Today's D Brief: US sends more troops to Taiwan; Americans 'live in an age of extremist mass killings'; Somali strike kills 7; 'Godzilla egg' in Japan; And a bit more.

The Pentagon says it’s nearly quadrupling the number of American troops deployed to Taiwan for training. The policy change will raise the current number from around 30 to as many as 200, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. “The additional troops will be tasked with training Taiwan forces not only on U.S. weapons systems but on military maneuvers to protect against a potential Chinese offensive,” U.S. officials told the Journal

The Pentagon seems to be calculating that this relatively modest rise won’t set off alarm bells in Beijing, “but that’s a question that is constantly being evaluated and looked at specifically with every decision involving support to Taiwan,” one official said. 

By the way: Taiwan’s top diplomat met with U.S. officials Tuesday in Washington, the Journal reported separately Thursday from Taipei. The talks lasted some seven hours and centered around “national security,” according to Taiwan’s state-run Central News Agency. At least five U.S. lawmakers traveled to Taiwan during the month of February, including Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna from California—with whom Defense One’s Jennifer Hlad spoke recently. You can read over that interview, here


From Defense One

Marines to Begin Testing Leased Vessel for Pier-less Operations  // Jennifer Hlad and Lauren C. Williams: The service is leasing three commercial Stern Landing Vehicles as it waits for the Landing Ship Medium to arrive.

One Year In: What Are The Lessons from Ukraine For The Future Of War? // Peter W. Singer: From drones to network attacks to the LikeWar of social media, the conflict marks a turning point from old to new.

Welcome to this Thursday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson with Jennifer Hlad and Lauren Williams. If you’re not already subscribed to this newsletter, you can do that here. On this day in 1942, Japanese submarines fired artillery at targets on America's west coast, near Santa Barbara, Calif. Due to waves, the nearly two-dozen rounds caused very little damage; but the psychological effect was profound, and caused many to think a Japanese invasion was imminent. Indeed, the following night, some Californians mistakenly thought they saw Japanese aircraft approaching, so they contacted authorities—who authorized anti-aircraft batteries to open fire from positions across Los Angeles, inciting further panic.


American mass killings linked to extremism are (at least temporarily) declining—after they spiked during a five-year period beginning in 2015. That’s according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League.
Topline read: “In 2022, domestic extremists killed at least 25 people in the U.S., in 12 separate incidents,” the report’s authors write. “This represents a decrease from the 33 extremist-related murders documented in 2021 and is comparable to the 22 extremist-related murders in 2020.” That “continues the recent trend of fewer extremist-related killings after a five-year span of 47-78 extremist-related murders per year,” ending in 2019.
But panning out more historically, “From the 1970s through the 2000s, domestic extremist-related mass killings were relatively uncommon.  However, over the past 12 years, their number has greatly increased. Most of these mass killings were committed by right-wing extremists.” Relatedly, “All the extremist-related murders in 2022 were committed by right-wing extremists of various kinds, who typically commit most such killings each year but only occasionally are responsible for all (the last time this occurred was 2012).”
“It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings,” the report says. Read over the findings for yourself, here

The White House says it will take a closer look at the human rights record of potential weapons customers around the world under a new policy, Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports. The previous standard for restricting arms transfers was just for cases where the U.S. government had material knowledge that those weapons would be used for genocide, crimes against humanity, or grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The new policy restricts sales when the arms “more likely than not” will be used “to command or to facilitate the commission of serious human rights abuses, serious violations of international humanitarian law, genocide, crimes against humanity,” State Department officials said.
“Arms transfers can advance U.S. national security when they are used responsibly by partners who share our values and our interests, and that they can pose real risk of civilian harm when they are used irresponsibly. And that that is not only a counter to our values, but counter to U.S. interests,” the officials said.
Bill Hartung of the Quincy Institute notes that the Biden administration “has a mixed record on these issues thus far. To its credit, in Ukraine the administration has supplied much needed weaponry to a nation defending itself from a brutal Russian invasion. But in other cases—including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Nigeria—the administration has supplied billions of dollars worth of weapons to regimes that have attacked neighboring countries or harshly repressed their own citizens, up to and including extrajudicial killings. President Biden and his team will have to change course if they are going to live up to the rhetoric of the new policy,” he wrote.
For more, Quincy released a related report in October entitled, “Promoting Stability or Fueling Conflict: The Impact of U.S. Arms Sales on National and Global Security.” See also, “A Values-based Approach to Foreign Policy? Lessons for the Biden Administration,” by Mary Kaldor of the London School of Economics, writing Thursday in Just Security.

A new U.S. military airstrike in Somalia killed seven alleged militants, officials at U.S. Africa Command said Wednesday. Like several of the last few strikes in Somalia, this latest Tuesday strike occurred approximately 300 miles north of the capital city of Mogadishu, and is believed to have killed only al-Shabaab fighters. AFRICOM described it as a “collective self-defense strike,” but provided few additional details.
It’s been nearly a month since that U.S. special operations raid on a “mountain complex” in northern Somalia. According to analysts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “The mountain range, which spans much of northern Puntland, has been a hideout of ISS since its inception in late Oct. 2015.” That 25 January operation led to the death of a man named Bilal-al-Sudani, whom the Pentagon described as “an ISIS leader in Somalia and a key facilitator for ISIS’s global network.” In the weeks since, the U.S. military has carried out several raids that killed accused ISIS leaders in northeastern Syria (18 FEB, 16 FEB, e.g.)
Earthquake latest: The death toll has risen to more than 47,000 from the Feb. 6 quake that hit Turkey and Syria, the Associated Press reported Thursday from Ankara. That includes 43,556 in Turkey alone, according to the interior minister. Another “164,000 buildings have either collapsed or are so damaged that they need to be demolished,” AP writes.
From the region: 

Ransomware affects U.S. grocery shelves. A recent cyberattack hit produce giant Dole and temporarily shut down the company’s North American production. A company spokesman confirmed the attack took place, but “declined to answer questions on the incident, including whether a ransom was demanded by the hackers,” according to CNN, reporting Wednesday. An apparent lack of Dole salads has caused uproar on social media sites like Facebook. Read more, here

And lastly today: Is Godzilla real?! Authorities in Japan are trying to determine the origin and purpose of a large metal sphere that washed up on the beach in Hamamatsu, south of Tokyo. While they’ve determined it is hollow and not a threat, they haven’t figured out exactly what it actually is; but locals around Hamamatsu have called it “Godzilla egg,” “mooring buoy,” and a thing “from outer space,” according to the BBC. Story, here.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.