Clipmarks | masbury's 'military' clips

McCain "proud of" GI bill he opposed

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:50:21 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Speaking to VFW, who criticized him for opposing it. VFW will award citation to Democrat Jim Webb, the bill's sponsor, tomorrow.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

As a political proposition, it would have much easier for me to have just signed on to what I considered flawed legislation. But the people of Arizona, and of all America, expect more from their representatives than that, and instead I sought a better bill. I’m proud to say that the result is a law that better serves our military, better serves military families, and better serves the interests of our country.

It is audacious for McCain to go before the VFW and claim credit for a bill he nearly destroyed, considering the VFW was one of the bill’s strongest backers

VFW’s deputy director for legislative affairs Eric Hilleman: The Graham-Burr-McCain plan is “very partisan and is seen as a way to convolute the GI bill, or to slow the Webb-Hagel proposal down.”

In fact, tomorrow the VFW will award Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), the original sponsor of the GI Bill, a gold medal and citation of merit for his leadership

McCain also promoted his

veterans health plan, which the VFW actively opposes.

Tags: mccain, military

US Aid to Africa Increasingly Militarized

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:21:35 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Oh great, here we go again.

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Group: US Aid to Africa Increasingly Militarized

The advocacy group Refugees International is warning US aid to Africa is becoming increasingly militarized at the expense of humanitarian needs. In a new report, Refugees International says the Pentagon is exerting increasing control over aid traditionally run by the State Department and US aid agencies. The Pentagon now controls 22 percent of US aid money, up from three percent a decade ago.

Tags: military, war, news, politics

Army official fired for questioning $1B payout to KBR

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:25:18 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Told Iraq contractor to improve "chaotic" performance, held up payment on questionable charges

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Army Ousted Official for Questioning KBR Contract

The New York Times reports the Army official who managed the Pentagon’s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to the former Halliburton subsidiary KBR. Charles Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004, after informing KBR officials that the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi operations. Although KBR’s performance in Iraq has come under fierce criticism from lawmakers, the Pentagon recently awarded the company part of a ten-year $150 billion contract in Iraq. Until last year, KBR was known as Kellogg Brown & Root and was a subsidiary of Halliburton, the Texas oil services giant, where Vice President Dick Cheney previously served as chief executive

KBR has repeatedly gouged the taxpayer, and the Bush administration has looked the other way

Tags: military, iraq, war

$80M Pentagon contract to FBI fugitive; Bush crony

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:08:11 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Saudi national, barred from doing business in the USA, indicted by FBI, classmate of Bush

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Gretchen Peters reports that the Pentagon has awarded an international fugitive, shadowy Saudi financier Gaith Pharaon, an $80 million contract to supply jet fuel in Afghanistan (h/t Ron Beasley). Pharaon is a fugitive from the FBI as well as the subject of investigations by France and Italy.

Pharaon was also an investor in President George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy.

Pharaon was a Harvard classmate of Bush's and a key investor in Arbusto/Harken Energy.

In the US, he was the second largest shareholder in CenTrust when it went belly up. The Federal Reserve then barred Pharaon from doing business in the US, and the FBI indicted him. Pharaon has been a fugitive ever since.

The FBI accuses the Saudi millionaire of fraud "involving millions of dollars" in the case of the Bank of Commerce and Credit International...In 1995 a US judge ordered Pharaon to give up $102m of his assets for his role in the BCCI fraud

Another in a long line of scandalous war-contracts

Tags: bush, war, military

Why is military spending highest since WWII?

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:08:39 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Hi-tech cold-war toys in development. One thing's sure: if we get them, we'll use them on a few thousand poor suckers. Meanwhile Lieberman crusades for deep water submarines that, coincidentally, are made in his home state, but serve no strategic purpose.

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

Indefensible Spending

What should be the most important issue in this election is one that is rarely, if ever, addressed: Why is U.S. military spending at the highest point, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than at any time since the end of World War II? Why, without a sophisticated military opponent in sight, is the United States spending trillions of dollars on the development of high-tech weapons systems that lost their purpose with the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago?

The Pentagon’s budget for fiscal year 2008 set a post-World War II record at $625 billion, and that does not include more than $100 billion in other federal budget expenditures for homeland security, nuclear weapons and so-called black budget—or covert—operations.

We are talking high-tech war toys designed to fight a Cold War enemy that no longer exists

Since President Bush’s first year

Defense Department has doubled its future planned investment in those ultra-pricey weapons from $790 billion to $1.6 trillion

Tags: military, defense

US military spending twice that of any other gov't program

Sat, 31 May 2008 19:59:16 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Where are the critics of Big Government? Dabbing at the trickles, rather than stanching the gusher.

Clip Source: www.journeywithjesus.net

Jim Wallis observes in his book God's Politics that government budgets are "moral documents."

here's how the government spent my 2007 tax dollars:

42% went to Past and Current Military
22% Health
10% Interest on Non-Military Debt
9% Anti-Poverty Programs
4% Education, Training & Social Services
4% Government & Law Enforcement
3% Housing & Community Development
3% Environment, Energy & Science
2% Agriculture, Commerce and Transportation
1% International Relations

In 2005 the United States accounted for 48% of the entire world's military spending — which is to say that our one country nearly spent more on the military than the rest of the world combined. Our Department of Defense says that America deploys 254,788 military personnel (double that number if you include dependents) to at least 725 military bases in 153 countries. Our own country is home to 969 separate bases in all fifty states. By these budgetary metrics, the United States prioritizes war like no nation on earth.

Tags: military, government, taxes

111 nations adopt cluster bomb ban; US refuses

Fri, 30 May 2008 19:46:39 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: US corporations make and sell cluster bombs

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

111 nations adopt cluster bomb treaty, but not US

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Diplomats from 111 nations formally adopted a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs on Friday after futile calls for participation by the weapons' biggest makers and users, particularly the United States.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged every nation in the world to sign the painstakingly negotiated pact "without delay."

Twelve days of negotiations ended after diplomats from scores of nations delivered speeches embracing the accord. It requires signatories not to use cluster bombs, to destroy existing stockpiles within eight years, and to fund programs that clear old battlefields of dud bombs.

Washington this week dismissed the prospect that the treaty would alter U.S. policy

Tags: war, cluster bombs, un, military

Navy accidentally bombs Ocala National Forest

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:01:06 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Even America's not safe from America. Burns down 250 acres.

Clip Source: www.clickondetroit.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- During what was supposed to be a routine training exercise, a bomb landed off-target, landing and igniting a fire in the Ocala National Forest this week.

The 500-pound, laser-guided bomb was released from an F/A-18 Super Hornet on Tuesday, and detonated about 1 mile east of the Pinecastle target range, WJXT-TV in Jacksonville reported.

About 250 acres of forest and swampland were burned, according to Mike Drayton, a fire management officer with the U.S. Forest Service

Tags: military

Lawmakers & corporations to earn millions if war continues

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:19:52 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Military - industrial complex beyond Eisenhower's wildest dreams: Lawmakers have millions invested in defense contractors; Almost all major US corporations rake in huge profits from the Pentagon.

Clip Source: peoplesgeography.com

lawmakers have as much as $196 million “invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the start of the Iraq war.”

Civilian firms such as PepsiCo and IBM form the backbone of what more accurately can be described as a “military-corporate complex.”

PepsiCo and IBM ranked among the Pentagon’s top 100 contractors, taking in $286,696,943 and $291,825,309, respectively

top 100 suppliers also included such well-known civilian firms as Tyson Foods ($335,239,095), Goodrich Corp. ($344,091,017), Procter & Gamble ($362,461,808), Kraft Foods ($500,799,104), Dell ($636,343,593), ExxonMobil ($1,176,354,936), FedEx ($1,303,032,027) and General Electric ($2,327,705,161)

It’s high time we at least recognize that PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft, and Johnson & Johnson and just about every other corporate giant

are benefiting not only from our purchases of cola, computers, software and bandages but from our tax dollars, via the Pentagon

Tags: war, politics, congress, pentagon, defense, military, news

Networks' military analysts pitched gov't views, sought millions in contracts

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:38:57 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Illegal covert Pentagon program not being covered by MSM

Clip Source: www.counterpunch.org

The Pentagon launched its covert media analyst program in 2002, to sell the Iraq war. Later, it was used to sell an image of progress in Afghanistan, whitewash the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and defend the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping, as David Barstow reported in his New York Times expose.

But the pundits weren't just selling government talking points. As Robert Bevelacqua, William Cowan and Carlton Sherwood enjoyed high-level Pentagon access through the analyst program, their WVC3 Group sought "contracts worth tens of millions to supply body armor and counterintelligence services in Iraq," reported Barstow. Cowan admitted to "push[ing] hard" on a WVC3 contract, during a Pentagon-funded trip to Iraq.

Today, the broadcast and cable networks are steadfastly refusing to cover or otherwise address the Pentagon military analyst program

These officers participated in a covert government program designed to shape U.S. public opinion -- an illegal program

Tags: media, pentagon, military

22-yr-old had $300M arms contract with Pentagon

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:35:40 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Ho ho! The news is amusing tonight!

Clip Source: tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

Army Looks to Learn Lesson from Contract to 22 Year-Old

It looks like the Pentagon is just in a lesson-learning mood lately. While they're busily reviewing whether the carefully-orchestrated use of military analysts was improper, the Army is reviewing whether it should have known better than to award a $300 million contract to supply arms to the Afghan security forces to a company run by a 22 year-old.

As The New York Times reports, the key lesson seems to be that if a contractor's price seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

Tags: humor, military, pentagon, contracts

Pentagon: "Stick our hands up your backs and move your mouth for you"

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:33:37 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Sen. Levin says new analysts "apparently on the payroll of defense contractors"

Clip Source: www.alertnet.org

US senator complains Pentagon grooming TV analysts

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - A newspaper report that U.S. military analysts working for television networks were coached by the Pentagon provided "very clear evidence of conflicts of interest" at the Defense Department, a senior U.S. senator said on Tuesday.

Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was sending Defense Secretary Robert Gates a letter

The New York Times on Sunday reported that retired senior officers received private briefings, trips and access to classified intelligence to influence their comments about the Iraq war on television networks.

"It's a very, very significant disclosure of the New York Times," Levin told reporters.

The newspaper quoted Robert Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, as saying, "It was them (the Bush administration) saying, 'We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.'"

Tags: media, news, military

Network "military analysts" got talking points from Pentagon

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:23:23 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: While being paid by military contractors. NY Times breaks a major story ...

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Yesterday the New York Times carried an in-depth, documented report on a propaganda war that has been waged against the American people

the Pentagon has been sending out a cadre of military analysts to blanket the airways with "favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance."

They are the retired military officers that appear on every network and cable news show as paid analysts to explain the intricacies of war to us

what we weren't told was that they have also been working for the White House, the State Department and the Justice Department, receiving briefings from high level government officials, including Dick Cheney, before heading to the T.V. studio to offer their "personal opinion"

And what's worse, these "experts" not only regularly receive their talking points from the administration, they also represent:

...more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants.

It is nothing less than propaganda for profit

Tags: military, media, news, pentagon

Chart: Compare military spending with preventive spending

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:10:37 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: If you can find the tiny slice

Clip Source: www.nationalpriorities.org

American taxpayers expect the federal government to provide national security. Achieving that security is a constant and complicated challenge that cannot be met by military might alone. A sound national security policy involves three broad strategies:

preventive measures such as securing nuclear materials abroad and participating in multi-lateral diplomatic and peacekeeping operations;
homeland security such as providing port security and coordinating emergency first responders; and
the military

Tags: military, politics, foreign policy

Pentagon Study: Hack blogs "antithetical to US interests"

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:46:59 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Will Pentagon hack your blog if it doesn't like your point of view?

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Wired.com has uncovered a 2006 study written for the US Special Operations Command that suggests the military should clandestinely recruit or hire prominent bloggers. The report stated, “Hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering.” The report also suggested the Pentagon hack blogs that promote messages that are antithetical to US interests. The report went on to say, “Hacking the site and subtly changing the messages and data—merely a few words or phrases—may be sufficient to begin destroying the blogger’s credibility with the audience.”

Tags: politics, military, blogs, internet, freedom