Tag: Trump Space Force

Trump baffles everyone by announcing a ‘super-duper missile’ — and no one knows what he meant

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump on Friday afternoon said the U.S. military is developing a “super-duper missile” that can go 17 times faster than any existing rocket, earning him ridicule from critics.

“We have, I call it, the super-duper missile,” said Trump. “And I heard the other night—17 times faster than what they have right now, when you take the fastest missile we have right now.”

Trump made the remarks at a press conference unveiling the official Space Force flag in the Oval Office. Continue reading.

Military leaders requested a new task force to fight cyberwar. They got Space Force instead

AlterNet logoRight now, Texas is under siege, and there’s not too much our military can do about it.

On Jan. 7, Gov. Greg Abbott told the Domestic Terrorism Task Force that the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) measured, over a 48-hour period, a colossal increase of cyberattacks from Iran on their state agencies “at a rate of about 10,000 per minute.” The DIR claimed it couldn’t provide specific details for security reasons, but some attacks they couldn’t keep under wraps. For example, Texans who visited their Department of Agriculture’s website on Jan. 6 were likely surprised to find an Iranian flag, along with a tribute to deposed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Iran has invested heavily in cyberwarfare ever since the Stuxnet virus attack on their uranium enrichment facility in November 2007. Since 2010, Iran has had success attacking several sectors here in the U.S. During the past 10 years, Iranian hackers have breached several U.S. banks, stolen terabytes of information from universities and government agencies, and even broke into the computer system of a dam outside New York City. In 2013, right after Sheldon Adelson suggested that the United States threaten Tehran with a massive explosion, his Las Vegas Sands’ Casino had its hard drives wiped, allegedly costing $40 million in damages. Just last week, a company that tracks foreign adversaries online discovered that Iranian hackers have developed an extremely sophisticated cyber espionage tool that can track specific individuals online who are targeted for assassination. Continue reading.

Trump makes Space Force official. There’s already a Netflix parody

President Trump after signing the Space Policy Directive 4, during a ceremony in the Oval Office Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty Images

The president also gets request from governor of ‘Space Coast’ to place Space Force HQ in his state

President Donald Trump made Space Force official, but that might have been hard to tell at first from Tuesday in the Oval Office, as the chief executive held court on several satellite issues.

“During my administration, we’re doing so much in space. We need it,” Trump said, surrounded by military brass as he signed a directive establishing Space Force within the Air Force.

But before the president even got to the reason for Tuesday’s event, he uttered nearly 400 words describing a constellation of diplomatic successes with North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un.

View the complete February 19 article by Chris Cioffi on The Roll Call website here.