Rational Security: The “M1 Abrams Accords” Edition
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2023
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Rational Security, Quinta and Scott were joined by special guest Michel Paradis to talk over the week's big national security news, including:
- “Don’t Tank my Chain.” Western allies of Ukraine have finally agreed to a way forward on providing the country with tanks, an issue which has proven surprisingly contentious in recent weeks. Germany will now allow its Leopard tanks to be used in the near-term while the United States will send Ukraine a series of M1 Abrams in the future, meeting the German demand for a matched U.S. contribution. Why was this so important to Germany? And what does it tell us about the broader state of the war?
- “Slight of the Valkyries.” The U.S. Treasury Department has slapped new sanctions on the Russian mercenary group, the Wagner Group, labeling them a Transnational Criminal Organization (“TCO”)—even as U.S. officials continue to resist calls to designate them a terrorist organization. What explains this reticence? Is it warranted?
- “Empire State of Mind.” For the first time, the New York City district attorney is trying someone under state criminal laws barring material support for terrorism that the state adopted following the September 11 attacks—even though the criminal suspect was never present in New York, but merely knew his actions would have repercussions there. Is this a sensible move? Or is there reason for pause?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | or no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:32.6 | I'm John Emmett's intern at LawFair with an episode of Rational Security for January 29, |
| 0:41.0 | 2023. |
| 0:42.6 | For today's episode, the team at LawFair decided to cross post this week's episode of Rational |
| 0:46.3 | Security, a podcast hosted by Scott R. Anderson, Queniturezic, and Alan Rosenstein in which |
| 0:51.7 | they cover the week's big national security news stories. |
| 0:54.6 | Today's episode is entitled Rational Security 2.0, the M1 Abrams Accords Edition. |
| 0:59.4 | In this episode, Jurassic and Anderson sat down with Michelle Parody to discuss the new |
| 1:03.8 | agreement between Western allies of Ukraine, to supply German, leopard, and American Abrams |
| 1:07.7 | main battle tanks. |
| 1:08.7 | The Treasury Department's designation of the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal |
| 1:12.7 | organization. |
| 1:13.7 | The New York City District Attorney's decision to prosecute a suspect under state criminal |
| 1:17.7 | laws barring support for terrorism, despite that suspect never having been present in |
| 1:21.4 | New York State and more. |
| 1:23.2 | This is Rational Security. |
| 1:25.2 | Yeah, Michelle, we're getting a nice view of your living room. |
| 1:29.8 | Can you share your collection of classified documents with us just to take a speak? |
... |
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