Tag: pentagon

Pentagon to ‘downgrade’ US military command from Eurasia to Africa, consolidate ‘AMERICOM’: Report

The Pentagon is working on a comprehensive restructuring of US military command – including a “downgrade” of major headquarters and a “shift in the balance of power” among prominent generals, the Washington Post reported on 16 December. 

Sources familiar with the matter told the US outlet that the “major consolidation” is being sought by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. 

The ambitious plan is described as part of Hegseth’s vow to “break the status quo” and cut the number of four-star army generals.

“It would reduce in prominence the headquarters of US Central Command, US European Command, and US Africa Command by placing them under the control of a new organization known as US International Command,” the sources said to the Washington Post.

“The plan also calls for realigning US Southern Command and US Northern Command, which oversee military operations throughout the Western Hemisphere, under a new headquarters to be known as US Americas Command, or Americom,” the report adds. 

“Pentagon officials also discussed creating a US Arctic Command that would report to Americom, but that idea appears to have been abandoned.”

This would reduce the number of major army headquarters from 11 to eight, while reducing the number of four-star generals and admirals who report to Hegseth.

According to the sources, the plan aligns with President Donald Trump’s national security strategy, published on 5 December.

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Pentagon Escalates Investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly for ‘Serious Allegations of Misconduct’

The Department of War (DOW) is escalating its review of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a retired Navy captain, to an official command investigation into his participation in a video dubbed “seditious” by President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

DOW officials announced the preliminary review on November 24 in response to a video he published with fellow Democrat lawmakers calling on military service members and intelligence officials to “refuse illegal orders” from the Trump administration.

Hegseth called the video “despicable, reckless, and false,” calling Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), and Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), and Jason Crow (D-CO) the “Seditious Six” in a social media post.

While four of the other participants in the video are former military, Hegseth explained that they are not “retired” so they “are no longer subject” to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

The video made by the “Seditious Six” was despicable, reckless, and false. Encouraging our warriors to ignore the orders of their Commanders undermines every aspect of “good order and discipline.” Their foolish screed sows doubt and confusion, which only puts our warriors in danger.

“However, Mark Kelly (retired Navy Commander) is still subject to UCMJ — and he knows that,” the secretary stated. “As was announced, the Department is reviewing his statements and actions, which were addressed directly to all troops while explicitly using his rank and service affiliation — lending the appearance of authority to his words. Kelly’s conduct brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately.”

The investigation could result in further actions, including recalling Kelly to active duty status to initiate “court-martial proceedings or administrative measures,” the DOW said. 

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The New York Times Is Suing the Pentagon. The Case Is Laughable

Just a few days ago, The New York Times filed a sweeping lawsuit accusing the Pentagon of violating the First and Fifth Amendments by updating the rules for Pentagon Facility Alternate Credentials. 

The Times frames these rules as an attack on journalism itself. That framing is completely inaccurate. The Department of War implemented a policy aimed at securing one of the most sensitive buildings in the United States, and the policy neither restricts publication nor bars legitimate reporting. 

It simply establishes basic conditions for physical access to the Pentagon. 

Those conditions are lawful, reasonable, and consistent with long-standing principles governing access to nonpublic government facilities.

What the Times avoids acknowledging is that no journalist has a constitutional right to roam the Pentagon on an unescorted basis. Courts have been clear for decades that facilities such as the Pentagon are “nonpublic forums,” allowing the government to impose reasonable access limits that protect security and operational integrity. 

Access can be granted or denied based on compliance with building rules. It cannot be demanded as if the First Amendment guarantees a permanent press badge. 

The new Pentagon policy does not regulate what the Times may print, what sources it may speak with, or what stories it may pursue. It regulates whether a reporter may carry a credential that functions as a secure building pass.

Under the updated system, reporters seeking Pentagon Facilities Alternative Credentials (PFACs) must acknowledge that the Pentagon expects credentialed visitors not to solicit or encourage the unauthorized release of protected information. 

Federal employees already face strict rules governing how classified and controlled unclassified information is handled. The Pentagon’s policy simply reflects that reality: if reporters want special access inside a secure military headquarters, they cannot use that access to induce potential violations of federal disclosure rules. 

That standard does not restrict publication. It applies only to conduct inside a restricted facility and to abuses of the access privilege itself.

The Times argues that prohibiting solicitation of unauthorized disclosures “chills journalism.” 

It does not. 

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Murder for Christmas?

When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted a meme of Franklin the Turtle, the amiable child’s cartoon character, in a helicopter using a military weapon to kill people in a small boat below him, and captioned it “For your Christmas wish list,” it understandably caused an uproar.

Should the secretary of defense be mocking the people his troops have killed? Should he engage a child’s cartoon character to produce this mockery? Should anyone in his right mind, who professes to understand Christianity, suggest that this killing should be on a child’s Christmas wish list? Should he be killing nonviolent boatpeople?

Here is the back story.

President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Defense to annihilate persons in speedboats in the Caribbean Sea, 1,500 miles from the United States and elsewhere. The true targets of these killings are not the boats but the persons in the boats. We know this because the president has stated so, and because in a particularly gruesome event, two survivors of an initial attack on Sept. 2, 2025, who were clinging to the broken remains of their boat hoping to be rescued, were hit with a second attack, which obliterated them.

Based on evidence he says he has and chooses not to share, Trump has designated these folks in the speedboats as “narco-terrorists” and argued that his designation offers him legal authority to kill them. But “narco-terrorist” is a political phrase, not a legal one. There is no such designation or defined term in American law. Labeling them confers no additional legal authority.

Lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice who advise the attorney general on the meaning of the law have apparently authored a legal opinion informing her that she can tell the president what he wants to hear; that it is lawful to kill these boatpeople. This is the same office that told President George W. Bush that he could legally torture prisoners and President Barack Obama that he could legally kill unindicted Americans — including a child — overseas.

Neither the president nor the attorney general will produce this legal opinion for public scrutiny.

These killings constitute murder under federal law and under international law, and persons who use the force of government to commit murder may themselves be prosecuted for it in U.S. courts, courts of the countries from which their victims came, and in international courts. These killings constitute murder because none of the 81 dead boatpeople was engaged in any violence at the times of their deaths.

It doesn’t matter, Trump has claimed, just look at the numbers of drug deaths in the U.S., they are “way down.” Does the president believe that murder is justified by a diminution in drug deaths? Drug distribution is not a capital offence. If the police see a nonviolent person distributing dangerous drugs in an American city, can they summarily kill that person? Of course not.

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Pentagon Seeks To Explain A Little-Known, Forgotten ‘Forever War’

The US Department of War insisted on Tuesday that it’s not waging a “forever war” in Somalia despite the fact that the Trump administration has shattered the record for annual airstrikes in the country.

Liam Cosgrove, a reporter for ZeroHedge, noted during a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday that the US has launched 101 airstrikes (now 102) in Somalia and that US troops reportedly conducted a recent ground raid, and asked why the US military is still in the country.

“I can assure you this is an America First Department of War and president, so we aren’t conducting forever wars in Somalia, we aren’t seeking regime change, and we’re not nation building,” Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said in reply.

The Trump administration has dramatically escalated the US war in Somalia, launching more than 10 times the number of airstrikes that the US conducted in 2024, and more than the combined total of airstrikes launched during the 12 years that Presidents Obama and Biden were in office. Despite the unprecedented scale of US strikes, Kingsley described the campaign as “narrowly scoped.”

She told Cosgrove, “I will say that this Department’s narrowly scoped, intelligence-driven, counterintelligence operations in places like Somalia, alongside our partners, allow us to protect the American homeland from terrorist threats and to protect our interests.”

US airstrikes this year have targeted a small ISIS affiliate based in caves in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region and al-Shabaab in southern and central Somalia.

The US has been fighting al-Shabaab since it backed an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006, which ousted the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Muslim groups that briefly held power in Mogadishu after taking the capital from CIA-backed warlords.

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US War Department Claims It’s Not Waging a ‘Forever War’ in Somalia Despite Record Airstrikes

The US Department of War insisted on Tuesday that it’s not waging a “forever war” in Somalia despite the fact that the Trump administration has shattered the record for annual airstrikes in the country.

Liam Cosgrove, a reporter for ZeroHedge, noted during a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday that the US has launched 101 airstrikes (now 102) in Somalia and that US troops reportedly conducted a recent ground raid, and asked why the US military is still in the country.

“I can assure you this is an America First Department of War and president, so we aren’t conducting forever wars in Somalia, we aren’t seeking regime change, and we’re not nation building,” Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said in reply.

The Trump administration has dramatically escalated the US war in Somalia, launching more than 10 times the number of airstrikes that the US conducted in 2024, and more than the combined total of airstrikes launched during the 12 years that Presidents Obama and Biden were in office. Despite the unprecedented scale of US strikes, Kingsley described the campaign as “narrowly scoped.”

She told Cosgrove, “I will say that this Department’s narrowly scoped, intelligence-driven, counterintelligence operations in places like Somalia, alongside our partners, allow us to protect the American homeland from terrorist threats and to protect our interests.”

US airstrikes this year have targeted a small ISIS affiliate based in caves in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region and al-Shabaab in southern and central Somalia. The US has been fighting al-Shabaab since it backed an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006, which ousted the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Muslim groups that briefly held power in Mogadishu after taking the capital from CIA-backed warlords.

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Tensions Escalate Within NATO as Pentagon Abruptly Halts Ukraine-Related Communications with Germany

Strains within NATO appear to have intensified following the Pentagon’s sudden decision to sever routine communications with Germany’s Defense Ministry on matters related to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, according to German officials who described the move as unexplained and ‘disruptive.’

Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, head of Germany’s Ukraine coordination task force, told reporters on Tuesday that what had been round-the-clock exchanges with U.S. counterparts have now ceased entirely, leaving Berlin without direct insight into American strategic planning.

German defense sources said they have been forced to route inquiries through their embassy in Washington, with senior military figures acknowledging a lack of dependable channels to engage Pentagon officials amid the communications blackout.

The freeze coincides with the U.S. administration’s efforts to revise its proposed Ukraine peace framework, reducing it from 28 to 22 points after consultations with both Kyiv and Moscow, highlighting what critics call a faltering approach to a war that has dragged on without resolution.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is Moscow meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin for additional talks, a development that has caught European allies off guard after years of insistence from NATO leaders that direct negotiations with Moscow were untenable.

Berlin only learned of the Trump administration’s suspension of certain weapons shipments to Ukraine last summer when deliveries failed to materialize, despite Germany’s key involvement in coordinating NATO support, sources familiar with the matter said.

Freuding emphasized the shift, noting that “day and night” messaging with American officials has “broken off— completely,” underscoring a broader erosion of trust in between the traditionally close  transatlantic partners.

In response, German policymakers are accelerating an overhaul of the country’s security posture, investing billions in domestic arms production and converting civilian industries to bolster military capabilities.

Officials in Berlin have stated that Germany must prepare for potential U.S. disengagement, with commitments to forge Europe’s most robust armed forces marking a stark departure from the nation’s post-World War II pacifist traditions.

Freuding has publicly cautioned that the once-solid U.S.-led security architecture is unraveling, with many in Germany perceiving Washington as increasingly unreliable in upholding alliances it previously championed.

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War Dept. Battles Internal Resistance To Reinstate 86 Soldiers Ejected By Covid Shot Mandate

It’s been ten months since President Donald Trump ordered the full reinstatement of any willing military employees ejected for declining Covid-19 shots, but as of Nov. 15 just 86 such personnel have been reinstated. The reinstatements so far account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the military personnel who likely left over the Biden administration mandate, depleting the military of some of its highest-character members and causing a historic personnel crisis.

President Trump’s defense team is “picking up steam” to address the reinstatements more quickly and fruitfully and approval times are down to two to three weeks after the application package is completed, Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata told The Federalist in a Tuesday afternoon phone call from his office. Confirmed in July, Tata said he immediately sought out veterans experiencing impediments to reinstatement. In September and October meetings and memorandums, “I tasked in no uncertain terms to the services that they will treat each of the members with the dignity that they deserve,” Tata said.

“There’s a lot of moving pieces, there’s a lot of good people working very hard on this,” Tata said. “We all understand the president’s executive order and the secretary’s directive, and we are moving out at full speed to welcome every single person that wants to come back from this disaffected community.”

When one service member posted online that a military processing station had turned her away from seeking the reinstatement the Trump administration has promised, Tata said after talking with her he called up the station commander and said, “What part of this don’t you understand?”

More formally, he noted the department is investigating Biden-era Covid policies and their implementation across the branches, and that investigation will make recommendations about whether and which personnel violated law and military policy in carrying out Covid orders. The investigation team includes service members reinstated after the Biden administration drummed them out of the military for their conscientious objections to Covid mandates.

Former Air Force judge advocate general Kacy Dixon, herself reinstated after declining a Covid shot while pregnant, is Tata’s liaison to that investigation and to Covid-separated soldiers seeking reparations the administration has promised for their injuries, including honorable discharges, lost benefits, and back pay, even if they don’t re-enlist. Tata noted that back pay for reinstated soldiers is often between $100,000-$150,000 per person and it includes the proper pay for promotions soldiers would have earned if they hadn’t been punished for exercising their constitutional conscience rights.

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Pentagon Opens Investigation Into Sen. Mark Kelly Over Call for Troops to Disobey Unlawful Orders

The Department of War published a statement saying the agency received serious allegations of misconduct by Senator Mark Kelly and is opening an investigation into the claims against the former Navy captain.

The Department of War posted on X:

“The Department of War has received serious allegations of misconduct against Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.). In accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 688, and other applicable regulations, a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures. This matter will be handled in compliance with military law, ensuring due process and impartiality.”

The investigation follows a video released by several Congressional Democrats who urged US troops not to follow unlawful orders. The video incited a firestorm of inflammatory comments from Republicans and President Donald Trump.

Trump posted on Truth Social, following the publication of the video, that it was “seditious behavior, punishable by death.” He later walked back the remarks, saying he was “not threatening death.”

The statement from the Department of War included a warning to other retired soldiers not to speak out on the issue. The X post continued:

“The Department of War reminds all individuals that military retirees remain subject to the UCMJ for applicable offenses, and federal laws such as 18 U.S.C. § 2387 prohibit actions intended to interfere with the loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces. Any violations will be addressed through appropriate legal channels.

All servicemembers are reminded that they have a legal obligation under the UCMJ to obey lawful orders and that orders are presumed to be lawful. A servicemember’s personal philosophy does not justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order.”

Sen Kelly responded on his personal X account, saying he would not be intimidated by Trump. “I swore an oath to the Constitution in 1986. I’ve upheld it through 25 years of service and every day since I retired.” He added, “If Trump’s trying to intimidate me, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to our country to be silenced by bullies who care more about power than the Constitution.”

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US Takes Out Drug Boat in Caribbean Sea Under Newly Unveiled “Operation Southern Spear” as White House Plans to Continue Strikes

The US military on Saturday executed another strike on a drug trafficking vessel operated by narcoterrorists under the new Operation Southern Spear program, the US Southern Command announced on Sunday. 

On Nov. 15, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed. The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific and was struck in international waters,” US South Com said in an X post.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Operation Southern Spear at the direction of President Donald Trump on Thursday.

“Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it,” he said on X.

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