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Alexa O’Brien

@alexaobrien.bsky.social
3.5K followers 3.3K following 199 posts

Analyst & writer focused on intelligence and espionage. alexaobrien.com/about

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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Property of the People @propertyofthepeople.org · 29/06/2026
Due to Trump's gutting of election security infrastructure, states fear the feds won't reliably share election threat info, turning instead to industry to defend the American vote. As revealed in docs we obtained and shared w/ @sarahdwire.bsky.social / @usatoday.com. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
usatoday.com
States don't expect feds to reliably share election threats: Exclusive
State election officials say federal agencies are failing to provide security support needed for midterms.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Property of the People @propertyofthepeople.org · 24/04/2026
Law enforcement fears conventional officers might be mistaken for ICE, blames anti-ICE activists, as revealed in intelligence documents we obtained and shared w/ @samtlevin.bsky.social / @us.theguardian.com. #FOIA www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Police across the US worry officers are being misidentified as ICE, records show
Exclusive: Emails and internal memos reveal concerns immigration enforcement is interfering with police work
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Great working by @rshapiro.bsky.social and his organization.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
I’m just gonna pretend I’m driving a mini - bubble car through Ireland in the 90s with these fuel prices (and not a medium size truck).
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
I think the last time I paid this much for gas was about twenty years ago in Germany.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Property of the People @propertyofthepeople.org · 30/03/2026
The Trump administration is targeting ICE tracking apps and their developers as security threats, as revealed in intelligence documents we obtained and shared with @newyorker.com. #FOIA www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
newyorker.com
ICE-Tracking Apps Have Helped People Avoid Immigration Agents. Are They Legal?
ICEBlock was meant to help people avoid immigration enforcement. The Trump Administration claims that the app endangered the agents of its mass-deportation campaign.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
The Jeffster…
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
‘Gold dust at my feet…’ 😘 youtu.be/UZHf2SjdDY4?...
youtu.be
On The Sunny Side Of The Street
YouTube video by Keely Smith - Topic
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
14 happy clams dug and off to the Elks. My sleeves smell like salt and seaweed.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
“People that go to sea for pleasure, go to hell for fun…”
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Property of the People @propertyofthepeople.org · 24/10/2025
Our director @rshapiro.bsky.social on our latest: Law enforcement spread false rumors about Venezuelan gang threats, bolstering Trump's mass deportation frenzy, as revealed in intel documents we obtained and shared w/ @samtlevin.bsky.social / @us.theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Property of the People @propertyofthepeople.org · 21/10/2025
Our executive director @rshapiro.bsky.social on our latest: Law enforcement surveillance technologies used against No Kings protesters, as detailed in intelligence documents we obtained and shared with @raphae.li / @ajvicens.bsky.social / @reuters.com. #FOIA www.reuters.com/world/us/no-...
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Ryan Shapiro @rshapiro.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Good times. #FOIA
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Property of the People @propertyofthepeople.org · 24/09/2025
Fed and state law enforcement were already aware of Discord as a site of youth violent radicalization, well before C. Kirk's alleged killer used it to discuss the shooting, as revealed in intel docs we obtained & shared w/ @kevincollier.bsky.social @nbcnews.com. #FOIA www.nbcnews.com/tech/securit...
nbcnews.com
Extremists are using Discord to radicalize American youth, officials warned this year
Discord has drawn increased attention in recent weeks after reports that the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s killing used the platform.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Property of the People @propertyofthepeople.org · 08/08/2025
FBI significantly increasing size of terrorist watch list, including addition of supposed gang members, family members, and associates, as revealed in new intel docs we obtained and shared w/ @reuters.com. #FOIA
reuters.com
Exclusive: FBI looks to add drug cartel suspects to terror watch list, government files show
The FBI has asked local police to submit the names of people tied to drug cartels and gangs to the U.S. government's terrorist watch list created after 9/11, which could land more Americans on the list, according to law enforcement documents seen by Reuters.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
New: DHS tells police to brace for the anti-ICE movement to grow much bigger in threat bulletins last month that lists ordinary behavior, like riding a skateboard or livestreaming, as threatening to law enforcement. By me w/ records by @propertyofthepeople.org:
wired.com
Skateboards and Livestreams: DHS Tells Police That Common Protest Activities Are ‘Violent Tactics’
DHS is urging law enforcement to treat even skateboarding and livestreaming as signs of violent intent during a protest, turning everyday behavior into a pretext for police action.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
This story needs to win multiple awards…
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
NEW: A WIRED investigation of 911 calls placed from ICE detention sites across the US show a system inundated by life-threatening crises, delayed treatment, and overcrowding. By me & @dmehro.bsky.social. Free to read:
wired.com
'They're Not Breathing': Inside the Chaos of ICE Detention Center 911 Calls
Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers obtained by WIRED—including audio recordings—show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowdin...
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
A story I helped @dell.bsky.social with this week. The ‘Long-Term Danger’ of Trump Sending Troops to the LA Protests | WIRED www.wired.com/story/trump-...
wired.com
The ‘Long-Term Danger’ of Trump Sending Troops to the LA Protests
President Trump’s deployment of more than 700 Marines to Los Angeles—following ICE raids and mass protests—has ignited a fierce national debate over state sovereignty and civil-military boundaries.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Confidential records obtained by WIRED & @propertyofthepeople.org show the ag industry deploying moles to infiltrate activist meetings, while functionally serving as FBI informants, in a shadow campaign to brand the animal rights movement America's biggest bioterrorism threat. My latest @wired.com:
wired.com
How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Terrorists
For years, a powerful ‘Big Ag’ trade group served up information on activists to the FBI. Records reveal a decade-long effort to see the animal rights movement labeled a legitimate terrorism threat.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Bioterrorists | WIRED by @dell.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/fbi-wm...
wired.com
How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Bioterrorists
For years, a powerful ‘Big Ag’ trade group served up information on activists to the FBI. Records reveal a decade-long effort to see the animal rights movement labeled a “bioterrorism” threat.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Just remembered I'm one of the examples @merriam-webster.com uses to describe how to use "86" 😂
to reject, discontinue, or get rid of (something)
Democratic leaders also eighty-sixed a similar amendment introduced in the House version of the bill …
—Dell Cameron
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Sarah Perez @sarahp.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Really enjoying this book about how one person can make a huge impact #booktok #bookclub good reminder for these times too
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Hamed Aleaziz @haleaziz.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
The New York Times pieced together the most complete account yet of the U.S. arrangement with El Salvador and the March 15 deportations from internal government documents, court filings and interviews with 22 people familiar with the operation or legal challenges. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/u...
nytimes.com
Behind Trump’s Deal to Deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Most Feared Prison
New details deepen questions about the deportations, showing that El Salvador’s president pressed for assurances that the migrants were really members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
POTP's work obtaining police and intelligence records has been vital to a ton of reporting I've done over the years. You might've seen they uncovered the Alien Enemies Act plan blueprint last week: www.usatoday.com/story/news/p... Consider supporting if you can: propertyofthepeople.org/donate/
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
WIRED @wired.com · 28/04/2025
Records reviewed by WIRED show law enforcement agencies are eager to take advantage of the data trails generated by a flood of new internet-connected vehicle features. www.wired.com/story/police...
wired.com
Car Subscription Features Raise Your Risk of Government Surveillance, Police Records Show
Records reviewed by WIRED show law enforcement agencies are eager to take advantage of the data trails generated by a flood of new internet-connected vehicle features.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
Vince Warren @vincewarren.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Abducted, detained and deported all for standing up for human rights of Palestinians. If you’re looking for the line the admin is going to cross, it’s behind us.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Russian spy ring's plans to kill journalist 'beyond imagination' www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Russian spy ring plans to kill journalist were 'beyond imagination'
Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev told the BBC one method was to use a sledgehammer, and another involved using a "suicide bomber".
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Le Figaro - à lire : «Nous sommes les idiots utiles de Vladimir Poutine» : Nate, cousin germain de JD Vance et combattant volontaire en Ukraine www.lefigaro.fr/internationa...
lefigaro.fr
«Nous sommes les idiots utiles de Vladimir Poutine» : Nate, cousin germain de JD Vance et combattant volontaire en Ukraine
EXCLUSIF - Le Texan a passé trois ans en Ukraine, dont deux et demi à se battre sur les fronts les plus sanglants. Il désespère de la position de son cousin et de Donald Trump.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
'Loss of experienced employees who manage Social Security’s fragile interdependent comp systems likely to leave the agency vulnerable to technical outages and, potentially, interrupt the benefit payments' www.cnn.com/2025/03/08/p...
cnn.com
‘A disruptive effect’: How slashing staff at the Social Security Administration is sparking fears the system could collapse | CNN Politics
Millions of Americans could soon feel the impact of the deep staffing cuts being planned at the Social Security Administration, which is undergoing a massive reorganization that the acting commissione...
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
US Warned of Caribbean Becoming 'Chinese Lake' www.newsweek.com/us-warned-ca...
newsweek.com
US warned of Caribbean becoming "Chinese lake"
Experts told Newsweek that Beijing could use the Trump administration's withdrawal of USAID to boost influence in the Caribbean.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
FT: "Wealthy Chinese investors are quietly funnelling tens of millions of dollars into private companies controlled by Elon Musk...that shields their identities from public view..." www.ft.com/content/6685...
ft.com
Chinese investors privately take stakes in Elon Musk’s companies
Asset managers have been promoting tech mogul’s ties to Donald Trump to lure capital to xAI, Neuralink and SpaceX
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
WIRED @wired.com · 06/03/2025
NEW: A now-deleted list containing hundreds of US government properties that the General Services Administration (GSA) plans to sell includes most of a sprawling, highly sensitive federal complex in Springfield, Virginia that also houses a secretive CIA facility, WIRED has learned.
wired.com
A Sensitive Complex Housing a CIA Facility Was on GSA's List of US Properties for Sale
Plans to redevelop a Northern Virginia warehouse site have long been complicated by the area’s worst-kept secret—the presence of a CIA facility. The GSA put the site up for sale anyway.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Wired: DOGE Is the Deep State www.wired.com/story/doge-i...
wired.com
DOGE Is the Deep State
A shadowy group of unelected figures reshaping the federal government to their own benefit from the inside? Sounds familiar!
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Wired: Pentagon Cuts Threaten Programs That Secure Loose Nukes and Weapons of Mass Destruction www.wired.com/story/pentag...
wired.com
Pentagon Cuts Threaten Programs That Secure Loose Nukes and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Documents obtained by WIRED show the US Department of Defense is considering cutting up to 75 percent of workers who stop the spread of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Powers of Trump and Congress Collide as Government Shutdown Nears: Democrats say Congress has ceded too much power to the president on spending and tariffs www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
wsj.com
Powers of Trump and Congress Collide as Government Shutdown Nears
As a funding deadline looms, the Democrats say Congress has ceded too much power to the president on spending and tariffs.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
I do not now how to describe this story, it’s incredible… albeit weird and a must #longread. “As LaSota articulated it, their goals had moved beyond real estate into a more grandiose realm. “We are trying to build a cabal,’ she wrote.” www.wired.com/story/deliri...
wired.com
The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians
A handful of gifted young tech people set out to save the world. For years, WIRED has been tracking each twist and turn of their alleged descent into mayhem and death.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
We also spoke to sources familiar with the government's insider threat systems, who say attempts to widen their scope to hunt for perceived signs of "disloyalty" are likely to overwhelm programs already riddled with false positives. www.wired.com/story/survei...
Sources with knowledge of the US government’s insider-threat programs describe them as largely inefficient and labor intensive, requiring overstretched teams of analysts to manually pore through daily barrages of alerts that include many false positives. Multiple sources said that the systems are currently “overwhelmed.” Any effort by the Trump administration to extend the reach of such tools or widen their parameters—to more closely surveil for perceived signs of insubordination or disloyalty to partisan fealties, for instance—likely would result in a significant spike in false positives that would take considerable time to comb through, according to the people familiar with the work.

In an email last month seeking federal employees’ voluntary resignations, the Trump administration wrote that it wanted a “reliable, loyal, trustworthy” workforce. Attempts to use insider-threat programs to enforce that vision could be met by a number of legal challenges.

US intelligence community analysts are required by law and directive to provide unbiased and objective work. That means avoiding cherry-picking information to deliberately alter judgements or falling prey to outside pressure, including from personal or political biases. These standards, even when not officially codified, are core to the professional ethics of any intelligence practitioner or law enforcement analyst conducting assessments of insider threats.
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Reposted by Alexa O’Brien
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
NEW: We spoke with federal workers grappling with symptoms of paranoia around technology due to DOGE's incursion, including some fearful of their own home networks, and take a hard look at the range of tools the government currently uses to monitor its workforce: www.wired.com/story/survei...
Long before Trump’s inauguration, user activity monitoring was already mandated for federal agencies and networks that handle classified information—the result of an executive order signed by President Barack Obama in the wake of a massive breach of classified diplomatic cables and information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010. The capability is part of government-wide insider-threat programs that greatly expanded after Edward Snowden’s leak of classified surveillance documents in 2013 and again after an Army specialist murdered four colleagues and injured 16 others at Fort Hood in 2014.

The US government’s current approach to digitally monitoring federal workers has largely been guided by a directive issued by the Committee on National Security Systems in 2014, which orders relevant agencies to tie user activity to “specific users.” The public portions of the document call for “every executive branch department and agency” handling classified information to have capabilities to take screenshots, capture keystrokes, and intercept chats and email on employee devices. They are also instructed to deploy “file shadowing,” meaning secretly producing facsimiles of every file a user edits or opens.
The insider threat programs at departments such as Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs, also have policies that protect unclassified government information, which enable them to monitor employees’ clicks and communications, according to notices in the Federal Register, an official source of rulemaking documents. Policies for the Department of the Interior, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporate, also allow collecting and assessing employees’ social media content.

These internal agency programs, overseen by a national task force led by the attorney general and director of national intelligence, aim to identify behaviors that may indicate the heightened risk of not only leaks and workplace violence, but also the “loss” or "degradation" of a federal agency’s “resources or capabilities.” Over 60 percent of insider-threat incidents in the federal sector involve fraud, such as stealing money or taking someone's personal information, and are non-espionage related, according to analysis by Carnegie Mellon researchers.

“Fraud,” “disgruntlement,” “ideological challenges,” “moral outrage,” or discussion of moral concerns deemed “unrelated to work duties” are some of the possible signs that a worker poses a threat, according to US government training literature.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
My latest piece in WIRED with @dell.bsky.social and @peard33.bsky.social DOGE Sparks Surveillance Fear Across the US Government www.wired.com/story/survei...
wired.com
DOGE Sparks Surveillance Fear Across the US Government
The US government has increased the use of monitoring tools over the past decade. But President Donald Trump’s employee purges are making workers worry about how their data could be abused.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Trump Says He Would Have Had a ‘Very Nasty Life’ if He’d Lost the Election www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Says He Would Have Had a ‘Very Nasty Life’ if He’d Lost the Election
The president’s remarks were a surprisingly public acknowledgment that he had campaigned for his freedom as much as for the White House itself.
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Elon Musk’s private security detail gets deputized by US Marshals Service www.cnn.com/2025/02/20/p...
cnn.com
Elon Musk’s private security detail gets deputized by US Marshals Service | CNN Politics
The US Marshals Service has deputized members of Elon Musk’s private security detail, giving them certain rights and protections of federal law enforcement agents, three law enforcement officials fam...
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Alexa O’Brien @alexaobrien.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
“They’re Scared Shitless”: The Threat of Political Violence Informing Trump’s Grip on Congress www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...
vanityfair.com
“They’re Scared Shitless”: The Threat of Political Violence Informing Trump’s Grip on Congress
With the president smashing norm after norm, even lawmakers within his party have feared for their personal safety, and at least one has told confidants that it has swayed his decision-making.
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