Tag: military industrial complex

Nearly 100 people at this NJ school got brain tumors — a survivor demands answers

A cancer survivor is vowing to untangle the twisted mystery of why almost 100 people associated with a New Jersey high school have developed “extremely” rare malignant brain tumors.

Al Lupiano is among the 94 former staff and students from Colonia High School in the Woodbridge Township School District who have been stricken by the devastating diagnoses in recent years.

“I will not rest until I have answers,” Lupiano, 50, declared in an interview with NJ.com and the Star-Ledger on Thursday. “I will uncover the truth.”

Among the others diagnosed with brain cancer was Lupiano’s younger sister, who passed away from the disease in February at the age of 44.

The devoted brother promised his sister on her deathbed that he would get to the bottom of what was causing the apparent cancer cluster at Colonia High. On Tuesday — after a public push by Lupiano — local officials approved an emergency probe of the school.

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The Pimps of War

The same cabal of warmongering pundits, foreign policy specialists and government officials, year after year, debacle after debacle, smugly dodge responsibility for the military fiascos they orchestrate. They are protean, shifting adroitly with the political winds, moving from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party and then back again, mutating from cold warriors to neocons to liberal interventionists. Pseudo intellectuals, they exude a cloying Ivy League snobbery as they sell perpetual fear, perpetual war and a racist worldview, where the lesser breeds of the earth only understand violence.

They are pimps of war, puppets of the Pentagon, a state within a state, and the defense contractors who lavishly fund their think tanks — Project for the New American Century, American Enterprise Institute, Foreign Policy Initiative, Institute for the Study of War, Atlantic Council and Brookings Institute. Like some mutant strain of an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, they cannot be vanquished. It does not matter how wrong they are, how absurd their theories, how many times they lie or denigrate other cultures and societies as uncivilized or how many murderous military interventions go bad. They are immovable props, the parasitic mandarins of power that are vomited up in the dying days of any empire, including that of the U.S., leaping from one self-defeating catastrophe to the next.

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Dick Cheney’s Daughter Wants War

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), was interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper today. During the friendly discussion, Cheney, referring to the tragic bombing of a train station in Ukraine, made the outrageous claim that Russia is conducting a “genocidal campaign.” The embattled congresswoman has joined with many other Democrats and Republicans in dangerous hyperbole that could easily escalate already heightened tensions.

By any definition of the word, Russia is not involved in a “genocide” against the Ukrainian people. But if there is some new definition that we’re not aware of, Cheney should be careful with her condemnations.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a key architect for the invasion of Iraq, would be just as guilty, if not much more guilty, as Russian President Vladimir Putin of “genocide,” if this new definition describes Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Liz Cheney is singing the tune of the New York Times, the Washington Post and a who’s who of regime change proponents, all itching for a fight — or, at least, the threat of a fight.

And the chorus sounds very familiar. The band broke up after the 2003 invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq. But leading up to that war, they were playing on every radio station.

There are many reasons that a war — or the talk of war — is desirable for policymakers and media “elites.” The first three that come to mind in this situation are the excuses offered by conflict for a disastrous economy, the need to bury years of U.S. political corruption in Ukraine, and Raytheon stock.

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Pentagon Wants Permanent Military Bases In Eastern Europe To Deter Russia

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark Milley in Tuesday testimony before the House Armed Services Committee told Congressional leaders that the US should establish permanent military bases in Eastern Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

He cited that allies Romania, Poland and Baltic countries remain “very willing” to host US bases, and that “they’ll build them, they’ll pay for them.” He testified alongside Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. “My advice would be to create permanent bases, but don’t permanently station,” Milley said.

He explained that this wouldn’t necessitate permanently deployed forces, but with the same benefits: “You get the effect of permanence by rotational forces,” the top general said.

Among other highlights in the House testimony was his being questioned over whether Vladimir Putin could have been deterred ahead of the Feb.24 invasion of Ukraine, short of direct US-Russia clash. He said:

“Candidly, short of the commitment of US military forces into Ukraine proper, I’m not sure he was deterrable.”

But he and Secretary Austin touted the Pentagon’s robust response in assisting Ukrainian forces, including providing weapons as well as intelligence sharing: 

“We’ve had extraordinary intelligence all throughout and the intelligence sharing that we’ve enabled Ukraine to see … the ability of us to transmit information that is useful to Ukraine has been enormously helpful,” the US commander said.

On US weapons in the Ukraine war being a game-changer, Milley described, “We’ve seen them again blunt the advance of a far superior force with respect to the Russians in terms of numbers and capability by using the right types of techniques and the right weapon systems; the Javelin, the Stingers are proven to be very effective in the fight.”

Gen. Milley further called Russia’s action the “greatest threat to peace and security of Europe, perhaps the world in my 40 years of service and in uniform.”

He described that it shakes the foundations of the current global order, specifically also mentioning China: “We are now facing two global powers, China and Russia, each with significant military capabilities,” he said.

Secretary Austin backed Milley’s Ukraine assessment, confirming that the US had provided Ukraine with one billion dollars in aid ahead of the Russian invasion…

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That Time the U.S. Army Sprayed Millions of Americans With Zinc Cadmium Sulfide

In the early 1950s, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps prepared a series of biological weapons tests in multiple cities across the United States and Canada. These experiments were executed in the mid-1950s through the late 1960s—not before a law was passed to shield private military contractors from all liability for public injury.

As Professor Lisa Martino-Taylor writes, this, in effect: “created a sanction-free military human test zone across North America and blocked legal recourse for victims.”

In short, the Army was ostensibly concerned that the Russians would expose American and Canadian civilians to dangerous agents, so the Army did it themselves in the name of mitigation.

As a part of the tests, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps released zinc cadmium sulfide “from airplanes, rooftops, and moving vehicles in 33 locations, mostly cities and towns, in the United States and Canada.” These cities included St. Louis, MO, Minneapolis, MN, Corpus Christi, TX, Fort Wayne, IN, Biltmore Beach, FL, and Winnepig, MB. The cities were chosen because of their similarity to cities in the USSR.

In St. Louis, the Army’s dispersion methods were insidious. “The Army used motorized blowers atop a low-income housing high-rise, at schools and from the backs of station wagons” to disperse the chemical agent. Local officials were told that the “government was testing a smoke screen that could shield St. Louis from aerial observation in case the Russians attacked.”

Zinc cadmium sulfide itself is a fine powder “that is formed by heating zinc sulfide and cadmium sulfide together under very high temperature so that they fuse…Zinc cadmium sulfide is not a biologic weapon; it was a tracer used by the Army to imitate or simulate the dispersion of biologic weapons.” At the time, the compound was not believed to be dangerous to humans.

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Pundits Who Advocate Hot War With Russia Are Enemies Of Humanity

In an appearance on the MSNBC show Velshi, The Modern War Institute’s John Spencer explicitly advocated direct US military conflict with Russia due to allegations of war crimes in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

“I’m ready to commit at this moment — unlike I was before this day — to put people in direct contact with Russia, to stop Russia,” Spencer said. “Call it peacekeeping. Call it what you will. We have to do more than provide weapons. And by ‘we,’ I mean the United States. Yes, we’ll do it as a coalition with lots of other people, but we are the example. So put boots on the ground, send weapons directly at Russia.”

Notice the bizarre verbal gymnastics being used by Spencer to obfuscate the fact that he is advocating a hot war with a nuclear superpower: “put people in direct contact with Russia,” “send weapons directly at Russia”. Who talks like that? He’s calling for the US military to fire upon the Russian military, he’s just saying it really weird.

To be clear this isn’t just some arms industry-funded think tanker saying this; The Modern War Institute is part of the Department of Military Instruction for the United States Military Academy, which is operated directly by the Pentagon.

Asked by the show’s host Ali Velshi what he thought of warnings that direct military confrontation with Russia could lead to nuclear war, Spencer said, “It is a huge risk, I understand that. But today is different.”

Velshi himself was much more to the point than his guest, both online and on social media.

“We are past the point of sanctions and strongly-worded condemnations and the seizing of oligarchs’ megayachts,” Velshi told his MSNBC audience. “If this is not the kind of moment that the United Nations and NATO and the UN and the G-20 and the Council of Europe and the G-7 were made for, what was the point of these alliances if not to stop this? The world cannot sit by as Vladimir Putin continues this reign of terror.”

“The turning point for the west and NATO will come when the sun rises over Kyiv on Sunday, and the war crimes against civilian non-combatants becomes visible to all,” Velshi said on Twitter over the weekend. “There is no more time for prevarication. If ‘never again’ means anything, then this is the time to act.”

Asked what specifically he meant by this, Velshi clarified that he was advocating “Direct military involvement.”

“Lines have been crossed and war crimes have been committed by Putin that make direct military intervention something NATO now must seriously consider,” Velshi added.

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US Provides $300 Million More in Security Assistance to Ukraine, Including Military Equipment

The Pentagon announced on April 1 that it will provide up to $300 million more in security assistance to Ukraine in military equipment amid Russia’s invasion.

The funds will be provided under authority granted to the Pentagon by the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which was created in 2015 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“This decision underscores the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in support of its heroic efforts to repel Russia’s war of choice,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby announced.

According to the department, capabilities in the latest package include laser-guided rocket systems, tactical secure communications systems, unmanned aircraft, armored vehicles, machine guns, ammunition, medical supplies, and other equipment.

Kirby said the new package “represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide new capabilities” to Ukraine, rather than delivering equipment drawn from U.S. military stockpiles.

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US Army & State Officials Facilitated Torturous Child Sex Ring by Ignoring Dozens of Complaints for a Decade

The US Army and the state of Arizona facilitated through inaction, a decade-long child sex abuse ring ran by a top civilian commander, David Frodsham. According to a report from the Associated Press this week, the Army and the state of Arizona missed or ignored multiple red flags over more than a decade, which allowed Frodsham to abuse his adopted children and other children for years, all the while putting national security at risk.

Before his arrest, Frodsham was the deputy commander of the Fort Huachuca Army base — a position he held after being kicked out of Afghanistan for deviant sexual behavior.

“I would not recommend placing him back into a position of authority but rather pursuing disciplinary actions at his home station,” wrote one commanding officer when recommending that the Army order Frodsham to leave his post at Bagram Airfield for his “deviant sexual behavior,” and return to Fort Huachuca.

Instead of discipline, however, Frodsham rejoined the Network Enterprise Technology Command, the Army’s information technology service provider, where he had served as director of personnel for a global command of 15,000 soldiers and civilians, according to the AP.

While running the child sex ring, the state and the Army overlooked nearly 20 complaints, and attempted complaints, of abuse, neglect, maltreatment and licensing violations that surfaced through Arizona’s foster system. Despite these complaints, the state allowed this monster to continue to foster, adopt and retain custody of their many children who were used in the sex abuse ring.

According to officials, Frodsham’s illicit child sex practices coupled with the fact that he held a top secret clearance, made him a target of of blackmail from foreign intelligence agencies and a vulnerable security risk.

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Prophetic RAND Corp. Report: “Destabilize and Undermine” Russia. Recommended “Provocative Actions”

A “prophetic” RAND Corporation report titled “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia” published in 2019 declares the stated goal of American policymakers is “to undermine Russia just as the US subversively destabilized the former Soviet Union during the Cold War,” and predicts to the letter the crisis unfolding in Ukraine. RAND Corporation is a quasi-US governmental think tank that receives three-quarters of its funding from the US military.

While designating Russia as an “intractable adversary,” the report notes that “Russia has deep seated anxieties” about Western interference and potential military attack. These anxieties are deemed to be “a vulnerability to exploit.”

The RAND report lists several “provocative measures” to insidiously “destabilize and undermine” Russia. Some of the steps include: repositioning bombers within easy striking range of key Russian strategic targets; deploying additional tactical nuclear weapons to locations in Europe and Asia; increasing US and allied naval force posture and presence in Russia’s operating areas (Black Sea); holding NATO war exercises on Russia’s borders; and withdrawing from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Almost all the provocative actions recommended in the RAND report have practically been implemented by the successive Obama, Trump and Biden administrations since the 2014 Maidan coup, toppling Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and consequent annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia.

The US Air Force has flown B-52 strategic bombers and RC-135 reconnaissance planes over eastern Ukraine in months before the invasion, as part of its effort to deter Russia. To stiffen Ukraine’s ability to resist, the United States and NATO dispatched teams of military advisers in months before the invasion to survey air defenses, logistics, communications and other essentials.

Besides deploying 15,000 additional troops in Eastern Europe last month, total number of US troops in Europe is now expected to reach 100,000. “We have 130 jets at high alert. Over 200 ships from the high north to the Mediterranean, and thousands of additional troops in the region,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN on March 9.

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