Month: September 2024

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Defense News: Navy to Commission Future Amphibious Transport Dock Richard M. McCool, Jr.

Source: United States Navy

The Honorable Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy, will deliver the principal address at the commissioning ceremony. Remarks will also be provided by the Honorable Matt Gaetz, U.S. Representative, Florida’s 1st District; Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Chief of Naval Operations; General Christopher Mahoney, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps; and Ms. Kari Wilkinson, Executive Vice President, HII, and President, Ingalls Shipbuilding. The ship’s sponsors are the granddaughters of its namesake, Shana McCool and Kate Oja.

Richard M. McCool, Jr. will be the 13th San Antonio-class ship commissioned in the United States Navy, and the first U.S. Navy ship to bear this namesake.

“Captain McCool’s leadership in the face of grave danger and his acts of heroism to save the crew and the ship our nation entrusted to him are indeed an example for all throughout,” said Secretary Del Toro. “I am proud that the Department of the Navy is pursuing the award of the Amphibious Multi-Ship Procurement Contract for a total of three San Antonio Class amphibious ships—just like USS Richard M. McCool Jr.—along with an America Class amphibious assault ship. I am proud to see these Sailors and Marines bring this incredible warship to life in service to our nation, much like this ship’s courageous namesake.”

The Navy named LPD 29 to honor U.S. Navy Capt. Richard M. McCool, Jr., Ret., who received the Medal of Honor in 1945 for his heroism. Kamikaze aircraft attacked his ship during the Battle of Okinawa. Despite suffering from shrapnel wounds and painful burns, he led efforts to battle a blazing fire on his ship and rescue injured sailors.

The Navy designs San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships to embark, transport, and land elements of a landing force for various expeditionary warfare missions. These ships provide the Navy and Marine Corps with modern, sea-based platforms that are networked, survivable, and built to operate in the 21st century, with capabilities including the MV-22 Osprey, the upgraded Amphibious Assault Vehicle, and future means for delivering Marines ashore.

You can live-stream the ceremony at www.dvidshub.net/webcast/34486. The link will become active approximately ten minutes prior to the event at 10:50 a.m. CDT.

Direct media inquiries to the Navy Office of Information at (703) 697-5342. Visit https://www.navy.mil/Resources/Fact-Files/Display-FactFiles/Article/2222713/amphibious-transport-dock-lpd/ for more information on the Amphibious Transport Dock ship.

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Defense News: From the Eyes of a Parent: The Journey of Olympic Champion Torri Huske

Source: United States Navy

Torri Huske, a two-time Olympian, kick-started Team USA’s quest for gold at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games by winning the 100-meter butterfly race on July 28, 2024. Torri, who narrowly missed out on the podium in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games by a single one-hundredth of a second, edged out some of the world’s best swimmers and claimed her first gold medal in Paris.

“It was a surreal moment,” Torri said in a room full of Carderock employees and their children in West Bethesda, Maryland, on Aug. 26, 2024. “I feel like it’s one of those things where you’ve wanted it for so long; it’s not really a surprise, but you just can’t believe it finally happened.”

However, up in the stands of the Paris La Defense Arena, her mother – Ying – could barely watch.

“You always hope that your kid can perform to their potential,” Ying said. “But you are also worried and afraid that she would be disappointed or not happy because she didn’t meet her own expectations for some reason. At these games, Torri was not just representing herself; she was representing the United States. We were hoping that she could represent the country well and make Team USA shine. We were over the moon to see her perform so exceptionally well. She swam her heart out.”

Ying emigrated from China to the U.S. in search for a better future and new opportunities. As a first-generation migrant, she had to overcome a language barrier and financial difficulties until she finally found her niche in this country. She attended graduate school at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. After she graduated, she took a job in the Washington, D.C., area and settled in northern Virginia. In her spare time, and whenever she wanted to exercise, she went to the pool.

“I never swam competitively, but swimming has been a thing to keep me in shape,” Ying said. “I swam even when I was pregnant with Torri – up until two days before I gave birth.”

She was keen on having her daughter learn how to swim, although not competitively. Instead, Ying was focused on teaching Torri how to be comfortable with the water when she was a young kid so she could enjoy water sports and the ocean as she grew up.

“I always tried to take her to the pool when she was young to try to get her familiar with it,” she said. “I asked her quite a few times – when we were at the community pool – if she would like to take swimming classes and many times she said no; but eventually one day – when Torri was around 5 – she said yes.”

In that moment, a future Olympian was born. Ying enrolled her daughter in the Arlington Aquatic Center in Virginia, where Torri learned a variety of swimming strokes for the first time. Nowadays, she trains with her college coaches, but when she returns home to the Washington metropolitan area, she always goes back to the place where it all started.

“Every time summer or winter break occurs, she comes home and trains with AAC,” Ying said. “She’s been with them her whole life up until she moved to college.”

Torri is currently attending Stanford University in California. She took this past year off school to prepare for the Paris games and emerged from the iconic sporting competition with three gold medals and two silver medals. Now, she will return to school to finish her bachelor’s degree in product design.

“For me, I get goosebumps all over,” Ying said. “When I think about my daughter competing at this level – I am so happy. This country has openly accepted us and seeing Torri be able to represent the U.S. makes me feel so proud, it is just an incredible feeling all around.”

Ying shared the challenges Torri encountered as not only a student-athlete, but an Olympian too.

“In 2023, her course load was so heavy,” Ying said. “She was basically working and studying 50 hours a week, and that doesn’t include the 20 hours a week she had to commit to training. She was always tired, but she performed really well in school. Unfortunately, though, she did not do her best at the 2023 World Championship. It was a tough year. That was one of the reasons Torri took a year off from school leading to the Paris Olympic Games, so she could focus on training and resting. Her decision has paid off. Kids like Torri have to go through the rigorous academic courses and athletic training and that is a lot to balance. Luckily, Torri tells me her friends and teammates are driven and hardworking people, and that they inspire, motivate and lift her up. That’s why she thanks them so much in her interviews.”

While Torri was racing during the 100-meter butterfly race, her mother pointed something out that may have been missed.

“Torri has a huge determination to win,” Ying said. “After the Tokyo Games, she made it her personal goal to go for gold at the next games in Paris. I am not sure if anyone noticed this, but in the last five meters or so – usually when you do butterfly you take a breath per stroke, maybe one per two strokes. But Torri did not breathe for five strokes and that’s how she got her hand to the wall first.”

Both Torri and Ying thanked everyone at the Carderock Division for their overwhelming support.

“Even when I’m thousands of miles away, I can feel your support and your love and I really appreciate it,” Torri said to a full house of Carderock employees at the Raye Montague Center.

Ying added, “After I arrived back at work, I was surprised to hear that so many of you had been watching her and cheering her on. Your support and positive energy helped make a difference. I received so many congratulatory emails with kind words regarding her success. I cannot tell you how much each of these have meant to my family and me. I especially want to thank the leadership and my coworkers here at Carderock and at Naval Sea Systems Command for all their support throughout the years of this journey. As they say, ‘It takes a village.’ Torri would not have had the success she has had without your support. I am proud to be a part of the Navy team, NAVSEA and Carderock and even more proud to be an American.”

Since the Paris Games concluded last month, Torri has become a swimming icon and inspiration. She departed the states as an Olympic hopeful, but returned as a local and national hero. The next summer Olympic Games will be held in Los Angeles in 2028. Torri will be aiming to compete on home turf with the support of a roaring nation behind her.

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Defense News: Navy Teams With University of Georgia to Enhance Installation Environmental Resilience

Source: United States Navy

“Integrating natural systems into our definition of infrastructure strengthens our operational resilience,” said Rear Admiral John Hewitt, Commander, Navy Region Southeast. “Our partnership with the University of Georgia underscores the importance of leveraging local expertise to fortify these critical assets, ensuring our Navy operations remain robust and adaptive in the face of evolving environmental challenges.”

This new agreement, administered through the University of Georgia’s Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS), enables Navy installations across the southeast to leverage the university’s extensive expertise in coastal resilience, climate change hazards, and the development of hybrid and nature-based solutions.

By streamlining the process for Department of the Navy installations to obtain services from the University of Georgia and its partners, the agreement enhances the DON’s ability to assess and address current and future environmental risks, ensuring that infrastructure both on and off the installations remains robust and operational, thereby safeguarding training and deployment capabilities.

“We work better when we work together. We are proud to partner with UGA to address installation resilience,” said Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations, and Environment (ASN EI&E) and the Department’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Meredith Berger. “We’re working to build a climate-ready force, and that includes developing resilient infrastructure that gives our people, systems, and facilities every advantage as they complete the mission of protecting the nation.”

By focusing on advanced infrastructure resilience, IRIS will support Navy Region Southeast in developing adaptive solutions to climate-related challenges, such as rising sea levels and extreme weather events. For example, IRIS’s innovative approaches to flood risk assessment and mitigation will be crucial in safeguarding naval bases and infrastructure from increasingly frequent and severe storms. Additionally, IRIS’s work on energy-efficient infrastructure will help the Navy optimize its energy consumption and reduce its carbon footprint, aligning with the DON’s Climate Action 2030 goals. This collaboration promises to drive forward the Navy’s mission while ensuring that critical infrastructure remains robust and resilient in the face of evolving environmental challenges.

Intergovernmental Support Agreements are public-public partnerships designed to support the DON by allowing state and local public entities to partner with installations to receive, share, or provide installation support services. All the Navy’s Southeastern Installations, along with their surrounding communities, are expected to benefit from this Intergovernmental Support Agreement.

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Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen Delivers Remarks Announcing Charges Against Russian Military Officers

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you joining us this afternoon.

I am Matt Olsen, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice. I am joined today by the U.S. Attorney Erek Barron for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge William DelBagno of the FBI Baltimore Field Office.

Today, we are announcing a superseding indictment against five officers of the Russian military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, and one civilian Russian cyber-criminal for their campaign to conduct cyber intrusions.

The superseding indictment adds to charges made public in June of this year against the Russian civilian, Amin Stigal. As alleged, the defendants are responsible for, among other malicious cyber activity, carrying out the series of destructive computer attacks, commonly referred to in the cybersecurity community as the “WhisperGate” campaign, which targeted computers in Ukraine shortly before Russia’s invasion in February 2022. More generally, the indictment alleges conspiracies related to cyber intrusions targeting victims in the United States, in Ukraine and elsewhere.

This WhisperGate campaign included the targeting of civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian computer systems wholly unrelated to the military or national defense, including government agencies responsible for emergency services, the judiciary, food safety and education.

Seeking to sap the morale of the Ukrainian public, the defendants also stole and leaked the personal data of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including by posting individual patient heath information and other sensitive private data for sale online, and then taunting their victims.

They attempted to cover their tracks by pretending to be criminals engaged in ransomware attacks — leaving behind ransom notes demanding Bitcoin payments to return data from victim systems that the perpetrators knew had been destroyed and could not be recovered. Indeed, Stigal’s involvement demonstrates the Russian government’s continued willingness to provide a haven for cybercriminals in exchange for such criminals being “on call” to provide support and deniability for its military and intelligence services.

These conspirators did not limit their activities to Ukraine. They targeted computers around the world and used computer infrastructure of an unwitting U.S.-based company to conduct the WhisperGate attacks. The conspirators went on to target computer systems in other nations supporting Ukraine in its fight for survival, such as one alleged instance of targeting a European country’s transportation infrastructure. Ultimately, their targets included computer systems in 26 NATO partners, including the United States.

Before I turn it over to U.S. Attorney Barron to discuss this case in more detail, I will note that we are announcing today’s charges alongside the concurrent actions of our partners.

The U.S. Department of State is offering a Rewards for Justice reward of up to $10 million for information on the defendants. Over a dozen domestic and foreign partners have issued a joint cyber security advisory regarding the group’s cyber activities. And Estonia also has announced criminal charges against several individuals involved in the same hacking activity, including two of the same defendants.

The Justice Department stands united with our partners and allies in supporting the Ukrainian people in the wake of Russia’s unlawful and unjust invasion. The National Security Division will continue to use every tool in the department’s arsenal – including our private and international partnerships – to identify the individuals, take down the infrastructure and expose the tools and techniques propping up the Russian Government and carrying out its wide-variety of malicious and destabilizing activities.

When it comes to countering Russia’s cyber-enabled malicious activities, National Security Division prosecutors are operating as a force multiplier for prosecutors and agents throughout the country. They are emphasizing prevention and, since Russia’s invasion, have conducted multiple court-authorized takedowns of the GRU’s and other Russian botnets and malware networks. This includes the April 2022 Cyclops Blink operation to remove the GRU’s malware from infected C2 devices, successfully dismantling the GRU botnet and remediating thousands of infected devices, which Russia could have otherwise deployed against Ukraine and its allies. In May 2023, they executed the court-authorized removal of the FSB’s “Snake” malware from hundreds of computer systems in at least 50 countries, undermining the FSB’s global espionage apparatus. And, just a few months ago, the National Security Cyber Section spearheaded the court-authorized takedown of a network of hundreds of compromised routers that the GRU had set up as the successor to Cyclops Blink. Even as our cyber adversaries evolve and adjust tactics, we are rising to counter them every step of the way.

We are also bringing this proactive posture to disrupting cyber-enabled foreign malign influence operations as well. Just yesterday, the Attorney General announced the department’s “Doppelganger” takedown operation to seize 32 internet domains used by the Russian government and its proxies to impersonate legitimate U.S. and foreign media organizations and perpetrate a covert campaign to interfere in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. This followed an action a few months ago to take down a Russian intelligence-operated, AI-enhanced bot farm that was similarly used to disseminate disinformation and sow discord in the U.S. and elsewhere. 

I want to thank U.S. Attorney Barron and the prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, and the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, Milwaukee Field Office and Boston Field Office. Their dedication and partnership in disrupting this serious activity illustrates the department’s commitment to meeting national security and cybersecurity threats with action.

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Nigerian Brothers Sentenced in Sextortion Scheme that Resulted in Death of Teen

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department today announced that Samuel Ogoshi, 24, and Samson Ogoshi, 21, both of Lagos, Nigeria, were each sentenced to 210 months in prison and five years of supervised release for conspiracy to sexually exploit minors. On March 25, 2022, 17-year-old high school student, Jordan DeMay, of Marquette, Michigan, died as a result of this sextortion scheme, which targeted over 100 other victims.

“These defendants sexually exploited and extorted more than 100 victims, including at least eleven minors, resulting in the tragic death of a 17- year-old high school student,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “These sentences should serve as a warning that the perpetrators of online sexual exploitation and extortion cannot escape accountability for their heinous crimes by hiding behind their phones and computers. The Justice Department will find them, no matter where they are, and we will bring them to justice in the United States.”

“Today’s sentencing of Samuel and Samson Ogoshi sends a thundering message,” said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten for the Western District of Michigan. “To criminals who commit these schemes: you are not immune from justice. We will track you down and hold you accountable, even if we have to go half-way around the world to do so. The day when you could commit these crimes, rake in easy cash, destroy lives, and escape justice is gone. And to parents, teenagers, and everyone who uses a cell phone: please, please be careful. These devices can connect you to criminal networks around the world. Don’t assume people are who they say they are. Don’t share compromising images. And if you’re a victim, please reach out. There’s help, and law enforcement stands ready.”

“The sentencing of sextortionists Samuel and Samson Ogoshi ensures both international criminals will no longer victimize minors in the United States or throughout the world,” said Special Agent in Charge Cheyvoryea Gibson of the FBI Detroit Field Office. “Spreading awareness on sextortion is a top priority of the FBI here in Michigan. Our hearts and prayers are with the loved ones of Jordan DeMay and those affected by the criminal acts of these individuals.”

At a press conference today, U.S. Attorney Totten emphasized the scope of this threat and the need for vigilance by sharing that multiple other deaths tied to sextortion schemes are under investigation in the Western District of Michigan.

As detailed in their plea agreements (here and here), Samuel and Samson Ogoshi engaged in a scheme while living in Nigeria to sexually exploit more than 100 victims, including at least 11 identified minor victims. They purchased hacked social media accounts and used them to pose as young women, making fake profiles and using the messaging feature on the social media accounts to contact victims. They conducted online research about their victims to learn where they lived, attended school, worked, and the identities of their family and friends. They then solicited their minor victims to produce sexually explicit images of themselves. Once they received the images, they created a collage of pictures that included the sexually explicit image with other images of the victim and their school, family, and friends. The Ogoshi brothers threatened to disclose the collages to the family, friends, and classmates of the victim unless the victim agreed to pay money using online cash applications.

In November 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan charged Samuel Ogoshi, Samson Ogoshi, and Ezekiel Robert, all Nigerian nationals, in the sextortion scheme that resulted in the death of Jordan DeMay. The Ogoshi Brothers were extradited to the United States in August 2023 and pleaded guilty in April. On March 21, a Nigerian court ordered Robert to be extradited to the United States. He has appealed that decision, and the matter is before the Nigerian High Court.

In addition, on Aug. 2, U.S. Attorney Totten announced the unsealing of a federal indictment in a separate case charging five U.S.-based defendants with conspiring to commit money laundering that facilitated the sextortion scheme. 

The FBI, Marquette Sheriff’s Department, and Michigan State Police Cybercrimes Unit in Marquette are investigating the case, with the cooperation and assistance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria. The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, Department of State, and Nigerian Attorney General’s Office – Ministry of Justice provided critical assistance securing the arrest and extradition of the defendants.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Mekaru and Davin Reust for the Western District of Michigan are prosecuting the case.

Safety Tips and Resources for Victims, Teens, and Parents

The FBI provides the following tips on how people can protect themselves from sextortion schemes:

  1. Be selective about what you share online. If your social media accounts are open to everyone, a predator may be able to figure out a lot of information about you.
  2. Be wary of anyone you encounter for the first time online. Block or ignore messages from strangers.
  3. Be aware that people can pretend to be anything or anyone online. Videos and photos are not proof that people are who they claim to be. Images can be altered or stolen. In some cases, predators have even taken over the social media accounts of their victims.
  4. Be suspicious if you meet someone on one game or app and that person asks you to start talking on a different platform.
  5. Be in the know. Any content you create online — whether it is a text message, photo, or video — can be made public. And nothing actually “disappears” online. Once you send something, you don’t have any control over where it goes next.
  6. Be willing to ask for help. If you are getting messages or requests online that don’t seem right, block the sender, report the behavior to the site administrator, or go to an adult. If you have been victimized online, tell someone. Being a victim of sextortion is not your fault. You can get through this challenge, even if it seems scary and overwhelming. There are people who want to help.

If you have information about or believe you are a victim of sextortion, contact your local FBI field office, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or report it online at tips.fbi.gov. This FBI PSA and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children PSA share survivor stories and resources for individuals to get help. More FBI sextortion resources are available here.