President Joe Biden delivers remarks about the Colonial Pipeline hack, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, May 13, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 2:31 PM PT – Monday, May 17, 2021
Joe Biden is coming under immense scrutiny over several foreign policy decisions his administration could have handled better.
On Sunday, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke out against the current White House’s efforts to reenter the failed Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran. He stressed that the Trump administration worked hard to restore peace in the Middle East while pointing to the Abraham Accords that centered regional relationships around Israel.
Instead, America’s former top diplomat warned American and Israeli lives are at risk because of Biden’s cozy relationship with the Iranian regime. His comments came one day after former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, also took aim at the Biden administration. She argued Biden is focusing too much on partisan issues like the Georgia voting laws and not enough on threats to our national security.
“(Vladimir ) Putin’s challenging Biden to a debate, you’ve got Kim (Jong-un) starting to test ballistic missiles and, by the way, Biden is going to reduce the funding to our military when China is modernizing theirs,” Haley stated. “They have the largest naval fleet in the world, they have more air defense systems than we do and what are we doing?”
Haley went on to criticize the White House’s response to the DarksSide hack that led officials to shut down the Colonial Pipeline. The infamous hacking group allegedly infiltrated the gasoline company with ransomware and demanded $5 million. White House officials, who almost uniformly described the group simply as hackers and not terrorists, said they would not interfere with Colonial’s decision to pay the ransom.
The entrance of Colonial Pipeline Company is shown Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in Charlotte, N.C. Several gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts say is unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Haley claimed she experienced similar situations when she was governor of South Carolina, where she did not negotiate with the alleged terrorists. She said she got the public and private sectors together to find solutions on how to deter future cyber attacks.
Haley urged the Biden administration to bolster America’s cyber security, believing the Colonial Pipeline hacking is only the beginning of an all out cyber war. She cited increasing hacking efforts from America’s adversaries, including China, Iran and North Korea. Haley added, America needs to be ready for possible cyber attacks that could affect our air traffic control systems and utility grids.
