Wednesday, March 3, 2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 3, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy

A cybersecurity expert and former FBI “ghost” tells the thrilling story of how he helped take down notorious FBI mole Robert Hanssen, the first Russian cyber spy.


“Both a real-life, tension-packed thriller and a persuasive argument for traditional intelligence work in the information age.”—Bruce Schneier, New York Times bestselling author of Data and Goliath and Click Here to Kill Everybody


2020 United States federal government data breach
In 2020, a major cyberattack by a group backed by a foreign government penetrated thousands of organizations globally including multiple parts of the United States federal government, leading to a series of data breaches.[1][28][29] The cyberattack and data breach were reported to be among the worst cyber-espionage incidents ever suffered by the U.S., due to the sensitivity and high profile of the targets and the long duration (eight to nine months) in which the hackers had access.[35] Within days of its discovery, at least 200 organizations around the world had been reported to be affected by the attack, and some of these may also have suffered data breaches.[1][36][37] Affected organizations worldwide included NATO, the U.K. government, the European ParliamentMicrosoft and others.[36]

The attack, which had gone undetected for months, was first publicly reported on December 13, 2020,[25][26] and was initially only known to have affected the U.S. Treasury Department and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.[42] In the following days, more departments and private organizations reported breaches.[1][5][36]

The cyberattack that led to the breaches began no later than March 2020.[9][10] The attackers exploited software or credentials from at least three U.S. firms: MicrosoftSolarWinds, and VMware.[43][21] A supply chain attack on Microsoft cloud services provided one way for the attackers to breach their victims, depending upon whether the victims had bought those services through a reseller.[16][17][18] A supply chain attack on SolarWinds's Orion software, widely used in government and industry, provided another avenue, if the victim used that software.[12][44] Flaws in Microsoft and VMware products allowed the attackers to access emails and other documents,[23][24][14][15] and to perform federated authentication across victim resources via single sign-on infrastructure.[21][45][46]

In addition to the theft of data, the attack caused costly inconvenience to tens of thousands of SolarWinds customers, who had to check whether they had been breached, and had to take systems offline and begin months-long decontamination procedures as a precaution.[47][48] U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin described the cyberattack as tantamount to a declaration of war.[49][4] President Donald Trump was silent for days after the attack, before suggesting that China, not Russia, might have been responsible for it, and that "everything is well under control".     source from Wikipedia

SolarWinds is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, filing shows

Mar. 3 - SolarWinds Corp. SWI, -3.41% disclosed late Monday that it faces a number of government investigations, including from the Securities and Exchange Commission, following a massive Russian cyberattack that was announced late last year. The company has come under fire as large SolarWinds investors were able to sell about $300 million in SolarWinds stock a few days before the attack was announced, The Washington Post reported, raising concern that the investors may have had access to inside information. SolarWinds said in its Monday annual filing with the SEC that it was "cooperating and providing information in connection with these investigations and inquiries," which come from the SEC, Department of Justice, and some state attorneys general. The Washington Post reported on the new SEC inquiry late Monday. Shares are off 2.5% in Tuesday morning trading. They've declined 28% over the past three months as the S&P 500 SPX, -0.81% has risen 6%.     source from


FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia, SolarWinds CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna and Microsoft President Brad Smith testify during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last month.
Breached software firm SolarWinds faces SEC inquiry after insider stock sales


Company’s largest investors sold $315 million in shares days before hack was revealed, causing price to plummet


Mar. 3 - SolarWinds, the Texas-based company whose software was breached in a major Russian cyberattack, said in a filing Monday it is cooperating with an inquiry from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In its annual report to investors, SolarWinds said there are “numerous” government investigations underway related to the cyber intrusion, including by the SEC, the Justice Department and state attorneys general. “We are cooperating and providing information in connection with these investigations and inquiries,” the company said in its filing.

Relatively unknown just a few months ago, SolarWinds has been in the hot seat since hackers exploited vulnerabilities in its software to breach at least nine government agencies and about 100 companies. Last week, members of Congress questioned SolarWinds chief executive Sudhakar Ramakrishna about whether private companies like his can be trusted to protect the country from future attacks.

The SEC probe, which had not been disclosed previously, comes after the largest investors in SolarWinds sold $315 million in shares of the company days before the hack was revealed. The investor group avoided losses of more than $100 million, while the buyer, Canada’s largest pension fund, saw the value of its new shares decline more than 40 percent in the days after cyberattack became public.     continue to read
以色列对叙空袭 美沙关系生变数 美在中东“找平衡”?20210301 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Mar 2, 2021


Russia threatens sanction retaliation, saying US shouldn't 'play with fire'

Mar. 3 - Responding to the Biden administration's imposition of new sanctions on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry pledged retaliation on the principle of "reciprocity," though "not necessarily symmetrically."

That might sound like boring diplomatic jargon, but Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime has a specific motive for its reference to asymmetrical responses. This latest statement came from Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, but Russia's ambassador to the European Union used nearly the same language last week, when he warned the EU against new sanctions.

As I noted then, the intent of these asymmetrical references is the West's cultivated concern over possible retaliation in the intelligence and security, rather than diplomatic, domains. Disabusing any doubt as to Moscow's messaging intent, here, Zakharova concluded her statement by warning Washington that it should not "play with fire."
Put simply, Russians want Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan to read their statements and think, "They're going to come after us." It bears noting that Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov matched Zakharova's rhetoric, promising, "We will definitely react."     source from

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 2, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)


Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (/kəˈʃoʊɡʒi, kəˈʃɒɡʒi/Arabic: جمال أحمد خاشقجي‎, romanizedJamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, Hejazi pronunciation: [dʒaˈmaːl xaːˈʃʊɡ.(d)ʒi]TurkishCemal Ahmet Kaşıkçı; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi Arabian dissident, author, columnist for The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government. It was confirmed that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself gave the go ahead.[8][9][10][11] He also served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives.[12]

Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile. He said that the Saudi government had "banned him from Twitter",[13] and he later wrote newspaper articles critical of the Saudi government. Khashoggi had been sharply critical of the Saudi rulers, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.[14] He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[15]

On 2 October 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents related to his planned marriage, but was never seen leaving. Amid news reports claiming that he had been killed and dismembered inside, an inspection of the consulate, by Saudi and Turkish officials, took place on 15 October. Initially, the Saudi government denied the death, but following shifting explanations for Khashoggi's death, Saudi Arabia's attorney general eventually stated that the murder was premeditated.[16][17] By 16 November 2018, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had concluded that Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's assassination.[18][19]


On 11 December 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was named Time magazine's person of the year for his work in journalism, along with other journalists who faced political persecution for their work. Time referred to Khashoggi as a "Guardian of the Truth".[20][21][22]      source from Wikipedia
Al Asad Air Base Tactical Ballistic Missile Attack By Iran
Mar 2, 2021
Unclassified footage of tactical ballistic missile (TBM) strikes on Al Asad airbase 08 Jan. 2020. Video used for 60 Minutes piece that aired on 28 Feb. 2021
US soldiers inspect the site where an Iranian missile hit an air base in Iraq in January 2020. 
New video shows US forces getting hammered by a barrage of Iranian missiles after Trump had a top general killed


Mar. 2 - The US has released previously unseen video footage of the Iranian missile attack on US and coalition forces in Iraq last year — retaliation for the death of a top Iranian general.

A drone recorded the attack as a barrage of Iranian short-range ballistic missiles carrying 1,000- to 2,000-pound munitions rained down on Al Asad Air Base on January 8, 2020.

The never-before-seen footage of the attack was obtained and aired by "60 Minutes" on Sunday.
—Zero Blog Thirty (@ZeroBlog30) March 1, 2021US Central Command released a longer, more detailed video on Monday.

Just days into 2020, President Donald Trump ordered the US military to kill Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military officer and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who the Department of Defense said was responsible for "the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more."     continue to read

The Real Reason Why Iraq Paused Its Major Oil Deal With China

Mar. 2 - With a new man in the White House, Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, appears to believe that Iraq can begin a completely new cycle of playing off the U.S. against China and Russia, as it has been doing since the first U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The game is very simple but nonetheless very effective: Baghdad sends a signal that it may move even closer to Iran or to Russia and China through various oil field awards or other contracts and the U.S. feels compelled to counter with the offer of more funding directly or indirectly through massive deals between U.S. firms and Iraqi ones. Iraq then takes the money and the contracts and continues to do what it was going to do anyway, which is to remain firmly on the side of neighbour Iran whose grip over the country is interwoven into its very fabric through political, economic, and military elements. In any event, Iraq’s announcement last week that it has put on hold its controversial and massive oil prepayment deal with China’s state-owned Zhenhua Oil Co. falls precisely into this long-established game with the U.S.

The US$2 billion five–year prepayment oil supply deal between the Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) in Baghdad and China’s Zhenhua Oil deal was announced with great care and attention to timing just after former President Donald Trump had lost the 2020 Presidential Election. Trump and his team had started his tenure out playing the usual game with Iraq, granting the country waivers to continue to import electricity and gas for power generation from Iran – despite U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic – for periods of two, three or even four months each time. These lengthy waivers were granted in the hope of bringing Baghdad back towards the U.S.’s side in the geopolitical power play with China and Russia going on across the Middle East, an opportunity Washington looked to leverage when al-Kadhimi visited Washington last August.     continue to read

Monday, March 1, 2021

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 1st, 2021

2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)


The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEAis an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organisation on 29 July 1957. Though established independently of the United Nations through its own international treaty, the IAEA Statute,[4] the IAEA reports to both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.

The IAEA has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The IAEA has two "Regional Safeguards Offices" which are located in Toronto, Canada, and in Tokyo, Japan. The IAEA also has two liaison offices which are located in New York City, United States, and in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, the IAEA has laboratories and research centers located in Seibersdorf, Austria, in Monaco and in Trieste, Italy.[3]

The IAEA serves as an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nuclear power worldwide. The programs of the IAEA encourage the development of the peaceful applications of nuclear energy, science and technology, provide international safeguards against misuse of nuclear technology and nuclear materials, and promote nuclear safety (including radiation protection) and nuclear security standards and their implementation.


Bushehr Iran's nuclear facility
Iran Threatens to Remove IAEA’s Cameras at Nuclear Sites

Mar. 1 - Tehran - Asharq Al-AwsatIran reiterated its intention to remove the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) surveillance cameras from nuclear facilities if US sanctions are not lifted in three months.


The Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, affirmed in remarks on state TV that his country decided to remove the cameras.

Salehi asserted that Tehran is ready for diplomatic talks, but not in the way the United States and the Europeans imagine, insisting that sanctions should be lifted in advance as a precondition for negotiations.


He warned that Iran could increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent relatively quickly.

According to the international nuclear agreement, Iran is only allowed to enrich uranium to a level of less than four percent, while uranium must be enriched to 90 percent for a nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, an Iranian document revealed that Tehran had threatened to end an agreement concluded with IAEA that temporarily maintains most of its monitoring if the agency’s board adopts a US-led effort to criticize Tehran next week.

Earlier, Tehran scaled back its cooperation with the Agency, ending extra inspection measures introduced by its 2015 nuclear accord with major powers, according to Reuters.

It was the latest of many steps retaliating for the US reimposed sanctions after former President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018.


In its own paper sent to other IAEA member states ahead of next week’s quarterly meeting of the 35-nation Board of Governors, Washington said it wants a resolution to “express the Board’s deepening concern with respect to Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA”.

The US paper obtained by Reuters said the board should call on Iran to reverse its breaches of the deal and cooperate with the IAEA to explain how uranium particles were found at old, undeclared sites. The issue was first reported by the media and confirmed in an IAEA report this week.

“Iran perceives this move as destructive and considers it as an end to the Joint Understanding of 21 February 2021 between the Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Iran said in its own paper sent to other countries and obtained by Reuters.

It said that this could lead to further complications in relation to the 2015 nuclear deal by its full name, adding that France, Britain, Germany, and the US had “revealed their plans” for a board resolution.


Diplomats said it was still unclear whether the board would adopt a resolution.

In June, after the IAEA said Iran had denied it access for snap inspections at two sites where it later found uranium particles, the board passed a resolution calling on Iran to relent, which was opposed by Russia and China.     source from


U.S. government releases report on who was responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist and Virginia resident Jamal Khashoggi
US must hold Mohammed bin Salman accountable for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, rights groups say

In response to the release of a U.S. congressional report identifying Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as having ordered the operation against journalist Jamal Khashoggi, rights groups call on the Biden administration to impose sanctions on the prince, and suspend arms sales

Date published on Feb. 26, 2021
...“DNI Avril Haines said in her confirmation hearing that the Biden administration would ‘follow the law’ and release this report – the administration has rightly kept its word,” said PEN America’s Thomas O. Melia. “This is an essential starting point in terms of holding accountable those responsible for these heinous crimes, even amidst the United States’ fraught relationship with Saudi Arabia. We welcome today’s announcement of new sanctions and sanction mechanisms and hope that those pave the way toward fuller accountability for all those responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s brutal murder. We call on the executive and legislative branches to join forces in demanding the release of all Saudi political prisoners from confinement and travel restrictions.”...     quoted from
拜登首场精准打击剑指伊朗 美伊“边缘博弈”将失控?20210227 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Feb 28, 2021


Late journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 
Diplomat says US report on Khashoggi murder is ‘manipulation’ for ‘political gain’

Mar. 1 - The latest report released by the Biden Administration on the murder of late journalist Jamal Khashoggi was “manipulation of intelligence for political gain,” according to former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.

“There is nothing new in the repackaged Khashoggi report released by the Biden team. It was a gratuitous repackaging of intel and therefore a manipulation of intelligence for political gain,” Grenell said in a tweet on Monday.


The report declassified by US President Joe Biden alleged that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 operation that led to the murder of Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate, allegations that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry denied following the report’s publication.

Saudi Arabia’s government last week released a statement saying it completely rejects the negative, false, and unacceptable assessment made by the US.     more details
《花生漫畫》西元1953年三月/"Peanuts" on Mar. 1, 1953
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