Stevenson’s army, February 9

– Sy Hersh says the US secretly destroyed the NordStream 2 pipeline.  He says that public comments by Jake Sullivan and Victoria Nuland and Biden that NordStream wouldn’t go ahead if Russia invaded Ukraine allowed the administration to call it a secret military operation rather than a covert operation requiring notification of Congress. The White House denies the story, but Hersh typically has many, many plausible details.

– CNN says the Chinese balloon was noticed and cited in intelligence reports but they weren’t treated as significant.

– US says the balloon could collect communications signals.

– NYT details an expected executive order limiting US technology investments in China.

– Trump’s final Acting SecDef has given a strange interview to the Hill.

-In WOTR, four airmen offer lessons from the air war over Ukraine.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I republish here, with occasional videos of my choice. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).