Tag: military industrial complex

US Sent Israel Hundreds of Missiles Days Before Attack on Iran

Just days before the surprise and unprovoked Israeli war on Iran, the US shipped Tel Aviv 300 Hellfire missiles. An Israeli official implied they were used in the assault.

On Friday, Israel launched an offensive war against Iran, striking military sites, nuclear facilities, and carrying out targeted assassinations of top officials. Middle East Eye reports that on Tuesday, just three days before the attack began, the US sent 300 Hellfire missiles to Israel.

One Israeli official indicated that the precision air-to-ground munitions were used in targeted attacks on top civilian and military leaders. Ali Shamkhani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in his home on Friday.

Shamkhani was part of the negotiation team engaging with the US to work out a new nuclear agreement. American and Iranian officials have engaged in five rounds of talks, with a sixth previously scheduled for Sunday. Tehran recently indicated it believed a deal was possible.

However, following the start of Israel’s undeclared war, Iran called off talks with the US. New York Times UN correspondent Farnaz Fassihi said Iranian officials made it clear that Tehran views Shamkhani’s assassination as “Israel targeting and killing nuclear diplomacy with the US.”

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US quietly sent hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before Iran attack

The US quietly delivered hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before its unprecedented attack on Iran on Friday, Middle East Eye can reveal. 

The US sent around 300 Hellfire missiles to Israel on Tuesday in a large-scale stock-up of supplies before its attack, and as the Trump administration was saying it was ready to continue engaging Iran in nuclear talks. 

The transfer of such a large quantity of Hellfires suggests that the Trump administration was well-informed of Israel’s plans to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran, two US officials told MEE on the condition of anonymity. 

The US’s delivery of Hellfires or other large quantities of weapons in the lead up to Friday’s attack has not been previously reported. 

The US military helped shoot down Iranian missiles that were headed towards Israel, two US officials told Reuters on Friday.

Hellfires are laser-guided air-to-ground missiles. They would not be useful for Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, but for precision strikes. 

Israel’s military used more than 100 aircraft in its attack on Friday, which used precision tracking to target senior military officials, nuclear scientists, and command centres.

“There is a time and place for Hellfires. They were useful to Israel,” one senior US defence official told MEE. 

Israel killed scores of senior Iranian officials and nuclear scientists on Friday. 

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Biden Officials Fear “Tiananmen Square Moment” as Trump Plans Patriotic Military Parade to Honor America

Biden officials and their allies in the legacy media are sounding the alarm over President Donald Trump’s upcoming patriotic military parade, scheduled to coincide with the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary — and his 79th birthday.

The parade will feature 7,000 soldiers, 150 Army vehicles, and more than 60 aircraft.

Instead of celebrating American strength and military excellence, top former Pentagon brass and New York Times reporters are melting down, suggesting the event might become a “Tiananmen Square moment.”

Appearing on The Daily podcast, New York Times host Michael Barbaro and Pentagon reporter Helene Cooper revealed that retired generals and Biden-aligned officials are “very worried” about the optics of Trump putting tanks in the streets of D.C. to honor the troops.

Far-left Mediate reported:

While the White House insists the event is a tribute to the armed forces, it follows stark escalations in Los Angeles following the president’s deployment of National Guard and Marines to support police trying to contain anti-ICE protests, which are entering their second week.

Speaking to Michael Barbaro, host of New York Times’ The Daily podcast, the outlet’s Pentagon correspondent Helene Cooper warned that many officials were anxious.

“There’s a very real possibility of the president now presiding over this parade Saturday night, showcasing the US military’s most fearsome weapons and most fearsome soldiers,” Barbaro said. “And the message in that context, in the context of what’s going on in LA, may feel more intended or as intended for a domestic audience than as impressing or intimidating our foreign adversaries.”

Cooper replied: “They’re very worried about that, and especially in the former uniform world where these are retired army officials, retired Marine generals, I’ve been on the phone with. They’re really worried about this image.”

She continued: “They are also worried about a potential Tiananmen Square moment where you have a protester standing in front of a tank. That is not what America is supposed to look like. And this is another one of those potential scary things that we could see on Saturday.”

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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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