Tag: pentagon

Dem Rep Suggests Hegseth Could Be EXECUTED For War Crimes Like NAZI Sub Captains

In a stunning escalation of partisan rhetoric, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) declared on national television that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is “guilty” of war crimes — and compared U.S. military operations against drug-smuggling boats to the actions of Nazi submarine captains executed after World War II.

The remarks, delivered Wednesday on CNN’s OutFront, come as the Trump administration presses aggressive action to dismantle narco-terrorist networks flooding America with deadly fentanyl and other poisons.

Instead of backing efforts to secure the homeland, Moulton opted to invoke the language of international tribunals.

Host Erin Burnett asked Moulton directly: “Do you believe that the Secretary of Defense is guilty of war crimes?”

Moulton answered without hesitation: “Absolutely. I mean, he’s clearly behind the operation to shoot all these boats in the Caribbean when it’s very unclear that we actually have any confirmation that these so-called narco terrorists, a term the administration invented to justify this action, are even on the boats.”

He continued, “I mean, in fact, there’s a lot of evidence that these are just fishermen, you know, getting jobs, piloting these boats, trying to feed their families. There’s been press reporting on some of these individuals who have been killed, who are clearly not war criminals.”

He added, “And on top of that, we then have the strike where they came back in and hit it again, a double tap, just purely to kill these survivors who were clinging to wreckage. You know, it’s interesting, Erin, another historical analogy back in World War II, the Allies tried Nazi submarine captains for doing this exact same thing. And guess what the conclusion was? They got executed. Listen to THAT, Mr. Secretary!”

The X post capturing the moment quickly went viral, with users reacting in disbelief at a sitting congressman invoking execution rhetoric against a Trump cabinet official.

This isn’t isolated grandstanding. It fits a clear pattern: Democrats framing routine counter-narcotics operations — strikes on vessels tied to designated terrorist organizations like Tren de Aragua operating on known smuggling routes — as criminal acts worthy of prosecution.

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Iran War Cost $25 Billion in First 2 Months, Pentagon Says

Combat operations against Iran have cost the U.S. military about $25 billion in two months, a top Pentagon accounting official told House Armed Services Committee members on April 29.

The Wednesday hearing marked the first time Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine have testified publicly to Congress since U.S. and Israeli forces commenced attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. U.S. and Iranian forces exchanged fire for about five and a half weeks before the parties entered into a ceasefire agreement on April 8.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the committee, asked the Pentagon to account for the costs of U.S. munitions expended as well as for equipment destroyed in the course of the fighting.

Jules Hurst, the acting War Department comptroller, estimated those costs at about $25 billion.

Hurst said munitions accounted for most of it, but said he also factored in operations and maintenance and equipment replacement costs. Hurst joined Hegseth and Caine at the hearing, as Congress weighs military funding requests for fiscal year 2027.

The Trump administration has been working on submitting a supplemental funding request to Congress to cover the war’s costs, but has yet to finalize it or settle on an exact figure.

“We will formulate a supplemental through the White House that will come to Congress once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict,” Hurst said.

The Pentagon is already seeking a $1.5 trillion military and defense spending budget for fiscal year 2027. The request amounts to a 42 percent increase over fiscal year 2026 military spending, which totaled approximately $1.03 trillion.

Among other items, the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget request seeks $52.9 billion to boost procurement for 12 weapons systems that the Pentagon has classified as critical munitions.

In March, President Donald Trump announced he had met with the CEOs of BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon parent RTX Corp., Boeing, Honeywell, and L3Harris Technologies to discuss boosting their munitions production levels. Weapons produced by the companies—including the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile defense systems and offensive weapons like the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile—have featured heavily in the Iran war.

Beyond the immediate material costs to replace weapons and equipment, the Iran war has also disrupted global oil and gas flows out of the Middle East, leading to rising prices for consumers.

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Google Partners with the Pentagon to Sell Your Data

There has always been this convenient belief that Big Tech operates independently from government, as if the data you store, search, and upload exists in some neutral corporate space, but that illusion is breaking down rapidly as the lines between Silicon Valley and Washington disappear in real time.

Google has now entered into a classified agreement with the Pentagon allowing its artificial intelligence systems to be used for “any lawful government purpose,” which is a phrase that sounds benign until you understand what it actually means in practice.

This is not a narrow contract tied to a single project. It opens the door for integration into mission planning, intelligence analysis, and even weapons targeting systems operating on classified networks, and once those systems are embedded, the distinction between commercial technology and state infrastructure effectively disappears.

At the same time, Google does not retain control over how that technology is ultimately used, because under the terms being reported, the company has no ability to veto lawful government operations, meaning once access is granted, the downstream application is no longer in their hands.  Please be reminded that Google has been collecting data on everyone and everything for decades: Google Maps, Google Search, Google Photos, Google Drive, Gmail, etc.

This is where the narrative people have been told begins to collapse, because for years the assumption was that your data sat within a corporate ecosystem governed by terms of service and internal policies, yet what is now being constructed is something entirely different, a shared infrastructure where private data, artificial intelligence, and state power intersect.

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New Emails Reveal Pentagon Effort to Align Messaging on AATIP and Luis Elizondo

A newly released series of Pentagon emails from May 2019 reveals an internal contradiction at the center of the Department of Defense’s narrative on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and Luis Elizondo.

At the center of the records is a May 7, 2019, email from senior Pentagon official Neill Tipton, former Director of Defense Intelligence for Collection and Special Programs, which states in clear terms that Elizondo “had no assigned responsibilities” related to AATIP during his time under Tipton within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).

Yet the same batch of emails, along with previously released records published by The Black Vault as released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), shows Tipton was directly communicating with Elizondo about AATIP, reviewing a memo to assume responsibilities tied to it, and participating in internal discussions about how the Department should respond to inquiries on the subject.

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Pentagon Spokesperson Christopher Sherwood Emails on UFOs, UAP, and more

A newly released collection of Department of Defense records centers on internal email communications tied to Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood and references to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). The material stems from a targeted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking insight into how UAP-related terminology and issues were discussed within the Pentagon’s public affairs apparatus.

The request specifically sought “a copy of all emails, sent to and/or from (bcc’d and cc’d) Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood… with the following keywords/phrases,” including “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon,” “UAP,” and “UAPs” . The scope was narrowly defined, focusing on a single individual and a set of keywords that became increasingly prominent within Department of Defense communications in the late 2010s. Sherwood primarily responded to UAP related questions from the media, even those from The Black Vault, back around this time frame. He was later replaced in those duties by Susan Gough, for reasons unknown.

Sherwood served as a Pentagon spokesperson within the Department of Defense’s public affairs structure. In that role, communications involving Sherwood typically relate to media inquiries, official messaging, and coordination of public statements on defense-related topics.

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O’Keefe Media Group Releases Undercover Video of US Nuclear Scientist Leaking Sensitive National Security Information to Stranger – Update: Escorted Out of Pentagon

The O’Keefe Media Group on Tuesday released undercover footage of a top nuclear chief leaking sensitive national security information to a stranger.

Andrew Hugg, a Chief of Chemical Nuclear Surety disclosed sensitive information to a date in a public restaurant.

Hugg told an O’Keefe Media Group undercover journalist that the US still possesses nerve agents and a US Army chemist recently died from exposure.

Andrew Hugg also confirmed that Ukrainians have taken US taxpayer money and used it to buy mansions.

At one point, Hugg asked the OMG journalist, “You’re not a spy, right? Your eyes have mesmerized me so much…Almost like you’re an intelligence.”

“The easiest way to get intelligence…send a pretty girl, talk to the guy…I have to resist your eyes,” he said.

Per the O’Keefe Media Group:

Andrew Hugg, a U.S. Chief of Chemical Nuclear Surety, was caught on hidden camera casually revealing sensitive information to a stranger in a public restaurant. Andrew Hugg, Chief of Chemical Nuclear Surety, in charge of nuclear and chemical safety was caught on hidden camera releasing information regarding the U.S. Nuclear Information.

He claims the U.S. still possesses nerve agents and says a U.S. Army chemist recently died from exposure.

He also acknowledges U.S. airstrikes have killed children in Iran, calling it “collateral damage,” and revealed to the journalist how nuclear launch decisions are made in real time.

Hugg described how the United States could assassinate Iran’s next leader if he “doesn’t change,” while admitting the U.S. has no plans to use nuclear weapons: “We’re not going to nuke anybody.”

All of this was casually revealed to an undercover journalist in a restaurant. This raises serious questions about this official’s judgment, security, and what’s really happening behind closed doors.

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Trump wages war, his sons get payoff through savvy investments

The U.S. military desperately needs drone capabilities for President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, and fast. Coincidentally, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are on the case.

Indeed, the Trump brothers are pumping money into defense-tech oriented firms that have already secured Pentagon contracts, or have already put battle-tested products to market. For example, they’ve invested in Powerus, a new drone company aiming to harness its “strong relationship with Ukraine” as a means to acquire and leverage war-tried Ukrainian drone technologies in a competitive U.S. market. Having bought out several competitors, Powerus already does business with the U.S. military.

In other words, the Trump family stands to benefit financially from the war, and already are.

Eric Trump also invests in Israeli drone firm and DoD contractor Xtend, whose “low cost-per kill” attack drones have been used by the IDF in Gaza. Expanding to the U.S., the company opened an office near Tampa last summer.

Donald Trump Jr. has a $4 million stake in, and sits on the board of Unusual Machines, a drone parts startup. In December, it secured a $620 million DoD loan — the largest loan in the history of the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital — to make drone parts.

And Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789, a “patriotic capitalist” venture capital firm which backs a number of defense-tech startups. The firm, which Trump Jr. joined in November 2024 — right after his father was re-elected to the presidency — has since seen explosive growth: the assets it manages jumped in value from $150 million to more than $2 billion by the end of last year.

Suggesting the firm influences U.S. policy outright, Trump Jr. explained at a Future Investment Initiative event last year that 1789 “understand[s] what the administration wants to do, because [the firm] helped craft some of the messaging.”

Conflicts of interest percolate

As William Hartung, a Quincy Institute senior research fellow, tells RS, the Trump family’s defense-tech pursuits can be linked to a larger network of technology firms and venture capitalists that has significant influence within the Trump administration.

“The emerging military tech sector has deep ties to the administration, starting with vice-president J.D. Vance’s relationship with Palantir founder Peter Thiel, who employed Vance and helped fund his Senate run,” Hartung said. “The fact that Donald Trump Jr. — not only the president’s son but a close political advisor and unofficial spokesperson — will now profit personally from the fate of specific military tech firms adds an even more profound conflict-of-interest.”

To this end, 1789’s portfolio includes a number of defense-oriented companies, such as Anduril, Hadrian, SpaceX, and Vulcan Elements, a DOD contractor that makes rare-earth magnets, which are also backed by controversial venture capitalist Peter Thiel or his VC firm Founders Fund. A Silicon Valley kingmaker and Palantir co-founder to boot, Thiel has simultaneously worked to influence U.S. politics, bankrolling Congressional campaigns while many in his orbit now occupy major positions in the Trump administration.

Notably, Trump Jr. also sits on the advisory board of controversial prediction market Polymarket — which 1789 and Thiel’s Founders Fund also back — fostering an environment where people with insider awareness regarding the outcomes of world events could theoretically profit from that knowledge.

Hartung warns such political access — and, in the case of 1789, venture capital funding — can give certain defense-tech startups an unwarranted edge.

“Venture capital allows firms to stay in the market longer before they score their first big government contract, be it with the Pentagon, an intelligence agency, or the Department of Homeland Security,” Hartung told RS. “But once these influential firms have sunk substantial funds in a startup, they may use their influence to get that firm a contract whether or not its technology is ready for prime time, just to get a return on funds invested up to a given point in time.”

“If they can recruit the president’s son to join in boosting a particular firm, whether or not its product has been proven effective, they have a whole new level of influence, which can be wielded to serve their financial interests rather than the public interest,” Hartung said.

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Pentagon Turns to World War II-Era Tactic in Bid to Ramp Up Weapons Production: Report

The Trump administration wants automakers to put the pedal to the metal to help rebuild America’s weapons stockpiles, according to a new report.

As wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have consumed missiles and other weapons, the Trump administration is turning to a tactic from World War II in order to resupply as fast as possible, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Top executives at General Motors and Ford have been approached, the outlet reported, citing sources it did not name. GE Aerospace and machinery producer Oshkosh have also been approached.

The War Department “is committed to rapidly expanding the defense industrial base by leveraging all available commercial solutions and technologies to ensure our warfighters maintain a decisive advantage,” a Pentagon official said.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has called for American manufacturing to be on a “wartime footing.”

Talks with manufacturers began before the war against Iran, with the goal of strengthening national security by increasing the military’s ability to quickly increase production of weapons and technology to meet emerging needs.

Defense officials sought input from companies that do not perform extensive defense work about barriers that need to be addressed by the government, such as the process for bidding and contracting.

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Hegseth Says US ‘Locked and Loaded’ to Strike Iran’s Power Plants If No Deal Reached

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on April 16 urged Iran’s leadership to reach a deal with the United States, warning that a military operation against the country could be restarted quickly and that Iran’s power plants would be struck.

He said the U.S. government will ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon, which Trump administration officials say was a primary reason for launching strikes against the country in late February. Iran has long denied that it wants to obtain a nuclear weapon and insists that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

“We’d prefer to do it the nice way through a deal led by our great vice president and negotiating team. Or we can do it the hard way,” Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine.

Hegseth called on Tehran to “choose wisely” in dealings with the United States.

“I pray you choose a deal, which is within your grasp for the betterment of your people and for the betterment of the world,” Hegseth added.

The U.S. military has kept up a naval blockade on Iran’s ports since April 13 in a bid to place economic pressure on the country’s leadership.

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Democrats file impeachment articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday filed articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, leveling serious criticisms of his handling of the Pentagon and the U.S. attacks on Iran.

As Republicans control the House, this move is unlikely to have an effect in 2026. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., introduced the resolution, which says Hegseth has “demonstrated a willful disregard for the Constitution, abused the powers of his office and acted in a manner grossly incompatible with the rule of law,” CBS News reported.

The six articles of impeachment cite offenses including waging unauthorized war in Iran and reckless endangerment of U.S. service members, as well as breaking the laws of armed conflict and targeting civilians. Civilian casualties in Iran have included more than 160 people killed in an attack on a girls school in February.

They further accuse Hegseth of mishandling sensitive military information, which refers to his use of a Signal group chat on his personal phone to share information on a military operation in Yemen last year.

The resolution also says Hegseth obstructed congressional oversight by withholding information on military operations and abused his power by using it for political retribution.

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