The Department of Defense is looking to acquire up to 100,000 Human Remains Pouches, the military-grade body bags used in war zones and disaster areas, on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which plans to reserve them for civilians as the coronavirus pandemic continues to claim American lives.
According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/pentagon-seeking-100-000-body-bags-for-civilians-in-virus-crisis">Bloomberg News</a>, the Pentagon plans to allocate an unspecified number of pouches to FEMA from a body-bag stockpile at the Department of Defense, which retains about 50,000 of them. The news agency also reported that the Department of Defense is also looking to purchase additional body bags, but that order has not yet been placed, according to a person familiar with the matter. It&#8217;s unclear how many of the body bags the department plans to purchase, and how many body bags will be diverted from the stockpile.
The company that supplies the Department of Defense with the Human Remains Pouches is currently trying to “assess it’s manufacturing capabilities,” reports the news agency. A spokesperson for FEMA told the news agency that they were preparing for &#8220;mortuary contingencies&#8221; as part of a &#8220;prudent planning&#8221; effort.&#8221;
The report comes approximately 24 hours after President Trump warned the American public to prepare for a “hell of a bad two weeks.”
“As a nation we’re going to have a really rough two weeks. Our strength will be tested and our endurance will be tried,” Trump said during a coronavirus press conference on Tuesday. “This could be a hell of a bad two weeks. This is going to be a very bad two or maybe even three weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we’ve never seen before.”
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/white-house-coronavirus-expert-predicts-up-to-200000-us-coronavirus-deaths.html">NBC News</a> on Monday that the Trump administration expects between 100,000 and 200,000 American fatalities, even if the country engages in social-distancing “almost perfectly.”
“I think everyone understands now that you can go from five to 50 to 500 to 5000 cases very quickly,” said Dr. Birx in the interview. “I think in some of the metro areas we were late in getting people to follow the 15-day guidelines.”
“We’ve looked at the Italy data with their self-isolation, and that’s where we come up with if we do things together well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities. We don’t even want to see that,” said Dr. Birx.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House coronavirus expert, has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-projects-100000-to-240000-u-s-deaths-from-virus">maintained</a> some optimism about the projected fatalities, saying “this is a number we need to anticipate, but we don’t necessarily have to accept it as being inevitable.”
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-announces-new-timeline-for-coronavirus-guidelines-projected-peak">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported, President Trump provided updated social-distancing guidelines on Sunday, and also predicted that the country could “expect” to begin the recovery process by June 1.
“I want the American people to know that your selfless inspiring and valiant efforts are saving countless lives,” Trump said. “You are making the difference. The modeling estimates that the peak in death rate is likely to hit in two weeks.”
“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won,” Trump continued. “That would be the greatest loss of all. Therefore, the next two weeks and during this period, it’s very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines, have to follow the guidelines that our great vice president holds up a lot.&#8221;
“I want every citizen in our country to take heart and confidence in the fact that we have the best medical minds in the world, tackling this disease,” said the president. “We have the best scientists, the best researchers, the best talent, anywhere working night and day to protect your family and loved ones and to overcome this pandemic. With the grace of god, we’re rising to the occasion.”

Coronavirus Pandemic Causes Climate Of Anxiety And Changing Routines In America

Report: Pentagon Helping FEMA Acquire 100,000 Body Bags

Coronavirus

COVID-19

FEMA

Pentagon

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper revealed to the press Tuesday that the Pentagon has initiated the process of activating two Navy hospital ships — one on the West Coast and one on the East Coast — to help with the federal coronavirus response.
&#8220;We’ve already given orders to the Navy… to lean forward in terms of getting them ready to deploy,&#8221; Sec. Esper told reporters Tuesday, as reported by <a href="https://news.usni.org/2020/03/17/pentagon-preparing-navy-hospital-ships-mercy-comfort-for-coronavirus-response">U.S. Naval Institute News</a>.
The two hospital ships that have begun activation are USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) and USNS Comfort (T-AH-20), which are homeported at Naval Station San Diego, CA, and Naval Station Norfolk, VA, respectively, and both have a 1,000 bed-capacity.
Activating the hospital ships, Sec. Esper explained, will help &#8220;take the pressure off of civilian hospitals when it comes to trauma cases, to open up civilian hospital rooms for infectious diseases.&#8221;
&#8220;The ships will now begin the several days-long process of bringing aboard medical staff and equipment ahead of deploying along the East and West coasts, a defense official confirmed to USNI News on Tuesday afternoon,&#8221; the outlet reported. To fully mobilize personnel takes a week or more, officials say.
&#8220;The big challenge isn’t the availability of these inventories, it’s the medical professionals,&#8221; Esper explained. &#8220;All of those doctors and nurses either come from our medical treatment facilities or they come from the reserves, which means civilians.&#8221;
&#8220;What I don’t want to do is take reservists from a hospital where they are needed, just to put them on a ship, to take them somewhere else where they are needed,&#8221; the Defense Secretary added. &#8220;We’ve got to be very conscious of that.&#8221;
&#8220;Two sources told USNI News that the idea was for the ships to provide relief for coastal hospital systems, with the ships taking on non-COVID-19 cases and allowing the hospitals to focus on the most critical patients suffering from the virus,&#8221; USNI News explains. &#8220;The Pentagon also has extensive equipment for erecting field hospitals in addition to the hospital ships, but those facilities are optimized for trauma cases, with several beds close together, and not for infectious patients.&#8221;
“In some ways we want to be the last resort,” Esper said.
As reported by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-military/white-house-preparing-to-call-on-military-to-boost-coronavirus-medical-response-idUSKBN2143DP">Reuters</a>, the White House said earlier Tuesday that it has been in talks with the Pentagon about the Army Corps of Engineers helping to set up field hospitals as part of the mitigation plan.
&#8220;The Army Corps of Engineers is ready, willing and able, we have to give them the go ahead if we find that it&#8217;s going to be necessary, we think that we can have quite a few units up very rapidly,&#8221; Trump said Tuesday.
Sec. Esper confirmed that he was willing to deploy the Army Corps of Engineers to set up field hospitals, but noted that doing so would require the military to go through a laborious contracting process that could slow things down. Contracting at the state or local level, he suggested, would be more efficient.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vice-president-pence-when-coronavirus-outbreak-over-economy-will-come-roaring-back">Vice President Pence: When Coronavirus Outbreak Over ‘Economy Will Come Roaring Back’</a>

USNS Mercy

U.S. Navy Activates Hospital Ships For Coronavirus Response

Donald Trump

Trump Administration

U.S. Navy

On Wednesday, a 61-year-old female contractor for the Pentagon was charged with providing classified U.S. intelligence to a Lebanese national allegedly connected with the terrorist group Hezbollah.
The <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/defense-department-linguist-charged-espionage">Department of Justice</a> announced:
<blockquote>Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was charged today in the District of Columbia with transmitting highly sensitive classified national defense information to a foreign national with apparent connections to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization that has been so designated by the Secretary of State. According to the affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint, the information Thompson gathered and transmitted included classified national defense information regarding active human assets, including their true names.  By compromising the identities of these human assets, Thompson placed the lives of the human assets and U.S. military personnel in grave danger.</blockquote>
The FBI <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1255731/download?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=govdelivery">affidavit</a> states:
<blockquote>Starting on or about December 30, 2019, a day after U.S. airstrikes against Iranian-backed forces in Iraq, and the same day protesters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Iraq to protest those strikes, audit logs show a notable shift in Thompson’s networked activity on networked Department of Defense systems accredited to process and store information up to the Secret level. A review of Thompson’s activities on those government-owned systems showed that Thompson accessed information Thompson did not have a legitimate need to access. Specifically, from on or about December 30, 2019 to on or about February 10, 2020, Thompson accessed approximately 57 files concerning eight human intelligence resources. These files contained classified national defense information including true names, personal identification data, background information, and photographs of the human sources, as well as operations cables detailing information the human sources provided to the United States government.</blockquote>
As <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/pentagon-linguist-charged-with-exposing-us-spies-to-hezbollah/">National Review</a> noted, “On February 19 FBI agents searched Thompson’s Erbil residence and discovered documents under her mattress with the names of three U.S. intelligence assets, as well as a warning for the target of one of those assets.”
The affidavit noted:
<blockquote>Data obtained from the Co-conspirator’s internet account showed an image that read “Hizbollah” in large Arabic letters. The image was used as the “cover image” for a group the Co-conspirator had joined through the internet account. Review of a second of the Co-conspirator’s internet accounts … revealed photographs of Hizbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stored in the Co-conspirator’s account.</blockquote>
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers stated, “While in a war zone, the defendant allegedly gave sensitive national defense information, including the names of individuals helping the United States, to a Lebanese national located overseas. If true, this conduct is a disgrace, especially for someone serving as a contractor with the United States military. This betrayal of country and colleagues will be punished.”
Timothy R. Slater, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, added:
<blockquote>Today&#8217;s announcement is a testament to the U.S. government&#8217;s commitment to protecting the U.S. from the unauthorized disclosure of classified information that can put our country at serious risk of damage &#8211; damage to people and damage to our country&#8217;s capabilities. Human assets are the core of the U.S. government&#8217;s intelligence, and they have our assurance that we will go above and beyond to protect them.  I want to thank the men and women at the FBI and our partners here and abroad who answered the call to assist on this fast-moving investigation. The FBI is charged with protecting our nation&#8217;s security and information for a safe and secure tomorrow for all Americans &#8211; we take this duty seriously and will not stand by while supposedly trusted individuals violate that trust in such an egregious way.</blockquote>

Aerial view of a military building, The Pentagon, Washington DC, USA

Female Contractor For Pentagon Charged With Sneaking Classified Info To Man Allegedly Connected With Terrorist Organization

Hezbollah

In a statement this week, the Pentagon officially confirmed that not only did it track reports of UFOs, or as they call them &#8220;unidentified aerial phenomena,&#8221; for several years &#8212; it&#8217;s still doing it, at least to some degree.
&#8220;In a statement provided exclusively to The Post, a Department of Defense spokesman said a secret government initiative called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program &#8216;did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena,'&#8221; the <a href="http://nypost.com/2019/05/22/the-pentagon-finally-admits-it-investigates-ufos/">New York Post</a> reported Wednesday.
Though the AATIP was officially shut down in 2012, Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood acknowledged that the DOD does still investigate &#8220;reports of unidentified aircraft encountered by US military aviators.&#8221;
&#8220;The Department of Defense is always concerned about maintaining positive identification of all aircraft in our operating environment, as well as identifying any foreign capability that may be a threat to the homeland,&#8221; Sherwood told the Post. &#8220;The department will continue to investigate, through normal procedures, reports of unidentified aircraft encountered by US military aviators in order to ensure defense of the homeland and protection against strategic surprise by our nation&#8217;s adversaries.&#8221;
For a reaction, the Post turned to <a href="http://www.nickpope.net/">Nick Pope</a>, a journalist and author who once ran the British government&#8217;s secret UFO investigation team, who called the Pentagon&#8217;s admission a &#8220;bombshell revelation.&#8221; Previous statements by the department, said Pope, were deliberately &#8220;ambiguous&#8221; about the nature of the investigations, leaving open the possibility that they simply monitored potential &#8220;next-generation aviation threats from aircraft, missiles and drones,&#8221; rather than &#8220;what the public would call &#8216;UFOs.'&#8221;
The term used by Sherwood, &#8220;unidentified aerial phenomena&#8221; (UAP), Pope pointed out, is the same term the British Ministry of Defence used as an attempt to &#8220;get away from the pop culture baggage that came with the term &#8216;UFO.&#8217;'&#8221;
While a Pentagon spokesman going on the record to acknowledge the department&#8217;s investigations into &#8220;UAP&#8221; may be something of a &#8220;bombshell,&#8221; information about the AATIP and the department&#8217;s continued investigations into sightings was revealed to the public over a year ago. In December 2017, The New York Times broke the story of &#8220;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html">The Pentagon&#8217;s Mysterious U.F.O. Program</a>.&#8221;

&#8220;In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find. Which was how the Pentagon wanted it,&#8221; the Times reported. &#8220;For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon&#8217;s C Ring, deep within the building&#8217;s maze.&#8221;
The Times noted that the department had &#8220;never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012,&#8221; but said &#8220;backers&#8221; and &#8220;officials with the program&#8221; revealed that it &#8220;remains in existence,&#8221; continuing to &#8220;investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.&#8221;
The program began in 2007, the Times reported, and its biggest advocate was former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who is a &#8220;space phenomena&#8221; enthusiast and whose &#8220;longtime friend,&#8221; billionaire entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, benefited from the millions of taxpayer dollars directed toward his aerospace research company.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24789/no-tinfoil-hats-here-defense-departments-secret-hank-berrien">Defense Department&#8217;s Secret Program Investigating UFOs Revealed</a>

Pentagon Admits It Investigates UFOs

On Friday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/defense-secretary-james-mattis-to-leave-as-of-january-1-trump-taps-patrick-shanahan-as-acting-secretary-of-defense"> Shanahan</a> confirmed that the Pentagon has authorized an additional $1.5 billion to extend the wall along the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/topic/border-wall">U.S.-Mexico</a> border 80 more miles.
Shanahan stated, according to <a href="https://www.stripes.com/pentagon-to-shift-1-5-billion-in-funds-to-help-build-us-mexico-border-wall-1.580522">Stars and Stripes</a>: &#8220;The Department of Defense is fully engaged in addressing the crisis on our southwest border, with more than 4,000 servicemembers and 19 aircraft currently supporting the Department of Homeland Security. Today, I authorized the transfer of $1.5 billion toward the construction of more than 80 miles of border barrier. The funds were drawn from a variety of sources, including cost savings, programmatic changes, and revised requirements, and therefore will have minimal impact on force readiness.&#8221;
The additional $1.5 billion comes after the transfer of $1 billion for an additional 60 miles of wall in Yuma, Arizona and El Paso, Texas, that was made in March.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-approves-plan-to-shift-1-5b-for-wall-along-us-mexico-border">Fox News</a> reports, &#8220;But the plan to divert Pentagon funding has sparked criticism from congressional Democrats, who accused Shanahan of not seeking approval to &#8216;reprogram&#8217; the funds without congressional authority. Shanahan and other senior defense officials claimed in response they did not have to get permission from Congress despite the objections from Democratic lawmakers.&#8221;
The funds being transferred come from the Afghan Security Forces Fund, which <a href="https://www.dsca.mil/programs/afghanistan-security-forces-fund-asff">describes itself</a> as providing &#8220;assistance to the security forces of Afghanistan to include the provision of equipment, supplies, services, training, facility and infrastructure repair, renovation and construction, and funding.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20190223/news/302239932">AP reported</a> in late February that Shanahan visited the southern border and asserted, &#8220;How do we get out of treating the symptoms and get at the root of the issue? I don&#8217;t want to just add resources and not fix the problem.&#8221; AP wrote, &#8220;Shanahan said he was not volunteering the Pentagon to take over any part of border control, which is the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security. But he said his visit led him to question whether there should be a &#8216;wholesale redesign&#8217; of the way border control is done by the federal government.&#8221;
<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/443156-pentagon-approves-transfer-of-15b-to-trump-border-wall-from-afghan-forces">The Hill reported</a> on Friday that Democrats would fight against transferring money for the wall:
<blockquote>
The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/442973-house-panel-advances-bill-to-block-military-construction-funds-for-border-wall">advanced a bill</a> that would prohibit using military construction funds on a border wall. The prohibition, included in the fiscal 2020 military construction and veterans affairs appropriations bill, would prohibit funds from the 2015 through 2020 fiscal years from being &#8220;obligated, expended or used to design, construct, or carry out a project to construct a wall, barrier, fence, or road&#8221; along the U.S. southern border. And House Armed Services Committee Chairman <a data-nid="188096" href="https://thehill.com/people/adam-smith">Adam Smith</a> (D-Wash.) told Shanahan during a panel hearing in March that the Pentagon would likely lose the reprogramming authority if it moved forward with the $1 billion funding transfer.
</blockquote>
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/05/09/big-boost-in-va-funding-could-be-halted-by-border-wall-funding-fight/">added</a>, &#8220;Funds for the wall should not be stolen from previously approved vital military construction projects that are a higher priority than any wall &#8230; Military construction dollars should be used only for the purpose they are provided, which is to support the Department of Defense&#8217; mission, service members and their families.&#8221;

Pentagon Moves Forward: Transfers $1.5 Billion For 80 More Miles Of Border Wall

Southern Border

After the Pentagon released a cache of documents outlining the United States&#8217; military&#8217;s policy towards cataloging &#8220;unidentified flying objects&#8221; &#8212;UFOs &#8212; the U.S. Navy promised to report UFO encounters to the public on a rotating basis. Now, though, they&#8217;re not so sure that&#8217;s a good idea.
<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ufo-sightings-2019-us-military-tic-tac-pentagon-navy-unidentified-aerial-1412272?utm_source=GoogleNewsstandUS&amp;utm_medium=Feed&amp;utm_campaign=Partnerships">Newsweek reports</a> that the Navy issued a statement last week indicating that they have no current plans to report UFO sightings or &#8220;unexplained aerial phenomena&#8221; encounters made by Navy pilots until they can draft formal procedures for handling, investigating, and disseminating such claims.
&#8220;There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air spaces in recent years,&#8221; the Navy said in a statement released to media on May 1. &#8220;The Navy is updating and formalizing the process by which reports of any such suspected incursions can be made to the cognizant authorities. A new message to the fleet that will detail the steps for reporting is in drafts.&#8221;
In an interview with The Washington Post, Joseph Gradisher, spokesman for the office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, admitted that the Navy has several encounters with &#8220;unexplained&#8221; or &#8220;unidentified&#8221; aircraft per month, but that, of course, not all of those encounters remain unexplained, and not all associated aircraft remain unidentified.
The revelation might seem like something straight out of &#8220;The X-Files,&#8221; but interest in the U.S. military&#8217;s UFO encounters has piqued since late 2017, when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html">a cache of declassified Pentagon documents</a> revealed that the government had been keeping closer tabs on UFOs and potential UFOs than Americans might have expected.
Included in the cache was a report from the USS Nimitz, which listed an incident in which &#8220;the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group tracked multiple UFOs off California&#8217;s Baja Peninsula, with pilots, radar technicians and other military officials confirming the mysterious technology,&#8221; according to Newsweek.
&#8220;At a certain point, there ended up being multiple objects that we were tracking,&#8221; one officer wrote in his official report of the incident. &#8220;They all generally zoomed around at ridiculous speeds, and angles and trajectories and then eventually they all bugged out faster than our radars.&#8221;
The New York Times also revealed, then, that former U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) had spearheaded a multi-year, multi-million dollar investigation into the Pentagon&#8217;s UFO files that included a special investigator charged with combing through UFO-related documents and a program to store and catalog UFO-related debris.
&#8220;Under [the investigator&#8217;s] direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena,&#8221; the NYT reported. &#8220;Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes. In addition, researchers spoke to military service members who had reported sightings of strange aircraft.&#8221;
The Pentagon program was ultimately discontinued, but branches of the U.S. military were charged with putting together a way for the public to examine UFO claims without having to wait years for the documents to be declassified. For now, though, it seems, the public will just have to wait a little bit longer.

The U.S. Navy Promised To Reveal UFO Encounters But Now They’re Not So Sure

Harry Reid

Science

On Wednesday, Interstate 68 in West Virginia was shut down for roughly four hours as threats were allegedly made to murder President Donald Trump and to blow up the Pentagon, according to <a href="https://wchstv.com/news/local/i-68-shut-down-near-west-virginia-maryland-state-line-due-to-investigation">WCHS TV</a>. West Virginia State Police stated that a 42-year-old male was detained for questioning when police found a firearm and explosive powder in his vehicle.
WCHS TV reported: &#8220;Troopers conducted a traffic stop about 10:30 a.m. for speeding in the eastbound lanes near Bruceton Mills. The traffic stop resulted in an investigation that led to the shutdown of the interstate.&#8221;
WBOY 12 News added, &#8220;State Police Captain Shallon Oglesby said that the shutdown on I-68 came after a routine traffic stop at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday for speeding along the eastbound lanes.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
UPDATE: State Police Captain Shallon Oglesby said that the shutdown on I-68 came after a routine traffic stop at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday for speeding along the eastbound lanes. <a href="https://t.co/ZdELcNIvuE">https://t.co/ZdELcNIvuE</a>
&#8212; WBOY 12News (@WBOY12News) <a href="https://twitter.com/WBOY12News/status/1110962185302392832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Updates when available.

Man Detained For Alleged Threat To Murder Trump, Blow Up Pentagon, Report Says

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense submitted its 2020 Defense Budget request, and it focused on the power struggle the U.S. is having with Russia and China as the two Communist superpowers try to dominate global affairs.
The Pentagon <a href="https://www.defense.gov/explore/story/Article/1782973/2020-defense-budget-request-focuses-on-great-power-competition/">noted</a> that the new budget calls for a 3.1% military pay raise, the largest increase in 10 years; it added:
<blockquote>
The budget request reflects focus on the great power competition with Russia and China, as called for in the 2018 National Defense Strategy. The past two budgets did begin to focus on the NDS, but the greater focus was on replenishing depleted munitions stocks and addressing readiness concerns that were the result of sequestration.
Space and cyber are the two newest warfighting domains. They got a big boost in defense dollars: $14.1 billion for space, a 10 percent increase over last year&#8217;s budget, and $9.6 billion for cyber, a 15 percent increase over last year &#8230; The budget request asks for funding for multidomain weapons and equipment upgrades. DOD has requested $2.6 billion for disruptive technologies such as hypersonics, $3.7 billion for unmanned and autonomous systems, $235 million for directed energy weapons, and $927 million for artificial intelligence and machine learning systems.
</blockquote>
The <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2019/Mar/12/2002099931/-1/-1/1/FY-2020-BUDGET-ROLLOUT-BRIEF.PDF">budget request</a> said of the funding for space that it is intended to &#8220;improve satellite communications capabilities; space-based warning, and space launch capacity.&#8221; The funding for the cyber-domain will be directed toward &#8220;offensive and defensive cyberspace operations; resilient DoD networks, systems, and modern multi-cloud environment.&#8221;
Funding for the air domain will support &#8220;5th Generation aircraft and extended range missiles&#8221; as well as &#8220;4th Generation aircraft capacity&#8221;; for the maritime domain to &#8220;increase strike options including unmanned&#8221; and to &#8220;grow the battle force fleet&#8221;; for the land domain to support &#8220;next-generation combat and tactical vehicles,&#8221; and for the multi-domain to support a &#8220;ground-based strategic deterrent, B-21 bomber, long-range stand off weapon, Columbia class submarine, missile warning, and NC3.&#8221;
The Trump administration has been determined to restore the American military to strength, and the Democrats taking the House of Representatives may impede that mission. As far back as June 2017, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis stated that he was shocked at the state of the American military&#8217;s readiness. Mattis <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/defense-secretary-jim-mattis-shocked-by-poor-state-of-us-combat-readiness/">told the House Armed Services Committee</a> that they should eliminate the Budget Control Act of 2011, stating that Congress had &#8220;sidelined itself from its active constitutional oversight role&#8221; by not funding American defense properly. He added, &#8220;It has blocked new programs, prevented service growth, stalled industry initiative and placed troops at greater risk &#8230; For all the heartache caused by the loss of our troops during these wars, no enemy in the field has done more to harm the readiness of our military than sequestration.&#8221;
But as the Heritage Foundation <a href="https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/postelection-rebuilding-the-us-military-just-became-much-harder">noted</a> just days after last November&#8217;s election, in which Democrats seized control of the House, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., has opposed increased defense spending, <a data-external="yes" href="https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/05/adam-smith-expects-future-defense-budgets-to-dip-below-716-billion/">stating</a> that the 2019 budget of $716 billion is &#8220;too high.&#8221;

Pentagon Issues 2020 Budget Request To Strengthen American Military. Dems Will Likely Oppose It.

Democratic Party

One day after President Trump&#8217;s State of the Union Address, which was heavy in its emphasis on border security and its imploring of Democrats to come to the negotiating table to avert a second partial government shutdown over the President&#8217;s desired border funding priorities, the Pentagon has announced that it is shifting 250 active-duty troops to the Texas-Mexico border to better prepare for the arrival of a new Central American migrant &#8220;caravan.&#8221;
NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/pentagon-moving-250-active-duty-troops-eagle-pass-texas-because-n967546?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma">reports</a>:
<blockquote>
The Pentagon is moving 250 active duty troops to the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, in advance of the arrival of a new caravan of migrants, according to a statement Wednesday by Defense Department spokesperson Capt. Bill Speaks.
The move reflects President Donald Trump&#8217;s mention of a &#8220;human wall,&#8221; but comes amid increasing frustration among Pentagon leaders with the continued border requests from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Under the new directive, the troops will be moved from Arizona to Texas and &#8212; in a sign of the Pentagon&#8217;s frustrations &#8212; will not represent an increase in the overall number of U.S. troops assigned to the border mission.
</blockquote>
The Pentagon currently has about <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/pentagon-moving-250-active-duty-troops-eagle-pass-texas-because-n967546?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma">2,400</a> active-duty troops stationed at the border right now. There were upwards of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pentagon-deploy-additional-3-750-u-s-forces-u-s-n966396">5,600</a> troops at the border around the time of the midterm election in November. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43104/more-1500-migrants-arrive-barrierless-us-mexico-kassy-dillon">reported</a> yesterday, the news of the shift of 250 active-duty troops comes closely on the heels of the Pentagon&#8217;s announcement of an additional 3,750 troops deployed to the border:
<blockquote>
On Sunday, the Department of Defense announced that an additional 3,750 U.S. forces would be deployed to the border for 90 days.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen called the caravan &#8220;lawless&#8221; and said the migrants would not be allowed to cross into the United States illegally.
&#8220;Approximately 2,000 aliens have arrived in northern Mexico as part of a &#8216;caravan&#8217; seeking to cross the border into Texas,&#8221; Nielsen said in a statement. &#8220;Illegal entry will not be tolerated and we stand ready to prevent it.&#8221;
</blockquote>
From a legal perspective, active-duty troops are not allowed to apprehend and detain illegal migrants in the same way that Border Patrol might. Instead, they assist with ancillary support, such as helicopter surveillance, installation of fencing barriers, and vehicle maintenance and support. As the Military Times <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/10/31/federal-law-limits-what-us-troops-deployed-at-the-border-can-do/">noted</a> in October, the reason for this is a little-known 19th-century law, enacted shortly after the end of Reconstruction, known as the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1385">Posse Comitatus Act</a>:
<blockquote>
Migrants arriving at the border will now see a sizable U.S. military presence &#8212; more than double the 2,000 who are in Syria fighting the Islamic State group &#8212; even though their mission will be largely a support role.
That&#8217;s because the military is bound by the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th- century federal law that restricts participation in law enforcement activities. Unless Congress specifically authorizes it, military personnel can&#8217;t have direct contact with civilians, including immigrants, said Scott R. Anderson of The Brookings Institution.
</blockquote>
It remains to be seen how, if at all, the deployment of an additional 3,750 troops to the border and the shifting of 250 troops to thwart the latest migrant &#8220;caravan&#8221; may affect the current border wall-centric negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over averting a second partial government shutdown next week.

Boots On The Ground: Pentagon Shifts Active-Duty Troops To Thwart Caravan

Department of Defense

Illegal Immigration

The Pentagon is flirting with the idea of humans controlling machines with their minds.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military, is choosing teams that will create a &#8220;neural interface&#8221; that would let troops connect to military systems using their brainwaves and also have the systems transmit back information directly to users&#8217; brains.
As <a href="https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2018/07/pentagon-wants-bring-mind-controlled-tech-troops/149776/">nextgov.com</a> reports, &#8220;The <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&amp;mode=form&amp;id=767054e365fc2ac4cd05a338a6d35a1d&amp;tab=core&amp;_cview=0">Next-Generation Non-Surgical Neurotechnology</a>, or N3, program aims to combine the speed and processing power of computers with humans&#8217; ability to adapt to complex situations, DARPA said. In other words, the technology would let people control, feel and interact with a remote machine as though it were a part of their own body.&#8221;
Al Emondi, the program manager at DARPA&#8217;s Biological Technologies Office, told nextgov.com, &#8220;From the first time a human carved a rock into a blade or formed a spear, humans have been creating tools to help them interact with the world around them. The tools we use have grown more sophisticated over time &#8230; but these still require some form of physical control interface&#8212;touch, motion or voice. What neural interfaces promise is a richer, more powerful and more natural experience in which our brains effectively become the tool.&#8221;
DARPA has already created a prosthetic limb which allows disabled veterans to control it using an electrode implanted in their brain.
The N3 program is testing non-invasive interfaces outside the body and interfaces used by swallowing different chemical compounds to help external sensors connect to the brain.
Emondi offered a scenario in which a pilot could coordinate a fleet of drones with their thoughts; he also imagined troops using their brains to manipulate a remotely deployed robot.
Nextgov.com writes:
<blockquote>
He added cybersecurity specialists could even connect to the system to monitor different parts of a computer network with their physical bodies. Depending on how the interface is designed, that specialist might &#8220;hear&#8221; a cyberattack when it happens or &#8220;feel&#8221; it in the part of their body that corresponds to a section of the network.
</blockquote>
The teams working on the project have four years to create a working neural interface.

EERIE: Pentagon Working On Project Allowing Troops to Control Military Tech — With Their Minds

After several months of conversation on the subject, President Donald Trump finally announced Monday that he will ask the Pentagon to create a sixth military branch designed to handle space, space-faring activities, and lead any eventual war we might end up fighting with extra-terrestrials.
The new branch of the military, temporarily known as the &#8220;Space Force,&#8221; will be &#8220;focused solely on space,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/14/trumps-space-force-how-a-military-space-branch-may-come-about.html">CNBC reports</a>.
Trump made the announcement Monday morning at a meeting of the National Space Council.
&#8220;I am hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces,&#8221; Trump told the group.
&#8220;Our destiny beyond the Earth is not only a matter of national identity but a matter of national security,&#8221; he continued.
The Trump Administration has been working towards the &#8220;space force&#8221; for months. In March, Trump floated the idea that &#8220;space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea,&#8221; and suggested that he might consider expanding the military to encompass space exploration and, apparently, planetary conquest, though he did say that he coined the term &#8220;space force&#8221; largely as a joke.
Congress authorized the creation of a &#8220;space corps&#8221; last year, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act and pursuant to plans for a major Defense Department expansion, but stopped short of founding a sixth military branch.
Traditionally, control over space has been the purview of the United States Air Force, but Trump indicated in March that he believes the Space Force needs to be a different entity, even if that eventually renders the U.S. Air Force obsolete, particularly if space travel (and space war) involves large vessels manned with crews more akin to naval warfare. Trump failed to indicate how the mission of a space force would differ from that of NASA which, until now, has planned and coordinated all manned and unmanned spaceflight.
Those details &#8212; and whether the new venture will be called, as expected, Starfleet &#8212; will likely be hammered out over the coming months.

It’s Official: President Trump Announces Launch Of United States ‘Space Force’

Military

NASA

The Pentagon may no longer be investigating decades of UFO reports, but scientists and researchers, inspired by the knowledge that the Department of Justice was still pondering the existence of alien life up until the early 2000s, has given life to a once-lagging field of inquiry.
<a href="https://wtop.com/government/2018/03/pentagons-mysterious-project-breathes-new-life-into-ufo-research/">According to WTOP</a>, UFO researchers had nearly given up on the field of study, largely because the government appeared to also have given up. Prior to a New York Times story that appeared late last year indicating that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) had regularly funded an office within the Department of Justice to handle just these sorts of claims, the last UFO research program ended in the late 1960s &#8212; about the time American interest in the space program reached a fever pitch.
But now, UFO researchers and those who question whether there&#8217;s life beyond our solar system can breathe a little easier. The Pentagon program consumed $22 million between 2007 and 2011, WTOP reports, and although the office shuttered, the men who ran it continued to look into reports of unidentified flying objects &#8212; both familiar and alien (though by &#8220;alien,&#8221; they usually just mean &#8220;out of the ordinary&#8221;).
&#8220;We know that this program existed, it still exists, and it investigated military cases and very significant cases of pilot encounters with these objects,&#8221; <a href="https://wtop.com/government/2018/03/pentagons-mysterious-project-breathes-new-life-into-ufo-research/">one UFO expert told the news organization</a>. &#8220;It just establishes a credibility for the topic for people to know that our government takes it seriously enough to have put financial resources into it and to have studied it for all these years.&#8221;
Among the stranger cases the Pentagon&#8217;s investigators handled: a 2004 incident off the coast of San Diego where a craft appeared to move faster than several military aircraft, and which changed location at will. UFO researchers are using what&#8217;s become available from the program to follow up on that incident and others.
Now that the government was revealed to have been funding the effort, they also feel more confident in their choice of research field.
&#8220;Professional people feel like they&#8217;re going to be laughed at, and it&#8217;s the same problem for scientists and academic institutions and universities and research facilities who want to work on this topic, but they feel that it would be detrimental to their careers. So it continues to be a problem, unfortunately,&#8221; one UFO researcher said. &#8220;But I really hope it&#8217;s changing, and I think it is.&#8221;

The Truth Is STILL Out There: Shuttered Pentagon Program Has Given Life To New UFO Research

A new Pentagon policy targeting harassment includes a crackdown on &#8220;offensive jokes&#8221; and &#8220;put-downs.&#8221;
The 23-page set of regulations, <a href="http://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/102003.pdf">Department</a><a href="http://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/102003.pdf"> of Defense Instruction 1020.03: &#8220;Harassment Prevention and Response in the Armed Forces</a>,&#8221; was released by the Pentagon on Thursday. The document outlines a &#8220;comprehensive, DoD-wide military harassment prevention and response program.&#8221;
The Military Times <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/02/08/new-pentagon-rule-bans-offensive-jokes-and-harassing-behavior/">reports</a>:
<blockquote>
According to the instruction, &#8220;harassment may include offensive jokes, epithets, ridicule or mockery, insults or put-downs,&#8221; as well as physical threats or racially-tinged interactions that &#8220;creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis claims the new rule is a product of the times and will not affect military camaraderie.
&#8220;You have to adapt to your times,&#8221; Mattis said. &#8220;There&#8217;s a rough, good humor among soldiers. We all know that. But I have never seen rough good humor countenance or in any way frame something that&#8217;s disgusting, repellent or something like that.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to lose all sense of humor in the military,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;But I have never seen an ounce of belief in the military that you can denigrate someone.&#8221;
General Mattis himself is known for his intensity and tough, colorful language.
According to Pentagon Press Secretary Dana White, implementation plans of the new rule must be provided in the next 60 days, notes the Times.
&#8220;We are doing this because we owe our all-volunteer force every protection,&#8221; said White.

New Pentagon Rule Includes Ban On ‘Offensive Jokes’ And ‘Put-Downs’

James Mattis

On Tuesday, the Pentagon&#8217;s senior enlisted member, Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell, issued a <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/11/senior-pentagon-soldier-to-isis-surrender-or-get-beaten-with-entrenchment-tool.html">thunderous message</a> meant for Islamic State: &#8220;Surrender or die!&#8221;
Troxell, whose job entails serving as the voice for enlisted service members at the Pentagon, wrote:
<blockquote>
ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them. So, they have two options should they decide to come up against the United States, our allies and partners: surrender or die!
If they surrender, we will safeguard them to their detainee facility cell, provide them chow, a cot and due process.
HOWEVER, if they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice, whether that be through security force assistance, by dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools.
Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose how it&#8217;s going to be.
</blockquote>
Accompanying the Facebook post was a photo of an entrenchment tool &#8212; a collapsible shovel used by the U.S. military. The post included the hashtag #ISIS_SurrenderOrDie.
Troxell also expressed his sentiments on Twitter:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
ISIS needs to understand their two options when facing us: surrender or die! Surrender &amp; we will safeguard to due process. Otherwise we will kill with extreme prejudice, even if that means beating them to death with our entrenching tools! 
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SEAC3?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SEAC3</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefeatDaesh?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefeatDaesh</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS_SurrenderOrDie?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ISIS_SurrenderOrDie</a> <a href="https://t.co/unH7Mwk9t1">pic.twitter.com/unH7Mwk9t1</a>
&#8212; CSM John Troxell (@SEAC_Troxell) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEAC_Troxell/status/950867762754318341?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
As Fox News reports, last month Troxell visited the troops in Afghanistan on a United Services Organization holiday tour where he told the troops that Islamic State will be &#8220;annihilated, period!&#8221;
He added:
<blockquote>
That may be through advising, assisting and enabling the host-nation partners, It may be by dropping bombs on them. It may be by shooting them in the face. And it even might be beating them to death with your entrenching tool, but we are going to beat this enemy!
</blockquote>
Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/01/10/senior-pentagon-soldier-warns-isis-quit-or-be-shot-in-the-face-beaten-with-entrenching-tools/?sw_bypass=true&amp;utm_term=.8dd6ecde5424">The Washington Post</a>, &#8220;His intent was to communicate the tenacity of the warrior ethos that, even when faced with the brutal and unforgiving nature of combat, will use every resource available to fight and win.&#8221;

Pentagon’s Senior Enlisted Member To Islamic State: Surrender Or We’ll Beat You To Death With Our Entrenchment Tools

Islamic State (ISIS)

Reading his weekly column for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/throwing-more-money-at-the-military-wont-make-it-stronger/2017/03/02/74716c22-ff99-11e6-8ebe-6e0dbe4f2bca_story.html?utm_term=.b590a7d13701">The Washington Post</a> as per his standard introductory monologue on GPS, Fareed Zakaria presented himself as concerned about wasteful government spending &#8211; at the Pentagon.
&#8220;None of the difficulties the United States has faced over the past 25 years has been in any way because its military was too small or weak,&#8221; asserted Zakaria as axiomatic.
Taxpayer funding for programs ostensibly pursuing foreign aid and development &#8211; occasionally referred to derisively as nation building &#8211; should be dramatically increased, implied Zakaria. He quoted former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: &#8220;One of the most important lessons of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that military success is not sufficient to win &#8230; Long-term success [requires] economic development, institution-building .&#8201;.&#8201;. [and] good governance. [We need] a dramatic increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national security, [including] diplomacy [and] foreign assistance.&#8221;
Zakaria noted America&#8217;s defense spending relative to Russia (higher by a multiple of nine) and China (higher by a multitude of three). He made no mention of America&#8217;s <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD">per capita income</a> &#8211; and its commensurate increase in living costs &#8211; relative to Russia (higher by a multitude of seven) and China (higher by a multitude of six). Also ignored by Zakaria are America&#8217;s greater global security commitments relative to Russia and China.
The Pentagon represents the &#8220;poster child for waste in government,&#8221; said Zakaria, describing it as running a &#8220;cradle-to-grave, quasi-socialist system.&#8221; He has never made such commentary regarding the State Department or any other federal bureaucracy.
Marie Harf, formerly a communications operative of the Obama adminstration&#8217;s State Department, somewhat echoed Zakaria&#8217;s narrative <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/we-cannot-kill-our-way-out-war">in early 2015</a>. Speaking with MSNBC&#8217;s Chris Matthews on Hardball, she declared that victory over Islamic terrorists could not be won via military means: &#8220;We cannot kill our way out of this war.&#8221;
Harf <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/18/state-department-spokeswoman-call-for-using-jobs-to-combat-terror-too-nuanced.html">also claimed</a> that economic development amounted to a counterterrorism strategy, pushing the neo-Marxist narrative of terrorism (Islamic or otherwise) as a function of economic inequality and/or hardship.
Anthony Blinken, former deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration, <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/4905/state-department-foreign-social-programs-needed-robert-kraychik">also called</a> for a counterterrorism strategy predicated on foreign aid. He also accused then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of fomenting &#8220;violent extremism&#8221; among Muslims via political campaign statements.
Zakaria presents himself as an objective, honest, and non-partisan expert of international relations and global political economy. CNN likewise presents itself as an objective, honest, and non-partisan news media outlet. In its promotional materials, CNN describes itself as &#8220;The Most Trusted Name In News.&#8221;
Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y-98oLKtzKk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Zakaria: Cut Military Funding, Pump Up State Department

Fareed Zakaria

Media

Media Bias

National Security

State Department

A Pentagon memo outlining the incoming Trump administration&#8217;s top &#8220;defense priorities&#8221; identifies four major problems to be addressed. There&#8217;s one glaring item missing from the list: Russia.
<a href="v">Foreign Policy</a> obtained a copy of the <a href="https://foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/screen-shot-2016-12-19-at-1-44-09-pm.png">memo</a>, which listed these four priorities: defeating ISIS, eliminating budget caps, developing a new cyber strategy, and developing greater efficiency.
To the consternation of senior military officials, who have marked Russia as the No. 1 threat to the United States, it was not included in the memo. Evelyn Farkas, a former senior Pentagon official who worked on Russia policy, said worriedly, &#8220;People there now would be pretty concerned to see Russia not on the list.&#8221;
As Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/07/09/russia-is-greatest-threat-to-the-u-s-says-joint-chiefs-chairman-nominee-gen-joseph-dunford/?utm_term=.0a645d8e3fa2">told</a> Congress last year: &#8220;If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I&#8217;d have to point to Russia. If you look at their behavior, it&#8217;s nothing short of alarming.&#8221; Dunford said the next most dangerous threats to the U.S. were China, North Korea, and ISIS.
The December 1 memo was written by acting Undersecretary of Defense for policy Brian McKeon to his employees; he acknowledged it was culled from his discussion with Mira Ricardel, co-leader of Trump&#8217;s Pentagon transition team.
A Trump transition official said the memo is &#8220;not comprehensive. For the media to speculate that this list of issues represents all of the president-elect&#8217;s priorities is completely erroneous and misleading.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s rhetoric regarding Russia has given rise to concerns that he is too chummy with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In July he <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-isis-syria-iraq-moscow-islamic-state-democratic-483826">said</a>, &#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t it be nice if we got together with Russia and knocked the hell out of ISIS?&#8221; Trump&#8217;s nomination of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state also fed concerns, since Exxon has lobbied against U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow.
As Director of National Intelligence James Clapper <a href="http://wtop.com/j-j-green-national/2016/02/target-usa-odni-chief-says-isil-cant-destroy-u-s-russia-can/">said</a> last January, ISIS &#8220;can&#8217;t inflict mortal damage to the United States. Russia can.&#8221; As FP noted, &#8220;The Pentagon&#8217;s chief weapons buyer <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-russia-idUSKBN13U0CX?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=worldNews">earlier this month</a> said that U.S. defense budgets are now focused primarily on countering Moscow.&#8221; The head of the U.S. Army in Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, told FP, that the Pentagon and NATO allies have revamped some training exercises so they approximate fighting Russian armed forces.
Farkas concluded that the Pentagon would resist Trump if he ignored the Russian threat. She asserted, &#8220;They will find ways to drag their heels. Clearly, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs still has six months to go, and he also agrees that Russia is the No. 1 threat.&#8221;

Trump’s Memo From Pentagon Ignores Russia As A Threat

Russia

Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2015 and now retired, is now acknowledging the Russian attempt to hack into the e-mail system used by the Pentagon&#8217;s Joint Chiefs of Staff in August 2015.
According to <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-hack-almost-brought-the-u-s-military-to-its-knees/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&amp;linkId=32446094">CBS News</a>, Dempsey got an emergency early-morning phone call from the Director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Mike Rogers alerting him to the attack.
Dempsey told CBS News that the ferocity of the attack was terribly alarming; within one hour, hackers seized control of the unclassified e-mail system used by the Pentagon&#8217;s Joint Staff, comprised of roughly 3,500 military officers and civilians who work for the Chairman. The network had to be closed because the hackers grabbed the passwords and electronic signatures computer credentials of Dempsey and hundreds of other senior officers.
The attack commenced with 30,000 e-mails sent to a West Coast university, four of which were forwarded to members of the Joint Staff. The hackers penetrated the system when one email was opened.
CBS News reported:
<blockquote>
It was not spying, but a full-on assault whose only apparent purpose was to cause damage and force the Pentagon to replace both hardware and software, which took about two weeks to accomplish. The motive for the attack was believed to be Russian anger at economic sanctions orchestrated by the Obama administration in response to Vladimir Putin&#8217;s annexation of Crimea and interference in Ukraine.
</blockquote>
Last year, all that was clear was that a cyber-attack had been launched. <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/06/russia-hacks-pentagon-computers-nbc-citing-sources.html">NBC News reported</a> in August 2015 that U.S. officials announced a &#8220;sophisticated cyberattack&#8221; against the Pentagon&#8217;s Joint Staff unclassified email system sometime around July 25 which affected some 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
NBC News stated, &#8220;The officials say its not clear whether the attack was sanctioned by the Russian government or conducted by individuals. But, given the scope of the attack, &#8216;It was clearly the work of a state actor,&#8217; the officials say.&#8221;

Report: Russians Almost Hacked The US Military In 2015

In a lengthy article in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.28082825dcc3">The Washington Post</a> comes he revelation that the Pentagon quashed an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste.
The Pentagon was concerned that if the report, which it commissioned itself from the Defense Business Board, a federal advisory panel of corporate executives, and consultants from McKinsey and Company, were made public, Congress would slash the defense budget. The <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/investigations/defense-business-board-study-from-jan-2015-identifying-125-billion-in-waste/2236/?ref">report</a>, issued in January 2015, would not have required layoffs of civil servants or reductions in military personnel, but rather cut the budget through attrition and early retirements, as well as finding lower-priced contractors.
The report&#8217;s <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/investigations/defense-business-board-study-from-jan-2015-identifying-125-billion-in-waste/2236/?ref">data showed</a> 1,014,000 contractors, civilians and uniformed personnel worked for the Pentagon to support 1.3 million troops on active duty.
The study recommended using the saved $125 billion for troops and modernizing weapons such as the nuclear arsenal.
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work, the Pentagon&#8217;s second-highest-ranking official, ordered the study from the Defense Business Board. But after the study was completed, Work decided to ignore it, deriding the $125 billion savings proposal as &#8220;unrealistic &#8230; There is this meme that we&#8217;re some bloated, giant organization. Although there is a little bit of truth in that .&#8201;.&#8201;. I think it vastly overstates what&#8217;s really going on.&#8221;
Work added that members of Congress hate to reduce or eliminate federal civil service jobs in their districts. He stated, &#8220;We will never be as efficient as a commercial organization. We&#8217;re the largest bureaucracy in the world. There&#8217;s going to be some inherent inefficiencies in that.&#8221;
McKinsey&#8217;s workers divided the Pentagon&#8217;s into five categories: human resources; health-care management; supply chain and logistics; acquisition and procurement; and financial-flow management. McKinsey between $75 billion and $100 billion a year, or between 15 and 20 percent of the Pentagon&#8217;s annual expenses, was wasted.
McKinsey had to report to David Tillotson III, the Pentagon&#8217;s acting deputy chief management officer.
On Jan. 22, 2015, the full board held its quarterly public meeting, only to hear that the report stated, &#8220;We are spending a lot more money than we thought,&#8221; and that Defense Department was spending $134 billion a year on business operations; 457,000 full-time employees were assigned to logistics or supply-chain jobs. The Pentagon&#8217;s purchasing bureaucracy? 207,000 full-time workers. Over 192,000 people worked in property management. Roughly 84,000 people worked in human-resources.
The Post writes of Work&#8217;s response:
<blockquote>
He singled out a page in the report. Titled &#8220;Warfighter Currency,&#8221; it showed how saving $125 billion could be redirected to boost combat power. The money could cover the operational costs for 50 Army brigades, or 3,000 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for the Air Force, or 10 aircraft-carrier strike groups for the Navy.
</blockquote>
&#8220;This is what scares me,&#8221; he said, according to the two people present. Work explained he was worried Congress might see it as an invitation to strip $125 billion from the defense budget and spend it somewhere else.
McKinsey also found that 199,661 full-time contractors worked for the Army, with an average cost of $189,188; the Navy, 197,093 contractors, $170,865; the Air Force, 122,470 contractors, $186,142.
Frank Kendall III, the Pentagon&#8217;s chief weapons-buyer, accused the board of making up numbers, saying the $125 billion figure was &#8220;essentially a ballpark, made-up number.&#8221; He told Work, &#8220;If the impression that&#8217;s created is that we&#8217;ve got a bunch of money lying around and we&#8217;re being lazy and we&#8217;re not doing anything to save money, then it&#8217;s harder to justify getting budgets that we need.&#8221;
Tillotson, the Pentagon&#8217;s acting deputy chief management officer, echoed, &#8220;They, perhaps, underestimated the degree of difficulty we have in doing something that in the commercial sector would seem to be very easy to do.&#8221;

Pentagon Uncovered Massive Waste And Fraud. So They Hid It.

On Thursday, a US service member was killed by an IED blast close by the ISIS stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq. 
Since the operation to liberate Mosul began earlier this week, Islamic State militants have launched a series of attacks against coalition units, including Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, in a desperate attempt to retain control of Iraq&#8217;s second largest city. American special forces and armed humvee units are currently stationed on the outskirts of Mosul, training and advising the men that will ultimately seek to retake the city. 
While the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/5310/state-department-syria-hey-guys-we-never-said-no-joshua-yasmeh">Obama administration has attempted to downplay the involvement of US assets on the frontlines</a> in Iraq, the latest American casualty shines the spotlight on an inconvenient truth: Yes, we have &#8220;boots on the ground.&#8221;
&#8220;American forces will also be exposed to greater risk during the operation, as U.S. advisers accompany local units closer to the front lines. Already, over 100 advisers are providing assistance to Iraqi forces, helping to coordinate air and artillery attacks, relaying intelligence, and assisting with tactical planning,&#8221; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/10/20/u-s-service-member-killed-in-bomb-blast-in-iraq/">explains</a> The Washington Post, adding:
<blockquote>
The White House has authorized U.S. commanders to place advisers with Iraqi army battalions as they advance, similar to the advising they currently conduct with peshmerga and elite counterterrorism forces. The use of U.S. Apache attack helicopters is another element of additional risk facing the U.S. military in the Mosul operation.
</blockquote>
Thursday marked the fourth US combat casualty since President Obama&#8217;s 2014 announcement of renewed military involvement in Iraq. The announcement followed a massive uptick in sectarian violence as a result of the power vacuum left by the White House&#8217;s politically expedient decision to acquiesce to populist demands at home and abruptly pull American soldiers out of the active battlefields of Iraq. Call it Mission Unaccomplished.
The US military has remained relatively tight-lipped about details of the incident that led to the death of the American service member on Thursday. 
According to military officials, the unidentified service member was struck by an improvised explosive device &#8220;near Mosul&#8221; and later succumbed to his injuries. The military suggested that it would release the name of the deceased after the service member&#8217;s family has been notified. 
Defense officials have not commented on the duties assigned to the service member at the time of his death.

US Service Member Killed In Iraq. In Other Words, We Have ‘Boots On The Ground’

Barack Obama

Iraq

As Eli Lake reveals at <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-22/obama-kept-military-out-of-the-loop-on-cash-payments-to-iran">Bloomberg</a>, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry never told top defense officials, including Secretary of Defense Ash Carter or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, about sending $400 million in cash to Iran in January.
This information was made public on Thursday at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Prompted by a question from Senator Ted Cruz about the cash payment, Carter argued that the payment was part of a decades-old quarrel between Iran and the U.S. over arms sales, asserting, &#8220;We weren&#8217;t involved in this. I don&#8217;t know all the details of it, and the chairman and I were not involved in that. It is a decision that was taken by the law enforcement and diplomatic and I would refer you there.&#8221;
Dunford echoed, &#8220;I am not trying to be evasive but I don&#8217;t know the details of that arrangement and it really was a political decision that was made to provide that money and I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s appropriate that I comment on that.&#8221;
Christopher Sherwood, a press officer at the Pentagon, spoke to Lake after the hearing, admitting, &#8220;It was worked out through the administration. The Department of Defense had nothing to do with that.&#8221;
The State Department had insisted that the payment by asserting the decision was made through an inter-agency process. State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said on August 4, &#8220;There&#8217;s always an interagency discussion around any decision like this, and every relevant agency weighs in.&#8221;
But now it appears the Pentagon was not part of the decision at all; that kind of secrecy was also evident, as The Weekly Standard <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/lawmakers-obama-white-house-did-not-disclose-iran-wire-payments/article/2004446">reported</a>, when members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including its chairman Senator Bob Corker, were left in the dark regarding wire payments to Iran, which were made before the cash payment.
The chasm between the Pentagon and the White House has been illuminated more fully recently; Robert Gates, Obama&#8217;s first secretary of defense, said in his memoir that senior White House staff. Treated him badly; Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense between 2011 and 2013, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html">told</a> the New York Times Magazine he had never seen the correspondence between Obama and Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader; Chuck Hagel, who succeeded Panetta, <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/18/hagel-the-white-house-tried-to-destroy-me/">told</a> Foreign Policy the White House meant to destroy him.

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Menu

Pentagon

Report: Pentagon Helping FEMA Acquire 100,000 Body Bags

U.S. Navy Activates Hospital Ships For Coronavirus Response

Female Contractor For Pentagon Charged With Sneaking Classified Info To Man Allegedly Connected With Terrorist Organization

Pentagon Admits It Investigates UFOs

Pentagon Moves Forward: Transfers $1.5 Billion For 80 More Miles Of Border Wall

The U.S. Navy Promised To Reveal UFO Encounters But Now They’re Not So Sure

Man Detained For Alleged Threat To Murder Trump, Blow Up Pentagon, Report Says

Pentagon Issues 2020 Budget Request To Strengthen American Military. Dems Will Likely Oppose It.

Boots On The Ground: Pentagon Shifts Active-Duty Troops To Thwart Caravan

EERIE: Pentagon Working On Project Allowing Troops to Control Military Tech — With Their Minds

It’s Official: President Trump Announces Launch Of United States ‘Space Force’

The Truth Is STILL Out There: Shuttered Pentagon Program Has Given Life To New UFO Research

New Pentagon Rule Includes Ban On ‘Offensive Jokes’ And ‘Put-Downs’

Pentagon’s Senior Enlisted Member To Islamic State: Surrender Or We’ll Beat You To Death With Our Entrenchment Tools

Zakaria: Cut Military Funding, Pump Up State Department

Trump’s Memo From Pentagon Ignores Russia As A Threat

Report: Russians Almost Hacked The US Military In 2015

Pentagon Uncovered Massive Waste And Fraud. So They Hid It.

US Service Member Killed In Iraq. In Other Words, We Have ‘Boots On The Ground’

Obama Lied To His Own Pentagon About His Iran Cash Shipments

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