The “M1 Abrams Accords” Edition
Rational Security
The Lawfare Institute
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2023
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, 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?
For object lessons, Quinta caved to the buzz and recommended that listeners give the podcast “Shameless Acquisition Target” a listen, just like they wanted. Scott urged folks to check out Katie Pruitt, who is on the verge of releasing her second album of Americana-influenced rock (and hopefully coming to the D.C. area on tour). And Michel shared a lovely story about whether this is the year of the cat or the year of the rabbit on the lunar calendar, and how the confusion started in the first place.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Yeah, let me show. We're getting a nice view of your living room. Can you share your |
| 0:03.5 | collection of classified documents with us just to take a speak? We can compare Staxi |
| 0:07.7 | who's in Genhier at this point? |
| 0:10.3 | See, you left, but I've always been low enough on the totem pole that if I even inadvertently |
| 0:15.9 | had classified information in an email, I would go to prison. That's the big discrepancy |
| 0:23.8 | in a lot of these things. If you're high enough in the institution, your possession of classified |
| 0:29.6 | documents outside the ordinary parameters is not taken nearly as seriously as if you're |
| 0:34.7 | an NCO in the military who potentially miscarries something. |
| 0:39.4 | I will say having worked overseas in an embassy without going into any inappropriate levels |
| 0:43.5 | of detail, there are such over-the-top procedures for even if you were to inadvertently leave |
| 0:49.7 | a classified document to be printed on a printer and fail to clear it before you leave. |
| 0:53.9 | And then, if you may have an offense, you are briefed by fully armed Marines in battle |
| 0:58.9 | gear with assault rifles who come in your office. |
| 1:01.7 | And if you answer wrong, they shoot you. |
| 1:03.9 | Yeah, exactly. It is an intimidation campaign, and I'm like, all right, maybe we should have |
| 1:08.8 | pursued that philosophy a little more broadly geographically and higher up the totem |
| 1:12.4 | pole to get a little more discipline in this classified documents game. |
| 1:16.6 | I will say, there were a lot of jokes when it turned out that Pence had classified documents |
| 1:21.9 | in his home that, you know, Jimmy Carter, Dan Quail, we're going to start, you know, |
| 1:26.4 | opening cabinets and classified documents, we're going to pour out. |
| 1:29.2 | And then there was a report in Reuters that not recently, I think this was soon after |
| 1:34.4 | he left the presidency, Jimmy Carter actually did discover classified documents that were |
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