Victor Davis Hanson: Pentagon’s Partisan Letter Against Trump, Hegseth DEBUNKED

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown was fired from his post last month, along with several other high-ranking military officials. Many on the Left rushed to say that President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were “politicizing” the Pentagon. However, “This is not a politicization of the Pentagon. It's the depoliticalization”, argues Victor Davis Hanson in today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “ They said, ‘This is reckless, it hurts morale, and it will depress recruitment.’ Let’s analyze that for just a second. Recruitment reached near-record levels after the election of Donald Trump. It's on the way up. I was depressed prior to that. Why would it be depressed? If you go through the Pentagon data, it's very hard to decipher. “ More importantly, Leon Panetta signed this letter. He was one, also, of the 51 intelligence authorities that said, right on the eve of the election and a few days before the 2020 debate, that Hunter [Biden's] laptop, which was in the hands of the FBI and authenticated, had all the hallmarks of a Russian information, which meant disinformation, campaign. “ Bottom line: We don't need any more letters from so-called experts. They're always partisan. And they're to no effect.”

Pentagon Orders Removal Of Transgender Troops Within 60 Days

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks as he meets with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks as he meets with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff James Meyers
2:33 PM – Thursday, February 27, 2025

The Pentagon has ordered all transgender military service members to be removed from the military, unless they are granted a waiver showing they’re fit for “warfighting capabilities.”

According to a new memo filed on Wednesday evening, it was revealed that all service members who have “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria” are no longer eligible for military service.

The memo noted that: “the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals who have a current diagnosis or history off or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.”

The memo also cited President Donald Trump’s January 27th executive order, which states that allowing transgender people to serve in the armed forces threatens its readiness and undermines unit cohesion.

“Service by these individuals is not in the best interests of the Military Services and is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security,” Wednesday’s policy memo states.

Additionally, the memo orders the Pentagon to identify transgender individuals in the military within 30 days, and remove them within another 30 days, giving them an honorable discharge.

“Service members being processed for separation in accordance with this policy will be afforded all statutorily required rights and benefits,” the memo notes.

As for waivers, they will be considered on a case-by-case basis, citing the need for “compelling government interest”  in retaining individuals who “directly support war fighting capabilities” and meet standards associated with their sex.

The memo also says service members must show 36 months of stability in their gender, and that they have never attempted to physically transition.

In Trump’s first term, he issued a similar ban on transgender military personnel. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis tried to delay the implementation of the policy during Trump’s first term.

Nevertheless, Biden overturned the ban after he took office in January 2021, as the military pivoted to publicly celebrating openly transgender service members during his administration.

“Any policy that prevents transgender people from serving as transgender people — whether through an outright ban or through requirements to serve in one’s birth sex — is a ban, plain and simple,” Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote.

In January 2023, Major Rachel Jones was celebrated by the military for coming out as a transgender woman.

“Her journey from battling depression & suicidal thoughts to embracing authenticity inspires us all,” the Department of Defense posted on social media.

Other new requirements stated in the memo include that male and female service personnel will not share sleeping, changing, or bathing facilities that are designated for the opposite sex.

Furthermore, it stated that no Pentagon funding will go towards any sex reassignment surgeries or genital reconstruction surgeries.

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The RINO Plot to DERAIL a Key Trump Pentagon Nominee | The Mandate | 2/18/25

BlazeTV host Jill Savage and Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson discuss Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s meeting with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to investigate the botched Afghanistan withdrawal during Joe Biden’s presidency; Michelle King, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, and her reported resignation over the DOGE’s request to access information; the MAHA commission announced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; and the shocking impact of Donald Trump’s border policies in under a month. Blaze News senior political editor Christopher Bedford breaks down the GOP infighting over Pentagon nominee Elbridge Colby and Vice President JD Vance’s decision to step into the crossfire. Blaze Media digital media strategist Logan Hall explains the MAGA youth movement, how the Right can harness the movement for the future, and Trump reposting his Napoleon meme. Finally, Jill and Matthew poll the audience on what they think DOGE and Elon Musk will find at Fort Knox.

Pete Hegseth Begins First Day At Pentagon, Emphasizes Mission To Protect U.S. Sovereign Territory

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks with the media during his first official arrival at the Pentagon as Secretary in Washington, DC, January 27, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:35 PM – Monday, January 27, 2025

On his first day at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth expressed a message regarding the mission of the Department of Defense (DOD).

According to Hegseth, who was greeted by a group of reporters, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., said it was “an honor to serve on behalf of the president and serve on behalf of the country,” also noting, “The warfighters are ready to go.”

Hegseth then immediately shifted his focus to the border, recognizing that President Donald Trump was “hitting the ground running” with signed executive orders that designated cartels as international terrorist organizations while declaring an emergency at the southern border.

The DOD “snapped to” sending additional troops last week to install additional wall materials along the southern border, uplifting Trump and border czar Tom Homan’s efforts to ensure mass deportations.

“That is something the Defense Department absolutely will continue to do,” according to Hegseth.

“He’s [Trump] made it very clear. There is an emergency at the border,” Hegseth continued. “The protection of the sovereign territory of the United States is the job of the Defense Department.”

Last week, the Defense Department announced 1,500 active-duty service members and “additional air and intelligence assets” were being sent to the southern border “to augment troops already conducting enforcement operations in that region.”

After being asked whether more troops would be deployed to the border, Hegseth also added: “Whatever is needed at the border will be provided. Whether that is through state active duty, Title 32 or Title 10, because we are reorienting.” 

“This is a shift. This is not the way things have been done in the past,” Hegseth said. “The Defense Department will support the defense of the territorial integrity of the United States at our southern border to include reservists, National Guard and active duty in compliance with the Constitution, the laws of our land, and the directives of the commander in chief.” 

Hegseth, who served in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan, said he expected the White House to issue other executive orders later on Monday. These would include orders to halt diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts inside the Pentagon, to reinstate troops who were “pushed out” due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and to implement the construction of an “Iron Dome for America,” Hegseth noted.

“Every moment I am here I am thinking about the guys and gals in Guam, in Germany, in Fort Benning, in Fort Bragg, on missile defense sites and aircraft carriers,” Hegseth stated. “Our job is lethality and readiness and warfighting.” 

“We hold people accountable. I know the chairman agrees with that… The lawful orders of the President of the United States will be executed in this Defense Department swiftly and without excuse. We will be no better friend to our allies and no stronger adversary to those who want to test us and try us.” 

Additionally, in relation to aid for Afghans who previously collaborated with the U.S. government, the new secretary was questioned on that topic as well. In order to determine whether the payments are in line with his administration’s foreign policy, Trump issued an executive order last week that halted all U.S. international development aid for ninety days.

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THEORY: Did the Pentagon LIE About the New Jersey Drones?

New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew recently claimed that the mysterious drones hovering over New Jersey are being launched from an Iranian “mothership” off the U.S. coast. Is there any truth to this or the Pentagon’s denial that the U.S. military is involved? Glenn speaks with New Jersey Assemblyman Brian Bergen, who recently attended a “mind boggling” meeting with the Department of Homeland Security. DHS, he says, claimed to have no information at all on the drones, except that they’re untrackable. Something doesn’t add up here, Glenn says. So, he runs his own theory by Assemblyman Bergen: what if the military is lying to us?

Report: Trump Team Focuses on Pentagon Officers to Fire

Members of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team are drawing up a list of military officers to be fired, potentially to include the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two sources said, in what would be an unprecedented shakeup at the Pentagon.

The planning for the firings is at an early stage after Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris and could change as Trump's administration takes shape, said the sources, who are familiar with the Trump transition and requested anonymity to speak candidly about the plans.

One of the sources questioned the feasibility of a mass firing at the Pentagon. It was also unknown if Trump would endorse the plan, although he has railed extensively against defense leaders who have criticized him. Trump also spoke during the campaign of firing "woke" generals and those responsible for the troubled 2021 pullout from Afghanistan.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment.

A second source said the incoming administration would likely focus on U.S. military officers seen as connected to Mark Milley, Trump's former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley was quoted in the book "War" by Bob Woodward, which was published last month, calling Trump "fascist to the core" and Trump's allies have targeted him for perceived disloyalty to the former president.

"Every single person that was elevated and appointed by Milley will be gone," the second source said. "There's a very detailed list of everybody that was affiliated with Milley. And they will all be gone."

The Joint Chiefs of Staff include the highest-ranking officers in the U.S. military and comprise the heads of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, National Guard and Space Force. The disclosure of plans to fire senior leaders of the U.S. armed forces comes a day after Trump picked as his defense secretary Pete Hegseth, a veteran and Fox News commentator who has signaled a willingness to clean house at the Pentagon.

"The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired," Hegseth said in his 2024 book "The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free."

The first source familiar with the transition planning said Milley's successor, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, would be among the many officers to leave.

"The chiefs of the Joint Chiefs and all the vice chiefs will be fired immediately," the source said, before noting that this was still only early planning.

Some current and former U.S. officials have played down the possibility of such a major shakeup, saying it would be unnecessary and disruptive at a time of global turmoil with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The first source said that it would be difficult bureaucratically to fire and replace a large swath of senior U.S. military officials, suggesting the planning could be bluster and posturing by Trump allies. But the second source suggested the Trump camp believed the Joint Chiefs of Staff needed to shrink because of perceived bureaucratic over-reach. Such cuts could be endured in an organization the scale of the U.S. military, the source said.

"These people are not irreplaceable. They are very replaceable. And then the other thing too is there is no shortage of people that will step up," the source said. "In World War II, we were very rapidly appointing people in their 30s or people competent to be generals. And you know what? We won the war."

Why Is the Pentagon already WARGAMING Trump’s presidency?!

CNN has reported that Pentagon officials are already wargaming their plans for Trump’s second presidency. If Trump issues “controversial” orders, the Department of Defense may have a plan in place to thwart him. This would include the possibilities that Trump would deploy U.S. troops domestically or “fire large swaths of apolitical staffers.” Glenn points out how misleading CNN’s reporting on this is and asks, why is the Pentagon “having secret meanings wargaming what they’ll do against Donald Trump … All of those people should be fired.”

Pentagon Plans to Feed Troops Fake Meat Grown in Frankenstein Lab

Pentagon Plans to Feed Troops, Fake Meat Grown in Frankenstein Lab

This is sure to boost recruitment.

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/pentagon-plans-to-feed-troops-fake-meat-grown-in-frankenstein-lab/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Order a copy of Robert Spencer’s forthcoming book, "Muhammad: A Critical Biography," by clicking here.]

[Make sure to attend An Evening With Frontpage Editor Jamie Glazov in Los Angeles at the Luxe Hotel on Tuesday, June 18, 2024: Register HERE.]

America’s enemies are more emboldened than they have been since World War II. With Old Joe Biden and his henchmen at the helm, the nation is blundering toward an international crisis, or more than one, and couldn’t be less prepared for that eventuality. As the U.S. military has gone increasingly weak, recruitment has dropped to catastrophic levels and shows no signs of recovering.

But there is no cause to be alarmed: the Pentagon has a new plan that is sure to boost recruitment: it’s planning to feed troops fake meat cooked up in a lab — you know, to save the planet. Watch America’s best and brightest flock to join the ranks now!

The Washington Free Beacon broke the news of the plot to feed those who will give their lives to protect US Frankenstein meat on Thursday. It reported that “a Pentagon-funded company is seeking proposals to feed America’s soldiers lab-grown meat in a bid to reduce the CO2 footprint at Defense Department outposts.” Lab-grown meat. What could be more appetizing?

The Biden regime couldn’t have concocted a more effective plan if its goal was to prevent young men and women from joining the military. The Frankenstein meat scheme comes after the regime’s military has been busy purging the ranks of patriots, pushing Critical Race Theory and hosting drag shows. The Pentagon brass wonders why recruitment is down. Talk about not reading the room: isn’t there anyone still left in the military leadership who realizes that it’s young patriots who join the ranks and that all this woke propaganda acts as patriot repellant?

And now the military is compounding all that by giving recruits the prospect of finishing off a day filled with lessons about how America is an evil, racist, imperialist, colonialist, capitalist running dog with a hearty meal of toxic chemicals arranged into something that is supposed to resemble a steak. What could be more appealing? It’s a wonder that the various branches of the Woke Forces aren’t being overwhelmed with recruits.

Despite the fact that this fake meat is almost certain only to make a bad situation worse, Pentagon brass are all-in on the project and are busy forking over your money and mine to pay for Dr. Frankenstein’s culinary adventures: “BioMADE, a public-private company that has received more than $500 million in funding from the Defense Department, announced earlier this month that it is seeking proposals to develop ‘innovations in food production that reduce the CO2 footprint of food production at … DoD operational environments,’ according to an online announcement.”

What they’re doing is working with “novel cell culture methods suitable for the production of cultivated meat/protein,” that is, “lab-grown meat, a product that is still in its experimental phases. Is this type of meat is grown in a lab from animal cells with the aid of other chemicals.” Hungry yet?

BioMADE, “which earlier this year received a $450 million infusion of taxpayer cash—maintains that lab-grown food products will reduce the Pentagon’s carbon footprint, a priority for the American military as it pursues a Biden administration-mandate to address climate change and other cultural issues that critics describe as ‘woke.’” That’s terrific: throw hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars at a nonexistent problem, and feed the military disgusting lab-manufactured swill instead of real food.

Once again, the Biden regime’s insane policies invite the question: if the regime really was made up of traitors who wanted to subvert and destroy the United States, what would they be doing differently from what they’re doing already? Is there no one left among the Pentagon brass with the insight to see and the courage to enunciate the fact that the military is asking young people to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country and that maybe an effective recruitment plan would be to appeal to their patriotism and the greatness of the country?

The answer appears to be no. And so the Pentagon is looking at further depletion of the ranks, even as Russia, China, and Iran grow more emboldened by the day, and those hapless troops who are still part of this fiasco aren’t even going to be given actual food. The real tragedy of all this, however, will not play out until the nation faces an actual military confrontation. That day, unfortunately, is coming.

_________________________________________________________________

SEE ALSO:

https://newstalk870.am/is-us-department-of-defense-cooking-up-fake-meat-for-troops/

https://davidson.house.gov/2024/6/rep-davidson-introduces-the-real-meat-act-of-2024

https://www.ncba.org/ncba-news/news-releases/news/details/38239/cattle-producers-condemn-feeding-our-military-lab-grown-meat

https://www.tsln.com/news/up-to-500m-earmarked-by-dod-for-cell-cultured-meat-research-development/

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/06/11/exclusive-could-us-troops-be-used-by-pentagon-as-guinea-pigs-for-consumption-of-lab-grown-meat/

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/pentagon-wants-to-feed-troops-experimental-lab-grown-meat-to-reduce-co2-footprint/

https://wisconsinagconnection.com/news/cattle-ranchers-upset-over-lab-grown-meat-for-military

https://kissfm1053.com/ixp/136/p/is-us-department-of-defense-cooking-up-fake-meat-for-troops/

 

Did Iranian Agent Serving as Pentagon Chief of Staff Cause Death of 3 Soldiers?

How were terrorists able to perfectly time their drone attack without inside information?

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/did-iran-agent-serving-as-pentagon-chief-of-staff-cause-death-of-3-soldiers; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:


In September 2023, Pentagon Chief of Staff Ariane Tabatabai, an Iranian immigrant, was accused of having worked as an agent of the Tehran regime. Dissident media outlets produced emails that allegedly showed that Tabatabai had joined an initiative by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to coordinate operations and that she had even run her congressional testimony on Iran’s nuclear program past the head of an Iranian Foreign Ministry think tank.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center and Front Page Magazine had been among those to take the lead in warning about the potential danger posed by her and enemy agents in the Pentagon.

Tabatabai had served under Robert Malley, Biden’s Iran Envoy, who had been suspended from the Obama campaign for his backchannel contacts with Hamas, and has been under investigation for mishandling classified documents. But the emails appeared to show that she had personally worked for Iran and its influence operations aimed at the U.S. government.

Despite that she continued to be promoted until she is now the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC).

In January 2024, Iranian-backed terrorists launched their most successful single attack against an American base to date. The target was the living quarters where U.S  military personnel were stationed on an obscure support base in the Jordanian desert known as Tower 22.

While the drone attack would normally have been intercepted, the Iranian-backed terrorists had precisely timed the arrival of their drone to match that of an American drone returning home.

In the confusion, the Islamic terrorist drone was not intercepted and 3 American military personnel were killed and over 30 more were wounded. And it could have been worse.

The Iranians had known where the living quarters on the base were, what our procedures for drone arrivals and departures were, and when one of our drones would be coming back.

How were the Islamic terrorists able to precisely coordinate the arrival of their drone and ours?

Tower 22, located close to Syria and Iraq, was one of the bases that we helped Jordan build up during the Syrian Civil War. Under Obama, it was a key element for supporting the Syrian Sunni rebels while under Trump, it focused on fighting ISIS forces in Syria. Syrian Sunnis fleeing the country passed by, some were allowed to enter Jordan, while most, including some Sunni Jihadis, had to remain in what became known as the Rukban refugee camp.

The proximity of the Rukban camp to Tower 22 and the nearby Al-Tanf base would provide plenty of options for “refugees” to monitor and track the movements of American drones.

But Ariane Tabatabai’s presence in Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict raises another troubling possibility. Tower 22 was used as a jumping off point by special operators and the U.S. presence in that area falls under the shadow of the SO/LIC office.

Special operators had been stationed at Al-Tanf and the SO/LIC office would have potentially had access to a great deal of information about what was going on at Al-Tanf and Tower 22.

That indeed is why Tabatabai likely ended up in the office, not despite her ties to the Iranian regime, but because of them. During the campaign against ISIS, the United States came to rely on some of the same Iranian-backed Shiite Jihadist groups to do the heavy lifting on the ground.

Tabatabai could have been seen as a potentially useful backchannel for an office that was likely unofficially coordinating with Iran anyway. That would explain her initial role as a senior advisor.

But by elevating a former Iranian agent to a chief of staff of an office overseeing special operations, the Biden administration, the Pentagon and the SO/LIC may have been gambling that they could control that backchannel and that would have been a catastrophic mistake.

Late last year, 30 Senate members had urged the Pentagon to suspend her security clearance.

“Iran continues to threaten U.S. military personnel in the Middle East and remains intent on assassinating American citizens here in the United States. Given these facts, we find it simply unconscionable that a senior Department official would continue to hold a sensitive position despite her alleged participation in an Iranian government information operation,” they warned.

“Dr. Tabatabai was thoroughly and properly vetted as a condition of her employment with the Department of Defense,” a Pentagon spokesman claimed. “We are honored to have her serve.”

And the cost of that DOD decision may have been quite high, not just in security, but blood.

We don’t know how exactly Iran’s terror groups were able to closely coordinate the arrival of their drone with ours, but it’s hard to believe that it could have happened without either sloppiness, close observation or inside information. Operational security had clearly been compromised and in such a situation it’s the fundamental duty of the Department of Defense to examine its procedures, tighten its security and look into Iranian agents inside its offices.

There should be no place for current or former agents of an enemy government which is actively attacking and killing Americans inside the Pentagon. And yet Tabatabai is still there.

And she’s not alone.

Nor is she even the only Pentagon Chief of Staff with Islamic terror ties. Front Page Magazine’s ‘Disloyal Military’ investigations into enemy agents and wokeness within the military not only cast light on Ariane Tabatabai, but also on Yousra Fazili, the Chief of Staff for the Pentagon Comptroller, as well as other hostile figures in the government and the defense industry.

Yousra Fazili, the daughter of Kashmiri Muslim immigrants who studied Islamic religious law or sharia at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, a hub of Jihadist thinking, had testified in Congress in support of her cousin who had been arrested for his support for Islamic terrorists in India.

Fazili had worked for the Qatari ambassador, an ally of Iran, and which serves as a state sponsor of Hamas, and she had represented the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations known as a Muslim Brotherhood operation, co-founded by figures tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden, and she has cheered on pro-Hamas protesters.

Despite multiple congressional letters and warnings from Senate and House members, the Department of Defense has done nothing to clean its house and the clock is ticking.

We do not know if inside information led to the deaths of 3 Americans in the Iranian attack at Tower 22, but it is only a matter of time until foreign enemy agents inside the government end up passing information to Iran, Qatar or other Islamic terror states that gets our people killed.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center will continue investigating the enemy within and working to hold them and their enablers in the government accountable before it’s too late.

40,000 Weapons Sent to Ukraine Have Gone Missing: Pentagon IG

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
According to a report by the Pentagon inspector general, more than 40,000 weapons worth more than $1 billion were shipped to Ukraine but never made it to the battlefield.

Many of the weapons were sent to a U.S. military logistics hub in Poland, while others were shipped directly to Ukraine. The equipment includes shoulder-fired missiles, kamikaze drones, and night-vision goggles.

Alexandra "Sasha" Baker, the acting undersecretary of defense for policy, said last November, when a draft of the report was leaked, that required accounting procedures “are not practical in a dynamic and hostile wartime environment."

The IG report found that "American defense officials and diplomats in Washington and Europe had failed to quickly or fully account for many of the nearly 40,000 weapons that by law should have been closely monitored because of their battlefield impact, sensitive technology, and relatively small size," according to the New York Times.

I guess they were too busy, or something.

“These are identified as the items — that because of their sensitivity, their vulnerability to diversion or misuse or the consequences of that — it’s particularly important to have this additional tracking and accountability in place,” said Robert Storch, the Pentagon’s inspector general. Storch is the primary watchdog for American aid sent to Ukraine’s war effort.

The report was sent to Congress on Wednesday and a copy of it was provided to The New York Times. The Pentagon’s inspector general released a redacted version of it on Thursday. It did not investigate whether any weapons had been diverted for illicit use, which “was beyond the scope of our evaluation to determine,” it noted.

So, whose job is it to determine if terrorists got their hands on a couple of dozen shoulder-fired missiles? The flying public wants to know.

Perhaps before we send another $60 billion to Ukraine, we might want to put into place more effective means to track the weapons — just as Congress has demanded.

The findings released on Thursday will almost certainly fuel skepticism in Congress over providing more military aid to Ukraine; already, House Republicans are blocking a national security spending plan that would provide an additional $61 billion for the war effort as frontline troops begin to run out of weapons. Combined with Ukraine’s long history of corruption and arms smuggling, the demand for closer accounting is certain to rise.

That we're two years into the war and the Biden administration is just now getting serious about tracking American military assistance is ridiculous. It's a timely question considering weapons that were already "delinquent."

As much as 60 percent of the arms and equipment that were provided as of June were “delinquent,” either because they were delayed in being inventoried in a database designed to track them, or because they were never added after they left American or allied military stockpiles.

Laziness? Incompetence? Stupidity? Perhaps a combination of all three? One billion dollars worth of U.S. weapons, not to mention the technology that created them, has literally gone missing and the bureaucratic game of CYA is preventing the IG from finding out if the weapons were diverted or just lost.

Biden and the Pentagon have been stonewalling Congress about possible corruption by the second-most corrupt government in Europe since the beginning of the war. They could and should do a much better job of tracking these weapons to keep them out of the hands of bad actors who could turn those weapons on the United States.

Pentagon Declares U.S. Warship, Commercial Vessels Under Attack In Red Sea

The guided-missile destroyer USS Carney in Souda Bay, Greece. The American warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023 in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said, potentially marking a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war. “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon said. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Bill Dodge/U.S. Navy via AP)

The guided-missile destroyer USS Carney in Souda Bay, Greece. The American warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023 in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said, potentially marking a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Bill Dodge/U.S. Navy via AP)

OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
10:25 AM – Sunday, December 3, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/pentagon-declares-u-s-warship-commercial-vessels-under-attack-in-red-sea/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The Pentagon announced that a United States warship and several commercial vessels are under attack in the Red Sea.

On Sunday, the Pentagon declared that an American warship and several commercial ships have come under attack in the Red Sea.

Yemen’s Houthi Rebels, which is a Shia Islamist political and military organization, announced attacks on two ships that they claimed were linked to Israel, but did not recognize targeting a U.S. Navy vessel.

The strike might have been a significant escalation in a sequence of maritime assaults in the Middle East connected to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available, later,” the Pentagon announced. 

The Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, have been launching drones and cruise missiles in recent weeks at the USS Carney, a guided-missile destroyer of the Arleigh Burke-class. 

As a result, the Houthi rebels have taken credit for the strike on Sunday. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is anticipated to provide an update shortly.

Additionally, the British military earlier mentioned that there had been an anticipated drone attack and several explosions in the Red Sea, but did not elaborate further. 

The Pentagon failed to disclose where it believed the fire originated. However, as the Jewish state fights Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and firing missiles and drones at Israel.

A U.S. authority, speaking about intelligence-related topics while maintaining anonymity, announced that the attack started at approximately 10:00 a.m. in Sanaa, Yemen, and went on for about five hours.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree also announced the attacks, explaining that the first vessel was struck by a missile and that the second was hit by a drone while in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that is connected to the Red Sea near the Gulf of Aden.

Additionally, Saree did not acknowledge any American warship being included in the attack. He stated that the attacks will continue “as long as Israel continues its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”

Even as a temporary ceasefire brought the Israel-Hamas war to a halt and Hamas exchanged hostages for Palestinian prisoners, global shipping has become an increasingly prominent target of the conflict.

However, the likelihood of the seaborne attacks returning had increased with the breakdown of the truce, the restart of the Israeli airstrike, and its ground offensive.

U.S. forces in the Middle East have been struck approximately 75 times since the middle of last month. However, the Pentagon does not count attacks on American warships at sea in this amount.

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Ex-Employee of Hamas Ally Worked as Pentagon Special Assistant for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Programs

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/10/ex-employee-of-hamas-ally-worked-as-pentagon-special-assistant-for-nuclear-chemical-and-biological-programs;

AND: https://www.frontpagemag.com/pentagon-cfos-chief-of-staff-has-family-ties-to-islamic-terrorism/

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

yousra-fazili-750x420.webp

The Department of Defense has been taken over by our enemies.

How badly have we been infiltrated?

Consider the state of the Department of Defense. In late September, we learned that Ariane Tabatabai who had worked with the Iranian government and secretly promoted their agenda before appearing to testify in Congress was working as the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict.

Now, Rep Jack Bergman is demanding answers over Yousra Fazili who worked for the Islamic terror state of Qatar and now works at the Pentagon. In 2022, she became the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs at the U.S. Department of Defense

Yes, you read that correctly. From working for an Islamic terror state to Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological. Now she’s
the Chief of Staff for the Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer of the Pentagon.

Do we have any kind of security screenings anymore?

Rep. Bergman’s letter to Secretary of Defense Austin points out that, “Ms. Fazili “served as a ‘strategic’ advisor to Meshal Al-Thani, the Qatari Ambassador to the U.S., for over three years, until not long before she rejoined the Pentagon in a senior staff position and then was promoted twice to her current role.”

How does one go from working for a foreign nation to working in a top position at the Pentagon anyway?

But it gets worse.

“Ms. Fazili was working closely with the Qatari Ambassador at the time that her client was targeting prominent Americans in an effort to silence Qatar’s critics, including the then-Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, and the former acting head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Morell.”

Qatar, which is an Islamic terror state that backs Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other Islamic terrorist groups, actively plotted to target members of Congress.

It continues to provide sanctuary for Hamas leaders. And it’s an ally of Iran.

What’s the Pentagon’s response?

In a three-paragraph response to Bergman last month, DOD’s Rheanne Wirkkala said that Fazili was hired and vetted “in accordance with all appropriate laws and policies,”

Same as the response to employing an Iranian agent in a top position at the DOD.

We have been infiltrated in plain sight. Our national security has become a joke. This will take more than just a housecleaning to fix.

_____________________________________________________________

Muslim Pentagon Chief of Staff with Terror Ties Attacks Israel, Cheers Hamas Supporters

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/10/muslim-pentagon-chief-of-staff-with-terror-ties-attacks-israel-cheers-hamas-supporters;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

We don’t just have Hamas supporters in Congress, we also have them in the Pentagon.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center recently exposed Yousra Fazili’s family ties to Islamic terror.

In 2019, Yousra Fazili addressed a congressional hearing to complain about the arrest of her cousin by Indian authorities. The woman who now serves as Chief of Staff for the Pentagon Comptroller claimed that her cousin was the innocent victim of oppressive Indian authorities.

In reality, as the Hindu Post noted, Shah had “lionized Kashmiri jihadists, agreed with a description of convicted terrorists as ‘inspirations for the youth,’ and promised that ‘we all are ready to spill our blood’” to keep the region Muslim. On Facebook, Shah appeared to have posted a picture describing Mohammad Afzal Guru, an Islamic terrorist tied to the ‘The Army of Muhammad’, which is affiliated with Al Qaeda, as the “Pride of Kashmir”.

Yousra Fazili had studied Islamic religious law or sharia at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University before receiving a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies from Harvard. She was recorded showing up at the UN Economic and Social Council representing the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations known as a Muslim Brotherhood operation. The IIFSO was co-founded by figures tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden.

Yousra Fazili had also worked for a Qatari diplomat. Qatar is a state sponsor of Hamas. Hamas is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Yousra Fazili, who works as the Chief of Staff for the Pentagon Comptroller, reacted to Israel’s campaign to stop Hamas exactly as one would expect.

“Let Gaza Live,” read one Instagram post that Fazili reposted. She went on to praise students at Harvard for a series of pro-Palestinian rallies accusing Israel of “genocide” and demanding an immediate ceasefire.

“I’m so proud of these kids at Harvard,” Fazili wrote, referring to an effort by media watchdog groups to identify the leaders behind the pro-Palestinian rallies. “The leaders all got doxxed this week & undeterred they continue to organize and come out strong.”

Writing about Israel’s expected ground operation into the Gaza Strip, Fazili claimed the Jewish state has already destroyed the Hamas-run enclave and should not send in troops.

“I can’t help but think, what’s left to destroy?” she wrote in an Instagram posting that depicts what appears to be rubble in the Gaza Strip. “Is this helping find the hostages? Who in their right mind can see this and not believe in a ceasefire?”

In another post, Fazili displays pictures of a mass anti-Israel demonstration held over the weekend in Washington, D.C., and wrote that “ceasefire is what everyone should be pushing for.”

There was a ceasefire reached right before the Hamas attacks. The only thing that a ceasefire does is allow Hamas to regroup and prepare for the next attack.

It’s not bad enough that we have these people in Congress, but we also have them occupying prominent positions in the Pentagon.

 

Pentagon: 2,000 U.S. Troops To Be Deployed For Israel-Hamas War

GettyImages-1715983389-800x534.jpg

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed and damaged building in the heavily bombarded city center of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip following overnight Israeli shelling, on October 10, 2023. Israel pounded Hamas targets in Gaza on October 10 and said the bodies of 1,500 Islamist militants were found in southern towns recaptured by the army in grueling battles near the Palestinian enclave. (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN’s James Meyers
2:13 PM – Monday, October 16, 2023

The Pentagon has reportedly selected 2,000 U.S. troops to be prepared for deployment to help Israel in the nation’s ongoing war with Hamas.

Officials stated the selected troops would not serve in a combat role, but would instead be assigned to “medical support or advisory duties.”

2,000 personnel are stationed in other regions of the Middle East and Europe as well. However, it has not yet been determined what needs to happen in order for the group to be deployed, the Journal reported.

The announcement comes after the Pentagon revealed a second aircraft carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, will be placed in the eastern Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to send airstrikes into Gaza after Hamas launched a surprise terrorist attack on the Jewish State, killing over 1,200 Israelis.

President Joe Biden was set to deliver a speech in Colorado regarding “Bidenomics” on Monday, however, he met with officials to discuss the efforts on the war in Israel instead.

“This morning, President Biden and Vice President Harris were briefed by their national security team on the latest updates in the wake of Hamas’s abhorrent attack in Israel and the resulting conflict in Gaza,” said a White House official.

Sources told the news outlet Axios that while Iran does not want the conflict to escalate, it is prepared to intervene either directly or indirectly, with a possible military group in Syria or Lebanon.

Since the war began, Israel has called up around 360,000 reservists as it prepares for a ground invasion into Gaza.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

Chief of Staff of Pentagon Counterterrorism Office Served Iranian Gov.

Senior adviser worked on a secret Iranian government propaganda campaign.

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/chief-of-staff-of-pentagon-counterterrorism-office-served-iranian-gov/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

[Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]

In 2016, Ariane Tabatabai co-wrote an article arguing that the United States should ally with Iran against ISIS. The Iranian immigrant suggested the United States Air Force could “provide air cover for Iranian-backed militia” and “the US and Iran can share intelligence on targets”. Finally, she warned that “excluding Iran, the region’s major Shia state, from the international coalition built to fight ISIS worsens the regional sectarian conflict, ultimately playing into ISIS’ hands.”

Tabatabai’s bio now describes her as the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. Up from a Senior Advisor last year. The ASD(SO/LIC) office advises the Secretary of Defense on counterterrorism and it’s hard to think of a better place for a woman accused of being an Iran regime apologist to find herself in.

Almost as good as her former role representing the United States in the Iran negotiations.

In 2021, when the State Department had brought in Tabatabai as a senior adviser to the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, a congressional letter urged that her security clearance be pulled. The letter stated that Tabatabai “has echoed Iranian regime talking points and has made excuses for Iran’s oppressive government.

“Why would we hire someone… who has access and security clearance to some of the most sensitive and important issues there [and] who obviously has had a relationship with the administration in Iran?” Rep. Van Drew asked.

Biden’s State Department Spokesman Ned Price claimed that she “was thoroughly vetted and investigated before being granted the position. Any suggestion of security-related concerns about Dr. Tabatabai is baseless and illegitimate.” He fumed that, “we will not sit idly by as our employees—dedicated public servants—face personal smears and slander.”

Now a Semafor article by former Wall Street Journal chief correspondent Jay Solomon based on materials gathered by Iran International’s dissident media channel has revealed emails showing Tabatabai’s participation in a secret Iranian government to influence the United States.

In 2014, a year before Tabatabai began working as a NATO consultant, she joined an initiative by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to mobilize “Iranians who have established affiliations with the leading international think tanks and academic institutions, mainly in Europe and the US.”

Tabatabai, along with Dina Esfandiary, her co-author on the proposal to have the United States ally with Iran, who is currently a senior Middle East advisor to George Soros’ Crisis Group, allegedly became members of the “core group” of Iran’s influence operation.

Before Tabatabai testified about the Iran Deal in Congress, she allegedly checked in with the head of an Iranian Foreign Ministry think tank. “I am scheduled to go to the Congress to give a talk about the nuclear program. I will bother you in the coming days,” she wrote.

In 2015, while Tabatabai was consulting for NATO, serving as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Kennedy’s Atom/International Security Program, and teaching at Georgetown University, the Iranian government was bragging about her propaganda. Emails containing her articles were circulated from the Iranian Foreign Ministry operation all the way to Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

Ariane Tabatabai personally forwarded her propaganda articles, including one claiming that Iran really needs nuclear energy and doesn’t intend to use it as a weapon.

In one leaked message, Tabatabai emailed her handler her article, co-written again with Esfandiary, titled, “Meeting Iran’s nuclear fuel supply needs”. “Our goal was to show what is said in the West – that Iran does not need more than 1500 centrifuges – is wrong, and that Iran should not be expected to reduce the number of its centrifuges,” she allegedly told her handler.

Her handler then forwarded the email to Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif.

Before the Biden administration brought Tabatabai on board to negotiate with the Iranians, she was actually providing propaganda to bolster the nuclear arguments of Iran’s negotiators.

It’s unknown when Ariane Tabatabai stopped working with Iran’s government. Or if she ever did. The exact degree of entanglement is unclear, but Tabatabai asked for permission from her handlers before visiting or meeting foreigners which implies that she was working for Iran.

When Saudi Prince Turki al Faisal proposed having her visit Saudi Arabia, Tabatabai emailed her handler asking, “I would like to know your opinion; would you be interested in this?”

This is the language of an agent acting on behalf of an enemy nation and raises legal questions.

In 2018, she became a senior fellow at the liberal Center for a New American Security whose members typically staff incoming Democrat administrations. That same year she also joined RAND which acts as the think tank for the military. At that point, it was virtually certain that the next Democrat administration would bring her into the State Department and on defense issues.

In 2021, Robert Malley, Biden’s Iran special envoy, currently under investigation for mishandling classified documents, who had turned over the negotiations to Iran lobbyists, brought Tabatabai into the negotiating team where she spent over a year before leaving over an undisclosed issue.

There were multiple red flags about her even before the release of the emails.

Iranian dissidents had repeatedly warned about her ties to the regime. And even her own article on Iran’s “counterterrorism” in which she claims that Iran is actually fighting against terrorists, draws on “several years of fieldwork in Iran, interviews with current and former officials”.

But the Biden administration chose to ignore those warnings and it has refused to address the emails, replying that it won’t comment on “purported leaked Iranian government documents.”

Even in the face of serious evidence that the State Department and the Department of Defense are employing an enemy government agent, the Biden administration is not backing down.

The speed with which Tabatabai, who had been living in Iran during the Ahmadinejad 2009 election, has been able to fully penetrate the highest echelons of our national defense in a little over a decade is a testament to the national security collapse within a disloyal bureaucracy.

Under the Obama administration allegiance to the Iran Deal came to matter more than allegiance to the United States. Anyone willing to argue, as Tabatabai was, that Iran was eager to make a deal and could be trusted to keep to its terms had a smooth glide path into the liberal defense establishment that was busy sidelining the ‘hawks’ skeptical of Iran’s intentions.

Churning out articles like “Why Regime Change in Iran Wouldn’t Work” and “Don’t Fear the Hard-Liners” didn’t make Ariane Tabatabai look like an Iranian government propagandist, but like an Obama administration propagandist. Even while the Obama administration was covertly investigating its political opponents for ties to Israel and Russia, it had so thoroughly blurred the lines that Iranian propagandists couldn’t be told apart from administration figures.

Under Biden, who was backed by Iran lobby figures and benefited from an Iranian hacking campaign, the two groups have blended together so much that they are indistinguishable.

Robert Malley was the prototype of figures like Ariane Tabatabai and others who are not merely anti-American in the traditional leftist fashion but appear to have outright foreign allegiances. The Left, like most extremist movements, is no longer capable of making such distinctions. And neither is a government whose foreign policy ranks are being populated by Iran Deal advocates.

Tabatabai’s elevation from Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict shows how deep the rot is in the Department of Defense. The DOD, entrusted with defending the nation, has allowed itself to be suborned into ignoring national security and its allegiances in order to do the bidding of the Biden administration.

Not just politics, but the most fundamental kind of national security, requires urgent cleaning house in the Pentagon. It’s either that or handing over control over our government to our enemies.

Avatar photo

Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Biden Overrules Pentagon and Names a Female Admiral to Head the Navy

Biden Overrules Pentagon and Names a Female Admiral to Head the Navy

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/07/22/biden-overrules-pentagon-and-names-a-female-admiral-to-head-the-navy-n1712822;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Joe Biden is obsessed with “firsts” — especially when it comes to naming minorities to positions in his administration. Biden has prioritized “diversity” over almost everything else, including merit, experience, and judging by some of his choices, intelligence (we’re looking at you, Mayor Pete).

So it was no surprise when Biden announced that the new chief of naval operations would be Adm. Lisa Franchetti — the first woman to lead the Navy and the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The backstory to Franchetti’s nomination, as told by Politico, is that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had two slates of nominees for Biden to examine, including two choices for the top job and other nominations for open posts. One slate that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed had Adm. Samuel Paparo, who leads the U.S. Pacific Fleet, named as chief of naval operations. Paparo had several years on the front lines facing down China in the South China Sea.

The other slate had Franchetti ascending to the top spot from her post as Vice Chief of Naval Operations — a post she’s held for less than a year. So Biden chooses a rookie to match wits with the Chinese military. Paparo will now head up the Indo-Pacific Command.

Austin, the good soldier, took the snub quietly and without apparent malice.

The president doesn’t normally hand-pick the Navy’s top officer, so Biden’s decision to tap Franchetti for the job could be seen as a rebuke of Austin. But the move has not caused tension in the relationship, Sullivan said on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum.

“The president had the chance to sit with the secretary of Defense, and they worked this slate together, and this is the slate, and that’s a good thing,” he said.

Asked if there was any daylight between Biden and Austin, Sullivan said, “I don’t believe there is.” Both men ended the discussion “feeling very good about where we are,” he said.

“As our next chief of naval operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti will bring 38 years of dedicated service to our nation as a commissioned officer, including in her current role of vice chief of naval operations,” Biden said in his statement. “Throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas.”

What do you suppose the Russians and Chinese think about all this “diversity”? I guess if/when we go to war with either of them, we’ll find out.

But the unintended irony of Biden in criticizing Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) for holding up Pentagon nominations over the military’s policy on abortion is laughable.

“What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong — it is dangerous,” said Biden. “In this moment of rapidly evolving security environments and intense competition, he is risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And his Republican colleagues in the Senate know it.”

By overriding the recommendation of his defense chief and putting in a less experienced female for the top job in the Navy, who is “risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world?”

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Adm. Franchetti’s new position as Secretary of the Navy. We apologize to our readers for this error. 

Pentagon Leaks Imply World War III Has Already Begun~Pentagon leaker arrested

Pentagon Leaks Imply World War III Has Already Begun

Rep. Mike Turner: Pentagon leak is very dangerous

Pentagon leaker arrested: Suspect accused of publishing classified Ukraine war updates

FBI agents arrested Massachusetts Air National Guardsmen Jack Teixeira at a home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday in relation to a trove of classified documents that have been leaked online in recent months. Police vehicles were seen at the Massachusetts location believed to be connected with the guardsman. The guardsman's security clearance and access to classified government systems have been revoked, according to an internal government document reviewed by Fox News. The guardsman worked on military intelligence systems on a full-time basis, Fox News is told.

BY KEVIN DOWNEY, JR.

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/columns/kevindowneyjr/2023/04/12/pentagon-leaks-imply-world-war-iii-has-already-begun-n1686589;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Remember when leftist harpies screeched that Trump would start World War III? They were only off by one president.

HISTORY-O-RAMA! World War II started in Eastern Europe and Asia, and here we are 70-plus years later looking at a similar situation. 

According to a leaked document dated March 23, 2023, the UK, the United States, and several other European nations have boots on the ground in Ukraine.

What the Leaked Document Tells Us

  • There are roughly 50 British special forces troops in Ukraine.
  • Latvia has 17 troops in Ukraine, France has 15, and the U.S. has 14 elite troops on the ground.
  • The leaked documents do not reveal where the troops are located or in what capacity they are being utilized.

We also know the U.S. has already sent troops to Taiwan as Chinese ships have taken offensive positions around the island nation.

So the U.S. might be secretly fighting a war against a major European power and no one knew about it. Has this happened before? Yes, in the months leading up to World War II.

The U.S. Navy was actively — and secretly — fighting German U-boats well before the two nations declared war on each other. And American fighter pilots called the Flying Tigers voluntarily fought for China against Imperial Japan in 1937 — years before the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor officially brought the United States into the global conflict.

England’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) is claiming the leaked documents are inaccurate and can’t be trusted. “The widely reported leak of alleged classified US information has demonstrated a serious level of inaccuracy,” the MoD declared.

The Pentagon isn’t denying there was a leak of substantive intel (although officials say the documents look as though they’ve been manipulated). Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has defiantly promised to “investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it.”

Related: Leak of Classified Documents on Ukraine, China, and the Middle East a ‘Nightmare’ Says Pentagon

Meanwhile, as in World War II, battle lines are being drawn.

Hungary has penned a deal with Russia for energy. As per the leaked documents, Egypt has quietly been supplying Russia with rockets — allegedly up to 40,000. Egypt denies the accusations, and the United States has claimed it has no evidence of Egyptian rockets being funneled to Russia.

And let’s not forget that China’s lead commie, Xi Jinping, visited Russia last month.

China and Russia secretly met with Iran to discuss supplying the Islamic nation with sanctioned fuel needed for missiles.

China is actively trying to replace the U.S. dollar with China’s yuan, a move that some finance gurus claim could devastate the U.S. economy — which could make paying for WWIII difficult.

What Have We Learned?

If the leaked documents are accurate, we’ve learned what many of us already assumed: Joe Biden has sent troops to Ukraine, in addition to the roughly $100 billion he’s already sent.

Russia and China have been hobnobbing together, and the two nations have held secret meetings with Iran to discuss supplying them with sanctioned missile fuel.

China is trying to cripple the United States economically.

China is surrounding Taiwan with warships.

The United States, the UK, France, and Latvia all have troops in Ukraine. NATO can’t be far behind.

If history teaches us anything, it’s this: all of this activity looks a lot like the beginning of World War III.

WATCH: Pentagon Official Confronted Over Military’s 5 Consecutive Failed Audits

WATCH: Pentagon Official Confronted Over Military's 5 Consecutive Failed Audits

Kathleen Hicks

Jon Stewart SHREDS ‘Corrupt’ Pentagon During Scathing Defense Secretary Interview

Jon Stewart spoke with Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks at the 2023 War Horse Symposium. Stewart confronted Hicks about the difficulty of auditing the Defense Department. Stewart alludes to the size of the budget relative to the salaries of Defense Department staffers who are living off of food stamps and not making a living wage. Stewart begins by asking Hicks about the Defense Department's inability to pass an audit for the past 20 years. Hicks explains that the department has been working to improve its auditing process, but that it is a complex task. Stewart then asks Hicks about the salaries of Defense Department staffers. He points out that the department has a budget of over $800 billion, but that many of its employees are living below the poverty line. Hicks acknowledges that this is a problem, and says that the department is working to address it. Stewart concludes by saying that he believes the Defense Department's inability to audit itself is "corruption." He says that the department is not being held accountable for its spending and that this is a problem that needs to be addressed.

LONG VIDEO:

BY BEN BARTEE

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/04/11/watch-pentagon-official-confronted-over-militarys-5-consecutive-failed-audits-n1686307;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The U.S. military suffers from a severe accounting deficiency.

Via Responsible Statecraft, Nov. 2022:

Last week, the Department of Defense revealed that it had failed its fifth consecutive audit… 

The Pentagon only managed to account for 39 percent of its $3.5 trillion in assets…

The news came as no surprise to Pentagon watchers. After all, the U.S. military has the distinction of being the only U.S. government agency to have never passed a comprehensive audit.

But what did raise some eyebrows was the fact that DoD made almost no progress in this year’s bookkeeping: Of the 27 areas investigated, only seven earned a clean bill of financial health…

The Pentagon’s most famous recent boondoggle is the F-35 program, which has gone over its original budget by $165 billion to date. But examples of overruns abound: As Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jack Reed (D-RI) wrote in 2020, the lead vessel for every one of the Navy’s last eight combatant ships came in at least 10 percent over budget, leading to more than $8 billion in additional costs.

Conservatives who want the state to run like a business should be rightfully outraged that the U.S. military, with its $886 billion effective budget request for 2023, expects that it can skate by with five consecutive failed audits and somehow still escape any kind of fiscal reckoning from the institutions of public trust tasked with its oversight.

Related: Leak of Classified Documents on Ukraine, China, and the Middle East a ‘Nightmare’ Says Pentagon

Jon Stewart recently pressed Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks on this issue. Unforthcoming, defensive, and condescending, she came out looking less than stellar. If her mission was to assuage public concerns over how her bosses put to use the hundreds of billions of dollars with which they are entrusted, she failed.

The entire six-minute clip is worth watching, if for no other reason than to gain a deeper appreciation of the hubris and disdain that bureaucrats like Hicks have for the media and the public that consumes it. No one in a position of authority has reminded them that they are public servants for years, and so naturally they are offended by probing questions about their publicly-funded activities.

Here is a truncated version of Stewart’s questioning, as transcribed via Task & Purpose:

Now, I may not understand exactly the ins and outs, and the incredible magic of an audit. But I’m a human being who lives on the Earth and can’t figure out how $850 billion to a department means that the rank and file still have to be on food stamps. To me, that’s f***ing corruption. And I’m sorry. And, if like, that blows your mind and you think that’s like a crazy agenda for me to have, I really think that that’s institutional thinking.

New Evidence of Corrupt Dealings Between Amazon, Pentagon

New Evidence of Corrupt Dealings Between Amazon, Pentagon

SALLY DONNELLY:

Sally Donnelly

ANDRE PIENAAR:

André Pienaar

TERESA CARLSON:

Teresa Carlson, President and Chief Commercial Officer, Flexport

BY LUIS MIGUEL

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/new-evidence-of-corrupt-dealings-between-amazon-pentagon/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Silicon Valley’s growing influence over government has extended deep into the Pentagon, placing America’s national security in jeopardy.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, is pressing the Pentagon to reopen its investigation into a former official whose ties to e-commerce giant Amazon raise questions about ethics behind a government contract signed while she was in the Department of Defense.

According to a report by Breitbart, Grassley has uncovered new information relevant to a closed DOD probe into Sally Donnelly, who served as the senior advisor to Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis during the Trump administration.

Donnelly was under investigation by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DOD OIG) for her financial ties to British financier André Pienaar, receiving over $1 million of payments from him while she served in the Pentagon.

Pienaar has done business with Amazon, and Donnelly served in the administration at a time when Amazon was seeking to land a $10 million contract for an ambitious Department of Defense cloud-computing project known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure or JEDI.

Donnelly sold her share of SBD Advisors, an Amazon consulting firm, just prior to entering the DOD in 2017.

Donnelly, who worked as a Time magazine journalist for 20 years prior to going into the Pentagon for the first time in 2007, has been a Defense fixture since that time, having served in the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. She currently serves as a Pentagon advisor as a member of the Defense Business Board.

At the conclusion of its investigation into the matter on April 13, 2020, the DOD OIG concluded in its final report: “We determined that Ms. Donnelly did not violate any ethical agreements and obligations regarding Office of Government Ethics financial disclosures, [and] did not give preferential treatment to Amazon officials or restrict access to Secretary Mattis for other industry leaders.”

But according to new evidence obtained by Grassley, Donnelly failed to disclose just who had purchased her consulting firm — something Grassley argues was pertinent to the DOD OIG probe and could have affected its conclusion.

As Breitbart notes:

After pressing the DOD OIG for the Purchase and Sale Agreement for Donnelly’s company, Grassley found that the DOD OIG only had a copy with the identity of the purchaser’s name redacted, and that the DOD OIG had argued to him that the identity of the purchaser was not relevant to their investigation. Grassley said he finally obtained an unredacted copy of the Purchase and Sale Agreement in October 2022 — long after the DOD OIG ended its investigation — which revealed that an entity named VMAP Investor, LLC (VMAP) had purchased her firm. The “AP” in VMAP are the initials of its part-owner, Andre Pienaar.

Pienaar is not only the CEO and founder of C5 Capital — one of Donnelly’s clients — but at the time he was also dating — and later married — the Amazon Web Services executive who was then in charge of the company’s bid for the lucrative defense contract, Teresa Carlson.

“Knowledge of the entity that purchased her firm is relevant and central to the question of whether a conflict of interest existed and could have substantively affected the protocols required to wall off Sally Donnelly from potential and actual conflicts of interest while employed at DoD,” Grassley wrote to the DOD OIG.

The senator added, “Based on information collected for this investigation, the DoD OIG’s conclusion concerning Ms. Donnelly’s lack of financial connection to C5 appears to be inaccurate. Indeed, two senior C5 officials, including the founder of C5 Capital, were involved in the purchase of SBD Advisors LLC–connections that existed while Donnelly was at DoD and received payments from the sale of her company.”

Another individual involved in the creation of VMAP, per Grassley’s findings, was Vincent Mai, the chairman and CEO of the private equity firm Cranemere and an individual owner of C5 Holdings in Luxembourg.

Originally, the JEDI contract fell under investigation and was canceled. But under Biden, it was brought back to life as the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC, and awarded to four companies — including Amazon — at $9 billion over five years. Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are also on board.

“The purpose of this contract is to provide the Department of Defense with enterprise-wide globally available cloud services across all security domains and classification levels, from the strategic level to the tactical edge,” the DOD said of JWCC.

Is it wise for the Pentagon to trust its cloud-computing needs — and thus, the lives of service members and the American citizens they are fighting to protect — with companies friendly to the very foreign adversaries our military is supposedly guarding against?

Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are all cozy with Communist China — the country that recently sent what many say was a spy balloon over the United States — a balloon that may have been put together with the help of American manufacturing.

If China, by means of its friends in Silicon Valley, is already being handed the reins of the Pentagon’s cloud, then any future conflict between China and the United States will be nothing more than kabuki theater. Beijing has already won.

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