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The United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria on the day of the drone attack. Photo: Rick Bajornas/Un/Zuma PressAn Iranian-backed militia in northern Iraq was behind the drone attack that killed a U.S. military contractor in northeast Syria on March 23 and wounded more than two dozen American civilian and military personnel, according to U.S. officials. The Iraqi origin of that attack hasn’t been previously reported but was acknowledged by a senior U.S. military official Saturday in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal.

The United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria on on the day of the drone attack. Photo: Rick Bajornas/Un/Zuma PressAn Iranian-backed militia in northern Iraq was behind the drone attack that killed a U.S. military contractor in northeast Syria on March 23 and wounded more than two dozen American civilian and military personnel, according to U.S. officials. The Iraqi origin of that attack has not been previously reported but was acknowledged by a senior U.S. military official Saturday in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal.

The release of a House Oversight Committee memo came as Hunter Biden faces legal scrutiny on other fronts, including on his taxes. Photo: Susan Walsh/Associated PressHouse Republicans released a pair of reports Wednesday related to President Biden’s family as they sought new momentum in investigations involving his son, Hunter Biden . In a memo from a House Judiciary subcommittee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, GOP committee staff alleged that an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency inappropriately sought at least one signatory for a letter aimed at helping both Bidens on the eve of the 2020 presidential election.

☆ U.S. Senators Revive Bid to Form Covid-19 Commission
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Pop-up Covid-19 testing tents are still accessible in New York City. Photo: Gabby Jones for The Wall Street JournalWASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is reviving efforts to establish a national Covid-19 task force modeled on the 9/11 Commission to investigate the U.S. government response to the pandemic and the disputed origins of the virus. Advocates have long pressed for such a panel, which would have investigatory powers and issue recommendations about how the U.S. can better prepare for future pandemics. But past legislative efforts have foundered because of partisan disagreement, turf fights in Congress, and a lack of support from the Biden administration, people familiar with the matter said.

☆ Covid Emerged as Chinese Lab Faced Biosafety Issues, Senate Republican Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON—A Chinese laboratory conducting advanced coronavirus research faced a series of biosafety problems in November 2019 that drew the attention of top Beijing officials and coincided with the Covid pandemic’s emergence, according to a new report being released by Senate Republicans on the pandemic’s origins. The report, released Monday by a Republican member of the Senate Health Committee, a final version of which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, charts a confluence of unexplained events in that month and concludes the pandemic more likely began from a lab accident than naturally, via an animal infecting humans.

☆ Document Leaks Indicate Extent of U.S. Electronic Snooping
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The classified documents that investigators say were leaked by a junior member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard indicate the extent to which U.S. spy agencies rely on clandestinely intercepted communications to keep tabs on their adversaries and allies alike. In vivid examples, the documents track foreign governments’ military movements, diplomatic efforts and clandestine weapons sales, as well as debates in friendly capitals and more.

☆ In Croatia, U.S. Campaigned to Stop Chinese Bid on Key Port
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Interest by Chinese state-owned companies in a project at the port of Rijeka, Croatia, seen in 2019, set off a U.S. effort to foil Chinese plans there. RIJEKA, Croatia—On Rijeka’s waterfront, vast piles of scrap metal stretch for hundreds of yards, the byproduct of an ongoing construction project to renovate the port in the northern Adriatic Sea. When a deal to remake the port emerged three years ago, it set off alarm bells in Washington: Three Chinese state-owned companies had won a bid for a 50-year deal to build and operate a modern new ship-container terminal at Rijeka, a deepwater port with easy access to central Europe’s markets.

☆ U.S.-Russia Rift Complicates Case of Arrested Journal Reporter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Alan Cullison | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Moscow’s arrest of a Wall Street Journal reporter on espionage charges this week broadens a rift between the U.S. and Russia that is already so wide, the two nuclear powers barely maintain diplomatic communications. That will make any agreement on the release of the reporter, 31-year-old Evan Gershkovich, difficult to secure as he heads toward a trial in a court under the control of Russia’s security service, the FSB, U.S. officials say.

☆ Biden Calls on Russia to Release Journal Reporter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Alan Cullison | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Havana Syndrome Unlikely Caused by Foreign Adversary or Weapon, U.S. Report Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. Embassy in Havana. WASHINGTON—The illness known as Havana Syndrome reported by hundreds of U.S. intelligence and other officials overseas was unlikely to have been the work of a foreign adversary targeting American personnel, according to a new U.S. intelligence report. In the report released Wednesday, U.S. intelligence agencies also found “no credible evidence” that any foreign adversary possesses a weapon or intelligence collection device that is causing the injuries.

☆ FBI Director Says Covid Pandemic Likely Caused by Chinese Lab Leak
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the Chinese government has been trying to ‘thwart and obfuscate’ the investigation. WASHINGTON—FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that the Covid pandemic was probably the result of a laboratory leak in China, providing the first public confirmation of the bureau’s classified judgment of how the virus that led to the deaths of nearly seven million people worldwide first emerged. “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Mr. Wray told Fox News. “Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.”

☆ Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Agency Now Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, in 2020. WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress. The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.

☆ A Lab Leak in China Most Likely Origin of Covid Pandemic, Energy Department Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ U.S. Watchdogs Want to Deploy Staff to Ukraine War Zone to Track Arms, Aid Up Close
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | Gordon Lubold | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Top oversight officials responsible for tracking over $110 billion in U.S. military and economic aid to Ukraine said they would press to deploy auditors and investigators directly into the war zone to beef up monitoring as the scale and scope of American assistance expands. Inspectors general from the Pentagon, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development said in a joint interview with The Wall Street Journal that, thus far, they have been able to conduct critical oversight tasks remotely using personnel based in Washington, Poland and Germany.

☆ Senate Republicans Demand Answers on Handling of Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Nancy A. Youssef | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans demanded the Biden administration provide more information about its handling of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that crossed the U.S., particularly decisions made soon after its detection and why the military and spy agencies weren’t better prepared given previous incursions. Since an Air Force F-22 jet fighter shot down the balloon Saturday as it crossed the South Carolina coast, critics on Capitol Hill have said the administration needs to explain why it didn’t shoot the craft down sooner and how at least four suspected Chinese balloons had previously entered U.S. airspace.

☆ Moscow, Tehran Advance Plans for Iranian-Designed Drone Facility in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations, said officials from a country aligned with the U.S.As part of their emerging military alliance, the officials said, a high-level Iranian delegation flew to Russia in early January to visit the planned site for the factory and hammer out details to get the project up-and-running. The two countries are aiming to build a faster drone that could pose new challenges for Ukrainian air defenses, the officials said.

☆ U.S. Presses Libyan Commander to Expel Russia’s Wagner
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Benoit Faucon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

CIA director William Burns pressured a top Libyan commander in mid-January to expel Russian mercenary outfit Wagner, said European and Libyan security officials, amid fears the group may tap into the country’s oil riches. During the Libyan visit, Mr. Burns warned Khalifa Haftar, commander of a faction that controls eastern Libya, about hosting the Russian mercenaries. While not a cabinet member, Mr. Haftar is aligned with the government in Tripoli.

The Pentagon said on Thursday that it was tracking the balloon flying high over the U.S. The Pentagon tracked what officials described as a Chinese reconnaissance balloon over the continental U.S. this week, days before a planned China visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to repair relations. Here’s what we know:Where was the reconnaissance balloon seen? The balloon was observed by someone on a commercial aircraft earlier this week flying over Montana, after having transited over the Aleutian Islands and Canada, according to a U.S. official. The Pentagon said the balloon traveled over several ‘sensitive’ areas.

☆ Lawmakers Press for Access to Biden, Trump Classified Documents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Siobhan Hughes | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Biden, Trump Documents Discovery Shows Challenges in Keeping Government Secrets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Dustin Volz | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The discovery of classified documents at President Biden’s home and onetime office and former President Donald Trump’s resort has exposed longstanding risks in senior officials’ handling of secret files, while highlighting the increasingly unwieldy volume of classified material produced by the federal government. While most government officials can typically only read classified papers in secure facilities, some senior policy makers including the president and vice president need freer access to secret documents, current and former officials said.

☆ UFO Sightings Increased in Past Two Years, U.S. Intelligence Report Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An image taken from one of three unclassified U.S. Navy videos shows interactions with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena at an undisclosed location. WASHINGTON—Reported sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, known popularly as UFOs, have climbed significantly in the past two years, and almost half the new sightings remain unexplained, U.S. spy agencies and the Pentagon said in a report released Thursday. The study led by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the number of UAP sightings—often by Navy and Air Force pilots—stands at 510, with 366 of those reports coming in since March 2021. Slightly more than half of the objects are likely unmanned aircraft, balloons or airborne debris, according to analysis by a new Pentagon office focused on the issue, but 171 remain “uncharacterized and unattributed,” the report said.

☆ North Korea Sending Arms to Russian Mercenary Group Fighting in Ukraine, U.S. Says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Gordon Lubold | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A truck displaying the symbol ‘Z’ in support of Russia’s military in Ukraine parked outside a new building complex in St. Petersburg, Russia, controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who owns the Wagner Group. WASHINGTON—North Korea has sent a large arms delivery to the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary force whose influence and operations in Ukraine are growing, according to the Biden administration. North Korea last month shipped infantry rockets and missiles to the Wagner Group, which paid for the weaponry, John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, said Thursday.

☆ U.S. Intelligence Agencies Unprepared for Next Global Health Crisis, House Panel Says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | Michael R. Gordon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A House report criticizes former President Donald Trump’s response to the pandemic as it spread from China around the globe in early 2020; a Massachusetts Covid-19 ward. WASHINGTON—Three years after Covid-19 began, U.S. intelligence agencies still haven’t made changes needed to provide better warnings of global health crises and support U.S. leaders when the next pandemic hits, a House Intelligence Committee report released on Thursday concludes. “The intelligence community has not recognized that health security is national security–and has not made organizational changes to make that realization manifest,” says the report on spy agencies’ response to the Covid pandemic, which has killed nearly 1.1 million Americans.

☆ CIA Aims to Recruit Spies Among Russians Displeased With Ukraine War
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ukrainian military members searched destroyed sections of the Kherson International Airport, which was used by Russian forces as a base before their retreat this month. WASHINGTON—The CIA’s espionage chief used his first in-person public appearance since taking the post last year to make a pitch to potential agents. David Marlowe , the CIA’s deputy director of operations, told an academic audience that the invasion of Ukraine has been a massive failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin and opens opportunities for Western intelligence agencies among disaffected Russians.

☆ U.S. Releases 9/11 Commission Interview With George W. Bush, Dick Cheney
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Dustin Volz | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A rough transcript of a 2004 interview George W. Bush and Dick Cheney gave to a government commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks provides a glimpse of the former president’s and vice president’s views of the seminal event that defined their eight years in the White House. The April 2004 interview with the bipartisan 9/11 commission, which took place in the Oval Office, included discussion of intelligence warnings before the attacks and the events that unfolded on the day of Sept. 11, according to the copy of the 31-page document. It also describes Mr. Bush acknowledging that Air Force One had poor communications while he was on the plane shortly after the attacks began—and Mr. Bush’s assertion that he gave Mr. Cheney the authority to shoot down commercial airliners that were unresponsive.

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