2001 G2 Gems

Most Americans only know what multi-national corporations allow on television or in major newspapers and magazines. We often encounter interesting military information ignored by the corporate "mainstream" press. We post it here to stimulate thought and discussion.

After weeks of intense TV news coverage of the anthrax scare, you'd think it would be a big story when the FBI identified the source; the US Army. On December 14th, both the New York Times and Washington Post carried stories that the specific type of Ames anthrax strain mailed in recent terrorist attacks was produced by the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID). at Fort Detrick, Maryland. It had been distributed to a British lab, the Army's Dugway proving grounds in Utah, and two American universities. Investigators have focused on Dugway because they had recently refined the anthrax to the weapons grade powder used in the terrorist attacks, in violation of many international treaties.

This is why many scientists want the USA to agree to destroy its remaining stock of smallpox. The disease was wiped out decades ago, but the USA and Russia kept samples for research. Russia said it would destroy its stock if the USA agreed to destroy its own. So far, the American bureaucracy refuses to rid the world of this deadly substance.

Last March, G2mil published an article arguing that the proposed lightweight 155mm howitzer (LW155) was an impossible design and should be cancelled. The first six prototypes had failed testing so badly that Textron wasn't even interested in trying again. British Aerospace eagerly accepted millions more in development funds to put together a team of subcontractors to build six "better" prototypes, which were tested this year.

Evidently, that testing has failed because on December 6th the Senate Appropriations Committee cut $10 million dollars from the $18.2 million requested for FY2002 to begin low-rate manufacture stating the guns "have been determined to be not suitable for operational testing". Hopefully, the article in G2mil LW155, which was widely distributed by G2mil readers helped decision makers understand this gun was doomed to fail. Now let's hope they will not be suckered into providing more money to "fix" the problems. Far better options are the current M120 120mm mortar in Army service, the G2mil proposed 155mm Mortar, or a small 155mm "pack" howitzer with half the range of the M198, and made of steel and not ultra-expensive titanium.

The 11-26-01 issue of Aviation Week has a recent picture of an Ukrainian-built AN-74 STOL transport jet at Bagram airport just north of Kabul; with IRANIAN markings. Iran has supplied the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan for years.

Former President George Bush told a gathering of industry and government officials in Montreal last month that he is more sure than ever that he was right not to purse fleeing Iraqi Forces all the way to Baghdad to capture or kill Saddam Hussein. "I would have been accused or gunning down people running down the highway; I don't think I could have lived with myself." What's more, he said, the coalition would have collapsed and the U.S. would have become caught in a quagmire. In a similar vein, he said his son is wise in being cautious about targeting Iraq in the war against terrorism. "No one has more animosity in his heart for [Hussein] than me, but you've go to have hard evidence before you expand the scope of the war."

The biggest threat to national security in the world is rampant population growth in undeveloped countries. Roughly 2.8 billion people live in cities. By 2015, that number will have risen to 3.9 billion, nearly three-quarters of them in the developing world. That is no surprise, but the top five Metro areas will be:

Tokyo will not grow, but the other top four will grow 50%. New York will have fallen to 8th and Los Angeles to 14th. I consider myself educated, but I had to look up Mumbai (India) and Dhaka (Bangladesh). Mumbai is already the world's second largest city today, and my Microsoft spellchecker doesn't even recognize it. India is expected to surpass China's population in 2020. Lagos is in Nigeria and Sao Paulo in Brazil. If you don't know where Tokyo is, go finish high school.

In all wars, victories are usually overstated. Most Americans know the US military crushed Iraq's "million-man army". Disputes after the war led the House Armed Services Committee to investigate the true numbers of Iraqi troops. After reviewing US military reports, captured Iraqi documents, and interviews with Iraqi prisoners, they concluded the half-million allied troops faced only 183,000 Iraqi soldiers during the ground assault, not the 547,000 claimed by the Pentagon. Most of this discrepancy was caused by undermanned Iraqi units and the desertion of 153,000 Iraqis. The investigation estimated that 9000 Iraqis were killed in action, 17,000 were wounded, 63,000 were captured, and around 120,000 managed to retreat back into Iraq.

Few Americans know that Saddam Hussein had finally agreed to demands and ordered his troops to withdraw two days prior to the deadline set by President Bush. As a result, the US military attacked a day sooner and raced to encircle the fleeing Iraqis. Despite the heroic media image of "Screaming" Norman Schwarzkopf, his tirades encouraged his field Generals to lie about their forward progress. This seemed harmless until Schwarzkopf assured President Bush that Iraq's Republican Guard was trapped. This led to a premature ceasefire which allowed thousands of Iraqis to march home through a 100-mile gap.

Two days after after a ceasefire was declared, Major General Barry McCaffrey, a two-star in charge of the 24th Infantry Division, launched a full-scale surprise attack on columns of Iraqi troops peacefully leaving Kuwait. It remains unclear if McCaffrey did this for his own promotion, or because of directions from higher levels. The Army investigated this "battle" after complaints from many soldiers, but took no action. Afterwards, McCaffrey was quickly promoted and retired as a four-star General. Details are available from the book "Lucky War", published by the Army historical center at Fort Leavenworth.

The BBC has discovered from the British Army that Tom Carew, who writes articles from an SAS perspective for the papers and has just published a book about serving in Afghanistan, was never actually a member of the SAS at all. He failed selection twice, but did serve in a nearby support unit which never left England. His book, Jihad, has sold out.

In Mark Bowden's great book, "Black Hawk Down", he quotes a State Department source about the impact of the 1993 Somalia intervention:

"The idea used to be that terrible countries were terrible because good, decent, innocent people were being oppressed by evil, thuggish leaders. Somalia changed that. Here you have a country where just about everybody is caught up in the hatred and fighting. You stop an old lady on the street and ask her if she wants peace, and she'll say, yes, of course, I pray for it daily. All the things you'd expert her to say. Then ask her if she would be willing for her clan to share power with another in order to have that peace, and she'll say, 'With those murderers and thieves? I'd die first.' People in these countries--Bosnia's a more recent example--don't want peace. They want victory. They want power. Men, women, old and young. Somalia was the experience that taught us that people in these places bear much of the responsibility for things being the way there are. The hatred and the killing continues because they want it to. Or because they don't want peace enough to stop it."

John Howe had asked me about the new US Army two-man HD-40 tank (below) that he saw on the Discovery Channel. I follow future military equipment closely, but had never seen anything, and an Internet search turned up zero.

He copied photos and sent them to me, the one below is next to an M1A1 tank. Perhaps this is an unusual secret development, but then why show it on TV?

It costs billions of dollars and several years to develop a new tank, so I assume this is must a mock-up, just a fake mounted on a modified tracked chassis. The square barrel is to make it stealthy. A lower tank is harder to hit, but the ground clearance is so low it would "bottom out" and get stuck often. It probably has hydraulics which allow the chassis to rise according to the terrain. With just two crewmen, it would need a complex auto-loader, and I don't see any machine guns. This is an example of the pure "anti-tank" mentality which Mike Sparks says cripples the employment of armor in future warfighting.

The Pentagon has devised a system to rapidly review and award contracts for methods of "combating terrorism, defeating difficult targets, conducting protracted operations in remote areas, and developing countermeasures to weapons of mass destruction." One page proposals must be submitted by December 23; check this link for more: TSWG.

While General Dynamics spends millions of taxpayer dollars to tinker with its ultra-expensive LAV-III so it can squeeze into a C-130, one wonders why Textron doesn't complain. The Army claimed to want a proven "off-the-shelf" LAV as an "interim" vehicle, and Textron has been selling a smaller six-wheeled LAV with a 105mm gun on the overseas market for years. The Marine Corps had already tested a 105mm gun on the eight-wheeled LAV type General Dynamics will use, and found it too unstable. However, the Army bought off objections by ordering some armored cars from Textron too, called the Armored Security Vehicle. Now the Army will have two types of armored cars, which costs much more since they require different parts, different mechanics, even different tires.

A soldier of Russia's 201st motorized infantry division fires a grenade launcher during routine military training near the village of Lyaur, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001. Russia has about 25,000 troops stationed in Tajikistan to help guard the border with Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Maxim Marmur)

Russia has vast unemployment and needs aid. Perhaps Russian mercs should be hired to get bin Laden. They probably have thousands of people who speak the local languages.

You probably don't notice the media bias in the USA which confuses Americans. For example, if a Palestinian shoots a specific Israeli, its correctly reported as an assassination, but whenever as Israeli shoots a specific Palestinian, its reported as a "targeted killing". The assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi was widely reported. However, he was simply described as a "hardliner", without further elaboration. Zeevi had openly called for ethnically cleansing the West Bank of Palestinians, a Hitler-type "final solution" to the problem. Despite his views, Zeevi retained his post as a cabinet minister, until his "targeted killing".

During a Fox News interview last February, Tony Snow asked Defense Secretary Rumsfeld about bin Laden. Notice how Rumsfeld tries to link that threat with his cherished missile defense scam.

Snow: Now, one of the other threats emerging is so-called transnational terrorism, people like Osama bin Laden. How do we fight them?

Rumsfeld: Well, that's true. It is a very serious problem. And if one thinks of all of the so-called asymmetrical threats -- the kinds of things people would do, or threaten doing, rather than to try to contest Western armies, navies and air forces, which doesn't work, obviously. The Gulf War proved that.

Terrorism, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, cyberwarfare, information warfare. These are all things that are cheaper than land wars, and where the technologies are currently available. And the United States has to recognize those emerging threats, and see that we're arranged so that we are not subject to nuclear or terrorist blackmail.

Snow: We have talked about -- and also, President Bush has talked about -- swift and decisive responses to those who harm Americans. Say Osama bin Laden or somebody like that orders a strike. Would it be appropriate for a president to revise policy and to go ahead and approve assassination attempts against such people?

Rumsfeld: That's not a subject that I -- that has been addressed with the new national security team that President Bush has assembled.

From page 67 of the 10-8-01 issue of "Aviation Week" we learn: Defense planners are "desperate to improve the health of precision signals intelligence, which has not been so good," a reconnaissance specialist said. "We fired 800 HARMs [radar-killing missiles] at $200,000-300,000 each in Kosovo and hit one SAM [Surface to Air Missile]."

Since the 1993 Ranger disaster in Somalia, no US military combat deaths have been reported. None during the invasion and occupation of Haiti (except three odd "suicides"); none in Yugoslavia Bosnia, or Kosovo; none over Iraq; none in Columbia; none in the semi-secret West African adventures; and none in Afghanistan. I had long suspected a secret executive order withheld death reports for political reasons. This year, Tom Clancy's book listed 14 deaths suffered by Special Forces soldiers during 1998 and 1999, with no explanations. This was just two years for the "Green Berets".

I did a name check on Google for all fourteen. Since they were mostly younger "secret" soldiers, I didn't expect much, but I found:

Staff Sergeant Joseph Juponeic didn't show up, but then the last name "Juponeic" didn't show up on any internet search engine or white page directory.

From Judicial Watch
JudicialWatch.Org

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Bush Sr. in business with bin Laden family conglomerate through Carlyle Group.

Washington, DC -- Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, reacted with disbelief to The Wall Street Journal report of yesterday that George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush, works for the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, an international consulting firm. The senior Bush had met with the bin Laden family at least twice. (Other top Republicans are also associated with the Carlyle group, such as former Secretary of State James A. Baker.) The terrorist leader Osama bin Laden had supposedly been “disowned” by his family, which runs a multi-billion dollar business in Saudi Arabia and is a major investor in the senior Bush’s firm. Other reports have questioned, though, whether members of his Saudi family have truly cut off Osama bin Laden. Indeed, the Journal also reported yesterday that the FBI has subpoenaed the bin Laden family business’s bank records.

Judicial Watch earlier this year had strongly criticized President Bush’s father’s association with the Carlyle Group, pointing out in a March 5 statement that it was a “conflict of interest (which) could cause problems for America’s foreign policy in Middle East and Asia.” Judicial Watch called for the senior Bush to resign from the firm then. “This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the President’s father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible.

President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman. “This has the potential of making 'Billygate’ (Jimmy Carter’s brother’s dealings with Libya) look like small potatoes,” added Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. It's all about the "O" word! The brother of Osama bin Laden, Salem bin Laden was killed mysteriously in 1988 after his plane, an BAC 1-11, crashed in Texas soon after a meeting concerning an "oil deal" with George Bush. It is time for the American people to wake up and demand the truth.

President Bush has made it very clear that the 9-11 terrorist attacks were acts of war. This makes for interesting legal opinions because if bin Laden's terrorists are "soldiers", they must be accorded POW status if captured, and released after the "war" ends. This was an issue when General Noriega of Panama was captured in 1989. He was in uniform and leader of his military. However, US Government prosecutors rarely let international law get in their way, so he will remain in prison for life for violating US Laws in Panama.

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.

The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

The most ignored terrorist suspects are the major Columbian drug cartels. Drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa was flown to the United States September 7th to face prosecution, the highest-profile suspect extradited from Colombia in more than a decade. Ochoa is a former top leader of the notorious Medellin cartel, the best known of three dozen Colombians extradited to the United Sates. According to a September 7, 2001 AP report, "Some feared that resuming extradition would prompt a new backlash by Colombia's drug traffickers. Scores of judges, police officers, journalists and even a leading presidential candidate fell to Escobar's reign of terror. But this time around, retaliation has not occurred - yet." On September 9th, a State department spokesman warned US citizens in Colombia to take precautions against possible violent retaliation by drug-traffickers.

These billionaire Columbian drug lords are angry the USA has turned their beautiful country into a war zone, and is trying to imprison them for breaking American laws in Columbia. Anyone can hire unhappy Arabs to die for Allah. Maybe they informed Bush to blame Osama bin Laden and leave them alone, otherwise they'd hit the White House and Capitol Hill next time. If this seems far fetched, see the outstanding movie "Clear and Present Danger" with Harrison Ford, available at your local video store.

Should we invade Afghanistan? As Americans debate this issue, the real question is: "Should we send "them" to invade Afghanistan?". "Them" are thousands of young soldiers and marines, plus teenagers now in High School who can't even vote. Many of the flag-waving, chest thumpers on television are "chickenhawks"; those who evaded service in Vietnam and now clamor for war, like: Dick Cheney, Trent Lott, Rush Limbaugh, Paul Wolfowitz, and George Bush. PBS Frontline produced an outstanding documentary last year about the chickenhawks in the Clinton administration's role in the war against Yugoslavia. It was entitled "Give War a Chance", mocking a popular Vietnam era song "Give Peace a Chance".

Robert Lynn sent in two passages from Rudyard Kipling about the British in Afghanistan:

Now it is not good for the Christian self to hustle the Aryan brown
For the Christian riles and the Aryan smiles and he wears the Christian gown
And then the end of the fight is a tombstone white
With the name of the late deceased
And the epitath Drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
And go to God like a soldier.

On the G2mil list of great military films is "The Beast", about Russians in Afghanistan. A recent film which you must see is "Traffic", about the failed drug war. Chaos in Mexico continues to threaten the USA, which is why we need troops ON THE BORDER. I lived in the San Diego area for five years and a year in Laredo, Texas, and have been to every border town on both sides, and almost every crossing. Its the "Wild West" down there.

America's most brilliant defense analyst somehow got this in the right-wing Washington Post.

Fred Hiatt is correct when he says that you can't have it both ways when it comes to defense policy [op-ed, Aug. 27]. But he is wrong when he accepts the claims of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's team that the Clinton administration didn't budget honestly, that it did not provide enough funds to carry out the two-war strategy it inherited from the first Bush administration, that it did not provide enough funds to modernize the armed forces properly, and that it did not pay for its global deployments.

The two-war strategy was developed in 1991 by the elder Bush-Cheney-Powell team. On leaving office in 1993, they projected the amount that the Department of Defense would need from 1994 through 1999 to fight two major regional wars, assuming that the threat from North Korea and Iraq remained the same over that period. The Clinton administration actually spent slightly more while the threat from North Korea and Iraq declined dramatically. The relative capability of the United States to execute the two-war strategy actually grew in the 1990s.

Similarly, the demands on U.S. forces during the 1990s were not that demanding or expensive. In the last decade, a greater percentage of the force was based in the United States than in the 1980s. On average, about 240,000 men and women were deployed outside the United States. That is less than 18 percent of the active force and 12 percent of the total force (reservists account for 20 percent of the forces deployed to Bosnia.)

Nor were peacekeeping operations a drain on the defense budget. They consumed less than 2 percent of the defense budget in the Clinton administration. The reason we did not commit ground troops to Kosovo or intervene in Rwanda has nothing to do with capability or funding. It was a question of political will.

Nor did President Clinton coast on Reagan-era procurement funding. During the 1990s, the Pentagon invested more than $1 trillion in developing and procuring new weapons. The reason it did not buy enough new planes and ships is that it did not adjust the procurement strategy to the end of the Cold War. For example, instead of buying the $220 million-per-unit F-22, which was originally developed to combat the next generation of Soviet fighters, the Air Force could have purchased the F-16 block 60's (which are five times more effective than the earliest version) for $30 million each. Similarly, the Navy could have purchased the $200 million arsenal ship rather than buying only $1 billion destroyers and $6 billion aircraft carriers. And the Marines could have bought several Blackhawks for the price of one V-22.

Nor are the services spending more to maintain aging equipment. As the Congressional Budget Office has pointed out, the average age of many types of equipment is not much greater than 20 years ago and the amount of money spent operating and maintaining equipment is actually declining.

Contrary to what Hiatt implies, it is not the congressional liberals who want it both ways. In fact it is the Pentagon's leadership. In real terms, defense spending for fiscal 2002 will be about the same as we spent on average during the Cold War. Rumsfeld's fiscal 2002 budget is higher in real terms than the 1975, 1976 and 1977 budgets, which he administered in his first tour in the Pentagon. In 1998, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that Clinton's five-year defense program was underfunded by $150 billion. Since that time, the five-year program has been increased by $250 billion. Yet the military says it now needs another $33 billion in fiscal 2002 alone.

Change is indeed hard in the Pentagon, particularly the right kind -- which would involve reducing the defense budget to $300 billion, or 90 percent of its Cold War average, and which would still be more than all of our potential adversaries combined. As Gen. Merrill McPeak, Air Force chief of staff during the elder Bush's presidency, noted recently, if the leadership of the Pentagon can't provide for national security at $300 billion, we should get new leadership.

"Defense Week" reports that the successful July National Missile Defense test was rigged. The X-band radar was able to detect and track the missile and distinguish it from the accompanying decoy because a beacon was implanted in the warhead that emitted a stream of identifying radio signals. The Pentagon justified this because the test was focused on the infra-red detector on the intercepting missile, not the entire system. Nevertheless, the public should have been informed at that time.

In 1987 as the Cold War began to rapidly thaw, a Soviet expert on America, Georgi Arbatov, taunted his counterparts from the Reagan administration by declaring "We are going to do something terrible to you, we are going to deprive you of an enemy".

The Korean Employees Union of US Forces Korea began holding rallies in the Summer of 2001 to oppose the withdrawal of US troops. Their 18,000 members are concerned that North Korea's demand that US troops be withdrawn before reunification threatens their jobs.

A May 2001 study by the Defense Science Board "More Capable Warfighting Through Reduced Fuel Burden" noted that fuel makes up 70% of the cargo tonnage needed to position the US Army in battle. The study said that if M1A1 tanks were 50% more fuel efficient , the Persian Gulf War buildup could have been 20% faster and ground forces ready to fight one month sooner. They noted that a fuel delivered by ocean tankers costs only around $1 a gallon at the port, but transporting it inland can drive the cost up to $50 a gallon, and air transport can cost up to $400 a gallon. It costs the Air Force 20 cents a gallon to refuel an aircraft at an Air Force bases, but $17.50 a gallon in total costs to refuel in the air.

Soon after my article appeared, the Marines equipment factfile at www.usmc.mil linked directly www.hqmc.usmc.mil/factfile.nsf/AVE?openview&count=3000 was removed, and has stayed gone since then. I guess some General saw the article, and devised the standard solution to criticism.

G2mil published an article earlier this year: Diesel Tank Engines - are far superior to gas turbine engines. The Army's response to this idea of tripling the gas mileage for its tanks was to ignore it, and has now proposed gas turbine engines for its Crusader artillery gun. I just found a March 31, 2000 press release from General Dynamics about its tests of an M1A2 tank operating a diesel engine. They want to sell M1A2 tanks to the Turks, but they are too smart to want the gas turbine engines. General Dynamics found the tests successful, and proclaimed: "The tank moves as well as the standard turbine-powered tank with no difference in target detection, identification or main gun accuracy. The testing confirms that the tank's performance is not changed by the diesel engine and that it has a significantly lower operating cost".

August 2001 - Book confirms intentional 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty

This is one of the most ignored stories in the American media. A new book "Body of Secrets" documents several recent revelations about this attack. In short, the Liberty recorded the killing of thousands of Egyptian prisoners during the 1967 war, and someone in Israel decided to sink the evidence gathered by the USS Liberty. Read this summary. The "History Channel" recently aired this story.

July 2001 - Remarks by General George S. Patton Jr.

"No one is thinking if everyone is thinking alike. In too many organizations, toadyism is buried like a cancer. It must be removed with the sharpest bayonet available. All sorts of suggestions, ideas, concepts, and opinions must be allowed to promote an environment of learning and imagination. A fault of many potentially fine commanders is a lack of the ability to admit that other people have good ideas. If younger soldiers are not allowed to use and cultivate their imaginations and their abilities for abstract thought, where will we get the next generations of qualified, motivated, and confident commanders? Commanders who never ask for an opinion, never listen to suggestions, and think they have the only correct idea find that their soldiers will stop communicating altogether. They'll begin to sit on their asses and wait for orders before doing anything. No matter how high in the ranks a man goes, he can't know everything. We can always learn from each other. Juniors must learn not only to be allowed to use their imaginations, but they must be encouraged to do so.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men. I cannot count the times I've seen men who should know better than to keep quiet when unjust decisions are being made, decisions that literally affect the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers. These decisions are made, not on the basis of sound military policy, but purely to further the political and personal ambition of officers in high command. Cowardice on the battlefield is disgusting enough. Cowardice in the military planning room is repugnant. It ultimately means the unnecessary death, mutilation, and disfigurement of soldiers for the sake of the commanders. It takes courage to stand up for what is believed to be right and just. Most men seem to lack such courage. Sycophancy for the sake of career is just as deadly as incompetence."

Hackworth dug up this great story. You can get his weekly column e-mailed to you, check www.hackworth.com

Last month, American troops in Macedonia rescued 400 Albanian rebels who were members of the 113th UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army) Brigade. This operation didn't pass the smell test for me. I couldn't stop asking myself why NATO brass would risk the lives of 80 American paratroopers to save a band of heavily armed cutthroats bent on overthrowing the established government of a country that our president and State Department have repeatedly stated they are committed to save.

The act was kind of like an FBI SWAT team rescuing Timothy McVeigh minutes before the execution. My first thought was, Whose side are we really on? My second was, What's the objective here -- stabilizing or destabilizing
Macedonia? The UCK brigade -- dug in around Aracinovo, four miles north of Skopje, the capital of Macedonia -- had been surrounded for two weeks, under heavy attack by Macedonian government forces and on the verge of destruction. Imagine how we'd feel if one of our units was about to take out a rebel brigade whose objective was to overthrow our government, when out of nowhere a Canadian paratroop company swooped in and saved the enemy force? Of course, the Macedonians were fit to be tied.

Sources in the U.S. Army in Kosovo familiar with the 3/502nd Airborne Battalion's rescue operation confirm that the mission was all about saving the "17 'instructors' among the withdrawing rebels -- former U.S. officers,
who were providing the rebels with continued military education. But that was not enough: The Macedonian security forces claim that 70 percent of the equipment taken away by the guerrillas had been U.S. made -- to include even
the most modern third-generation night vision devices," as reported by the German newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt on June 28.

Other sources say the "17 instructors" were members of a high-ticket Rent-a-Soldier outfit called MPRI -- Military Professional Resources Incorporated -- that operates in the shadow of the Pentagon and has been
hired by the CIA and our State Department for ops in ex-Yugoslavia. The company, headed up by former U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Carl E. Vuono, is filled with former U.S. Army personnel, from generals to senior sergeants,
all of whom draw handsome wages on top of their Army retired salaries.

This is the same outfit that in the early 1990s trained Croatian soldiers for Operation Storm -- which resulted in the brutal ethnic cleansing of 200,000 unarmed Serb civilians -- as well as bringing Croatian Gen. Agim Ceku up to
speed. Ceku, who played a central role in the slaughter, is alleged to have killed thousands of other Serb civilians before joining the KLA in 1999, where he again received training and assistance from CIA and State Department
contractors operating overtly and covertly throughout ex-Yugoslavia and around the globe.

Retired four-stars don't run out of power until they hear taps. Had Vuono or another of his compadres such as Gen. Crosbie Saint picked up the phone and suggested the 502nd be sent to the rescue, that suggestion would have been
taken as a virtual command. MPRI even has a Web site -- www.MPRI.com -- that boasts, "We serve the needs
of the U.S. government, of foreign governments and of the private sector with
the highest standards and cost effective solutions."

While Ollie North's Contra boys and the mercenaries who botched up the Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion might not have been so businesslike -- or so blatant -- they did establish an unfortunate tradition of hired guns sticking our nation
into one minefield after another. Dozens of ex-Army pals are presently working for the ever-expanding MPRI or
other such military contractors in places like Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, ex-Yugoslavia and Colombia. We're talking booming business here.

But others have had the moral decency to say, "Take your high-paying mercenary job and stick it in your ear."
One still-serving three-war vet told me: "A number of contractors have been pitching me to work for them after I retire. I said no. There's no principles, no love of country, no honor -- just MONEY. I can't ... sell my
soul for a buck." There are laws on the books that prevent American citizens from serving foreign governments. It's about time Congress did its duty and enforced them.

The June 18, 2001 edition of "Aviation Week" reveals the many difficulties faced by U.S. Air Force squadrons operating in Europe. The skies are so congested that fighter and strike training must be conducted elsewhere. This requires redeploying to bases in the Mediterranean and even North Africa, which costs money and separates airmen from their families. European squadrons also must deploy to Nellis AFB in Nevada for realistic training at that huge instrumented range. For real operations in the Balkans or Iraq, squadrons in Germany and England must deploy to bases in Italy or Turkey. This high operational tempo strains airmen and their families.

Since Congress is reluctant to spend taxpayer money overseas, base housing and facilities have deteriorated, although the Army Air Force Exchange plans to spend $100 million dollars in Germany to construct a huge shopping mall, movie theaters, a 1000-seat food court, and a 350-room hotel with parking. The Air Force plans to spend $500 million dollars in new construction to improve security at its European bases, and $200 million to expand Spangdahlem AFB, since the Germans announced that Air Force transports cannot use their busy Rhein-Main airport after 2005.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon wants to close excess Air Force bases to save money. The obvious solution is to move most Air Force fighter and attack squadrons back to the USA, leaving some at strategic Aviano, Italy and Incirlik, Turkey, which are routinely augmented by squadrons rotating from the USA. This would save the Air Force a billion dollars each year by cutting base operations in Europe and free base manpower for operational squadrons. These relocated squadrons would not have to deploy to train as often, so family separation would be reduced while the Air Force save millions more dollars. The Air Force would also save millions of dollars each year with less overseas shipping of household goods, commissary and exchange goods, and base support items. Finally, this would shift a billion dollars in annual U.S. military spending to local communities in the USA.

This is a win-win situation for everyone, except a few thousand Germans and British who would lose their jobs as the USAF pulls out of Spangdahlem AFB and RAF Lakenheath. These airbases could remain as NATO contingency bases, like Moron airbase in Spain and RAF Fairford, so squadrons could quickly deploy to defend our powerful allies in Northern Europe from non-existent enemies. American squadrons could still deploy to England and Germany to train with our NATO allies, but since they really can't train there, it makes more sense for them to come and train in the USA. In fact, our NATO allies routinely deploy squadrons to Nellis for training. The only opposition may come from NATOcrats who are infatuated with a mindless goal of keeping 100,000 GIs based in Europe. If this is a problem, the Air Force could consolidate all its prisoners in Europe so jailed airmen can keep the stats up. Donald Rumsfeld faces many tough choices for redesigning the US military; this choice is simple.

Here is a letter I sent for publication in the "Marine Corps Gazette"; it will never be published.

Safety has become a major concern for the V-22 Osprey program. Some critics has made wild accusations that those in power in Washington have little concern for lower ranking Marines flying in V-22s. To overcome these concerns, the first redesigned V-22s should be sent to the presidential helicopter squadron (HMX-1). The V-22s long-range and higher speed would be ideal to ferry top officials around the East coast. It would save millions of dollars in operations at Andrews AFB since fewer fixed-wing VIP aircraft would be required. Most importantly, the new V-22 must be safer than the 40-year helicopters at Quantico.

Military.com published this AP story. However, major newspapers and the television media chose to ignore it.

U.S. Soldiers Hurt in Macedonia and Kosovo

Associated Press
June 25, 2001

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two U.S. soldiers were wounded Monday in separate incidents in Macedonia and Kosovo, Defense Department officials said.

A cavalry scout soldier with the 1st Cavalry Brigade Reconnaissance Troop was injured when he stepped on a landmine while on patrol outside of Basici, Kosovo at about 1200GMT, U.S. officials said in a statement released at Camp Bondsteel, the largest post for U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo.

The soldier's name was withheld pending notification of his relatives. He was treated on the scene by a medic and then taken by helicopter to Camp Bondsteel for further treatment.

In Macedonia, a U.S. Army sergeant was wounded in the hand when the car in which he was riding came under fire on a road northeast of Skopje, Pentagon officials said. No other details were immediately available, including the source of the gunfire.

There are about 700 U.S. troops in Macedonia, mainly to provide logistical support for the U.S. peacekeepers in Kosovo.

May 2001 - The truth about the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor

As the big "Pearl Harbor" movie hits the screen, few Americans know the true story. Over the past decade, many historians have uncovered strong evidence that President Roosevelt knew about the Japanese attack in advance through an extensive network of radio code intercepts.

A former World War II Navy officer and retired reporter, Robert Stinnett, researched this issue for ten years, obtained new documents through the FOIA, and talked to some "loose lipped" retired servicemen. Many of his FOIA requests about 1941 naval intercepts were denied in 1999 by Attorney General Janet Reno because of "national security concerns". However, he collected plenty of hard evidence that FDR knew the attack was coming and did not warn the Hawaiian Commanders.

FDR welcomed a Japanese attack to turn American public opinion in favor of war. The Japanese fleet would not attack if their spies in Hawaii informed them the Pacific Fleet was alerted. FDR sent the new aircraft carriers and latest escorts on a mission to "deliver airplanes", and left the old World War I battleships as targets. Mr. Stinnett agrees with FDRs goal of entering World War II, he only questions the use of sailors as bait.

The American corporate media has cooperated with the U.S. Government to ignore these revelations, although C-Span and the History Channel have provided some coverage. G2mil is not a history website, but citizens must be aware of how much of American foreign policy is influenced by secret deception at the highest levels of government.

Americans may have noticed that the hype surrounding the "Pearl Harbor" movie extended to every national and local news program, even before the movie was released. What happens is the promoters demand news coverage as part of big advertising deals. This isn't announced to the "independent" newsroom, but reporters are told that the new movie has become an interesting "news" story, and they must provide coverage.

However, there are still some bold critics willing to buck the system. The movie critic from Fox News blasted the Pearl Harbor movie on the air, surprising the two Fox "news readers", who attempted to dampen criticism by saying he expected too much. After the critic left the screen, one news reader shook his head and commented, "I don't understand, he's got the greatest job in the world, he just watches movies". What this news model implied is that he didn't understand why a guy would risk his easy job and criticize a big advertiser. All you cynics out there should also know that the famous "Siskel and Ebert" movie review show is owned and produced by Disney.

Despite the total failure of the American "Drug War", U.S. Government interdiction money keeps flowing faster. U.S. counter-drug aircraft lost operating rights in Panama when Howard AFB was closed in 1999. However, the U.S. has established four smaller bases in the region, each with about 25 U.S. servicemen augmented by civilian contractors. The new bases are at Manta, Ecuador; Aruba, Netherlands Antilles; Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, and Comalapa, El Salvador.

At a January U.S. Air Force sponsored Gulf War anniversary retrospective, the leader of the DESERT STORM air campaign, retired Air Force General Charles Horner, noted:

"We need to really think about where we want to go with our airpower. The problem with it is that we have a lot of precision, but we don't have a lot of knowledge. I always say, it's like a doctor with a scalpel. we can cut the enemy's optic nerve with it if we want to blind him, but instead we take it and jab him in the ass. That's kind of the way we approach airpower even today, 10 yeas after the Gulf War."

Since 1995, 1.3 billion ton-miles of supplies have been shipped from Germany into the Balkans. To get the materiel to its destination, U.S. military trucks and trains explored routes previously unavailable to U.S. forces, through Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Romania–all the way to the Black Sea port of Burgas in Bulgaria. Innovation was required because M-1 tanks won’t fit into European train tunnels, and 17 road bridges couldn’t support the weight. To get around those obstacles, tanks were moved barge. NATO has agreed to reinforce all 17 bridges.

The Albanian port of Durres proved to be too shallow for U.S. ships, so the ancient Greek city of Thessaloniki, on the Aegean coast, was chosen as the major entry point for Marines to make their way first to Macedonia, and then to Kosovo.

"Aviation Week" reports that Pentagon analysts confirmed the Chinese F-8II fighter that damaged the U.S. Navy EP-3 was carrying copies of Israel's Python 3 air-to-air missile, which downed 50 Syrian aircraft in 1982. Israel is thought to have sold numerous types of weapons to China, including Patriot missile technology, which was possible after a Patriot missile was stolen from an American battery defending Israel during the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

In 1948, famous British military historian B.H. Liddell Hart wrote about his post-war interviews with German Generals in a book "The German Generals Talk". In Chapter 8 he writes about the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union:

"The Germans lost the chance of victory because they had based their mobility on wheels instead of on tracks. On these mud-roads the wheeled transport was bogged when the tanks could move on. Panzer forces with tracked transport might have overrun Russia's vital centres long before autumn, despite the bad roads. World War I had shown this need to anyone who used his eyes and his imagination."

He later wrote that even though the German army was modern, "it had not yet caught up with ideas that were twenty years old." Apparently, the U.S. Army must relearn lessons that are now 80 years old.

Chinese don't immigrate, they colonize. As a result, Chinese control the economy of many Asian nations. For example, the "Economist" reports that Chinese make up only 4% of Indonesia's population, but control 73% of its corporations; in Thailand they are 14% of the population who control 81%, and in the Philippines 2% control 55%. This is not a communist conspiracy, but the result of industrious Chinese expanding to more profitable markets. Nevertheless, it has a tremendous impact on future conflicts in that region.

Don't expect a reply, except maybe a form letter, unless a $1000 check is enclosed.

Many Generals complain of how the U.S. military has shrunk to 1,400,000 uniformed personnel. However, since World War II the U.S. military began to employ civilians to replace uniformed personnel. The Department of Defense employs 700,000 civilians directly, and 743,000 indirectly at U.S. military bases through contractors. There are another 1,650,000 Americans working on DOD contracts at private facilities, and another one million Americans drawing monthly reserve pay, which is more than full-time soldiers in most armies earn. Finally, there are another three million Americans (as young as age 37) drawing reserve/retiree pay who can be activated.

Keep this in mind when Generals talk of the massive three million man Red Chinese army, or the one million soldiers in North Korea. These militaries employ few civilians and often use soldiers to build weapons in factories. In comparison, the U.S. military funds monthly checks to almost 8.5 million Americans. If all these silent soldiers wore military uniforms everyday, Americans would be shocked at our massive military force.

"Aviation Week" reports that the F-22 is achieving only 0.6 flight hours before maintenance is required, far below its goal of 3.0 hours. The Air Forces is unconcerned, claiming that the goal can be reached once the aircraft enters service large numbers.

Former Senator Sam Nunn once had access to the USAs top secrets. In a recent speech, he warned that "thousands upon thousands" of Russian tactical nuclear weapons are unaccounted for.

FN Herstal has just unveiled a revolutionary aiming device for its F2000 three-shot 40mm automatic grenade attachment. To engage a target, the shooter simply aims the integrated laser sight at the target, and the range to the target is automatically locked into the weapon's fire-control system. The shooter then elevates the weapon in the direction of the target and, when the weapon is at the correct firing angle, a pair of green lights appear on the exterior of the sight. With the weapon now a the proper super elevation to engage the target, the weapon is ready for firing. During tests, Belgian soldiers were able to consistently place rounds within two meters of targets 300 meters away.

Recent news reports have covered the problems of Albanian terrorist activities inside Macedonia, although they are referred to as "rebels" in the American media, probably because they were supplied by the CIA until last year. If large numbers of armed Mexicans crossed the U.S. border and killed policemen in Arizona, would they be called rebels? Would the U.S. government accept a NATO brokered "ceasefire"?

This demonstrates how the media can mislead the public. For example, in 1999 NATO (aka the U.S. military) demanded that Yugoslavia relinquish Kosovo and allow NATO troops to occupy this Yugoslav province which had been flooded by Albanian immigrants in recent years. Yugoslavia insisted that it maintain sovereignty of over Kosovo and that NATO troops would serve as temporary peacekeepers. NATO warlord General Wesley Clark rejected this demand and began an unprovoked bombing campaign. (American Generals now conduct diplomacy for the USA). This was a violation of the NATO charter, the UN charter, and the U.S. Constitution. However, laws are irrelevant to those in power in the USA, and NATOcrats were desperate for a post-Cold war mission.

The bombing campaign continued for weeks and Yugoslavia failed to budge. NATO resources became depleted and political pressure to end the conflict grew. As a result, NATO caved in to Yugoslavia's demands and ended the bombing. The "500,000 murdered Albanians" were never found, only about 2000 bodies were found near villages where CIA backed KLA terrorists battled with Yugoslav troops. Kosovo officially remains part of Yugoslavia and NATO troops are there as timid temporary peacekeepers who have allowed Albanian immigrants to run off most Serbian, Roma, and Turkish residents. In short, there were few cases of ethnic cleansings, the NATO bombing campaign was illegal and failed, and Yugoslav troops will be allowed to reoccupy Kosovo one day. Is this what you read in the mainstream/corporate American media?

Marine Corps judge advocate general investigators raised concerns about the maintenance of the V-22 Osprey in a report on last April’s fatal V-22 crash, but senior Marine Corps officials dismissed the concerns as irrelevant, according to documents obtained by "Inside the Navy".

Further, the Marine Corps redacted those concerns and other opinions and recommendations from copies of the report and withheld them under the Freedom of Information Act for the last seven months until Feb. 28, 2001, when "Inside the Navy's" formal appeal prompted the release of the material.

JAG investigators warned of three particular maintenance “areas of concern,” labeling them “noteworthy” even though they did not cause last April’s crash. One of the three maintenance areas of concern cited in the July report -- the hydraulic system -- has since been identified by the Marine Corps as a contributor to the fatal Dec. 11, 2000, V-22 crash. No one has clarified the legality of redacting portions of a JAG Manual investigation.

Few Americans are aware of the real history of Kuwait. This area had always been part of Iraq until an anti-colonial rebellion forced the British to abandon their Iraqi colony. However, the British wanted to retain control of the oil rich coastal region, so it formed a puppet monarchy and named it Kuwait. The billions earned from this oil rich enclave each year flow back into British-American banks, with plenty of money left to pamper the locals. You have to read older books to discover these facts since Kuwait has employed top public relations and law firms over the past 20 years to rewrite history and suppress this truth. One of the last non-corporate news organizations left in America, National Public Radio, recently began to accept millions of dollars in "contributions" from Kuwait, but insisted it would have zero impact on its reporting.

As a result, the idle and arrogant Kuwaitis are hated in the Arab world. Unlike the Saudis, they never spend money to help impoverished Arabs. They live a care-free life as the richest people on Earth. They have invested so much money in Western corporations that they earn more from these investments than from oil exports. The "Economist" has an excellent story about this large oil family posing as a country. Although America has sold Kuwait the world's most advanced military equipment, military observers have no confidence in their bravery, and expect them to head South at the first sign of trouble.

The U.S. military has positioned a brigade of equipment in Kuwait and rotates battalions there for training. The Kuwaitis like the American mercenaries, so long as they stay in their prison-like compounds. Of course the Kuwaitis do not pay these mercenaries, they even got U.S. taxpayers to pay them millions of dollars to build military facilities to house U.S. troops. The U.S. Navy spends billions of dollars each year to protect Kuwait and keep their sea lanes open. You may expect Kuwait to provide free fuel, but American taxpayers pay Kuwait millions of dollars each year for Navy ship fuel. The Kuwaitis have learned what the Israelis know; that it is far cheaper to send a few million dollars to Washington DC lobbyists each year to bribe Congressmen than to spend their own money to protect themselves.

I came across this interesting 1996 story on the DOD website (the actual text is in blue). This was three years before the "crisis" in Kosovo required NATO intervention to support Albanian troops fighting in Kosovo. Notice how the Marines are training the Albanians to deal with the Western press.

Albanian troops are videotaped and interviewed by Marines role playing as news media while the troops practice crowd control measures in a Civil Disturbance/ Mass Casualty Situational Training Exercise at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Aug. 19, 1996 as part of Cooperative Osprey '96. Cooperative Osprey '96 is a NATO sponsored exercise as part of the alliance's Partnership for Peace program. The aim of the exercise is to develop interoperability among the participating forces through practice in combined peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. Three NATO countries and 16 Partnership for Peace nations are taking part in the field training exercise. DoD photo by Lance Cpl. J.R. Reyes, U.S.

Oops! Marine Corps public affairs recently posted this interesting photo of Marines with a captured Iraqi Bell "Huey" helicopter on their website. Pictures of U.S. military equipment with Iraqi markings had been "Secret" since that war. They didn't want American taxpayers to see part of the two billion dollars worth of U.S. military goods given to Iraq and funded by U.S. "agriculture loans" during the 1980s. The Marines recovered some assets by adding a few Iraqi Hueys to their inventory.

The Marine Corps leadership has been adamant that there was no command pressure which caused LtCol Olin Leberman to falsify maintenance records for the two MV-22s which crashed last year. An independent Department of Defense investigation is underway to determine any relationship, yet Marine Commandant General James Jones told New York Times reporter James Dao,

"You want to be sure that you can de-link any insinuation that there might have been a maintenance problem or anything that could have been, and should have been, caught with either crash"..."I'm reasonably optimistic that we're going to be able to do that."

Was General Jones revealing his strategy to influence the "independent" investigation? Was he advising his Marines what to say? This doesn't sound like he wants investigators to reveal the truth.

A week later, an unpublished GAO report was leaked which says the V-22 can carry only 15-18 combat loaded Marines, rather than the claim of 24 Marines. Remember that 19 Marines died in the April 2000 operational evaluation crash (e.g. 3 crewmen and 16 troops) Will Bell-Boeing argue that it was unable to verify this during testing due to funding constraints?

The CH-46E design states it can carry 25 troops (see Boeing technical stats). This is just bodies, combat loaded Marines need more space. The V-22s interior cabin dimensions are (H-5.5ft W-5.7ft L-20.8) which is smaller than the CH-46E (H-6ft W-6ft L-24.2 ft). So the Boeing CH-46Es interior cabin is over three feet longer than the Boeing V-22, which is room for two guys to sit next to each other, and two guys sitting across facing them. So how could Boeing cut space for four guys in the V-22 cabin, but claim it can carry 24 troops? This is not rocket science, and it may seem petty, but it just shows how boldly corrupt the U.S. military procurement system has become.

U.S. warplanes escalated bombing raids into Iraq by striking radar sites near Baghdad. However, 24 of 32 Navy and Air Force GPS-guided bombs missed. The Navy is unsure what happened while the Air Force announced it was caused by programming errors. The most likely reason is that Iraq has begun to employ simple GPS jammers. This is disastrous for push-buttons warriors who plan to use GPS guided bombs, missiles, and UAVs to fight "safe" wars from afar.

Many Americans have swallowed the lies of numerous closet-communist U.S. Congressmen and Generals that the U.S. military is under-funded. There are serious funding problems, but only because billions of dollars are wasted and stolen each year. Most Americans are shocked when they see how much the USA spends compared to other nations.

The Air Force has concluded that a $3.7 million dollar remote controlled "Predator" UAV crashed last September after its operator pushed a wrong button which caused it to lose memory. Large, expensive UAVs are a big craze in the Pentagon, but manned aircraft are still far superior.

The U.S. Army has been complaining that it is starved for maintenance funds. A Congressional Budget Office report reveals that half the Army's maintenance funds for ground combat forces are spent on the M1A1 Abrams tanks. The Army has a stockpile of 5000 M1 series tanks ready for World War III. The solution to Army problems is simple, scrap half these tanks and cannibalize them for spare parts and engines. The Army needs fewer than 2000 tanks, but the Army refuses to take action since it would cost some defense contractors billions in "business".

Libya is now a target for American warmongers after a British court found a Libyan guilty of planting a bomb which destroyed PanAm 103 in 1988. This trial in the Netherlands was interesting because no real evidence was presented. All the "hard evidence" listed in the indictment was never presented or proved false. The conviction was based solely on a Libyan snitch who the CIA had labeled an unreliable liar. After the CIA announced that his monthly retainer was to end unless he produced something, this guy suddenly remembered that some guys he knew in Malta were involved in the PanAm 103 bombing.

Most real evidence points toward Syrian involvement to retaliate for the shoot down of an Iranian passenger plane by the USS Vincennes a few months prior. In fact, that was the official conclusion until the Gulf war arrived and Syria became America's new "ally". After a decade of unjust sanctions, a starved Libya agreed to turn over suspects to a Scottish court for a "fair trial". Any impartial judges would have found them innocent, but the good ole boys from the UK were not going to do that, so they let one go and gave the other 20 years.

According to "Aviation Week", LtCol Olin Leberman, commander of the Marine Corps first V-22 squadron was relieved after the Secretary of the Navy's office received an audio tape of Leberman telling his Marines "we have to lie until Milestone III", which is the testing requirements before the V-22 can be put into production. The mechanic who sent the tape said the maintenance records for the V-22 program are routinely falsified and speculates the V-22 needs another two years of testing.

In almost every speech, Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff General Henry Shelton states that no one joined the U.S. military to get rich. While the average American earns $35,000 a year, General Shelton gets $130,000 in salary, and the Army provides him a free mansion with his own cook, a private secretary and personal aide. He has a chauffer driven car and a personal jet airplane at his disposal to take him anywhere he wants with all expenses paid by the government.

Shelton will retire before age 60 with a retirement package worth over $2 million, and he never contributed a cent. He will then have options to earn millions more using his influence to sway billion dollar contracts. Does Shelton consider himself middle class?

In a highly unusual move, the Navy has decided to change the status of Lt. Cmdr. Michael Speicher USN from killed in action to missing. Speicher went missing when his Navy F-18 Hornet exploded on Jan. 16, 1991, while engaging an Iraqi fighter. Upon announcing the loss of Speicher that night, Dick Cheney, defense secretary at the time, told a news conference he was dead. A short time later the Pentagon changed his status to missing in action. On May 22, 1991, the Navy approved the official "finding of death." That action changed his official status from missing to killed in action.

These game involves aviator egos, or perhaps another attempt to villianize Iraq. "Aviation Week" already declassified this matter several years ago when it reported Speicher had held his fire against an approaching aircraft awaiting confirmation from an Air Force AWACS that it was not an allied aircraft. Others contend the Navy refuses to admit an Iraqi shot him down in a fair dogfight.

Over 10,000 Turkish troops have invaded 100 miles into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish nationalists. American airpower provided cover to prevent Iraq from defending its citizens.

The Republicans are excited about boosting the U.S. military budget. Few Americans know how much is really spent on "National Defense" compared to the rest of the government. This chart from CDI is educational. (note: most of social security and medicare is self-funded through a separate trust fund)

The Marine Corps has determined that the December crash of a new Marine V-22 was caused by a hydraulic failure. The V-22's tilt-rotor blades are too small to allow it to make emergency landings with autorotation, like helicopters can, so it fell from the sky killing four Marines. This was no surprise since two weeks before the crash the Pentagon director of Operational Test and Evaluation determined the V-22 wasn't operationally suitable, and noted "failures related to the hydraulic system deserve special mention." The complex hydraulic power system suffered 170 failures during the 804.5 hour operational evaluation. After 14 years of flight testing, it is obvious the V-22 program has failed, but it will continue so long as Congress feeds it money.

An outstanding new book "Private Warriors" exposes the the deep corruption in the U.S. military. Author Ken Silverstein includes lucid comments from former Pentagon official Ernie Fitzgerald:

"Military officers for the most part are forced to retire when their family expenses are at a peak--they've got a couple of kids in college and they're still paying a mortgage. They won't starve of their retired pay. But at the same time, they can't keep up their lifestyle. What happens in our system is that the services see one of the of their management duties as placing their retired officers, just like a good university will place its graduates. And the place the services have the most influence at is with contractors. If you're a good clean-living officer and you don't get drunk at lunch or get caught messing around with the opposite sex in the office, and you don't raise too much of a fuss about horror stories you come across--when you retire, a nice man will come calling. Typically he'll be another retired officer. And he'll be driving a fancy car, a Mercedes or equivalent, and wearing a $2000 suite and Gucci shoes and Rolex watch. He will offer to make a comfortable life for you by getting you a comfortable job at one for the contractors. Now, if you go around kicking people in the shins, raising hell about the outrages committed by the big contractors, no nice man comes calling. It's that simple."

The United States spent billions of dollars on stealth technology, which now provides the U.S. military with many advantages. This lead has begun to diminish because of foreign sales by a Washington DC insider group called AFIA. They try to hide the term radar by calling it "microwave" and sell only to friendly countries, who then sell to anyone. Check out their website: AFIA stealth sales.

Since the closure of Howard AFB in Panama last year, American drug warriors have been hunting for new airbases. As a result, 200 Americans are now based at Manta, Ecuador and millions of dollars have been spent to upgrade this Ecuadorian airbase. This is all part of the "drug war racket" which steals billions of dollars from American taxpayers each year. During congressional hearings last year, a senior agent in the DEA was asked if the additional $1 billion dollars requested for overseas anti-drug missions would decrease the availability of illegal drugs in the USA. The agent was honest to admit it would have no impact; the DEA got the extra $1 billion anyway.

The United States is at war in Columbia with almost no press coverage. One exception is the Orlando Sun-Sentinel, which exposed the profits involved as a "Civilian Army" of Americans has joined the fighting.

For several years, the Marine Corps has lied about the cost of the MV-22. Recent crashes have brought more attention to the program. The Marine Corps current budget and projected budgets show the MV-22 to cost around $80 million a copy. This is not total costs (e.g. including R&D) just annual production costs. Many reporters have questioned the Marines blatant lie that they cost only $44 million each. Read the Marine's Chief of Staff for Aviation, General McCorkle's response to a reporters question at a news conference after the December crash.

Reporter: Yes, you said that you requested a delay in Milestone 3. I assume that's to go for full production. And could you just run us through a little bit, first of all, the cost per -- what is the current cost projection per MV-22? And also, you were about to make that decision to go to full production, weren't you? What's the --

McCorkle: That's correct. And I didn't come down -- if you'll forgive me -- to talk about cost of the aircraft. I've done that before. We can get you a spreadsheet, if you want the cost, if you want the garage that goes with it. For those of you that I've talked to that say when somebody says $83 million, I just read -- I would hope to sell you your car, your next one, where you buy a $23,000 Chevy and I build your garage and give you the tires and batteries for 20 years, that will be about $85,000. So when you put it that way -- but we can get you the cost. But we're really here to talk about the families; that we're trying to recover the bodies right now for these families and to find out what caused the accident.

Colin Powell as Secretary of State will also have strong influence over American military forces. Powell helped the Army avoid demobilization and base closures after the end of the Cold War. The Army only closed one of its 35 largest domestic bases (Fort Ord), preserved all major headquarters, and minimized manpower cuts by "privatizing". The Chairman of the Joints Chiefs traditionally rotated among the armed services until Powell helped maneuver two Army Generals to succeed him. General Shelton retires in September, and Powell will ensure that another Army General will take over.

Powell is a master politician so engrained as a Washington insider that he felt no embarrassment about revealing his strategy for handling the media in his co-authored autobiography.

#1"Release facts slowly, behind the pace at which they are already leaking out to the public.

The website called Cryptome continues to upset people by posting classified information. It has just posted a 1994 list of 2600 CIA sources around the world, known as the Crowley Files. Robert Crowley was a senior CIA official who turned over his personal files to a journalist shortly before his death. The list includes hundreds of military officers, and two well-known journalists, Ted Koppel and Robert Novak. Many people have questioned the accuracy of the list, however, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers has threatened legal action to have it removed.

In 1999, Cryptome upset Great Britain by posting a list of their overseas spies, which is still on-line: List of MI6 Officers.

Four years ago, the Pentagon demanded a 50% increase in procurement spending to $60 billion a year. The Pentagon's top dog, General Henry Shelton, proudly announced to the National Press Club that this goal would be exceeded this year. Obviously, the Pentagon spending machine was surprised that the free spending Congress boosted funding 50% while worldwide threats declined.

General Shelton used this occasion to announce that $60 billion was not enough, and hinted he would seek at least 50% more funding. The U.S. military will soon reach the average spending level during the Cold War, an amazing accomplishment in view of a lack of real threats to American national security.

After another fatal crash of the Marine Corps new V-22 aircraft, many officers in the Corps have begun to express doubts about putting the aircraft into full production. G2mil has been critical of the V-22 program for some time. In an unprecedented move, the Marine Corps Gazette will publish an article critical of the V-22 program in its March issue. G2mil's Carlton Meyer submitted the article via e-mail the day after the crash, and it was accepted the next day and scheduled publication as soon as possible. The Gazette's bold new editor, John Glasgow deserves great credit. No other "professional" magazine has ever published an article critical of a major weapons program.

Incoming Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney had canceled the V-22 while Secretary of Defense back in 1992. The program was resurrected by Bill Clinton during the 1992 election to buy votes. Eight years and $10 billion dollars later, the V-22 is still not ready for production. Hopefully, the Corps will allow this dog to die and begin buying modern helicopters this year.

The CIA has created a web page for kids at this link. They must have a lot of extra time and money to spend. Perhaps they've learned that its easier to influence people while they are young. Hopefully, some Congressmen will inform the CIA that we already have a Department of Education, and tell them to stop this frightening "Brave New World" experiment.

Rampant bribery in Washington DC is the greatest national security threat to the United States. Most all Congressmen like the system because it is open, legal, and fools most citizens by calling bribes "campaign contributions". However, "campaign funds" are used for travel, meals and staff salaries. Passing bribes through friends and family members acting as campaign staff is common. Over $11 million in bribes were paid by military contractors last year, with Lockheed Martin leading the way with $1,918,509 in bribes. The top ten recipients of bribes from defense contractors were:

These men are also the nation's biggest advocates of more military spending. This is not the total amount of bribes from all sources, just from defense contractors in one year. More information is at Open Secrets.