INTREP360 INTELLIGENCE REPORT
06.09.2026: GLOBETROTTING
June 9th, 2026
Greetings!
Today, we are briefly going to return to our original INTREP360 Intelligence Report format and circle the globe.
Photo credit: U.S. Navy. The U.S.S. Nimitz (CVN-68) operating in Caribbean waters near Cuba.
For new readers and indeed our regular readers, first and foremost, thank you for being here. We truly appreciate it. Secondly, our original intent for this Substack was to canvass the globe on a region-by-region basis looking for the top stories impacting U.S. national security and that of our allies.
Our goal is to build over time for our readers a working understanding of potential and emerging threats to the U.S. before they hit the headlines.
Sometimes those stories are headline news. Others, especially those relying on Jon’s 30 years of intelligence background, involve identifying and reading tiny tea leaves.
Either way, they all form a mosaic that tells an ever-evolving story of looming dangers over the horizon.
Let’s get started!
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NORTH AMERICA
On Monday, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) in Norfolk, Virginia hosted maritime leadership from Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. at the 2026 Executive Meeting of the North American Maritime Security Initiative (NAMSI). It also marked the 18th anniversary of the working alliance.
NAMSI is structured as an “interagency and trilateral security initiative” whose primary goal is to ensure that U.S., Canadian, and Mexican maritime assets maintain “operational compatibility in exercises and operations.”
The organization’s leadership also approved new changes to the NAMSI Handbook including new “security and defense strategy to combat transnational criminal organizations” operating or attempting to operate in North American waters.
Rear Adm. Martin Muckian, Director of Maritime Operations for U.S. Naval Forces Northern Command (NAVNORTH), emphasized that the alliance “ensures that U.S., Canadian, and Mexican maritime forces remain fully synchronized in our efforts to deter threats and maintain regional stability.”
Interoperability is key. And, as Rear Adm. Josée Kurtz, commander, Maritime Forces Atlantic and Joint Task Force Atlantic, Royal Canadian Navy, pointed out, it is “essential to safeguarding the continental waters surrounding our respective countries.”
The U.S. Coast Guard, in conjunction with the U.S. Navy, is also an integral component of NAMSI bringing together the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. USNORTHCOM is in overall control.
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LATIN AMERICA
The U.S. is continuing to assert military pressure on Cuba. In late May, the U.S.S. Nimitz (CVN-68) carrier strike group was repositioned to patrol the Caribbean Sea.
For now, its role appears to be a “show of force, [and] not as a platform for major military operations.”
The U.S.S. Nimitz is, in effect, also carrying a message to Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of the late Fidel Castro. It arrived on station the same day that the Justice Department indicted Castro.
Photo credit: Ismael Francisco / Associated Press. Former Cuban president Raúl Castro in an updated photograph.
Castro, who remains the de facto leader of Cuba, was charged on April 23rd in the United States District Court in Florida alongside five former Cuban fighter pilots.
The six men are accused of committing murder and conspiracy in 1996 that killed four U.S. citizens who were members of the Brothers to the Rescue, a group that helped find Cubans attempting to escape the island who had become lost at sea.
The Trump Administration’s message to Castro?
You might become the next Nicolás Maduro, the former Venezuelan president who was captured by the U.S. in January.
Notably, tomorrow, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to travel to Guantanamo Bay, which is a U.S. military base located on the island of Cuba. He too will be likely sending Castro a message.
Meanwhile, Cuba was rocked by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake yesterday. Even the Gods seem to be sending Havana a message.
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EUROPE
Earlier today, we taped a news magazine program hosted by Daniel Tkiie for First Western TV in Ukraine. The English edition should be available late this week.
During the show, Mark noted just how far Ukraine had come since the opening days of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘special military operation’ in February and March 2022. Back then, Ukraine survived by ‘shoot and scoot’ type tactics to take out Russian tanks, armored vehicles and truck convoys.
Now, as Mark hammered home, Ukraine is fighting on so many different levels. Deep strikes hitting as far as St. Petersburg. Drone swarms creating ‘killing zones’ in the Donbas and in the south along the Kremlin’s land bridge from Crimea to Russia.
Ditto intermediate deep strikes that are interdicting Russian soldiers — something Jon has rightly hammered home repeatedly since the start — and killing or wounding them before they can get to the frontlines.
Then today, yet again, Ukraine reminded us of another domain in which they are winning: the targeted killings of senior officers deep inside of Moscow.
Col. Damir Davydov, the head of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU), was killed in a car bomb. Ukraine’s intelligence service was likely responsible. Especially since Davydov was in charge of supplying missiles, rockets, artillery shells, and ammunition to Russian troops fighting Ukraine.
Photo credit: Yaroslav Trokimov / X. An image on Russian social media reported to be Davydov’s BMW X3 in flames on June 9th, 2026.
Do not feel sorry for Davydov. Many of the drones and missiles he sent to Russian forces were used to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians. He was, by every letter of international law, a legitimate war target.
If Ukraine did kill him, it follows earlier similar instances including the killing of Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik in April 2025, and Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov in December 2025. Those killings took place in Moscow as well.
No wonder Putin stays in his bunker.
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AFRICA
Far too often Africa gets overlooked due to the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Iran as well as the buildup of tensions between China and Taiwan. However, it is essential not to sleep on troubling developments that are impacting U.S. national security.
The fighting in Sudan continues. 13,000 people have recently been displaced in South Darfur due to recent fighting between the Beni Halba and Salamat tribes.
Photo credit: MSF. A woman and her daughter at a refuge facility in South Darfur, Sudan in an undated photo.
Instability in this region is particularly threatening to Egypt given its reliance on the Nile River for its agriculture. It also creates a spillover risk for U.S. forces operating in Djibouti and in Nigeria as it creates openings for ISIS.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Central Africa, the U.S. continues to expand its counterterrorism campaign against ISIS in Nigeria. As we noted here in May, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has conducted a series of strikes, including one that killed Abu-Bilal al Minuki, a senior ISIS commander, as well as other key members.
This comes on top of earlier Pentagon efforts to upgrade its military base in Manda Bay, Kenya. The U.S. has committed $70 million to expand its airfield.
Why?
The base is used by U.S. forces to confront and deter Al Shabab, a militant group operating in Somalia.
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THE MIDDLE EAST
Overnight, Iran appeared to down a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter. How is unclear. Its crew was successfully rescued by an unmanned sea drone.
In response, President Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.” Late this afternoon, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) did just that.
It appeared that the U.S. strikes came in three waves. CENTCOM announced on X that it had “struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets.”
The statement also said –– disappointingly so in our view –– that the “operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”
Iran is likely to interpret ‘proportionality’ as a win.
According to Jennifer Griffin, the chief national security correspondent for Fox News, senior U.S. officials told her that “20 targets inside Iran were targeted.”
The ball is now in Iran’s court. Earlier this evening, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X shortly after the strikes that, “Our Powerful Armed Forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered.”
Time will tell.
Well, apparently it just did. As we were about to hit send on this edition of the INTREP360 Intelligence Report, a U.S. official told Barak Ravid that Iran fired 4 ballistic missiles and multiple drones at U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. As we feared, ‘proportionality’ was not going to cut it.
Notably, Iran claims they hit 21 targets as opposed to the U.S. hitting 20 per CENTCOM’s statement. That is a direct challenge to Trump.
It is time to go big or go home, and we cannot go home lest Iran ends up winning and the U.S. suffers its worst strategic defeat in its history.
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INDO-PACIFIC
In what we assess as the most underreported story of the day — we did not forget about this angle! — Chinese President Xi Jinping is back in Beijing after meeting with Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea.
Photo credit: North Korean government. Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) meets with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on June 8th, 2026.
Notably, North Korea’s nukes did not appear to be on the agenda as they were during Xi’s last trip to Pyongyang in 2019. Xi, wittingly or not, essentially acknowledged North Korea’s status as a nuclear power.
For its part, according to Ban Kil Joo, an assistant professor at the Korea National Diplomatic School in Seoul, South Korea, “North Korea reaffirmed its support of China over the Taiwan issue.”
Xi’s real motive here likely has to do with China wanting to reassert its influence over North Korea that has waned over the last five years. Pyongyang’s support of Russia’s war in Ukraine “by sending troops and weapons in exchange for economic and other assistance” has eroded Beijing’s grip on North Korea.
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MARK’S POSTSCRIPT
Forty plus years ago, as a high school student, I played basketball in one of the hangars of the U.S.S. Nimitz while it was making a port call in Haifa, Israel.
The grey lady is showing her age, as am I.
For the record, the U.S. Navy destroyed my high school team and then some. It was a brutal loss in every sense of the word. By the way, as I learned that day, falling on tarmac shreds your skin. I swear, I still have scars from the drubbing.
Mark
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ICYMI #1
Early today, in our regular weekday foreign affairs column for The Washington Star, we penned a piece noting how Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is being forced by Ukraine to reconsider his options.
Putin is likely not pleased.
Photo credit: Office of the President of Belarus. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko shows Russia’s incursion into Moldova from Odesa in 2022.
You can read it here. It is not paywalled at our request.
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ICYMI #2
We also penned a special column today for The Washington Star after President Trump announced that the U.S. would retaliate after Iran caused the crash of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter near the Oman coastline in the Strait of Hormuz.
Photo credit: U.S. Army. U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter in an undated photo.
You can read it here. It is also not paywalled at our request.
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ICYMI #3
Earlier today, Jon appeared on Al Qahera News TV in Cairo, Egypt. He was on a panel with Peter Roff, a Newsweek columnist, to discuss the latest on the indirect peace talks between the U.S. and Iran.
As it turned out, it focused on whether U.S. domestic politics are playing a factor in Trump’s negotiating position. Alas, Jon had to dance around a bit as we intentionally avoid U.S. domestic politics in our national security columns.
You can watch it here.
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Thank you for reading. We will see you tomorrow. Please subscribe, comment & share. We truly appreciate it!
Jon & Mark
Follow Jon on X at @JESweet2022 or on Bluesky at @JonSweet.bsky.social. Follow Mark on X at @MCTothSTL or on Bluesky at @MarkToth.bsky.social.