Tag: pentagon

Maine mass shooting survivors refile lawsuit after Pentagon watchdog report cites Army negligence

The survivors and family members of victims of the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history have refiled their lawsuit against the U.S. government following a new U.S. Department of Defense watchdog report that faults the U.S. Army for a high rate of failure to report violent threats by service members.

Eighteen people were killed in Lewiston in October 2023 when Robert Card opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar and grill. Dozens of survivors and relatives sued the federal government earlier this month on grounds that the U.S. Army could have stopped Card, a reservist, from carrying out the shootings.

Lawyers for the group filed their amended lawsuit on Tuesday. It cites a report issued by the inspector general for the Defense Department this month that concludes the Army failed to make mandatory reports of violent threats almost half the time.

Military law enforcement is required to report violent threats to the service’s military criminal investigative organization. The review found the Army did not consistently follow that policy in 32 of 67 violent threat investigations in 2023.

The report specifically mentions Card, who died by suicide two days after the shootings. It says failure to consistently report violent threats “could increase the risk of additional violent incidents by service members, such as what occurred with SFC (Sgt. 1st Class) Card.”

The longstanding pattern of unaddressed threats gives the Lewiston victims a stronger case, said Travis Brennan, an attorney for the group.

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War Secretary’s Emergency Meeting A Mystery To Hundreds Of Top Officers Ordered To Attend

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to an urgent meeting in Virginia next week, but the reason is unknown to many who have been ordered to attend, The War Zone has learned.

Many of these high-ranking officers have been in contact with each other to find out why Hegseth has ordered such an unprecedented gathering that will upend the schedules of hundreds of them, a U.S. official told The War Zone.

“They know about this through scheduling, but they have no idea what this is all about,” the official added. “It is something everyone is wondering. There is no indication of what the topic is.”

The Pentagon confirmed the meeting but provided no details.

“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.

The meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, comes as Hegseth is looking to trim the ranks of the military’s top commanders and reduce the number of headquarters.

“The directive was issued earlier this week…months after Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon announced plans to undertake a sweeping consolidation of top military commands, according to The Post.

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The Department of War Is Back!

My fellow Americans, my critical voice has finally been heard inside the Oval Office. No, not my voice against the $1.7 trillion this country is planning to spend on new nuclear weapons. No, not my call to cut the Pentagon budget in half. No, not my imprecations against militarism in America. It was a quip of mine that the Department of Defense (DoD) should return to its roots as the War Department, since the U.S. hasn’t known a moment’s peace since before the 9/11 attacks, locked as it’s been into a permanent state of global war, whether against “terror” or for its imperial agendas (or both).

A rebranded Department of War, President Trump recently suggested, simply sounds tougher (and more Trumpian) than “defense.” As is his wont, he blurted out a hard truth as he stated that America must have an offensive military. There was, however, no mention of war bonds or war taxes to pay for such a military. And no mention of a wartime draft or any other meaningful sacrifice by most Americans.

Rebranding the DoD as the Department of War is, Trump suggested, a critical step in returning to a time when America was always winning. I suspect he was referring to World War II. Give him credit, though. He was certainly on target about one thing: since World War II, the United States has had a distinctly victoryless military. Quick: Name one clear triumph in a meaningful war for the United States since 1945. Korea? At best, a stalemate. Vietnam? An utter disaster, a total defeat. Iraq and Afghanistan? Quagmires, debacles that were waged dishonestly and lost for that very reason.

Even the Cold War that this country ostensibly won in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union didn’t lead to the victory Americans thought was coming their way. After much hype about a “new world order” where the U.S. would cash in its peace dividends, the military-industrial-congressional complex found new wars to wage, new threats to meet, even as the events of 9/11 enabled a surge — actually, a gusher — of spending that fed militarism within American culture. The upshot of all that warmongering was a soaring national debt driven by profligate spending. After all, the Iraq and Afghan Wars alone are estimated to have cost us some $8 trillion.

Those disasters (and many more) happened, of course, under the Department of Defense. Imagine that! America was “defending” itself in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and elsewhere, even as those wars killed and wounded significant numbers of our troops while doing far more damage to those on the receiving end of massive American firepower. All this will, I assume, go away with a “new” Department of War. Time to win again! Except, as one Vietnam veteran reminded me, you can’t do a wrong thing the right way. You can’t win wars by fighting for unjust causes, especially in situations where military force simply can’t offer a decisive solution.

It’s going to take more than a rebranded Department of War to fix wanton immorality and strategic stupidity.

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Pentagon denies report that military will use Charlie Kirk killing to recruit ‘generation of warriors’

The Pentagon is denying a report from NBC that claimed military leaders are considering launching a recruitment campaign tied to the legacy of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The NBC article, published on Thursday, alleged that top Pentagon officials were weighing a new initiative to frame Kirk’s assassination as a ‘national call to service,’ with slogans such as ‘Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors.’ 

The report cited two anonymous officials who said Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata was leading the effort, and that chapters of Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, could be used as recruitment hubs.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson has since firmly rejected the claims in a statement to Fox News Digital, calling the NBC report ‘100% wrong’ and accusing the outlet of publishing misinformation based on anonymous sources.

‘This is not happening, yet Fake News NBC published this report as if it were true using anonymous sources with no knowledge of what the recruitment task force at DOW is working on,’ Wilson added. 

The Pentagon also released the original statement it had provided to NBC prior to publication. 

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Pentagon Barred Senior House Staffers From Briefing on Venezuela Boat Strike

The Department of War is thwarting congressional oversight of the Trump administration’s attack on a boat off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month.

Senior staff from House leadership and relevant committees were barred by the Office of the Secretary of War from attending a briefing on the attack last Tuesday, according to three government sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The military cited “alternative compensatory control measures” — the term for enhanced security procedures designed to keep information under wraps — as the reason.

The War Department has attempted to conceal numerous details about the attack that killed 11 people in the Caribbean, including the fact that the vessel altered its course and appeared to have turned back toward shore prior to the strikes. Men on board were said to have survived an initial strike, The Intercept reported last week. They were then killed shortly after in a follow-up attack.

“I’m incredibly disturbed by this new reporting that the Trump Administration launched multiple strikes on the boat off Venezuela,” Rep., Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, said of The Intercept’s coverage. “They didn’t even bother to seek congressional authorization, bragged about these killings — and teased more to come.”

A very small number of Senate and House staffers, mostly from the Armed Services committees, received highly classified briefings about the attack last Tuesday, after the military delayed the meeting for days. Staff for key members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which oversee war powers, were conspicuously absent.

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What Is ICE Doing With This Israeli Spyware Firm?

The deployment of Paragon’s Graphite spyware was a major scandal in Italy. Earlier this year, the messaging app WhatsApp revealed that 90 journalists and civil society figures had been targeted by the military-grade surveillance tech, which gives “total access” to a victim’s messages. The Italian government admitted to spying on refugee rights activists, and Paragon cancelled its contract with the government almost immediately after the story broke.

Now the same software may be coming to America—and again with an immigration focus. Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security quietly lifted a stop-work order on a $2 million contract that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had with Paragon for a “fully configured proprietary solution including license, hardware, warranty, maintenance, and training.”

The deal was first signed by the Biden administration, and it was frozen in October 2024, less than a week after Wired broke the news of the contract. An administration official later insisted to Wired that, rather than reacting to bad publicity, they were reviewing the contract to comply with President Joe Biden’s order to ensure that commercial spyware use by the U.S. government “does not undermine democracy, civil rights and civil liberties.”

The details of that review—or even the contract itself—were never publicly disclosed. But the results are clear: ICE now has a green light to use whatever software Paragon was offering. (Neither Paragon nor ICE responded to requests for comment from The Guardian.)

The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, dedicated to researching electronic surveillance, found that Graphite targeted users through a “zero-click exploit.” By adding someone to a WhatsApp group in a certain way, Graphite can force their phones to read an infected PDF file without the user’s input. In other words, a cyberattack can be disguised as a spam text—and works even if victims ignore it.

After discovering the vulnerability with the Citizen Lab’s help, WhatsApp said in a statement that it was “constantly working to stay ahead of threats” and “build new layers of protection into WhatsApp.”

Paragon was co-founded by Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister and general in charge of military intelligence, and Ehud Schneorson, a former head of Unit 8200, the Israeli equivalent of the National Security Agency. Last year, an American private equity firm bought Paragon for $500 million with the intention of merging it into RED Lattice, a firm connected to former U.S. intelligence officials. Paragon has positioned itself as a more ethical alternative to NSO Group, a spyware company similarly run by Unit 8200 veterans.

In 2021, NSO Group suffered a series of scandals after it was revealed that its Pegasus spyware was sold to police states around the world and was possibly used to spy on journalists who were murdered. NSO Group accused the media of running a “vicious and slanderous campaign” and promised to “thoroughly investigate any credible proof of misuse.” The Biden administration hit NSO Group with economic sanctions in response.

Around the time that the Pegasus scandal was breaking, a Paragon executive boasted to Forbes that their company would only deal with customers who “abide by international norms and respect fundamental rights and freedoms.”

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Pentagon Human Resources Leader Championed DEI, Vaccine Mandates Under Biden

The current head of human resources at the Department of War (DOW), formerly the Department of Defense (DOD), was the “architect” of the military’s previous Diversity and Inclusion program, enforced the unlawful COVID vaccine mandate, and developed a program that expedited citizenship for noncitizen service members who were deported after being convicted of crimes.

Retired Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Samuel Shoemate sounded the alarm on X this week, drawing attention to DOW Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Military Personnel Policy Stephanie Miller.

Miller oversees the “full spectrum of human resource policies for over two million military personnel serving in the Department of War,” Shoemate wrote.

Her old bio, which has been revised to remove any mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), states that her career includes “leadership positions as the DoD Director of Diversity and Inclusion Management, Deputy Director for Navy Diversity, and Director, Navy Women’s Policy.”

She also served as a Defense Legislative Fellow for Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — a close associate of Hollywood Democrat donors and one of just three Republican senators who voted against the confirmation of War Secretary Pete Hegseth in January.

“Stephanie has been an advisor to, and architect of, every decision in the military over the last decade and a half that has harmed military readiness and overall military strength,” Shoemate wrote. 

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Pentagon-Funded Research Supported Chinese Military Projects, House Report Finds

A congressional investigation has revealed the Chinese regime exploited U.S. universities to collaborate on hundreds of defense projects funded by American taxpayers, including some blacklisted by the U.S. government due to ties to the Chinese military.

The report, released on Sept. 5 by House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), builds on a 2024 investigation by Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and former House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).

It found that hundreds of millions in U.S. federal research funding over the past decade have aided China’s technological and military advancements.

“American taxpayer dollars should be used to defend the nation—not strengthen its foremost strategic competitor,” the report said.

The report identified over 1,400 research publications linked to Department of Defense (DOD)-funded projects with Chinese partners, valued at more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds. Approximately 800—over half—involved direct collaboration with defense entities of the Chinese state.

It urges limiting U.S. research collaboration with China and supports new legislation by Moolenaar to block DOD funding for projects involving Chinese entities flagged as security risks by the U.S. government.

The report highlighted several case studies posing significant national security risks.

One project—funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Army Research Office (ARO), and NASA—involved researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Beihang University.

Shanghai Jiao Tong is overseen by China’s State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), the agency managing the defense industry. Beihang, part of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defence” linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was added to the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List in 2001 for its involvement in rocket systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, deemed a threat to U.S. national security.

Another project on thin film research, funded by the DOD’s Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, involved Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Arkansas, the University of Science and Technology of China, and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). HIT, also a “Seven Sons of National Defence” university, operates a SASTIND-overseen lab researching advanced materials and welding for military applications, including spaceflight, aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines, in collaboration with the state-owned Ansteel Group.

The Select Committee’s report reveals major issues with DOD Research & Engineering (R&E). For example, it failed to update its risk framework or enforcement, listing only a few of China’s known talent programs and defense labs on the 1286 List, despite many more being identified. Additionally, there have been no follow-ups to ensure that grants comply with safety rules, even when risks are flagged.

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Pentagon backs X-energy’s mini nuclear reactor to boost military energy resilience

The US Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of the Air Force have signed an agreement with X-energy Reactor Company to advance the development of its commercial microreactor.

The agreement has been made with the goal of deploying advanced nuclear technologies at DoD installations to support national security. It aligns with President Donald Trump’s executive order issued in May 2025.

It will support the design and development of X-energy’s XENITH microreactor under the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program, which DIU leads in partnership with the Department of the Air Force.

The program aims to accelerate the deployment of next-generation microreactor technologies to provide power at military installations.

It enables government agencies to engage with private companies under a flexible contracting mechanism that allows for faster development and deployment of commercial nuclear systems.

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Pentagon effectively confirms ‘Golden Dome’ will breach Outer Space Treaty

On January 27, US President Donald Trump announced that the construction of the “state-of-the-art ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense shield” will begin “immediately” and will be made “right here in the USA 100%”. Since then, apart from a name change to avoid confusion with a homonymous Israeli system, there’s been little concrete information on the project. However, last week, the Pentagon presented more details about the upcoming “Golden Dome”, revealing that it will be a four-layer missile defense system and that it will also include a space-based component (the other three are ground-based, including eleven short-range batteries planned for deployment in the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii). Reuters cited a presentation of the project, titled “Go Fast, Think Big!”, shown in Huntsville, Alabama, last week to around 3,000 representatives of the American Military Industrial Complex (MIC).

The revelation didn’t really show much more than what was already known about the US strategic missile defenses. The slides revealed there would be early warning satellites for detecting missile launches, tracking and “boost-phase interception”. The “upper layer” would be composed of the Next Generation Interceptors (NGI), Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and “Aegis” systems, with a new missile field “likely in the Midwest”. This would be followed by the “under layer” composed of “Patriot” systems, new radars and a “common launcher for current and future interceptors”. The space-based “boost-phase interception” capability is particularly curious. Although the slides didn’t really reveal how this would be accomplished, common sense implies that this is either deliberate disinformation (like the SDI was) or the Pentagon is actively pursuing space-based weapons.

Reuters noted that “one surprise was a new large missile field – seemingly in the Midwest according to a map contained in the presentation – for Next Generation Interceptors (NGI) which are made by Lockheed Martin” and “would be a part of the ‘upper layer’ alongside Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and ‘Aegis’ systems which Lockheed also makes”. The NGI is supposed to be the next iteration of GBI (Ground-Based Interceptors), which is part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD). This system is a nationwide network of radars, interceptors and other assets that the US planned for decades, even unilaterally withdrawing from the 1972 ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty back in 2002, so it could pursue the project. This arms control agreement served to prevent the US and USSR/Russia from being incentivized to endlessly enlarge their thermonuclear arsenals by limiting the number of deployed ABM systems.

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