Thursday, March 28, 2024

Court Upholds Injunction Protecting Unvaccinated Service Members

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FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – American Liberty News (ALN) – in collaboration with respected national security expert Paul Crespo and the Center for American Defense Studies (CADS) – provides our readers the PDB:

Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING.

Get Your Best Daily Defense and Foreign Affairs Intelligence Here in One Brief. Read the summaries or dive deeper via the linked articles.

PENTAGON WOKE WATCH

New court ruling slams Air Force's limited approval of religious exemptions for COVID-19 vaccine. An appeals court in Ohio has upheld an injunction that protects around 10,000 unvaccinated active-duty, reserve and National Guard service members in the Air Force and Space Force from being punished as they await religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine.

Is the Army misplacing the blame for its recruiting crisis? At least two of its oft-cited reasons are “red herrings,” experts say.

Tough military recruiting environment is about much more than low unemployment, experts say. When it comes to military recruiting, economist Beth Asch is an optimist. Asch has been studying military recruiting for almost 40 years, during which she has seen good recruiting years and bad ones.

Trump probe: Court halts Mar-a-Lago special master review. A unanimous federal appeals court on Thursday ended an independent review of documents seized from former President 's Florida estate, removing a hurdle the said had delayed its criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret information.

NATIONAL SECURITY

The CIA is looking for Russians who are ‘disgusted' with the Ukraine War to recruit as spies. The Central Intelligence Agency is looking for Russians who are “disgusted” with the Ukraine war to recruit them as spies, David Marlowe, the agency's deputy director of operations, said last week. 

Marine vet's prisoner swap still possible, Russian diplomat says. The has been trying for months to negotiate the release of Marine veteran Paul Whelan and WNBA star Brittney Griner.

Chinese, Russian long-range bombers make reciprocal base visits. Chinese and Russian long-range bombers made reciprocal visits to each other's bases following a joint patrol over regional waters, marking the first such visit following a bomber patrol involving the two countries.

The Kadena conundrum: Developing a resilient Indo-Pacific posture. The long-standing debate over whether the United States is prioritizing China and the Indo-Pacific region has reignited once more. The debate centers on U.S. posture — the forces, bases, and agreements that constitute America's overseas military presence and make up the backbone of the U.S. Department of Defense's deterrence strategies — in the Indo-Pacific. 

HOMELAND SECURITY

US bans new Huawei, ZTE equipment sales, citing national security risk. The Biden administration has banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE (000063.SZ) because they pose “an unacceptable risk” to U.S. national security. 

CHINA THREAT

Congress wants to arm Taiwan, but hasn't figured out how to pay for it. Lawmakers eager to boost security aid to Taiwan may soon authorize as much as $10 billion in new State Department financing for Taipei to buy U.S. weaponry. But it's an open question whether appropriators will approve the actual dollars.

Close Australia ties ‘secret sauce' to tackle China's advanced space capabilities: top US military leader. US Space Force lieutenant general Nina Armagno said 's location represented a ‘pot of a gold at the end of the rainbow' for the two nations' space cooperation.

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

Biden says he is willing to talk to Putin about Ukraine, with conditions. During a state visit by President Emmanuel Macron of , President Biden said he would talk to President Vladimir Putin if he showed he would end the war.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 282. US President said he is ready to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin “if in fact there is an interest in him deciding that he's looking for a way to end the war”. The Kremlin “hasn't done that”, he noted.

US trying to persuade more allies to send NASAMS missiles to Ukraine, Raytheon CEO says. If U.S. officials can broker a deal, Kyiv won't have to wait for factory-produced interceptors. 

To deter Russia, EUCOM official stresses ‘threat-informed' exercises. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has highlighted to US forces in Europe the importance of “threat-informed” exercises with allies, according to a top European Command official.

Pentagon eyes major expansion of Ukraine military training. Defense Secretary and other top Pentagon officials are weighing a major expansion in training for the Ukrainian military, a move that could significantly enhance its ability to evict Russian forces from occupied areas even as it deepens U.S. involvement in the war. 

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, AFRICA, ASIA

Pentagon warns Turkey against Syria ground invasion after strikes threaten US troops. The Pentagon is warning NATO member Turkey against a new military operation in Syria, after strikes in the country late last month endangered U.S. troops.

Syria Kurds halt all joint ops with US-led coalition after Turkish attacks -spokesman. The Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed group that helped defeat Islamic State jihadists in Syria, has stopped all joint counter-terrorism operations as a result of Turkish bombardment on its area of control, a spokesman said Friday. 

DR Congo army accuses M23 rebels of killing 50 civilians. The armed forces say the rebel group also violated a five-day-old ceasefire in the east of the country. 

Japan seeks to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP. Japan's prime minister has asked his Cabinet to secure enough funds to raise defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product in five years, continuing a recent trend of increasing the defense budget, according to the country's defense minister.

BIDEN'S AFGHAN DISASTER

Taliban blocks two US-funded radio stations in Afghanistan. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on Thursday blocked transmissions by two news radio stations funded by the U.S. government, saying they had repeatedly “failed to adhere” to government press laws, “violated journalistic principles” and aired “one-sided broadcasts.”

SPACE

Recruiting crisis? Not at Space Force. The youngest and smallest service says it pays to be both choosy and inclusive.

The Space Force won a ‘Call of Duty' tournament and then the trophy got launched into space. “What would be the hardest place to ‘come and get it'? Space.” 

Space Force must adapt to strengthen commercial ties, Raymond says. The Space Force must reform its practices to take full advantage of the resiliency and innovation commercial industry has to offer, according to the former chief of space operations. 

US MILITARY

Can the Air Force train nearly 1,500 pilots this year? The Air Force aims to train around 1,470 new pilots in fiscal 2023, which remains a lofty goal amid an enduring shortage of flyers.

Eight B-2s gather for rare ‘elephant walk' of stealth bomber. Eight of the Air Force's 20 B-2s assembled on one runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., on Nov. 7, for an extremely rare “elephant walk” of the service's stealth bomber.

Navy's ‘influx' of aquatic and aerial drones tested in the Middle East. Unmanned boats with onboard aerial drones ready to launch sailed through the waters off Bahrain on Thursday, carrying with them the Navy's vision of a 100-vessel unmanned surface fleet in the Middle East by the end of next summer. 

The Air Force wants to triple the firepower of its HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters. That's a lot more firepower. 

For UAS to operate in contested airspace, autonomy is key. UAVs capable of operating independently from human control will still, however, require the ability to talk to each other within a swarm while being jammed.

‘Be all you can be,' Army to market for new recruits with old slogan. The slogan best relays the “possibilities” that await a new Army recruit, said Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, chief of Army enterprise marketing.

END of PDB

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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Paul Crespo
Paul Crespohttps://paulcrespo.com/
Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for office, taught political science, wrote for a major newspaper and had his own radio show. A graduate of Georgetown, London and Cambridge universities, he brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty – at home and from abroad.

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