There are 34 countries in the Open Skies treaty and under the terms of that treaty all 34 countries can look at what each other are doing. They're allowed to fly reconnaissance flights over each others' territory on short notice. And then all the countries in the treaty are allowed to look at whatever reconnaissance those flights show, whatever surveillance
So if you're part of this treaty you can't block one of these approved planes from flying over your country.
The idea is there would no longer be surprise massing of troops on a European border, no accumulation of a missile array, the idea behind open skies is all the countries would look at each other from the open skies, to prevent surprises and prevent war.
The one
country we've worried about recently is Russia because they're only country
annexing countries.
These O-C
135 Boeing Jets are our approved technology for surveillance in this treaty.
Right now
the Trump administration is in process of destroying those planes. Tonight within the past few hours it looks
like Trump has realized he can't continue pretending, he's still going to go on
with legal challenges, "I believe we will prevail" but GSA finally agreed
to let Biden's team start the transition.
Delaying
transition this length of time, defying election results, keeping up a fiction
has not been a time killer, it's also been a distraction from the stuff that the
Trump administration is doing right now on its way out the door to mess up the country
as much as they can while they're leaving.
They really did pick right now as the moment to declare they are exiting
the Open Skies Treaty so for us and for all our allied countries in Europe who've
been in this treaty with us for decades, we picked this moment today to leave
them blind, to the surveillance and other intelligence on Russia that they have
been depending on through us because of this treaty since the fall of the Soviet
Union. This treaty has been in place since 1992, today we're leaving, we're not
going to do those flights anymore. And
so the other countries in the treaty won't get access to the intelligence and surveillance
that those flights have provided for decades, as of today no longer.
And just
in case the Biden administration wants to reenter this treaty once Biden is president,
which it does not stretch the imagination that he would, the Trump administration has decided to
destroy the airplanes that we use for compliance with this treaty.
Quoting the
Wall Street Journal. In a move that could
complicate Joe Biden's options if he sought to rejoin this treaty, the Trump administration
I taking steps to dispose of the two special equipped Boeing planes the U.S. has
used to carry out Open Skies flight.
A senior
U.S. official said the planes are being designated as "excess defense articles"
the official said, quote, "we've started liquidating the equipment." "not to tie hands of Biden administration,
it follows a decision in July to replace them and buy new planes.
Rachel:
so they're destroying the planes and they've made sure there won't be any to
replace them. Now it's- this- it's it's not even clear or agreed whether or not
it's legal for the Trump administration to do this, legally they have to
consult with Congress four months before pulling out of treaty, so Biden could use
that fact to unilaterally rejoin. But if Biden does want to rejoin the treaty,
too bad, the Trump administration right now as we speak is liquidating these airplanes
like they're postal service sorting machines in a majority black city in a
swing state. And they killed off the funding
to replace them so there's no more planes to replace them in the pipeline and they're
very highly specialized aircraft, so, you know-
European
countries worried they might be next country to be invaded by Russia, yeah too
bad, the U.S. is no longer here to help you keep an eye on that, and Biden will
have to start at the scrap heap where they're putting those plane parts now.
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