Author: RONALD PASHEN

One of the most pressing threats to national security is the ongoing offensive waged by Trump’s sycophants against the truth. Late last week, Department of Homeland Security documents obtained by the New York Times show that an official whistleblower complaint had been filed last Wednesday over concerns that top DHS officials were pressuring agents to downplay intelligence detailing the threats posed by violent white supremacist groups and Russian interference in the upcoming election. Unlike Ukrainegate, the whistleblower has been identified to be Brian Murphy – the former head of the DHS intelligence arm. The complaint details concerns that the department is becoming increasingly politicized and is sacrificing transparency and truth in order to help the President in his reelection campaign.

Mr. Murphy alleges that Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf requested that he cease reporting on the ongoing Russian disinformation campaign aimed at denigrating President Trump’s opponent Former V.P. Joe Biden and instead focus on China and Iran. While the two powers also have invested interest in the outcome of the upcoming election, it is the consensus of the intelligence community that while they prefer a Biden victory, they are not actively seeking to undermine electoral institutions in the same way that the Russians are. Mr. Murphy cited concerns that such action undermined U.S. national security. In a separate instance, Mr. Murphy was instructed by Kevin Cuccinelli – Acting Secretary Wolf’s right-hand man – to distort intelligence gathered on white supremacist groups in such a way to make them appear as less of a national security threat than left-wing groups.

While Mr. Trump has made no secret his ire for the intelligence community, these developments are worrying. The traditionally apolitical organs of government aimed at keeping U.S. citizens safe are being influenced by unconfirmed Trump appointees (the King’s men, if you will) in such a way that transparency and honest intelligence gathering are being sacrificed at the altar of Mr. Trump’s reelection chances.

Perhaps there is no better time for nations to act in a multilateral fashion than when tasked with tackling a global pandemic. This is the precise point that Forbes’ Christine Ro poses in her op-ed entitled “Vaccine Multilateralism is the Alternative to Vaccine Nationalism.”  The “global effort” being called for comes in the form of the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility, which seeks to pool together the combined resources of participating countries to help further advance solutions to selecting and advancing vaccine candidates along with production and distribution.

Over 170 countries are at some stage of talks to join the conglomerate and this includes both the European Union and China. Some of the more notable absentees from COVAX are the United States and the Russian Federation. In the case of the U.S., the rejection of global cooperation appears to be an extension of the Trump Administration’s enduring hostility towards scientific consensus as well as the World Health Organization. The WHO represents the cornerstone of multilateralism in the global public health arena and the administration’s outspoken criticism of the organization is very much on-brand.

The article raises a critical point that I feel is relatively glazed-over in the media given that vaccine candidates themselves have been the primary focus of the news cycle. Distribution methods and mass-manufacturing of vaccines – which will require a monumental mobilization of global resources – are a primary focus of COVAX. Proponents of the “vaccine nationalism” exhibited by the U.S. and Russia argue that lack of cooperation can breed the same kind of innovation seen during the Space Race of the Cold War. However, this analogy is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Here we do not have a struggle based on a competition for global hegemony between two superpowers; instead, the situation is a global health catastrophe that requires a much larger mobilization of resources.