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☆ Exclusive: State Department officials told House investigators they created Afghanistan withdrawal plans from scratch
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Kylie Atwood | Jennifer Hansler | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

The State Department has continued to publicly defend its decision making around the NEO as well as the ending of the war. Milley and retired Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, who were in charge of the US military during the withdrawal, blamed the State Department for not ordering a NEO sooner. The State Department officials did not weigh in on whether calling a NEO sooner would have had a substantial impact, as this would have preceded their arrival in Afghanistan. Although the State Department has faced sharp criticism from the Defense Department – most recently in a congressional hearing with retired Gens. Coordination with the militaryAnd on the ground, as they grappled with the frenzied and fluid situation, State Department officials and service members at Hamid Karzai International Airport were regularly coordinating.

Persons: John Bass, Jim DeHart, Jayne Howell, Michael McCaul’s, McCaul, Biden, ”, Mark Milley, ” Howell, DeHart, ” Bass, Hamid, Bass, Wendy Sherman, Washington . Howell, I’m, Howell, “, Trump, Anna Moneymaker, Milley, Kenneth McKenzie, McKenzie, Vedant Patel, “ It’s, Defense Department –, Gens, Kenneth McKenzie –, ” DeHart, didn’t Organizations: CNN, State Department, House Foreign Affairs, Republican, Department, Foreign Affairs, Chiefs, House Foreign, ”, DC, State, Department of Defense, Airport, Foreign Service Institute, Pentagon, Biden, Joint Chiefs, Staff, US, US Central Command, ” State Department, Defense Department, Hamid Locations: Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghan, Ukraine, Kabul Afghanistan, Washington ., Turkey, Rayburn, Washington , DC, extremis

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter on Saturday to Elon Musk demanding that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan get access to SpaceX's Starshield, a satellite communication network designed specifically for the military. The letter, obtained by CNBC and first reported by Forbes, claimed that by not making Starshield available to U.S. military forces in Taiwan, SpaceX could violate its Pentagon contract, which requires "global access" to Starshield technology. The letter requests that Musk provide the House committee with a briefing on its Taiwan operations by March 8. Taiwan has been governing itself independently of China since the island split from the mainland during the 1949 civil war. "I think I've got a pretty good understanding as an outsider of China," Musk said on the All-In Podcast.

Persons: Elon Musk, Tesla, Forbes, Mike Gallagher, Gallagher, Tsai Ing, Lai Ching, Musk, I've, Jaushieh Joseph Wu Organizations: Fratelli, Chinese Communist Party, Elon, CNBC, SpaceX, Pentagon, U.S ., Rep, CCP, Starshield, Russia, U.S, Tesla, Foreign Locations: Italy, Rome, Taiwan, China, American, Shanghai, Hawaii

The Bidens will attend a “dignified transfer” as the remains of the troops killed in the overnight assault Sunday return to U.S. soil. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will join the Bidens for the transfer in Dover, where such events take place when U.S. servicemembers are killed in action. Friday will be the second dignified transfer Biden attends as president. In August 2021, he took part in the ritual for the 13 servicemembers killed during the suicide bombing in Kabul. As vice president, Biden in 2016 attended a dignified transfer for two U.S. soldiers killed in a suicide blast at Bagram Airfield.

Persons: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, servicemembers, Lloyd Austin, William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Sanders, Waycross, Breonna Moffett, Moffett, ” Biden, Biden, Rivers, Sanders, Jerome, Tara Copp Organizations: Dover Air Force Base, U.S, Defense, Sunday, Navy, Capitol, Army, Army Reserves, Army Reserve, Defense Department, Pentagon, Hezbollah, White, Press Locations: WILMINGTON, Del, Jordan, U.S, Dover, Georgia, William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt, Savannah, Sanders, Iran, Israel, Yemen, Moffett, Rivers, Fort Moore, New Jersey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kabul, airport’s, Syria

☆ China's defense budget was reported as 3 times smaller than America's, but 2 analysts say the Pentagon is underselling Beijing's true military strength
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewBeijing's military spending and threat are likely far higher than portrayed by the Pentagon, which recently reported figures that indicate China's defense budget was nearly four times smaller than America's, two US analysts said on Monday. Peters and Beaver wrote that the Pentagon's assessment failed to account for China's military research spending. "Confusingly, the report does not attempt to account for either of these significant considerations in its treatment of China's defense budget topline," Peters and Beaver wrote. China's reported GDP for 2023 was around $17.8 trillion. "We should avoid overreacting to what seems to be this more accurate data of China's military push," Stavridis wrote.

Persons: —, Robert Peters, Wilson Beaver, Peters, Beaver, Sen, Dan Sullivan, James Stavridis, Stavridis Organizations: Service, Pentagon, Business, Allison Center for National Security, Heritage Foundation, The Defense Department, Beaver, Beijing's, National Atlantic Treaty Organization, Bloomberg, China's Locations: China, Beijing, Taiwan, United States, Alaska

☆ A second Trump term ‘poses a threat to the existence of America as we know it,’ says The Atlantic’s top editor
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

“We can’t participate in the normalization of Donald Trump,” an impassioned Goldberg told me by phone on Monday. On Monday, The Atlantic published a special edition of its monthly magazine focusing on what a second Trump term would look like. “And I believe that a second Trump term poses a threat to the existence of America as we know it.”It is not difficult for newsrooms to state that they are pro-democracy. That is why I am comfortable devoting an entire issue of answering the question of what a second Trump term would look like and reaching the conclusion that it would be terrible. But, he warned, a second Trump presidency could be even worse for the press.

Persons: CNN — Jeffrey Goldberg, Donald Trump, ”, Goldberg, “, ” Goldberg, Trump, …, It’s “, Donald Trump fomented, There’s, American servicemembers, John Kelly, Jake Tapper, “ There’s Organizations: CNN, The, U.S, U.S . Constitution, Trump, Democrats, Constitution, White House Locations: U.S ., America, American

“Allowing confidential sources to be ordered revealed means that the public will have less information. Abrams represented New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who spent 85 days in jail after being held in contempt for refusing to divulge a source in an investigation of leaks about an undercover CIA agent. “The First Amendment interest in protecting journalists’ sources is at its highest in cases, like this, involving reporting on national security,” Philbin wrote in court papers. That settlement resulted in a contempt order being vacated against a journalist who was being asked to name her sources. Courts have recognized that journalists have a limited privilege to keep confidential their sources, allowing reporters to block subpoenas in the past.

Persons: Catherine Herridge, Yanping Chen, Chen, Herridge, Christopher Cooper, —, It’s, ”, Floyd Abrams, Abrams, Judith Miller, Cooper, Herridge’s, Chen's, Patrick Philbin, Trump, “, ” Philbin, they’ve, Steven Hatfill, Gabe Rottman, Rottman, ” ___ Richer Organizations: WASHINGTON, FBI, Fox News, U.S, District, New York Times, CIA, CBS, Justice Department, White, CBS News, Department, Courts, Freedom, Press, group's Technology Locations: Washington, Virginia, Boston

CNN —New York City officials have identified two more victims of the September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center, just days before the 22nd memorial anniversary of the attacks. The man and woman identified are the 1,648th and 1,649th victims identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, according to a news release from the mayor’s office. The mayor’s office said that they were withholding the names of the two new victims at the request of their families. A total of 2,753 people were reported missing in lower Manhattan after the attacks on the World Trade Center. New York City Mayor Eric Adams noted in the announcement the victims’ families who continue to grieve.

Persons: ”, Jason Graham, OCME, Eric Adams Organizations: CNN, New, World Trade Center, Medical, U.S, World Trade, New York City Locations: New York City, Manhattan, New York

"One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv," Biden said at the Warsaw Royal Castle Gardens as the crowd waved Polish flags. "Well I've just come from a visit to Kyiv and I can report Kyiv stands strong, Kyiv stands proud, it stands tall and most important, it stands free." "One year into this war, Putin no longer doubts the strength of our coalition, but he still doubts our conviction. U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in Kyiv, Ukraine on February 20, 2023. "Tonight I speak once more again to the people of Russia: The United States and the people of Europe do not seek to control or destroy Russia," Biden said.

☆ House Republicans request documents on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Amanda Macias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Friday called on the Biden administration to release information about the chaotic U.S. departure from Afghanistan. The departure effectively ended a two-decade conflict that began shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan in April 2021. At the time, he asked all American servicemembers to leave the war-weary country by Sept. 11 of that year. The U.S. launched its war in Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

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