The records of two confirmation hearings conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence have just been published: that of Benjamin A. Powell to be General Counsel in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and that of John S. Redd to be Director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Each contains some interesting details about the nominees, and some useful questions for the record presenting their views of their respective positions (in the large PDF versions here [Powell] and here [Redd] only).
The hearing record for Mr. Powell, the new ODNI General Counsel, also features (in the PDF version) a reprint of a technical paper he co-authored in the journal “Computers and Chemical Engineering” entitled “Adaptive Networks for Fault Diagnosis and Process Control.”
Satellite imagery of RAF Lakenheath reveals new construction of a security perimeter around ten protective aircraft shelters in the designated nuclear area, the latest measure in a series of upgrades as the base prepares for the ability to store U.S. nuclear weapons.
It will take consistent leadership and action to navigate the complex dangers in the region and to avoid what many analysts considered to be an increasingly possible outcome, a nuclear conflict in East Asia.
Getting into a shutdown is the easy part, getting out is much harder. Both sides will be looking to pin responsibility on each other, and the court of public opinion will have a major role to play as to who has the most leverage for getting us out.
How the United States responds to China’s nuclear buildup will shape the global nuclear balance for the rest of the century.