RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-will-soon-lead-the-us-in-tech-global-leader-semiconductors-5g-wireless-green-energy-11638915759?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns announced in October that the agency is establishing two new major “mission centers,” one focusing on China and the other on frontier technologies. This action reflects his judgment that China is the “most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century” and that the “main arena for competition and rivalry” between China and the U.S. will be advanced technologies. The question Americans should be asking is: Could China win the technology race?

A new report on the “Great Technological Rivalry” from Harvard’s Belfer Center answers: Yes. The report isn’t alarmist but nonetheless concludes that China has made such extraordinary leaps that it is now a full-spectrum peer competitor. In each of the foundational technologies of the 21st century—artificial intelligence, semiconductors, 5G wireless, quantum information science, biotechnology and green energy—China could soon be the global leader. In some areas, it is already No. 1.

Last year China produced 50% of the world’s computers and mobile phones; the U.S. produced only 6%. China produces 70 solar panels for each one produced in the U.S., sells four times the number of electric vehicles, and has nine times as many 5G base stations, with network speeds five times as fast as American equivalents.

In the advanced technology likely to have the greatest effect on economics and security in the coming decade—artificial intelligence—China is ahead of the U.S. in crucial areas. A spring 2021 report from the National Security Commission on AI warned that China is poised to overtake the U.S. as the global leader in AI by 2030.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bureaucratic-global-posture-review-pentagon-defense-biden-china-11638380029?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Military planning in recent decades has increasingly become the purview of risk-averse academics and bureaucrats, and a new Pentagon study shows the result.

The Biden Administration in February set out to conduct a “Global Posture Review” on America’s military positions worldwide. The Pentagon announced its completion Monday. So what changes are in store?

Not many that we can discern. The review “strengthened DoD’s decisionmaking processes by deliberately connecting global posture planning and decisions to strategic priorities, tradeoffs across geographic regions, force readiness, modernization, interagency coordination, and ally and partner consultations,” said Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Mara Karlin in a Pentagon press briefing.

Ms. Karlin said the Pentagon conducted 75 consultations with friendly countries in formulating the document, but its main suggestion appears to be further consultation. “In the Indo-Pacific, the GPR directs additional cooperation with allies and partners,” the executive summary says. In Europe, it suggests “additional consultation with allies in the near future.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17947/supply-chain-border-security

There is another threat to the trucking industry, the supply chain and our national security. It is NOT reported in the mainstream media: Foreign truckers — cleared for expedited commercial crossings between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. — include at least half a dozen drivers who had deep connections to terrorism and drug-smuggling operations. And those are just the ones we know about.

The disturbing details are outlined in a 34-page report, issued by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General with redactions to protect information in the original “law enforcement sensitive” version.

Even when the criminal history of a candidate is available from another U.S. federal law enforcement agency, CBP apparently cannot access it. Instead of rejecting the foreign driver in question out of an abundance of caution, the agency simply rubber-stamps the candidate without additional screening.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says that national supply chain problems are caused by a lack of affordable childcare. While major U.S. ports such as Los Angeles and Baltimore have ships in the harbor waiting to offload cargo, a trucking shortage is delaying offloads and hauling. “Some of those issues,” Buttigieg stated, “may have to do with the availability of truckers, a thousand miles inland. There are a lot of things contributing to this. One of them is childcare, of course, which is why the president’s Build Back Better vision is going to be good for the labor market.”

Over at MSNBC, host Tiffany Cross offered a different analysis of the trucking/supply chain problem. “This is an industry populated by a lot of white men over the age of 55,” she stated. “This group of people overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Some people have talked about aggressive truck drivers cutting them off or not being helpful.”

The trucking shortages in the United States are real. Buttigieg and Cross are entitled to their opinions, of course, but their analyses seem off the mark. There is another threat to the trucking industry, the supply chain and our national security. It is NOT reported in the mainstream media: Foreign truckers — cleared for expedited commercial crossings between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. — include at least half a dozen drivers who had deep connections to terrorism and drug-smuggling operations.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17946/china-influence-united-front

Newsweek did an extensive report that linked 600 groups operating in the US to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

[FBI Director Christopher] Wray used a phrase common among counter-intelligence professionals: “malign foreign influence.” This phrase describes the covert efforts the FBI has seen in several cases where American politicians were influenced indirectly to adopt policies the Chinese regime desires, particularly in four areas: Hong Kong, Taiwan, human rights abuses against the Uighurs, and the Chinese government’s role in the Covid-19 pandemic.

That is fascinating considering that just this month, the U.S. State Department announced it would stop using that phrase.

The irony here is that those “PRC nationals” the State Department wishes not to offend are exactly the kinds of people that are employed by or connected to [Chinese Communist] entities operating in the US.

“This is the second time Chairman Meeks [D-NY] has blocked taking action against the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, an organization which literally exists for the purpose of undermining our democracy and engaging in political warfare. It baffles me why Chairman Meeks seems to oppose any measure holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable.” — Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), National Review, September 13, 2021.

China obsesses over what the world thinks of it. Its rise to rival the US as the world’s greatest economic superpower includes a strong psychological element. China seeks not to be feared, but as having peaceful intentions. Looking at its use of “united front” tactics reveals how China’s messaging seeks to convince gullible people in the West that Chinese interests are really their interests, too. This is one example where Chinese communism borrows “Russian characteristics,” using the old Soviet tactic of “united front” groups that wittingly or not do their bidding.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/chris-queen/2021/11/13/fbi-email-servers-hit-by-hackers-who-spammed-security-alerts-n1532701

We like to think that our law enforcement authorities have the most sophisticated computer networks around with the highest level of security. After all, they’re responsible for loads of sensitive information that they use to solve crimes.

But even an organization like the FBI is vulnerable to hacking, as we saw today. Someone breached the FBI’s servers, and the hackers sent spam emails warning of fake attacks.

Bleeping Computer reports:

The emails pretended to warn about a “sophisticated chain attack” from an advanced threat actor known, who they identify as Vinny Troia. Troia is the head of security research of the dark web intelligence companies NightLion and Shadowbyte.

Spamhaus noted that the emails went out to at least 100,000 recipients in a database.

They also demonstrated what the emails looked like.

These emails look like this:

Sending IP: 153.31.119.142 (https://t.co/En06mMbR88)
From: eims@ic.fbi.gov
Subject: Urgent: Threat actor in systems pic.twitter.com/NuojpnWNLh

— Spamhaus (@spamhaus) November 13, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/10/is_america_meeting_the_cybersecurity_challenge.html

As the U.S. remains engaged in a persistent cyberwar, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an alert yesterday in reference to the Ongoing Cyber Threats to US Water and Wastewater Systems. The alert was a reminder of the persistent dangers that exist to America’s critical infrastructure.

For the past several years, the United States has endured attacks from North Korea, Russia, Iran, and in particular, China. During this time, the Chinese cyber threats have been among the most prolific, as we learned back in 2015 that the NSA had already documented over 600 occurrences of “corporate, private or government ‘Victims of Chinese Cyber Espionage’ that were attacked over a five-year period, with clusters in America’s industrial centers,” according to reports.

Despite American efforts to mitigate these attacks behind new cyber initiatives, the waves of attacks have persisted, with last week’s attack against Amazon’s live streaming platform Twitch being the most recent.

Amid the endless reports of attacks this year comes the revelation that a top Pentagon official involved in identifying the most secure software available for the Department of Defense (DOD) quit his position due to his belief that U.S. “AI capabilities and cyber defenses of some government departments were at kindergarten level.”