THURSDAY PDB – All different cases. Soldier pleads guilty to planning ISIS attacks on US troops. An Army private first class has pleaded guilty to plotting the murder of U.S. service members on behalf of the Islamic State. THIS IS SERIOUS.
THIS IS NOT – Former civilian NSA employee gets jail time for ‘storming' Capitol. A former National Security Agency employee has been sentenced to two weeks of imprisonment for ‘storming' the U.S. Capitol. HE PLED GUILTY TO ‘PARADING AND DEMONSTRATING OR PICKETING IN A CAPITOL BUILDING,' A MISDEMEANOR.
DAMN – Virginia Beach sailor sentenced to 20 years for dealing illegal machine guns, possessing grenade and missile launchers. The sailor was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
SERIOUS – Marine arrested in firebombing of California Abortion clinic. A Marine and a second man have been arrested on federal charges of firebombing an abortion clinic in Southern California last year.
MENTAL HEALTH – Alleged Maryland shooter identified as military veteran who stopped taking PTSD medication. The man accused of fatally shooting three people suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
SELF-DEFENSE – Grand jury indicts Marine veteran in NYC subway chokehold death. Daniel Penny was charged by Manhattan prosecutors in the May 1 death of a dangerous, mentally ill homeless man, Jordan Neely.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here's a roundup of today's other top defense stories from national security expert PAUL CRESPO.
Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
PERFECT – Budget bill bans military abortions, transgender care, ‘diversity' efforts. All abortion assistance for troops would be banned, all transgender medical care ended, and all ‘diversity' and ‘extremism' training blocked under the plan unveiled by House Republicans.
SO, STOP BEING WOKE – Army secretary concerned ‘woke military' criticism could hurt the service. Claims that the military has gone ‘woke' are now an issue in the upcoming presidential election.
NATIONAL SECURITY
What the Pentagon thinks about artificial intelligence. The U.S. has committed to keeping humans in the chain of command. It's time for China to do the same.
US Air Force uses Mideast ops to test tech for potential China fight. The service is testing how artificial intelligence could rapidly give kinetic and non-kinetic targeting options to senior leaders.
Leader of Belarus says he wouldn't hesitate to use Russian nuclear weapons to repel aggression. Alexander Lukashenko declared that his country had already received some of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons and warned that he wouldn't hesitate to order their use if Belarus faced an act of aggression.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Biden, Abbott ramp up dueling operations on the southern border. Joe Biden and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) are each overseeing a sprawling effort to handle migrants at the southern border, with thousands of active and National Guard troops running separate operations on the ground.
CHINA THREAT
WEAK AND DESPERATE –Blinken to travel to China this week as spy balloon fallout eases. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to meet with China's Foreign Minister and potentially Chinese leader Xi Jinping amid historically poor U.S.-China relations.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
HE CAN BARELY DEFEND WHAT HE'S ALREADY TAKEN –Putin threatens to seize more of Ukraine to block border attacks. Vladimir Putin suggested that he could order his troops to try to seize more land in Ukraine to protect bordering Russian territory.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 477. Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister said its soldiers gained a “partial” success in its counteroffensive amid “extremely fierce” battles with Russian forces.
Cyberattack wave in Ukraine linked to Russia's GRU, Microsoft says. A wave of cyberattacks hitting Ukrainian government agencies and information-technology vendors has been traced back to hackers associated with Russia's military intelligence service.
Ukraine war could last a decade, top Ukrainian official says. The Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation is working to cut red tape and attract foreign investors to homegrown defense startups.
As Ukraine's counteroffensive heats up, Washington holds its breath. After 16 months of war, and with tens of billions of dollars of advanced weapons sent, Western backers need Ukraine's forces to show dramatic gains against Russian occupiers.
US and allies negotiating security guarantees for Ukraine. Ukraine's president hopes NATO will provide assurances and a pathway to membership at the alliance's summit in July.
IRAN THREAT
WEAK AND DESPERATE – AGAIN – Hoping to avert nuclear crisis, US seeks informal agreement with Iran. The talks reflect a resumption of diplomacy between the U.S and Iran after the collapse of negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear deal.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Air Force sends F-22s to Middle East to deter aggressive Russian pilots. Top Gun: Syria.
Indian, US and Japanese big decks drill in the Indo-Pacific. The 3 countries, along with Canada and France exercised with two U.S. carriers and a Japanese ‘big deck' in the Philippine Sea last week as part of the Indo-Pacific Command's Large Scale Global Exercise (LSGE) 2023.
US MILITARY
Next commandant says he will accelerate Marine Corps' transformation. Gen. Eric Smith said global threats demand that the Corps move even faster with its overhaul.
HAPPY BDAY – The Army rolls along: military's oldest branch celebrates 248 years. The summer before its members signed the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress wrangled over the structure and payroll of the budding fighting force it would entrust with making the document's pledges a reality.
Military pay overhaul could mean huge pay boosts for enlisted troops. Junior enlisted troops could see their monthly pay boosted by up to 35% next year under a massive rewrite of the military's pay tables proposed under a House GOP plan.
END of PDB
are crimes due to pay, IE low pay, other factors??
Secret Muslims??
Why do you think they want all the trannies and liberal in the military? To cause more chaos.
Did the ISIS soldier have at least one “Mohammed” as part of his full name?
Asking for a friend.