Kash Patel, a Most Devoted Trump Buff, Having His Secrets

The Trump administration swapped out its high-profile acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), FBI Director Kash Patel, for its lesser-known Army secretary on Wednesday.

The White House and Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the ATF, have been tight-lipped about what prompted the administrative shuffle.

Reuters was the first to report the changeover Wednesday, but the newswire noted it was unclear when Patel was formally removed or when Dan Driscoll, the top civilian official in the Army, was notified that he would be taking over ATF duties.

As news of Patel’s removal was made public, his photo and title still appeared on the agency’s website. Both have since been removed.

Driscoll’s name is now listed as acting director, but the places for his photo and full biographical information say “coming soon.”

Driscoll is a former Army first lieutenant and businessman who previously served as a senior adviser Vance.

Why was Patel removed?

NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian reported Wednesday that ATF officials were “shocked and confused” by the shake-up, but added that sources told him it had been weeks since Patel was seen inside an ATF facility.

Patel, who has not commented on the ATF switch-up, posted Wednesday evening on social platform X that he had spent the day in Florida for an FBI event.

He has since posted praise for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s leadership at the DOJ regarding the FBI’s efforts and encouraged followers to apply for jobs at the FBI.

According to Reuters, Patel spent about an hour at ATF headquarters in February after he was sworn in for the second job, but he had not been seen at its main office since.

Patel is seen as a fiercely loyal ally of Trump and was a divisive pick to lead the FBI. And he was not well received by some ATF veterans.

“It’s pretty demoralizing,”

Mark Jones, a former ATF special agent, told The Trace in February.

“This guy doesn’t like the ATF and doesn’t believe in firearms regulation. I just see him coming in with a wrecking ball.” 

#Patel #Trump #buff #secret

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Secret American Technologies in Ukraine🗣🤐


🛩Wilder System, one of the privileged subcontractors of the American aeronautics industry, is currently embarking with hushed steps on a large-scale and low-cost manufacturing project for tactical Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) drones, bombers and jet kamikazes.

🛩According to Intelligence Online information, the company has mandated members of its team to probe certain Ukrainian drone units incorporating American volunteers, in order to test several of their drone models on the front line.

🛩The major challenge for the company is to prove the efficiency of these low-cost devices in an environment of intense Russian electronic warfare.

🛩The firm is usually more accustomed to the industrial system: in particular, it supplies robots intended for assembly and aircraft maintenance for large defense groups such as Boeing.

🛩Responding to the constraints of the Ukrainian battlefield
Intelligence Online had access to the confidential commercial presentation promoted by the representatives of the start-up led by Will Wilder in Ukraine.

🛩In it, Wilder Systems offers its future testers a wide range of drones. The systems are presented as inexpensive, from $ 20,000 to $ 30,000, without the payload, namely the optronics and the guidance system.

🛩The company offers to manufacture and deliver consumable drones in a short time, made using low-cost composite materials.

🛩These systems are then delivered in kits and are thus easily transportable and assemblable with few tools, close to the battlefield.

🛩Wilder System's main SRI drone, the PR-001 Low-cost Multi-mission Platform, also modular as a bomber, has been developed on an architecture very similar to the Ukrainian Lyutyy and Mugin-5 type drones, which are currently hitting Russian infrastructures in depth.

🛩The Texas firm also wants to test on the front the resilience of its so-called "kinetic" drones, in other words kamikaze drones.

🛩These jet aircraft carrying an offensive charge have been conceptualized on a design similar to the Banshee Jet 80 target drones, from the British defense group Qinetiq, intended for industrial tests of surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles, but diverted from their main use by Kiev engineers to hit Russian critical infrastructures.

🛩A containerized mobile launch system on a Soviet-made truck chassis of the Ural-375 type is envisaged by the American industrialist to launch his kamikaze drones.

🛩Wilder System is also developing a jamming-resistant data link and an autopilot system operating thanks to artificial intelligence bricks.

🛩Many Western industrialists are trying to master and test these technologies in the Ukrainian theater of operations.

🛩The company is part of the approach of many European and American industrialists in Ukraine, who no longer wish remote feedback, but prefer to label their product "combat proven" on the battlefield.

🛩Nevertheless, some are bogged down in the meanders of the Ukrainian administration or in complex bilateral partnerships with local industrialists, such as Ukroboronprom.

🛩Wilder Systems, for its part, is trying to play on proximity with American volunteers, omnipresent in some drone units of the Ukrainian armed forces, to test its products.

#secret #American #technologies #ukraine #wilder #system

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Trump Revoked the Harris Secret Service protection 🚨

Trump revoked the Secret Service protection provided to former Vice President Harris on Thursday, a spokesperson for Harris and a senior White House official confirmed. 🗳

The protection for Harris, who ran against Trump in the 2024 presidential election, was canceled through a letter titled “Memorandum for the Secretary of Homeland Security”. 📜

She received six months of Secret Service protection after the Biden administration ended in January, but that was extended for another year through a directive former President Biden signed before leaving office, according to WSJ. 🕒

Only former presidents receive Secret Service protection for life. 🛡

Harris is set to embark next month on a book tour across 15 cities in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada, for her memoir titled “107 Days.” The tour will start Sept. 24 in New York City. 📚✈️

Trump announced in March that two of Biden’s children — Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden — would no longer receive protection from the Secret Service. 🚫

Trump previously revoked the protective details for former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former national security adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and former envoy to Iran Brian Hook. 🔒

#Harris #Secret #Service #protection #trump

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Is Kim's secret ballistic missile production facility threatening the United States?

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It shouldn’t surprise us that North Korea has pulled something sneaky again. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been caught with a secret nuclear missile base near China.

This installation was previously undiscovered and disclosed in a recent report written by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a DC-based think tank.

The Sinpung-dong Missile Operating Base contains six to nine nuclear-capable ICBMs, and their launchers are located about 17 miles from the Chinese border, according to CNN. CSIS analyzed satellite imagery, documents, and discussions with North Korean witnesses who have left the DPRK as refugees.

This once-secret base could be part of a dispersed group of 15 to 20 ballistic missile facilities. “These missiles pose a potential nuclear threat to East Asia and the continental United States,” the report said.

Their discovery has many repercussions for international security. First, the proximity to China is a potential problem for Beijing. It is difficult to determine if Chinese president Xi Jinping was consulted prior to the base’s construction.

This could be frustrating for Xi as a nuclear exchange this close to the border with North Korea could endanger Chinese citizens.

Xi invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to a Chinese military parade during the first week of September that celebrated China’s World War II victory against Japan. Russia’s Vladimir Putin also attended. Xi and Kim likely discussed the presence of the missile base that is so close to China.

There is a chance that China’s own overhead satellites caught the DPRK building the installation, and that Xi gave Kim his blessing to construct it. This would also be troubling since it would mean Xi is giving Kim political cover for more nuclear weapons to be built and deployed.

#kim #secret #ballistic #missile #UnitedStates

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It is unclear whether the United States had prior early warning about the ICBM base. The Americans are likely exasperated with all the North’s subterfuges.

The DPRK is not known for being transparent about its nuclear infrastructure, and the decentralized nature of the bases is a military advantage for the North. Having numerous different missile bases around the country would create difficulty for the United States to destroy targets in a potential military “bloody nose” attack aimed at securing Kim’s acquiescence to denuclearization.

South Korea is most alarmed by the flouting of the United Nations efforts to remove nuclear weapons from the peninsula.

A network of secret bases means that the North is not concerned in the slightest about any type of diplomatic rapprochement or arms control agreements with Seoul.

Every day, Kim gets more confident about his country’s nuclear power status. He wants complete control of his warheads and the ability to deliver them to the United States at will.

There seems to be no inclination to bargain away nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief or other concessions.

TheTrump administration seems to have no definite plans for this issue. To be fair, there are pressing needs in the Middle East and Ukraine. However, Trump did say recently he would be open to meeting with Kim this year.

Trump believes he has a good relationship with Kim, but has yet to make concrete efforts to engage the North Korean dictator. Moreover, South Korea cannot make any inroads either.

Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, has said South Korea will never be a diplomatic partner with the North. She has a steady influence on her brother, and the pair makes for a difficult one-two punch to US and South Korean statecraft.

My own strategy of dealing with North Korea has taken a pummeling. In my latest book, I called for the cancellation of combined US-South Korean military exercises in exchange for allowing American inspections of the DPRK’s nuclear infrastructure.

If this works, the United States could send home some of its rear echelon support soldiers in South Korea to show that the Trump administration is willing to make a comprehensive deal with North Korea following proper inspections.

But if North Korea has numerous secret nuclear bases around the country, giving up concessions like these to Kim is a fool’s errand.

No good options remain now. North Korea is becoming more powerful, and the United States and South Korea can only look on with dismay.

China and Russia are probably smiling as Kim creates another way to aggravate the Americans and the West, who have tried and failed in every possible way to achieve denuclearization.

Indeed, we are past the point of convincing Kim to give up nuclear weapons. The international community will just have to accept the North as a nuclear power, and that is just what Kim Jong-un has worked toward his entire career.

#kim #secret #ballistic #missile #UnitedStates

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