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Wagner after Wagner: The Kremlin takes charge of reorganizing Russian mercenaries

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets his Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov and retired colonel Andrei Trochev (left to right) in Moscow on September 28, 2023. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets his Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov and retired colonel Andrei Trochev (left to right) in Moscow on September 28, 2023. MIKHAIL METZEL / AP

It is not often that Vladimir Putin is forced to repeat himself – even more so publicly. But that is exactly what the Russian president did on September 29, when he staged a reception at the Kremlin for Andrei Trochev, former chief of staff of the Wagner mercenary group. “Andrei Trochev will be involved in the training of volunteer units capable of carrying out various combat missions, mainly, of course, in the zone of the ‘special military operation’ [in Ukraine],” said Putin.

This demand had already been made: On June 29, in the Kremlin, the Russian leader secretly received the main Wagner commanders, a few days after the abortive rebellion launched by their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Two weeks later, Putin himself told the newspaper Kommersant about the meeting. By his own admission, his “proposal” to entrust the reins of Wagner to “Sedoi” (Trochev’s nom de guerre, in reference to his graying hair) went unheeded.

So it took three months – and above all the disappearance of Prigozhin in the crash of his plane on August 23 – for the directive to begin to resemble an order. This delay, as well as the need to make the “appointment” public, is confirmation that the succession at the head of the mercenary group, which is considered indispensable in Ukraine and spearheading Moscow’s African policy, is a highly sensitive issue.

Read more Article réservé à nos abonnés The many lives of Yevgeny Prigozhin

The imperatives linked to this transmission resemble a series of contradictory injunctions. The aim is to preserve the group’s efficiency while limiting its autonomy; to dismantle Prigozhin’s empire while preserving its capacity for action and adaptation; and to keep intact the “brand” of Wagner, a private military company that has become famous around the world, while making people forget a name synonymous with disloyalty.

A contested authority

The presence in the Kremlin on September 29 of Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov was the first indication that Wagner’s future is being written under the authority of the army. The presidential decision also carries symbolic weight: During their takeover of the town of Rostov-on-Don on June 23 and 24, Wagner’s rebels held the senior military officer captive.

Yevkurov undoubtedly already conveyed this message to Wagner’s main clients during a tour of the African continent. This trip began the day after Prigozhin’s death and took him, along with GRU (military intelligence) chief Andrei Averianov, to Mali, the Central African Republic, Libya and even Burkina Faso, where Wagner has no official presence.

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Wagner Trained Hamas Militants for Attack on Israel, Ukrainian Partisans Claim

Elements of the Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner are alleged to have participated in the training of Hamas militants, the Ukrainian Center of National Resistance (CNR) reports.

“The Center of National Resistance thanks the Belarusian underground for the information about the enemy,” its message reads.

According to the CNR, the primary fields of training given to Hamas fighters included assault tactics and the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to drop explosive devices on to vehicles and other targets, a technique documented during Hamas’s assault on Israel over the weekend.

The CNR underlined the view that among Hamas’s allies, only Russia possess experience in the use of drones equipped with the means to deploy explosive devices onto enemy targets.

Gaza factions have released a video of a drone dropping a grenade on an Israeli Merkava tank near the Israel/Gaza border and starting a fire. pic.twitter.com/MqUIRxZkS4

— Kyle Glen (@KyleJGlen) October 7, 2023

Ukrainian partisans claim that during exercises in African countries, Wagner PMC members provided UAVs to Hamas militants.

Kyiv Post sought additional information from its sources within the Ukrainian partisan movement, but the source responded: “This is all the information we can release at this time.”

Kyiv Post also reached out to Ukrainian intelligence agencies for comment, to which the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (HUR) replied: “This information is currently being clarified.”

In late September, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated that the continued presence of Wagner PMC fighters in Africa remains significant.

Biden Requests $105bn Package, Including Ukraine, Israel Funds

“The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities,” the White House said in a statement.

“Wagner still has a substantial presence on the continent,” Austin told reporters during a visit to Djibouti.

Austin noted that the US had not observed any significant changes in the group’s relations with the Kremlin or any signs of Moscow taking control of the group’s operations across Africa.

He suggested that in the future, there may be internal competition for leadership within PMC ranks and emphasized that maintaining a presence in Africa without Russian support might prove challenging for the mercenaries in the medium to long term.

The Times of Israel has reported, citing unconfirmed local media sources, that the number of Israeli casualties in the Hamas attack and subsequent fighting has risen to 800, making it Israel’s largest loss of life since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Simultaneously, Israel’s Ministry of Health disclosed that as of this afternoon, 2,506 individuals have been hospitalized with injuries, including 23 in life-threatening condition and 353 with severe injuries.

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Julia Struck

Julia Struck

Julia Struck is a news writer and Kyiv Post correspondent who has previously worked as a parliamentary editor, journalist, and news editor. She has specialized in covering the work of Ukrainian parliament, government, and law enforcement agencies.

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Putin’s Interests in the Hamas Attack on Israel – FPIF

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On October 13, in Bishkek, Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced his thoughts about Hamas’s attack and the Israeli retaliation operation in the Gaza Strip. He recognized the right of Israel to self-defense but characterized Israeli methods as cruel, comparing them with the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II. He also warned that a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip could cause an unacceptable number of victims on both sides

Putin didn’t offer his condolences to the Israeli people nor did he condemn Hamas. Instead, he blamed the Global West and the United States for the brutal attack and called for the creation of a Palestinian state. Hamas leaders in their Telegram channel immediately praised his words.

A number of experts accused Russia of backing Hamas and Iran. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky added his voice to this chorus, blaming Moscow for supporting Hamas operations “in one way or another.” Shortly before the invasion of Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders obtained large monetary transfers using the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, located in Moscow, the territory least transparent for Western control.

Relations between Moscow and Hamas have a long history. Putin’s lobbying for Palestinian interests stems from a rich Soviet legacy. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia toned down the previous anti-Zionist rhetoric of the Soviet leaders even as it strengthened its presence in the Middle East, for instance through the military defense of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, with carpet bombing of densely populated areas. Since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Russia has noticeably expanded its military and economic cooperation with so-called pariah states in the Middle East, especially with Iran, Hamas’s main ally. Russia uses Iranian drones for massive attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and residential areas. In March 2023, Hamas leaders held official talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Putin regime also has warm relations with the Lebanese Hezbollah and also receives them in Moscow.

For Putin, the strategic benefits of the conflict include reestablishing Russia’s diplomatic standing as an effective Middle East conflict mediator. That is why, over the last two days, Putin has been repeating the mantra that the attack was made possible because of the U.S. attempt “to monopolize regulating” the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the exclusion of Russia from the Middle East normalization talks. Tactically, the large-scale war between Hamas and Israel and the possible escalation to the entire region will help Russia divert the attention of the world community from its aggression and war crimes in Ukraine.

Putin takes “subversive activities” seriously since he was trained to do so while serving in the Soviet KGB. As head of Russia, he developed these skills and applied them to geopolitics. Thus, Russia carefully prepared the ground for conflicts in the countries of the former USSR by influencing the political elites and expanding the networks of its agents (like in Georgia and Ukraine). The subsequent unwinding of a spiral of escalation was part of the plan. Thus, in 2013, after the overthrow of its proxy Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine, the Putin regime effectively used the existing network of its agents in the government (Viktor Medvedchuk) and on-ground (GRU officers Ivan Strelkov and Igor Bezler) to create a long-lasting conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

The Kremlin’s Middle East approach is not particularly different, as seen by the long-term strategy that ended with Russia’s indirect engagement in the Syrian war with aerial bombing and the private paramilitary group Wagner on the ground. The preparation of Hamas’s attack on Israel, according to its leaders, lasted several years and involved human and financial resources outside the Gaza Strip, and this makes this operation similar to Putin’s in Ukraine and elsewhere. Putin also sometimes solves his “political” problems with the help of his proxies. Thus, the murders of opponents (journalist Anna Politkovskaya and Boris Nemtsov) were carried out by Chechen perpetrators.

If Putin’s Russia did have an underlying interest in the Hamas attack, then the logic of planning such an attack becomes intelligible. A convenient political moment was chosen: the split of society within Israel, the friction of the Biden administration with the right-wing radical policies of Netanyahu, and even the absence of the Speaker of the House in the United States.

The increasing number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza as a result of the retaliation operation will also give the Kremlin a chance to legitimize its air attacks on Ukraine, which kill civilians and damage civilian infrastructure. The siege of Gaza will make it possible to normalize the Russian blockade of Mariupol and its thousands of tortured residents.

Russia also expects, according to the Russian-world ideologist Alexander Dugin, that the conflict will not be limited to two sides and that its closest allies–Iran, Syria, and Lebanon with Hezbollah—will become involved. If this happens, Putin will have another opportunity to wreak revenge on the West, this time on the international stage.

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Wagner prepared Hamas for attack on Israel

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Some of the fighters of the Wagner private military company were preparing Hamas for an attack on Israel, the National Resistance Center (NRC) reported. Russians who left Belarus for African countries were involved in training and sharing combat experience with terrorists.

“The crucial areas of training of Hamas militants were assault exercises and the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles to drop explosive material. Only the Russians, among the allies of Hamas, have experience using drones with discharge mechanisms against enemy equipment. Wagner shared this with HAMAS militants during exercises in African countries,” the NRC said.

Earlier, British Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of the British contingent in Afghanistan, stated that Russia is using the attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel to divert the attention of the US from the war in Ukraine.

Don’t imagine this is just an unprovoked, brutal attack by a bunch of terrorists from Gaza. It is much more than that. The hands that pushed these killers forward are in Moscow,” Kemp said.

The Ukrainian World Congress condemns the brutal and insidious attack by Hamas terrorist group on the Israeli people. The precisely planned and well-coordinated ruthless attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, indicates that Moscow and Tehran could have provided necessary training and instructions to the Hamas terrorists, the UWC emphasizes.

Cover: Mahmud Hams / AFP/Getty Images

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Chi è Andrei Troshev, il nuovo capo della Wagner

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Vladimir Putin ha molto probabilmente trovato la soluzione per riorganizzare la compagnia militare privata Wagner che è tornata a combattere in Ucraina. Memore dell’errore fatto in passato quando concentrò tutto il potere nelle mani di Evgenij Prigozhin che ad un certo punto accecato dall’ambizione personale gli si rivoltò contro, Putin ha scelto per questo incarico Andrei Troshev, colonello in pensione dell’esercito russo. Questi ha appena ricevuto l’incarico «di formare unità di volontari combattenti in Ucraina» e non c’è dubbio che da veterano di tre guerre Afghanistan, Cecenia e Siria dove è stato tra il 2015 e il 2016 occupandosi di logistica con la Wagner, sarà all’altezza del compito anche se nella sua biografia i punti oscuri sono molti.

Chi è Andrei Troshev

Conosciuto come «Sedoi» (capello grigio), Andrei Troshev è nato a San Pietroburgo nel 1962. Arruolatosi in polizia raggiunge il grado di colonnello del Sobr (squadra speciale di reazione rapida del ministero dell’Interno) del distretto di San Pietroburgo e degli Omon, sempre del ministero dell’Interno, per il distretto nord occidentale. Di seguito si arruola nell’esercito e diventa paracadutista nei corpi di artiglieria. Quando i russi nel 1979 invadono l’Afghanistan, Troshev viene messo al comando di un battaglione e decorato per due volte con l’Ordine della stella rossa per le sue azioni in battaglia. Resta nell’esercito anche dopo la dissoluzione della Russia (1991) e partecipa alla seconda guerra cecena tra il 1999 e il 2009, un conflitto nel quale si distinguerà per il suo coraggio tanto che riceverà altre medaglie per il coraggio mostrato in battaglia. Andrei Troshev sembra destinato ad una grande carriera ma per lui iniziano i problemi personali legati all’alcolismo, tanto che nel 2012 viene congedato col grado di colonnello. Riappare come alto ufficiale nel 2015 in Siria con il gruppo Wagner e per questo viene inserito nella lista dei sanzionati della Gran Bretagna: «Operava nella zona di Deir ez-Zor, il suo contributo è stato fondamentale per il sostegno del regime di Bashar al-Assad», scrivono di lui i servizi segreti britannici.

L’alcol e i problemi mentali

L’alcol però è un demone del quale Andrei Troshev non riesce a liberarsi e il 6 giugno 2017 il media indipendente russo Fontanka scrive che un ex colonnello dell’esercito in pensione era stato fermato mentre vagava per le strade ubriaco. L’uomo rifiuta di identificarsi ma i paramedici gli trovano addosso dei documenti che lo identificavano come Andrey Troshev, insieme a 5 milioni di rubli (quasi 90.000 dollari), 5.000 dollari in contanti, mappe della Siria, registri di armi, un biglietto aereo per Krasnodar e diversi altri oggetti sospetti. All’epoca Fontanka scrisse: «Andrey Troshev attualmente lavora per un uomo di nome Dmitry Utkin, sospettato di guidare un gruppo di mercenari russi che ora operano in Siria. Uktin è stato avvistato in viaggio con rappresentanti del servizio di sicurezza del miliardario Evgeny Prigozhin, e si ritiene che abbia lavorato con l’attività di ristorazione di Prigozhin, ‘Concord’». Dopo questo episodio finisce in un ospedale psichiatrico visto che emergono anche problemi mentali che Andrey Troshev ha sempre smentito. Nonostante i guai personali il gruppo Wagner non lo licenzia e resta al suo posto senza però mai diventare un fedelissimo di Evgeny Prigozhin e del suo vice Dmitry Utkin morto insieme al fondatore della compagnia privata di mercenari nell’incidente aereo dell’agosto scorso, tanto che non appoggerà il folle tentativo di golpe così come non parteciperà alla marcia su Mosca del giugno scorso. Nel luglio scorso Troshev viene inserito nell’organigramma del ministero della Difesa ed è il trampolino di lancio per il nuovo incarico che arriva lo scorso 29 settembre quando il presidente russo lo riceve al Cremlino insieme al vice ministro della Difesa Yunus-Bek Yevkurov e gli dice: «Il tuo compito è allestire unità di volontari in grado di svolgere varie missioni di combattimento, principalmente nella zona delle operazioni militari speciali. Tu stesso hai combattuto in un’unità del genere per più di un anno, sai di cosa si tratta, conosci i problemi che devono essere risolti in anticipo in modo che i combattimenti avvengano nel modo migliore e con maggior successo».

I dubbi dell’intelligence inglese

il ministero britannico della Difesa nel consueto aggiornamento di intelligence pubblicato su X scrive: «Molti veterani del gruppo Wagner probabilmente considerano un traditore Andrey Troshev visto che ha assunto un ruolo nelle forze di sicurezza ufficiali ed è stato probabilmente coinvolto nell’incoraggiare altro personale Wagner a firmare contratti con l’esercito russo». Secondo la Difesa britannica il sostegno di Putin a Troshev, «indica il continuo utilizzo da parte della Russia di unità di volontariato e compagnie militari private, e la pianificazione del futuro della Wagner».

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普京遇麻烦 普里戈津儿子继承父亲遗产

北京时间:2023-10-03 19:09

普京遇麻烦 普里戈津儿子继承父亲遗产  2023年10月1日,人们前往位于圣彼得堡波罗霍夫斯科耶公墓的瓦格纳头目普里戈津的墓地祭拜。(OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP via Getty Images)

【新唐人北京时间2023年10月03日讯】克里姆林宫上周发布了总统普京会见私人雇佣军瓦格纳的前指挥官特罗舍夫的视频,后者称号为“灰发”,被认为是瓦格纳已故头目普里戈津的“继任者”。然而,普京收回对瓦格纳的控制并不顺利,普里戈津的儿子就是障碍之一。

普京表示,特罗舍夫(Andrey Troshev)将监督和建立新的志愿战斗部队,主要在乌克兰执行战斗任务。

美国智库战争研究所(ISW)9月29日表示,普京在会见特罗舍夫时表示,他与前战友保持着关系,这进一步表明俄罗斯国防部“试图利用特罗舍夫与瓦格纳的关系”。

该智库指出,越来越多的报导称瓦格纳部队与俄联邦内卫部队RosGvardia并肩作战。瓦格纳被解除武装后,RosGvardia接收了其大部分重型武器。

然而,普京的计划面临巨大的挑战,普里戈津(Yevgeny Prigozhin)25岁的儿子帕维尔(Pavel Prigozhin)继承了他的大部分财富,包括瓦格纳的控制权。

俄罗斯非官方Telegram频道称,根据普里戈津的遗嘱条款,他的资产和对商业帝国的控制权已遗赠给帕维尔。频道Port称获得了普里戈津遗嘱的副本并发布了其图像。照片显示,帕维尔将继承约1.2亿美元、私人军队、圣彼得堡的一栋房子、九家股份公司以及他父亲在康科德(Concord)餐饮公司的股份。

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s 25-year-old son Pavel Prigozhin is set to take control of Russia’s Wagner Group, according to reports.#WagnerGroup #Russia #worldnews pic.twitter.com/aWFCml2mAq

— Bnz English (@BnzEnglish) October 2, 2023

Port还称,康科德餐饮公司经常签署国家合同,据报导俄罗斯国防官员欠债高达8.24亿美元,帕维尔将寻求追回。

遗嘱于3月进行了公证,即瓦格纳武装叛乱的几个月前。据报导,遗嘱中要求帕维尔供养大家庭,如果帕维尔去世,财产将由普里戈津的遗孀柳博芙(Lyubov)、帕维尔的两个姐妹和普里戈津的孙子平分。

普里戈津的官方净资产据称仅为1.46亿美元,但俄罗斯反对派活动人士纳瓦尔尼的反腐败基金会估计其净资产约为200亿美元。

在普里戈津遗嘱消息传出的同一天,瓦格纳附属的知名Telegram频道GreyZone宣布,帕维尔在瓦格纳安全部门负责人瓦塔宁(Mikhail Vatanin)的协助下接管了该集团的“指挥权”,并且正在与俄罗斯国民警卫队就私人部队重新加入乌克兰战争进行谈判。

战争研究所10月1日表示,瓦格纳“没有明确的统一领导者”,而帕维尔的新影响力只是在上周普京与特罗舍夫会面,并授予他领导地位之后产生的。瓦格纳的一些成员对特罗舍夫的任命“做出了负面反应”。

特罗舍夫在兵变未遂后离开了瓦格纳,并一直在俄罗斯国防部下属的Redut PMC工作。英国国防部表示,“许多瓦格纳老兵倾向于认为他是叛徒。”

战争研究所指出,帕维尔的举动表明瓦格纳内部的一个派系支持取代特罗舍夫的方案,尽管后者似乎得到了普京及国防部的支持。

“目前尚不清楚克里姆林宫如何定义瓦格纳与俄罗斯政府之间的关系”,该研究所补充道,但普京公开支持特罗舍夫并将瓦格纳置于国防部之下是值得关注的。无论如何,国防部都必须为RosGvardia领导下的一支大型重组部队提供装备和补给,因为RosGvardia没有后勤基础设施,无法自给自足。

(记者李昭希综合报导/责任编辑:林清)

本文网址: https://cn.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/10/03/a103798267.html

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Unlocking the Secrets: A Guide to the 33 Best Sources of U.S. Intelligence Information

INSTAGRAM-%20INTELLIGENCE%20COMMUNITY%20

Staying informed on the
happenings within the U.S. intelligence community is essential for anyone
interested in national security, geopolitics, or global affairs. I offer 33
websites that will make it easy for you to keep up with the latest developments
in this field. These websites are run by organizations such as the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federation of
American Scientists (FAS), and the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI), among others.

     By exploring them, you will gain in-depth
insights, analysis, and breaking news on U.S. intelligence agencies and their
activities. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my free newsletter
SPY
AGENCY HAPPENINGS!
– you’ll get monthly updates so you can stay
informed on critical developments and trends shaping the U.S. intelligence
community and its role in national security.

     Let’s begin unlocking timely information
about U.S. intelligence with these three well-known resources – and we’ve got
the direct links for you:
 

Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) – The CIA is a government agency that is responsible for providing
national security intelligence to policymakers in the United States. The
agency’s website provides information about its history, mission, and
organization, as well as career opportunities and news releases.
https://www.cia.gov/ 

National Security Agency (NSA)
– The NSA is another government agency that is responsible for collecting and
analyzing foreign signals intelligence. Its website provides information about
the agency’s mission, history, and current activities, as well as career
opportunities and news releases.
https://www.nsa.gov/ 

Federation of American
Scientists (FAS) – The FAS is a non-profit organization that focuses on science
and national security issues. Its website includes a section on intelligence,
which provides information about U.S. intelligence agencies, their activities,
and issues related to intelligence policy and oversight.
https://fas.org/

     If you want to expand your understanding
of the U.S. intelligence community, don’t miss out on these 10 lesser-known
resources! These websites offer unique insights into U.S. intelligence and
related issues, providing a fresh perspective that you won’t find anywhere
else. Whether you’re a student, researcher, or simply curious about the world
of spycraft, these resources are a must-visit. Stay ahead of the game and
discover the hidden gems of the U.S. intelligence community by checking out
these 10 valuable sources:

Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA):
https://www.dia.mil/

Office of the Director of
National Intelligence (ODNI):
https://www.dni.gov/

United States Intelligence
Community (IC):
https://www.intelligence.gov/

Intelligence and National
Security Alliance (INSA):
https://www.insaonline.org/

Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS):
https://www.csis.org/

Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace:
https://carnegieendowment.org/

Brookings Institution: https://www.brookings.edu/

War on the Rocks: https://warontherocks.com/ 

The Cipher Brief: https://www.thecipherbrief.com/

The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/

 

     If you’re looking for a variety of
perspectives on the U.S. intelligence community, don’t miss out on these last
20 sources! Many include dedicated sections on U.S. intelligence, with major
newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian
among them. They offer an array of viewpoints, providing unique insights into
the complex world of U.S. intelligence and related issues. You will stay on top
of the latest happenings by exploring these diverse sources and get a
well-rounded understanding of the latest developments:

National Intelligence
University (NIU):
https://ni-u.edu/

Defense One: https://www.defenseone.com/

Lawfare: https://www.lawfareblog.com/

Politico’s National Security
section:
https://www.politico.com/news/national-security

The Hill’s National Security
section:
https://thehill.com/national-security

The Washington Post’s
Intelligence section:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/national-security/intelligence/

CNN’s National Security
section:
https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/national-security

NPR’s
National Security section:
https://www.npr.org/sections/national-security/

The
New York Times’ National Security section:
https://www.nytimes.com/section/us/national-security

The
Guardian’s National Security section:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/national-security

The
Wall Street Journal’s Intelligence section:
https://www.wsj.com/news/us/intelligence

Defense
News:
https://www.defensenews.com/

Intelligence
Matters podcast with Michael Morell:
https://www.cbsnews.com/feature/intelligence-matters/

The
National Interest:
https://nationalinterest.org/

The
RAND Corporation:
https://www.rand.org/

The
Hoover Institution:
https://www.hoover.org/

The
Heritage Foundation:
https://www.heritage.org/

The
Atlantic Council:
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/

Foreign
Policy:
https://foreignpolicy.com/

GlobalSecurity.org:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/

     Whether you’re a student, researcher, or
simply curious about national security and global affairs, these resources can
help you gain valuable insights and stay up to date on the latest happenings
within the U.S. intelligence community. Remember to bookmark these websites and
check back often for updates and news. And don’t forget to subscribe to my
newsletter SPY AGENCY HAPPENINGS! to stay up to date on critical developments
in the U.S. intelligence community. So, dive in and start exploring these
resources today!
 

Robert Morton is a member of
the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), and he writes the
COREY PEARSON- CIA SPYMASTER
series. He is the author of
MISSION
OF VENGEANCE
and THE SHADOW
WAR
, must-reads for fans of espionage novels.

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Jonah Goldberg: Israel and Ukraine? Americans should remember it’s the same war on two fronts

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In normal times domestic political fights over foreign policy breakdown more or less along a conventional left-right divide. These are not normal times.

The right is largely united around the need to support Israel in its war with Hamas, but increasingly divided about backing Ukraine in its war with Russia. The left is largely united around the need to help Ukraine, but more divided about siding with Israel.

It’s not perfectly symmetrical. Democrats are more unified on Israel, in part because of President Biden’s unequivocal support. But it’s early. After all, the history of the Democratic Party resisting campus radicals and the “antiwar” left is not a tale of heroic resolve. And that the response on campuses to a terrorist pogrom was to immediately express support for Palestinians does not suggest the left-wing fringe will come around to a more nuanced stance.

Meanwhile, even though the GOP is unified in its support for Israel — to the point where even many America-firsters have abandoned all foreign policy consistency to show solidarity with Israel — on the fringes, especially on social media, skepticism over support for Israel is already growing.

In some of the swampier quarters, outright anti-Semitism is breaking into the open. And, Donald Trump, who has long boasted of doing more for Israel than anyone since Moses, is suddenly celebrating how “very smart” Hezbollah is and berating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (which is not to say he doesn’t deserve criticism, though not from Trump).

Given the hothouse of a presidential election, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to imagine support for Israel melting away on the new right and the “anti-Zionist” left as Biden becomes more identified with support for Israel.

In short, inside the water’s edge of domestic politics, it’s a two-front war. What I think a lot of people are missing is that it’s a two-front war outside the water’s edge, too.

There’s been an intense and bizarre debate over Iran’s complicity in Hamas’ attack. Iran has supported Hamas for decades. Whether it officially ordered, or approved, the invasion beforehand hardly erases its culpability. If you keep assassins who vow to kill Israelis on a retainer, it’s hardly an outrageous slander to say you have some responsibility when they do precisely what you kept them on the payroll for.

The more vital question is of Russia’s involvement. Russia’s disastrous war on Ukraine has drawn it ever closer to Iran, which supplies it with drones and other weapons. Both of these heavily sanctioned pariah-states depend on oil revenue to stay afloat. Global instability keeps the petrodollars flowing. There’s no evidence that Russia greenlit the attack, but it’s clear that Putin benefits from a Middle East war that diverts Western attention and resources.

Why give him the win he wants?

Ukraine, which has expressed its support for Israel, certainly sees the stakes clearly. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even wants to visit Israel as a show of solidarity.

Opponents of aiding Ukraine dismiss any linkage — legislatively, strategically, or morally — between Israel and Ukraine. Forty-eight hours after the Hamas attack, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, insisted: “Israel is facing existential threat. Any funding for Ukraine should be redirected to Israel immediately.” The populist Heritage Foundation declared: “Lawmakers need to resist attempts to link emergency military support for Israel with additional funding for Ukraine. These conflicts are separate and distinct.”

Not really.

Seeing both conflicts through a partisan lens just demonstrates how domestic partisanship can blind you to the bigger picture. These are two fronts in broadly the same fight. Israel and Ukraine alike are flawed but decent democracies facing enemies who seek to erase them from the map. Israel may be more of an historic ally than Ukraine, but their enemies are allies with shared interests.

Putting all other obvious moral and strategic considerations aside, America simply has a vital interest in maintaining its credibility to keep its commitments not just to Ukraine and Israel, but to our broader coalition of allies.

After 9/11, NATO got our back. Now NATO needs us to help deal with the threat on its doorstep. And we may need NATO if Iran opts to join the fray in Israel. Lord knows, China is watching to see if we buckle, as they contemplate their options for taking Taiwan.

None of this requires American boots on the ground in Israel or Ukraine. Both countries are willing to do the fighting and dying; what they want is help in what amounts to the same war on two fronts.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.

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Sidney Powell was Trump’s biggest ‘fighter.’ Now she’s a big threat.

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In the weeks after the 2020 election, a self-assured lawyer with a Southern drawl quickly climbed the ranks of the movement trying to keep President Trump in power: She aired outlandish assertions on Fox News and before cameras at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, filed a battery of lawsuits pressing Trump’s case and took part in an Oval Office meeting where the president considered naming her a special prosecutor.

Then Sidney Powell fell back down to earth.

Trump’s team spurned her. Federal prosecutors demanded her fundraising records. She was ordered to pay sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit in Michigan. The State Bar of Texas lodged a disciplinary complaint against her. Two companies that make voting software sued her.

All that was before prosecutors began filing criminal charges. In August, she appeared as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment accusing Trump of trying to subvert the election, and, later that month, she was charged alongside him in a Georgia case brought by Atlanta-area prosecutors.

On Thursday, Powell resolved the Georgia case by pleading guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to interfere with the performance of election duties. Her plea related to her involvement with a secretive effort to access and copy election software in rural Coffee County, Ga. in the months after the 2020 election — part of an attempt to prove Democrats might have tampered with the machines.

The deal turns Powell into the government’s most prominent known asset in its quest to convict Trump, potentially now dangerous to the president she once supported. But it also represents a personal minefield for the 68-year-old lawyer, who is still fundraising based on a promise to sponsor causes that are dear to supporters of the former president, including the legal defense of people accused of breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The plea deal sent shock waves through circles loyal to those causes.

“I’m surprised,” said Jonathon Moseley, an attorney who has represented numerous Jan. 6 defendants. “She built a reputation on being a fighter. She wrote a book called ‘Licensed to Lie’ about government corruption. I just wouldn’t have expected her to stop fighting.”

Powell’s attorney, Brian Rafferty, declined to comment.

As part of her plea, she was required to write a letter of apology to the people of Georgia — a terse handwritten note on a legal pad that she submitted to prosecutors Thursday that indicated she was sorry for her actions in Coffee County, according to a person familiar with the message who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

For now, the terms of Powell’s plea agreement prohibit her from discussing the case publicly or speaking to others charged.

That leaves associates to debate whether she is now a Trump antagonist or remains a loyal foot soldier.

After Trump declined to act on some of the most brazen proposals, including naming Powell special counsel and seizing voting machines, she soured on him, according to someone who discussed the matter with her and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing criminal cases. “She was disgusted with his unwillingness to take action,” said this person, who recalled finding it unusual that she was expressing personal disappointment with someone whose election defeat she continued to try to reverse.

But an attorney who once worked for Powell’s firm, Sidney Powell P.C., rejected the notion that her personal feelings toward Trump would influence her testimony.

“The idea that she would shade her testimony based upon a personal bias could only be suggested by someone who does not know Sidney well. (Of course, I don’t think Trump committed any crime, and so I don’t think there is anything to hide.),” the attorney, Molly McCann Sanders, wrote in an email.

Of her onetime boss, the attorney added, “I know her first priority will be to be truthful.”

Powell toiled for decades in high-stakes, but low-profile, circumstances — as a federal prosecutor in Texas and Virginia and then a private litigator representing defendants in the Enron financial scandal and other disputes.

She gained prominence in 2019 when she took over the defense of Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. She went to great lengths for her client, writing to then-Attorney General William P. Barr about the matter, and, by her own account, personally briefing Trump on the case. The Justice Department announced plans to drop the case in 2020, and Trump ultimately pardoned Flynn.

“I wish I knew,” Powell said in a 2021 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, when asked how she became involved in Trump’s post-election legal efforts in 2020.

She said she was “in the area at the time” and working “on another matter” with Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. “The next thing I know I’m smack in the middle of it,” she said. “And people are pouring in with offers of help and wanting to investigate and wanting to give us affidavits.”

One of those people was apparently a Minnesota artist with no apparent expertise in election administration, who wrote to Powell four days after the election, acknowledging that her claims were “pretty wackadoodle” and yet alleging widespread malfeasance by Dominion Voting Systems — malfeasance implicating the upper echelons of the Democratic Party.

Powell aired some of those ideas the next day on Fox News. The Nov. 8, 2020, broadcast was the first in a string of Fox appearances by Powell over the next month — appearances in which she introduced millions of Fox viewers, including the then-president, to fantastical claims of election fraud and burnished her pro-Trump bona fides.

On Nov. 13, she teased that she would soon publish voluminous evidence of fraud. “I’m going to release the Kraken,” she said, a reference to a mythical sea monster that soon morphed into a viral pro-Trump rallying cry.

Less than a week later, she shared the stage with Giuliani at a news conference held at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee. The president primed his supporters for the occasion on Twitter, now known as X: “Important News Conference today by lawyers on a very clear and viable path to victory. Pieces are very nicely falling into place. RNC at 12 p.m.”

Powell, who was presented by Giuliani as a member of Trump’s legal team, alleged a vast conspiracy by foreign forces to switch the outcome of the election.

“What we are really dealing with here and uncovering more by the day is the massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba and likely China and the interference with our elections here in the United States,” she said at the Nov. 19, 2020, news conference.

Three days later, the Trump campaign sought to distance itself from her. Giuliani, in a statement issued by the campaign, said Powell was “practicing law on her own.” As one campaign official put it at the time, “She was too crazy even for the president.” Powell pressed ahead with her claims, filing a series of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits — which came to be known as the “Kraken” cases — seeking to reverse the outcome of the election in numerous states.

And a month later, Powell gained access to the White House and an audience with Trump. Late on a Friday night a week before Christmas, Powell and a handful of others, including Flynn, urged the president to take extreme measures to unearth evidence of fraud and reverse his defeat, according to the testimony of people present. As the Dec. 18, 2020, meeting unfolded, first in the Oval Office and then in the White House residence, an aide described it in a text message as “UNHINGED.”

During the hours-long discussion, people present later said, Trump weighed seizing voting machines from key counties, deploying the National Guard to potentially rerun the election and appointing Powell as a special counsel to investigate the election. “There was a proposal made by Sidney to become special counsel,” Bernard Kerik, a former New York Police Department Commission and close ally of Giuliani, said in a deposition taken by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Powell, in a deposition with the same panel, said the president “asked me to be special counsel to address the election issues and to collect evidence.”

But the plan sputtered, she said. The next morning, she placed a call to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, to say, “Hey, I’d like my key and my White House pass,” as she recalled. “And his response was: Well, that’s just not going to happen.”

The reckoning for Powell began before the year was out. In December 2020, a former Dominion employee sued her for defamation in Colorado. He argued that she, Trump and others ruined his reputation by linking him to false claims the election was stolen. The case is still pending.

The next month, Dominion itself sued her for defamation, asking for $1.3 billion in damages. No evidence has ever emerged that its machines were used to swing the election.

Another company that makes voting software, Smartmatic, followed suit in April 2021. (A New York judge later dismissed the claims against her, but the company has a separate federal case against her, which is still pending.)

Responding to Dominion’s claims that spring, Powell’s attorneys contended that her statements could not be proved true or false. “No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact,” they wrote. Their argument was that she was merely asserting her opinions and legal theories, not that her claims were necessarily wrong.

Still, Trump erupted at the defense, and she quickly fell out of favor with him, said people familiar with the matter, who said she has not been a presence in his inner circle for several years.

Initially, he expressed appreciation that Powell was “fighting” for him while others were giving up. But her theories were scorned by other lawyers, and Trump ultimately conceded that Powell was too conspiratorial even for him. In recent months, Trump has told others that Powell was not his lawyer, while maintaining that he “liked her” at the time, according to an adviser. Trump’s lawyers believe they can undermine her as a credible witness because she has cast doubt on the veracity of her own statements, the adviser said.

Powell’s troubles mounted later in 2021, when the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia sought communications and other records related to fundraising and accounting by a number of groups started by Powell, including Defending the Republic, a Texas-based organization claiming 501(c) 4 nonprofit status, and a PAC by the same name, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

An attorney for Powell said at the time that, “We have always known the more effective we are, the more the false attacks will intensify. Defending the Republic has and will continue to fight for #WeThePeople who make this country work.”

The nonprofit group raised $16.4 million in the year following the 2020 election, according to tax filings. According to its website, Defending the Republic’s causes include: election fraud, fighting “lawfare,” exposing government corruption, fighting mandates, “defending January 6ers,” and Freedom of Information Act litigation.

The group has helped cover legal expenses for numerous people prosecuted for their alleged involvement in the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol, according to defense attorneys involved in these cases.

Moseley, the attorney who has represented Jan. 6 defendants, said the money hasn’t always come through as promised. One of his paralegals still needs to be paid, he said, and another attorney has complained to him of not receiving payments for some time.

“I think Sidney’s funding had to take care of her and some of her legal battles,” said Moseley, who was disbarred last year in Virginia for violating a range of professional rules.

At the end of 2021, a federal judge in Michigan ordered Powell and others involved in the November 2020 lawsuit that challenged the election results in that state to pay about $175,000 in legal fees to the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit. The judge, Linda V. Parker, called the fees an “appropriate sanction … needed to deter Plaintiffs’ counsel and others from engaging in similar misconduct in the future.”

Kleinhendler, Powell’s attorney, criticized the decision and vowed to appeal, but a federal appeals court panel upheld the sanctions against her.

Last year, a disciplinary commission within the Texas bar sued Powell for professional misconduct. A state judge tossed the complaint, prompting the commission to appeal.

Jury selection in Powell’s trial in Fulton County had been set to begin this week. Conviction on seven felony counts — including violation of Georgia’s anti-racketeering act and conspiracy to commit election fraud — could have been rock bottom for the embattled lawyer.

Her deal to plead guilty only to misdemeanors means she will avoid jail time. In addition to six years of probation, she agreed to pay a $6,000 fine and $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia.

The deal may also help preserve Powell’s ability to practice law because it involved prosecutors spelling out that her crimes did not involve “moral turpitude,” language she could use to fend off the complaint in Texas. And because Powell has no prior felonies, successful completion of the terms of her sentence will allow her under Georgia law to erase the convictions from her permanent record.

The deal means “better consequences for her,” Moseley said, but it puts her standing in the pro-Trump movement in doubt. “It’s going to be hard to rally the troops after this,” he said.

Instead of furnishing evidence of election interference by the Chinese or Venezuelans, she is admitting to having engaged in it herself. “Guilty,” she intoned in a downtown Atlanta courtroom, when asked by a prosecutor how she pleaded to the charges.

Powell was the second of the former president’s 18 co-defendants to plead guilty and agree to testify. Bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded guilty in September.

Another defendant, Kenneth Chesebro, pleaded guilty on Friday to a single felony count of conspiring to file false documents — a charge related to his role in organizing GOP slates of electors in seven states won by Joe Biden to cast votes for Trump anyway.

Powell has now agreed to testify against the remaining defendants in the case, including Trump. It’s not known what precisely prosecutors hope to learn from Powell and when they might call her as a witness.

Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Daysha Young read aloud in court the facts prosecutors would have presented against Powell at trial, describing how Powell entered into a conspiracy with several co-defendants in the case. The purpose of the conspiracy, Young said, was to unlawfully access election machines in Coffee County. At the center of the conspiracy, Young argued, was Powell’s move to retain Sullivan Strickler, an Atlanta-based cyber-forensics firm.

Her testimony could reveal whether others in Trump’s orbit were involved with or aware of the scheme. There are some clues about ways Powell may be able to link members of Trump’s inner circle to the far-fetched effort. In a December 2020 email — which was read aloud during a deposition taken by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack — Powell seems to have kept Meadows — another defendant in the Georgia case — apprised of efforts to access voting software in various states.

“Georgia machine access promised in meeting Friday night,” part of the email read. A lawyer for Meadows did not respond to a request for comment.

Powell is now limited in what she can say publicly about the Georgia case. But her nonprofit, Defending the Republic, asked followers for forbearance in a Friday newsletter distributed via the Substack platform: “We at Defending the Republic appreciate your patience, support, and understanding of Sidney’s decision regarding the Georgia case.”

“Now that this is behind us, we can focus on our mission,” the newsletter vowed.

Emma Brown contributed to this report.

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Documents found on fighters reveal Hamas capabilities, bloody plans

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ASHKELON, Israel — A Hamas field manual obtained by The Washington Post and other documents found in the wake of the group’s brutal attack on Israel two weeks ago illustrate some of its military capabilities and preparations for close-in, bloody killing.

The manual, dated last year and found on the body of a Hamas fighter, lists instructions on operating certain weapons, identifies vulnerabilities in Israeli military equipment and offers tips on killing with a knife. The document appears to have been prepared for different units of Hamas’s elite Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, including anti-armor, engineering, sniper, infantry and tunnel specialists as well as what the booklet describes as “shock troops.”

“This is a secret military document,” the first page begins. “It should be kept in a safe place. It is forbidden to move with it except when there are orders.”

On its back cover is a picture of the Palestinian sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a mentor of Osama bin Laden. “If this is their source of inspiration, and this is the figure, the symbol, they are looking at, I understand something more about their behavior on Oct. 7,” said Michael Milshtein, a former head of the Palestinian department in Israeli military intelligence, referring to the date of the attack that left 1,400 Israelis dead. Milshtein examined the field manual at the request of The Post.

Experts, including Milshtein, said the manual appeared to be genuine and matches a cache of other documents gathered by Israeli forces and first responders following the attack. The Israeli prime minister’s office has verified 17 pages of documents for The Post. Some documents, including the field manual, were not provided for verification because of identifying marks that could identify who first found them and gave them to The Post.

Others Hamas documents have included maps and detailed plans for attacks on several individual kibbutzim around Gaza, including the intention to kill and kidnap civilians.

The document obtained by The Post provided guidance on operating weapons that they are known to have carried and also offered detailed descriptions on the vulnerabilities of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles. Included, for instance, are instructions for using North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenades, which Pyongyang has denied supplying to Hamas. Around 50 of the high-explosive munitions were found by Israeli troops following the attacks, according to the military, which has displayed some of the materiel it found.

Hamas officials in Gaza and Beirut did not respond to requests for comment.

Hamas’s secretive military wing al-Qassam is estimated to have a built a force of anywhere between 15,000 and 40,000 combat-ready fighters — 1,200 of whom it has said were involved in the Oct. 7 attack.

In earlier years when tunnels were open to Egypt, Hamas could easily smuggle in explosives and rockets to Gaza, said Mkhaimar Abusada, an analyst at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University. But Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi has clamped down on smuggling routes.

“Honestly I don’t know how they have kept up their ability to build this military capability,” Abusada said, noting the security perimeter around Gaza. Members of al-Qassam’s elite Nukhba special forces that spearheaded the assault are known to have been trained in Iran and have returned to Gaza to train others, he said.

Militants used paragliders, motorbikes and trucks to cross the border fence from Gaza into Israel, and small specialized units attacked Israeli communities, in line with the instructions in the handbook.

“We saw they are working as professional troops,” said Maj. G, a commander of the Israeli Institute for Weapons Research on Friday, as he displayed weapons that had been seized from Hamas. The major could only be identified by his rank and first name under rules set by the Israeli briefers. “They worked very specifically. It was very organized. One vehicle is IED, one vehicle was RPGs, one vehicle was a command team.”

The instructions for “shock troops” also included the best places to stab someone, according to the field manual obtained by The Post. The “neck in the collarbone area,” “spine” and “underarms” are listed.

Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert with the Middle East Forum who has extensively studied documents recovered from battlefields in Iraq and Syria agreed that it appeared genuine. “It wouldn’t be surprising for documents like this to be in the possession of fighters,” he said.

The Israeli military says hundreds of documents and other material have been collected by the Intelligence Directorate and the Yahalom combat engineering unit, including Hamas cellphones, communication equipment, cameras and intelligence reports.

Many documents have emerged in a Telegram channel called South First Responders, which compiles evidence gathered in the aftermath of the attacks by those clearing the areas. The group declines to answer questions on its methods for gathering documents and material — citing risks to sources.

Those who have worked to remove the bodies of hundreds of Palestinian militants killed in the assault say that corpses are first checked over by bomb squads to make sure there are no hidden explosives.

“They came with everything, fully equipped, with documents, maps and instructions,” said Yossi Landau, a front-line responder with the Zaka medical organization, which has been working to remove bodies.

One 14-page document partially posted by South First Responders and verified by Israeli authorities outlined attack plans for Mefalsim, a small kibbutz of 1,000 people that managed to escape relatively unscathed from the attack. Kibbutz security fought off a group of around 30 militants armed with grenades and AK-47s at the front gate.

The document details the size of the Kibbutz security team, the number of minutes it would take to travel between various points in the community and the goal to “take soldiers and civilians as prisoners and hostages and negotiate their release.”

According to four additional pages obtained by The Post, the team at the front gate was supposed to distract the Kibbutz security force while a Hamas explosives unit blew a hole in the back gate.

“The group keeps the Kibbutz busy until the rest of the forces arrive,” the planning document said. But the reinforcements never arrived, according to those that fought in the Kibbutz.

“They knew where the gates were, they knew where the generators were to cut the electricity,” said Yarden Reskin, a landscape architect and volunteer on the security team at the kibbutz. Looking at the attack plans, and the death toll in surrounding communities: “We do feel like we had a lot of luck,” he said. “We did our part, we did it good, but we had a lot of luck.”

Hendrix reported from Jerusalem. Mustafa Salim in Baghdad contributed reporting.