This week in American power projection: the map was wrong, the dorms were fine, and the travel card was for official purposes.
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Pentagon casualties, metric improvement, and Fat Leonard’s least dignified phase.
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This week in American power projection: the map was wrong, the dorms were fine, and the travel card was for official purposes.
Story Roundup
Situation Report
Jet claims it was just being polite when Qatari royals “kept climbing inside.”
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The fate of the 747 slated as the new Air Force One, recently gifted from the government of Qatar, is in doubt. In a surprising decision, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) denied the aircraft a top-level security clearance because of what officials call a “staggering amount” of close foreign contacts.
“Having a few international friends is normal after living in Qatar,” said DCSA spokesperson Alicia Hoover. “But this plane has more foreign connections than a Marine battalion on a port call with Tinder Gold.”
Hoover explained that the aircraft needs a high-level clearance for handling the nation’s most sensitive communications and war plans. The plane submitted a standard security package, but attached 32 continuation pages listing “close personal contacts.”
“It’s less like a background form and more like the cast list of Aladdin on Ice,” Hoover said.
The would-be Air Force One and flying SCIF denies any substantial foreign entanglements and claims it’s being targeted for its “blended multinational lineage.”
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