Tag: military industrial complex

Tech giants including Oracle, Lockheed Martin quietly fund Trump’s military parade

President Trump’s military parade this weekend is expected to be a costly display of pomp and circumstance – and it’s being bankrolled by some major Big Tech giants. 

Oracle, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Coinbase and Amazon have recently donated to America250, the nonprofit raising funds for the nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary, the organization said.

“Many of these sponsors will support the upcoming grand military parade being held in Washington, DC, on Saturday, June 14, to celebrate the US Army’s 250th birthday,” America250 said in a press release this week.

Oracle confirmed it is sponsoring Saturday’s parade, as did Exiger, an AI-powered supply chain management company, and Lockheed Martin, which called it a “momentous occasion.”

Palantir, Coinbase and Amazon did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.

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Whistleblower claims Lockheed Martin eliminated whites from bonuses – ‘and they wrote it all down’

A whistleblower has come forward claiming America’s largest defense contractor has been awarding bonuses based on skin color rather than merit.

The whistleblower told right-wing DEI expert Christopher Rufo that they were preparing year-end bonus recommendations for Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics division in 2022 when they were told their “comp adder” list contained too many white people.

“I got a call from [human resources director] La Wanda [Moorer] last night regarding diversity stats on comp adder,” top Lockheed Martin official Santiago Bulnes wrote to the whistleblower in an email, according to a report published by Rufo at City Journal.

“They took a run at getting your few approved and we’re told that we need to fit in the box. I asked her to send you the list of diversity names to simplify the task of finding the best in the group,” he added.

Afterward, other officials in Lockheed’s human resources department reportedly told the whistleblower to add over a dozen minorities to the “comp adder” list and remove an equal number of white people, never mind whether or not the people deserved to be on the list or not.

The whistleblower was reportedly outraged that Lockheed was requiring managers like them to reward bonuses “on the basis of their [employees’] skin color alone and contrary to documented performance.”

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Executives from Meta, Palantir, OpenAI Join Army Innovation Corps Dubbed ‘Detachment 201’

Top executives from Silicon Valley giants Palantir, Meta, and OpenAI are trading their corporate suits for military uniforms as they join a newly formed Army Reserve unit focused on upgrading military technology.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in an unprecedented collaboration between the U.S. military and the tech industry, a group of Silicon Valley executives are set to be sworn in as officers in the Army Reserve on Friday. The inaugural cohort of this new innovation corps, dubbed Detachment 201, includes Shyam Sankar, CTO of Palantir; Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, CTO of Meta Platforms; Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer at OpenAI; and Bob McGrew, a former OpenAI executive.

The tech recruits will serve around 120 hours a year, focusing on projects that leverage their expertise in AI, data analysis, and other cutting-edge technologies to enhance the Army’s capabilities. Their mission is to help the military prepare for future conflicts, which are expected to heavily rely on ground robots, drones, sensor networks, and AI-powered coordination systems.

Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff, emphasized the importance of this collaboration, stating, “We need to go faster, and that’s exactly what we are doing here.” The program marks a significant shift in the relationship between the Pentagon and the tech industry, which was once hesitant to work on defense-related projects.

The tech reservists will enjoy some unique accommodations, such as the flexibility to work remotely and asynchronously, and will be exempt from basic training. They will hold the rank of lieutenant colonel due to their private-sector status and will be deployed based on their specialized skills, making it unlikely for them to find themselves in combat situations.

Instead, the executives will work on projects that teach soldiers how to use AI-powered systems or utilize health data to improve fitness. They will also advise the service on acquiring more commercial technology and help the Defense Department recruit other high-tech talent. To avoid conflicts of interest, the recruits will not work on projects involving their employers and will be firewalled from sharing information or participating in projects that could provide financial gain to themselves or their companies.

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Denmark’s Parliament Approves Legislation Authorizing US Military Bases on Danish Soil, as Trump Eyes Greenland Annexation

The Danish have caved and will allow US bases in their territory.

When US President Donald J. Trump expressed his desire to gain control of the island of Greenland, it took most by surprise, and generated a panic in the kingdom of Denmark.

While the former colony and present semi-autonomous territory has belonged to the Danish for centuries, the geopolitical situation may cause a historical shift.

Greenland is located between North America and Europe, making it vital for monitoring Russian military activities, particularly ballistic missile threats and naval movements through the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) gap.

The U.S. already operates Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland for missile defense and space surveillance under a 1951 defense agreement with Denmark.

It provides access to the Arctic Ocean and emerging shipping routes, made accessible by melting ice, with a vital role in tracking Russian and Chinese naval activities.

“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” — Donald Trump, statement on Truth Social, December 2024.

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The Nuremberg Code And The Vaccine Mandate For Service Members

The Nuremberg Trials were an attempt to bring justice to the Nazis for some of the most reprehensible criminal acts of World War II. One subset of those trials was known as “The Doctors’ Trial,” so named because it prosecuted some 23 distinguished medical scientists and physicians charged with murder and unspeakable torture through medical experimentation on concentration camp prisoners.

One of the most important outcomes of that trial—aside from meting out justice to the medical monsters—was the establishment of the Nuremberg Code, which offered a 10-point statement outlining proper limits on human experimentation moving forward. It proclaimed that such experimentation is justified only when the participation is voluntary, when the results benefit society, and when it is conducted in accord with basic principles that “satisfy moral, ethical, and legal concepts.” It memorialized what most decent people would have thought was already common sense and practice for a civilized society.

Notwithstanding the proscriptions of the Nuremberg Code, the Department of Defense authorized the use of unlicensed medications in the first Gulf War. Specifically, DoD obtained informed consent waivers from the FDA to allow the involuntary administration of unlicensed medications as a prophylactic against potential Iraqi chemical and biological weapons.

These medications were postulated by some medical professionals as a cause of so-called Gulf War Syndrome. In light of this, Congress passed a specific prohibition on the use of unlicensed medications on Service Members without their informed consent. The statute, codified at 10 USC §1107, requires informed consent from a Service Member before the administration of an unlicensed medication. Only the president can waive this requirement by ordering a waiver of informed consent in certain exigencies.

The statute got its first test when a federal court shut down DoD’s involuntary anthrax vaccination program in 2004 after a judge determined the anthrax vaccine had not been properly licensed by the FDA for use in a military context.

But nearly 20 years later, our country again flirted with violation of this statute and the Code as it mandated experimental COVID-19 vaccines for our Service Members. That injustice has yet to be fully addressed. Over 8,000 active-duty Service Members were involuntarily separated after failing to receive a religious exemption or other accommodation from the vaccine mandate and then refused to get vaccinated after being ordered to do so.

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Pentagon redirects missile components from Kiev to own forces – WSJ

The Pentagon has redirected key missile components originally intended for Ukraine’s air defense to American forces in the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a confidential notification sent to Congress last week. The move comes as US President Donald Trump has been winding down support for Ukraine since entering office. 

According to the WSJ, the move concerns proximity fuzes used in ground-based Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) – a guided rocket system that Ukraine has reportedly been using for the past several years to shoot down drones. The fuzes were acquired under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative under former US President Joe Biden. Although funding for the initiative has already been spent, previously approved shipments are still scheduled to arrive in Ukraine later this year and the next.

However, the WSJ has claimed that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the transfer of the fuzes via an internal memo last month, designating it as a “Secretary of Defense Identified Urgent Issue.” The decision was reportedly communicated to the Senate Armed Services Committee, although the Pentagon has declined to comment publicly.

Citing anonymous sources and internal documents, the WSJ said the US Air Force intends to use the reallocated fuzes in rockets mounted on F-16 and F-15E fighter jets. The redirection was permitted under an emergency military spending bill passed last year.

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Army surveillance balloons spotted over Tucson raise privacy concerns from advocates

The U.S. Army and a private company are flying high-altitude surveillance balloons over the Tucson area, raising concerns among privacy advocates. 

Multiple high-altitude balloons have been spotted over the Tucson and Sierra Vista area for more than a week, with one balloon in particular staying over the area longer than any of the others. That balloon, with the registration number N257TH, has made headlines in the past. 

The balloon is owned by South Dakota aerospace company Aerostar, and in 2023 was mistaken for a Chinese spy balloon. The balloon is actually part of Aerostar’s “Thunderhead” balloon system, which has been doing multiple tests with the military and other contractors across the nation and around the globe. 

“It is a technology that should not and constitutionally cannot be applied to the American people,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Arizona Mirror. “Even testing for eventual overseas use in legitimate combat theaters raises a lot of questions about what kind of data is being collected.”

Aerostar would not answer specific questions about what type of testing was being done. The company referred additional questions to the U.S. Department of Defense and the Army, neither of which responded to multiple requests for comment. 

Aerostar confirmed that the flights were not connected to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol or Department of Homeland Security programs, “however high-altitude balloons would be ideal for that type of mission,” Aerostar Culture and Communications Director Anastasia Quanbeck said in an email to the Mirror. 

“By leveraging directional wind patterns at high altitudes, Aerostar’s Thunderhead Balloon Systems offer groundbreaking capabilities for navigation and persistence over areas of interest,” she said. “Aerostar Thunderhead Balloon Systems are capable of supporting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, as well as extending communications across wide distances, environmental monitoring, earth observation, and scientific research.” 

Quanbeck said she was not able to discuss the work the company does with the DOD or the Army. 

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UK pledges 100,000 new drones for Kiev

he UK has pledged to supply 100,000 new drones to Ukraine by April 2026, in addition to the 10,000 UAVs it sent last year. The announcement coincides with Britain’s newly unveiled Strategic Defense Review, which proposes steps to rearm its military in light of what it paints as a threat posed by Russia.

London has allocated £350 million ($470 million) from its £4.5 billion Ukraine military package to fund new drone deliveries to Kiev, according to a government statement on Wednesday. UK Defense Secretary John Healey is expected to detail the initiative at the upcoming Ukraine contact group meeting in Brussels.

“Ukraine’s Armed Forces have demonstrated the effectiveness of drone warfare,” London stated, admitting that Kiev’s demand for UAVs has provided a boost to the UK’s economy.

It also unveiled plans to use Ukraine’s drone experience to train its own military. In order to “learn the lessons from Ukraine,” the UK would allocate over £4 billion for autonomous systems and drones for its armed forces.

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EXPOSED: Institute for the Study of War is Disinformation Factory Funded by Military Complex

The “non-profit” Institute for the Study of War (ISW) launders defense contractor cash into war-justifying disinformation, journalist and founder of Crowdsource the Truth Jason Goodman tells Sputnik, commenting on ISW’s Ukraine conflict coverage.

What Does ISW Say?

Reporting Ukrainian weakness is just Russian “disinformation”

Hit Russia harder and surge military production. Why? Because Russia seeks to “destroy NATO”.

Who Funds ISW?

Weapons-maker General Dynamics

Defense tech firm Avantus (now QinetiQ)

Global defense & intel contractor CACI International and many others

“[ISW] collected over $9 million in revenue [in 2023] alone — nearly all of it from undisclosed donors — and paid [founder] Kimberly Kagan herself over a quarter million dollars to peddle war escalation narratives under the banner of ‘trusted analysis’,” Goodman says.

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Expect Trump’s Military Parade to Cost More Than the Army Says

President Donald Trump boasted on Monday that his hosting of a military parade in Washington, D.C., next month to honor the Army’s 250th anniversary — coincidentally the same date as his 79th birthday — was an act of divine intervention.

“We’re going to have a big, big celebration, as you know, 250 years,” he said during a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery. “Can you imagine? I missed that four years, and now look what I have, I have everything. Amazing the way things work out. God did that.”

The massive military parade and related festivities planned for June 14 will cost an estimated $25 to $45 million, according to the Army. This is likely a significant underestimate due to many expenses that are unaccounted for – or will be billed later, such as damages to local infrastructure caused by armored vehicles. Members of Congress are already expressing outrage at what they see as a gross misuse of funds.

“Trump squandering $45 million in taxpayer dollars on a military parade for his birthday is the epitome of government waste,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “If the Trump Administration truly cared about celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Army, they would honor past and present soldiers and reinstate the thousands of veterans who they fired from the federal workforce — not throw away millions on an extravagant parade.”

The purpose of the parade is also seemingly up for interpretation. The White House now says the parade is a celebration of the Army’s semiquincentennial after, last month, denying reports that a parade would be held on the president’s birthday. Trump, for his part, has offered shifting explanations, stating that the parade is a celebration of Flag Day, the military writ large, or tanks and other weaponry.

The current plan, nonetheless, involves a martial spectacle reminiscent of the Soviet Union or North Korea in the heart of America’s capital, with armored vehicles rolling down Constitution Avenue. It is slated to involve more than 100 vehicles, including 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks, 28 Stryker armored personnel carriers, 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, four M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers, as well as military relics like World War II-era Sherman tanks, a B-25 bomber, and a P-51 Mustang single-seat fighter plane, according to Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith. She added that the parade will also feature 34 horses, two mules, one wagon, and one dog.

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