WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has sacked an aide who said cancer-stricken Senator John McCain’s opposition to a presidential nominee did not matter because “he’s dying anyway,” the White House announced Tuesday.
The White House was roiled by bipartisan fury over the remark attributed to Kelly Sadler in May.
“Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President,” read a brief statement by deputy White House spokesman Raj Shah.
McCain, 81, had indicated he opposed the nomination of now CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel over her role in enhanced interrogation techniques under president George W. Bush.
The Arizona senator, who was held prisoner and tortured during the Vietnam War, is battling brain cancer.
CNN had quoted a White House official as saying Sadler, speaking at a staff meeting, meant the comment as a joke but that it flopped.
Another extraordinary attack against McCain that stunned Washington came around the same time from a fellow veteran, retired US Air Force lieutenant general Thomas McInerney, who said torture works because it made McCain spill sensitive information to his captors during his years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
The attacks, remarkable for their bluntness, triggered swift reaction from across the political spectrum, with lawmakers demanding an apology from Trump that never came.
Meghan McCain, a conservative commentator on ABC’s popular morning talk show “The View,” delivered an eloquent defense of her father, who is battling brain cancer at home in Arizona.
“I don’t understand what kind of environment you’re working in when that would be acceptable and then you can come to work the next day and still have a job,” she said at the time.
Her father is “all about character and bipartisanship and something greater than yourself,” Meghan McCain said, before adding a stinging message to the critics: “Nobody’s going to remember you.”
Members of Congress also rallied behind their ailing, war-hero colleague.
Trump, for his part, once mocked McCain’s war service, saying during the presidential campaign that “I like people that weren’t captured.”
Trump fires aide who joked about ‘dying’ war hero John McCain
Trump fires aide who joked about ‘dying’ war hero John McCain
- Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President
- Lawmakers demanding an apology from Trump that never came
Satellite firm extends Middle East image delay to prevent use by US adversaries
- SPACE WAR ARENA Militaries rely on space for everything from identifying targets, guiding weapons and tracking missiles to communications
WASHINGTON: California-based Planet Labs has expanded restrictions on accessing its imagery of the Middle East to prevent adversaries from using it to attack the US and its allies, a sign of how the expansion of commercial space business can impact conflicts.
Planet, which operates a large fleet of Earth-imaging satellites and sells frequently updated images to governments, companies and media, told customers on Monday that it was extending restrictions to a period of 14 days from a delay of four days imposed last week.
The move was temporary and in “an effort to limit any uncontrolled distribution of the images that might result in their unintentional access and use as tactical leverage by adversarial actors,” a Planet spokesperson told Reuters in a statement.
“This conflict is dynamic and in many ways unique to others, and thus Planet is taking robust steps to help ensure our images do not contribute in any way to attacks on allied and NATO personnel and civilians,” the spokesperson said. Some space specialists say that Iran could be accessing commercial imagery, including via other US adversaries.
SPACE WAR ARENA Militaries rely on space for everything from identifying targets, guiding weapons and tracking missiles to communications. In a sign of space’s central role in modern warfare, US officials last week said their space forces were among “the first movers” in the operation against Iran.
A US Space Command spokesperson declined to detail the capabilities it used. Space Command is responsible for helping with missile tracking, secure communications and using Pentagon satellites as overwatch for US and joint forces on the ground. While high-quality satellite imagery used to be the preserve of advanced space powers, access to commercial satellite imagery has leveled the playing field, as Ukraine has experienced during its war with Russia. Now, satellite operators are deploying AI to help speed up the ability to analyze imagery and identify areas of interest.
“This expert analysis used to be the preserve of high-end military analysts, not anymore,” said Chris Moore, a defense industry consultant and retired air vice-marshal in the British military.
“Ultimately it will create an all-seeing eye from space that will make the concealment of military forces and deception operations difficult to achieve.”
