Tag: pentagon

Pentagon Expects ‘Significant Escalation’ of Attacks on US Troops Over Gaza War

A Pentagon official told reporters on Monday that the military is preparing for a “significant escalation” of attacks on US troops stationed in the Middle East due to President Biden’s support for Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

The comments came the same day US Central Command said its forces downed two drones that were fired at a base in Syria. Starting last week, there have been a series of attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria.

“They’ve been under an increase of attacks for the really for the last three days or so at various locations,” said a senior Pentagon official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, according to Military Times.

A group that calls itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed it launched drones at US forces in Syria on Monday, but the US has not attributed blame. The Pentagon official pointed the finger at Iran due to Tehran’s support for Shia militias that operate in Syria and Iraq, although there’s no indication Iran is directly involved.

“We see a prospect for much more significant escalation against US forces and personnel in the near term,” the official said. “And let’s be clear about it: the road leads back to Iran. Iran funded, armed, equipped and trained militias and proxy forces all across the region.”

Separately, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said there was no sign Iran is ordering the attacks, but said the US still blames Iran. “We don’t necessarily see that Iran has explicitly ordered them to take these kinds of attacks,” he said. “That said, by virtue of the fact that they are supported by Iran, we will ultimately hold Iran responsible.”

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Pentagon Officials Say US Ready to Fight War with China While Supporting Ukraine and Israel

Defense Department officials said US military assets in East Asia are sufficient to confront China as the Pentagon supplies the Israeli and Ukrainian armies with weapons. One official described 2023 as a “banner year” for Washington increasing its military presence in the region surrounding China. 

On Tuesday, the Pentagon held a press conference to discuss 180 “unsafe…unprofessional… corrosive and risky” encounters between Chinese and American aircraft over the past two years. However, reporters asked the officials, Commander of Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Admiral John C. Aquilino and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Dr. Ely Ratner, about the Pentagon’s ability to deter China as it arms Israel and Ukraine. 

Aquilino said that INDOPACOM has not seen any reduction in military assets available in the region, and the US was ready to win a war with China. “What I’ll tell you is I haven’t had one piece of equipment or force structure depart. The US is a global power, and that means we can deliver effects and execute our deterrence responsibilities across the globe, but I don’t think any other nation can do that at this time, but the US can,” he explained. “INDOPACOM prepares every day to ensure we execute both of the missions the Secretary gave me. Number one, to prevent conflict in the Indo-Pacific; and number two, if mission one fails, be prepared to fight and win.”

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NEW U.S. GOVERNMENT REPORT DETAILS LATEST FINDINGS IN THE PENTAGON’S INVESTIGATIONS OF UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA

A classified report detailing the Pentagon’s latest findings in its ongoing investigations into unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, has been delivered to Congress, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has revealed.

The 2023 Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena was presented to Congress by the DoD and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, according to a Pentagon press release issued that same evening.

An unclassified version of the report, required by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, as amended by the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2023, was also subsequently made available on the website of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the official office within the DoD tasked with investigations into mysterious aerial incursions and other phenomena encountered by U.S. personnel which currently remain unresolved.

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Senior Pentagon Official Charged for Involvement in Dogfighting Ring

Senior Pentagon official Frederick Moorefield was arrested Thursday and charged with furthering a dogfighting ring.

Moorefield, who served as the deputy chief information officer for command, control, and communications for the Secretary of Defense’s Chief Information Office (CIO), was arrested for promoting and furthering a dogfighting ring alongside a longtime friend, Mario Flythe, who allegedly admitted participation in the dog fighting.

The Washington Post reported:

Investigators found battery jumper cables, which allegedly were used to execute dogs at Moorefield’s house, along with five pit bull-type dogs at his house and five pit bull-type dogs at Flythe’s house, court records show. The FBI, the Department of Agriculture and other local and federal agencies raided both houses on Sept. 6, according to a federal affidavit, finding weighted collars and heavy metal chains used to increase fighting dogs’ strength. Authorities said they also found “an apparatus that is used for involuntarily inseminating female dogs” and stains “consistent with bloodstains from dogfights.”

Both men were released after being arraigned.

Lt. Commander Tim Gorman, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that the Department of Defense was “aware of the criminal complaint” against Moorefield.

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DoD Amplifies UFO Secrecy Yet Again: Additional Exemptions Reinforce “Law Enforcement” Claim

In the ongoing fight for transparency regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), The Black Vault just encountered additional hurdles that make the effort even more difficult to achieve. A series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeals were filed to challenge the Department of Defense’s (DoD) use of exemption (b)(7) blocking access to various UAP and UFO related documents within the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). This specific exemption pertains to records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, which could interfere with enforcement proceedings.

The Black Vault argued that AARO, along with other past names of similar efforts like the AOIMSG and UAPTF, were not law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, there’s no acknowledged law enforcement investigation that requires the concealment of the requested information.

Last week, the DoD responded to six of these appeals, upholding the (b)(7)(A) and (b)(7)(E) exemptions. These exemptions concern potential interference with enforcement proceedings and the disclosure of techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, respectively, but again the DoD fails to present what “law enforcement” proceeding it would interfere with.

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Bible-reading Pentagon commanders halted UFO research ‘over fears aliens were demons’

Pentagon commanders have clamped down on research into extraterrestrials because of their religious beliefs, it’s claimed.

Leading UFO researcher Ron James says senior figures in the US government fear aliens are in fact demons. Ron, who is Director of Media Relations for UFO research group MUFON, claims there is “a very large contingent of people” within the Pentagon who opposed the work of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program [AATIP] because they think the UAPs regularly reported by US military sources are piloted by creatures from Hell.

He says he was told by Luis Elizondo, who has gone on record as being the boss of AATIP, it “was not just a little voice in The Pentagon…but a huge group of people thought the phenomenon that was being witnessed was demons”.

This fundamentalist Christian lobby within the US defence establishment “actually affected Elizondo’s ability to get funding, “ Ron says. Belief in both UFOs and the literal truth of the Bible is not entirely incompatible, he adds.

For example, Ron spoke to staunchly Christian US congressman Tim Burchett. “I sat down and interviewed him. His feeling was that if you look in the Bible and you look at Ezekiel building the wheel there’s a lot of people that think that that was a spaceship”. He adds that His Holiness the Pope has officially acknowledged that there is life on other planets.

But the strong arm of religious fundamentalism within US political circles has actively hindered research into UFOs – and science generally, Ron says.

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ALONE IN THE WORLD?

The recordings captured from US Air Force planes last a mere 1.17 minutes — just long enough to spark mass international reaction. In the first video, against a backdrop of cloud contours, a bright white oval figure streaks across the sky.

“Oh, my gosh!” exclaims one of the pilots.

“They are going against the wind!” chimes in the second, “and the wind is 120 knots to the west!”

“Look at that thing, dude!” insists the first one.

Suddenly, the object starts to rotate. The pilot can’t contain his amazement.

“Look at that thing! It’s rotating!” Cut.

In the second video, the camera is pointed downward, with the sea as the backdrop. The radar pinpoints an object moving at such astonishing speed that it eludes tracking. The first two attempts are unsuccessful. On the third try, the radar locks onto it.

“Whoa! We got it!” exclaims the pilot.

The military personnel are all excitement: “Woo-hoo!” one cheers.

“Oh, my gosh, dude!” exclaims the first.

“Wow! Look at it fly!” Cut.

In the third video, a small object picked up by the radar remains static for a few moments before vanishing abruptly. Cut.

These images were never meant to go public. In fact, they gathered dust in the Pentagon’s archives for several years until Christopher Mellon, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence in both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, and later for Security and Information Operations, leaked them to the press. Since 2017, Mellon has been working to discover the truth about unidentified aerial phenomena, or what are commonly known as UFOs, or what the US government now calls UAPs — unidentified anomalous phenomenon.

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Department of Defense Signs Contract With Social Media Monitoring Company

Fresh revelations regarding a $2.5 million contractual agreement between the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) at Fort George G. Meade and social media scrutinizer Dataminr have emerged. These claims, unveiled by a US government notice, imply a new era of digital monitoring rests on the horizon, increasingly unsettling in its reinforcement of sweeping surveillance, and potentially having implications on free speech and privacy protection.

Fort Meade, also known as the steering wheel of the US Government’s paramount signals intelligence organization, the National Security Agency, has seemingly struck a discreet deal to expand its espionage services.

DISA, commodiously located at Fort Meade, is now purported to have voluminous exposure to public posts from assorted social media platforms, including X, formerly Twitter.

Dataminr is a company specializing in AI-driven real-time information discovery and is known for detecting, classifying, and determining the significance of public information in real time. It’s plausible that government entities, including the Department of Defense, may leverage services like Dataminr to monitor social media and other public data sources to maintain situational awareness and respond to emerging events or threats more rapidly.

When privacy buffs and free speech advocates look at governmental use of tools like Dataminr, it’s met with a hefty dose of suspicion, and rightfully so. The potential implications for personal freedom, civil rights, and the pillars of democracy are considerable. There’s this looming worry about the government, potentially with too loose a leash, exploiting these tools to spy on lawful activities and on people living their everyday lives with no criminal intentions.

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PENTAGON’S BUDGET IS SO BLOATED THAT IT NEEDS AN AI PROGRAM TO NAVIGATE IT

AS TECH LUMINARIES like Elon Musk issue solemn warnings about artificial intelligence’s threat of “civilizational destruction,” the U.S. military is using it for a decidedly more mundane purpose: understanding its sprawling $816.7 billion budget and figuring out its own policies.

Thanks to its bloat and political wrangling, the annual Department of Defense budget legislation includes hundreds of revisions and limitations telling the Pentagon what it can and cannot do. To make sense of all those provisions, the Pentagon created an AI program, codenamed GAMECHANGER. 

“In my comptroller role, I am, of course, the most excited about applying GAMECHANGER to gain better visibility and understanding across our various budget exhibits,” said Gregory Little, the deputy comptroller of the Pentagon, shortly after the program’s creation last year. 

“The fact that they have to go to such extraordinary measures to understand what their own policies are is an indictment of how they operate,” said William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and expert on the defense budget. “It’s kind of similar to the problem with the budget as a whole: They don’t make tough decisions, they just layer on more policies, more weapons systems, more spending. Between the Pentagon and Congress, they’re not really getting rid of old stuff, they’re just adding more.”

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PENTAGON-FUNDED STUDY WARNS DEMENTIA AMONG U.S. OFFICIALS POSES NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT

AS THE NATIONAL security workforce ages, dementia impacting U.S. officials poses a threat to national security, according to a first-of-its-kind study by a Pentagon-funded think tank. The report, released this spring, came as several prominent U.S. officials trusted with some of the nation’s most highly classified intelligence experienced public lapses, stoking calls for resignations and debate about Washington’s aging leadership.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who had a second freezing episode last month, enjoys the most privileged access to classified information of anyone in Congress as a member of the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leadership. Ninety-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whose decline has seen her confused about how to vote and experiencing memory lapses — forgetting conversations and not recalling a monthslong absence — was for years a member of the Gang of Eight and remains a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on which she has served since 2001.

The study, published by the RAND Corporation’s National Security Research Division in April, identifies individuals with both current and former access to classified material who develop dementia as threats to national security, citing the possibility that they may unwittingly disclose government secrets. 

“Individuals who hold or held a security clearance and handled classified material could become a security threat if they develop dementia and unwittingly share government secrets,” the study says.

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