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Cipher Brief Highlights
and Exclusives
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IT'S MONDAY, MARCH 9 --
HERE'S A LOOK
AT TODAY'S GLOBAL HEADLINES -- The Afghan Government issues a warning to the Taliban; North Korea fires more unidentified projectiles; the US rejects Moscow's Syria Ceasefire Proposal; Turkey's President says he will discuss Europe's migrant border
problems
with officials in Brussels; thousands rally against anti-semitism in Germany; much of Northern Italy is under lockdown over the coronavirus as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic calls for a ban on any Italians traveling abroad; the President declares a state of emergency over the coronavirus in the Philippines; two suicide bombers attack the US Embassy in Tunisia; and the US says a top al-Shabab Commander was likely killed in a drone strike last month.
Your
OPEN SOURCE stories are below.
CORONAVIRUS &
THE CIPHER BRIEF TWITTER POLL - While more businesses are
voluntarily limiting domestic travel for their employees within the US,
medical experts say that domestic travel restrictions are not likely.
But with fear of the
coronavirus spreading quickly toward the end of last week, we asked our
Twitter followers whether they have already cancelled travel plans due
to fears over the coronavirus?
- 35.5% said Yes
- 64.5% said No
The
Chinese government has restricted the
practice of eating wild animals in the wake of COVID-19, but after
lessons learned from the SARS virus, is it too little too late?
Given the global
spread of the #coronavirus, and previous viruses, should nations be demanding
more accountability from China?
- 89.8% of Cipher Brief
Twitter voters said Yes
- 10.2% of Cipher Brief Twitter
voters said No
THE CORONAVIRUS
IS WORSE THAN THE SYSTEM BLINKING RED --Former CIA Director George Tenet famously told the 9/11 Commission that in the build-up to the
terrorist attacks of 9/11, “the system was blinking red.” Government officials
knew an attack was coming, they just weren’t able to put the pieces
together quickly enough to stop it.
- Cipher Brief Expert and
former National Intelligence Manager for Iran, Norman T. Roule, writes in The Cipher
Brief, "If 9/11 was a warning system ‘blinking red’, we’re
already well past that with the coronavirus. We’ve seen the
warnings. We’ve experienced the SARS epidemic, and the scariest
thing is that we – collectively – still aren’t putting the
pieces together quickly enough."
WE POLLED ALL OF
OUR SUBSCRIBERS ON THIS ISSUE OVER THE WEEKEND -- And asked them 'How concerned are you
about the coronavirus?'
- 29% said Not
really worried
- 55% said Concerned
- 16% said they were Very
Concerned
SUSAN
GORDON'S JOURNEY FROM CIA ANALYST TO PDDNI -- The Listening Post is a new Cipher Brief column
specifically highlighting the experiences of women in the national security
space,
in both the public and private sectors.
For
our first interview, we called on former Principal Deputy Director of
National Intelligence Susan
M. Gordon, who
left her position last August. With nearly forty years of service to
the Intelligence Community under her belt, we wanted to talk to her
about the highs and lows of her career, how she persisted through tough
times and how she was able to succeed along the way thanks to others
who knowingly or unknowingly, served as inspiration.
Read this week's
Listening Post: Susan Gordon's Journey from
CIA Analyst to PDDNI only in The Cipher Brief
**If you'd like to
nominate someone for a profile piece, (its OK to nominate yourself, by
the way) then drop us a line at Editor@thecipherbrief.com
ICYMI -- THE DEAD
DROP -- Dr.
Shakeel Afridi is
the Pakistani MD who helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden in
Abbottabad. He has been languishing behind bars in Pakistan since
2011 and now, according to AFP, he's launched a hunger strike
from his prison cell to protest his treatment.
The Cipher
Brief covered the story last September 11, explaining How a Valuable US
Intelligence Asset Became a Liability.
You can pick up more
on this story and all the other inside national security gossip nuggets
in this week's Member Exclusive Dead Drop.
WORTH A LISTEN --
HOW DID WE GET HERE WITH CYBER POLICY? Cipher Brief Expert and CSIS'
Podcast host, Jim Lewis
talks with Marie
“Neill” Sciarrone,
former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of
Cybersecurity Policy under George W. Bush, about coordinating
cybersecurity policy. Sciarrone is the President and Co-Founder
of Trinity Cyber and is a speaker at this month's Cipher Brief Threat
Conference in Sea Island, GA. You can listen
to 'Cyber From the Start'
here.'
ANNOUNCEMENTS
GENERAL
JACK KEANE TO RECEIVE THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM -- The White House has announced that
President Trump will award General Jack Keane (Ret.) the Presidential
Medal of Freedom this week,
the nation's highest civilian honor. General Keane,
a four-star general, retired after 37 years of service which culminated
in his appointment as acting Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff of
the US Army. He is president of GSI Consulting and serves as
chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, a director
of General Dynamics and a former and recent member, for 9 years,
of the Secretary of Defense Policy Board. He is also a member of The Cipher Brief's Board of Directors.
CALLING
CIPHER BRIEF SUMMER INTERNS -- The Cipher Brief will begin interviews next month for
summer term virtual
internships.
Students with academic experience in national security and cyber
studies can apply for internships that include research, writing, marketing, social media and coordinating
national security-focused events. If you're interested in being a part of our
hard-working team, drop an email with your bio and two
recommendations to Editor@thecipherbrief.com
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We're grateful for the support of our event sponsors, like Mission Solutions Group
and their dedication to advancing solutions against the world's most
complex global security challenges.
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The next Cipher
Brief Threat Conference is March 22-24, 2020 at
The Cloister Resort in Sea Island, GA.
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Because
it seems harder than ever today to find relevant headlines on what's
happening outside of Washington D.C., The Cipher Brief is pleased to
share our latest open source information on the stories that impact
national security.
The
Lead
Breaking: CNN's
Barbara Starr tweeting this morning: "Two U.S. service members
were killed by enemy forces while advising and accompanying Iraqi
Security Forces during a mission to eliminate an ISIS terrorist
stronghold in a mountainous area of north central Iraq" on Mar
8.Names w/held pending family notification. Twitter
Afghanistan
Ready to Attack Taliban if Violence Continues. Afghanistan’s
minister of defense on Sunday announced that, if the Taliban does not
cease attacks by the end of the week, they would switch from “defense
mode” to attacking the militant group. “Afghan forces will remain
in defense mode until the end of this week under the guidance of
President Ashraf Ghani because of the peace agreement, but if the
Taliban do not stop their attacks by the end of the week, our troops
will target the enemy everywhere,” the minister stated. The
Taliban announced earlier this month that they were resuming attacks on
Afghan forces. Reuters U.S. and World News Report
North Korea Fires
Unidentified Projectiles. North Korea has
launched three unidentified projectiles off its east coast. The
incident occurred on Monday, according to South Korea’s
military. This is Pyongyang’s second weapons test in a week.
The projectiles were reportedly fired from the Sondok area of North
Korea’s South Hamgyong province. The projectiles traveled toward the
waters between South Korea and Japan, though precise details regarding
the launch time and flight path have not been reported. Wall Street Journal CNN
United States
Rejects Moscow’s UN Security Council Syria Ceasefire Proposal.
The United States on Friday rejected Russia and Turkey’s Syrian
ceasefire agreement at the UN Security Council. The Russian
ambassador to the United Nations asked the other 14 Security Council
members to adopt the agreement, but the United States rejected it and
called the deal “premature”. The United States is one of the five
countries with veto power on the Council. DW i24NEWS
Asia
Philippines:
National Emergency to be Declared. President
Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday agreed to declaring a national health
emergency due to the coronavirus as government agencies were tasked to
“undertake critical, urgent and appropriate response and measures in a
timely manner to curtail and eliminate the COVID-19 threat.” The
declaration of a national emergency comes after the first case of a
transmissive coronavirus was discovered. Nikkei Asian
Review Reuters
South
Korea: United States Army Suspends Assignments.
The United States has ordered the suspension of new assignments to
South Korea. As of now, the suspension is in effect until
May in hopes of that the spread of the coronavirus will decrease.
The same announcement was made for troops in Italy. Stars and
Stripes
The
Middle East and North Africa
Iraq: Protestors
Return to Streets. Demonstrators returned to the
streets Thursday morning to protest against the mechanisms of choosing
a new candidate to form the next government. Demonstrators were
reportedly cutting off intersections and burning tires.
Security forces were deployed to the streets to confront the
protestors. Middle East
Monitor
Lebanon:
Officials Say Nation Cannot Pay Debt. Lebanese
officials on Saturday stated that they cannot pay their state’s
debt. Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the foreign currency
reserve had hit a “critical and dangerous” level. There has been
no sign of bail out from foreign states that had aided the country in
the past. DW Reuters
Tunisia: Suicide
Bombers Attack U.S. Embassy. Two suicide
bombers detonated explosive devices on Friday outside the United States
embassy in the Tunisian capital, killing a policeman and injuring
six. “Two individuals targeted a security patrol... in the street
leading to the American embassy,” the nation’s interior ministry
said. This is the most serious attack the country has seen
in months. There was no immediate claim for the
attack.
Al Jazeera Reuters
Yemen: UN Calls
For Military Operations to Stop. UN Special Envoy
for Yemen, Martin Griffiths called for an immediate end to military
operations between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels.
“Last week I issued a public call for a freeze on military
activities. Today, I am reiterating that call for an immediate
and unconditional freeze….Yemen simply cannot wait,” Griffiths
said. Fighting has resumed in the Al-Jawf province in which the
Houthi rebels took the country’s capital of Al-Hazem. Middle East
Monitor The Jerusalem
Post
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