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Breaking: The Valkyrian government designated the Reizen Independence Movement as a terrorist organisation. The Reizen Democratic Party was designated as a terrorist organisation in October 2017.
Have a comment? ![[Image: 50]](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/qvwi/images/4/4e/KTN_logo.svg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/50){kind=logo} ![[Image: 200]](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/qvwi/images/6/67/KTN_News_logo.svg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200){kind=logo} Valkyrian government sheds light on military secrets By Skylar Briggs, KTN News Saturday, 15 September 2018 ![[Image: 640]](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/qvwi/images/e/ea/Valkyrian_flag_gold.svg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/640) Declassified flag of the Virtuti Stockholm (KTN) — Acting upon the directions of Chancellor Margaret Harrison, Secretary of Defence Julia Burns has declassified government documents that acknowledge the existence of a secretive elite military unit within the Valkyrian Defence Forces. Until 9 September 2016, the Neptune Group was considered the most elite military unit in the Valkyrian Defence Forces and the preceding Qvaitican Defence Forces. However, Harrison gave Burns instructions to form a new military unit within the Valkyrian Special Services that would be "more secretive and more prestigious" than the Neptune Group, which was once a component of the Qvaitican Navy. While the state was operating as a monarchy, the new military unit was named the Kingdom of Valkyria Special Operations Group or KVSOG, but was renamed as the Valkyrian Republic Special Operations Group or VRSOG upon the transition of Valkyria into a republican state.
According to now partially declassified transcripts of meetings of the Qvaitican Defence Council, then-Vice President Burns; Secretary of Defence Clayton Russell; and Secretary of Intelligence and Security Victor Cutter proposed the formation of the unit in May 2016. While the transcripts were partially redacted, unredacted text shows that then-President Harrison was amicable to the idea of forming such a unit. Burns, who at the time was the first and only female servicemember of the Neptune Group, was the first person to propose the elite military unit and received endorsements from Russell and Cutter. After the unification of Qvait and Winston Island, the proposition received approval from now-Chancellor Harrison and an order was given to now-Secretary of Defence Burns to recruit servicemembers from other special forces units within the newly organised Valkyrian Defence Forces.
Given the codename Virtuti, any knowledge of the new special forces unit was limited to the servicemembers part of it; operatives of the Intelligence Directorate, Sections 1 and 2 on a need to know basis, members of the Valkyrian Defence Council, the Leader of the Opposition, and members of the parliamentary defence and intelligence committees. Immediately upon the creation of the Virtuti, General Ivan Miller was named as the commanding officer for the unit and has since remained in his position. Despite acknowledgement of the existence of the Virtuti, the specific activities of the unit since its formation remain unknown. However, declassified documents claim that the primary activities of the Virtuti are counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, hostage rescue, and unconventional warfare.
![[Image: vYoqCGEl.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/vYoqCGEl.jpg) Margaret Harrison in September 2018 Throughout the Qvaitican presidential election campaign in mid- to late-2015, then-Representative Harrison promised that she would mainly exercise soft power with neighbours and said that hard power would be reserved as a last resort. Since becoming President of Qvait and later Chancellor of Valkyria, Harrison has reduced the military population, but she has introduced two aircraft supercarriers that were in production before taking office and formed the Valkyrian Aerospace Service. Since 2016, the Valkyrian military has seen fewer annual deployments than the Qvaitican military had seen at any point in its history. In February 2018, Harrison told the KTN that "Valkyria is an apex predator that shows extraordinary restraint".
Harrison is the daughter of Johnathan Ambrose, the fourth President of Qvait from 1985 to 1990. In the early era of the Qvaitican Republic, Ambrose was the most liberal in his deployment of the Qvaitican Defence Forces to respond to acts of terrorism and insurgency. During his presidency, Ambrose often utilised the military to respond to domestic incidents rather than utilising law enforcement agencies. When protests were taking place in Stockholm in opposition to his government, Ambrose placed the military in charge of "keeping the peace" instead of allowing local and national police handle protests. In every passing year, the military budget increased relative to gross domestic product during the Ambrose presidency and the scope of the military's involvement in various state affairs also increased.
In 2002, Harrison earned a doctorate in international relations from the University of Sydney and was salutatorian in her graduating class. From 2002 to 2004, Harrison worked as an official in the Qvaitican Department of State and was tasked with policy negotiations with foreign counterparts. Returning home, Harrison campaigned to become mayor of Darwin in 2005 and won. When asked about her father, Harrison said that she "want[ed] to undo the wrongs of [her] father". In 2012, Harrison was elected to the Qvaitican House of Representatives and became a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which she would eventually become a ranking member of in 2014. During her time in the House of Representatives, Harrison consistently voted against increases in the military budget, deployments of the Qvaitican military, and several declarations of war.
Harrison's track record on military affairs has been met with criticism and scepticism by members of the Alliance of Social Democrats and hawkish foreign policy figures for differing reasons. Labor MP Jason Sullivan, a longtime activist who participated in protests against Ambrose, told the KTN that he believes that Harrison is no different than her father, "On the surface, she says these things to placate dovish foreign policy analysts, but she also secretly builds up our military, which is the same thing her father did when he ruled this land with an iron fist." On the other end of foreign policy, Opposition Leader Nicole Chancellor says Harrison's agenda of reducing the military budget is "weakening the ability of Valkyria to defend itself against its enemies".
KTN poll (10–14 September 2018) 3,000 Valkyrian servicemembers, ± 2 per cent
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With the acknowledgement of the existence of the Virtuti, Sullivan said that it proves his suspicions of Harrison. Since her election as President of Qvait in 2016, Sullivan has been an intraparty critic of Harrison and drew comparisons between her and her father, claiming that Harrison is "just as authoritarian" as Ambrose. On the other side of politics, the Leader of the Opposition said that the acknowledgement of the Virtuti "damages the security of the state". Chancellor argued that the most elite units in the Valkyrian Defence Forces should be able to operate in "a cloud of secrecy, which has been defogged by this acknowledgement". In a press release, Burns challenged the claims made by Sullivan and Chancellor by stating, "Increased military bureaucracy prevents unconstitutional and unlawful acts to be undertaken by Valkyrian servicemembers and the VRSOG does not need complete secrecy to complete its assigned operations."
So far, many military operations between September 2016 and August 2018 involving the Virtuti remain highly classified and the Valkyrian government is not clarifying whether currently available redacted documents of military operations include activities of the Virtuti. Harrison's press secretary Ivan Jennings said, "Some military operations involving the VRSOG will be declassified, but I am unable to give a timetable for their public release." When asked whether the Virtuti was involved in anti-cultist activities within Valkyria, Jennings could not comment on the question but said, "To the best of my knowledge, the [Office of Cultist Movement Investigations] is the only unit within the national government handling cultist activities."
Some military operations conducted by the Virtuti have been declassified and the Valkyrian government has gone public with the fact that it was preparing to locate and smuggle slaves out of Qaweritoyu to live as refugees in Valkyria. The operation was "put on the shelf" when President Davis reversed Prime Minister Joanna Barrett's attempt to legalise slavery. After an earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Sydney on 29 August 2017, the Virtuti was involved in military rescue efforts, picking up stranded people with boats. In one case, the Virtuti was responsible for rescuing a woman and her dog from her car, which was pulled off the road by the rushing water. When Bruuma invaded Erinor in December 2017, the Virtuti was tasked with clearing naval mines and providing assistance to Erinorian forces on Sereva Island.
However, the Virtuti was implicated in the October 2017 sexual harassment scandal within the Valkyrian Defence Forces when 204 female servicemembers came forward and reported sexual misconduct. With Burns having promised a "full-throated investigation", two members of the Virtuti were court-martialed, dishonourably discharged, and sentenced to serve six months in military prison. In total, 119 servicemembers were dishonourably discharged from the Valkyrian Defence Forces for sexual misconduct as a result of the investigation. As a result of being dishonourably discharged, the two members of the Virtuti were stripped of their security clearance. Due to the nature of their discharge and the level of their security clearance, the Intelligence Directorate, Section 4 has been tasked with maintaining surveillance on the two former servicemembers.
![[Image: q4kXzQ7l.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/q4kXzQ7l.jpg) Headquarters of the Intelligence Directorate, Section 1 in September 2018 According to the documents that were declassified by the Valkyrian government, the Intelligence Directorate, Sections 1 and 2 formed units specifically for cooperation and coordination with the Virtuti. In the case of the Intelligence Directorate, Section 1, the agency maintains a unit called the Special Operations Coordination Centre or SOCC. As the name of the unit suggests, the SOCC coordinates the operations assigned to the Virtuti, but the unit also coordinates with other special forces units in the Valkyrian Special Services. The Intelligence Directorate, Section 2 maintains a unit called the Special Operations Supplementation Centre or SOSC. The SOSC is tasked with compiling various forms of intelligence for potential military operations and providing such compilations to the SOCC.
Since 2016, the SOCC and SOSC has been presented as two possible career paths for retiring servicemembers of the Virtuti. According to Secretary of Intelligence Jonathan Wade, applications from former or retiring Virtuti servicemembers to serve in these units are favoured over intra-agency applications to transfer to the SOCC or SOSC. Despite being part of two different agencies within the Intelligence Directorates, the two units remain in constant communication and pool their resources. According to Burns and Wade, blurring the line between the SOCC and SOSC is necessary in order to "maximise the chances of success of special operations". Because of a policy of interdependence between the two units, interagency transfer applications between the SOCC and SOSC are often accepted.
The declassified documents state that the education requirements of the Virtuti are demanding. To be a member of the Virtuti, servicemen need are required to attend classes at the Valkyrian Academy of Defence and Intelligence, a state-owned university for members of the Valkyrian Defence Forces and the Intelligence Directorates. The ultimate goal for the Valkyrian government is for members of the Virtuti to have earned two doctoral degrees. One degree must be in the field of intelligence studies, international studies, or national security; the other degree is one of each servicemember's choosing. To protect the identities of servicemembers and members of the Intelligence Directorates, the roster of the Valkyrian Academy of Defence and Intelligence is classified by the Valkyrian government and students are advised not to tell other people that they attend or attended the university until they no longer work in either the Valkyrian Defence Forces or the Intelligence Directorates.
Before Cutter left his post as the Qvaitican Secretary of Intelligence and Security upon the unification of Qvait and Winston Island, he and Burns both discussed with Harrison the possibility of opening an educational institution for government personnel whose responsibility was national security. The Valkyrian Academy of Defence and Intelligence was opened on 12 August 2016 when Burns was then serving as the Valkyrian Secretary of Defence. The reasoning for opening such an institution was that having a highly educated workforce in the field of national security and a continuing education would improve the security of Valkyria. According to statistics provided by the Valkyrian government, nearly 80 per cent of members within the Valkyrian Defence Forces and the Intelligence Directorates are enrolled at the Valkyrian Academy of Defence and Intelligence. If servicemembers and government agents want to further their careers in national security, their education requirements at the Valkyrian Academy of Defence and Intelligence rise accordingly.
![[Image: rUm7lZjl.png]](https://i.imgur.com/rUm7lZjl.png) Julia Burns in July 2018 The upward mobility of Valkyrian servicemembers matches the career of Burns, who pursued a doctorate in international studies at the University of Stockholm while serving in the Qvaitican Navy. By the time she was honourably discharged from the military, Burns had served in the Neptune Group and was one year away from earning the doctoral degree. After Burns was named by Harrison as the vice presidential nominee of the Labor Party, the first item on her agenda was military reform. Burns was clear with what she wanted to change about the military she once served as a part of. Some proposals Burns brought up in meetings with Harrison were the formation of a military branch solely dedicated to special operations, the selling of "surplus" military assets to friendly neighbouring states, and rising education requirements and continuing education for career advancement.
In these meetings, Cutter was supportive of these proposed reforms and believed that the reforms would be even more beneficial if they also applied to members of the Qvaitican Intelligence Community. Burns and Cutter agreed on many national security issues and had the ear of a supportive Harrison. Since becoming the head of government of Qvait and now Valkyria, Harrison's military policy has been reductions in the military budget and subsidised education for servicemembers. Due to their contributions, Burns and Cutter have been named as the founders of the Valkyrian Academy of Defence and Intelligence. Despite having support from the general population, a KTN poll shows that 61 per cent of Valkyrian servicemembers opposed Harrison's military policy.
In press conferences, Burns has repeatedly said that the reforms to the military were made to give and reinforce critical thinking skills for Valkyrian servicemembers and give them a continuing education that can only improve their capabilities in the field. Aside from strengthening the Valkyrian Defence Forces, Burns says that requiring servicemembers to attend the Valkyrian Academy of Defence and Intelligence in order to advance their careers helps with a project called the Reemergence Programme. In the wake of the Great Pacific Wars, many Qvaitican servicemembers were struggling with post-traumatic stress. When Harrison brought reforms to the Valkyrian Defence Forces and opened the Valkyrian Academy of Defence and Intelligence, many veterans of the Great Pacific Wars were given vacation time to solely attend classes and therapy and spend time with friends and family.
Burns told the KTN that the reforms made by Harrison in 2016, from the restructuring of the military to providing a continuing education to servicemembers, will be the reason why the Valkyrian Defence Forces will remain the "most powerful military in the South Pacific" despite a major reduction in overseas deployments. The Secretary of Defence said that "manpower is not a guarantor of military success because the victors of war are determined by the strategy of belligerents". In Saturday's release of declassified documents, Burns says that the reforms made to the Valkyrian Defence Forces will make the servicemembers some of the "most educated members of Valkyrian society" and future Secretaries of Defence may exclusively come from apolitical backgrounds instead of active Members of Parliament.
KTN's Allie Vega and Lyle Williams contributed to this report. Have a comment?
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