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Pentagon

The Truth-Teller: From The Pentagon Papers To The Doomsday Machine

April 25, 2019 Daniel Ellsberg, Countercurrents.org , , ,
After graduating from Harvard with an economics degree and completing service in the US Marines, I worked as a military analyst at the RAND Corporation. In 1961, in that role, I went to Vietnam as part of a Department of Defense task force and saw that our prospects there were extremely dim. It was clear to me that military intervention was a losing proposition. Three years later, I moved from RAND to the Department of Defense. On my first day, I was assigned to a team tasked with devising a response to the alleged attack on the US naval warship USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin by the North Vietnamese.

Pentagon Claims 1,100 High Schools Bar Recruiters; Peace Activists Offer $1,000 Award If Any Such School Can Be Found

April 23, 2019 David Swanson and Pat Elder, Davidswanson.org , ,
According to statements in February by the Secretary of the Army, various U.S. high schools are barring military recruiters from access to students. The Secretary of the Navy this past December said that public school boards are keeping military recruiters out of 1,100 high schools. The two of us are offering a $1,000 prize (details below) to any public U.S. high school that can identify itself as fitting this description. Peace activists who struggle to gain admittance to high schools to present the case against military enlistment have not in recent years encountered a school that barred admittance to the military.

Pentagon: 95,613 Whistleblower Complaints, Trillions Of Tax Dollars Unaccounted For

March 28, 2019 David DeGraw, Degraw.media ,
According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, in fiscal years 2013 – 2018, the Department of Defense Inspector General (DOD IG) received 95,613 whistleblower complaints.  As trillions of tax dollars in military spending have gone unaccounted for, the DOD IG has been receiving an average of 15,936 complaints per year. The overwhelming majority of those complaints are not investigated, and there is presently a record number of whistleblowers who have been retaliated against and silenced.

10 Mind-Blowing Pentagon Audit Reports All Americans Need To Know

February 20, 2019 Staff, Degraw.media , ,
While trillions of dollars in military spending have gone unaccounted for, a record number of Pentagon whistleblowers have been retaliated against and silenced. As you will read throughout this report, the chain of accountability has been effectively dismantled. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community Inspector Generals have been caught covering-up whistleblower reprisal cases and shutting down investigations. Prominent government insiders are speaking out. Many vital Inspector General positions have been vacated under scandalous circumstances.

The Arms Industry Gains Even More Power In Washington, DC

February 1, 2019 By Mandy Smithberger and William D. Hartung, Tomdispatch.com , ,
The way personnel spin through Washington’s infamous revolving door between the Pentagon and the arms industry is nothing new. That door, however, is moving ever faster with the appointment of Patrick Shanahan, who spent 30 years at Boeing, the Pentagon’s second largest contractor, as the Trump administration’s acting secretary of defense. Shanahan had previously been deputy secretary of defense, a typical position in recent years for someone with a significant arms industry background. William Lynn, President Obama’s first deputy secretary of defense, had been a Raytheon lobbyist. Ashton Carter, his successor, was a consultant for the same company.

Bases, Bases, Everywhere…Except In The Pentagon’s Report

January 11, 2019 By Nick Turse, Countercurrents.org , ,
The U.S. military is finally withdrawing (or not) from its base at al-Tanf. You know, the place that the Syrian government long claimed was a training ground for Islamic State (ISIS) fighters; the land corridor just inside Syria, near both the Iraqi and Jordanian borders, that Russia has called a terrorist hotbed (while floating the idea of jointly administering it with the United States); the location of a camp where hundreds of U.S. Marines joined Special Operations forces last year; an outpost that U.S. officials claimed was the key not only to defeating ISIS, but also, according to General Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East...

The Pentagon Failed Its Audit Amid A $21 Trillion Scandal (Yes, Trillion)

December 19, 2018 By Lee Camp, Truthdig.com , ,
New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was ruthlessly attacked recently, and I feel a bit responsible. I might have accidentally tainted her Twitter feed with truth serum. But that sounds weird—so let me back up. A few months ago, I covered the story of the $21 trillion that has gone unaccounted for at the Pentagon. That’s right—trillion with a T—an amount of money you can’t possibly come to terms with, so stop trying. Seriously, stop. It’s like trying to comprehend the age of the earth.

‘The Pentagon Has Steadfastly Stonewalled Against Making Its Budget Auditable’

December 18, 2018 Janine Jackson, Fair.org , ,
For those of us who remember the $640 toilet seat, the unbelievable absurdity of Pentagon spending has long been—while unbelievably absurd—taken for granted: The Department of Defense spends billions and billions on we know not what, year after year, tra-la.  Elite media reported that Congress passed a $700 billion Pentagon bill—more than Trump even asked for—and that was a blip, unchallenged, although the same press corps, faced with a proposal for healthcare, see themselves in the business of grilling proponents on how on Earth they would pay for it. Pentagon spending is untethered, unaccountable.

SJR 54 Will Not End the War In Yemen (Statement From March On The Pentagon)

December 5, 2018 By Cindy Sheehan, Cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com , , , ,
As the Senate prepares to debate Senate Joint Resolution 54, March on the Pentagon encourages Americans to read the text of the resolution and consider its actual implications. On November 28th, the Senate voted 63-37 to discuss the resolution on the Senate floor. In March, the same resolution was not approved. While November’s vote can be considered progress on the topic, the most important thing to note is that this resolution, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), does not call for an end to U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen and may very well only serve to pacify Americans that are only slightly aware or concerned about the issue.

Artificial Intelligence May Destroy Humanity By Accident

December 2, 2018 Lee Camp, Truthdig. ,
The U.S. military has quietly said it wants 70 unmanned self-driving supply trucks by 2020. And seeing as $21 trillion has gone unaccounted for at the Pentagon over the past 20 years, when the Pentagon wants something, it tends to get that something. Of course supply trucks in and of themselves don’t sound so bad. Even if the self-driving trucks run over some poor unsuspecting saps, that will still be the least destruction our military has ever manifested. But because I’ve read a thing or two about our military, I’ll assume that by “supply trucks,” they mean “ruthless killing machines.”

Pentagon Fails Its First-Ever Audit

November 18, 2018 By Idrees Ali, Mike Stone, Reuters , ,
Results of the inspection - conducted by some 1,200 auditors and examining financial accounting on a wide range of spending including on weapons systems, military personnel and property - were expected to be completed later in the day. “We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told reporters, adding that the findings showed the need for greater discipline in financial matters within the Pentagon. “It was an audit on a $2.7 trillion dollar organization...

The Pentagon Hits Home, Climate Changing Dinner & How To Address Addiction

November 8, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com , , ,
The Pentagon broadens its horizons to domestic surveillance and “insurrection” - the all seeing eye is focused on the home front. Next, if we wanna survive humanity's demise that our choices designed, we have to start making different choices – at the dinner table. Finally, Dr. Sheila Vakharia joins us to talk harm reduction, addiction and drug policy.

Militarizing The Economy In The Name Of Defense

November 2, 2018 By William D. Hartung, Tomdispatch.com , , ,
Given his erratic behavior, from daily Twitter eruptions to upping his tally of lies by the hour, it’s hard to think of Donald Trump as a man with a plan. But in at least one area -- reshaping the economy to serve the needs of the military-industrial complex -- he's (gasp!) a socialist in the making. His plan is now visibly taking shape -- one we can see and assess thanks to a Pentagon-led study with a distinctly tongue-twisting title: “Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States.” The analysis is the brainchild of Trump’s adviser for trade and manufacturing policy, Peter Navarro, who happens to also be the key architect of the president’s trade wars.

Reflections From The 2018 Women’s March On The Pentagon

October 27, 2018 Zhivko Illeieff, Medium.com , ,
The Women’s March on the Pentagon took place on October 20–21, 2018. The antiwar workshops, rally, and march were a call for women and their allies to organize on the 51st anniversary of the 1967 antiwar events in Washington D.C. during which 50,000 people tried to “levitate the Pentagon.” While we failed yet again to levitate the five-sided shrine to endless war, the 2018 March on the Pentagon was a potent example of what People Power looks like when it is directed against the U.S. bipartisan war machine. Hopefully, this essay will inspire those sitting on the sidelines to actively demand an end to U.S. military aggression abroad, and for all of us to keep marching forward.

Countdown To Women’s March On The Pentagon

October 15, 2018 Cindy Sheehan, Informationclearinghouse.info ,
October 13, 2018 "Information Clearing House" -  Women’s March on the Pentagon (WMOP) is excited to announce we are ready and rarin’ to go for our long anticipated march and rally at ground-zero for US imperialism. "We envisioned this principled non-partisan march on the bi-partisan war machine at the beginning of this year. Despite obstacles, we are excited that many people have been attracted to this long over-due antiwar march in Washington, DC," said one of the lead organizers, antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, from her home in California.
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