Exclusive: Mike Pompeo Biden has caused global shame with spy balloon response

Published

2 years ago

February 14, 2023

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo excoriated President Biden for his handling of the spy balloon issue on Monday, telling The Hill in an exclusive interview that the current administration “made an enormous mistake” that caused “global shame.”

Pompeo also strongly denied that he or any member of former President Trump’s administration, to the best of his knowledge, was aware of spy balloons entering U.S. airspace during their time in power.

Pompeo’s harshest criticism was reserved for the Biden administration’s actions in relation to the first of four devices that have been shot down since Feb. 4. That device is the only one so far confirmed as a Chinese spy balloon.

A U.S. jet took down the balloon, estimated at the size of about three buses, off the coast of South Carolina after it had traversed the United States for several days.

The delay infuriated Pompeo.

“I don’t know what it collected…I don’t know what signals intelligence it may have had. I don’t know what imagery it may have been able to garner,” he said in an on-camera interview with The Hill promoting his memoir, “Never Give an Inch.”

“The whole world saw a slow-moving balloon transiting Montana, Kansas, South Carolina — and the United States of America did nothing,” he added.

This lack of action delivered “an enormous geopolitical advantage” for China, Pompeo contended. “I can’t imagine that the risk of some falling debris over a place like Montana exceeded the risk of global shame.”

At a Feb. 4 Pentagon briefing, an unnamed senior Defense official said that Chinese spy balloons had “transited the continental United States briefly at least three times during the prior administration.” The implication appeared to be that those who served Trump had done nothing.

It now appears that there was in fact no contemporaneous awareness and that the flights — if they happened at all — were discovered only in retrospect.

In the latest twist, the National Security Council’s John Kirby claimed during Monday’s White House media briefing that the Trump administration had failed to “detect” the Chinese spy balloon program.

“We detected it. We tracked it,” Kirby said.

Kirby’s remarks came a few hours after Pompeo spoke with The Hill. But the former secretary of State, who holds a dim view of a Washington media that he believes skews liberal, is rankled by reporting on the topic.

“You’re bringing it up too, and this is exactly what the Biden administration wants you talking about: ‘Look over here. See this shiny object. Trump, Trump, Trump.’ Right? This wasn’t remotely the same thing. … As best as I can tell, no one was aware. And this is fundamentally different from what has transpired over the past two weeks,” he said.

Pompeo served as CIA director from the earliest days of the Trump administration until April 2018. He then replaced Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, where he remained for the rest of Trump’s term. Pompeo is the only person in history to have served in both offices.

“Never Give an Inch” mounts a pugilistic defense of the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Pompeo argues in essence that a nationalistic “America First” agenda served as a deterrent to adversaries including China, a source of reassurance to allies such as Israel and an affirmation of American power.

Pompeo also portrays himself and his boss as battling against entrenched interests in government, at the State Department and within a Beltway establishment.

Pompeo does not himself use the term “deep state,” but what he describes is similar in concept.

“Call it what you will,” Pompeo told The Hill. “The State Department is a blob. It’s the Washington establishment. It is a drag on change.”

“I lived it,” he continues. “They were leaking memos on me before they got to my desk. They were undermining direct orders that I had provided to them.”

Pompeo, two years out of power, is back in the news as speculation builds that he could join the 2024 presidential race.

He is open about the fact that he is considering such a move, mulling it with his wife, Susan. But he insists no decision has been made.

If he goes forward, he added, “We’ll go make arguments. It’s not about tweets. It’s not about noise. It’s not about ‘owning the libs.’ It’s about presenting a rational argument about how to get our government to function.”

Pompeo’s book is almost entirely complimentary of Trump, which begs the question as to how he would distinguish himself from the 45th president, who has already declared his 2024 candidacy.

“I approached my public service in a way that’s different from his. I try my best to use language that reflects the greatness of our country,” he told The Hill. “I think that’s important.”

He also notes in passing that the Trump administration “spent an awful lot of money. We’re now $31 trillion in debt.”

But his criticisms of Trump remain mild. And the most heated moments of his interview with The Hill concerned the near-total absence of any mention of the Capitol insurrection in his book’s 400-plus pages.

If Pompeo is largely loyal toward Trump, he is far more critical of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. Haley is all but certain to announce her presidential candidacy at an event in Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday.

Pompeo claims in his book that Haley was at one point seeking to displace then-Vice President Mike Pence — a claim Haley has called “lies and gossip.”

Pompeo also resents Haley’s relatively speedy departure from the job to which Trump had nominated her. She announced her intention to resign in October 2018, less than halfway into Trump’s term.

“Some came in, punched their ticket and went on. And for those who made that decision, I just don’t have any time,” Pompeo told The Hill. “I don’t understand how someone who believes that they have this incredible opportunity, in an important role, says, ‘No, thanks. I don’t want to do that anymore.’”

Pompeo has a sizable mountain to climb if he enters the presidential race. He is for the moment an also-ran in polls of a hypothetical GOP field that is led by Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Idris Elba rules himself out as James Bond: ‘I’m not going to be that guy’ US warns it will defend Philippines after China laser report

Asked whether it sounds like he is leaning toward a run, Pompeo demurred.

“No, there’s no lean. I don’t mean that to be clever. It’s kind of binary. It’s a zero or one,” he said.

“Never Give an Inch” by Mike Pompeo is out now, published by Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.

US

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says

Published

5 mins ago

April 26, 2025

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Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died aged 41.

In a statement to Sky’s US partner network NBC News on Friday, her family said she took her own life in the Perth suburb of Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.

“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

Police said emergency services received reports of an unresponsive woman at a property in Neergabby on Friday night.

“Police and St John Western Australia attended and provided emergency first aid. Sadly, the 41-year-old woman was declared deceased at the scene,” a police spokeswoman said.

“The death is being investigated by Major Crime detectives; early indication is the death is not suspicious.”

Sexual assault claims

Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The duke has repeatedly denied the claims, and he has not been charged with any criminal offences.

In March 2022, it was announced Ms Giuffre and Andrew had reached an out-of-court settlement – believed to include a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.

She stuck by her version of events until the end

Of the many dozens of victims of Jeffrey Epstein, it was Virginia Giuffre who became the most high-profile.

She was among the loudest and most compelling voices, urging criminal charges to be brought against Epstein, waving her right to anonymity in 2015.

She told how he and Ghislaine Maxwell groomed her and “passed around like a platter of fruit” to be used by rich and powerful men.

But her name and face became known around the world after she accused Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was 17 years old.

The picture of her together with the prince and Maxwell at the top of a staircase, his hand around her waist, is the defining image of the whole scandal.

Prince Andrew said he had no memory of the occasion. But Giuffre stuck by her version of events until the end.

‘An incredible champion’

Sigrid McCawley, Ms Giuffre’s attorney, said in a statement that she “was much more than a client to me; she was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims”.

“Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” she said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today.”

“Rest in peace, my sweet angel,” she added.

Dini von Mueffling, Ms Giuffre’s representative, also said that “Virginia was one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know”.

“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims,” she added. “She adored her children and many animals.

“She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words.

“It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

Ms Giuffre said at the end of March she had four days to live after a car accident, posting on social media that “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure”. She was discharged from hospital eight days later.

Raised mainly in Florida, she said she was abused by a family friend early in life, which led to her living on the streets at times as a teenager.

She said that in 2000, she met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Ms Giuffre said Maxwell then introduced her to Epstein and hired her as his masseuse, and said she was sex trafficked and sexually abused by him and associates around the world.

‘A survivor’

After meeting her husband in 2002, while taking massage training in Thailand at what she said was Epstein’s behest, she moved to Australia and had a family.

She founded the sex trafficking victims’ advocacy charity SOAR in 2015, and is quoted on its website as saying: “I do this for victims everywhere.

“I am no longer the young and vulnerable girl who could be bullied. I am now a survivor, and nobody can ever take that away from me.”

:: Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

Politics

Crypto banking rule withdrawal by Fed ‘not real progress’ — Senator Lummis

Published

33 mins ago

April 26, 2025

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Crypto banking rule withdrawal by Fed ‘not real progress’ — Senator Lummis

United States Senator Cynthia Lummis suggests the crypto industry may be celebrating too soon over the US Federal Reserve softening its crypto guidance for banks.

“The Fed withdrawing crypto guidance is just noise, not real progress,” Lummis said in an April 25 X post. Lummis called the Fed’s April 24 announcement — withdrawing its 2022 supervisory letter that had discouraged banks from engaging with crypto and stablecoin activities — “just lip service.”

Lummis’ tone was different from the rest of the crypto industry

Lummis, a pro-crypto advocate known for introducing the Bitcoin (BTC) Strategic Reserve Bill in July 2024, pointed out several flaws in the Fed’s announcement, even as Strategy founder Michael Saylor and crypto entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano suggested it was a step forward for banks and crypto.

Cryptocurrencies, United States — *Source:* *Anthony Pompliano*

She argued that the Fed continues to “illegally flout the law on master accounts” and still relies on reputational risk in its bank supervision practices. It comes as the Federal Insurance Deposit Corporation (FDIC) is working on a rule to stop examiners from considering reputational risk when reviewing a bank’s operations, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

Lummis also highlighted the Fed’s policy statement in Section 9(13), which hasn’t been withdrawn, stating that Bitcoin and digital assets are considered “unsafe and unsound.”

She also reiterated many of the same staff behind Operation Chokepoint 2.0 are still involved in crypto policy today.

“We are NOT fooled. The Fed assassinated companies within the industry and hurt American interests by stifling innovation and shuttering businesses. This fight is far from over.”

“I will continue to hold the Fed accountable until the digital asset industry gets more than a life jacket, Chair Powell — they need a fair shake,” Lummis said.

Custodia Bank founder and CEO Caitlin Long seemed to share a similar view to Lummis.

“THANK YOU for seeing this for what it is,” Long said.

However, many crypto executives praised the Fed’s announcement as a positive development for the industry. Saylor said in an April 25 X post that the Fed’s move means that “banks are now free to begin supporting Bitcoin.”

Anastasija Plotnikova, co-founder and CEO of blockchain regulatory firm Fideum, said the Fed’s decision “is a significant development, as it will simplify the path to institutional adoption.”

Magazine: Ethereum is destroying the competition in the $16.1T TradFi tokenization race

Science

Water on Ancient Mars? New Study Challenges the Cold Planet Theory

Published

35 mins ago

April 26, 2025

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Water on Ancient Mars? New Study Challenges the Cold Planet Theory

Despite being a vast and inhospitable planet today, scientists believe Mars, the Red Planet, used to look much like Earth, the Blue Planet. Over the last four years, NASA’s Perseverance rover has wandered across an area of Mars where researchers believe a powerful river once poured into a crater, forming a sizable delta. According to computer models, ancient Mars most likely had frequent snowfall and rain, which shaped the enormous networks of lakes and river basins. In the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, a recent study found that the distribution of these land characteristics is more consistent with precipitation models than with only the consequences of melting ice caps.

Investigating Early Martian Climate Through Modeling

The researchers published their findings April 21 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. According to the research by geologists at the University of Colorado in Boulder, our planetary neighbour, on average 140 million miles away in space, was warm and wet billions of years ago. This challenges a long-held belief that early Mars was mostly cold and icy. However, there’s a vital mystery buried in the story: It’s unclear where Mars’ water could have come from, and most climate models predict the world exhibits surface temperatures that are far too cold to sustain liquid water, raising questions about how those visible geological features could have formed.

“It’s very hard to make any kind of conclusive statement,” Amanda Steckel, a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology’s Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement. “But we see these valleys beginning at a large range of elevations. It’s hard to explain that with just ice,” she further added in the official blog posted by University of Colorado.

Through computer simulations, Steckel and her team explored what Mars might have looked like during the Noachian epoch, when water may have drastically shaped the planet’s surface, some 4 billion years ago. Initially created for Earth, their model was modified to simulate how Mars’ landscape changed near the equator, where expansive channel networks extend from the highlands and drain into ancient lakes, possibly even an ocean. NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently exploring one of these sites, Jezero Crater, where a once-powerful river poured into the basin.

Comparing Climate Models and Implications for Planetary History

The group explored two major simulation models, the ice-melt model and the wet and warm model for how precipitation might have created the valleys on Mars: one in which the planet was warm and humid, and another in which ice briefly melted at the edge of a huge ice cap, signifying a cold, arid climate. With valley roots showing up in radically diverse places, each scenario produced a very different Mars.

Their goal was to determine whether ancient Mars may have had a more Earth-like climate, at least for a while. While more evidence is needed and answers to questions, such as how the planet stayed warm enough for rain or snow, are part of an ongoing investigation. Still, Hynek said the study offers valuable clues, not just about Mars, but about the early history of Earth as well.