Republican Senators J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced legislation on Wednesday aimed to prevent the Pentagon from making any more “accounting errors,” after the Biden Administration revealed that it overestimated the value of military equipment sent to Ukraine by $6 billion.
According to Fox News , the bill would require that, when the Foreign Assistance Act’s presidential drawdown authority (PDA) is used for a emergency, the Department of Defense (DoD) must calculate the "aggregate value" of defense articles, by using either the original acquisition cost to the U.S. government plus the cost of improvements or modifications made, or the cost of replacing these articles, whichever is greater.
It would also force the DoD to calculate the full cost of what the U.S. government spends on providing defense services.
"There should be no excuse for accounting errors with a seven-figure price tag," Vance told Fox Digital. "With this bill, Congress can ensure that the cost of our military aid is properly and consistently calculated."
Senator Hawley told Fox Digital that the "so-called valuation errors around U.S. aid to Ukraine are a transparent attempt to bypass Congress for additional funds, while continuing to prioritize Ukraine over more vital U.S. interests, including deterring China in the Pacific."
The PDA allows the president to send military equipment to foreign countries from DoD’s current stockpiles. This is how the U.S. has been sending Ukraine equipment for the last two years. Drawdown authority allows the government to quickly send supplies without having to buy new equipment.
However, this maneuver depletes U.S. stockpiles.
Last month Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh revealed that the replacement costs of the equipment were used to estimate the value, rather than the book cost of the equipment that was pulled from the U.S. stockpile. This resulted in a $6.3 billion dollar overvaluation and extra money in the coffers for Ukraine.
Hawley and Vance are not the only senators who are concerned about these “accounting errors” at the Pentagon. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), asking it to review the entirety of the DoD’s accounting of all equipment provided to Ukraine.
The letter also points out that the Biden Administration might be purposely overvaluing the equipment, in order to give more aid that’s actually being reported.
Biden's new military boost in Europe foretells a new censorship state for Americans
Just what the most repressive U.S. administration since Woodrow Wilson's ordered: a military buildup to draw us closer into a hot war with Russia, which will have the bonus for this Despotic Clique of providing the excuse for FBI head Christopher Wray to order a ruthless crackdown on political dissent, not to mention refusal to comply with congressional oversight requests.
Here are the lede paragraphs in Politico's report on this startling development of a U.S. military buildup. Not that this just happened to occur hours after word broke of House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan's letter to Wray calling for release by July 27 of documents concerning the FBI surveillance, via Google, of staffers on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — surveillance believed to been in retaliation for the Intelligence Committee's probe of the FBI.
President Joe Biden has authorized the military to call up 3,000 reserve troops to support operations in Europe after tens of thousands were sent there last year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a top general said Thursday.
Although it is not clear whether Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin plans to actually deploy these reservists anytime soon, the move suggests that the U.S. military's training mission in Europe, along with the deployment of several new brigades after the invasion, has stretched active-duty forces.
The Politico report goes on to provide a rationale how the move is needed to protect he eastern flank of NATO — which of course is a euphemism for saying that NATO, in recent decades, has expanded eastward into the former countries of the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact. Politico also mentions what might be news to most Americans: that Biden sent an additional 20 thousand troops to Europe at the start of the war in Ukraine, bringing the total now to 100,000 troops on the continent. The Politico story continues:
"This reaffirms the unwavering support and commitment to the defense of NATO's eastern flank in the wake of Russia's illegal and unprovoked war on Ukraine," Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of operations for the Joint Staff, told reporters on Thursday.
"While the move gives the military's European Command "greater flexibility" to defend the continent, it will not change the actual force levels in Europe, Capt. Bill Speaks, a spokesperson for U.S. European Command, said in a statement.
The president's order also for the first time designates Operation Atlantic Resolve, the U.S. effort in Europe, as a contingency operation, which allows the Pentagon to call up reserve forces and implement sped-up acquisition authorities to supply those troops with equipment.
The designation not only allows the president to mobilize reservists, but also ensures they are paid and supported as active-duty troops. It also provides support for families and dependents of any reservists who might be deployed.
The U.S. rushed 20,000 more troops to Europe after Russia's invasion, bringing the total to over 100,000 on the continent. That includes new rotations of 10,000 troops in Poland, which has emerged as a critical hub for supporting and supplying Ukraine.
What next should we expect from the most repressive American regime since Wilson jailed Eugene V. Debs for opposing his war policy? Arrest and detention of former president Trump if he speaks out against Biden's moves on behalf of the Despotic Clique to get us into a hot war with Putin, renewing, not coincidentally, the false allegations of 2017 to 2019 that Mr. Trump was Putin's puppet?
Think about the unleashed boldness of the Despotic Clique (previously known as the Deep State) as a political trifecta: 1) election interference and the destruction of MAGA; 2) political dominance — through media-sanctioned exaltation of Biden, and 3) an end to the notion of an independent Judiciary — sending Judge Doughty's reaffirmation of the First Amendment into the nearest trash bin.
Among other things, who would dare question the honesty, integrity, or competence of President Biden? To do so would risk immediate charges of treason from Garland's Justice Department, preceded by lightning SWAT raids from Wray's FBI.
Plus — and this is the delicious part — the rush of backstabbers like William Barr, Chris Christie, and Paul Ryan to declare, "Now is the time for all good persons to come to the aid of the uniparty."
American democracy is very much in peril — and the peril comes from those who spent years demonizing Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party. Apparently, the dastardly deed is about to pay off. The Founding Fathers are weeping.
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr , CC BY-SA 2.0 .
French riots show the future of Joe Biden’s America
As the U.S. deals with the consequences of mass immigration, important lessons can be learned from our oldest European ally.
Over the past few weeks, France has been engulfed in riots after a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop. The rioting and looting have largely been centered in communities with many migrants from North African and Islamic nations. The rioting has caused more than one billion dollars in property damage, and has led to thousands of arrests. It has also led to a renewed debate in Europe about the costs of mass migration and whether or not those costs are worth it.
It’s not just the U.S. that has experienced an influx of foreign nationals in recent years. France took in a record number of migrants in 2022, both legal and illegal. The European Union resettled nearly one million migrants last year, not including refugees from war-torn Ukraine. The main countries of origin for these refugees were Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Venezuela, and Columbia. Just as we’ve seen in the U.S., these large influxes of migrants have had a destabilizing effect on the continent’s cultural, economic, and political life. The carnage occurring in France is the result of long-simmering tensions finally coming to the surface. It’s the results of migrants from third-world, war-torn countries not assimilating into their new country, but bringing the baggage from their old countries with them.
During the France riots, a group of North African migrants could be seen chanting “f*ck France,” and “We’re just here for the welfare!” The crassness of these migrants certainly isn’t representative of everybody seeking to come from the third world to prosperous western nations, but it is indicative of a larger problem with mass immigration. Many of these foreign nationals come from countries where violence and chaos has been normalized, and the importation of migrants from these types of countries can also serve to normalize the same type of disorder in their new countries. This is why what’s happening in France should serve as a warning sign for Americans.
More than five million illegal aliens have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since Joe Biden took office, according to a study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. With some exceptions, these migrants tend to be low-skilled, poor, and come from countries where violence is normal and women and certain minorities are degraded. By importing millions of foreign nationals who come from countries with cultures and values that are diametrically opposed to ours, American leaders are setting the stage for exactly the kind of strife and turmoil that is occurring in France.
Other nations in Europe that have taken in fewer migrants are not experiencing the same disorder and breakdown in national cohesion that France is currently experiencing. Take Poland, for example, which has much stricter immigration controls and far more national self-respect than most European countries, and as a result has largely remained peaceful and united. Poland Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki used the French riots to present a stark dichotomy between the two nations.
“Compare these two images. Today’s suburbs of Paris: massive riots, looting of shops, broken windows, burning cars. Then quiet Polish cities, quiet Polish villages. Poland opted for peace,” Morawiecki said.
While the Polish prime minister was remarking on the riots in France, his comments should also resonate with Americans worried about the future of their nation. If U.S. leaders do not begin tending to our borders and our sovereignty with more care, what’s happening in France will soon happen in America as well. It’s only a matter of time.
Benjamin Franklin once described the U.S. as “a republic, if you can keep it.” Our immigration policy will ultimately decide whether we’re able to keep our republic, or if we become another once-great nation that self-destructed.
William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.
Image: Pixabay
Will Someone Please Wake Me From This Nightmare?
When Joe Biden became president, America was on a solid footing, inflation was under control, we were energy independent, the price of gasoline was under $2.00, and things in America were great.
Now most of that has been undone, and nothing is being done about it. This is like a nightmare in which you are terrified only to awake and be thankful it was only a dream.
But the present nightmare is no dream, and things are only getting worse in America.
Will someone please wake me from this nightmare?
While Trump was president, nearly 500 miles of wall were built and immigration was controlled. Biden has opened the border and invited all to come, and they are coming by the millions .
When Biden became president, America was energy independent and we were even selling energy abroad. Biden stopped construction of oil pipelines, stopped drilling on public lands, and began a campaign against fossil fuels, the very product that has made America great. Will someone please wake me from this nightmare?
Trump appointed constitutional judges around the country, and three great justices to the Supreme Court. They have protected life by reversing Roe V. Wade . most pro-abortion president in recent history. Protestors at abortion clinics have been assaulted and pro-life clinics and churches have been attacked.
When Trump left office, everyone knew what was a woman and there was no question but that God had created only men and women. Biden has continued to promote the idea that people who say they are transgender need our support, even to puberty blockers and radical surgeries that injure children for life. Now men undress in women’s locker rooms, and compete in women’s sports, destroying the incentives of women who have trained all their lives for success.
While Trump was in office you were pretty much permitted to say whatever you knew to be true and free speech was not hindered. Now, under Biden, you can be fired for simply pointing out something destructive, but which you know to be true. This includes issues about climate change, the value of masks and vaccinations, and other so-called health measures. Will someone please wake me from this nightmare?
Biden has made it clear that he supports going to zero carbon emissions which would eliminate all use of coal, and fossil fuels. Natural gas is used to make fertilizer, which is very important to agriculture. And, over 6,000 things that we use on a daily basis are made from oil. Wind and solar will never take the place of coal-fired, or natural gas-fired energy generation. Electric cars will soon be a national disaster because they are useless during a time of disaster with no electricity available. It is not possible to build batteries large enough to carry a city during times when the sun does not shine or the wind blow.
Several have testified that the Bidens received 5 million, 10 million from foreign governments, which is illegal, but nothing has been done about it. Hunter cheats on his taxes and lies on his application for a gun permit, yet he only gets a very light sentence . There seems to be a two-tier justice system. Will someone please wake me from this nightmare?
There is considerable evidence that the past two elections were rigged against Republicans, yet no measures are taken to insure this does not happen again. If this is not corrected it could spell the end of our constitutional republic.
Under Trump there was little inflation, prices were fairly stable. Biden has spent billions by just printing the money. This is classic inflation and is hurting everyone with higher prices for everything from food to hardware. This is especially true for gasoline, the price of which is also affected by the Biden energy policies.
Under Trump religious expression was protected. Now under the Biden Administration we see FBI agents infiltrating Catholic churches and reporting on “un-American” activities. Freedom of religion is attacked on several fronts. Our clear First Amendment Rights are not protected. Will someone please wake me from this nightmare?
In at least one town, people rode bikes through its streets totally naked . With prayer and Bible reading no longer permitted in our schools, our schools no longer have a moral compass. What has historically been considered a disgrace is now just another person’s freedom of expression. This is madness.
Not long ago most Americans were very patriotic. Now statues of Americans are being torn down for very light reasons. The American flag is defaced and no longer respected. A pride flag is displayed above the American flag at the white house. Children no longer pledge to the flag in our schools. None of this can be considered constructive action.
Patriotic Americans have protested over various policies, spoken up at school board meetings and taken stands for righteousness, and these have been called domestic terrorists by our government. Others, such as those in Black Lives Matter, have destroyed businesses and burned down whole sections of town, and these are called peaceful protestors. Some have even been arrested and their bail paid by some Democrats. This is insane.
Most of our schools were shut down during the recent pandemic, and children lost time that will never be made up. Academic achievement has stalled and the only answer educators seem to know is to just spend more money on education. They do not seem to consider that quality education is taking place at a much-reduced price. Our schools have lost any clear moral direction. Even worse, our children are taught to hate our national heroes.
Trump had plans to leave Afghanistan in an orderly fashion. Biden abandoned our military airport, left Afghanistan without telling our allies, was responsible for the death of 13 of our soldiers, and left behind billions in state-of-the-art military equipment. Even some Americans were left behind. This was a serious crime.
President Trump strongly supported the Second Amendment, but Biden has worked hard to undermine our Second Amendment Rights .
I worked with many Democrats for several years and considered them to be both logical and sane. Yet, what is happening in America right now in mostly Democrat-led states and cities is neither logical nor sane. It has to be obvious to any thinking person that if America continues down our present path, we will be easy game for a foreign power, and our great republic will be destroyed. This has to stop, and it begins with some patriotic American Democrats re-taking control of their party and stop this madness.
This is not just a nightmare that will go away when we awake. This is a terrible national condition that must be remedied before it is too late. Things are moving so rapidly toward destruction that we may not survive until the next election. We have to wake up from this madness.
Jim Hollingsworth is a graduate of Pensacola Christian College with a master’s degree in Biblical Studies. He has written five books: Climate Change: A Convenient Truth, Cortez: A Biography, The Ancient Culture of the Aztec Empire, Abortion Compassion, and A Commentary on the Book of Romans. A Commentary on the Book of Galatians is with the publisher. Available where books are sol
Report: Massachusetts Spares ‘Millionaire Destinations’ from Taking in Illegal Aliens Mario Tama/Getty Images 3:03
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) is sparing “millionaire destinations” from being forced to absorb a growing number of illegal aliens who are living off the state’s taxpayers in motels, Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr writes .
State Rep. Peter Durant (R), who is running for state senate, asked Healey for a full accounting of the cost to Massachusetts taxpayers to house, feed, and care for the growing number of illegal aliens arriving in the state.
In response, Healey’s office said nearly 40 motels were currently being used by the state to house new arrivals but refused to give a cost estimate to taxpayers.
“This is about what we’re spending in taxpayers’ dollars to house, feed, secure those who are in the country illegally,” Durant told the Boston Herald . “I think we’ve got some good information but how many of these 1,300 families are illegal?”
Among the towns and cities where the state is funding migrant motels, Carr writes that nearly none of the “millionaire destinations” in Massachusetts — like Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Cambridge, or Newburyport — are on the list.
Carr writes:
The Healey administration has released a list of the 28 cities and towns where it is spending millions on hotels and motels for thousands of handout-demanding illegals arriving from the Third World. [Emphasis added]
Oddly, however, almost all the ultra-affluent suburban communities most loudly committed to celebrating diversity have thus far been unable to provide suitable free housing for the new non-working classes.
The illegals are not being sent to, among other millionaire destinations, Cambridge, Brookline, Newton, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Chatham, Swampscott, Newburyport, Wellesley, Dover, Sherborn, Amherst …. Do you begin to get the picture? [Emphasis added]
The revelations come as the New York Times recently admitted that 92 percent of the 49 illegal aliens flown to Martha’s Vineyard — the ultra-elite island — by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last year have since been driven out of the area and ended up in other communities.
The Times claimed that Martha’s Vineyard has “no places for” illegal aliens to stay. That claim was debunked last year by Breitbart News analysis, which found that the island could house some six million illegal aliens if necessary.
At the time of the illegal aliens’ arrival, Breitbart News also reviewed Airbnb and Vrbo listings, which showed a significant number of massive beachfront estates that remained empty in the fall and winter months.
The properties could have easily housed all 49 illegal aliens.
Flashback: LITERAL Pearl Clutchers — Rich Elite Deport Migrants from Martha’s Vineyard
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here .
Establishment Media Hide Joe Biden’s Migrant Inflow Guillermo Arias, Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images 8:46
Establishment media outlets are claiming that President Joe Biden has sharply reduced his wage-cutting, rent-spiking illegal migration flow across the southern border.
But those media-backed claims hide Biden’s policy of inviting more economic migrants in via the multiple side doors in the border.
Migrants cross a barbed-wire barrier at the U.S.-Mexico border, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday, May 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
The establishment articles also portray migration as a logistics issue — how can migrants be quickly registered, released, and transported northwards? — instead of an elite economic policy that is intended to transfer wealth from ordinary Americans to wealthy coastal investors.
“Migrant crossings along U.S.-Mexico border plummeted in June amid stricter asylum rules,” a June 9 CBS News headline claimed .
“Number of Migrants at the Border Plunges as Mexico Helps U.S. to Stem Flow,” the New York Times reported July 9.
“Southern border ‘eerily quiet’ after policy shift on asylum seekers,” says the July 12 headline in the Washington Post, above an article that reported “a nearly 70 percent drop in illegal entries since early May,”
This is false,” responded a tweet from NumbersUSA, adding, “ Massive numbers still coming illegally.” The Post “ plays along” with Biden’s PR, the tweet added.
Unsurprisingly, pro-migration advocates cheered the misleading reports. “Surely this will be headlines in FauxNews and @CNN , no? Especially after all that breathless reporting by ignorant and ill informed reporters,” tweeted immigration lawyer Charles Kuck.
These misleading reports are just the newest twist in the establishment’s multi-decade efforts to hide the scale, impact, and damage caused by migration.
Migrants board a bus for physical examination at the U.S.-Mexico border on June 6, 2023 in Yuma, Arizona. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
In December 2022, for example, Breitbart News reported a H arvard/Harris poll that showed that a third of Republicans and a quarter of Democrats thought the southern inflow was less than 250,000 people. In 2022, however, the inflow was roughly 1.3 million people plus about 500,000 “gateways.”
Republican legislators rarely mention the numbers of illegal or legal immigrants, just as they try to not talk about the huge pocketbook impact of migration on voters.
In general, media reports mislead the public by hiding or downplaying the federal government’s policy of redirecting illegal economic migrants away from border arrests, and towards quasi-legal loopholes where they are not counted in monthly reports on border arrests.
These quasi-legal paths are being used to keep roughly 800,000 migrants off the arrest rolls as they are welcomed by the federal government to take the jobs and housing that would otherwise go to struggling Americans in cities and towns around the nation. That huge inflow welcomes roughly one illegal migrant for every four Americans born each year.
The journalists at the New York Times are pushing the administration’s logistics pitch The Times reports:
Migrant shelters with plenty of empty beds. Soup kitchens with food to spare. Soldiers patrolling intersections where migrant families once begged for spare change.
In Ciudad Juárez and in other Mexican cities along the border, the story is much the same: Instead of surging as elected officials and immigration advocates had warned, the number of migrants trying to enter the United States has plummeted following the expiration in May of a pandemic-era border restriction.
RELATED VIDEO — Texas Deploys Multi-Layer Border Barriers to Deter, Turn Back Migrants at Border:
Texas Department of Public Safety The quasi-legal doorways are described — approvingly — late in the New York Times article:
More migrants who had been streaming into northern Mexican cities are finding it easier to start the asylum process because of the improvements to the app known as C.B.P. One.
On June 30, Homeland Security announced the expansion of appointments through the app to 1,450 per day, a nearly 50 percent increase from May 12, the day Title 42 was lifted.
In Tijuana, Enrique Lucero, manager of the city’s migration office, said migrants in shelters and hotels are using the app rather than trying to climb over the double-layered steel wall that separates the city from San Diego. “People are getting appointments faster than before because more are available,” he said.
CBS’s Colombian-born reporter, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, touted unverified administration claims of tougher border rules before portraying the new side doors as “increased[ed] opportunities” for migrants:
Nuñez Neto also credited the Biden administration’s efforts to increase opportunities for migrants to enter the country legally for the decrease in illegal entries. A phone app known as CBP One another program
RELATED VIDEO — Border Patrol Chief: We Need to Work “to Instill Some Consequences” for Some Nationalities Crossing Border and “Build Some Wall”:
The Washington Post led with the logistics angle, but also described the new gateways in the fourth paragraph, saying:
Now the administration is allowing tens of thousands of migrants to enter the United States legally each month through the mobile app CBP One, while those who don’t follow the rules face ramped-up deportations and tougher penalties.
The Post ‘s reports even published some monthly numbers — not easier to understand annual numbers — that debunked its own “Eerily Quiet” lede:
The recent drop in illegal crossings does not mean fewer than half as many migrants are coming to the United States. President Biden is allowing roughly 43,000 migrants and asylum seekers per month to enter through CBP One appointments and accepting an additional 30,000 through a process called parole. The new legal channels appear to be absorbing many of the border-crossers who for years have entered unlawfully to surrender in large groups, overwhelming U.S. border agents.
The Associated Press pushed the establishment’s claim in March, saying:
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A sharp drop in illegal border crossings since December could blunt a Republican point of attack
…
The decrease in border crossings followed Biden’s announcement in early January
Extraction Migration
The federal government has long operated an unpopular economic policy of Extraction Migration . This colonialism-like policy extracts vast amounts of human resources from needy countries, reduces beneficial trade , and uses the imported workers, renters, and consumers to grow Wall Street and the economy.
The migrant inflow has successfully forced down Americans’ wages and also boosted rents and housing prices . The inflow has also pushed many native-born Americans out of careers in a wide variety of business sectors and contributed to the rising death rate of poor Americans.
The lethal policy also sucks jobs and wealth from heartland states by subsidizing coastal investors with a flood of low-wage workers, high-occupancy renters, and government-aided consumers.
The population inflow also reduces the political clout of native-born Americans, because the population replacement allows elites to divorce themselves from the needs and interests of ordinary Americans.
VIDEO
In many speeches, border chief Alejandro Mayorkas says he is building a mass migration system to deliver workers to wealthy employers and investors and “equity ” to poor foreigners. The nation’s border laws are subordinate to elite opinion about “the values of our country ” Mayorkas claims.
Migration — and especially, labor migration — is unpopular among swing voters . A 54 percent majority of Americans say Biden is allowing a southern border invasion, according to an August 2022 poll commissioned by the left-of-center National Public Radio (NPR). The 54 percent “Invasion” majority included 76 percent of Republicans, 46 percent of independents, and even 40 percent of Democrats.
AND YOU WONDERED WHY WAR PROFITEER AND SERVANT OF RED CHINA SEN DIANNE FEINSTEIN WAS QUICK TO BE FIRST TO ENDORSE OL' CORRUPT JOE???
Biden Authorizes Military to Call Reservists to Active Duty to Support Ukraine War U.S. Army File Photo/Patrick Ferraris 3:53
President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order authorizing the Pentagon to call reservists to active duty “for the effective conduct” of U.S. military support to Ukraine.
At the same time, the Pentagon designated the U.S. military support to Ukraine since 2014 under Operation Atlantic Resolve a “contingency operation.”
Biden wrote in a message to Congress:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility.
Operation Atlantic Resolve began in 2014 to bolster the U.S. military presence in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and annexation of Crimea.
Biden said in the message that he authorized the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard, to order to active duty any units or individuals not assigned to a unit.
He said in the message that the number would not exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, and no more than 450 members of the Individual Ready Reserve.
Pentagon officials said no troops would be deployed for combat to Ukraine.
Army Lieutenant General D.A. Sims, the Joint Staff J3 director of operations, told reporters:
Based on the level of presence and operations in the U.S. [European Command] area of operations, DOD’s support requirements have grown, as well. These authorities will enable the department to better support and sustain its enhanced presence and level of operations in the U.S. EUCOM [area of responsibility].
He also said the moves reaffirm “the unwavering support and commitment to the defense of NATO’s eastern flank in wake of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war on Ukraine.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said declaring Operation Atlantic Resolve a contingency operation “unlocks capabilities and authorities that…enables us to provide better support and sustain our forces. So this includes things like increased contracting responsiveness, personnel-related entitlements that — that give activated reservists the same benefits as active component personnel.”
He said it also enhanced the Pentagon’s ability to track spending directly associated with the contingency.
He said the U.S. would not add to the forces in Europe but would allow the Pentagon to replace some forces with reservists if necessary.
“What it does is it provides additional access to reserve component forces. So you’re now able to call on Guard or reserve forces to come support Atlantic Resolve, and [be] entitled to the same kind of benefits as their active duty counterparts,” he said.
“So — it’s not additional forces, it’s unlocking additional forces for use in support of this operation, if that makes sense,” he added.
Biden’s executive order comes just a day after he departed a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where NATO members pledged continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
At the summit, Biden declared that the U.S. has “given more than any other nation combined in terms of assistance and cost.”
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the U.S. has given more than $78 billion in government aid since January 24, 2022, including more than $43 billion in military aid .
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter , Truth Social , or on Facebook .
Half of POLITICO Letter ‘Foreign Policy Experts’ Calling for More Arms to Ukraine Tied to Arms Industry: Report Getty Images 5:27
An open letter signed by “46 foreign policy experts” calling for more arms shipments to Ukraine published in POLITICO failed to mention ties of nearly half of the signatories to the defence industry, allegedly glossing over conflicts of interest, the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft claimed.
On June 5th, the neo-liberal POLITICO news website published an open letter entitled ‘Ukraine Needs a Roadmap to NATO Membership ASAP ‘, calling for Western leaders at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania this week to commit to supplying Ukraine with weapons, fighter jets, and tanks in “sufficient quantities to prevail on the battlefield”.
The letter argued that Western leaders should help facilitate a “comprehensive transition” of the weapons systems being used in the war against Russia up to “NATO standards”.
“The focus should be on the transition to Western weapons systems; creation of a modern, NATO-compatible air and missile defense system; creation of a medical rehabilitation system for wounded soldiers, as well as a system for soldier reintegration into civilian life and a comprehensive demining effort,” the letter stated.
Although POLITICO listed the names of the 46 ‘foreign policy experts’ and claimed to have outlined their “affiliations”, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft — which argues for a less interventionist U.S. foreign policy — claimed that at least 21 of the signatories currently have connections to the military-industrial complex that were left unmentioned by the news outlet.
Quincy Institute Senior Advisor Eli Clifton writing for Reasonable Statecraft noted that “support for increasing Western military aid to Ukraine is not a view exclusively held by those with direct or indirect links to the weapons industry, but signatories of the letter are noticeably embedded in the financial umbrella of institutions and businesses with direct financial ties to some of the world’s largest weapons firms.”
The very first signatory of the letter was Stephen E. Biegun, which the POLITICO website described only as a “former U.S. deputy secretary of state,” while failing to mention that he also currently serves as a senior vice president of global public policy at Boeing, one of the largest weapons and military hardware producers in the world.
Boeing’s website describes Beigun’s role as being “responsible for advising and executing on Boeing’s global public policy matters in support of the company’s priorities and optimizing relationships with key stakeholders in the U.S. and around the world. He is also a member of the company’s Executive Council.”
Another to have their defence industry affiliations overlooked was Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark, who led the President Clinton-ordered NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in the Kosovo War dubbed Operation Allied Force. The article describes Clark as a “U.S. Army, 12th Supreme Allied Commander, Europe; senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center” while failing to mention his role as a senior board and company adviser at Vaya Space , which stated that Clark was hired to “support investment in and expansion of Vaya Space’s new technologies to the highly attractive Space (launch) and Defense (strategic and tactical missile) landscape.”
The investigation from the think tank also noted that numerous signatories have roles at the Atlantic Council think tank, which is funded in part by some of the top American arms manufacturers, including Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.
One such example noted by the publication was ex-George W. Bush diplomat Paula Dobriansky, who was merely described by POLITICO as “Former under-secretary of state for global affairs”, despite her now serving as the Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
The Council claimed that opinions expressed by Ambassador Dobriansky, nor any of its other fellows or experts are influenced by the think tank, which claims to be politically neutral. The director of strategic communications at the Council, Richard Davidson went on to assert that the ambassador does not receive any direct income from the Council.
However, while many experts that work with the Atlantic Council, or indeed other prominent think tanks in Washington may not receive a check from the institution itself, they are often rewarded in other ways, such as with increased speaking fees on the D.C. circuit.
Other organisations funded by military arms producers to have sponsored some of the signatories of the POLITICO letter, according to the Quincy Institute included the George W. Bush Institute , the Hudson Institute , the McCain Institute , the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments , and the Center for a New American Security .
In response to allegedly failing to disclose such connections, a POLITICO spokesman said: “This is a public statement by 46 well-known public figures and foreign policy experts outlining their position on NATO membership for Ukraine. The signatories are listed by name and title so that readers can form their own conclusions based [sic] the array of professional experiences each signatory brings to the discussion.”
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter: or e-mail to: kzindulka@breitbart.com
Austin: ‘Won’t Speculate’ How Long We’ll Need to Send Cluster Munitions While We Replenish Supplies 1:33
During an interview with CNN aired on Thursday’s “Situation Room,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that he “won’t speculate as to how long” the U.S. will have to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions while it works to replenish stocks of the munitions Ukraine needs. He also stated that “We have what we need, and we’ll continue to have what we need to support our plans in the United States of America.”
Austin said, “[W]hat we did early on was we engaged our industrial base and asked them to expand their capacity, and also the international industrial base, we’ve worked with other countries to do the same. We have what we need, and we’ll continue to have what we need to support our plans in the United States of America. But we want to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to be able to continue the fight. While that expansion’s taking place, these cluster munitions act as kind of a bridging capability.”
Later, host Wolf Blitzer asked, “How long do you think the U.S. will need to provide these cluster bombs to Ukraine?”
Austin answered, “We want to make sure that Ukraine can remain successful in their fight, Wolf, and so, I won’t speculate as to how long that’s going to take. We’re going to stay focused on making sure that they have what they need to continue to provide the support for their maneuver, a nd so, that’s where we’ve been from the very beginning, and we’ll stay focused on that.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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