Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), sent Washington into a frenzy on Wednesday with a cryptic statement about a “serious national security threat” that would require Joe Biden to declassify certain documents that should be openly discuss in connection with this threat. Spencer talked more about this yesterday:
“Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released information regarding a serious national security threat to all members of Congress,” Chairman Turner said in a statement to X.
“I am asking President Biden to declassify all information related to this threat so that Congress, the administration and our allies can openly discuss the actions needed to respond to this threat,” he added.
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HPSCI was previously said to be working to make some of the committee’s “space-related” materials available to all members of Congress, likely information mentioned by Turner in his statement and letter to lawmakers.
According to NBC News, Democrats also called the matter “a serious issue that could lead to a destabilizing situation and a national security threat” and confirmed it was a “potential foreign threat,” but did not tell the press what foreign entity the threat was emanating from.
The chances that the threat will become public knowledge even if Biden does not exercise his declassification powers will enhance as more members of Congress are briefed on the matter, though it is impossible to know a timetable for when the threat will become clearer.
What the hell, Mike? Will we soon be knocked out of nuclear orbit? Is there a threat of a terrorist attack? NO. All right. It’s a space-related issue that has raised national security concerns for years, but it didn’t warrant this kind of uproar. Biden White House officials were reportedly furious over the news, and The New York Times revealed that the case involved Russia, which may have a novel space nuclear weapon that could neutralize our satellite network (via NOW):
According to current and former officials briefed on the matter, the United States has briefed Congress and its allies in Europe on Russia’s advances with a novel space-based nuclear weapon that is expected to threaten America’s expansive satellite network.
Such satellite-killing weapons, if used, could destroy civilian communications, space surveillance, and military command and control operations conducted by the United States and its allies. Right now, the United States is unable to counter such weapons and defend its satellites, the former official said.
Officials said the novel intelligence, which they did not describe in detail, raises earnest questions about whether Russia is preparing to abandon the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans all orbital nuclear weapons. However, they said that because Russia is not close to deploying these weapons, they are not considered an urgent threat.
The intelligence information was partially made public in a cryptic statement issued Wednesday by GOP Rep. Michael R. Turner, an Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He called on the Biden administration to declassify the information, without saying specifically what the information was.
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But the announcement infuriated White House officials who feared losing critical sources of information about Russia. While Turner has been an ally of the White House on Ukraine aid, his comments Wednesday became the latest flashpoint in tense relations between the Biden administration and Republicans in Congress.
I’m not so sure about this, folks. Given all the drama surrounding Ukraine’s financing, the “Russia has a new nuclear” scare plot may be a ploy by Kyiv supporters to quell congressional heartburn on the subject the next time Congress allocates another aid package in the coming weeks or months. China has also been working on satellite-killing technology for years. This is nothing novel – and does not deny the fact that all the money the Senate allocated for Ukraine should be spent here to fight the border crisis.
