazzo were sent to important diplomatic postings in Washington, D.C. in late 1976. The State Department ordered the Uruguayan government to rescind their appointments, citing the possibility of "unpleasant publicity" for "Fons and Gavazzo."  Only in 2001 did Koch learn of the links between the threats and the position appointments.   Paraguay The US supported Alfredo Stroessner's anti-communist military dictatorship and played a "vital supporting role" in Stroessner's Paraguay's domestic affairs. As part of Operation Condor, for example, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Thierry of the United States Army was deployed to assist local workers in the construction of "La Technica," a detention and interrogation center. La Technica was also renowned as a torture facility. Pastor Coronel, Stroessner's secret police, washed their victims in human vomit and excrement tubs and shocked them in the rectum with electric cattle prods. They decapitated Miguel Angel Soler [es], the Communist party secretary, with a chainsaw while Stroessner listened on the phone. Stroessner asked that tapes of inmates wailing in agony be presented to their relatives.   Harry Shlaudeman defined Paraguay's militarized state as a "nineteenth-century military administration that looks nice on the cartoon page" in a report to Kissinger. Shlaudeman's assessments were paternalistic, but he was correct in observing that Paraguay's "backwardness" was causing it to follow in the footsteps of its neighbors. Many decolonized countries regarded national security concerns in terms of neighboring countries and long-standing ethnic or regional feuds, but the United States viewed conflict from a global and ideological viewpoint. During the Chaco War, Shlaudeman mentions Paraguay's amazing fortitude in the face of greater military force from its neighbors. The government of Paraguay believes that the country's victory over its neighbors over several decades justifies the country's lack of progress. The paper goes on to say that Paraguay's political traditions were far from democratic. Because of this reality, as well as a fear of leftist protest in neighboring countries, the government has prioritized the containment of political opposition over the growth of its economic and political institutions. They were driven to defend their sovereignty due to an ideological fear of their neighbors. As a result, many officials were inspired to act in the interest of security by the fight against radical, communist movements both within and beyond the country. The book Opération Condor, written by French writer Pablo Daniel Magee and prefaced by Costa Gavras, was published in 2020. The story chronicles the life of Martin Almada, a Paraguayan who was a victim of the Condor Operation.   The Peruvian Case   After being kidnapped in 1978, Peruvian legislator Javier Diez Canseco announced that he and twelve other compatriots (Justiniano Apaza Ordóñez, Hugo Blanco, Genaro Ledesma Izquieta, Valentín Pacho, Ricardo Letts, César Lévano, Ricardo Napurí, José Luis Alvarado Bravo, Alfonso Baella Tuesta, Guillermo Faura Gaig, José Arce Larco and Humberto Damonte). All opponents of Francisco Morales Bermudez's dictatorship were exiled and handed over to the Argentine armed forces in Jujuy in 1978 after being kidnapped in Peru. He also claimed that declassified CIA documents and WikiLeaks cable information account for the Morales Bermudez government's ties to Operation Condor.   Uruguay   Juan Mara Bordaberry declared himself dictator and banned the rest of the political parties, as was customary in the Southern Cone dictatorships of the 1970s. In the alleged defense against subversion, a large number of people were murdered, tortured, unjustly detained and imprisoned, kidnapped, and forced into disappearance during the de facto administration, which lasted from 1973 until 1985. Prior to the coup d'état in 1973, the CIA served as a consultant to the country's law enforcement institutions. Dan Mitrione, perhaps the most well-known example of such cooperation, had taught civilian police in counterinsurgency at the School of the Americas in Panama, afterwards renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.   Maybe now we can talk about the U.S involvement? The U.S never gets involved in anything so this might be new to some of you.   According to US paperwork, the US supplied critical organizational, financial, and technological help to the operation far into the 1980s. The long-term hazards of a right-wing bloc, as well as its early policy recommendations, were discussed in a US Department of State briefing for Henry Kissinger, then Secretary of State, dated 3 August 1976, prepared by Harry Shlaudeman and titled "Third World War and South America." The briefing was an overview of security forces in the Southern Cone. The operation was described as a joint effort by six Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay) to win the "Third World War" by eliminating "subversion" through transnational secret intelligence operations, kidnapping, torture, disappearance, and assassination. The research begins by examining the sense of unity shared by the six countries of the Southern Cone. Kissinger is warned by Shlaudeman that the "Third World War" will trap those six countries in an ambiguous position in the long run, because they are trapped on one side by "international Marxism and its terrorist exponents," and on the other by "the hostility of uncomprehending industrial democracies misled by Marxist propaganda." According to the report, US policy toward Operation Condor should “emphasize the differences between the five countries at all times, depoliticize human rights, oppose rhetorical exaggerations of the ‘Third-World-War' type, and bring potential bloc members back into our cognitive universe through systematic exchanges.” According to CIA papers from 1976, strategies to deal with political dissidents in South America were planned among international security officials at the US Army School of the Americas and the Conference of American Armies from 1960 to the early 1970s. "In early 1974, security officials from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia convened in Buenos Aires to arrange synchronized attacks against subversive targets," according to a declassified CIA memo dated June 23, 1976. Officials in the United States were aware of the situation.   Furthermore, the Defense Intelligence Agency revealed in September 1976 that US intelligence services were well aware of Operation Condor's architecture and intentions. They discovered that "Operation Condor" was the covert name for gathering intelligence on "leftists," Communists, Peronists, or Marxists in the Southern Cone Area. The intelligence services were aware that the operation was being coordinated by the intelligence agencies of numerous South American nations (including Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia), with Chile serving as the hub. Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, according to the DIA, were already aggressively pursuing operations against communist targets, primarily in Argentina.   The report's third point reveals the US comprehension of Operation Condor's most malevolent actions. "The development of special teams from member countries to execute out operations, including killings against terrorists or sympathizers of terrorist groups," according to the paper. Although these special teams were intelligence agency operatives rather than military troops, they did work in structures similar to those used by US special forces teams, according to the study. Operation Condor's preparations to undertake probable operations in France and Portugal were revealed in Kissinger's State Department briefing - an issue that would later prove to be immensely contentious in Condor's history.   Condor's core was formed by the US government's sponsorship and collaboration with DINA (Directorate of National Intelligence) and other intelligence agencies. According to CIA papers, the agency maintained intimate ties with officers of Chile's secret police, DINA, and its leader Manuel Contreras.  Even after his role in the Letelier-Moffit killing was discovered, Contreras was kept as a paid CIA contact until 1977. Official requests to trace suspects to and from the US Embassy, the CIA, and the FBI may be found in the Paraguayan Archives. The military states received suspect lists and other intelligence material from the CIA. In 1975, the FBI conducted a nationwide hunt in the United States for persons sought by DINA.   In a February 1976 telegram from the Buenos Aires embassy to the State Department, intelligence said that the US was aware of the impending Argentinian coup. According to the ambassador, the Chief of the Foreign Ministry's North American desk revealed that the "Military Planning Group" had asked him to prepare a report and recommendations on how the "future military government can avoid or minimize the sort of problems the Chilean and Uruguayan governments are having with the US over human rights issues." The Chief also indicated that "they" (whether he is talking to the CIA or Argentina's future military dictatorship, or both) will confront opposition if they start assassinating and killing people. Assuming this is so, the envoy notes that the military coup will "intend to carry forward an all-out war on the terrorists and that some executions would therefore probably be necessary." Despite already being engaged in the region's politics, this indicates that the US was aware of the planning of human rights breaches before they occurred and did not intervene to prevent them. "It is encouraging to note that the Argentine military are aware of the problem and are already focusing on ways to avoid letting human rights issues become an irritant in US-Argentine Relations." This is confirmation.   Professor Ruth Blakeley says that Kissinger "explicitly expressed his support for the repression of political opponents" in regards to the Argentine junta's continuous human rights violations.  When Henry Kissinger met with Argentina's Foreign Minister on October 5, 1976, he said, ” Look, our basic attitude is that we would like you to succeed. I have an old-fashioned view that friends ought to be supported. What is not understood in the United States is that you have a civil war. We read about human rights problems but not the context. The quicker you succeed the better ... The human rights problem is a growing one. Your Ambassador can apprise you. We want a stable situation. We won't cause you unnecessary difficulties. If you can finish before Congress gets back, the better. Whatever freedoms you could restore would help.”   The démarche was never provided in the end. According to Kornbluh and Dinges, the decision not to deliver Kissinger's directive was based on Assistant Secretary Harry Shlaudeman's letter to his deputy in Washington, D.C., which stated: "you can simply instruct the Ambassadors to take no further action, noting that there have been no reports in some weeks indicating an intention to activate the Condor scheme."   President Bill Clinton ordered the State Department to release hundreds of declassified papers in June 1999, indicating for the first time that the CIA, State, and Defense Departments were all aware of Condor. According to a 1 October 1976 DOD intelligence assessment, Latin American military commanders gloat about it to their American colleagues. Condor's "joint counterinsurgency operations" sought to "eliminate Marxist terrorist activities," according to the same study; Argentina developed a special Condor force "structured much like a US Special Forces Team," it said. According to a summary of documents disclosed in 2004, The declassified record shows that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was briefed on Condor and its "murder operations" on August 5, 1976, in a 14-page report from [Harry] Shlaudeman [Assistant Secretary of State]. "Internationally, the Latin generals look like our guys," Shlaudeman cautioned. "We are especially identified with Chile. It cannot do us any good." Shlaudeman and his two deputies, William Luers and Hewson Ryan, recommended action. Over the course of three weeks, they drafted a cautiously worded demarche, approved by Kissinger, in which he instructed the U.S. ambassadors in the Southern Cone countries to meet with the respective heads of state about Condor. He instructed them to express "our deep concern" about "rumors" of "plans for the assassination of subversives, politicians and prominent figures both within the national borders of certain Southern Cone countries and abroad."   Kornbluh and Dinges come to the conclusion that "The paper trail is clear: the State Department and the CIA had enough intelligence to take concrete steps to thwart the Condor assassination planning. Those steps were initiated but never implemented." Hewson Ryan, Shlaudeman's deputy, subsequently admitted in an oral history interview that the State Department's treatment of the issue was "remiss." "We knew fairly early on that the governments of the Southern Cone countries were planning, or at least talking about, some assassinations abroad in the summer of 1976. ... Whether if we had gone in, we might have prevented this, I don't know", In relation to the Letelier-Moffitt bombing, he remarked, "But we didn't."   Condor was defined as a "counter-terrorism organization" in a CIA document, which also mentioned that the Condor countries had a specific telecommunications system known as "CONDORTEL."  The New York Times released a communication from US Ambassador to Paraguay Robert White to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance on March 6, 2001. The paper was declassified and disseminated by the Clinton administration in November 2000 as part of the Chile Declassification Project. General Alejandro Fretes Davalos, the chief of staff of Paraguay's armed forces, told White that the South American intelligence chiefs engaged in Condor "kept in touch with one another through a United States communications installation in the Panama Canal Zone that covered all of Latin America."   According to reports, Davalos stated that the station was "employed to coordinate intelligence information among the southern cone countries". The US was concerned that the Condor link would be made public at a time when the killing of Chilean former minister Orlando Letelier and his American aide Ronni Moffitt in the United States was being probed."it would seem advisable to review this arrangement to insure that its continuation is in US interest." White wrote to Vance. "Another piece of increasingly weighty evidence suggesting that U.S. military and intelligence officials supported and collaborated with Condor as a secret partner or sponsor." McSherry rebutted the cables. Furthermore, an Argentine military source told a U.S. Embassy contact that the CIA was aware of Condor and had played a vital role in establishing computerized linkages among the six Condor governments' intelligence and operations sections.   After all this it doesn't stop here. We even see France having a connection. The original document confirming that a 1959 agreement between Paris and Buenos Aires set up a "permanent French military mission" of officers to Argentina who had participated in the Algerian War was discovered in the archives of the Quai d'Orsay, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was kept at the offices of the Argentine Army's chief of staff. It lasted until 1981, when François Mitterrand was elected President of France. She revealed how the administration of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing secretly coordinated with Videla's junta in Argentina and Augusto Pinochet's tyranny in Chile.   Even Britain and West Germany looked into using the tactics in their own countries. Going so far as to send their open personnel to Buenos Aires to discuss how to establish a similar network.  MOVIES   https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=military-coup&sort=num_votes,desc&mode=detail&page=1&title_type=movie&ref_=kw_ref_typ https://islandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/terror%3Aroot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archives_of_Terror https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20774985 https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB239d/index.htm

On this episode, Jason shares his thoughts on the violence and devastation plaguing Ukraine, and the gallant efforts of Ukrainians to defend their home. Jason also highlights the heroic, sharing a Florida State Trooper's story of bravery and courage. Then he brings on the stupid, highlighting a Utah inmate's failed attempt at a joy ride in a Deputy Sheriff's car following his release from jail on an impending vehicle theft charge. Later, Jason sits down with, the Senior Fellow in National Security Affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council, Alex Gray. Alex provides insight on his experience when working as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff of the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House during the Trump administration. He also discusses the recent announcement of his U.S. Senate candidacy. Keep up with Jason on Twitter: @jasoninthehouse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Troops and sanctions and accusations are coming thick and fast in Ukraine as we record the podcast. Michael Ellis draws on his past experience at the National Security Council (NSC) to guess how things are going at the White House, and we both speculate on whether the conflict will turn into a cyberwar that draws the United States in. Neither of us thinks so, though for different reasons. Meanwhile, Nick Weaver reports, the Justice Department is gearing up for a fight with cryptocurrency criminals. Nick thinks it couldn't happen to a nicer industry. Michael and I contrast the launching of this initiative with the slow death of the China initiative at the hands of a few botched prosecutions. Michael and I do a roundup of news (all bad) about face recognition. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman (ND IL) gets our prize for least persuasive first amendment analysis of the year in an opinion holding that collecting and disclosing public data about people (what their faces look like) can be punished with massive civil liability even if no damages have been shown. After all, the judge declares in an analysis that covers a full page and a half (double-spaced), the Illinois law imposing liability “does not restrict a particular viewpoint nor target public discussion of an entire topic.” But not to worry; the first amendment is bound to get a heavy workout in the next big face recognition lawsuit—the Texas Attorney General's effort to extract hundreds of billions of dollars from Facebook for similarly collecting the face of their users. My bet? This one will make it to the Supreme Court. Next, we review the IRS's travails in trying to use face recognition to verify taxpayers who want access to their returns. I urge everyone to read my latest op-ed in the Washington Post criticizing the Congressional critics of the effort. Finally, I mock the staff at Amnesty International who think that people who live in high-crime New York neighborhoods should be freed from the burden of being able to identify and jail street criminals using facial recognition. After all, if facial recognition were more equitably allocated, think of the opportunity to identify scofflaws who let their dogs poop on the sidewalk.  Nick and I dig into the pending collision between European law enforcement agencies and privacy zealots in Brussels who want to ban EU use of NSO's Pegasus surveillance tech. Meanwhile, in a rare bit of good news for Pegasus's creator, an Israeli investigation is now casting doubt on press reports of Pegasus abuse. Finally, Michael and I mull over the surprisingly belated but still troubling disclosures about just how opaque TikTok has made its methods of operation. Two administrations in a row have started out to do something about this sus app, and neither has delivered – for reasons that demonstrate the deepest flaws of both. Download the 395th Episode (mp3)  You can subscribe to The Cyberlaw Podcast using iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or our RSS feed. As always, The Cyberlaw Podcast is open to feedback. Be sure to engage with @stewartbaker on Twitter. Send your questions, comments, and suggestions for topics or interviewees to CyberlawPodcast@steptoe.com. Remember: If your suggested guest appears on the show, we will send you a highly coveted Cyberlaw Podcast mug! The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, friends, families, or pets.

Ashley J. Tellis holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he served on the National Security Council (NSC) as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. On the NSC he was a top negotiator of the pivotal 2005 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement – a landmark agreement that helped transform the U.S.-India relationship. On this episode, Rexon and Shery spoke with Ashley about India's struggle to control the deadly second wave of COVID-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and prospects in Indian domestic politics, and India's “self-reliance” economic policy, protectionism, and actions against large tech companies. On the security front, they discussed opportunities and challenges in U.S.-India relations, the Quad partnership, and India's relations with China and Russia.