Our picksIran Probably Already Has the Bomb | Anti-Asian Racism Feels Different | America Is Petroleum-Independent, and more

Iran Probably Already Has the Bomb. Here’s What to Do about It  (R. James Woolsey, William R. Graham, Henry F. Cooper, Fritz Ermarth, and Peter Vincent Fry, National Review)
We can start by figuring out how to defend ourselves.

Why This Wave of Anti-Asian Racism Feels Different  (Morgan Ome, The Atlantic)
The author Cathy Park Hong sees the recent upsurge in violence as a turning point for Asian Americans.

Veselnitskaya’s Trump Tower Coverup Linked to Secret Russian Chemical Weapons Program  (Nico Hines, Daily Beast)
Documents obtained by The Daily Beast link the $230 million fraud discussed at the Trump Tower meeting in 2016 to Russia’s black-market weapons of mass destruction program.

A Striking Rebuke to Trump Team’s Claims about China’s Election Interference  (Aaron Blake, Washington Post)
The big new headline in a report from the U.S. intelligence community is that it has concluded that Russia spread misinformation during the 2020 election through prominent individuals, including those close to former president Donald Trump. While not named, the report appears to refer to Rudolph W. Giuliani’s exploits in Ukraine. It wouldn’t be the first time Giuliani has been cast as a conduit for Russian misinformation, though it appears to add confirmation.
But the report also casts the Trump team in a particularly dim light when it comes to another country: China.
Before the election, Trump and his allies repeatedly claimed China’s efforts to allegedly help President Biden were comparable to Russia’s efforts to help Trump. Some even claimed China was the worst offender.
But even as they were making these claims, there was almost always anonymous pushback from the intelligence community. And now that pushback is on the record. The report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concludes that, in fact, “China Did Not Attempt to Influence Presidential Election Outcome.”

America Is Petroleum-Independent, for Now  (Nicholas Ebersrtadt, Derek Scissors, and Evan Abramsky, National Review)
Rising domestic supply and great efficiency gains have made the U.S. a net energy exporter.

Senate Panel Delves into SolarWinds Hack  (Karoun Demirjian, Washington Post)
Another Senate committee on Thursday is jumping into the investigative fray surrounding the hacking of SolarWinds, a software company providing services for government agencies, which the United States believes was targeted by Russia.
A month ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee grilled the CEO of SolarWinds alongside the chief executives of three other government contractors, while raising the alarm about the inherent vulnerabilities of companies entrusted with sensitive government systems and information. This time, it’s the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s turn to query federal agencies in charge of monitoring and guarding against hacking and other cyber threats.

What the Biden Administration Gets Right and Wrong on ICT in the New Supply Chain Executive Order  (Robert Morgus and John Costello, Lawfare)
On Feb. 24, President Biden signed an executive order titled “America’s Supply Chains,” outlining a process for the United States to identify and mitigate the risks and challenges it faces in a series of critical supply chains, including that of information and communications technology (ICT). The Cyberspace Solarium Commission, on which we are staff, was asked by Congress in late 2020 to undergo a similar process and propose a strategy and recommendations to secure America’s ICT supply chains. While the Biden administration’s order is a step in the right direction and largely conforms to the approach proposed by the commission, it misses discussions of several key issues raised in the commission’s white paper on the topic. The order differs primarily in scope: While the commission focused explicitly on information and communications technology, the Biden order outlines four different supply chains of interest, including ICT but also batteries, rare earth elements and critical materials, and pharmaceuticals.

Time for Answers About Those Intelligence Reports DHS Filed About Me  (Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare)
It was about six months ago that I awoke one morning to a text from Shane Harris of the Washington Post telling me to call him urgently. 
When I called him, Harris informed me that I had been the subject of at least two open-source intelligence reports by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), both reporting on tweets of mine related to leaked I&A documents concerning surveillance of protesters. (For those who need a refresher on the incident, I described it in detail here.)
I said at the time that I would consult with my lawyers about how to proceed, and I have spent a good deal of time thinking about it in retrospect. Last week, I filed suit. The suit does not seek damages. I’m not looking for a judgment that what DHS did was illegal. 
Rather, the suit seeks only documents under my old friend, the Freedom of Information Act