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Intelligence agencies have access to phone recording system, IHC told The Express Tribune
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Story by Lt. J.G. Martin L. Carey, NSWG-2.
ARCTIC CIRCLE — Recognizing the importance of the Arctic region to defense of the homeland from potential adversarial threats, elite special operations forces from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom recently concluded high-impact training events throughout the pan-Arctic region, stretching from Alaska, in the Arctic Circle, across Canada and into Greenland. Arctic Edge 24, a U.S. Northern Command exercise, brought together more than 400 special operations forces (SOF) to integrate, share lessons and refine their tactical effectiveness in diving operations, fast-roping from helicopters, snow mobile transits, long-range movements across the Arctic Circle, and a marquee event involving a fast-attack Submarine. These past few weeks of training epitomize an unwavering commitment to fortifying U.S. and Allied national security against potential aggression, echoing directives outlined in the National Defense Strategy and the National Strategy for the Arctic Region documents.
“Naval Special Warfare’s unique ability to conduct complex operations in the water column, and in maritime domains such as the Arctic, discourages aggression from potential adversaries,” said Capt. Bill Gallagher, Naval Special Warfare Group TWO Commodore. “Given the frequency with which we are training alongside our Allied partners and demonstrating our combined expertise in some of the most severe environments on the planet, we are sending a clear message about our warfighting ability and our preparedness to defend the homeland across the Arctic region.”
These ideals were on display during the culminating event that took the SOF commando’s training beyond the northern most point of the United States, past Uqtiagvik Alaska, deep into the Arctic Circle. Flying inside special operations MH-47G Chinook helicopters, approximately 15 SOF personnel pioneered a historic event when they hovered a few feet from the surface, off-loaded a small team to conduct an ice-depth survey and cleared a helicopter landing zone. Once cleared, the Chinooks touched down and snow mobiles exited the aircraft to retrieve an aerial package dropped nearby. The package was then driven across Arctic terrain and handed-off to personnel from the submarine USS Hampton (SSN 767). Just moments before, the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine had surfaced through the thick sheet of ice, emerging from the sea below. This marked the first-ever integration of SOF personnel, SOF aircraft, and snow mobiles coming together to conduct an operation with a submarine that surfaced that deep in the Arctic Circle.
In recent remarks delivered at the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies, Adm. Daryl Caudle talked about his responsibility for defending the homeland and his theory of success in the Arctic which involves maintaining an enhanced presence, strengthening cooperative partnerships and building a more capable Arctic maritime force. Caudle commands U.S. Fleet Forces and is the Navy’s Component Commander for both US Northern Command and US Strategic Command, where he oversees all maritime homeland defense including much of the Arctic. He went on to discuss some of his priorities which focus on an increased presence, campaigning through Joint training and exercises, and a close collaboration with Allies.
Artic Edge 24 reinforced this vision, bringing together Joint, Allied, conventional forces and interagency partners in the Arctic region. Arctic Edge 24 stands as a decisive demonstration of warfighting readiness, providing a platform for testing and refining capabilities in the extreme-harsh weather environment in the Arctic. The collaboration between U.S. East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare Operators (SEALs), U.S. Army Green Berets from 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Danish Special Operations Forces, Norwegian Naval Special Operations Commandos (MJK) and United Kingdom Special Forces refined the collective capabilities of these Arctic nations to operate effectively across a range of training iterations to ensure a safe and secure pan-Arctic.
In Kodiak Alaska, SEALs, Green Berets and MJK forces conducted multiple diving operations in water temperatures of 37 degrees Fahrenheit. Deploying from beach heads and small rubber boats, the team practiced pier-side vessel ship attacks, utilizing combat swimmer infiltration method with underwater navigation to target a training ship at the pier. The group also partnered with the U.S. Coast Guard where they refined techniques of fast-roping from an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter under rainy conditions.
Further North in Utqiagvik, Alaska, the SEALs and MJK Commandos embraced the challenges associated with temperatures of -40 degrees Fahrenheit as they prepared for the culminating event with the US Submarine Force. Leading up to that event, they conducted snow mobile familiarization training, practiced clearing ice to create a helicopter landing zone and trained on cold weather survival drills, ensuring a successful SUB/SOF integration.
Additional training occurred throughout Alaska in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kotzebue, and Greenland, with personnel from interagency partners at the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, United States Marine Corps, Alaska National Guard, New York Air National Guard, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) among others.
Safeguarding Arctic security is not merely a national endeavor but a collective responsibility. The total force contributions during Artic Edge 24 supports the strategic significance of this area and improved the Allied-Arctic-nation’s presence and operational effectiveness in the pan-Arctic region. The scenarios, simulated missions and sharing of best practices contributed to advancing the collective warfighting readiness, homeland defense and operational acumen of these elite forces in this extreme environment.
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This article by Lt J.G. Martin Carey was originally released by Naval Special Warfare Group Two on March 12, 2024.
Photo: A C-130 Hercules assigned to the 109th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard, flies over East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare Operator (SEALs), Norwegian Naval Special Operations Commandos and the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Hampton (SSN 767) during Arctic Edge 24. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Jeff Atherton, Arctic Ocean, 9 Mar 2024)
Naval Special Warfare Group TWO produces, supports, and deploys the world’s premier maritime special operations forces to conduct full-spectrum operations and integrated deterrence in support of U.S. national objectives. For more information, visit https://www.nsw.navy.mil/.
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An American company that paid the now indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai, according to business filings and court documents.
Smirnov is now accused of lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, alleging that they engaged in a bribery scheme with executives at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Smirnov’s accounts to the FBI, beginning in 2020, that federal prosecutors now say are fabrications, served as a major justification of the House impeachment investigation into the Bidens.
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly touted Smirnov as a reliable informant, and the chairman of the House oversight committee, James Comer, even threatened to hold FBI director Christopher Wray in contempt unless he “handed over” a June 2020 FBI form with Smirnov’s claims to the committee.
Back in 2020, Smirnov was paid $600,000 by a company called Economic Transformation Technologies (ETT), prosecutors said. That same year, Smirnov began lying to the FBI about the Bidens, according to the indictment.
ETT’s CEO is the American Christopher Condon, who is also one of three shareholders in ETT Investment Holding Limited in London. Other shareholders in the UK include Pakistani American investor Shahal Khan and Farooq Arjomand, a former chairman and current board member of Damac Properties in Dubai who is also listed as an adviser on ETT’s American website.
Last month, Smirnov was charged with lying to the FBI, and is being held without bail. Prosecutors argued he posed a flight risk because of his contacts with Russian officials in the Middle East and access to millions of dollars.
Smirnov’s indictment alleged that the facts in a document, known as a 1023, and other statements made to his FBI handler beginning in 2020 and continuing until December 2023, were factually impossible.
The exact business model of Texas-based ETT is murky. Its mission statement reads in part: “ETT set up the chess board to bring in top notch executives from those sectors to help implement its vision of love and social impact to improve the quality of human existence through the application of ‘new age’ technologies.”
The current CEO, Condon, is a California man who has been involved in several civil lawsuits, including a civil Rico case in 2010 that he won on appeal. Condon’s official biography says he is “a former professional tennis player, financial advisor, and currently is an entrepreneur focused on social-impact projects, public-private partnerships, and creating smart communities that benefit both individuals and governments”.
Condon, Arjomand and Khan registered ETT Investment Holding Limited in the UK on 6 March 2020. Khan, an investor who purchased the Plaza Hotel in 2018, and Arjomand have ties to Donald Trump through Trump associates and Damac, a major Middle East developer that has partnered with Trump for a decade. Arjomand, Khan and Condon owned 34%, 33% and 33% of ETT Investment Holding Limited respectively, according to UK business filings. No other information on the UK company is readily available.
Former Damac chairman Hussain Sajwani is also close to Trump and has been described as his friend in multiple news reports. Trump has called the billionaire a “friend” and a “great man”, and his family “the most beautiful people”.
Hussain Sajwani, far right, with Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in February 2017. Photograph: AP
Sajwani attended Trump’s 2016 inauguration, and Trump’s sons Donald Jr and Eric Trump attended the 2017 ribbon-cutting of the Trump International golf club in Dubai, licensed by Damac in 2014. Sajwani and his family also attended a party in 2017 at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s sons would go on to attend Sajwani’s daughter’s wedding in 2018.
In 2017 FEC filings, Trump disclosed making up to $5m from the Damac licensing deal, but said he would no longer do personal business deals when he became president. The two continued at least talking business into his presidency, however, according to multiple reports.
“Hussein, Damac, a friend of mine, a great guy. I was offered $2bn to do a deal in Dubai, a number of deals, and I turned it down,” Trump said in 2017.
Arjomand was the vice-chairman of Damac when the Trump International golf club, along with adjoining Trump-branded luxury homes, opened, and he replaced Sajwani as chair in 2021 when Sajwani stepped down to privatize the company.
Khan, who owns Dubai-based Trinity White City Ventures, is a New York native who partnered with New York City developer Kamran Hakim to buy the Plaza Hotel in 2018 for $600m. He was a board member of ETT from 2019 to June 2020, according to his LinkedIn page, appearing in event photographs with Condon in Miami that year.
Khan is involved in a range of business from AI to mining to cybersecurity, according to his official biographies. In 2019, he was one of a dozen Pakistani American business owners invited to meet the then Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan the day before Imran met with Trump and Mike Pompeo, then the secretary of state, in Washington DC. The group was there to discuss the expansion of business in Pakistan.
In 2017, Khan reportedly approached Brad Zackson, dubbed Paul Manafort’s “real-estate fixer”, to help him broker a deal to buy the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, owned by the Pakistani government via its national airline, for $500m, according to the Real Deal. When the real-estate publication asked Khan about the reports, he denied that Zackson and Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman, were involved. Khan purchased the Pakistani embassy building in DC in 2022 for $6.8m.
Khan is also CEO of BurTech Acquisition Group, a “blank check company”, or public shell company. Patrick Orlando, listed as a “special adviser” and shareholder of BurTech in 2021, was the CEO and chair of Digital World, another blank check company, from September 2021 to March 2023. When it began a merger with Trump Media & Technology Group in 2021, it was held up by an SEC investigation until given the green light last month.
The finalization of the merger may garner Trump as much as $4bn in shares, and help bolster his finances after his recent civil litigation losses. Orlando has known Trump since at least 2021, according to news reports.
Arjomand and Khan’s relationship is unclear. Arjomand, a former HSBC banker from the United Arab Emirates, also invests in hospitality businesses, including the celebrity Wahlberg brothers’ restaurant chain Wahlburgers, and owns a coffee company called Reborn Coffee.
ETT Investment Holding Limited was dissolved in 2021. Condon and Arjomand also registered a company called Atlas UK Group Limited the same day they registered the UK ETT, now dissolved.
The American ETT, then called Pandora Venture Capital Corp, was first registered in Florida in 2014 by Wisconsin resident Boris Nayflish, according to Florida business filings. Ukrainian American Nayflish is the ex-husband of Smirnov’s current partner, according to a Wall Street Journal report, which also claimed Nayflish stayed close to his ex, Diana Lavrenyuk, and Smirnov after the divorce.
Smirnov, born in Ukraine, lived in Israel before coming to the US in 2006.
Pandora changed its name to Skylab in 2017, then in 2018 Skylab seemed to split from what is now ETT, according to a lawsuit, when Condon first registered ETT websites and appeared on ETT’s Florida filings.
An unnamed former business associate told the Wall Street Journal that the $600,000 payment from ETT to Smirnov was “in exchange for a stake in an Israel-based crypto trading platform, called Bitoftrade, [that] Smirnov was working on launching”.
Calls and emails to Condon, Arjomand, Sajwani and Smirnov’s lawyer, and to Trump’s team, were not returned.
Khan told the Guardian: “I was on the board for a very short period, [and] there was no connection on my part.”
Smirnov is scheduled for a jury trial in April, according to court filings.
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3/14: CBS Morning News
Judge to hear arguments on whether to dismiss Trump’s classified documents case; Biden looks to bolster support across “blue wall” states.
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RIYADH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan received his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Riyadh on Thursday.
During the meeting, the ministers discussed various aspects of bilateral relations and ways to advance and strengthen them. They also discussed developments and topics of common interest.
Earlier, Mekdad was received at King Khalid International Airport by Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed Al-Khuraiji.
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LONDON: Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft used by defense minister Grant Shapps to travel from Poland back to Britain, a government source and journalists traveling with him said on Thursday.
According to the source and journalists, the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
Mobile phones could no longer connect to the Internet and the aircraft was forced to use alternative methods to determine its location, they said.
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