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.
POLITICS
SHAMELESSLY CO-OPTS CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL BUZZ PHRASE – AND IGNORES CHRISTMAS. First lady Jill Biden chooses ‘We the People' as theme for White House holiday decorations. Jill Biden selected the theme several months ago, and over the long Thanksgiving holiday, more than 150 volunteers descended on the White House to decorate the public rooms.
House conservatives draw red lines on must-pass defense spending bill. Rep. Chip Roy says, ‘It is imperative the NDAA address the concerns of the American people regarding their military.'
NATIONAL SECURITY
South Korea, Japan scramble jets in response to Chinese, Russian warplanes. Both countries' militaries reported two Chinese H-6 bombers nearing their airspace on Wednesday and said they scrambled fighter jets in response.
BS ALERT – No, a former Marine general is not working for an infamous Russian mercenary group. The Defense Department's top spokesman has called bullshit on a recent claim by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia's Wagner Group, that a former Marine Corps general works for the private mercenary company.
US Space Command supports use of ‘responsive launch' to deter China and Russia. Dickinson said the U.S. military should take advantage of commercially available launch options and vehicles that can operate from multiple locations.
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
Former Army secretary urges Corps to accommodate Sikhs in boot camp. A three-judge panel heard oral argument on whether to issue an injunction allowing the plaintiffs to enter boot camp with their articles of faith.
HOMELAND SECURITY
JUSTIFIED OR OVERZEALOUS CONVICTION? – Oath Keepers leader convicted of sedition in landmark Jan 6 case. A jury in federal court convicted Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right militia, and one of his subordinates for a plot to keep President Trump in power.
New Jersey Marine reservist sentenced to jail time for his role in the Capitol riot. A Marine reservist from New Jersey who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a “Make Politicians Afraid Again” hat was sentenced to two weeks of intermittent incarceration Tuesday for his role in the riot.
US Army app with Russian code reaped no user data, service says. An application approved by the U.S. Army that contained code from a Russian company harvested no information from the more than 1,000 people that downloaded it, according to the service, which has since discontinued its use.
CHINA THREAT
COULD BE WRONG – Pentagon sees no imminent threat to Taiwan from Chinese buildup. A new report from the Pentagon details China's more provocative and aggressive actions toward Taiwan, but Defense Department officials say those actions do not mean an invasion will happen soon.
Navy responds to Chinese criticism of South China Sea mission. The guided missile cruiser Chancellorsville sailed past a Chinese-controlled island in the South China Sea Tuesday.
Defense Intelligence Agency forms ‘China mission group' to track rival. The Defense Intelligence Agency is pulling together a group of analysts and experts to monitor competition with China, a world power Pentagon officials consider the leading threat to U.S. national security.
India, US troops hold exercises close to China border. Militaries from India and the U.S. are taking part in a training exercise in a cold, mountainous terrain close to India's disputed border with China.
China built new military post near disputed Indian border, satellite images show. China has built a military outpost near its disputed border with India, new satellite imagery shows, a move that signals Beijing's intentions for a long-term deployment at the global flashpoint.
US Senate eyes tightened restrictions on Chinese semiconductors. The Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate urged lawmakers on Monday to back his proposal to bar the U.S. government from doing business with companies that use semiconductors made by producers the Pentagon considers Chinese military contractors.
Jiang Zemin, former leader who paved the way for China's rise, dies age 96. Jiang Zemin, the Chinese communist leader who paved the way for the country's emergence as a global superpower, has died, state-run Xinhua news agency announced Wednesday.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
US and NATO scramble to arm Ukraine and refill their own arsenals. The West thought an artillery and tank war in Europe would never happen again and shrank weapons stockpiles. It was wrong.
Ukraine war: Nato pledges to provide more weapons and fix power grid. Nato has pledged to give more weapons to Ukraine and help fix critical energy infrastructure badly damaged by massive Russian missile and drone strikes.
US pledges $53 million to help fix Ukraine's electrical grid. U.S. officials said they hoped the commitment would spur allies to make similar donations, as many Ukrainians head into winter without power or water.
US mulls sending Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine. The U.S. government is mulling sending the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine to help bolster its air defenses against an ongoing barrage of Russian strikes, said a senior U.S. defense official.
Russia firing unarmed missiles to deplete Ukraine air defense, says US military official. Russia is firing unarmed cruise missiles that were designed to carry nuclear warheads at targets in Ukraine to try to deplete Kyiv's stocks of air defenses, a senior U.S. military official said.
Ukraine needs tanks, and the west should supply them. They could finish off Putin and Russia. In 1941, Churchill said to the US: ‘give us the tools and we will finish the job'. Zelenskiy is saying the same to us – and we should listen.
Russian action deemed unprofessional in encounter with USS George HW Bush Carrier strike group. The Carrier Strike Group is encountering Russian aircraft and ships as it supports NATO operations in southern Europe, and in one recent case the Russian force behaved unprofessionally, Navy officials said.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
Here's how the soldiers assigned to shoot down ballistic missiles from North Korea stay sharp. The 100th Missile Defense Brigade and the 49th Missile Defense Battalion at Fort Greely train on and operate the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system for exo-atmospheric intercepts against ballistic missiles.
IRAN THREAT
PREPARING FOR WAR – US, Israel start 3 days of war games simulating threats in Middle East. The air forces for the U.S. and Israel on Tuesday started a three-day joint exercise in the skies over the Mediterranean Sea and Israel to train for potential threats in the Middle East, defense officials for both countries said.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA
US has reduced partnered patrols with SDF in northern Syria- Pentagon. The United States has reduced the number of partnered patrols in northern Syria with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Pentagon said on Tuesday, after Turkish strikes in the region and ahead of a feared ground invasion by Ankara.
Remember ISIS? It's why Biden must stop a Turkish invasion of Kurdish Syria. In 2019, against the advice of foreign policy and defense officials, President Trump abandoned our Syrian Kurdish allies, who were on front-line in helping us eradicate the ISIS caliphate. Turkish President Erdogan's invasion caused an estimated 300,000 Kurds to become refugees. The Kurdish forces lost 11,000 fighters in the war against ISIS, and their abandonment sent a chilling message to US allies worldwide.
Turkish airstrikes have slowed the fight against ISIS, officials say. SDF commander, Pentagon spokesman call on Ankara to cease “escalatory” actions.
US OKs $1B arms sale to Qatar during key World Cup match. Team Biden approved a $1 billion arms sale to Qatar in a transaction unveiled during halftime of the World Cup 2022 match between Iran and the United States.
Brazil still needs to get its military out of politics. In a cellphone video making the rounds on Twitter, a lonely protester wrapped in the Brazilian flag pounds on the gate of a remote military garrison, pleading for armed intervention in the government. Another shows a stocky man marching in red sneakers and shouldering Brazil's national flag like a carbine.
SPACE
Space Force training takes shape as service turns 3. Space Training and Readiness Command knew it had a difficult road ahead.
Space Force delivers final payload for Space Norway's arctic broadband mission. The Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission is scheduled to launch in 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
US Space Command is studying new ways to use existing satellites. U.S. Space Command is “making good progress” toward its goals to network the Defense Department's space-based missile defense and other sensors and to transform single-purpose satellites to do more than one job, Army Gen. James H. Dickinson said.
STARCOM weighs ‘live' space training, needs industry help for Earthbound ranges. Tired of the classroom, the Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) is looking at incorporating live operations for Guardians and, separately, is asking industry to help build out its range infrastructure.
US MILITARY
Here's the new Marine Corps strategy for training future troops. The Marine Corps' top officer in charge of training on Tuesday outlined the service's sweeping new strategy that promises to modernize how troops learn and ready them for a faster, more connected era of combat.
YESSSS – Note to new Congress: To tame suicide in the military, take aim at brain injuries. When the new Congress convenes in early January, one of its top priorities should be to direct much more extensive research into the prevalence of brain injuries among U.S. military personnel and veterans and into what can be done to mitigate them in an effort to reverse spiraling suicide rates.
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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More like, WE the wealthy elite. Pompous, arrogant slugs.
The Trumps are better than the Bidens because they are even more wealthy and elite. I liked their bare red trees even more than Biden’s with all its stupid decorations and lights. They stole the idea from Americans. What a waste of money.
NO Woke Christmas themes OK
Your own home yes
I know! That “we the people” theme is incredibly woke.
“We The People minus 1” The Biden’s wouldn’t hang a Christmas Stocking with the name of their one grandchild like they did for all of their other grand children. Yeah, one of Hunter’s out of wedlock.