The Cable on Substack https://xitter.cf/t.co/yvpUraUhTX Lead Global Security Analyst, Washington Post Author, Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi & the Battle for the 21st Century
Washington, DC
Joined August 2008
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“The Ukrainians are not going to fold. They're not going to surrender. You can cut off their Patriots, you can cut off their intelligence. But people don't like to live on their knees. Ukrainians are not going to give up their territory because doing so would condemn all the people in that territory to torture, rape and murder. So it's not going to happen.”
“So what President Trump has actually done is he's undermined his own objective, to get to a quick resolution of the war, which I think he really wants, by pursuing a strategy which is to lower pressure on Putin and to raise pressure on Ukraine, which is going to achieve the opposite result.”
“So, it's not going to work, because you can't choose a country's fate without including that country and its people. 44 million people who have a right to dignity and sovereignty and a say over how they live. And none of those people want to live under the cruel rule of Vladimir Putin, no matter what President Trump thinks about it.”
“And then you add the fact that Trump is actively aiding Putin, by promoting a narrative of the war that is false, exactly matches Russian propaganda, and places Zelensky in a terrible position where he's got to either decide to live in Trump's reality, which is a bunch of lies about how the war started and how how it's going, or to defend his people and do his job as the president of the country.”
“You add all those things together, it's a perfect storm of toxicity whereby the president is putting America on the side of the aggressor and the war criminals and against the side of the victims of this conflict. And it's bizarre. And there's no way to to look at that and to say that's anything that America has ever stood for in the past. Yet, here we are.”
“And the result is very predictable and predicted. He's going to get a lot of Ukrainians killed without actually solving the problem. And that's a tragedy.”
Josh Rogin retweeted
It was a pleasure to sit down with @joshrogin, author, journalist and Lead Global Security Analyst at Washington Post Intelligence, on The Swift Hour.
Josh has spent more than 22 years in journalism and has watched the media landscape transform again and again. Platforms have changed, the pace has changed, and so has the way audiences find the news. Through all of it, one thing has stayed the same: trust is everything.
That trust runs in more than one direction. It’s the bond between a journalist and their readers, and it’s the understanding between reporters and the officials they cover. Many of the norms that once held those relationships together have been tested, and in some cases broken, in recent years. That makes credibility, and staying true to your readers, more important than ever.
Watch the clip, and catch our full conversation on The Swift Hour here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL…
Josh Rogin retweeted
Grateful to lead this letter with nearly two-dozen @UkraineCaucus colleagues calling for Ukraine to be allowed to use Starlink to hit launch sites within Russia. Ukraine must be able to defend itself, its people, and the West! The best way is to destroy Russia’s ability to launch its terrorist attacks.
thehill.com/homenews/house/6…
Josh Rogin retweeted
Video of Senate candidate Abdul Sayed speaking some Arabic in this interview on Syria. Supports removing all sanctions, rejects interference from Israel. His Arabic (few words used) is clear and understands the questions xitter.cf/AJSyriaNowN/status/211…
Josh Rogin retweeted
Quite pointed stuff from US Amb Steel: "This is, kind of, like a turbulence that we are going thru between...Korea & the US"
'Steel also said S Korea is no longer a country that needs US protection..."Now it's time to stand up & lead together with the US & lead the Indo-Pacific"
Josh Rogin retweeted
JD Vance thinks it's an act of humanitarianism for Putin to release a hostage that he himself kidnapped?
Josh Rogin retweeted
Very well reported story on how new Starbucks in Urumchi stands on property confiscated from a private Uyghur company during mass internment / incarceration campaign a few years ago. Taken and sold at auction to a single state company bidder. kozet.org/starbucks-urumqi-s…
Josh Rogin retweeted
This is an absolutely incredible read.
Taiwan took down a $343 million laundering network without needing evidence from Cambodia or Beijing.
Prince Group is the Cambodian conglomerate US prosecutors say ran scam compounds. It ran its money through Taiwan like a spy operation. 250+ shell companies. 453 offshore accounts. Fake invoices and fake leases. Mansions and supercars bought through shells.
Cash came out with a spy trick. A member photographed a specific banknote’s serial number in an app. A courier matched the bill in person. No names. No accounts. No wire records.
A bank insider leaked alerts so accounts could be emptied early. A lawyer held cash out of investigators’ reach.
Taiwan’s Article 20 lets prosecutors charge unexplained money without proving the crime abroad. $175 million seized. 62 defendants indicted.
thebureau.news/p/inside-taiw… Inside Taiwan’s Hunt for the Prince Group’s Money: How Financial Intelligence Analysts Traced $343 Million Laundered By Scam Empire Linked to PRC Officials
Josh Rogin retweeted
This is @ZelenskyyUa accepting negotiations.
Josh Rogin retweeted
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner ⬇️
I have read dozens of outraged posts because the US special envoy Witkoff called Putin a "humanist." But no one is writing about the fact that the American negotiators are simply not doing their job. Let me explain.
Peace negotiations are important in their own right. Even if they do not lead to a lasting peace, the process itself is an opportunity to resolve urgent humanitarian issues. If, of course, the human dimension is a priority for the negotiators. But it is entirely obvious that neither Witkoff nor Kushner cares about people's fates in this war.
The Pope calls on Putin to save thousands of people from starvation in occupied Oleshky and the surrounding villages. The UN speaks about a humanitarian catastrophe and asks Russia to allow the evacuation of the civilian population. European Parliament Vice-President Pina Picierno goes on a hunger strike to draw attention to this tragedy unfolding before the eyes of the whole world.
And what are Witkoff and Kushner doing?
That's right, almost nothing.
Except for passing along greetings from Putin’s aide to the First Lady.
Thousands of people are already eating grass to survive and begging to save their lives. The Ukrainian side raises the issue of Oleshky at every meeting. And I can name dozens of such urgent humanitarian issues off the top of my head where American negotiators must be proactive.
Trump’s peace negotiations have already gone down in history as the deadliest years for Ukraine’s civilian population since the start of the full-scale invasion.
I don’t know if anyone will remember the names of Witkoff and Kushner.
But history will certainly record how American negotiators, who had the opportunity to save a huge number of people, refused to raise uncomfortable questions before "humanist Putin."
Josh Rogin retweeted
Trump: "I alone could secure a prisoner release from Russia without giving anything in return"
Trump literally ten minutes later: "Now you idiots know why I had to waive sanctions on Russia, no shot I got that prisoner release otherwise"
Josh Rogin retweeted
Nobody wants to own up to crippling Ukraine's military communications: Marco Rubio is now stating that SpaceX has the ability to modify the operation of Starshield without the direction or consent of the American government.
Josh Rogin retweeted
New: The Trump administration committed the U.S. to taking a large stake in a Venezuelan company, some of whose owners and investors are shielded from public view. The exact details of the agreement over oil fields had remained unclear — until now. propub.li/3UdAtIG
Josh Rogin retweeted
JD Vance: “I don’t think there’s evidence that the Trump family has become enriched by politics.”
He really thinks people are stupid enough to believe this.
Josh Rogin retweeted
Trump's unhinged crusade against Ukraine over energy prices is a disgrace, failing horribly, and is actively harming Republicans in competitive districts.
My autopsy in The Hill.
thehill.com/opinion/campaign…
Josh Rogin retweeted
Vance having to eat crow here is chefs kiss:
WH pool report: “Trump shook his head when asked about VP Vance saying last night he thinks Trump would endorse him in 2028. ‘We have literally never talked about it.’
“No, sir,” Vance responded.
Josh Rogin retweeted
Read Kate O'Keeffe and Maggie Eastland's blockbuster Bloomberg report on the Chinese company Z.AI's ties to Chinese intelligence.
Consider that the American legal software start-up Harvey AI, used by 80 of the top 100 US law firms, judged Z.AI's GLM 5.1 the "strongest available model" a few months ago.
Can someone tell the @ABAEsq to establish rules against the use of Chinese spy-linked AI models?
NEW: Four founders of leading Chinese AI company Z.AI worked on research in a joint project with an institute British intelligence accused of having “very strong ties” to China’s main spy agency
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… with @eastland_maggie
Josh Rogin retweeted
Nobel laureate @avalaina has documented Russian war crimes in Ukraine since its full-scale invasion. Her reaction to Trump saying Russia has been “fine”’ there?: “We document intentional murders of civilians every day…I'm sorry to say, but this presidential administration completely lost their ability to distinguish between good and evil.”
Josh Rogin retweeted
There's a corner of the internet where Iranians believe that the protests in France are "karma" for the 1979 revolution, since Paris housed Ayatollah Khomeini.
iranintl.com/en/202610192000