Tag: military industrial complex

Palantir’s Draft Push Collides with Washington’s Automatic Registration Machine

In 1777, Thomas Jefferson warned John Adams that a national military draft would rank among the most hated measures imaginable. Colonists had rebelled against British press gangs. That grievance made the Declaration of Independence. Nearly 250 years on, a $350 billion data giant echoes the idea. Palantir Technologies, fresh off zero federal taxes on $1.5 billion in U.S. income, just called for universal national service. Timing? Perfect. Or ominous.

The company’s manifesto hit X last Sunday. It boils down 22 points from CEO Alex Karp’s 2025 book, The Technological Republic, co-written with Nicholas W. Zamiska. One line stands out: “National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.” (Fortune)

Palantir didn’t invent the draft. America tried it first in the Civil War. Then World War I. World War II. Korea. Vietnam. The last call came December 7, 1972. Jimmy Carter mandated male registration in 1980. Now comes the shift. Starting December 18, 2026, Selective Service goes automatic for men 18 to 26. No forms. No opt-out nudge. Government databases do the work. President Donald Trump’s National Defense Authorization Act locked it in. (Time)

Why now? Compliance dipped. Selective Service says automation streamlines everything, frees staff for readiness. It pulls from Social Security, DMV, student loans, immigration records. Citizens. Immigrants. Undocumented. Dual nationals. Green card holders. All in, within 30 days of turning 18. “This statutory change transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS through integration with federal data sources,” the agency states. (Newsweek)

Palantir stays silent on direct ties. No contract announced for Selective Service. Yet speculation swirls. The firm holds a $10 billion U.S. Army deal for software and analytics. (U.S. Army) Its platforms run Project Maven, the Pentagon’s AI targeting tool. Reports link it to Gaza strike lists for Israel. (Mother Jones) Over half its revenue flows from government. 2026 guidance? $7.18 billion to $7.2 billion, up 70%.

And taxes. Zero federal in 2025, thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. (ITEP) Karp once framed the mission bluntly: “scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them.” (The Guardian) The manifesto adds layers. Silicon Valley owes a “moral debt.” Remilitarize Germany, Japan.

This lands amid the seventh week of U.S. action in Iran. Tensions simmer. Automatic registration isn’t a draft. But it builds the list. Critics see a data grab. Edward Hasbrouck, draft researcher, warns it props up war planning. Selective Service seeks broader data sharing with law enforcement, even abroad. (Hasbrouck.org)

On X, reactions mix alarm and shrugs. One user ties Palantir directly: “They will use existing gov databases (think Palantir) to find and register them.” (X post by @allenanalysis) Another calls it fearmongering: “This has always been a thing… now it is automatic. That is the only change.” (X post by @CarmineSabia) Palantir’s post drew shares, but no company reply to Fortune.

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Japan Lifts Ban on Weapon Exports In Break With Post-WW2 Pacifism

Pacifist post-war Japan is no more.

Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s capitulation on August 15, 1945, and the instrument of surrender was signed on September 2, aboard the USS Missouri, ending WW2.

Since then, Japan turned its back on the martial aspect of its society and embraced pacifism.

But now, over eighty years later, Japan has scrapped most of its restrictions on weapons exports as it boosts both its own military and its arms industry.

Bloomberg reported:

“The cabinet of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday approved changes to defense export rules that will for the first time since World War II allow overseas shipments of weapons. Previously, companies could only export military equipment for use in operations related to rescue, transport, warning, surveillance and minesweeping.

’These decisions are intended to safeguard Japan’s security and further contribute to the peace and stability of the region and the international community amidst rapidly evolving changes in the security environment’, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said in a press briefing after announcing the decision. ‘At the same time, the government will uphold the fundamental principles of a peaceful nation that have been built over more than 80 years since the end of the war’.”

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USAF Explains Additional F-15EX Buys During Budget Brief

AFP attended the four hours of budget briefings at the Pentagon yesterday as part of the Pentagon Press Corp.

The Department of the Air Force’s Fiscal Year 2027 President’s Budget request marks a fundamental strategic shift. This budget departs from previous practices and makes a conscious effort to prioritize investment in modernization and readiness, recognizing both as essential and non-negotiable. With a total request of $338.8 billion, this 38% increase over the FY26 enacted position is a generational investment designed to supercharge our Defense Industrial Base, sharpen our military readiness, and secure enduring Air and Space superiority.

The budget truly is procurement wish list dream for all of the services, which we will write more about later today.

Part of the procurement buy for fiscal 2027 includes 24 F-15EX aircraft, in a sustained production run to more than 260 airframes.

I question the Air Force officers delivering the briefing about concerns we have heard from retired flag officers about the vulnerability of the F-15EX in a high-threat environment as shown by 4 F-15s being shot down during Operation Epic Fury, by far the aircraft impacted by hostile and friendly fire.

The answer I received was the need primarily in the Pacific of an airframe that can load a large amount of weapons for possibly stand-off offensive fires.

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‘Insulting’: AES sent victims’ family $50 gift card, T-shirt in wake of deadly TN explosion, attorney says

Attorneys for the families of two victims in last year’s deadly munitions plant explosion are condemning Accurate Energetic Systems’ “reckless” behavior before the tragedy and the company’s “insulting” response.

In a Thursday press conference, the legal team representing the families of victims Steven Wright and Reyna Gillahan said Accurate Energetic Systems rejected their $150 million pre-litigation demand. Their rejection came 45 minutes before the attorney’s deadline of Monday afternoon.

“We got an announcement of their defense, which their position is that workers’ compensation in Tennessee is the exclusive remedy for any injury in the workplace,” said attorney Darren Richie.

He said that the $150 million demand on a tight deadline may have seemed “outrageous,” but that was intentional.

“I wanted AES to tell me I was being outrageous. So I could turn around to them and tell them, no, your conduct and behavior, AES, is outrageous,” he said.

The press conference offered new insights into AES’s communication with families in the wake of the deadly explosion and how the victims’ loved ones grieve.

WSMV4 has reached out to AES representatives for comment on these accusations.

AES offers victims’ families ‘insulting’ gift card, shirt

So far, AES has done three things for the victims of the people killed after thousands of pounds of explosives detonated at their Hickman County plant: hosted a barbecue food truck event and sent them a $50 Walmart gift card and a T-shirt with a picture of their deceased loved one, according to Richie.

“Needless to say, that’s insulting,” he said on Thursday.

The lawyer also expressed shock that AES has declined to give families the contact information for their insurance.

“That is a professional courtesy that gets exchanged all the time to facilitate resolution of claims. But they denied it. That shows us how they really feel about their employees,” he said.

He said the team plans to file a lawsuit to demand more from AES.

“And besides saying, oh, I’m sorry, providing some barbecue, gift card, and a t-shirt, they’re acting as if nothing happened. And they’re acting as if they don’t bear any responsibility,” he said. “Well, there’s more than a hundred ways that they bear responsibility here. I want them to step up and take responsibility.”

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Air National Guard Leaders Urge Congress To Fund Dozens Of New Fighter Jets Annually To Reverse ‘Oldest, Smallest, Least Ready’ Air Force

Leaders of the Air National Guard are pressing Congress to dramatically accelerate fighter jet procurement, warning that the U.S. Air Force is operating at historic lows in age, size, and readiness.

In a letter sent earlier this month to key congressional appropriators, adjutants general from 22 states with Air National Guard fighter units called for funding at least 72 new fighter jets in the fiscal 2027 budget, with an optimal target of 108 aircraft per year across the entire Air Force.“

The United States Air Force is the oldest, the smallest, and the least ready in its 78-year history,” the letter states. “We must build a fighting force that will win,” reports Stars and Stripes.

The signatories argue that simply shifting older “legacy” fighters from active-duty units to the Guard and Reserve does not constitute true modernization. “Cascading legacy fighters from the active component to the reserve component is NOT recapitalization,” they wrote.

Specific Procurement RequestsThe generals are urging Congress to approve multiyear procurement authority for:

  • A baseline of 48 F-35A Lightning II and 24 F-15EX Eagle II fighters per year.
  • Scaling up in future years to 72 F-35As and 36 F-15EXs annually, reaching the 108-aircraft target.

These new jets would replace aging fleets of F-15C Eagles, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, and F-16 Fighting Falcons still in service.

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Belgium seizes arms shipment sent from Britain to Israel

Two shipments from Britain of military components bound for Israel have been seized in Belgium, which has banned aircaft carrying military equipment for Israel from stopping in the country or using its airspace. 

Last month, the British news website Declassified, Belgian NGO Vredesactie, Irish news website The Ditch, and the Palestinian Youth Movement alerted authorities in Brussells of a shipment travelling from Britain to Israel through Liege airport. 

The consignments left Britain on 23 March and were siezed at Liege airport in Belgium on 24 March.

They were searched by a specialised engineer who found “fire control systems and spare parts for military aircraft”, which had not been properly declared.

Belgian authorities reportedly opened a criminal investigation into the affair but have declined to name the firms involved in the complaint.

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Last US Convoy Exits Syria After Brutal 14-Year Regime Change Proxy War

Widespread reports on Thursday say the very last US military convoy has finally departed Syrian territory, with the years-long occupation of the primarily northeast oil and gas rich sector over in a ‘mission accomplished’ fashion.

It brings to a final close the 14-year long bloody proxy war which overthrew the Assad government and ultimately installed a pro-US/Saudi axis puppet, in the person of founding Syrian Al Qaeda Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, now known as President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Hundreds of thousand of people lost their lives in the regime change war, with the country and its economy left in a sanction-starved and conflict-demolished state of ruins.

The US-backed Syrian Foreign Ministry declared Washington had decided to “complete its military mission” in the country. “The Syrian state is today fully capable of leading counter-terrorism efforts from within, in co-operation with the international community,” it said, happy to now be back in control of the domestic oil and gas supply.

The ministry “welcomes the completed handover of military sites where United States forces were previously present in Syria to the Syrian government,” adding that “the handover of these sites was carried out … in full coordination between the Syrian and American governments.”

While Pentagon propaganda had for years touted an ‘anti-ISIS’ mission, the real purpose of the troop presence was to cut off Damascus under Assad of its sovereign natural resources, and to arm and prop up a Kurdish-Arab coalition called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

All the while, the CIA supported Sunni hardline jihadists who were indistinguishable from ISIS in their ideology in the fight against the Syrian Army, and the civilian population which often largely supported the secular Ba’ath government. The broader strategy has long been to destroy the Tehran-Baghdad-Hezbollah ‘Shia axis’ – even if that meant using ISIS as a tool of regime change.

Ironically, in the process of this US handover of oil and gas facilities back to post-Assad Damascus, the Kurds were thrown under the bus. Their dream for an autonomous enclave (Rojava) once again proved illusory, and in the long term the Kurds will find themselves at the mercy of Sunni fanatics on the one hand, and Turkish state under Erdogan on the other.

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Pentagon Turns to World War II-Era Tactic in Bid to Ramp Up Weapons Production: Report

The Trump administration wants automakers to put the pedal to the metal to help rebuild America’s weapons stockpiles, according to a new report.

As wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have consumed missiles and other weapons, the Trump administration is turning to a tactic from World War II in order to resupply as fast as possible, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Top executives at General Motors and Ford have been approached, the outlet reported, citing sources it did not name. GE Aerospace and machinery producer Oshkosh have also been approached.

The War Department “is committed to rapidly expanding the defense industrial base by leveraging all available commercial solutions and technologies to ensure our warfighters maintain a decisive advantage,” a Pentagon official said.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has called for American manufacturing to be on a “wartime footing.”

Talks with manufacturers began before the war against Iran, with the goal of strengthening national security by increasing the military’s ability to quickly increase production of weapons and technology to meet emerging needs.

Defense officials sought input from companies that do not perform extensive defense work about barriers that need to be addressed by the government, such as the process for bidding and contracting.

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Application Denied: Another Dive into the Failures of Military Bureaucracy and COVID-19 Mandate Relief

On September 23, 2021, an active-duty Air Force officer who has served for 18 years submitted a request for a religious accommodation for the COVID-19 shot mandate. Four and a half years later, there is still derogatory paperwork in his personnel file, leaving him ineligible or significantly disadvantaged for all career advancement and more.

This story provides an update on developments from September 2025 and March 2026, reinforcing J.M. Phelps’ assertion that the Board of Correction of Military Records (BCMR) is “ineffective” and frequently highlights the widespread “bureaucratic malfeasance” within the military institution, providing little more than a “half measure” to service members, as in the case of Air Force Captain Anthony Monteleone.

Furthermore, concerning Air Force BCMR (AFBCMR), the situation underscores how their decisions are a direct affront to the goals of President Donald Trump and Department of War (DOW) Pete Hegseth to restore the military.

Case in point: On April 3, 2026, AFBCMR issued a “finding” that flatly denied any relief whatsoever to Capt. Monteleone. Given the overwhelming mountain of evidence reviewed by J.M. Phelps and provided to the Board, one can only conclude that the Board continues to undermine the efforts of President Trump and his appointees within the Department of War. This bureaucratic obstruction appears aimed at continuing the denial of mandated relief to those who suffered under the military’s unlawfully enforced COVID-19 shot mandate, which was rescinded in January 2023.

Mr. Richard Anderson, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserves, representing the AFBCMR and operating under the full delegated authority of the Secretary of the Air Force, stated that when it comes to Capt. Monteleone’s case, “the [AFBCMR] determined there was insufficient evidence of error or injustice. Accordingly, your application is denied.”

Sadly, for the author of this article, Mr. Anderson’s statement brings to mind the idiom, “If I had a dollar for every time I heard that.”

The Board’s stated reasoning behind this decision was that, although the entire mandate was ruled unlawful, the guidance from Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness, Anthony Tata, to the branch BCMRs did not specifically state that all [emphasis mine] service members harmed by the entire COVID-19 mandate must be granted relief. Instead, in their interpretation [emphasis mine], his guidance indicates that only those punished for solely refusing the order to take the shot itself were eligible for remediation under the guidance.

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THE OPERATOR: A Counterintelligence Officer Built the UFO Disclosure Movement. He Never Left the Payroll.

There is a version of this story that is comfortable to tell. A patriot inside the Pentagon discovers the government is hiding evidence of non-human intelligence. He resigns in protest. He goes public. He fights for the truth. Congress listens. The walls begin to crack.

It is a good story. It has a hero, a villain, and a ticking clock. It has been told on Joe Rogan, on 60 Minutes, on the History Channel, in the halls of Congress, and in a bestselling book cleared for publication by the same Department of Defense that supposedly tried to silence its author.

We are not going to tell that story.

We are going to tell you what happens when a career counterintelligence officer, confirmed as recently as 2022 to be on the government payroll, builds an information architecture designed to control what you believe about the most extraordinary claim in human history. And we are going to tell you what happens to the people who ask the wrong questions.

THE RÉSUMÉ THEY WANT YOU TO SEE

Luis “Lue” Daniel Elizondo enlisted in the United States Army in 1995. He spent two decades as a Counterintelligence Special Agent. The formal designations are MOS 35L and 35M. The informal job description is this: you learn how to identify threats, recruit assets, manage deception operations, run information campaigns, and neutralize anyone who disrupts your mission.

His deployments included Korea, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and South America. He managed classified intelligence operations at Guantanamo Bay’s Camp Seven, the most restricted facility in the detention complex, running missions against al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hezbollah. His final DoD performance evaluation, dated 2016, praised his ability to manage highly classified programs on a global scale. According to Keith Kloor’s reporting in Issues in Science and Technology, the evaluator noted his office had “identified and neutralized 6 insider threats” and “co-authored 4 national-level policies involving covert action.”

Read that last line again. This is not an analyst. This is not a bureaucrat who stumbled onto UFO files. This is a professional whose government formally evaluated him on his ability to write and execute covert action policy. Covert action, by definition, involves narrative control, plausible deniability, and the manipulation of target populations.

His employer assessed him as excellent at all of these things.

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