S2 Underground

//The Wire//2300Z February 26, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: UKRAINE MINERAL DEAL PROGRESSES WITH THE UNITED STATES. WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES NEW FINANCIALLY-BASED PATH TO CITIZENSHIP.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Europe: Talks between the United States and Ukraine have continued with regards to a trade deal involving rare earth minerals. This deal, which has been the source of controversy, will enable the export of Ukrainian minerals in exchange for continued American aid. AC: So far, nothing has been signed, however both Kiev and Washington have signaled that terms have been agreed upon. At the moment, it's not certain how much this mineral deal will actually come to fruition; most of the mineral wealth of Ukraine currently is located either in active combat zones or in areas that have long been under Russian control.

Chile: This morning a transformer outage resulted in a nearly-nationwide electrical blackout. This outage affected not only residential areas, but large commercial centers and mining operations.

-HomeFront-

Washington D.C. - President Trump announced a new financial-based greencard program yesterday. This new "Gold Card" program will allow foreign nationals to purchase legal American residency (and an expedited path to citizenship) for a one-time lump-sum payment of $5 million. This program is reported to replace the EB-5 visa program.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: Trump's Gold Card program (as announced) has been perceived as highly controversial as it echoes the recent sentiments which resulted in the quiet dismissal of would-be DOGE co-director Vivek Ramaswamy (who, despite the recent scandal, is now running for Governor of Ohio). Ramaswamy's continual comments on social media equating the American experience as one of interchangeable economic units was perceived by many as being purely extractive and exploitive in nature, resulting in his quiet departure from federal government. For clarity, this "Gold Card" program has existed before in the form of various levels of investment visas/greencards. However, the White House floating the idea of revamping and streamlining the program to allow foreign nationals to purchase citizenship is being perceived to be just as exploitive of the American people as Vivek's prior comments which got him in trouble. Many citizens do not believe that America is Dubai, (a place which only exists to serve foreign investment opportunities), but these recent policy decisions don't do very much to dissuade that line of thinking.

At a certain point (and regardless of political beliefs), a series of words and actions is no longer a mistake or improper phrasing...it is a policy decision that reignites the questions of what it means to be American in the first place. This is very likely to be the reason that Ramaswamy's comments could not be "clarified" into being something more palatable...once the American population knows what a person's core values are, it's hard to walk-back those comments. Consequently, this "gold card" announcement has also reignited the prior discrepancies between Trump's supporter base, and his personal doctrine regarding issues that his own supporter base perceives as being a weak point, such as legal immigration. As such, it's possible that previously-dismissed (and seemingly minor) issues with Trump's proposed policies during the campaign really aren't minor nit-picking differences of opinion, but rather deep-seated differences of core values that will have to be acknowledged at some point. How much these details matter will be up for personal interpretation, but right now the general sentiment expressed in the global west is that giving a person an American passport does not magically make them compatible with American culture or heritage. Whether that is true or not will be debated for years to come. However, in the meantime, streamlining the process to b

//The Wire//2300Z February 25, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: CARTEL VIOLENCE CONTINUES SOUTH OF U.S. BORDER. GERMAN CDU REVERSES STANCE ON IMMIGRATION POLICIES AFTER ELECTION.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Germany: Following the weekend election cycle, discontent has been a common observation as various politicians have backtracked on campaign promises. CDU leadership, for instance, has deliberately flipped on their main campaign issue regarding immigration. During the campaign, the CDU's primary initiative was to limit immigration into Germany. After the election, CDU leadership (presumptive Chancellor Friedrich Merz) reneged on this promise, stating that the border will not be closed. AC: Though unsurprising to most who had the foresight to perceive this European tradition of complete policy reversals after elections, many others are rather upset as this sharp reversal affects a policy issue pertinent to most Germans.

-HomeFront-

Washington D.C. - Controversy continues in Congress regarding Rep. Dan Crenshaw's threat to murder Tucker Carlson. Crenshaw was caught making the comment during a hot-mic incident as part of a media interview a few days ago.

Southern Border Region: Following the IED incident in Tamaulipas earlier this month, Texas authorities have issued more warnings pertaining to the use of Improvised Anti-Vehicle Land Mines (IAVMs) in the vicinity of the border.

-----END TEARLINE----- 

Analyst Comments: For clarification, this afternoon the Texas Department of Agriculture issued a warning to ranchers in the border region, warning them about the IED incident that occurred earlier this month. This warning statement was poorly worded, and did not provide the context that the event occurred nearly a month ago, and took place in Mexico almost a hundred miles south of the US border. The notice also referred to an American citizen being killed in the IED blast, however the wording of this announcement is slightly misleading since there is zero mention of the IED blast actually occurring inside Mexico. This missing context (and the contradictory details originating from sources with unknown veracity), is important to understand in terms of assessing the risk as accurately as possible.

Over the past few months, clashes of increasing severity have been reported between the Gulf Cartel (CDG) and the Northeast Cartel (CDN) as both groups (but more importantly, various splinter groups from these two main organizations) continue the turf war south of Brownsville. Increased use of IEDs and weaponized drones has been reported semi-randomly throughout this increased period of conflict, with many innocent victims frequently being caught in the crossfire. So far the IED threat has not transitioned north across the border yet, however local authorities continue to issue the warnings nonetheless. Far more concerning are the increasingly significant small arms attacks and skirmishes that have taken place at the border itself over the past few weeks, between adversarial cartel groups.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
//END REPORT//

//The Wire//2300Z February 24, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: GERMAN ELECTION RESULTS IN GAINS FOR THE AFD, THOUGH CDU/CSU TAKES LEAD. POPE FRANCIS REMAINS IN CRITICAL CONDITION. AMERICAN GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY INITIATIVES DRAW IRE OF FEDERAL WORKERS.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Vatican City: Over the weekend the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis remains in critical condition regarding his previous illness.

Germany: Sunday's election resulted in Friedrich Merz becoming the new Chancellor, as the CDU/CSU took 33% of the vote. While falling short of any sort of majority, the AfD party surprised many by coming in second place, winning 24% of the vote. AC: The key takeaway from this election is that the AfD now has more bargaining power than in previous years, albeit falling short of their own goals. Though by American standards the AfD is a rather lukewarm center-right party (at best), throughout Germany the AfD party has been vilified as extreme-far-right (which may be technically true for Germany's perspective, by comparison with other political parties). As such, this signals a significant shift in atmospherics throughout the nation, even if radical changes in the grand scheme of national politics will be challenging to arrive at..

-HomeFront-

New York: Sunday evening American Airlines Flight 292 bound for Delhi was diverted to Rome due to a bomb threat. After a security inspection in Rome detected no threat to the aircraft, the flight was cleared for departure to Delhi. AC: These types of bomb threats are relatively common. Though American Airlines has not specified the exact details of what resulted in the brief diversion, it is very likely that a threat was received (probably on social media) that referenced this specific flight, which caused the security concerns.

Georgia: This morning Delta Flight 876 (bound for Columbia, SC from Atlanta) experienced an in-flight emergency via smoke filling the passenger cabin. The aircraft promptly returned to Atlanta due to the smoke.

California: Saturday night, Delta Flight 43 (bound for Sydney from Los Angeles) also experienced an in-flight emergency with smoke filling the passenger cabin.

AC: Of note, though two separate emergencies of similar characteristics (and via the same airline) occurring within 24 hours of each other is rare, it must be noted that both smoke incidents involved separate airframes. The Los Angeles emergency involved an Airbus A350, and the Atlanta incident involved a smaller regional jet, a Boeing 717-200.

Washington D.C. - Controversy has erupted over the past few days regarding various initiatives to improve the efficiency of government agencies. Over the weekend an email was sent out from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to every single federal employee, requesting them to provide a short list of 5 bullets regarding what they had completed last week.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: As the OPM email was sent out to everyone, from every single military service member to the highest-paid directors of various federal agencies, mass pandemonium has largely been the result. The initial knee-jerk reaction for many department directors of various levels of bureaucracy has been to order their subordinates to not reply to the email. The Department of Defense also issued guidance to prevent all service members from responding to the email as well.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
//END REPORT//

 TOC Dashboard: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/ebe374c40c1a4231a06075155b0e8cb9/ 

Research Notes/Bibliography can be found here: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground 

ArcGIS Online CIP/COP: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=204a59b01f4443cd96718796fd102c00 

00:00 - Northeast Region 

02:19 - The Data 

06:20 - Risk Mitigation 

12:28 - Submarine Cables 

15:02 - Lincoln Heights Crisis 

19:21 - Northern Europe 

21:37 - GhostNet Reports 

Download the GhostNet plan here! https://github.com/s2underground/GhostNet The text version of the Wire can be found on Twitter: https://twitter.com/s2_underground And on our Wire Telegram page here: https://t.me/S2undergroundWire If you would like to support us, we're on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=30479515 Disclaimer: No company sponsored this video. In fact, we have ZERO sponsors. We are funded 100% by you, the viewer. All of our funding comes from direct support from platforms like Patreon, or from ad revenue on YouTube. Please note that even though it hurts our income, we still offer ad-free watching via alternative platforms like Odysee, Gab, and (for now) Rumble. Odysee: https://odysee.com/@S2Underground:7 Gab: https://gab.com/S2underground Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/S2Underground BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/P2NMGFdt3gf3/ Just a few reminders for everyone who's just become aware of us, in order to keep these briefings from being several hours long, I can't cover everything. I'm probably covering 1% of the world events when we conduct these briefings, so please remember that if I left it out, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's unimportant. Also, remember that I do these briefings quite often, so I might have covered an issue previously that you might not see if you are only watching our most recent videos. I'm also doing this in my spare time, so again I fully admit that these briefings aren't even close to being perfect; I'm going for a healthy blend of speed and quality. If I were to wait and only post a brief when it's "perfect" I would never post anything at all. So expect some minor errors here and there. If there is a major error or correction that needs to be made, I will post it here in the description, and verbally address it in the next briefing. Also, thanks for reading this far. It is always surprising the number of people that don't actually read the description box to find more information. This content is purely educational and does not advocate for violating any laws. Do not violate any laws or regulations. This is not legal advice. Consult with your attorney. Our Reading List! https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/133747963-s2-actual The War Kitchen Channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYmtpjXT22tAWGIlg_xDDPA 

//The Wire//2300Z February 21, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: COUNTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION OPERATIONS CONTINUE AMID PERSONNEL CHANGES. IED DETONATES NEAR POLICE HQ IN MEXICO.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Mexico: Overnight an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was detonated outside a convenience store in Acapulco, Guerrero. Two fatalities were reported as a result of the blast, which were two bystanders passing by the location on a moped at the time of the detonation. AC: The attack appears to have targeted the local police headquarters just south of the convenience store, across the street. Considering it's close proximity to the parking area for police vehicles, it's very likely that the IED was targeting police officers who may frequent that convenience store.

United Kingdom: Apple has halted their Advanced Data Protection feature for iCloud storage services. This follows an alleged secret mandate by the British government to install backdoor access that authorities would be able to use to access user's data without a court order at any time. Apple refused to implement this requested feature, and as a result has removed the feature from being accessed by those in Britain.

Germany: This evening a stabbing attack was reported in the vicinity of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin. The assailant was detained at the scene and the victim was hospitalized with non-life threatening wounds. AC: Due to long-standing German policy and culture, details regarding this incident will be hard to come by. As such, there's very little to go on for determining what happened. Some media sources claim multiple people were wounded, other sources claim only one. The location of the incident taking place in or around the Holocaust memorial is really the only detail that has been made public, though this area is a large outdoor venue near major streets, so correlating the site to the attack isn't definitive without additional details.

-HomeFront-

Washington D.C. - This morning various media groups announced that the Department of Justice announced an investigation into UnitedHealth Group. This investigation pertains to the Group's allegedly illegal practices pertaining to fraudulent Medicaid billing. AC: A few hours after mainstream media broke this story, UnitedHealth Group denounced the reporting, calling it "misinformation". As of right now, there has not been any statement directly from the DoJ confirming this investigation, so there's no way to independently verify a leak made directly to mainstream media.

Texas: Deportation operations continue as before, while corporate efforts to dig-in begin to materialize. Recently unsealed court documents indicate that the DoJ prosecuted the owners of a bakery a few weeks ago, allegedly for harboring illegal aliens in violation of 8 USC § 1324. This indictment comes after the arrest of three restaurant chain owners in Arizona, who were charged with harboring aliens back in January.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: While the prosecution of American citizens harboring illegal aliens is by no means a new concept, this practice has been comparatively rare over the past few decades. Most charges of harboring aliens arose from other situations (such as tax evasion or murder) with the harboring aliens charges being tacked on to supplement the prosecution of other crimes. This recent case in Texas is an oddity in that regard, as these charges seem to be independent of other crimes. ICE conducted a raid at the bakery and arrested a few staff members. Recent court docs confirm that two of those illegals turned witness against the owners by signing affidavits attesting that the owners of the bakery knew they were illegal, employed them anyway, and actively took steps to harbor them from deportation. As such, this recent case in Texas could signal a trend developing to widen the scope of illegal immigration invest

//The Wire//2300Z February 20, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: THOUGHT CRIMES REMAIN CONCERNING THROUGHOUT EUROPE. KASH PATEL CONFIRMED AS FBI DIRECTOR. TWO JUVENILES ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED SCHOOL ATTACK PLOT IN TEXAS.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Scotland: This morning a 74-year-old woman was arrested for speech and thought crimes. Rose Docherty (a well known, pro-life advocate) was arrested for demonstrating via standing on a sidewalk outside Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, a very large medical complex that houses abortion facilities. At the time of her arrest she was holding a sign that read "Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want".

-HomeFront-

Texas: Two juveniles were arrested for an alleged plot to attack a school in Houston. The two unidentified girls, aged 15 and 16, allegedly posted the details of the plot on social media.

Washington D.C. - In Congress, Kash Patel was confirmed as the next Director of the FBI this afternoon. This morning Senator Mitch McConnell announced that he will be stepping down from his seat in the Senate. AC: This is not an immediate resignation, but rather an announcement that he will not seek reelection next year.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: The arrest of Rose Docherty was made under the so-called "buffer zone" laws, which have recently gained scrutiny after being denounced by American Vice President JD Vance. Regardless of the recent media coverage, the policing of thought crimes and the persecution of Christianity throughout Scotland, the British Isles, and almost all of western Europe has remained a little-discussed (yet exceptionally grave) concern for many years. Silent Christian prayer, even including praying inside one's own home, has been relentlessly targeted by authorities, drawing the ire of those who have been subjected to public Islamic calls for prayer, which have included the participation of hundreds of official government officials and buildings. As pointed out by American diplomats (such as JD Vance), this double standard is a very large societal problem that is impacting civilization itself throughout Europe.

Regarding the alleged threats in Texas, neither of the two girls were attendees of the school which was threatened (Memorial High School), both were students at neighboring schools. While inter-school rivalries are extremely common throughout the nation, in this case authorities state that the undisclosed attack details were specific and credible enough to warrant the arrests. However, the FBI is the lead agency in charge of this investigation, which has caused doubts due to the FBI's long and very questionable history pertaining to these types of events.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
//END REPORT//

//The Wire//2300Z February 19, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: WAR EXPANDS IN THE CONGO. TENSIONS BUILD BETWEEN THE US AND UKRAINE FOLLOWING ZELENSKY BEING SIDE-LINED DURING PEACE TALKS.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): The advance by M23 rebels in the eastern districts of the country has continued, with the rebels capturing the city of Bukavu yesterday. Separately, in the northeastern region of Bunia, Uganda launched an invasion of their own, deploying special forces soldiers throughout the region.

AC: The flimsy attempt to conceal the M23 "rebels" as an independent group has largely fallen away, as the military uniforms that the "rebels" are now wearing more or less confirm that these forces are in fact mercenaries slow-walking a Rwandan invasion of the DRC. Uganda now wanting a piece of the action is very likely to escalate the situation further, and probably marks a new era of the decades-long conflict.

Europe: Tensions remain elevated between the United States and Ukraine, with Ukrainian leader Zelensky expressing a variety of hostile sentiments towards the United States for himself not being invited to the peace talks conference currently underway in Saudi Arabia. 

-HomeFront-

USA: The arrival of winter weather conditions throughout much of the central and eastern parts of the nation has caused significant travel delays. Many airlines have issued ground stops for much of the central United States due to poor weather conditions. In Kentucky, the casualty figure has risen to 14x fatalities resulting from the recent flooding disasters throughout much of the state.

Arizona: This morning an aircraft collision was reported at the Marana Regional Airport, which resulted in the destruction of two small planes. Two fatalities were reported as a result of the collision. AC: As the focus remains on aviation mishaps nationwide, it will be up to the individual to conduct their own analysis to determine if these events are happening more often, or if the increased media coverage is skewing the overall risk assessment.

Washington D.C. - Various Presidential actions continue, with a handful of cartels being formally designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) this afternoon. AC: This decision was made weeks ago, and already in practice as evidenced by the significant intelligence collection efforts recently undertaken by the United States in Mexico. As the formalization of this decision is solidified in policy, the ball is now in the court of the various cartels to determine what their reaction will be.

On the diplomatic front, relations between the United States and Russia have improved significantly over the past few days, at the expense of rapidly deteriorating relations with Ukraine and most of Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an official restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia, as part of ongoing conversations pertaining to peace talks.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: As has long been theorized since the start of the war (and as the conflict in Ukraine draws to a close), a lot of things are going to happen in very rapid succession. Perhaps most frustratingly, a lot of things are going to happen that may seem to be nonsensical to some. This is due to the rabid censorship efforts over the past few years that have painted a specific picture...the vast majority of those in the west have largely been looking at the war through a lens that is completely one-sided. This is nothing new, however, reality is often a great equalizer in the realm of information warfare...at a certain point all of the propaganda and gaslighting falls away to reveal the reality of the situation. In the case of Ukraine, there are many people who likely still believe everything they have heard about the war, the motivations for the conflict be

//The Wire//2300Z February 18, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: CRYPTOCURRENCY MARKETS TREND TOWARDS NATIONSTATES ENGAGING IN QUESTIONABLE COIN LAUNCHES. POPE FRANCIS ILL WITH PNEUMONIA. FIRE BREAKS OUT AT DEFENSE CONTRACTOR FACILITY NEAR PHILLY.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Vatican City: Following recent health concerns, the Vatican confirmed this morning that Pope Francis is suffering from bilateral pneumonia and will be undergoing medical treatment over the next few days/weeks.

Economics: Various developments within the world of cryptocurrencies have come to light over the past few weeks. The markets have largely remained unimpressive as the pro-crypto sentiments expressed during Trump's campaign have not materialized in the form of policy. Both the ($ TRUMP) and ($ MELANIA) coins have turned out to largely be very questionable operations, despite Trump's coin having a market cap of over $3 billion.

-HomeFront-

Pennsylvania: A major fire broke out overnight at SPS Technologies north of Philadelphia. So far the cause of the fire has not been publicly disclosed, and a one-mile shelter-in-place zone remains in effect for the surrounding area. AC: SPS Technologies (who's parent company is Berkshire Hathaway) is a major defense contractor, providing fasteners and various industrial materials/chemicals to the military.

Southeastern U.S. - Snowfall estimates remain variable throughout the disaster zones recently subjected to severe flooding. National Weather Service forecasts indicate that the additional rain expected this week won't significantly impact flooding throughout the region. Nevertheless, severe winter weather is expected from the Ozarks to central Appalachia over the next few days.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: In the world of finance, perhaps most interesting are the sheer number of meme-coin rug-pulls that have been conducted at the nationstate level over the past week. In the past, podcasters and influencers would create a meme coin (keeping most of the supply for themselves), then promote that coin heavily to drive the price up, before selling off their entire supply for a large profit. In the world of traditional stock trading something similar is generally known as a Pump-and-Dump scheme. However in the world of crypto a slightly more simple version of this scheme is known as pulling the rug out from underneath investors, i.e. a "rug pull". When it's a meme coin that is started purely for the joke itself and not taken seriously, it's bad enough since this is essentially just fraudulent creators scamming their fans. However, world leaders and nationstates are now apparently engaging in this practice. The President of the Central African Republic launched his own meme coin ($ CAR) on behalf of the nation last week. The coin spiked in value before immediately bottoming out, with most investors suspecting that the President divested at the peak of the coin's value, meaning that a President rug-pulled his own nation's cryptocurrency. A similar situation was reported last week in India, as a government official (with almost 400k followers on X) launched a token that he deliberately claimed (in a since-deleted tweet) as being India's official government token. The issue is that this was done unilaterally without approval, and complicated by the fact that India already has a national cryptocurrency. As expected, the ($ INDIA) token, spiked in value before immediately being flooded with liquidity (as the early investors dumped their holdings), signaling yet another government official with a large following that has openly scammed investors.

These types of crypto-fraud have not entirely been confined to the third world, however. Argentine President Javier Milei has drawn much criticism over the past few days after he promoted a meme coin ($ LIBRA) which also turned out to be a very blatant rug-pulling scam, as th

//The Wire//2300Z February 17, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: SEVERE WEATHER STRIKES APPALACHIA, MAJOR FLOODING REPORTED. MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE CONCLUDES IN EUROPE.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Europe: The Munich Security Conference concluded yesterday, with the focus on Ukraine being palpable among participants. While no real progress was made publicly with regards to a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, various actors have made their positions more clear. British PM Kier Starmer declared his willingness to send British soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Germany spent most of the time responding negatively to American statements that urged Germany to pay for their own defense. American Vice President JD Vance spent much of the summit pointing out the freedom of speech problems within Europe at large, signaling a new era of American concerns on the topic, as well as indicating a hard turnaround of American foreign policy away from a multipolar Europe. On the sidelines, the Ukrainian War remained a concern, with Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy expressing increasing levels of irritation that Ukraine is being sidelined with regards to the negotiations to end the war.

Canada: This afternoon a catastrophic aircraft crash was reported in Toronto. Delta Flight 4819 suffered a mishap while landing at Pearson International Airport, which resulted in the removal of both wings and the debris coming to a rest on the runway upside down. The fuselage remained mostly intact during the crash landing, and all passengers and crew are reported to have survived at this time. AC: As this is a developing situation, not much is known with any certainly regarding what caused the crash landing. However, weather conditions were less than ideal at the time of the incident.

-HomeFront-

Southeastern U.S. - Disaster strikes Appalachia again as severe storms have caused unprecedented flooding throughout the region over the past few days. Most of the severe flooding has been reported in Kentucky, which has resulted in 8 fatalities so far. Virginia has also been host to severe flooding, and significant power outages have been reported throughout the Mid-Atlantic, to the northeastern United States. FEMA has been activated, and most of the various jurisdictions throughout the region have varying levels of emergency declarations in place.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: The weather events throughout the eastern United States are compounded by not only the winter weather that occurred before the flooding, but additional weather systems that are expected to sweep through the region over the next few days. Catastrophic flooding is bad enough during the best of times, but disaster recovery efforts are made exponentially more difficult when heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures are expected throughout the disaster area. Throughout the disaster zone, power outages during cold weather conditions will also undoubtedly result in more complications and more pressing needs, as many people throughout the region rely on electricity to heat their homes.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
//END REPORT//

//The Wire//2300Z February 14, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: DRONE ATTACK STRIKES CHERNOBYL CONTAINMENT UNIT, NO RISK OF BREACH REPORTED. TRUMP CONTINUES EXECUTIVE ORDERS.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-International Events-

Ukraine: This morning a drone attack was carried out in Chernobyl, with an unidentified drone exploding on the New Safe Containment unit (aka, the sarcophagus) surrounding the infamous Reactor 4 building. Following the blast, IAEA inspectors have determined that the inner structure of the containment unit was not breached, and that radiation levels remain as before.

-HomeFront-

Maryland - Public image woes continue for the US Secret Service following reports of an agent accidentally shooting herself in the leg on Wednesday. The accident occurred at the James J. Rowley Training Center (JJRTC) on Wednesday, which required airlifting the trainee to a hospital in Baltimore.

Washington D.C. - President Trump signed an executive order removing funding for all educational institutions that require the COVID vaccine. Other executive actions this week involved solidifying and specifying the authorities that diplomats have when engaging in policy discussions with other nations, as well as formally banning transgender personnel from military service.

Florida: A US Navy training mishap resulted in a brief forest fire within the Ocala National Forest on Wednesday. US Navy aircraft conducting training with live weapons accidentally dropped a bomb in the wrong place, roughly 6 miles from their intended target at the Pinecastle Range. The resulting explosion caused a wildfire that expanded to approximately 20 acres before being contained. AC: The Pinecastle Range, being the only range on the East Coast that allows live-fire training for air-to-ground bombing, is located within this national forest and therefore frequently host to minor forest fires. Missing the target by many miles may be relatively uncommon, however it's not unheard of at this training site due to the perceptibly higher training schedules throughout the DoD over the past few years.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: As one might expect with regards to the Chernobyl attack, Ukraine says the drone was Russian, and Russia denies all involvement. As of yet, no evidence can reliably determine who the munition belonged to, but the debris is indicative of a Russian drone platform. However, this is not likely to matter much in the long run as this incident was very likely to serve a more political message and set the tone at the ongoing security conference in Munich.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
//END REPORT//