The D Brief: Houthis resume ship attacks; ‘putting (Feds) in trauma’; Israel Readies Laser Interceptor; Warning from the SASC chairman; And a little more.

After an 18 day break, the Russia-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen targeted another commercial ship in the Red Sea on Monday. British maritime authorities confirmed the attempted attack, but said the ship was a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Motaro– remained unscathed after three explosions occurred near the ship as it sailed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Also the Houthis claim having attacked two other ships in the Arabian Sea, but offered no evidence to support their claims, the Associated press reported on Monday.

Israeli officials say a drone launched from Yemen landed in the coastal city of Ashkelon on Tuesday. “The impact caused no injuries, but did cause a small fire,” police said Times of Israel.

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Welcome to this Tuesday edition of The D Briefbrought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations or feedback here. And if you haven’t already subscribed, you can do so here. On this day in 2004, Qatar-based Al Jazeera broadcast a broadcast video of Osama bin Laden condemning President George W. Bush and claiming responsibility for the September 11 attacks. He said the attacks were partly motivated by Lebanon’s 1982 civil war, and that he planned to draw the US into wars that would bankrupt the country.

Emerging technology

The new rule is intended to deter US investors from backing Chinese research in AI and quantum science. The rule, issued by the White House on Monday, “prohibits U.S. persons from conducting certain transactions involving semiconductors, quantum and artificial intelligence. And second, it requires U.S. persons to notify (the) Treasury Department of certain other transactions involving semiconductors and artificial intelligence,” a senior White House official told reporters ahead of the meeting. edition.

How much are US investors investing in Chinese military technology? From 2015 to 2021, they pumped $40.2 billion into 251 Chinese AI companies, accounting for 37 percent of the $110 billion raised by all Chinese companies working on AI. That’s according to a February 2023 report paper from the Center for Security and Emerging Technologies. From Defense Patrick Tucker has more here.

Related reading:

Space Force’s efforts to bring in new launch providers have not yet worked. Officials are not surprised. Last year, the agency launched a competition called National Space Security Launch Phase 3 with two categories: “Lane 1,” for lower-risk missions, and “Lane 2,” for more challenging missions. The idea was that newcomers to the space launch market could get their foot in the door with a Lane 1 mission. But nothing stops established giants like SpaceX from competing in Lane 1, and on October 18, the Space Force announced that SpaceX had won $733.5 million for the first wave of launches in that category.

“I don’t consider it a failure at all. We fully anticipated it. I mean, everyone knows who’s launching now. We knew it would be a very limited set, but we knew we had to start somewhere,” said Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program director for Assured Access to Space. From Defense Audrey Decker reports.

Future of American Democracy

Trump’s former OMB director: “We want to traumatize (federal employees).” A key ally of former President Donald Trump, Russell Vought, has plans that closely echo Trump’s campaign rhetoric about using the military against domestic protesters, or what Trump has called the “enemy within.” ProPublica They reported this on Monday after obtaining video of Vought’s private speeches over the past two years. In those appearances, Vought described his work coming up with legal justifications so that military leaders or government lawyers wouldn’t block Trump’s executive actions.

As OMB chief, Vought tried to use Trump’s 2020 strategySchedule F“Executive Order to Eliminate Job Protections for Nonpartisan Government Employees, ProPublica reminds readers. But until these private speeches were made public, he had “never spoken in such stark terms about demoralizing federal employees to the point where they no longer wanted to do their jobs.”

Why bring it up: “Vought is widely expected to take on a high-level government role if Trump wins a second term. His name has even been mentioned as a potential White House chief of staff,” according to ProPublica.

‘We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected’ Vought said. “When they wake up in the morning, we don’t want them to want to go to work because they are increasingly seen as the villains. We want their funding cut off so that the EPA can’t implement all the regulations against our energy industry because they don’t have the financial bandwidth to do so. We want to traumatize them,” he said. Read more, here.

View from Capitol Hill: If reelected, Donald Trump will act ‘like a fascist’ and ‘destroy the Defense Department’ the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Chairman Jack Reed of Rhode Island, warned in a call with reporters on Monday. Reed called the meeting to draw attention to what he described as “Trump’s dystopian threats to abuse the military and trample on the Constitution.”

“What Trump wants is power – power to first dismiss the lawsuits against him, then power will accumulate more and more,” Reed said. “He actually wants to create chaos and a dysfunctional non-government because he has more power there in that context.” If he returns to office, Trump will “destroy the Department of Defense,” the senator warned. “He has already shown his willingness at the end of his last term to essentially fire the civilian senior defense employees for his Schedule F delivery. That was reiterated in the Project 2025 report, and it will be something he will do. He’s going to create chaos and he’s going to force many, many of our best officers, quite frankly, to decide whether to stay in the service or whether to leave the service.”

“Why Did Men Once Call Trump ‘My Generals’”– men like General (John) Kelly, General (Mark) Milley, General (Jim) Mattis, General (HR) McMaster, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and more, everyone who worked closely with him, even his own former Vice President Mike Pence – why do they all believe Trump is unfit to be president?” Reed asked.

Citing the recent work by historian Heather Cox Richardson, Reed said that a March 1945 U.S. Army publication: Army conversations“tried to explain to most troops what fascism was. And one of the lines from the document said it is “a government of the few and for the few.” The aim is the conquest and control of the economic, political, social and cultural life of the state.’ And that sounds a lot like Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the gang all making plans to take over and get special powers and go after enemies and do stuff like that.

Citing that Army publication, Reed reminded reporters that fascists “make their own rules and they change when they want… they maintain themselves in power through the use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of ‘blood’ and ‘race’, through skillful manipulation of fear and hatred and through false promises of security .’ (That) Sounds like a Trump speech,” said Reed. “So I’m very concerned that regardless of the definition of a fascist, he will act like a fascist.”

But Reed was not entirely lacking in optimism. “I have confidence in the leadership of the Army that if they notice people acting contrary to the law, the Constitution and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, they will take action and correct it; that is their job,” he said. However: “The question that becomes much more difficult is: If he takes office, I think he has powers that could, in principle, purge the military of people of conscience and replace them with his minions. That would be a disaster” since “people wouldn’t be there because they are the best strategist, tactician, etc. They are there because they will do what (Trump) says. And honestly, I don’t think he has a very good understanding of many issues affecting the world.”

• More information: View the eight-page 1945 U.S. Army publication in its entirety, here.

Related reading: “How autocrats play the rules of democracy”, (gift link) via Amanda Taub of the New York Timeswriting from London on Tuesday.

See also: “Fascism, fear and the science behind horror films,” from WNYC’s “On the Media” podcast, posted Friday.