Jeff Seldin Profile picture
National Security Correspondent @VOANews Ex @WTOP/@FederalNewsNet, @SyracuseU @NewhouseSU (RTs ≠ endorsement) Email: jseldin@voanews.com / DM for Signal
11 subscribers
Nov 20 11 tweets 2 min read
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
Nov 15 5 tweets 2 min read
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 Image
Image
"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"
Nov 8 12 tweets 2 min read
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
Oct 9 18 tweets 3 min read
#Ukraine taking toll on #Russia|n forces

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
Sep 13 14 tweets 2 min read
BREAKING: US says #Russia's RT has "moved beyond being simply a media outlet"

Intelligence gathered from RT employees shows RT carries out in information & covert influence operations, & military procurement for the #Kremlin US designating the following #Russia|n people/entities:

-Broadcaster ROSSIYA SEGODNYA & Dir Gen Dimtry Kiselev
-TV-NOVOSTI
- ANO EVRAZIYA &Gen Dir Nelli Parutenko

"Covert influence activities are not journalism" per @StateDept on #Russia's RT, others
Sep 5 6 tweets 2 min read
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
Aug 7 7 tweets 1 min read
US, coalition actions to deter attacks on shipping by the #Iran-backed #Houthis in #Yemen

"We've degraded their capabilities" @US5thFleet VADM George Wikoff tells @CSIS from HQ in #Bahrain

"Have we stopped them? No" "Our mission remains to disrupt their capabilities" per @US5thFleet's VADM Wikoff

Says it is "very difficult to find the center of gravity" w/which to pressure the #Houthis
Aug 3 4 tweets 1 min read
BREAKING: @Secdef Lloyd Austin yanks plea deals for 9/11 terror attack mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, 2 others

@DeptofDefense memo released tonight also relieves the official in charge of the military commissions of her oversight in the case Image The @DeptofDefense first announced the plea deals earlier this week, though details of the deal were not made public
Aug 1 7 tweets 1 min read
JUST IN: US issues new National Counterintelligence Strategy

Updated strategy, signed by @POTUS Thursday, based on 3 pillars, per @NCSCgov:

-outmaneuver/constrain foreign intelligence entities
-protect US strategic advantages
-invest in the future Image "Foreign intelligence and security services & their proxies persist in seeking to acquire our most
sensitive information, technology, and intellectual property" per @POTUS in the just-released strategy

"Non-state actors are following suit"
Jun 4 18 tweets 3 min read
Some nuggets from @FBI Dir. Christopher Wray's appearance Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies... #ArtificialIntelligence & #Election2024-"We are, of course, seeing & I've been warning about this for some time, the role of AI to enhance efforts that our foreign adversaries have already been engaged in" per @FBI's Wray
Mar 11 73 tweets 11 min read
HAPPENING NOW - US intelligence chiefs testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee:

@ODNIgov Dir Avril Haines
@CIA Dir William Burns
@FBI Dir Christoper Wray
@NSAGov Dir Gen Timothy Haugh
@DefenseIntel Dir LtGen Jeffrey Krause
@StateDept Asst Sec for Intel Brett Holmgren Image Noting that the current era is as challenging as ever, with a wide variety of threats, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair @MarkWarner calls for "redefining what we think of" when it comes to national security Image
Feb 29 10 tweets 2 min read
NEW: @FBI joins White House, Senate intelligence committee chair in sounding alarm about foreign interference in #Election2024

"This election cycle, the US will face more adversaries, moving at a faster pace & enabled by new technology
per Dir Christopher Wray at @INSAlliance #ArtificialIntelligence advances "lowering the barrier to entry-making it easier for both more & less-sophisticated foreign adversaries to engage in malign influence" per @FBI's Wray

"Making foreign influence efforts by players old and&new more realistic & difficult to detect"
Feb 25 14 tweets 3 min read
NEW: US worried about #Russia seeking to interfere in #Election2024

"Of course there are concerns" White House Nat'l Security Adviser @JakeSullivan46 tells @MeetThePress "There's plenty of reason to be concerned" per @JakeSullivan46

"There is a history here in presidential elections by the #Russia|n Federation, by its intelligence services" he says

"We are going to be vigilant"
Feb 6 13 tweets 4 min read
NEW: US confirms #Houthis using "various #Iran|ian-origin missiles & unmanned aerial vehicles" in their attacks on shipping in the #RedSea #GulfofAden

Conclusion based on new analysis by @DefenseIntel The assessment is based on information current as January 2024 - including a "comparative analysis of publicly available images of #Iran|ian missiles & UAVs to those displayed & employed by #Houthi forces in #Yemen to attack commercial shipping" per @DefenseIntel
Feb 1 16 tweets 3 min read
NEW: #alQaida expanding in #Afghanistan

AQ "established up to 8 new training camps in Afghanistan, including four in #Ghazni, #Laghman, #Parwan & #Uruzgan Provinces w/a new base to stockpile weaponry in the #Panjshir Valley" per new @UN report The new #alQaida camps appear to be "conducting suicide bomber training for TTP [Tehrik-i-Taliban #Pakistan]" per the @UN report
Dec 11, 2023 5 tweets 1 min read
NEW: @usairforce disciplines 15 Air National Guard members as a result of the so-called Discord intel leak this past April

Inspector General report cited lax inspections, lack of guidance & lack of supervision as contributing factors in the leaks by 21-year-old Jack Teixeira "The IG investigation found individuals in Teixeira’s unit failed to take proper action after becoming aware of his intelligence-seeking activities..." per @usairforce statement
Nov 14, 2023 14 tweets 2 min read
NEW: Pentagon says newly declassified intelligence - from the US intelligence community - that #Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are using hospitals in #Gaza, including Al #Shifa, per @DepPentPressSec Sabrina Singh

"We feel very confident in our sourcing" Comments on the newly declassified US intel on #Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad use of hospital aligns with comments by White House National Security Council spox John Kirby to reporters on AF1
Nov 1, 2023 6 tweets 1 min read
NEW: US helping #Israel w/intelligence on external threats from surrounding countries/adversaries as Israeli intel focuses on #Hamas, @DefenseIntel Director LTG Scott Berrier tells @CSIS

"They are really out to destroy Hamas right now "We are helping them [#Israel] right now try to understand what the regional reactions are to all of this - whats the #Iran|ians are thing, what the Shia militias are thinking in #Iraq & #Syria, what the #Houthis are thinking of doing" per @DefenseIntel's LTG Berrier
Oct 27, 2023 18 tweets 3 min read
BREAKING: US strikes hit #IRGC-linked facilities near #AbuKamal #Syria, per a senior defense official

"Let's be clear, #Iran is responsible" per the official "Let's be clear, #Iran is responsible" per the sr defense official, referring to the attacks on US forces in #Iraq #Syria
Oct 20, 2023 6 tweets 1 min read
NEW: #Russia’s efforts to discredit, undermine democratic elections appear to be expanding, according to newly declassified intelligence, spurred on by what the Kremlin sees as its success in disrupting the past two U.S. presidential elections… The finding, shared in a diplomatic cable sent to + 100 countries, based on a review of Russian information operations between Jan 2020-Dec 2022, found Moscow “engaged in a concerted effort … to undermine public confidence in at least 11 elections across nine democracies”
Jun 5, 2023 6 tweets 6 min read
NEW: US targeting #Russia|n-linked destabilization/influence campaigns in #Moldova

@USTreasury sanctioning 7 individuals, 1 entity, all linked to #Russia|n intelligence ImageImageImage Per @USTreasury, those sanctioned include:

-Konstantin Prokopyevich Sapozhnikov, the leader of the malign influence group who organized a plot to destabilize the #Moldova|N gvt earlier this year

-Yury Yuryevich Makolov, who helped w/logistical support for the plot