Category Archives: US national security

Intruder at home of Biden adviser Jake Sullivan bypassed Secret Service agents

Posted on by

National security adviser confronted apparently intoxicated man at 3am then told his protectors what happened, report says

The US Secret Service was investigating after an apparently intoxicated and confused man walked past agents and into the Washington home of Joe Biden’s national security adviser.

Jake Sullivan confronted the man and told him to leave, the Washington Post first reported, of an incident that happened at about 3am one night in late April. There were no signs of forced entry.

Continue reading...

Pentagon leak suspect may still have access to classified info, court filings allege

Posted on by

Jack Teixeira, 21, expected to appear in Massachusetts court on Thursday as prosecutors urge judge to keep him behind bars

The Massachusetts air national guardsman suspected of leaking highly classified US intelligence documents is set to appear in federal court on Thursday, after federal prosecutors urged a judge to keep the suspect behind bars.

Jack Teixeira, 21, is expected to appear at 1pm ET for a detention hearing in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Continue reading...

Trump lawyers say Mar-a-Lago boxes contained foreign leader briefings

Posted on by

New letter sent to Congress attempts to paint Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents at Florida home as inadvertent

Donald Trump’s lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation found the 15 boxes the former president returned to the National Archives a year after the end of his presidency mostly contained briefings for calls with foreign leaders, according to a new letter they sent to Congress.

The majority of the letter – seen by the Guardian and earlier reported by CNN – served to characterize Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents as inadvertent, and due to White House staffers sweeping all documents into boxes during a chaotic departure at the end of the administration.

Continue reading...

Pentagon leaks: US seeks to mend ties after claims Washington spied on key allies

Posted on by

Defence secretary speaks to South Korean counterpart after leak suggesting US was spying on Seoul’s internal discussions on arms sales

The US is attempting to mend fences with key allies after leaked Pentagon documents claimed Washington had been spying on friendly countries including South Korea and Israel.

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his South Korean counterpart on Tuesday as officials in Seoul denied the possibility that the president’s office could have been the source of leaks over South Korean arms sales to the US.

Continue reading...

Latest leak highlights how many have access to US top secret material

Posted on by

Classified documents revealing Ukraine military troubles and US intel gathering against allies were probably spread through gaming servers

The evidence emerging on the leak of classified US defence documents suggests that it was probably not some dastardly hacking or disinformation plot by Russia or the US, but rather another example of how carelessly Washington handles its secrets.

The least likely version of reality is the one being circulated among Kremlin supporters, that it was a clever piece of CIA distraction ultimately aimed at demoralising Russians by showing how many lives they had lost, and how badly their war was going in Ukraine.

Continue reading...

John Bolton chose not to brief Trump on Russia Havana syndrome suspicion

Posted on by

Former national security adviser tells podcast ‘we didn’t feel we would get support’ from president during Russia investigation

Donald Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, did not brief the president on suspicions Russia might be behind mysterious “Havana syndrome” attacks on US diplomats because he did not think Trump would support him.

“Since our concern was that one of the perpetrators – maybe the perpetrator – was Russia,” Bolton said, “we didn’t feel we would get support from President Trump if we said, ‘We think the Russians are coming after American personnel.’”

Continue reading...

TikTok unveils European data security plan amid calls for US ban

Posted on by

Move comes as White House backs bill that could give it power to ban Chinese-owned app nationwide

TikTok has announced a data security regime for protecting user information across Europe, as political pressure increases in the US to ban the social video app.

The plan, known as Project Clover, involves user data being stored on servers in Ireland and Norway at an annual cost of €1.2bn (£1.1bn), while any data transfers outside Europe will be vetted by a third-party IT company.

Continue reading...

US and Ukraine ‘still having discussions’ amid pressure to supply F-16 jets

Posted on by

UN ambassador says US must ensure Ukrainians ‘have the training necessary … to use weapons systems we provide’

The US ambassador to the United Nations indicated on Sunday that the White House could reverse its refusal to supply F-16 jets to Ukraine.

“We’re still having discussions on the ground with the Ukrainians,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN’s State of the Union, adding that Washington was working “very closely and directly” with Kyiv to identify “what their needs are and when they need them”.

Continue reading...

Three objects shot down after Chinese spy balloon may be benign, White House says

Posted on by

Flying objects could be commercial- or research-linked, while US military admits first shot at object over Lake Huron missed

Three unidentified objects shot down by US fighter jets since Friday may turn out to be balloons connected to “benign” commercial or research efforts, a White House official said on Tuesday.

The US has not found any evidence to connect the objects to China’s balloon surveillance program nor to any other country’s spy program, national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters.

Continue reading...

Hunt for mysterious object shot down in remote Yukon faces daunting odds

Posted on by

The Canadian territory is an aircraft graveyard – now the difficult search is on for a downed unidentified craft in its vast environs

The rugged, “unpeopled” landscape of Canada’s Yukon territory is a graveyard for aircraft, with more than 500 planes crashing in its forests, mountains and lakes over the years.

Now, Canada’s military and police, alongside their US counterparts, are searching the unforgiving landscape in midwinter for a mysterious object recently shot on Saturday by a fighter plane.

Continue reading...

‘Significant’ debris from China spy balloon retrieved, says US military

Posted on by

Sensors and electronics pulled from waters off South Carolina, says military, after White House says Beijing’s surveillance program dates back years

The US military has recovered “significant debris” from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down this month, the Pentagon has said, after the White House claimed China had been operating a high-altitude balloon program spying on the US and its allies for many years.

The US Northern Command said in a statement: “Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure.”

Continue reading...

Mystery surrounds what exactly was object US jet shot down over Alaska

Posted on by

High-altitude object the size of a small car was downed on Friday but its owner and purpose have yet to be identified

Questions remain after the US government shot down two high-altitude objects, one near Deadhorse, Alaska along the north-eastern Alaskan coast and a second near Yukon, Canada, that have yet to be identified.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted Saturday afternoon that he ordered the takedown of an unidentified object in Canadian airspace out

Continue reading...

‘Hot air’: Marjorie Taylor Greene in State of the Union balloon stunt

Posted on by

Republican extremist appears to reference Chinese surveillance dirigible by parading halls of Congress with white balloon

Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to tee up a State of the Union stunt on Tuesday, patrolling the halls of Congress with a large white balloon in reference to Republican criticism of Joe Biden over his handling of a flight over US territory by a Chinese surveillance dirigible.

“Just an innocent white balloon everybody,” the Georgia extremist said, hours before Biden’s address to Congress, attempting to keep aloft the balloon saga which ended when it was shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday.

Continue reading...

Trump documents: Congress offered briefing on records kept at Mar-a-Lago

Posted on by

Closed-door session could provide insight into the sensitivity of the documents Trump retained and possibility of indictments

US officials have offered to provide a closed-door briefing to congressional leaders about their review of about 300 classified-marked documents retrieved from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last year, sources familiar with the matter said.

The precise nature of the briefing remains unclear. The offer from the justice department and the Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI) was described as unofficial on Sunday and no date had yet been set, though the briefing could come as soon as this week.

Continue reading...

White House rejects Republican fire over wait to down Chinese spy balloon

Posted on by

Pete Buttigieg says president ‘considered safety of American people’ but Marco Rubio criticizes eight-day wait

The US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, rejected Republican criticism of Joe Biden over the eight-day wait to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon which flew over military sites.

“The president gave instructions to have it shot down in a way that was safe,” Buttigieg told CNN’s State of the Union, of the operation off the Carolina coast on Saturday.

Associated Press contributed to this report

Continue reading...

Biden and Pence documents reveal US crisis of ‘overclassification’, expert says

Posted on by

System whereby government classifies 50m documents a year threatens national security and democracy, says Jameel Jaffer

Donald Trump was caught with classified documents and Democrats were outraged. Joe Biden was caught with classified documents and Republicans were outraged. Mike Pence was caught with classified documents and it became clear that there might be a bigger problem here.

America has a crisis of “overclassification”, critics say. Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington has been overzealous in defining government secrets. Politicians and officials can too easily fall foul of this secrecy-industrial complex but the biggest losers are the American people denied democratic accountability.

Continue reading...

US joins Germany in sending tanks to Ukraine as Biden hails ‘united’ effort

Posted on by

President lauds ‘unflagging commitment to Ukraine’ as officials approve 31 M1 Abrams tanks to add to Germany’s 14 Leopard 2A6s

Joe Biden has approved sending 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, a significant escalation in the US effort to counter Russian aggression as international reluctance to send tanks to the battlefront falls away.

The reversal of the US’s previous position came after Germany confirmed it will make 14 of its Leopard 2A6 tanks available for Ukraine’s war effort, and give partner countries its permission to re-export other battle tanks to aid Kyiv.

Continue reading...

Republicans accuse Biden of hypocrisy over classified documents discoveries

Posted on by

House oversight chair requests Delaware visitor logs as Democrats stress difference from Trump classified records case

Republicans pounced on the discovery on Saturday of more classified documents at Joe Biden’s residence, accusing the president of hypocrisy and questioning why the records were not brought to light earlier.

Biden lawyers have discovered at least 20 classified documents at his residence outside Wilmington, Delaware, and at an office in Washington used after he left the Obama administration, in which he was vice-president.

Continue reading...

Nuclear attack on US or allies would end Kim regime, says defense secretary

Posted on by

Lloyd Austin makes remark while Kim Jong-un’s government in Pyongyang has in recent days mounted a number of missile tests

The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said on Thursday any nuclear attack on the US or its allies by North Korea would “result in the end of the Kim regime”.

Kim Jong-un’s government in Pyongyang has in recent days mounted a number of missile tests. The South Korean military said a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday may have ended in failure. Japan called the launch “outrageous and absolutely intolerable”.

Continue reading...

Trump feared assassination by Iran as revenge for Suleimani death, book says

Posted on by

Revelation about former president’s concern reported in new book The Divider by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

In December 2020, Donald Trump told friends he was afraid Iran would try to assassinate him in revenge for the death of Qassem Suleimani, an Iranian general killed in a US drone strike nearly a year before.

The startling news is reported in a new book by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, a husband-and-wife team who write for the New York Times and the New Yorker.

Continue reading...