The Pentagon Failed Its Audit Amid a $21 Trillion Scandal (Yes, Trillion)

by Lee Camp

New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was ruthlessly attacked recently, and I feel a bit responsible. I might have accidentally tainted her Twitter feed with truth serum.

But that sounds weird—so let me back up.

A few months ago, I covered the story of the $21 trillion that has gone unaccounted for at the Pentagon. That’s right—trillion with a T—an amount of money you can’t possibly come to terms with, so stop trying. Seriously, stop. It’s like trying to comprehend the age of the earth.

Pentagon Human Rights Auxiliary pushes ICC to indict Burundi

by Ann Garrison

Pambazuka News | September 28, 2017

Agence France-Presse

A UN commission is urging the ICC to indict officials of the Burundian government for crimes against humanity as soon as possible, but Russia, China, and the African Union so oppose an indictment that it could cost the court what little political legitimacy it has left.

 

In October 2016, the tiny East African nation of Burundi made history by raising an independent head against US empire. Its legislature voted to withdraw from membership in the International Criminal Court, a tool that the US and its Western allies use to discipline unruly African leaders—especially those who sign resource extraction contracts with Russia or China, and/or those who try to do anything for their own people. The Burundian government fits both descriptions.

Pentagon Has No Idea Where Hundreds of Thousands of Guns Went in Iraq and Afghanistan

by Nika Knight, staff writer

Common Dreams | 25 August, 2016

“What to do?” writes C.J. Chivers in the New York Times. “If past is precedent, given enough time one of the United States’ solutions will be, once again, to ship in more guns.” (Photo: Rahmat Gul/Associated Press)

The U.S. government has shipped over 1.4 million guns to Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11, according a new analysis by the U.K.-based watchdog Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), but the Pentagon is only able to account for fewer than half of them.

Contradicting Prior Claims, Pentagon Admits US Forces on the Ground in Libya

by Nadia Prupis, staff writer

Common Dreams | 11 August, 2016

The Pentagon confirmed this week that U.S. forces are indeed on the ground in Libya as the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) continues.

A “small number of U.S. forces have gone in and out of Libya to exchange information with these local forces in established joint operations centers, and they will continue to do so as we strengthen the fight against [ISIS] and other terrorist organizations,” Deputy Defense press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said Wednesday.

The news comes just days after the U.S. launched new airstrikes in Libya, centering largely around the strategic port city of Sirte, on August 1. At the time, defense officials claimed there were no troops on the ground supporting the bombings.

CIA and Pentagon backed groups fight each other in Syria

A Journal of People report

“Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border”, said a media report from U.S.

The situation, the report said, highlights “little control U.S. intelligence officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and trained in the bitter 5-year-old civil war.”

Top-Secret Pentagon Program Exploited Aid Workers as Covert Spies

Courtesy: Common Dreams | 26 October, 2015

In 2007, Kay Hiramine, pictured here with President George W. Bush, was awarded the president’s Volunteer Service Award—despite serving as a paid operative of the U.S. Department of Defense. (Photo: White House archives)

It is the stuff of spy novels, but a new investigation published Monday reveals that the U.S. Pentagon for years funneled millions to a charity organization employing it to serve as the front group for global espionage—very real revelations that experts warn could have dangerous implications for aid workers worldwide.