DEPLOYED TO THE MEAN STREETS OF PORTLAND -- The Wall Street Journal is reporting on a Saturday Truth Social blast from President Trump describing the city of Portland, Oregon as “war-ravaged” and ordering War Secretary Pete Hegseth to send troops to protect ICE facilities that the president believes are “under siege from antifa.” We’re not really sure about the president’s definition of “under siege” but we have been following headlines about protests outside of ICE facilities that have been going on for about 100 days now. Meanwhile, the president is authorizing the use of “Full Force,” which is apparently the new Pentagon term for “weapons, if it comes to that.” The fine print? Nobody’s sure if Trump means National Guard or active-duty soldiers, but either way it’s yet another round of “what counts as legal domestic troop use” in U.S. cities. He’s already deployed Guard units to L.A., D.C., and the border. Now Portland. As you can imagine, local leaders aren’t buying it. Oregon’s governor Tina Kotek flatly told Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that there’s no insurrection, no national security crisis, and no need to roll tanks down Burnside Street.
NOT WHAT YOU SIGNED UP FOR? Troops heading into Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune are getting a roadside reality check: “Did you go to Airborne just to pull security for ICE?” As Task & Purpose reports, that’s the message plastered on billboards outside two of the military’s largest bases, courtesy of About Face: Veterans Against The War and Win Without War. Translation: if you signed up for Ranger school but wound up scanning ICE spreadsheets, you might want to revisit the fine print on your enlistment papers. The billboards don’t just throw shade—they direct service members to a site called “Not What You Signed Up For,” offering encrypted messaging and connections to military lawyers. We’re interested to see how this mission turns out.
STAN MCCHRYSTAL’S NIGHTMARE COMES TRUE – Retired four-star general Stan McChrystal – who commanded the U.S. and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan has gone and done something he said he never wanted to do. In a LinkedIn post announcing the general’s new Masterclass series on leadership, the former Joint Special Operations Commander says “standing in front of a camera—while a twenty-something photographer tells me what to do with my arms and what expression to wear - is about as close to a nightmare as I can imagine.” While all the glam that comes with packaging leadership lessons into a class may not have been his “mental image of a career soldier”, McChrystal seems to be doing pretty well since retiring – advising boards and companies across the country on the secrets to managing turbulent times. It turns out that the military isn’t the only place where building stronger teams to face uncertainty with confidence is in high demand these days.
THE MOTHERSHIP HAS LANDED -- Task & Purpose confirms that the U.S. military’s favorite “nothing-to-see-here” spy ship has popped up in the Caribbean, and everyone’s pretending not to notice. The MV Ocean Trader - a cargo ship turned special ops Airbnb - was confirmed by Military Sealift Command to be in the region. Mission? Well, Special Operations Command declined to comment, which in Pentagon-speak usually means: “Yep, it’s doing exactly what you think it’s doing.” The ship has a colorful résumé. Once just another roll-on/roll-off cargo hauler named MV Cragside, it was quietly transformed into a floating barracks, command post, and covert launchpad for special forces. It can house 159 operators plus crew, loiter for 45 days, and launch zodiacs to chase cartel drug boats—exactly the kind of work the U.S. has been busy doing since August, blowing up three smuggling vessels and killing 17 traffickers. Not bad for a ship that’s supposed to blend in with merchant traffic like some undercover cop in a Hawaiian shirt. Open-source sleuths have already spotted the ship near St. Kitts and St. Croix—satellite imagery, Reddit posts, the whole OSINT circus. Meanwhile, naval analysts note that disguising warships as commercial vessels isn’t new; it goes back to WWII and got plenty of play during the Global War on Terror.
RELATIONSHIP STATUS: IT’S COMPLICATED: Israeli authorities say they’ve nabbed an American-Israeli dual citizen, who allegedly thought moonlighting as an amateur spy for Tehran would be a smart life choice. According to Shin Bet and Israeli police, Yaakov Perl wasn’t just posting cranky anti-Zionist takes online—he was also allegedly feeding Iran info about Israeli officials (including former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and firebrand minister Itamar Ben Gvir) and filming random streets like some kind of budget TikTok operative. Israel says Perl was motivated by ideology, not cash, though Israelis say crypto deposits were made. Perl hasn’t yet publicly said whether he’s guilty of all of these charges or not. The U.S. State Department is dutifully repeating its “safety of U.S. citizens is our top priority” boilerplate language, while declining to say much else. For context, Perl is hardly alone—since October 7th, Israeli police have opened more than 25 Iran-linked spy cases and hauled in about 46 suspects. Translation: Iran seems to be running a clearance sale on espionage schemes.
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