by Robert Whitcomb | Aug 18, 2016 | News
President Obama next month will make what is expected to be his final trip to Asia. There he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders.
During his time in the White House, Mr. Obama has sought to “rebalance” America’s defense and economic policy to counter China’s rising influence.
During the trip, from Sept. 2-9, he will attend the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, where he will meet privately with Mr. Xi.
He also will travel to Laos to take part in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and East Asia Summit, where leaders have grappled with China’s increasingly menacing territorial claims in the South China Sea.
His visit to Laos will be the first for an U.S. president. There, he will meet with Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachith and attend a town hall with young leaders.
The trip will be a chance for Mr. Obama to promote the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, a key part of his Asia strategy but one that faces a lot of opposition in the U.S. Congress.
To read a Reuters article on this, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Aug 18, 2016 | News
This Guardian piece takes you inside Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s giant prison and torture chamber, where people seized by Assad’s forces undergo horrific abuse.
“Now ex-detainees and architects have built an accurate model, using ‘ear-witness’ testimony, of the dictator’s hellish torture house, ” the news service reports.
To read the story, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Aug 17, 2016 | News
U.S. officials see the recapture of an Islamic State stronghold in Syria — the city of Manbij — as a model for future U.S.-backed operations against the murderous terror group, and especially for supporting a march by allied forces on Raqqa, the group’s “capital.”
Fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-supported group that includes Kurdish militias and local Arab groups, regained control of Manbij, near the Turkish border and what had been a key logistics point for the Islamic State.
U.S. officials said the offensive showed the value of the small force of U.S. Special Operations troops on the ground in Syria, as they coordinated U.S. airstrikes and advised Syrian forces during intense urban fighting.
“Our operating concept has been validated,” a senior defense official told The Washington Post. “Utilizing local forces and our own Special Operations forces, partnered with overwhelming coalition air power, and enough time — the Islamic State really doesn’t have an answer to it.”
To read The Post’s story, hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Aug 16, 2016 | Initiative
Computer hackers assert that they’re selling high-powered hacking tools developed by the U.S. National Security Agency.
CNN reports that computer code — whose purpose is to break into other computers — was leaked to the public on Aug. 12 by an anonymous entity called “The Shadow Brokers.”
“The same mysterious entity also promised an upcoming ‘cyber weapons auction’ — the digital equivalent to putting stolen military missiles up for sale.”
CNN reported that the gang asserts that the stolen hacking tools were developed by “the Equation Group” — thought to be the U.S. National Security Agency and spying departments from four international allies: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Computer security experts worldwide now worry that sensitive NSA spying tools are accessible to common criminal hackers or such Western adversaries as China, North Korea and Russia.
To read the CNN story, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Aug 17, 2016 | News
Thae Yong Ho, a senior diplomat in Britain of the regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, has defected to South Korea, although he may be in hiding in Britain, given the three-generation communist Kim dynasty’s frequent use of murder. Thae’s defection (along with his wife and children) could provide the West with highly useful knowledge of the brutal and secretive regime.
The incident is apparently the first such case of its kind since official ties were established between the Kim regime and Britain 13 years ago.
A South Korean official said that the diplomat was “sick and tired of the Kim Jong-un regime,” yearned for a liberal, open and democratic country and worried about his children’s future.
To read more, please hit this link.
