Good morning. Here’s your Daily Situational Awareness for Monday, 18 October 2021. You can receive this daily briefing by signing up at https://forwardobserver.com/daily-sa
TODAY’S BRIEFING:
- Declassified: Pompeo warns of Chinese agents
- U.S. Strategic Command prepares for war
- Senate moves to legalize millions of migrants
- Using Huawei’s blueprint to target China
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
CHINA: Ahead of a potential 2024 presidential campaign, former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed warnings that China is attempting to recruit agents in state and local governments inside the United States. “These were deep influence operations,” he said during a speech in California, referring to a previously classified report. “The Chinese Communist Party is operating right where we sit tonight. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re sitting right outside of this restaurant. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they were in county commission meetings in every county in California. It would not surprise me at all if they were walking the halls of every state legislature all across America.” Pompeo went on to say that the Chinese spy ring operating from the Houston consulate was known to previous administrations, but no administration was prepared to take action to actually shut down what the Chinese Communist Party was doing inside our country.” The consulate was closed in July 2020 under President Trump. (AC: This follows numerous other officials warning of how deeply compromised the United States is by Chinese intelligence. As Sun Tzu wrote, “To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” – M.S.)
STRATCOM: U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) is hosting a closed door meeting with lawmakers and defense officials at the end of October to discuss the nuclear stockpile, nuclear force modernization, the Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications Enterprise Center (NEC) status deliverables and timeline, Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2), and “Operations in a GPS Denied Environment and Deterring Russian/Chinese Escalation to Nuclear Use.” (Analyst Comment: This classified update is unlikely to paint a rosy picture of U.S. capabilities and modernization efforts. Congressional leaders are regularly updated on defense activities for oversight purposes, and this is a special meeting likely to determine or present specific timetables for counter escalation by malign actors. Russia is highly unlikely to conduct a nuclear strike against the West as they lack resources to fund a near-peer conflict. – D.M.)
IMMIGRATION: Last month, the Senate parliamentarian rejected Democrats’ plan to provide citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants through the budget reconciliation process. In response, Senate Democrats offered an alternative 5-year work permit plan and deportation protections to effectively accomplish their goals. Under the plan, anyone residing in the U.S. since 01 January 2011 would be eligible to “parole-in-place” and apply for up to ten years of work visas. (AC: Senate Democrats are unlikely to vote on the “human infrastructure” bill until the parliamentarian returns a ruling. The legalization of millions of people is often decried as a tactic to secure multi-generational electoral victories for Democrats. Should the climate change portions of this legislation be stripped, moderate Democrats in the Senate would likely support the changes to immigration law. – D.M.)
BLUEPRINT: Senator Rubio (R-FL) wrote in an OpEd that the U.S. should continue using policy and sanctions to mitigate companies like the Chinese tech firm Huawei. Rubio notes the effort began in Congress to impose technological restrictions on the Chinese-owned telecommunications company. He believes this same approach should apply to other companies based in China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences for blocking research into the pandemic origins. Lack of attention to the growing threat of doing business with China was tied to a belief that America is in decline. The senator said “It led Wall Street, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley to slide America to the back burner and pander to the Chinese Communist Party. And many times, Washington simply didn’t care.” (AC: Beyond simple theft of intellectual property and obfuscating the pandemic origins, the communist Chinese leverage every technological system, including applications like TikTok, to conduct target audience analysis, influence Western populations, and siphon data. – D.M.)
In today’s Early Warning, Dustin dives into the weaponization of social media. Upgrade your Situational Awareness to Early Warning here: https://forwardobserver.com/subscribe