"It is not lost on anybody...that the traditional risks that we are facing coming from places like #Moscow & #Beijing have been augmented" @AsstSecPM R Clarke Cooper tells #EUDefense re #COVID19 - forcing US, EU allies to look to strengthen resilience, augment capabilities
"It's no surprise that the #Russia|ns would like to see less exercises, less coordination less integration & interoperability" w/US & EU, per @AsstSecPM
"Adversaries are looking to disrupt..." but he says there's also opportunity to shore up gaps, vulnerabilities
#COVID19 "is a new type of crisis because unlike previous great crises like 9-11, for the 1st time we face an invisible enemy" @eu_eeas Deputy Secretary General Charles Fries tells #EUDefense
"We have no vaccine & we have no treatment"
"It's a huge challenge. It's a huge strain on the US & on all Europe" per @eeas' Fries "We have to be prepared for a potential second wave"
"I would not say that #COVID19 itself is a game changer" per @eeas' Fries "It's more a great accelerator of pre-existing trends"
"It has accelerated geopolitical tensions, particularly between the US & #China"
"We have also seen the weakening of multilateralism, with for instance the weakening of the @UN Security Council" per @eeas' Fries
"The neighborhood of the EU is more & more unstable, ans also we have seen deepening inequalities"
"Our friends in the world & maybe even our adversaries are genuinely shocked by the shambolic policies that have aggravated the cost & the tragedy of the crisis in the #UnitedStates" per @KoriSchake
"They are also shocked by a global pandemic that the United States government has no international policy to manage" per @KoriSchake
"That will damage the relationship" between US and EU, per @KoriSchake "The United State sis failing at being a good partner to our friends...and that's going to leave a mark"
"I don't think its unrecoverable" she adds, saying that US-EU will have to expand views of security
"We know there are some divergencies between the EU and the United States w/certain decisions being made over the last years" per @eeas' Fries, noting US withdrawal from #Paris climate change agreement & #jcpoa
"With such a crisis like #COVID which is a real stress test for all of us for the cohesion of the EU, for the cohesion of the US, for the cohesion of the transatlantic partnership, we managed to get out of this crisis by increasing our cooperation" per @eu_eeas' Fries
"We want to reduce our dependencies. We want to reduce our vulnerabilities in the health sector, in the economic & digital sectors...promote strategic stockpiles" per @eu_eeas' Fries
Interoperability "1 of the strengths of the transatlantic alliance" per @AsstSecPM
"We certainly don't want to duplicate efforts either" he adds "We don;t want to be in a situation where the creation of #EDF diverts the trajectory or attention when it comes to interoperability"
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NEW: Islamic State-Somalia getting boost from an "influx of foreign fighters"
A just-issued UN sanctions monitoring team report warns the foreign fighters "have expanded and enhanced the group’s capabilities against al-Shabaab"
Influx of foreign fighters to IS-Somalia " has coincided with the re-emergence of the Al-Karrar office as a
key administrative and financial hub for [ISIS] globally" per the UN report
IS-Somalia being led by "a cadre of former al-Shabaab
militants based in the Bari region of Puntland" per UN report
Abdirahman Fahiye Isse Mohamud is the emir of IS-Somalia, per report, "responsible for [ISIS] operations in Somalia"
NEW: Senate Democrats ask @DeptofDefense @TheJusticeDept to look at Elon Musk's reported contact w/Russian officials - "determine whether this behavior should force a review of Mr. Musk’s
continued involvement in SpaceX’s varying contracts" w/the US government
"Communications between Russian government officials and any individual with a security
clearance have the potential to put our security at risk" per @SenatorShaheen @SenJackReed
"We urge you to take appropriate action immediately"
Musk's alleged contacts with Russian officials was first reported by @WSJ, which cited current and former U.S., European and Russian officials
JUST IN: Iranian, 2 men from New York charged in connection with plot to kill Americans, including President-elect Donald Trump & a US journalist of Iranian origin
.@TheJusticeDept filed charges against 51yo Farhad Shakeri of Iran, 49yo Carlisle Rivera & 36yo Jonathon Loadholt
Shakeri remains at large in Iran
Rivera & Loadholt have been detained pending trial
@TheJusticeDept US Atty General Merrick Garland, in statement, calls Shakeri "an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump"
Pentagon assesses since February 2022, Russia's suffered 600,000 casualties
This September, "Russian forces sustained more casualties in terms of both killed & wounded in action than in any other month" per a sr US defense official
"#Russia|n losses, again, both killed & wounded in action in just the 1st year of the war exceeded the total of all Russian losses or Soviet losses in any conflict since World War Two combined" per sr US defense official
#Ukraine "have sunk, destroyed or damaged at least 32 medium to large #Russia|n Federation navy vessels in the #BlackSea" per sr US defense official
NEW: US charges American TV presenter for Channel One #Russia & his wife in scheme to evade US sanctions
@TheJusticeDept unsealed the indictment vs 76yo Dimitri Simes & 55yo Anastasia Simes Thursday
They have a home in #Virginia but "remain at large...believed to be in Russia"
Dimitri & Anastasia Simes each charged w/1 count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 1 count of violating the IEEPA & 1 count of conspiracy to commit int'l money laundering
Per @TheJusticeDept, it's a maximum of 20 years per count
Dimitri Simes alleged to have violated sanctions by "serving as a presenter & producer of programming, & by receiving over $1 million, a personal car & driver, a stipend for an apartment in #Moscow... a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia" per DOJ