Biden Aides Warned Putin as Russia's Shadow War Threatened Air Disaster

Source: New York Times

Biden Aides Warned Putin as Russia’s Shadow War Threatened Air Disaster
The White House scrambled to get a message to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last year after U.S. intelligence agencies said a Russian military unit was preparing to send explosive packages on cargo planes.


President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday. U.S. officials engaged in a major effort to warn Mr. Putin to end an air-cargo sabotage plot. Pool photo by Alexander Kazakov

By David E. Sanger
David E. Sanger has covered five American presidents for the Times, and written extensively about the resumption of superpower confrontation between the United States, Russia and China.
Jan. 13, 2025
Updated 4:03 p.m. ET
Leer en español
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/us/politics/100000009924296

After innocent-looking cargo shipments began catching fire at airports and warehouses in Germany, Britain and Poland over the summer, there was little doubt in Washington and Europe that Russia was behind the sabotage. ... But in August, White House officials became increasingly alarmed by secretly obtained intelligence suggesting Moscow had a far larger plan in mind: bringing the war in Ukraine to American shores. ... The question was how to send a warning to the one man who could stop it: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

In a series of Situation Room briefings, President Biden’s top aides reviewed details of conversations among top officials of the G.R.U., Russia’s military intelligence arm, who were describing shipments of consumer products that burst into flames — in one case, a small electronic massager — as a test run. ... Once the Russians understood how the packages made it past air-cargo screening systems, and how long they took to ship, the next step appeared to be sending them on planes bound for the United States and Canada, where they would trigger fires once they were unloaded.

While the main concern was cargo planes, sometimes passenger planes take smaller packages in spare space in their cargo holds. ... “The risk of catastrophic error was clear,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, said in a recent interview, “that these could catch fire in a fully loaded aircraft.”

In August, Mr. Mayorkas placed new screening restrictions on cargo being shipped into the United States. In October, when the warnings resurged, he quietly pressed the top executives of the largest airlines flying into the United States to accelerate their steps to prevent a midair disaster. Some of those precautions became public at the time; others did not. ... But behind the scenes, White House officials were struggling to understand whether Mr. Putin had ordered or was aware of the plot — or if he had been kept in the dark. And a major effort was begun to warn him to end it.

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David E. Sanger covers the Biden administration and national security. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written several books on challenges to American national security. More about David E. Sanger

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/us/politics/russia-putin-airplane-shadow-war.html

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This is already in GD, but I wanted to quote a lot of material.

From DemocratSinceBirth

****BREAKING**** TSF's BFF is trying to blow up US commercial planes

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219900906