Non-State Actress: The Iceberg #11

July 21, 2022: Dead Men Tell No Tales

BLUF

Dead men do tell tales, apparently. As the US lets domestic dirty laundry get in the way of showing up on the global stage, the world continues to spin. Countries make new friends - and some of those friendships are better than other.

---

Press Play

---

What You Missed

---

You’re Not *Really* Speaking in Code, Are You…

Secretary of Defense and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth barred senior Defense Department officials from speaking at and attending the Aspen Security Forum (ASF) last week…the day before the crucial annual event started. ASF, hosted by the Aspen Institute, is one of several major security conferences in the United States. The convening brings major brains and officials from across governments (yes that ‘s’ in intentional, it’s an international conference), academia, private sector, civil society, media, and more to talk, think, debate, full on argue, and learn from one another. Hegseth’s attributed the sudden change of plans via the Pentagon Spokesperson to ASF being an event which “promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the President of the United States."

First, it’s important to point out that the previous Trump Administration happily, eagerly, and borderline aggressively participated in ASF during its first term. I know this not only from public reports, but from my own experience as an ASF Rising Leader in 2017. The place was CRAWLING in Trump Officials.

Second, this language is gross and illogical. ‘[T]he Evil of [G]lobalism’? Really? Why not just say Secret Lizard People or Elders of Zion? Is it because it’s more letters? ‘Disdain for [O]ur [G]reat [C]ountry?’ Right, because talking about how to keep America safe, secure, and stable SCREAMS ‘I hate it here.’ ‘[H]atred for the President of the United States’? Absolutely - because senior leaders traveled from *around the world* to meet with the US government. None of this makes any sense, and it’s also hyper-specific… which brings us to the potential why.

The Trump Administration has particiapted in a number of other significant security conferences over the last six months - Munich Security Conference, Manama Dialogues, Reagan Defense Forum - I could go on. Why not Aspen? Especially at a time when the administration is quite engaged on a number of issues.

I think the truth is in the text.

Politics should stop at the waters age, but sadly do not in this timeline. And the Epstein ‘story’ broke just as Hegseth withdrew from ASF. The Administration chose not to release any documents which may or may not exist despite campaign promises to do so. Suddenly, President Trump repeatedly told people to ‘get over it’ despite being laser focused on it before, and his base went wild. So, what better way to distract from what may or may not be hidden in documents which may or may not exist and pertain to the decades of sex trafficking and felonies of a man President Trump had an equally decades long relationship with than throw this VERY specifically worded rock as if it’s through the window of a store.

Why It Matters: So, instead of showing up to work with world leaders during a generationally significant time of instability, national security leaders stayed home out of fear of a dead man.