"Iranian man charged for trying to assassinate former national security adviser John Bolton" PBS NewsHour 8/10/2022
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The U.S. Justice Department charged an Iranian national with plotting to kill John Bolton, who was National Security Adviser to President Trump. Federal officials say the suspect was a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, who allegedly tried to hire a hitman for $300,000 that was actually an FBI informant. Nick Schifrin joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
"Our Next War in Afghanistan Is Already Looming. And It May Be Even Harder." by Travis Tritten and Stephen Losey, Military.com 9/30/2021
The dangers that kept the U.S. in Afghanistan for so long are already accumulating again, little more than a month after the last troops left in a chaotic withdrawal.
The al-Qaida terrorist group that drew America into the country two decades ago is poised to come back under the ruling Taliban regime, or it never left at all, depending on whom you ask.
It may be only one to two years before the group could again threaten the U.S. homeland, according to a conservative estimate the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA disclosed in September. Then, there was the last spasm of violence before the complete pullout of U.S. forces in Afghanistan -- a suicide bombing that killed 13 troops that was attributed to a competing terrorist group, the Islamic State-Khorasan [ISIS-K].
Under that looming terrorism threat, former defense officials, lawmakers and experts believe a new U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan is likely, maybe even inevitable, in what could be an echo of the withdrawal a decade ago from Iraq that cleared the way for the rise of the Islamic State and years of horrific attacks, killings and more war.
"We are going to have to send U.S. military forces back in some form to Afghanistan," said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. "I don't have a crystal ball -- I don't know if that is six months or six years -- but the disaster in Iraq took three years to unfold."
Then-President Barack Obama declared the Iraq war over in 2011. Over the next three years, the Islamic State group grew into a Mideast regional power with control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. It sponsored attacks in the U.S. and around the world, slaughtered ethnic minorities, and released videos of the beheadings of aid workers, tourists and journalists, including American James Foley, in a display of barbarity that swiftly drew recruits to form a pseudo-state before American forces returned.
Afghanistan, where more than 800,000 U.S. troops fought over four presidencies to ensure it wasn't a terrorist plotting ground, could be the site of the next war on terrorism. But this time, the military may face even tougher conditions, with the region's remote geography, a lack of bases on the ground, a Taliban regime in control of government, and allies who led a quick initial invasion victory 20 years ago either missing or in exile.
The Pentagon insists it can take out terrorist threats with "over the horizon capabilities," or long-distance surgical strikes. But there is skepticism over the effectiveness of such strikes, which would be carried out by troops and aircraft stationed more than a thousand miles away. A botched drone strike on Aug. 29 as the U.S. evacuated Kabul showed how such strikes can go wrong -- 10 civilians, including seven children, killed by mistake due to bad intelligence collected from the air.
"I would love to say we have this magic ability to reach in and kill any bad guy, and maybe we'll kill a few of them," Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an Air Force veteran who served in the war in Afghanistan, said in an interview. "But man, we run the real risk of just creating more enemies than we do killing them."
New World or Old Safe Haven
The White House sought to turn the page on the war and shift focus as the dust settled in Kabul, even as concerns grew.
President Joe Biden gave an address Aug. 31, telling the country that he "ended 20 years of war" and that the terrorist threat held at bay for so many years by a U.S. military presence had moved elsewhere. It was an effort to explain a military-led withdrawal and evacuation that saw desperate Afghans clinging to a plane departing Kabul, the deadly suicide bombing, and finally the tragic U.S. airstrike that killed only civilians.
"This is a new world. The terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan," said Biden, pointing to Syria, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa.
Biden's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and the head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie would later testify on Sept. 28 to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they recommended maintaining troops in the country.
But the Pentagon would instead keep an eye on the region from afar, Biden said in his address. Afghanistan was a priority, but no longer a top priority.
On the same day as Biden's address, al-Qaida released a statement praising what it called a Taliban victory over the "filth of the Americans," according to a translation posted by the Long War Journal, a publication of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The United Nations Security Council had reported in June that large numbers of al-Qaida fighters and other extremists aligned with the Taliban remained in Afghanistan. The group was present in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces but was laying low and minimizing communication with Taliban leaders to avoid international attention, the U.N. reported.
"In many ways, we're in the exact same place we were 20 years ago, and that is with a Taliban-al-Qaida safe haven in Afghanistan," Bowman said.
Top Pentagon officials acknowledged the terror group, which plotted the 9/11 attacks, still had a presence in Afghanistan during hours of questioning from the Senate committee on Sept. 28. The group's original leader, Osama bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. special operations raid on a Pakistan compound in 2011.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there were still "remnants" in the Taliban-ruled country, and Milley told the committee al-Qaida exists and wants to regroup from there to strike the U.S.
"Folks, we are going to pay for what we just did," Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said during the hearing. "I got young kids, y'all got kids and grandkids, and we're going to be back in there fighting."
Few Levers Left to Pull
Any U.S. military return to Afghanistan would likely require a major emergency, something akin to the Islamic State group's surge through Syria and northern Iraq in 2014, said retired Gen. Joe Votel, who served as head of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, and also led Army Rangers in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Public horror and outrage fueled a years-long U.S. air campaign, which was assisted by a small number of ground troops working with local Syrian and Iraqi forces. A military presence remains in Iraq, but Biden ordered the combat mission to end this year.
"I could definitely see us responding to a threat [in Afghanistan], and I would certainly hope that we would," Votel said in an interview.
But he said any military operations are likely to focus more narrowly on specific targets there, rather than trying to solve conditions in the country that created them. The U.S. poured $2.3 trillion into rebuilding Afghanistan over the 20-year war in hopes of creating a functioning democratic government, according to Brown University's Cost of War project, though that government and its security forces crumbled within days during the Taliban advance over the summer.
Over-the-horizon capabilities, the airstrikes carried out from distant bases, are now the first line of defense, mainly because military options are otherwise limited following the withdrawal.
"We have very few levers in Afghanistan right now because we've completely pulled out," McKenzie said in his Senate testimony.
The U.S. military lost its ground base in Kabul, the partnership with elite Afghan commandos who were the most effective of the U.S.-trained troops, and much of its intelligence feed, making what was set to be a difficult mission over a remote, landlocked country even harder, said William Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council.
"Whether we like it or not, we are now in a race, and the race is between the Salafi jihadists' predictable efforts to build external attack capacities and our efforts to establish an acceptably effective over-the-horizon counter-terrorism capability," said Wechsler, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism during the Obama administration.
Lack of Intel and Hard Geography
Austin told the Senate that the military's use of over-the-horizon strikes is fairly common and effective. He pointed to a September airstrike in Syria that the Pentagon said killed an al-Qaida terrorist leader.
"Over-the-horizon operations are difficult but absolutely possible, and the intelligence that supports them comes from a variety of sources and not just U.S. boots on the ground," Austin told the Senate committee on Sept. 28.
But Retired Gen. John Allen, now the president of the Brookings Institution, said that type of intelligence is crucial for such operations. Allen was the NATO International Security Assistance Force commander in Afghanistan, and also served as special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, the U.S.-led group of nations that fought the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
"Over-the-horizon targeting implies that you have eyes on the target, you've got some form of boots on the ground or intelligence development capability that's on the ground," Allen said in a Middle East Institute discussion Sept. 16. "We have none, we've basically given it up."
The last U.S. airstrike [video] of the Afghanistan war, which mistakenly killed 10 civilians in a home near the Kabul airport, illustrated how horribly wrong operations overseen from abroad can go.
After receiving conflicting intelligence about the home being used by ISIS-K for a planned attack drawn from video captured by six Reaper drones watching from above, a strike team located abroad launched a Hellfire missile that killed an aid worker as well as seven children.
"I would reject a parallel between this operation and an over-the-horizon strike against an ISIS-K target, again, because we will have an opportunity to further develop the target and time to look at pattern of life," meaning long-term monitoring of targets, McKenzie said in a Sept. 17 briefing admitting the botched strike. "That time was not available to us because this was an imminent threat to our forces."
During the war against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, the presence of special operators on the ground was key to targeting the enemy.
But the withdrawal and the loss of the Kabul airport and Bagram airport, one of the most capable and advanced in the region, has hobbled the ability to insert troops if needed and has put any U.S. aerial operations up against the difficult geography of the country.
"The distances here are considerable, and it's hard to cover the distances and sustain these efforts when you have a dynamic threat on the ground," Votel said.
Iran airspace is a no-go for the military, and Allen said Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely try to block any attempts by the U.S. to set up operating bases in the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that box in Afghanistan in the north.
U.S. military strikes could then be dependent on Pakistan giving clearance to fly through its territory. But Islamabad may feel pressure to ally with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, leaving access an open and troubling question as its relationship with the U.S. evolves post-withdrawal, according to Allen.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether arrangements have been made with Pakistan for the U.S. to use its airspace for over-the-horizon strikes.
As intelligence and access have grown harder, the U.S. also faces a third challenge: the loss of local partners. Indigenous forces were key in both the early days of the Afghanistan war and the operations against the Islamic State in the Middle East.
Afghanistan's Northern Alliance opposition in the Panjshir Valley proved capable in 2001 and gave the U.S. military a toehold. A fledgling anti-Taliban resistance in Panjshir has now been snuffed out as would-be opposition leaders fled into neighboring countries.
The strategic difficulties with continuing military operations in Afghanistan, and the grim terrorism assessments, came as Congress and the Pentagon wrestled with the legacy of the 20-year war.
"I don't think it's pre-ordained that we're going to have to go back," Austin told senators.
The question is what would prompt the military to go back in, and whether it would take another attack on the U.S. homeland, Kinzinger said. Or would it require a steady drumbeat of attacks and atrocities like those committed by the Islamic State in the vacuum left in northern Iraq and war-torn Syria during the last decade?
"I think it's one thing to reintroduce troops into Iraq like we did, but Afghanistan is a whole different thing," Kinzinger said. "That's a frightening idea."
"On the ground with Yemeni soldiers battling Iran-allied rebels" PBS NewsHour 5/3/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Three months ago, President Biden ended American military involvement in the war in Yemen and reversed President Trump's decision to designate the Houthis a terrorist organization. But soon after, as special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports, the Houthis launched an offensive east from the capital Sana'a, towards the city of Marib, the last stronghold of Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces.
"In foreign policy shift, Biden lifts terrorist designation for Houthis in Yemen" PBS NewsHour 2/16/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The Biden administration on Tuesday officially lifted the designation of the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen as a global terrorist organization. That announcement comes within a larger review of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia. Nick Schifrin reports on the prospects of diplomacy, and speaks to Timothy Lenderking, the new U.S. Envoy to Yemen, to learn more.
SUMMARY: The novel coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is now blamed for six deaths, all in Washington state. Health officials worry the illness may have been spreading undetected near Seattle for weeks, possibly resulting in many undiagnosed cases. Can hospitals in Washington and across the country accommodate a “surge” of patients? Lisa Desjardins reports and talks to The New York Times’ Dr. Sheri Fink.
SUMMARY: As states discover increasing numbers of new novel coronavirus cases, public health officials are scrambling to respond -- while also facing questions from a Senate panel on Tuesday about why the U.S. has been so slow to roll out effective tests for the virus. COVID-19 is responsible for nine deaths so far, all of them in Washington state. William Brangham reports.
SUMMARY: The global spread of novel coronavirus has hit Iran hard. Nearly two dozen members of the nation’s parliament as well as its director of emergency services are infected with the illness, and a third government official died from the virus Tuesday. Special correspondent Reza Sayah reports from Tehran about how the country is handling the crisis -- and where they are placing blame.
SUMMARY: The novel coronavirus has claimed more lives in the U.S., with a total of 10 deaths in Washington state and one in California. As the number of infections also continues to rise, the House and Senate have agreed on a bipartisan, multi-billion dollar emergency spending measure to fight the outbreak. The bill includes money for vaccine research, medical supplies and more. William Brangham reports.
SUMMARY: Restrictions intended to control the global outbreak of novel coronavirus continue to increase. In many countries, schools are closed, travelers face quarantine and business has ground to a halt. William Brangham reports and Judy Woodruff talks to Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, about how it is attempting to offset the economic implications of the virus.
SUMMARY: On Friday, President Trump signed a bipartisan, $8 billion emergency spending package to fund the U.S. government response to novel coronavirus. Still, concerns remain over how quickly health officials are able to conduct tests for the illness. Meanwhile, the number of novel coronavirus cases across the globe is approaching 100,000, according to the World Health Organization. Amna Nawaz reports.
SUMMARY: As COVID-19 spreads to communities nationwide, financial and logistical concerns about its impact are rising. Among the major questions are whether employers will require workers to take unpaid sick leave, and who will pay for potentially significant medical bills. William Brangham talks to Georgetown University’s Sabrina Corlette and Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz of Capital Area Asset Builders.
SUMMARY: As the novel coronavirus continues to spread in the U.S., the National Institute of Health on Sunday advised vulnerable people, particularly the elderly with underlying health conditions, to avoid large crowds and trips. ProPublica reporter Caroline Chen, who has been reporting on the virus, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss what people need to understand about testing, infection rates and more.
SUMMARY: The coronavirus has now spread to 107 countries and there are close to 108,000 cases worldwide. Italy is one of the hotspots, where more than 230 people have died from the virus. In response, Italy's government this weekend issued a quarantine restricting travel for more than 16 million people in portions of the country. Special correspondent Christopher Livesay joins Hari Sreenivasan with more.
SUMMARY: For two weeks, thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in what began as protests denouncing a hike in fuel prices. But the uprising quickly turned political, with demands that top officials step down, and the government blacking out internet in response. Meanwhile, Iranian leaders accuse the U.S. of fomenting the unrest. Special correspondent Reza Sayah joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.
SUMMARY: President Trump offered tough talk and his "America first" approach in an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, targeting Iran and calling out Chinese trade policy. Trump also used the global forum to make a case for his domestic agenda, taking an unpromising tone on illegal immigration. Yamiche Alcindor reports.
SUMMARY: Heightened tensions with Iran prompted a congressional intelligence briefing on Tuesday. As Nick Schifrin reports, senators attending the session came away with differing impressions of the situation, with Sen. Bob Menendez [D-N.J.] expressing concern about the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign, while Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) expressed "real confidence" in the U.S. strategy.
SUMMARY: Over the past week, the difficult relationship between the U.S. and Iran has become even more strained. The Trump administration warned of severe consequences for any Iranian aggression, while Iran has threatened to exceed limits on its nuclear program. On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia said rebels in Yemen believed to be backed by Iran staged an attack. Judy Woodruff talks to Nick Schifrin for more.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s political news, including 2020 Democrats on the campaign trail in Iowa, the standoff between Congress and the White House over the Mueller report and subpoenas, President Trump’s trade war with China and escalating tensions with Iran.
Judy Woodruff (NewsHour): And now to the analysis of Shields and Brooks. That is syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Hello to both of you.
So, before we turn to all the whatever we want to call it that's happened in Washington this week, Mark, let's talk a minute about Iowa. We heard this voter tell Amna, this is really hard.
I don't know why it's so hard. There are only 23 candidates.
Mark Shields, syndicated columnist: That's right.
But that is — Amna captured the Iowa essence. I mean, these people take their responsibility very seriously.
Judy Woodruff: They do.
Mark Shields: It's not casual. They are gatekeepers. Between Iowa and New Hampshire, they are 1.4 percent of the population of the country, and unless you finish in the top three in Iowa and the top two in New Hampshire, you will not be elected President of the United States, based on the historical precedent.
And that's why it makes sense for both Mr. Castro and Mr. O'Rourke to be spending time there.
Judy Woodruff: They get one-on-one time.
David Brooks, New York Times: Yes.
If you love politics, this is the time go, actually, right now, because there's like crowds of three or eight. And there are candidates everywhere. You can drive to — in beautiful weather and see beautiful candidates.
And then it all peaks at the state fair, where they all sort of congregate. My most profound political coverage moment was covering Gary Bauer, who was running in the Republican primary, as he toured a refrigerated railway car with the Last Supper carved in butter in life size.
And that was politics at its best.
Mark Shields: Yes.
Judy Woodruff: That was the state fair.
David Brooks: That was at the state fair.
Judy Woodruff: Which is coming up in August. We have already got it on our calendar here, here at "NewsHour."
Mark Shields: Raise the cholesterol level of the entire state and press corps.
Judy Woodruff: All right, so now tear ourselves away from Iowa, Mark, to talk about what's gone on in Washington this week, this escalating battle between the Congress and the White House.
Just today, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the House, Richard Neal, is subpoenaing the secretary of the treasury, the head of the IRS, to go after the President's tax returns, this on top of subpoenas for the President's son, subpoenas for the attorney general.
What do we make of all this?
Mark Shields: Well, I mean, we — I think it's approaching almost situational overload, in terms of — we're talking about subpoenas from committees, including the House Intelligence Committee, the House Banking Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the — across the board.
And now we have the Intelligence Committee in the Senate, as you mentioned, led by Republicans, that have subpoenaed the President's son.
I just think, Judy, that, in a strange way, this plays to Donald Trump's strength. I mean, Donald Trump lives in chaos. I think it's sort of almost an emotional and technological and intellectual overload, given the fact that we're on the cusp of war in Iran, in Venezuela, in a showdown with the Chinese.
I mean, there's just — but this is what he thrives on. And I think there's a — almost I dare you to impeach me attitude that's prevailing.
Judy Woodruff: Overload, you mean for the American people?
Mark Shields: For the American people and for the — this isn't — the system wasn't intended for this.
I mean, this isn't the way it's constructed, that we can deal with crisis upon crisis upon crisis.
Judy Woodruff: David, the Democrats say they're very serious about all this. They want this information. They want this testimony.
I mean, are they pursuing the right strategy for them?
David Brooks: No.
Well, neither side is. It's the complete breakdown of the checks and balances system. The President has to say, Congress, I need you. I need you to oversee what I'm doing. I need you to correct for my imbalances. And so I'm going to cooperate with you.
And that's just the normal way we do business. And the Trump administration is not doing that. So that's the first crisis.
The second is, if you're going to do oversight, you got to oversee. You got to try to say, I'm at least going to try to be a productive force here. But what we're seeing on the side of the Democrats is an escalation of the passion. And it's just become an attack machine.
And so there's just a lot of — there's a lot of talk now about jailing people. There's a lot of talk about just holding multiple people in contempt. This fight over the redaction is the wrong fight to have.
Judy Woodruff: Of the Mueller report.
David Brooks: Of the Mueller report.
The administration has offered to show of the volume two, which is about obstruction, the vast majority, 99.5 percent, to least the elite Democrats. And that wasn't good enough. And so there was a little negotiation, which broke down.
But, to me, that — just issuing orders of contempt, which may go forward, just freezes everything. It just pushes everything into the courts, and we sit there and do nothing for a couple of years. And so there's a way to do this, and there's a way not to do this.
So there's a lot of error on the Trump administration. But, nonetheless, I think the Democrats across the board and across many committees are sort of walking slowly up toward impeachment. And we could end up in impeachment. And I do think that's what Donald Trump…
(CROSSTALK)
Judy Woodruff: But, Mark, we had on the program last night Jerry Nadler, who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee…
Mark Shields: Yes.
Judy Woodruff: … who essentially said, if we don't carry out our responsibility, we're not fulfilling what the Constitution, what the founders wanted and expected Congress to do, which is have oversight over the executive.
Mark Shields: That is a — it's a legitimate argument, make no mistake about it, I mean, that if you lay down a precedent that, literally, that this precedent can — this President gets away with what he's getting away with, and the Congress does nothing, then that certainly lays the precedent for the next President.
I think, just to add to what David — the point David made, Donald Trump, according to USA Today, which has established a database, has been a plaintiff or a defendant in 4,095 lawsuits. Now, think about that.
I mean, that's an awful lot.
Judy Woodruff: Over his career.
Mark Shields: Over his career.
I mean, about employment, about contracts, about subcontractors, you name it. He'd been — and you talk about litigious. He enjoys this. I mean, he thrives on this. This is modus operandi.
And I really think they're playing to his strength, quite honestly. And he's — and he's sitting there, quite honestly, Judy, with 91 percent approval among Republicans. And just, I think, intimidates his own party.
Judy Woodruff: But, David, are the two of us saying Democrats just drop this?
David Brooks: No. No.
Judy Woodruff: What should the approach be?
David Brooks: No, they should be in the business of trying to inform the American voters.
And so getting Mueller to testify…
Mark Shields: Absolutely.
David Brooks: The fact that Mueller may not testify is outrageous, and Mueller should testify.
Mark Shields: Yes. Yes.
David Brooks: And so they should be in that business.
But, basically, what they're doing is walking up toward the line of impeachment. And you can see the passions rising, as they get further and further down that line. And there's a difference between going toward the prosecutorial impeachment, and having hearings to educate the American voter.
And when you get down one path, you're really trying to appease the part of the party that wants — that wants impeachment. And the problem, when you try to appease that part, you end up emboldening, and you just turn it into an attack game.
And what Donald Trump wants — who would — who does Donald Trump want to be his foil, his opposite member? Does he want it to be the Presidential candidates, most of whom are kind of attractive, who he is actively running against, or would he rather run against Congress? Of course he would rather run against Congress [the House].
Any President would.
Judy Woodruff: But, Mark, I mean, I just — I come back to what the Democrats are saying is, we want this information. The administration is saying, we're not going to give it to you.
So how does it ever get resolved?
Mark Shields: No, there's no question that they're playing — they're playing absolutely hardball, is the administration. And they're being — they're not being respectful of the law in the least.
I think, Judy, you have to make — the difference is, the Russians were involved in this election in 2016, make no mistake about it. Our intelligence agencies have all concluded that unanimously. They were around in 2018. They all got all the way into a county in Florida, into its official site.
Judy Woodruff: Right.
Mark Shields: So that is a legitimate area.
What, are we going to have American elections for Americans and not interference? That — and nobody could argue with that, save Donald Trump. I mean, his own administration is mindful of that.
Judy Woodruff: And you're saying that's what they should be talking about, rather than…
Mark Shields: Yes. I think that's where they ought to be going.
Judy Woodruff: Let's turn…
David Brooks: There is even a weird moment where a senator started acting like a senator, Richard Burr, the Republican from North Carolina…
Mark Shields: Richard Burr.
David Brooks: … who wants to bring Don Jr. in to investigate that exact question. The rest of the Republican Party went crazy because he was acting like an actual senator who wants to get to the bottom of a very serious issue.
Mark Shields: And, Judy, I would point out that his own colleague in — Thom Tillis in North Carolina, who had written a very straightforward op-ed page piece in The Washington Post opposing Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency on building the wall, and then caved like a $4 suitcase when Donald Trump objected, went after — went after his own colleague, Richard Burr, and criticized him for leading a bipartisan investigation.
Judy Woodruff: I'm thinking of a $4 suitcase.
Mark Shields: OK.
Targeting of U.S. systems is more extensive than was previously reported
Businesses and government agencies in the United States have been targeted in aggressive attacks by Iranian and Chinese hackers who security experts believe have been energized by President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last year and his trade conflicts with China.
Recent Iranian attacks on U.S. banks, businesses and government agencies have been more extensive than previously reported. Dozens of corporations and multiple U.S. agencies have been hit, according to seven people briefed on the episodes who were not authorized to discuss them publicly.
The attacks, attributed to Iran by analysts at the National Security Agency and the private security firm FireEye, prompted an emergency order by the Department of Homeland Security during the government shutdown last month.
The Iranian attacks coincide with a renewed Chinese offensive geared toward stealing trade and military secrets from U.S. military contractors and technology companies, according to nine intelligence officials, private security researchers and lawyers familiar with the attacks who discussed them on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements.
A summary of an intelligence briefing read to The New York Times said that Boeing, General Electric Aviation and T-Mobile were among the recent targets of Chinese industrial-espionage efforts. The companies declined to discuss the threats, and it is not clear if any of the hacks were successful.
Chinese cyberespionage cooled four years ago after President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping of China reached a landmark deal to stop hacks meant to steal trade secrets.
But the 2015 agreement appears to have been unofficially canceled amid the continuing trade tension between the U.S. and China, the intelligence officials and private security researchers said. Chinese hacks have returned to earlier levels, although they are now stealthier and more sophisticated.
“Cyber is one of the ways adversaries can attack us and retaliate in effective and nasty ways that are well below the threshold of an armed attack or laws of war,” said Joel Brenner, a former leader of U.S. counterintelligence under the director of national intelligence.
Federal agencies and private companies are back to where they were five years ago; battling increasingly sophisticated, government-affiliated hackers from China and Iran — in addition to fighting constant efforts out of Russia — who hope to steal trade and military secrets and sow mayhem. And it appears the hackers substantially improved their skills during the lull.
Threats from China and Iran never stopped entirely, but Iranian hackers became much less active after the nuclear deal was signed in 2015. And for about 18 months, intelligence officials concluded, Beijing backed off its 10-year online effort to steal trade secrets.
But Chinese hackers have resumed carrying out commercially motivated attacks, security researchers and data-protection lawyers said. A priority for the hackers, researchers said, is supporting Beijing’s five-year economic plan, which is meant to make China a leader in artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies.
“Some of the recent intelligence collection has been for military purposes or preparing for some future cyber conflict, but a lot of the recent theft is driven by the demands of the five-year plan and other technology strategies,” said Adam Segal, director of the cyberspace program at the Council on Foreign Relations. “They always intended on coming back.”
Officials at the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
Segal and other Chinese security experts said attacks that once would have been conducted by hackers in China’s People’s Liberation Army are now being run by China’s Ministry of State Security.
These hackers are better at covering their tracks. Rather than going at targets directly, they have used a side door of sorts by breaking into the networks of the targets’ suppliers. They have also avoided using malware commonly attributed to China, relying instead on encrypting traffic, erasing server logs and other obfuscation tactics.
“The fingerprint of Chinese operations today is much different,” said Priscilla Moriuchi, who once ran the National Security Agency’s East Asia and Pacific cyber threats division. Her duties there included determining whether Beijing was abiding by the 2015 agreement’s terms. “These groups care about attribution. They don’t want to get caught.”
Federal agencies are also trying to fend off new Iranian espionage campaigns.
After the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified before Congress that her agency was “anticipating it’s a possibility” that Iran would resort to hacking attacks.
The Iranian attacks, which hit more than a half-dozen federal agencies last month, still caught the department off guard. Security researchers said the hacks, which exploited underlying weaknesses in the Internet’s backbone, were continuing and were more damaging and widespread than agency officials had acknowledged.
Iranian hackers began their latest wave of attacks in Persian Gulf states last year. Since then, they have expanded to 80 targets — including internet service providers, telecommunications companies and government agencies — in 12 European countries and the United States, according to researchers at FireEye, which first reported the attacks last month.
The current hacks are harder to catch than previous Iranian attacks. Instead of hitting victims directly, FireEye researchers said, Iranian hackers have been going after the Internet’s core routing system, intercepting traffic between so-called domain name registrars. Once they intercepted their target’s customer web traffic, they used stolen login credentials to gain access to their victims’ emails. (Domain name registrars hold the keys to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of companies’ websites.)
“They’re taking whole mailboxes of data,” said Benjamin Read, a senior manager of cyberespionage analysis at FireEye. Read said Iranian hackers had targeted police forces, intelligence agencies and foreign ministries, indicating a state-backed espionage campaign rather than a criminal, profit-seeking motive.
There is a long history of Iranian attacks against the U.S., and episodes from five years back or longer are just now being made public.
Representatives for Iran’s Mission to the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment.
The recent Iranian attacks have unnerved U.S. officials. But after issuing the emergency order about the ones last month, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has largely played them down.
An official with the cybersecurity agency said there was a belief that no information had been stolen and that the attacks had not “materially impacted” operations. But Read of FireEye and others said there had been a noticeable escalation in Iran’s digital espionage.
“If you tell the Iranians you’re going to walk out on the agreement and do everything you can to undermine their government,” said Brenner, the former counterintelligence official, “you can’t be surprised if they attack our government networks.”
SUMMARY: The U.S. has withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, saying Russia was violating the arms control deal that dates back to the Cold War. Now, Russia plans begin to building mid-range nuclear missiles. Nick Schifrin speaks with Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson about whether the U.S. can avoid a new arms race.
SUMMARY: Over the weekend, President Trump told CBS News that the U.S. mission in Iraq should expand to include watching Iran -- a change that would exceed what Iraq has invited the U.S. to do in its country. The statement sparked criticism from Iraqi leadership, as well as reassurances from the top American commander in the Middle East that the U.S. respects Iraq's wishes. Nick Schifrin reports.
SUMMARY: U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 meant that Iran didn't receive some of the billions of dollars of economic benefits it was promised when it entered the agreement. Now, France, Germany, and the U.K. have formed a company intended to direct funds and goods to Iran, bypassing U.S. sanctions. Nick Schifrin talks to David O’Sullivan, EU Ambassador to the U.S., about their motivation.
SUMMARY: Journalist Jason Rezaian was the Washington Post’s bureau chief in Tehran until 2014, when he and his wife, Yeganeh, were arrested by Iranian authorities. She was released after three months, while Jason was held for another 15. He describes the harrowing experience in his memoir, “Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison,” and talks to Judy Woodruff about why he believes he was targeted.
SUMMARY: For the first time in two and a half years, peace talks are occurring over the conflict in Yemen. Delegations from the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels are meeting with a United Nations envoy in Sweden, where a prisoner swap was suggested as a way to build trust between the two sides. Nick Schifrin explains the country’s humanitarian crisis and the Capitol Hill battle over U.S. involvement.
SUMMARY: Jewish people have called Iran home for nearly 3,000 years. The Trump administration and U.S. ally Israel often depict the Iranian government as composed of anti-Semitic radical Islamists bent on destroying Israel. But within Iran, many of the estimated 15,000 Jews say they're safe and happy living in the Islamic Republic. Reza Sayah takes a rare inside look at life for Iran's Jewish minority.
SUMMARY: National Security Adviser John Bolton on Monday criticized North Korea’s denuclearization efforts, saying leader Kim Jong Un was not living up to the commitment he made to President Donald Trump at their June meeting in Singapore.
“What was significant about Singapore was the North Korean commitment to denuclearize, and they have not taken effective steps to do that,” Bolton said in an interview with PBS NewsHour correspondent Nick Schifrin. Closing the Punggye-ri nuclear test site with no international observers present, as North Korea did in May shortly before the summit, does not qualify, he said.
After the summit in Singapore, critics argued Trump failed to reach a substantive deal with Kim on winding down North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The President and senior administration officials have claimed the meeting was a success.
Bolton said the Trump administration was working to send Secretary of State Mike Pompeo back to Pyongyang to meet with Kim again. Pompeo was in Singapore for the summit and has led the United States’ negotiating effort.
“We’re not looking for rhetoric here. We’re looking for performance of North Korea’s own commitment made to us, made to South Korea beforehand, to denuclearize,” Bolton said.
SUMMARY: For months, the Trump administration has targeted Iran with a campaign of pressure. Then overnight, President Trump took it a step further, threatening war, in response to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatening the U.S. in an address. Nick Schifrin reports on what could happen next.
SUMMARY: In the U.S., Medicare spending on dialysis accounts for nearly 1 percent of the entire federal budget, and the cost is growing. On the other hand, kidney transplants are actually less expensive and offer the possibility of getting back to work and off disability, but there are not enough [kidneys] for every patient in need. Economics correspondent Paul Solman looks at one idea for spurring donations.
