Author: Michael

Spirit Airlines hit by gunfire

 On 11 November 2024, 3 commercial US airplanes (Spirit Airlines, Jet Blue, American Airlines) were struck by bullets in the airspace near Port Au Prince, Haiti. Gang violence has been escalating and was blamed for the incidents that resulted in one injured airline crewmember and bullet holes in all 3 aircraft. As a result, the FAA closed the airspace above Haiti for 30 days.1
 Of note, Haiti is listed as one of the top ten failed nations in the 2024 world2.

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Screenshot Youtube

Every effective cyber operation still needs enablers on the ground in the target area to shape, tweak, and further propagate the message in the last cyber mile.
TikTok did this aggressively for the January 2024 Taiwan elections, with multiple enablers on the ground in Taiwan. In other words – agents that were helping the TikTok message.
Taiwan National Security Bureau (NSB) just caught up to this social media couple in Taiwan.

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There is no shortage of problems confronting the U.S. Navy, as salvo after salvo of embarrassing stories attest. The range of problems is spectacularly depressing, addressing almost every facet of the Navy — from the design, production, maintenance, and crewing of its warships to the lack of commercial shipyard capacity, civilian shipbuilders, government drydocks, force structure, recruits, civilian mariners, and an adequate budget. How the Navy got into this predicament is complex. The lack of consistent strategic guidance between the chiefs of naval operations, however, is a major cause.

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Money is the sinew of all wars. In Haiti, feuding gangs are financed by illicit traffic of all sorts, including narcotics and weapons. Disrupting that flow of cash could help provide some leverage to the authorities trying desperately to re-establish order. Considering that Haiti is insular, cutting seaborne illicit traffic would be a practical and effective step for countries that wish to help the Haitian population but are hesitant to contribute boots on the ground.

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