CIA predecessor provides American know-how to Ukraine

NEWS AND OPINION:

Some genuine American know-how has reached Ukrainians fighting for their nation’s very existence. The OSS Society has shared a valuable resource with those on the front lines.

The OSS Society?

This nonprofit organization honors the legacy of the Office of Strategic Services, the World War II-era predecessor to the CIA, the U.S. Special Operations Command and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Under the direction of Army Gen. William J. Donovan, OSS also compiled the “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” for its personnel in 1944 — which emphasized the importance of “citizen saboteurs” using everyday items and “act of simple sabotage” to undermine their Nazi enemies.

Charles T. Pinck, president of the OSS Society, had the 23-page manual translated into Ukrainian and has made it available through online resources to those who could make use of it. The methods appear to be just as effective for those on the front lines now as they were eight decades ago.

“We have received a lot of positive feedback about translating the ‘OSS Simple Sabotage Manual’ into Ukrainian. It’s been widely disseminated within Ukraine. We hope it will help the Ukrainian resistance defeat the Russians,” Mr. Pinck tells “Inside the Beltway” in a written statement.

Find details about the unique OSS Society itself and the manual at OSSSociety.org.

AMERICANS BOUNCE BACK FROM COVID

There appears to be measurable progress in returning to normalcy in the U.S. despite the presence of the coronavirus.

“Americans’ emotional and physical health is bouncing back, along with record confidence about life returning to ‘normal’ as mask mandates are abandoned,” according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index, which has tracked public opinion on the subject since March 2020.

“Two years after the start of the pandemic, the nation is ready to move on,” points out the poll, which was released Tuesday.

Indeed, it found that 8 out of 10 of the respondents described both their emotional well-being and physical health as “good.”

The poll also found that 64% of the respondents now favor federal, state and local governments lifting all COVID-19 restrictions, up 20 percentage points since early February.

Still, 3 in 4 of the respondents say they’d go back to masking if infections increase again where they live.

“As the mandates ended, behaviors changed across the board. The mandate itself was signaling risk, and as the mandate went down, that signal went dormant,” said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs, in a statement.

About a quarter of the respondents — 27% — said state or local government mask mandates were still in place where they live, down from 36% at the end of February and 42% at the start of the year.

See more revealing numbers in the Poll du Jour at column’s end.

BUSY ON THE BORDER

It is still grim on the southern U.S. border. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 164,973 illegal immigrants were apprehended crossing the border in February alone.

“More than two million illegal immigrants have been caught attempting to cross the border since [President] Biden took office. Additionally, more than 500,000 illegal immigrants have disappeared into the U.S. during Biden’s border crisis,” noted a Republican National Committee analysis of the federal agency’s findings, which were released Tuesday.

The agency also revealed that the number of “encounters” with the would-be residents so far in fiscal 2022 now stands at 967,743.

“Biden’s border crisis is out of control,” said Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel in a written statement.

“Joe Biden and Democrats’ reckless open border agenda created this crisis, and American families are paying the price with more violent crime, dangerous drugs, and millions of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border,” she advised.

A STARK REMINDER

Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was shot Tuesday while he was reporting from a spot just outside Kyiv, Ukraine. On Sunday, Brent Renaud — a journalist, award-winning filmmaker and former New York Times contributor — was shot and killed in the same area, prompting the National Press Club to call for an investigation of the tragic event.

Since Feb. 24, four other journalists have been injured by gunfire, according to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based nonprofit group promoting freedom of information.

Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott sent an update to her colleagues at the network in the aftermath, and here’s what she said:

“We have a minimal level of details right now, but Ben is hospitalized and our teams on the ground are working to gather additional information as the situation quickly unfolds. The safety of our entire team of journalists in Ukraine and the surrounding regions is our top priority and of the utmost importance. This is a stark reminder for all journalists who are putting their lives on the line every day to deliver the news from the war zone. We will update everyone as we know more. Please keep Ben and his family in your prayers,” Ms. Scott said in the internal memo, which was shared with “Inside the Beltway.”

POLL DU JOUR

• 84% of U.S. adults say their emotional well-being is “good”; 83% say their physical health is “good.”

• 75% said the U.S. is “moving toward a time when COVID won’t interrupt daily life.”

• 61% say they’re still worried about the possibility of getting sick.

• 56% of Americans say coronavirus can’t be eradicated in the U.S. within the next year.

• 48% say “hopeful” describes the way they feel today about the situation.

• 39% of those who work said their employers still require them to wear masks in the workplace.

• 33% they’ve already “returned to normal life.”

SOURCE: An Axios/Ipsos poll of 957 U.S. adults conducted March 11-14.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.