TUESDAY PDB – US, Iran on verge of a major deal to free prisoners, release $6 billion in frozen oil funds. Tehran last month moved several Americans out of the country’s notorious Evin Prison and placed them under house arrest in the first step of a significant agreement between the two longtime adversaries. Besides its brutal clampdown on internal criticism last year and its role in regional terrorism, Iran has been providing Russia with powerful kamikaze drones to use against Ukraine. EXPECT IRAN TO TAKE MORE U.S. HOSTAGES IN THE FUTURE, AND DESPITE ALLEGED RESTRICTIONS ON THE FUNDS, WILL RAMP UP TERROR…
Author: Paul Crespo
Paul Crespo
Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for office, taught political science, wrote for a major newspaper and had his own radio show. Paul has also been a defense contractor with the Pentagon. He brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty — at home and from abroad.
ANALYSIS – While most media are focused on the old weapons and ammunition North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un is set to provide an increasingly desperate Vladimir Putin, few are asking what Kim will get in return. Moscow might offer grain, oil and hard currency as payment. But Russia’s payback to Kim may include space and nuclear technology for the North’s growing, but at times stumbling, satellite and ballistic missile programs. Not to mention its sub-launched nukes, which I recently wrote about. While Pyongyang and Moscow have denied U.S. accusations of arms transfers, North Korea sits on some of the largest…
MONDAY PDB – Honoring those who died that day. I was at the Pentagon that fateful day and volunteered at “Ground Zero” (World Trade Center attack site) in Manhattan two days later. We must never forget those brutal Islamist terror attacks or the lives lost and heroes made that day. WHERE IS JOE BIDEN? ON A PACIFIC JUNKET – 9/11 Anniversary: First Lady, defense secretary to honor Pentagon victims 22 years later. There are now 20 and 21-year-old adults in this country who were not born yet when the 9/11 attacks took place. For a new generation of Marines, 9/11 is history.…
ANALYSIS – Two retired generals and a retired colonel, all three graduates of the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, have signed a statement, nominally representing the long list of West Point graduates known as the ‘Long Gray Line,’ accusing the academy of violating its core values. And also of imposing socialist, anti-American indoctrination. When you wonder why so many of our military commanders are involved in scandals and accused of moral and ethical lapses and even crimes, look no further than West Point and the other national military academies. (RELATED: As American Patriotism Crashes, So Does Confidence In…
ANALYSIS – In what appears to be a calculated political stunt, New Mexico’s Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an emergency order Friday suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque, the state’s largest city. The governor said that her emergency order, which many consider unconstitutional, would only be active for 30 days as an emergency ‘public health measure.’ Violating the order would be considered a civil, not criminal infraction, and could carry a fine of up to $5,000. It will be enforced in most public places, from city sidewalks to parks. “No person, other than…
ANALYSIS – Kim Jong-un, wearing a light-colored suit and silly-looking wide-brimmed hat, was present at the launch of North Korea’s first “tactical nuclear attack submarine.” The boat is a radically modernized old Soviet-designed Romeo-class boat named Hero Kim Gun-ok, with hull number 841. This comes after reports of North Korea building a nuclear-armed torpedo able to level coastal cities. I wrote about that monster here. There is still no known submarine that can carry that nuke torpedo, which would likely be delivered from a barge or coastal base. But now, this diesel-electric-powered missile submarine was unveiled and launched at a ceremony…
ANALYSIS – Federal prosecutors are seeking a grand jury indictment of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. And while the investigation is a fresh setback to his father’s 2024 reelection bid, some believe ‘the fix could still be in.’ It is unclear what charges the U.S. attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, plans to file against Hunter. But, according to court papers, the newly named ‘special counsel’ said he expects an indictment before September 29, which is just before the statute of limitations runs out on Hunter’s felony gun charge. Of course, the time has almost run out because Weiss took years to…
ANALYSIS – Following the purported death of Yevgeny Prigozhin and his top lieutenants on August 23 in a suspicious plane crash, Russian leaders and at least two intelligence agencies are scrambling to gain control of his and the Wagner Group’s sprawling global interests. While Wagner played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as operating in Syria, its most significant and lucrative overseas interest is Prigozhin’s operations in Africa, including countries such as Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic (CAR). The group’s future was thrown into uncertainty in late June when Prigozhin led a failed, short-lived…
FRIDAY PDB – The new Marine infantry battalion is slimmer, saltier and ‘techier.’ A slimmer, more senior and technology-driven Marine infantry battalion structure now unfolding across the service will shape the deployments, careers and lives of future riflemen, the service’s essential source of combat power. Marines draw inspiration from drug runners for unmanned resupply boat. As the Corps considers how to move weapons around contested waters to resupply forces ashore, it’s copying an unusual source: drug traffickers. Marine Corps leader eyes drone swarm launched from above, beneath waves. The Marines are interested in using unmanned submersibles or surface vessels as motherships…
ANALYSIS – Is Elon Musk too powerful and too mercurial for his own good and our national security? I am generally a Musk fan. I support his stance on free speech and his tumultuous takeover of Twitter. He is also often spot-on when bashing the ‘woke mind virus.’ But when it comes to foreign policy, he is often way out of his depth. As he has been when commenting on China and Taiwan or Ukraine and Russia. And national security is not a place where you play fast and loose with things. Words and decisions have consequences. And that is…