Locator: 48422INTEL.
Last week:
- Hegseth has survived the "security breach" fiasco (at least so far); living on "borrowed time"?
- National Security Advisor, Michael Waltz: ditto.
This week:
- NSA director (four-star general Timothy Haugh) fired; the real guy in charge, his civilian deputy also reassigned.
This sort of fits President Obama's advice: bring a gun to a knife fight.
What's the real reason for this? Commander-in-chief to his generals: "don't tread on me."
President Trump is sending a necessary signal to his appointees. Note: it's not yet been 100 days. April 30, 2025, will be 100 days. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that this is the last bowling pin to fall.
AI has it wrong: still stating that CQ Brown is the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. In fact, he, too, was fired, and the acting chairman is Admiral Christopher W. Grady, who very recently served as commander, Sixth Fleet, with extensive experience in the Mediterranean, waters north of the Suez Canal. The Fifth Fleet is responsible for waters south of the Suez Canal, e.g., the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
**************************
Signalgate Takeaways
Question: exactly what were the takeaways -- with regard to actionable intel -- with regard to Signalgate, as some are calling it.
Does the firing of the NSA director and his top civilian deputy signal the end to "Signalgate"? Reminder: US Congress has held their hearings, and most likely, most members have moved on.
****************************
On A Completely Different Note
A successful Houthi strike, no matter how small, on a US a/c carrier = Gulf of Tonkin response.
It blows me away that Iran would take this chance -- the chance that the Houthis might actually hit a US a/c carrier.
It's getting awful expensive shooting down $2,000-drones with $3,00,000-missiles, and that doesn't even begin to account for the cost of sending yet another a/c carrier group to the Red Sea and stationing stealth bombers in the region.
The Houthis: this may be the only non-controversial issue facing the Trump administration right now.
Reality, back to Signalgate. What is the bigger intel story here? Let's see:
- The Atlantic (obscure): we're about to launch some fighters off a/c carriers to attack Yemen, or
- CNN (not obscure): US has sent at least six B-2 bombers -- 30% of the US Air Force's stealth bomber fleet -- to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
