Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Hamas reaches agreement on prisoner swap, pause in fighting

Palestine Information Center – November 22, 2023

GAZA – The Hamas Movement announced at dawn Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with the Israeli occupation regime on a four-day humanitarian ceasefire following concentrated mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt.

“Based on our responsibility towards our long-suffering and steadfast Palestinian people, and our tireless endeavor to strengthen the steadfastness of our heroic people in our proud Gaza, to assist them and heal their wounds … and after difficult and complex negotiations for several days, we announce — with help and blessing from Almighty Allah — that we have reached a humanitarian truce agreement (temporary ceasefire) for a period of four days, thanks to persistent and appreciated Qatari and Egyptian efforts,” the Movement stated.

In a statement published on its Telegram account, Hamas revealed the most prominent provisions of the agreement:

• A ceasefire from both sides, a cessation of all military actions by the occupation forces in all areas of the Gaza Strip and a freeze on the movement of its military vehicles that have infiltrated into the Gaza Strip.

• Hundreds of aid trucks carrying humanitarian, relief, medical and fuel supplies will be allowed into all areas of the Gaza Strip, with no exception, in the north and south.

• The release of 50 civilian women and children (under the age of 19) currently held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian women and children (under the age of 19) from Israeli jails according to the time they have spent in jail.

• Air traffic will stop completely in southern Gaza during these four days and for daily six-hour periods in the north, from 10:00 a.m. until 04:00 p.m.

• During the ceasefire period, Israel commits not to target or arrest anyone in all areas of the Gaza Strip.

• The free movement of people from north to south along Salahuddin Street is guaranteed.

“As we announce the conclusion of this truce agreement, we affirm that our hands will remain on the trigger and our Brigades will remain on the lookout to defend our people.”

“The resistance has steered the negotiations while its position on the ground is steadfast and strong despite the occupation’s attempts to procrastinate in this regard.”

“The terms of the agreement has been formulated in accordance with the resistance’s vision that aims to serve our people and strengthen their steadfastness in the face of aggression, while it will always remain mindful of their sacrifices, suffering and concerns.”

November 22, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

US to continue supplying Israel with artillery shells, guided missiles

MEMO | November 22, 2023

The Pentagon said it continues to supply Israel with 155mm artillery shells, precision-guided munition, M and air defence systems, despite international concern over Israel’s disregard for civilian lives in Gaza.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Pentagon added that it “provides military aid to the [Israeli] forces from the American base’s stockpiles inside [Israel] and from other places.”

The administration of President Joe Biden has pledged $14.3 billion in military aid to Israel, in addition to the traditional annual aid of $3.4 billion. Unwavering military support to Israel is one of the rare issues that brings together Democrats and Republicans in the Congress and Senate.

A report by the Congressional Research Service revealed that since 7 October, the Biden administration has accelerated the provision of military and security aid to Israel, including “small diameter bombs (250 pounds), interceptor missiles, joint direct attack munitions, and 155mm artillery shells.”

More than 30 relief organisations have sent a letter to US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin urging him “not to send 155 mm shells in particular, as they are indiscriminate shells in nature which are being used in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that some lawmakers are wondering whether the proposed $34 million worth of direct commercial sale of 24,000 assault rifles to Israel might end up in the hands of illegal settlers, wreaking havoc in the occupied West Bank.

For the 46th day in a row, the Israeli occupation forces, with support from the United States and mercenaries, have been launching a devastating aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least 14,128 Palestinians, 5,840 of them children, with nearly 6,800 others still reported missing, in addition to over 30,000 wounded persons.

November 22, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Germany Commits $1.4 Billion to Ukrainian War Effort

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | November 21, 2023

Berlin has pledged to send Kiev $1.4 billion in weapons to aid its war against Russia. The announcement of the German arms package comes as the White House is nearing depleting the funds allocated by Congress for Ukraine.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius rolled out the arms package on Tuesday in Kiev. Pistorius’s trip to Ukraine followed US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Kiev on Monday. Austin committed an additional $100 million in military aid to Ukraine.

According to Berlin, the German security assistance includes air defense interceptors, anti-tank mines, and artillery shells. “Altogether it is a package worth €1.3 billion, and I am quite sure this will help you and your fight against Russian aggression. We stand with Ukraine reliably,” Pistorius said. “We are talking about 20,000 additional shells.”

Artillery shells have been one of the highest-demand weapons for Ukraine since the start of the war. Washington has sent over 2 million 155 MM rounds since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. However, the White House’s ability to continue to arm Kiev may be waning. American weapons stockpiles have been nearing redline levels, and the Biden administration has nearly depleted the funds allocated by Congress to fight a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces have been firing 155 MM shells faster than the West can produce them. Kiev’s soldiers are currently firing about 240,000 rounds per month, a rate that far outpaces what the US and its Western allies can produce.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky explained Kiev’s stockpiles are dwindling. “Our supplies have decreased. It is life—and it is normal, as everyone is fighting for survival,” he said. Over the past six weeks, Israel has begun receiving shipments of 155 MM shells, adding pressure to the strained supply.

To make up for the shrinking stockpiles, the White House has sent cluster variants of artillery weapons to Kiev and Tel Aviv. The shipment violates US law. International treaties have banned cluster bombs because they continue killing civilians for years after the conflicts end.

November 21, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

There Could Have Been Peace: How the U.S. Ensured a Long War in Ukraine

By Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute | November 20, 2023

On February 27, just the third day of their war, Russia and Ukraine announced direct negotiations in Belarus. Having already said that he was prepared to abandon Ukraine’s pursuit of NATO membership, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went into the negotiations “without preconditions.” That round of talks, having identified priority topics, led to a second round, again in Belarus.

But, though Ukraine was willing to discuss neutrality and “the end of this invasion,” the United States was not. On February 25, the same day Zelensky said he was “not afraid to talk to Russia” and that he was “not afraid to talk about neutral status,” State Department spokesman Ned Price was asked at a press conference, “What’s the U.S.—what’s your thinking about the efficacy of such a—of such talks?” Price responded, “Now we see Moscow suggesting that diplomacy take place at the barrel of a gun or as Moscow’s rockets, mortars, artillery target the Ukrainian people. This is not real diplomacy. Those are not the conditions for real diplomacy.” The United States said no, and the promising direct talks were not to be.

However, a few days later, Ukraine would attempt indirect, mediated talks. Zelensky would turn to then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet to mediate. In a February 2, 2023 interview, Bennet revealed that “Zelensky initiated the request to contact Putin.” Bennett said, “Zelensky called me and asked me to contact Putin.”

Bennet accepted the request and a flurry of shuttle diplomacy began, first with a series of back-and-forth phone calls between Bennett and Putin and Bennett and Zelensky. On March 5, 2022, Bennet flew to Moscow at Putin’s invitation. The next day, Bennet flew to Berlin for meetings with German chancellor Olaf Scholz. On the following day, March 7, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France held a videoconference that, according to some reports, discussed the talks. On March 10, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in Turkey. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was present at the meeting, described their meeting as “civil.”

Bennet says that “everything [he] did was fully coordinated with Biden, Macron, Johnson, with Scholz and, obviously, Zelensky.” According to Bennet, Putin told him that “we can reach a ceasefire.” In order to make that happen, Bennet says that Putin and Zelensky both made “huge concessions.” When Bennett asked Putin if he was going to kill Zelensky, Putin answered, “I won’t kill Zelensky.” Putin also “renounced” Russia’s demanded “disarmament of Ukraine.” He also reportedly promised that there would be no regime change in Kiev and that Ukraine would remain sovereign. Putin then passed the message to Zelensky through Bennet that if you “Tell me you’re not joining NATO, I won’t invade.” Bennett says that “Zelensky relinquished joining NATO.”

It is key that in both the direct and mediated negotiations in the first weeks of the war, Ukraine was willing to give up NATO membership for a negotiated settlement with Russia.

In return for abandoning their NATO ambitions, Putin and Zelensky agreed that Ukraine would receive a strong, independent military capable of defending itself analogous to “the Israeli model.”

Bennett reports that “there was a good chance of reaching a ceasefire.” Sources “privy to details about the meeting” said that Zelensky deemed the proposal “difficult” but not “impossible” and that “the gaps between the sides are not great.” But, once again, it was not to be. Former UN Assistant Secretary-General in UN peace missions Michael von der Schulenburg says that “NATO had already decided at a special summit on March 24, 2022, not to support these peace negotiations.” Bennett agrees that the West made the decision “to keep striking Putin.” When Bennet’s interviewer asks him if he means that the West blocked the diplomatic settlement, Bennet simply replies, “They blocked it.”

In March and early April of 2022, there would be one final attempt at negotiations before the negotiating table would be abandoned for the battlefield. This time it was to be Turkey that would play the lead role as mediator. A supporting role was to be played by former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder who, like Bennet before him, was asked by Kiev to play a role in the mediation.

This final round of talks was the most promising. Putin has confirmed, as had already been reported, that Russia and Ukraine had “reached an agreement in Istanbul.” But Putin also revealed for the first time that the tentative agreement had been initialed by both sides. “I don’t remember his name and may be mistaken, but I think Mr. Arakhamia headed Ukraine’s negotiating team in Istanbul. He even initialed this document.” Russia, too, signed the document: “during the talks in Istanbul, we initialed this document. We argued for a long time, butted heads there and so on, but the document was very thick and it was initialed by Medinsky on our side and by the head of their negotiating team.”

Putin’s account is backed by Lavrov who said at a press conference  that “we did hold talks in March and April 2022. We agreed on certain things; everything was already initialled.”

Putin went further than announcing the initialed document, on June 17, 2023, he dramatically held it up before a delegation of African leaders, showing it to the world for the first time. “We did not discuss with the Ukrainian side that this treaty would be classified, but we have never presented it, nor commented on it. This draft agreement was initialed by the head of the Kiev negotiation team. He put his signature there. Here it is.”

The draft agreement was the end product of a position paper presented by the Ukrainian delegation. The Istanbul Communiqué, dated March 29, 2022, agreed that Russia would withdraw to its prewar boundaries and Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership. Instead, Ukraine would receive security guarantees from a number of countries, possibly including Russia, China, the U.S., UK, France, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel. The final proposal of the communiqué proposes a possible meeting between Putin and Zelensky to sign the treaty.

On March 28, Putin reportedly went so far as to express a willingness to withdraw Russian troops from around Kiev. On March 29, the day the communiqué was initialled, the leaders of the U.S., UK, Germany, France and Italy spoke on the phone.

But, again, it was not to be. On April 5, The Washington Post reported that the West would “respect Kyiv’s decisions in any settlement to end the war with Russia, but with larger issues of global security at stake, there are limits to how many compromises some in NATO will support to win the peace.” The Post then spelled it out: “Even a Ukrainian vow not to join NATO—a concession that Zelensky has floated publicly—could be a concern to some neighbors. That leads to an awkward reality: For some in NATO, it’s better for the Ukrainians to keep fighting, and dying, than to achieve a peace that comes too early or at too high a cost to Kyiv and the rest of Europe.”

On April 9, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson rushed to Kiev to rein in Zelensky, insisting that Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be pressured, not negotiated with” and that, even if Ukraine was ready to sign some agreements with Russia, “the West was not.”

And that is just what happened. “We actually did this,” Putin told war correspondents at the Kremlin, “but they simply threw it away later and that’s it.” Talking to the African delegation, Putin said, “After we pulled our troops away from Kiev—as we had promised to do—the Kiev authorities… tossed [their commitments] into the dustbin of history. They abandoned everything.” But Putin did not primarily blame Ukraine. He implicitly blamed the United States, saying that when Ukraine’s interests “are not in sync” with U.S. interests, “ultimately it is about the United States’s interests. We know that they hold the key to solving issues.”

Lavrov says the same. In a September 28, 2023 interview, Lavrov said that “in April 2022… Ukraine proposed ceasing hostilities and settling the crisis based on providing reciprocal, reliable security guarantees.” He then clearly said, “But this proposal was recalled at the insistence of Washington and London.”

But it is not just Russia who says this: two well placed Turkish sources say the same. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says that, because of the talks, “Turkey did not think that the Russia-Ukraine war would continue much longer.” But, he said, “There are countries within NATO who want the war to continue.” “Following the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting,” he explained, “it was the impression that… there are those within the NATO member states that want the war to continue, let the war continue and Russia get weaker.”

And Numan Kurtulmus, the deputy chairman of Erdogan’s ruling party, told CNN TURK, “We know that our President is talking to the leaders of both countries. In certain matters, progress was made, reaching the final point, then suddenly we see that the war is accelerating…Someone is trying not to end the war. The United States sees the prolongation of the war as its interest… There are those who want this war to continue… Putin-Zelensky was going to sign, but someone didn’t want to.”

Schröder agrees. Describing the negotiations, he says that Ukraine “does not want NATO membership,” would accept “compromise” security guarantees, said that they would “reintroduce Russian in Donbass,” and “were ready to talk about Crimea.”

“But in the end nothing happened,” Schröder said. “My impression: Nothing could happen because everything else was decided in Washington.” Like the Russian and the Turkish sources, Schröder reports that “the Ukrainians did not agree to peace because they were not allowed to. They first had to ask the Americans about everything they discussed.”

Schröder adds one more significant detail. It is often reported that the massacre in Bucha played a pivotal souring role in the negotiations, contributing to their termination. Schröder challenges that account: “Nothing was known about Butscha during the talks with Umjerov on March 7th and 13th. I think the Americans didn’t want the compromise between Ukraine and Russia. The Americans believe they can keep the Russians down.”

In all three sets of negotiations, Ukraine renounced their aspirations to join NATO, and in all three, peace was possible but for the U.S. blocking it. Both the Bennet talks and the Istanbul talks were Ukrainian initiatives that put forward Ukrainian solutions. The United States was not supporting Ukraine at the negotiating table: they were overturning the table in order to use Ukrainian bodies to pursue American goals.

November 20, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , , , , | Leave a comment

EU politicians have Ukraine ‘military psychosis’ – Hungarian FM

RT | November 19, 2023

Many high-ranking politicians from the European Union are out of touch with reality when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Saturday.

Unlike other EU countries, Hungary has refused to send weapons or other lethal aid to Ukraine, insisting that it is focused on finding a peaceful resolution to the hostilities.

“A significant part of the European political elite has practically lost common sense. Some people imagine themselves in Fortnite,” Szijjarto said at a political event in Budapest, referring to the popular multiplayer video game.

“They suffer from military psychosis, and, for some mysterious reason, believe that arms shipments can bring peace.”

“It is clear to us that we need peace instead of weapons. Whoever brings weapons into our neighborhood, prolongs the war. And the longer the war, the more people will die and greater destruction will occur,” the diplomat added.

Budapest has harshly criticized the European bloc’s sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has described the restrictions as a failure that have only exacerbated the energy crisis and the already high inflation rates across the continent.

Earlier this month, Orban said Kiev is “light years away” from joining the EU. Ukraine formally applied to become a member of the bloc in February 2022, hoping for an expedited admission process in light of Russia’s military operation.

November 19, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Experts refute Australian charge claiming PLA destroyer’s use of sonar ‘unprofessional,’ question Australian frigate’s location, purpose

By Liu Xuanzun and Guo Yuandan | Global Times | November 19, 2023

Chinese experts on Sunday refuted accusations from Australia claiming that a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) destroyer used sonar to force divers from an Australian frigate to exit the water, saying that the Australian statement is vague and one-sided, and aims to hype the “China threat” theory.

The HMAS Toowoomba, an Anzac-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy, on Tuesday sailed in “international waters inside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone” en route to commence a scheduled port visit during “operations in support of United Nations sanctions enforcement in the region” when it stopped to conduct diving operations in order to clear fishing nets that had become entangled around its propellers, the Australian defense department said in a press release on Saturday.

While diving operations were underway, a PLA Navy destroyer, the Sovremenny-class guided missile destroyer Ningbo (Hull 139), operating in the vicinity closed toward the HMAS Toowoomba, the Australian press release said.

According to the Australian press release, the two countries’ vessels were able to establish communications, before the Australian ship detected the Chinese ship operating its hull-mounted sonar “in a manner that posed a risk to the safety of the Australian divers who were forced to exit the water.”

The Australian press release is widely questioned by Chinese military experts, especially about the vague location given where the incident is supposed to have taken place.

Zhang Junshe, a Chinese naval expert, told the Global Times on Sunday that while Australia claimed the incident happened in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, it did not give the exact location.

If the incident took place in waters to the west of Japan, China and Japan have not carried out maritime delimitation in relevant waters, so Japan’s self-proclaimed exclusive economic zone could be well within waters administered by China, Zhang said.

Another Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Sunday that Australia likely intentionally chose not to disclose the exact location because it has a guilty conscience.

“Did the incident take place near China’s Diaoyu Islands or the island of Taiwan? Or was it close to a PLA training exercise? If that is the case, it was obvious that the Australian warship provoked China in the first place,” the expert said.

Analysts pointed out that the Australian press release is one-sided as it failed to mention the Chinese input during the communications between the two countries’ ships.

Since the Australian side admitted that it had established communications with the Chinese side, it is very likely that the Chinese ship issued verbal warnings which the Australian ship had ignored, and the Chinese ship was forced to take the ensuing step which was to send a warning through sonar, the abovementioned anonymous expert said.

Some of the main purposes of a sonar system is to detect submarines and underwater terrains, similar to how a radar system is used to detect aircraft, the expert said, explaining that active sonar generates sound waves that vibrate underwater.

Pinging with sonar is also a means to communicate, and in this case, was likely used to warn the Australian operation, the expert said.

Australia claimed that the sonar pulses likely caused minor injuries to the Australian divers, but the wording is also very vague and has no proof, analysts said.

“Australia said it had fishing nets that had become entangled around its frigate’s propellers. It shows that such a close-in reconnaissance attempt not only posed threats to China’s national security, but also to the normal maritime work of fishing boats,” Zhang said.

In the recent period, countries like Australia and Canada have been repeatedly accusing Chinese warships and warplanes of “unsafe, unprofessional” interactions, as these forces from outside of the region conducted close-in reconnaissance operations on China’s doorstep in the name of UN sanctions enforcement, observers said.

Alert patrols by Chinese warplanes and warships on China’s doorstep are normal and should not have been hyped as “China threat,” Zhang said.

These countries should stop sending warships and warplanes from thousands of kilometers away to stir up troubles and flex their muscles on China’s doorstep, experts said.

November 19, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

The Greatest Threat to World Peace? A Review of Daniele Ganser’s ‘USA: The Ruthless Empire’

Review by Marilyn Langlois | November 10, 2023

If you regard the United States as perhaps flawed but overall a force for good in the world . . .

If you scoff at the notion that the US, a republic founded on principles of freedom and democracy, has morphed into a world empire, perpetrating assassinations, coups d’état, acts of terror and illegal warfare . . .

If you want to promote peace but haven’t yet explored deceptive events that precipitate US warmongering . . .

. . . here is a volume that will clear the air and paint an honest picture of the significant, not-so-rosy impact US foreign policy and actions have had in the world around us.

USA: The Ruthless Empire, by Swiss historian and peace researcher Daniele Ganser, is the newly published English language translation of his book Imperium USA, originally written in German and published in 2020. Here is a summary of key points — including some lesser-known ones — along with remedies for a more peaceful future, that are covered in the book.

Ganser takes us on a tour of meticulously documented historical events that would be shocking to anyone committed to fairness and basic human decency. His intention is to strengthen the peace movement, which encompasses people all over the world — including in the US — who reject war as well as the lies and propaganda used to initiate and perpetuate wars. Throughout the book, he emphasizes three key pillars to the peace movement: the United Nations ban on any kind of violence or aggression, mindfulness (allowing one to recognize and see through war propaganda and lies), and viewing all people as members of the human family.

Before delving into history, Ganser sets the stage in Chapter 1, “The USA Poses the Greatest Threat to World Peace.” He backs up this assertion with a dizzying array of figures about how many countries the US has bombed since 1945 (at least 23), how many military bases it has in foreign countries (more than 700), the US world record on military spending (now approaching $1 trillion annually), the number of US troops abroad (over 200,000), and the US status as the only country to have deployed nuclear weapons. He shares results of a Gallup poll of 67,000 people in 65 countries that asked, “Which country poses the greatest threat to world peace today?” to which 24% named the US, while between 5% and 9% named one of six other countries and less than 5% named one of twelve other countries.

Chapter 2, “The USA Is an Oligarchy,” spotlights an ominous manifestation of empire: the astronomical disparities in wealth and income (540 billionaires vs. over 100 million living in poverty, not to mention impacts around the world) resulting from an oligarchy of super-rich running the empire and manipulating information flows with little meaningful influence by voters.

Chapters 3 and 4 describe key precursors to empire both before and after the new US republic established its independence from Britain in the late 18th century — namely, the mass murder and displacement of Native Americans and the importation and exploitation of slave labor from Africa in much of the new nation.

Chapter 5 covers the overt launch of imperial actions in the mid and late 19th century, when the US initiated wars based on lies and often false flag incidents to annex half of Mexico and conquer former Spanish colonies either as outright possessions (Puerto Rico and Guam) or with nominal autonomy but under tight US control (Cuba and the Philippines). The Kingdom of Hawaii was captured and annexed under threat of violence.

Chapter 6, devoted to World War I, elaborates on how, even prior to the US entering combat in 1917, US-based war profiteers flourished. J.P. Morgan & Co. was financing England and France, and US corporations sold arms to Europe. Hence, vested US interests in intentionally prolonging the war cost millions of avoidable deaths. War propaganda thrived, with Germans — who had done nothing to the US — being severely vilified. Hamburgers became “Liberty Steak” and sauerkraut “Liberty Cabbage.” (Remember how in 2003, when France hesitated to join in the war on Iraq, the US Senate cafeteria sold “Freedom Fries”?) The Espionage Act was passed to prosecute pacifists (including Eugene Debs) and deny free speech — and is still being used today to persecute Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes in Iraq.

Chapter 7 scrutinizes the US role in World War II, unravelling its carefully cultivated image of fighting honorably on the side of righteousness, and exposes both belligerent proclivities and mixed loyalties. Ganser reminds us that US companies were allowed to sell oil to Nazi Germany both before and well into the war. Without that fuel supply, the Nazi threat may have dissipated prior to some of the worst atrocities being committed. Again, the war was unnecessarily prolonged.

Though officially allies of the Soviet Union, the US and Great Britain were pleased to see Hitler taking action against communist Russia, and they avoided opening a western front until mid-1944, when it looked like the Soviet Union (which lost 27 million citizens in World War II) would be the sole victor over the Nazis. Ganser unearthed this remarkable June 1941 quote by then-US Senator and later President Harry Truman: “If we see that Germany is winning the war we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany. And that way let them kill as many as possible, although I certainly don’t want Hitler to win in the end.” Divide et impera — divide and conquer.

Truman, as US president, ordered the first and only deployment of nuclear weapons in history so far, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and terrorizing many more at a time when Japan was already prepared to surrender. Ganser documents how, in order to gain popular support for the US entering the war, it intentionally goaded the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor, providing the desired casus belli. The infamous December 7, 1941, attack was no surprise to President Franklin Roosevelt, who let it happen, sacrificing thousands of US servicemembers. As will become relevant to Chapter 12 on the September 11 attacks, Ganser notes that a Hollywood movie, “Pearl Harbor,” parroting the surprise attack myth, was released in May 2001, priming the public subliminally for what was to follow a few months later on September 11.

Chapter 8, “Covert Warfare,” tells us how the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council were born in the post-war years. It includes a laundry list of how the US used them to perpetrate multiple coups d’état (Iran, Guatemala, Chile), assassinations (Lumumba in Congo, Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, Diem in Vietnam, Che Guevarra in Bolivia), assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, and the failed invasion of Cuba in 1961. President Kennedy ultimately became so outraged by these illegal operations that he fired CIA director Allan Dulles.

Note that Ganser devoted an entire previous book, NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, to numerous additional covert operations involving the US, via NATO and the CIA, that are not covered in the present volume. These include false flag assassinations, bombing of civilians (blamed on communists), and fixing elections in much of Western Europe throughout the Cold War.

Chapter 9 focuses on the Kennedy assassination, summarizing evidence exonerating Lee Harvey Oswald and implicating Allan Dulles in a conspiracy to commit this heinous murder. After District Attorney Jim Garrison of New Orleans brought much of the evidence to light in 1967, questioning the validity of the Warren Commission Report (authored by Dulles), the CIA created and widely publicized the notion of “conspiracy theorist” as a derogatory term for anyone who challenged the official narrative. Interestingly, Ganser notes that in 1979 the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations “saw a high probability that two men had shot Kennedy. . . . The Committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The Committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.” This report was conveniently obscured by the media, and few are aware of it today.

Chapter 10, on the Vietnam War — which rapidly escalated after Kennedy’s murder — is a painful reminder to those readers who lived through it of the needless suffering inflicted on millions of Vietnamese and on tens of thousands of US soldiers and the peripheral damage to neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. The latter two countries were bombed by the US without provocation, inciting the brutality of Khmer Rouge communists, whom the US could demonize to deflect from its own role in the bloodshed. Ganser reminds us of the false flag Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 that was used to provoke a dramatic escalation of the war in Vietnam. While we were repeatedly warned of the propagandistic “domino theory,” there was in fact no chain reaction of neighboring countries turning communist after Vietnam prevailed and defeated the US in 1975 — hence all that death and destruction was in vain, other than benefitting war profiteers.

In Chapter 11 on the Iran-Contra Affair, Ganser elucidates another example of the US pitting two of its adversaries against each other when it supported Saddam Hussein in Iraq’s war against Iran while simultaneously and covertly selling weapons to Iran and secretly using the proceeds to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, who supported the dictatorial Somoza regime. Ganser further shows how the CIA hypocritically engaged secretly in the cocaine trade to finance its covert operations.  How many people’s lives have been upended by those operations abroad and in drug-infested US cities?

In Chapters 12 and 13 on 9/11 and the War on Terror, respectively, the US empire ushers in the 21st century with an overwhelming display of shock and awe. The first sub-heading is prescient: “A New Pearl Harbor” refers to a prophetic statement in the year 2000 by the neocon Project for a New American Century, noting that it would be difficult to get the US population to accept massive military spending and upgrades for fighting multiple wars simultaneously “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor.”

Ganser offers three ways of evaluating the events of September 11, 2001: (1) Surprise attack catching everyone in the US, including top leadership and intelligence services, completely off guard; (2) LIHOP (let it happen on purpose), implying foreknowledge by key players of what was going to happen but intentionally failing to stop it; and (3) MIHOP (made it happen on purpose), involving direct complicity of certain players within the US military-intelligence apparatus and their agents. He disproves (1) and points to (2) and (3) as much more plausible, leaning toward (3).

Abundant research has been conducted debunking the official 9/11 story that 19 Muslim hijackers and a few men in a cave in Afghanistan were solely responsible for the death and destruction that day, and Ganser includes references to much of it in his footnotes. Bringing us to the present day, the author of this review refers readers to the International Center for 9/11 Justice for an up-to-date collection of relevant 9/11 research.

In this volume, Ganser touches on a handful of key anomalies: obvious fallacies of the official 9/11 Commission report authored by Philip Zelikow, a Bush administration insider; the utter failure of the multi-billion dollar US defense system to prevent an attack, including on its own heavily fortified headquarters; the millions in profits made by unnamed individuals who invested heavily in put options in the days before September 11, 2001 (betting that United and American airlines stocks would soon plummet), indicating specific foreknowledge; the clear evidence that World Trade Center Building 7 was destroyed later that day by controlled demolition and the refusal of US authorities or media to even entertain that possibility; and the evidence for the use of explosives in the destruction of the Twin Towers.

With the fall of the Soviet Union ten years before, the US empire had been searching for a new major enemy, and the crimes of 9/11 offered an “ideal” replacement: the never-ending and amorphous “War on Terror,” which could be and has been used to justify numerous military incursions and the proliferation of US bases anywhere “terrorists” are deemed to be lurking.  Ganser details the US role in illegal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq (initiated by spreading lies about alleged weapons of mass destruction), and Syria, all of which left millions dead in their wake, not to mention the horrendous abuses of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib.

On a note of optimism, Ganser points out how the blatant injustice of the wars in the Middle East — like the injustice of the Vietnam War before them — energized the peace movement in the US, prompting massive demonstrations and civil disobedience in opposition, indicating vast numbers who denounce war and empire and seek peaceful coexistence with all peoples. Beyond famous peace movement leaders like Jeannette Rankin, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi, he highlights the role of everyday citizens affirming their commitment to all people as members of the human family and rejecting attempts by the elites to divide and conquer. He also points out how the rise of alternative media has played a role in allowing for dissemination of information that counters the mainstream lies and war propaganda. The explosion of the internet and social media can be a two-edged sword, however, as Ganser points out in Chapter 14, “The Digital Empire,” with consolidation and monopolization of technology and information flows by such digital giants as Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia.

The 15th and final chapter, called “The Fight for Eurasia,” details the US role in the 2014 coup d’état in Ukraine — which was a catalyst for ensuing violence that has now escalated exponentially — as well as the relentless eastward expansion of NATO, contrary to US assurances in 1991 that this would not happen, which is another key causative factor in the havoc being wreaked there today. The original German edition was written two years prior to Russia’s 2022 “special military operation” in Ukraine. This new English edition does add a few paragraphs condemning Russia’s invasion as a violation of the UN Charter, while noting the provocations by NATO and Ukraine that fueled this proxy war between the US and Russia.

The book likewise does not include the up-to-the-minute status of the US relationship with China, but does note in the last chapter that China’s humiliation by the British Empire during the 19th century Opium Wars has prompted caution in its current relations with the West. We learn about China’s 2013 announcement of the “New Silk Road” in the form of a massive transcontinental infrastructure project also known as the Belt and Road Initiative, now well underway, designed not as an imperial land and resource grab but rather to mutually benefit all participating nations, allowing them to respect each other’s sovereignty and reducing tensions among them.

In his conclusion, Ganser notes that “the peace movement must trust that a world without war is possible.” He is “convinced that a fundamental exit from the spiral of violence is possible. The decisive factor is whether we really want inner and outer peace. If this will is strong enough, we can orient ourselves according to the following three principles: the human family, the UN ban on violence, and mindfulness.” These three principles, he notes, can be applied to overcome polarization, profiteering, and propaganda. A key tool of empire is dividing people into those who are favored and those who are demonized, pitting them against each other while enabling elites to generate profits for the few from the fighting of the many. Mindfulness can help people “wake up and quicky realize that war and lies always go hand in hand.” Those who practice mindfulness can no longer be so easily deceived by psychological operations.

In the words of President John F. Kennedy, invoked by Ganser in the introduction to the book, “Our problems are man-made. Therefore, they can be solved by men.”

USA: The Ruthless Empire, by Daniele Ganser
Skyhorse Publishing, 2023
ISBN: 97815107768

Marilyn Langlois is a volunteer community organizer and peace activist based in Richmond, California. She is a guest editorialist for TRANSCEND Media Service and a member of Daniele Ganser’s online peacemaker community. She serves on the board of the International Center for 9/11 Justice.

November 19, 2023 Posted by | Book Review, Militarism, Timeless or most popular | | Leave a comment

To Bluff or Not to Bluff

By William Schryver – imetatronink – November 18, 2023

The map pictured below has been circulating:

It purports to portray the current positions of the impressive array of US/NATO naval assets in the eastern Mediterranean, Red Sea, and the Arabian Sea / Gulf of Oman.

Maybe most of it is more or less accurate in terms of the positioning it indicates. But I do not, at present, believe it accurately represents the position of the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, which it suggests is sailing in the far reaches of the Gulf of Oman, more or less at the gates of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Eisenhower CSG is indicated by the bright green number 5 on the map. I am very dubious it has ventured into those dangerous waters.

Many believe the strike group will transit the straits, and take a cruise in the Persian Gulf.

I do not believe that will happen.

It would be, in my opinion, an extraordinary blunder of hubris.

That said, it will be a sure indicator of US intent towards Iran.

If the Eisenhower enters the Persian Gulf, it means the US aims to put it in optimal position to strike Iran — or at least to raise the stakes of its bluff to a level that it will very likely be called.

In other words, if the USS Eisenhower and its escorts enter the Persian Gulf, it will almost certainly compel an engagement with Iranian forces — likely ignited by an Iranian shoot-down of US ISR assets.

If, on the other hand, the Eisenhower remains sailing in the relatively safe deep blue waters of the broad portion of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, then you can be sure the US actually has no desire to escalate to war with Iran.

That would be, in my estimation, a very wise course of action.

November 18, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , | Leave a comment

U.S.-China Reset? Biden Offers Hand of Friendship to Xi While Holding Enmity in the Other

Strategic Culture Foundation | November 17, 2023

Despite the hype in the U.S. media about their much-anticipated summit in California this week marking a putative return to normal bilateral relations, the Biden administration continues pushing unprecedented aggression towards China.

Just like San Francisco’s notorious Third World-like homelessness and squalor being hurriedly cleaned up (swept under the rug, more like it) for the media spectacle, all the signs point to no return to decent U.S.-China relations in the longer term. It’s all a duplicitous facade for a passing moment on a path of enmity.

Biden held a four-hour summit with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Wednesday in San Francisco ahead of the annual conference for the 21-nation Association of Pacific and Economic Cooperation (APEC).

It was highly notable that Biden and Xi did not hold a joint press conference following their lengthy discussions. Nor did the two leaders issue a joint statement. So much for a new beginning!

Almost comically, the supposed positive meeting was later thrown into disarray when Biden at the end of his solo press conference made a hallmark embarrassing gaffe by repeating an earlier epithet for Xi. Asked by a reporter if he still considered the Chinese president “a dictator”, Biden responded, “Yes”.

Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, was visibly perplexed by his tone-deaf boss’s remarks, sensing that all the effort to create an apparent amiable reset in relations was in danger of collapsing in farce.

Chinese media tended to overlook Biden’s undiplomatic gaucheness. Surprisingly, China’s foreign ministry and media appeared to talk up the presidential summit as bearing prospects of more friendly bilateral relations. Global Times reported in an upbeat mood on a “strategic summit” for “greater stability in the world”.

The American and Chinese media spinning or wishful thinking about a seeming turnaround in positive relations is misplaced.

As Biden’s foolish and gratuitous remark about Xi being a “dictator” shows, the U.S. rulers have nothing but contempt for China. Biden may have held out a friendly hand to Xi, but the American president and the U.S. establishment are harbouring endemic and growing hostility towards Beijing.

The two presidents last met a year ago during the G20 gathering in Bali, Indonesia. Since that encounter there has been a worrying downturn in U.S.-China relations with many commentators in the U.S. and China, as well as around the world, fearing a possible outbreak of war between the two global nuclear powers.

Frankly, the belligerence stems from one side: the United States. It’s not just the administration of President Joe Biden that espouses aggression by deploying contrived economic sanctions against China. There is a preponderance of irrational hostility in Congress towards Beijing as well as among the U.S. military. Only a month ago, the Pentagon once again labelled China as a growing military threat to American global interests. The alleged threats that Washington traduces are baseless or, ironically, a projection of its own intimidatory actions, such as sending countless naval and aviation patrols near China’s borders on the cynical pretext of “freedom of navigation”.

The Biden White House has continually provoked China with false claims of Chinese expansionism in the Asia-Pacific while the U.S. relentlessly builds up its own military power in the region. Washington is also assiduously recruiting regional allies to gang up on China in the event of war. The AUKUS coalition with Australia and Britain armed with nuclear submarines is a particularly tendentious development. So too is the Quad group involving the U.S., Japan, South Korea and India which arrogantly denigrates China as a hemispheric threat, thereby turning reality completely on its head.

Biden is merely continuing an escalation in hostility that began ramping up under the Obama administration (2008-16) more than a decade ago. Trump maintained the belligerence during his four years (2016-20), which Biden has redoubled. The latter was vice president when Obama launched the so-called Pivot to Asia in 2011.

The trajectory unmistakably shows a systematic policy of U.S. power to confront China, and that policy prevails regardless of who sits in the White House, and no matter whether the president is a Democrat or Republican. So much for democratic choice!

As American hegemonic dominance goes into rapid decline owing to inherent economic and societal failure under sclerotic late U.S. capitalism, it has become all the more imperative for Washington to try to scale up military aggression towards perceived geopolitical rivals. It’s a desperate gambit to offset an historic decline.

China, being the world’s ascendant second largest economy after the U.S., is logically seen as the Number One threat. So too are Russia and other nations that advocate a multipolar world order free from arbitrary U.S. and Western privileges. This is the geopolitical context for why the NATO axis is waging a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, and why the United States seems hellbent on fomenting chaos and conflict in the Middle East. The would-be hegemon needs violence, chaos and tension like a drug addict craving a narcotic fix.

The deterioration in U.S.-China relations has caused many observers to be apprehensive of a looming war. Pentagon commanders remark openly about an anticipated armed conflict breaking out between the two nuclear powers, especially in relation to tensions over Taiwan.

One reason why Biden seems to be seeking a belated easing of tensions with China is precisely because Washington has stoked the war tendency too much and therefore needs to dampen it, albeit for short-term practical reasons.

Another reason for seemingly engaging with President Xi this week is Biden’s electioneering. He faces a tight presidential race next year and no doubt is looking for something positive to show American voters. Significantly, Biden chose to prioritize his top achievement from discussions with Xi as “counter-narcotics policy”. Over 70,000 Americans die every year from opioid overdosing, more than from gun violence or road accidents. It is a major national scandal in the U.S. China is blamed as a source of fentanyl precursor chemicals. Biden boasted this week that the U.S. and China would cooperate more on controlling illicit drug trade. It seems that Biden was looking more at scoring favour with the U.S. electorate than to genuinely restoring normal bilateral relations with China based on principles of ensuring global peace.

Under Biden, the U.S. has recklessly intensified military and political interference in Taiwan, an island province of China. The Biden administration has proliferated weapons sales to Taiwan in flagrant defiance of China’s warnings to desist.

High-level political delegations from the U.S. to Taiwan have gone hand-in-hand with the increasing American militarization of the island, which is only some 130 kilometres from China’s southeast mainland. The provocation is similar to how the U.S. and NATO weaponized Ukraine to antagonize Russia.

The breakdown in military communications between the U.S. and China was instigated by the visit to Taiwan in August 2022 by Nancy Pelosi, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, which is the third most senior political office in the U.S. after the president.

This week’s summit between Biden and Xi declared a resumption in military communications between the U.S. and China.

We’ll see how long the supposed detente lasts. Not for long, one suspects going by past form.

After Biden met with Xi in Bali at the end of last year, there were similar professions from the U.S. side of tamping down tensions and resuming normalcy. A couple of months after that supposed “reset”, the Biden administration sparked a crisis when it shot down a Chinese weather balloon that had been blown off course.

The notion that the U.S. can easily repair relations with China is naive. All the signals indicate that Washington is on a collision course with China. Provocative name-calling of China as a threat, the relentless arming of Taiwan and the pursuit of aggressive trade war policies all spell out confrontation.

That dire direction is, unfortunately, unavoidable because the U.S. sees itself as the indispensable sole superpower that will not tolerate any global arrangement other than its hegemonic dominance. That zero-sum mindset of the United States is intrinsic to its imperialist power. That is why the U.S. as it is currently formulated as a state is destined to be a warmonger. World peace is anathema to U.S. imperial power.

China, Russia and other nations aiming for a new multipolar world must be cognizant of that nefarious reality. Aspiring to have normal relations with the U.S. as a global hegemonic power is like trying to have normal relations with a psychotic predator.

President Teddy Roosevelt (1900-10) once jocularly described the practice of U.S. foreign policy as speaking softly while carrying a big club. That’s the essence of a global bully. U.S. power always relies on wielding a military club. The only difference now under Biden is that instead of speaking softly, the U.S. stutters over its lies and deceptions.

November 18, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Biden signs funding bill that excludes Ukraine

RT | November 17, 2023

US President Joe Biden signed a stopgap spending bill into law on Thursday, averting a looming government shutdown. The limited appropriation of funds, which omitted aid to Ukraine, passed the Senate on Wednesday.

The legislation was proposed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, who relied on Democrats to push it through the chamber despite the objections of the more conservative wing of his party. The Democrat-controlled Senate passed the bill in a 87-11 vote the next day.

The stopgap bill did not include spending on hot-button issues, such as abortion, border security and foreign aid – for Ukraine, Israel or any other nation. Instead, it focused on keeping government departments operational at their current level. The two-tier plan provides funding through January 19 and February 2, depending on the agency. The shutdown deadline would have arrived at midnight on Friday.

“Because of bipartisan cooperation, we are keeping the government open without any poison pills or harmful cuts to vital programs – a great outcome for the American people,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after he and his fellow senators voted on the bill.

The Ukraine aid issue contributed to US political turmoil in September, which resulted in the unprecedented ouster of Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy. Opponents of Biden’s Ukraine policy accused the then-speaker of striking a secret deal with the White House to ensure that Kiev would eventually get the money.

Some Republicans want a revision of Ukraine assistance, arguing that it lacks transparency and that other US priorities are more important than propping up the Ukrainian government.

Johnson previously drew the anger of the White House when he refused Biden’s request to bundle Ukraine aid with assistance to Israel and Taiwan and domestic security and emergency relief spending. Senior US officials have warned that without American help, Kiev may soon lose in the conflict with Moscow.

The new speaker framed the bill as the last one he would agree to and a prelude to a major clash with the Senate over the US budget for 2024.

Republican critics of the bill said Johnson made a mistake by allying with the Democrats, but agreed to cut him some slack during his “honeymoon” period in the post. The lawmaker was elected speaker three weeks ago, after a tense impasse, as GOP representatives could not agree on a replacement for McCarthy.

November 17, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Neo-Nazi junta draft commissions now after pregnant women

By Drago Bosnic | November 17, 2023

For well over a year and a half, we have been listening and reading about all the mythical “victories” of the Kiev regime forces. If we were to believe the mainstream propaganda machine, Russia is about to collapse, its forces are in disarray, President Putin is in perpetual hiding in some bunker, etc. And yet, concurrently, that same mainstream propaganda machine is publishing texts about the massive increase in the number of forcibly conscripted women in the Neo-Nazi junta forces. This begs the obvious question, why? Why would the side that’s supposedly “winning” enforce conscription on anyone, let alone women? Men are far more suitable to be soldiers for evident biological reasons (unless you’re an ultra-liberal, “woke” extremist).

Women can surely play a part in the defense of their own country, but ideally, this shouldn’t be encouraged. Warfare has always been quite an ugly business, even for the toughest of men, as evidenced by the number of veterans with PTSD. In this regard, frontline units are particularly exposed to the horrors of war and female soldiers should certainly be kept as far as possible from direct combat zones. The dread that male POWs (prisoners of war) can go through is more than enough, while women in the same situation are at the risk of experiencing even worse horrors. This alone should disqualify female soldiers from serving in frontline units. Notwithstanding many famous women who served in wars during momentous times in history, this is something that should be an axiom.

However, it seems the Kiev regime didn’t get the memo. Worse yet, not only are they sending women to the trenches, but are now forcibly conscripting pregnant ones. Yes, you read that right – pregnant Ukrainian women are being sent to the frontline. Anyone remotely sane would call that a war crime. Those who are sending them can only be described as enemies of their own people. Pregnant women are by far the most precious humans one could possibly imagine and treating them with anything less than absolute care is simply criminal. Taking into account the unrelenting demographic collapse of Ukraine, women (particularly pregnant ones) should be the top priority in terms of ensuring their safety and well-being. However, the Neo-Nazi junta and its NATO overlords have other plans.

What they are really after is an endless supply of cannon fodder. So far, there have been at least a quarter of a million KIA (killed in action), while there are several times more WIA/MIA (wounded/missing in action). Some, such as the US Army Colonel Douglas McGregor (ret.) claim that the numbers are far worse. According to his estimate, there are upwards of half a million Ukrainian men who have died in battle so far. The numbers might be up for debate, but there’s no doubt they’re horrendous. However, that’s still not enough for the political West and its favorite puppet regime. The Neo-Nazi junta forces are actively conscripting women to replace those losses, as attempts to forcibly draft Ukrainian refugees living abroad failed, with the host countries simply refusing to enforce it.

Hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians who haven’t got the chance to leave the country are in hiding, as there’s no other way to avoid the ruthless draft commissions that regularly grab people in the streets and then send them off to frontline units. Obviously, those who are loyal to the Kiev regime are exempt, as well as those who can afford to pay hefty bribes to military medical commissions (MMCs). Thus, sons of numerous corrupt oligarchs get the chance to live their lavish lifestyles abroad (all at the expense of the Ukrainian people), while pregnant women are sent to war. What’s more, recently released combat footage shows some have already been captured by the Russian military. The video in question shows a woman shouting “[I’m] pregnant!” while surrendering to Russian soldiers.

Although it could be argued that the female soldier in the video is simply saying this out of fear, there have already been complaints from pregnant women who got conscription notices. As there are upwards of 50,000 female soldiers currently serving in various units, the number of pregnant ones is difficult to determine, but it could easily be in the hundreds (if not even thousands). And while legal limitations previously protected women by barring them from serving in frontline units, most of those have been lifted after the special military operation (SMO) started. Thus, female soldiers can now serve as machine gunners, tank commanders, snipers, truck drivers, etc. Unfortunately, this is hardly surprising given that people with severe physical and mental disabilities are also being deemed “fit for service“.

The Neo-Nazi junta frontman Volodymyr Zelensky is obsessed with pleasing his NATO overlords and this includes military “victories” at any cost. This only resulted in further escalation of the conflict between Zelensky and the Kiev regime’s top commander, General Valery Zaluzhny. The latter simply doesn’t want to throw away the lives of countless soldiers just to accomplish tactical “victories” that don’t really change the overall situation on the battlefield. Zelensky’s direct meddling in military affairs (for which he completely lacks any sort of expertise) is a constant source of frustration for Zaluzhny and his officers. He’s simply so out of touch that this is making the already miserable lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers even more difficult, as they’re without proper training and supplies.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

November 17, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Pentagon fails annual audit

RT | November 16, 2023

The US Defense Department has flunked its sixth annual independent audit, having failed to even provide auditors with enough financial data to complete their evaluation, a report released on Wednesday revealed.

The overall results of the audit – the sixth that the Pentagon has failed since it was required to begin auditing itself in 2018 – were a “disclaimer of opinion,” the worst of three possible grades and the same rating the department received last year. The result took into account 29 component audits, of which 18 were also flunked with disclaimers of opinion. Just seven components received “unqualified opinions,” the most desirable rating, while another one received a “qualified opinion.”

Pentagon Chief Financial Officer Michael McCord attempted to frame the audit results positively, stating in a press release accompanying the report that his department was “making progress toward the goal of a clean audit.”

McCord acknowledged in a call with reporters on Wednesday that the Pentagon had not expected to pass the audit, but insisted it was moving toward resolving its balance of funds with the Treasury Department. He also touted the use of automated programs for rote tasks, stating that “bots” had saved 600,000 hours of work between the Navy and Air Force alone, and claimed the Pentagon had done a detailed inventory of its stockpiles in the course of supplying billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine.

However, the Pentagon remains the only cabinet-level department never to have received a clean financial bill of health. With $3.8 trillion in assets, $4 trillion in liabilities, and little meaningful oversight, the potential for waste and fraud is immense, according to the Government Accountability Office, which has included the department’s business systems modernization and financial management initiatives on its “High Risk List” – a list of federal programs most susceptible to fraud, abuse, mismanagement, and waste – for nearly 30 years.

The Pentagon consumes more than half of the US discretionary budget, with most in Washington wary of cutting military spending lest they run afoul of the defense industry, a source of hefty donations to both sides of the political aisle, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks political contributions. Defense Department staff have admitted to “misplacing” trillions of dollars in transactions in accounting discrepancies that have never been resolved.

Efforts to rein in profligate defense spending in Congress have repeatedly failed. The Audit the Pentagon Act, which would penalize any department of the military that fails its annual audit by forcing it to forfeit 1% of its budget, was introduced again in the Senate last year after the Defense Department was unable to account for more than half of its assets. However, it never made it to the floor for a vote.

November 16, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Militarism | | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »