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Beyond Soleimani!
by Murtaza Shibli
Finally, the storm over General Qassem Soleimani’s death seems to be over.
Had it not been for the strategic restraint and wisdom of the Iranian regime, the war seemed imminent which would have certainly resulted in the decimation of the stranglehold of the religious elite and wide-scale destruction of the country and beyond.
Finally, the storm over General Qassem Soleimani’s death seems to be over. Had it not been for the strategic restraint and wisdom of the Iranian regime, the war seemed imminent which would have certainly resulted in the decimation of the stranglehold of the religious elite and wide-scale destruction of the country and beyond. It is now clear that the sustained calls for retribution were heavily tempered down and channelized only through a pyrogenic display of firing dud missiles on empty fields at the two military bases housing the US troops. The display seemed purely for the consumption of the local population who had been led and rallied en masse against the gruesome killing in a show of solidarity that was cleverly aggrandised by the government. Before his murder, the Iranian government was struggling for public legitimacy not only inside Iran but in neighbouring Iraq, Lebanon or Syria as well, the places where its military footprint and interference have grown beyond a show of solidarity into causing strife, internal discord and dissension, and ossifying sectarian divide. Such policies have remained a constant feature of Iran since the Khomeini-led revolution and have given rise to political instability as well as extremist groups of every ilk and countenance.
Soleimani’s death may produce a severe blow to Iran’s clandestine web of operations in the Middle East, neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan that could possibly result in her loss of influence and prestige over the long-term. However, the Iranian elite, particularly the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his clique have skilfully used this death to shore up their public support and legitimacy that had seen massive erosion following weeks of anti-regime protests that were brutally suppressed and caused massive death and destruction. Although the Iranian government has played down these protests and used its time-tested refrain of blaming the US and her allies for the unrest, independent reports suggest more than 500 protestors were killed and thousands injured or incarcerated in one of the largest crackdowns in the recent history. That Soleimani’s mortal remains were paraded through various Iranian cities to gather mourners for multiple funerals under the command and control of the government officials suggests that this was designed more to harvest grief in service of the regime than to prepare the nation for any “severe revenge” that was promised by the highest officials. The promised retaliation never came as it would have produced a decisive US action as sworn by President Trump, whose unpredictable character made the threats even more frightening.
Soon after the grand mourning ended, the “revenge strikes” from Iran came, and strangely, with advance warning. According to reports, Iran had already conveyed to the US about the imminent but symbolic attack. The Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said Iran sent them an “official verbal message that an attack had begun or would begin shortly” but an Arab diplomatic source told CNN that Iraq passed “advance warning to the United States on which bases would be hit after Iranian officials passed on the information”.
The first official Iranian reaction to the “missile strikes” was quite extraordinary. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in a Twitter post claimed that Iran took and concluded: “proportionate measures in self-defence under Article 51 of UN Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens and senior officials were launched.” A little later supreme leader Khamenei declared the strike was “a slap in the face” of America. Such assertions sounded hollow from the very outset invoking an uncanny resemblance with Muhammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Saddam Hussain’s Information Minister, during the 2003 US-led invasion. Al-Sahhaf, also known as Baghdad Bob or Comical Ali, made several outlandish claims during the war as he claimed victory for Saddam’s forces and defeat and destruction of the enemies even when the US forces had taken most of Baghdad and ruined Iraqi dictator’s fabled Republican Guards who supposedly formed the mainstay of his rule. As the Iranian claims of killing the US forces grew untenable, the officials were forced to issue clarifications although somewhat reluctantly. Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force, finally accepted that the “missile strike” was not intended to inflict casualties but “to hit the enemy’s military machinery”, a clear admission that the attack was cosmetic and not intended to further escalate hostilities.
The failure of the Iranian leadership to mount a “severe revenge” has the potential to boomerang on its top leadership, particularly its religious clergy including Ayatollah Khamenei. The apparent inability to mount a credible response would cause it a severe loss of face among its supporters and proxies from Yemen to Bahrain and Lebanon to Afghanistan. Soleimani’s death had allowed the regime an instant breather by connecting with the people through shared grief and gloss over the erosion of public trust; a prospect that has very little chances of permanence beyond the funereal anguish. There are already reports of renewed public demonstrations in Iraq that are demanding their government to end foreign interference and disarm various militias, a large number of whom were armed by Soleimani and were involved in grotesque fratricidal violence including sectarian deaths of innocent and unsuspecting civilians.
Iran’s reaction and response to the US onslaught have been measured and very wise. It has certainly helped avert a measure disaster but the elements of doom lie strewn across the landscape. The government of Iran could put the past behind and use Soleimani’s death as an opportunity to court a pragmatic regional policy by dismantling his toxic legacy. Soleimani’s only positive contribution was his fight against Daesh but his triumph was achieved by collaborating with the US and the Arab governments both overtly and covertly. Beyond that, he used his skills in exploiting local grievances and propping up extremely divisive and sectarian militias that have caused unimaginable death and destruction, and ethnic cleansing. To heal the region and bring about some credible peace, such a contaminated inheritance must be jettisoned.
Murtaza Shibli is a writer and consultant on Muslim issues in Europe and South Asia. He is also the editor of ‘7/7: Muslim Perspectives’, a book that explores the British Muslim reaction to the London bombings. Twitter: @murtaza_shibli
More than an Assassination of Qassim Soleimani
by Dan Lieberman
United States (US) and Iran confront each other as if to prove who can be more nefarious. After the assassination of Qassim Soleimai, the Islamic Republic, momentarily, portrayed a less wicked role. Downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by an Iranian missile and the lateness of the Iran government to admit the error weakened Iran’s protests of being unfairly treated and clouded the issues that surround the conflict between the US and Iran. The conflict continues and its nature demands an explanation that contradicts a one-sided presentation.
United States (US) and Iran confront each other as if to prove who can be more nefarious. After the assassination of Qassim Soleimai, the Islamic Republic, momentarily, portrayed a less wicked role. Downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by an Iranian missile and the lateness of the Iran government to admit the error weakened Iran’s protests of being unfairly treated and clouded the issues that surround the conflict between the US and Iran. The conflict continues and its nature demands an explanation that contradicts a one-sided presentation.
Several attacks by United States’ military have targeted Kata’ib Hezbollah, a paramilitary group which is part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, an indication that the assassination of Iranian Major General, Qassim Soleimani, is more than the eradication of one Iran military leader; it is another essential in a US pattern to cripple Iranian influence and assure, maybe mistakenly, that US maintains its hegemony in the Middle East.
Benefitting from a sectarianism that keeps US troops in Iraq, the arguments given by the American administration for its actions are not persuasive; just the opposite, the arguments condemn the actions. Look at the record, compare, and learn that what is told is not what is actually true.
Expansion and hegemony
It is natural that Iran, bordering on Iraq and spiritually attached to Iraq’s Shi’a population would be involved in the commercial, economic, and political future of Iraq. Iran wants a stable and affluent Iraq that is friendly, enables it to maintain its bridge with other Middle East partners – Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon — and with which it can trade. The Islamic Republic may not be a trustworthy nation, but there is no evidence or reason for US accusations that Iran is a destabilizing and expansionist nation—why would it be – there are no external resources or land masses that would be helpful to Iran’s economy. Iran has not invaded any nation and its few sea and drone attacks on others are reactions from a perception that others have colluded in harming the Islamic Republic or its allies. Ayatollah Khomeini’s vision of expanding his social ideology never got anywhere and died with him. Subsequent leaders have been forced to reach out to defend their interests and those of their friends, but none of these leaders pursued an expansionist philosophy or wanted the burden that accompanies the task — enough problems at home.
The U.S. has invaded, attacked, and subdued several nations far from its shores in the last decades, and, for these obvious reasons — establish hegemony, advance its economic thrust, and overcome threats. Ringing the world with military bases, the US polices activities that counter its hegemony. The continuous wars have created mayhem, instability, and lasting wounds — Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, and others. Two principal allies of the US and benefits of military assistance — Israel and Saudi Arabia — have also engaged in regional wars and inflicted massive casualties on their opponents.
Responsibility for violence
Similar to arch-nemesis Vladimir Putin being blamed for everything any irresponsible Russian does, peripatetic Qassim Soleimani, who the US administration finds everywhere at every time, receives only condemnation. The statement that Qassim Soleimani was responsible for more than 600 US military deaths and deaths of others has been used to rationalize has assassination. “Not kind to the truth” President Trump, on a January 8, 2020 speech, casually increased the figure to several thousand. From where did this 13-year-old accusation originate and what is the evidence?
The statistic originated with the US Defense Department, been circulated by others, and became generally accepted. Because Iraq militias, which were fighting the US occupation of their nation, sought more deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and the emphasis is on implemented, the US Defense Department attached Iran to their implementation, then the Iranian government, and then the Quds force, and then Qassim Soleimani. All of this has been conjecture, and not considerate of the facts. From the Columbia Journalism Review, April 10, 2007, at https://archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/get_the_facts_straight_on_iran.php.
Just last week, the New York Times reported that in the town of Diwaniya, “American and Iraqi forces uncovered an assembly area for the powerful roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, the statement said. Four bombs were already assembled, it added, and others were in various stages of being put together.”
What’s more, in February Andrew Cockburn wrote in the Los Angeles Times that back in November, “U.S. troops raiding a Baghdad machine shop came across a pile of copper disks, 5 inches in diameter, stamped out as part of what was clearly an ongoing order. This ominous discovery, unreported until now, makes it clear that Iraqi insurgents have no need to rely on Iran as the source of EFPs.”
In addition, that’s not all. The Wall Street Journal reported in February that another EFP “factory” was discovered in southern Iraq, and around the same time the New York Times threw some water on the U.S. military’s claims that the bombs were coming exclusively from Iran, when a cache of EFP materials was found in Baghdad—all marked with stamps from countries around the Middle East, but not Iran.
It may have helped, but the Iraq militias did not need Iran to assemble their sophisticated IEDS, no more than Mexican drug cartels need the US to acquire their military style weapons. Materials for manufacture of IEDs and sophisticated weapons are easily purchased at an open market. Because the drug cartels use American weapons (The most common smuggled weapons are the AR-15 and AR-47 style rifles, and both are available for sale in the United States.), is the Secretary of Defense to blame for the killings of Mexican civilians?
Compare the primitive weapons, used by a people in their own land to combat what they perceived as an occupier, to that of the US equipping Saudi Arabia with fighter-bombers to pulverize the Houthis in their native land, and giving $3 billion annually in military aid to Israel for suppression of the Palestinians. Assuredly, Iran did not feel too comfortable in having military forces of its most prominent adversary close to its border and was agreeable to equip any organization to combat the United States presence. The person most responsible for the deaths of US military during the occupation of Iraq is former President George W, Bush, who invaded Iraq, subjugated its people to misery, and provoked a counter reaction.
What about US atrocities in Iraq during the 1990’s and the occupation of Iraq? Compare the fabricated figures velcroed to Soleimani with the authenticated statistics of US atrocities in Iraq.
According to Gulf War Air Power Survey by Thomas A. Keaney, there were 10,000-12,000 Iraqi combat deaths in the air campaign and as many as 10,000 casualties in the ground war. The Iraqi government says 2,300 civilians died during the air campaign.
The post-war policy continued a ferocious pattern, and U.S. and British planes bombed Iraq for the next twelve years. The bombings destroyed more “command and control” facilities and “radar bases” than Iraq could possibly have had. This senseless and vicious policy transformed Iraq from an emerging country with moderate prosperity into an impoverished country with a starving population. Statistics from a UN Report on the Current Humanitarian Situation in Iraq, Mar. 1999:
- Maternal mortality rate increased from 50/100,000 live births in 1989 to 117/100,000 in 1997.
- Low birth weight babies (less than 2.5 kg) rose from 4% in 1990 to about 25% of registered births in 1997, due mainly to maternal malnutrition.
- Calorie intake fell from 3,120 to 1,093 calories per capita/per day by 1994-95.
- Malnutrition in Iraqi children under five increased from 12% to 23% from 1991-96.
- The World Food Program estimated that access to potable water in 1998 was 50% of the 1990 level in urban areas and only 33% in rural areas.
Summation of seven years of occupation of the land between the Euphrates and Tigris reveals the committed catastrophe. From Iraq War Facts, Results & Statistics, as of November 30, 2010, 4,432 US Soldiers Killed, 31,992 Seriously Wounded
Iraq Body Count Project — 107,152 civilian deaths as a result of the conflict and a total of 150,726 civilian and combatant deaths from March 2003 to October 2010
UNHCR estimates — more than 4.7 million Iraqis fled their homes. Of these, more than 2.7 million Iraqis were displaced internally, while more than 2 million escaped to neighboring states.
Iraq Body Count Project — 107,152 civilian deaths as a result of the conflict and a total of 150,726 civilian and combatant deaths from March 2003 to October 2010
UNHCR estimates — more than 4.7 million Iraqis fled their homes. Of these, more than 2.7 million Iraqis were displaced internally, while more than 2 million escaped to neighboring states.
War on International terrorism
The US names Iran as the number one exporter of international terrorism. Displaced from the rhetoric and warfare is that in 2002 Iran was a sympathetic nation to America’s plight in the 9/11 tragedy. At the Tokyo donors’ conference in January 2002, the Iranians showed willingness to create a new Afghanistan by pledging $560 million worth of assistance, which is a large amount for a not-fully-developed country, and almost equal to the amount that the United States pledged at the same conference. https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-donors-pledge-45-billion-tokyo
After the Northern Alliance’s significant role in driving the Taliban out of Kabul in November 2001, the alliance demanded 60 percent of the portfolios in an interim government and blocked agreement with other opposition groups. According to the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Dobbins, Iran played a “decisive role” in persuading the Northern Alliance delegation to compromise its demands.
Despite the cooperation, the next year, President George W. Bush placed Iran in his Axis of Evil and forced the Islamic Republic to end its cooperation in Afghanistan. Considering another of President Trump’s statements during his January 8, 2020 speech, asking for Iran to cooperate, does the US President know of Iran’s previous overtures? How would the wars on terrorism and in Afghanistan have developed if the US was more amenable to Iran’s cooperation and less aggressive in its actions toward the Islamic Republic, probably both would have seen resolution many years ago.
Iran has committed some terrorist actions in a “tit” for “tat” arrangement with Israel and in assassinations of dissidents that conducted actions that caused casualties within Iran. However, in its support for military operations in Iraq and Syria, it has been in the front lines in the fight against al-Qaeda and ISIS. Compare Iran and its allies in the war against international terrorism with the US and its allies.
U.S. actions motivated the successful formation of Al Qaeda; military assistance to the Mujahideen, funneled through Pakistan intelligence and Osama bin Laden, assisted the Afghani insurgents to expel their Soviet occupiers. After the United States exited from the battle, the Pakistan government enabled the Taliban to stabilize a strife-ridden Afghanistan and Osama bin-Laden to find a new home.
Foreign Policy at https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/24/u-s-intelligence-undercuts-trump-case-on-iran-al-qaeda-links/ relates that Iran has arrested Al-Qaeda agents on its territory and has ample reason to combat the terrorist organization. On September 16, 2005, al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, Al-Zarqawi, in a speech, quoted at https://scholarship.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/bitstream/handle/10066/4810/ZAR20050914P.pdf, said, “Days go by, and events follow one after the other. The battles are many, and the names used are varied. But the goal (of the Crusaders) is one: a Crusader-Rafidite war against the Sunnis.” Who are the Rafidites? Sunni extremists use the word “rafida” to identify the Shi’a. According to Al-Qaeda, Iran is in league with the Crusaders.
Fifteen of the nineteen of the Al-Qaeda terrorists in the 9/11 operation and many al-Qaeda operatives in post-Hussein Iraq came from US friend Saudi Arabia. Another friend, Israel, was cited by Osama bin Laden as a reason for terror attacks. According to terror watch NGO IntelCenter, Al-Qaeda’s media branch, As-Sahab, released a video featuring an audio statement from Osama bin Laden, which cites US support for Israel as a reason for the 9/11 terror attacks. https://www.france24.com/en/20090914-us-support-israel-prompted-911-attacks-says-bin-laden-video-
Fight against ISIS
Another statement by the ever-unaware President Trump, in his January 8, 2020 speech, argued the US had been responsible for defeating ISIS and the Islamic Republic should realize that it is in their benefit to work with the United States in making sure ISIS remains defeated. The US spent years and billions of dollars in training an Iraqi army that fled Mosul and left it to a small contingent of ISIS forces. Showing no will and expertise to fight, Iraq’s debilitated military permitted ISIS to rapidly expand and conquer Tikrit and other cities. Events energized Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which, with cooperation from Iran and personal assistance from its Major General Qassim Soleimani, was able to retake Tikrit and Ramadi, push ISIS out of Fallujah, and eventually play a leading role in ISIS’ defeat.
The US cited, without providing substantial evidence, it prevented attacks on its personnel that Soleimani had prepared. Questions
- If intelligence services knew of the attacks, did it have the power to prevent them?
- Soleimani was not going to be the person(s) to commit the attacks; therefore, would not the attacks still happen?
- Has not Soleimani been quickly replaced?
Conclusions
Sum up the comparisons:
Expansion and hegemony
Iran has not started wars. It has reached out to gain friends, but it has not sought hegemony or economic advantage. The US has been involved in numerous wars, gained economic advantage, caused grief and instability and maintained hegemony in many regions of the world.
Casualties due to violence
Only exaggerations and rumors attribute mass killings to Iran. Facts readily support US role in mass killings and violence from the rice fields of Vietnam to the valleys of Afghanistan, the rivers of Iraq. and the deserts of Libya, only a few places of US aggression.
War on international terrorism
Iran has suffered greatly from Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK) terrorism and attacks by the US and Israel. Its own terrorism is used to settle specific issues and cannot be classified as international terrorism. The US is directly responsible for the establishment of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The invasion of Iraq and US occupation contributed to the rise of al-Qaeda in Iraq and its transistion into ISIS.
Fight against ISIS
Facts indicate Iran’s assistance to Iraqi militias halted ISIS” advance and eventual retreat. The US trained and equipped an Iraq military that could not prevent ISIS from almost becoming a Caliphate.
The reasons for the assassination of Qassim Solemeins were deceptive and faulty; not based on fact and more likely based on agenda. Was the reason for his assassination an act of revenge, or is it another part of an offensive policy of subduing those who could undermine US hegemony in the Middle East?
Dan Lieberman edits Alternative Insight, a commentary on foreign policy, economics, and politics. He is author of the book A Third Party Can Succeed in America, a Kindle: The Artistry of a Dog, and a novel: The Victory (under a pen name). Dan can be reached at alternativeinsight@earthlink.net.
Trillions of Dollars in U.S. Military
Spending Are Unaccounted-For
by Eric Zuesse
The most recent IG report makes clear (on page 7 of 74) that “Army and Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis personnel did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in third quarter adjustments and $6.5 trillion in yearend adjustments made to Army General Fund data during FY 2015 financial statement compilation.” These “adjustments” — a total of $9.3 trillion over the half-year period examined — had been made to prior unacceptable reports, but were still failing to explain where the money had gone.
Before documenting that many trillions of dollars in U.S. Government military spending have been and are unaccounted-for, and that by far the most corrupt U.S. federal Department is the ‘Defense’ Department, it is important to document here, by means of the links that will be provided in this article, that, at least after the 9/11 event, the most respected institution in America has been and is the military, and so there exists in the United States a profoundly deceived public, which is a reflection of America’s having also a thoroughly corrupt national press or ‘news’-media, a U.S. press that is controlled by the same group of individuals who control the ‘defense’ contractors such as Lockheed Martin — the firms that derive all or almost all of their incomes from sales to the U.S. Government and to its allied governments. In other words: the U.S. is controlled by a racket, and is not (in any other than the formal sense — e.g., its Constitution) a democracy. Consequently, this article will document in its links, that the publicized and widespread view that the U.S. is a democracy instead of a dictatorship is false and results from the dictatorship’s control over America’s press, with support from also the press in countries that are allied with and vassals of America’s dictatorship.
, the American public has displayed far higher confidence and trust in “The Military” than in any other “Institution” (including than churches, schools, the Presidency, the police, courts — any).
This enormous public respect for, basically, America’s Military-Industrial Complex or MIC, didn’t even exist before 9/11. This overwhelmingly militarized American mentality is specifically in the 21st century, and existed virtually not at all in the 20th century. In fact, back in 1973 (the year Gallup first polled this), the most-respected institution was “The Medical System,” which then was 80% respected, and now is only 36% respected. Ever since 2002 (right after 9/11), “The Military” has been respected more than 70% (around twice as much as “The Medical System” now is), and it’s the only “Institution” that is consistently above 70%. Only “Small Business” comes close, in the upper 60s. Next down is “Police” in the lower 50s. Then, everything else is in the 30s or lower. Maybe the Government’s two responses to 9/11 (first, the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, which caused respect for the military to leap up 13% in 2002 but produced total failure; and, then, the other alleged 9/11 response, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, raised the figure yet another 3%) were the best things that ever happened for the owners of America’s giant weapons-manufacturers. This permanently militarized America, which exists ever since 9/11, enriches them enormously. The U.S. Government has served these corporate owners superbly, while the rest of the population pays the tab for it (via their taxes, and via their soldiers’ corpses — not even to mention the far more numerous corpses of residents in the invaded countries, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen).
So, there is this steady high American respect for the MIC. The U.S. public trust it more than anything else. And yet — according to the Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) — many billions, and sometimes even trillions, of dollars, in the Department’s periodic financial reports, are not documented. What has happened to this money from U.S. taxpayers is unknown — it’s gone missing (alleged to have been spent, but to payees unidentified). That’s the exact opposite of trustworthy.
According to the DOD’s IG, this vast chasm of financial darkness continues year-after-year (yet without at all reducing Americans’ trust in “The Military”). Apparently, Americans, as a lot, are gluttons for punishment — or else our ‘news’-media haven’t sufficiently reported the “waste, fraud, and abuse” that “The Military” (the most-respected U.S. institution) are doing to the American public. (And those media covered-up for the regime and uncritically spread its lies — such as about ‘Saddam’s WMD’ in 2002 — as if those allegations by the corrupt Government were instead facts, and so America’s press are themselves part of the regime; they’re only fakes as ‘journalists’, and so they certainly share in this Government’s guilt.) Either way, there is this extraordinarily high public confidence in the military, ongoing year-after-year, though the U.S. DOD continues to be the only unauditable federal Department, and though expenditures amounting (over the years) into trillions of dollars still remain unaccounted-for. But here, as will be documented in this article, will be the American ‘news’-media’s chance to call the public’s attention to this discrepancy between the military’s reality, versus the public’s perceptions of that reality, by their publishing this documentation (if they finally decide to do it — which they’ve never yet done):
On July 14th, Catherine Austin Fitts posted to her website links to some of the key relevant federal documents. Her site is linked-to below, and some of the documents that refer to trillions of dollars unaccounted-for are also linked-to below, and are then quoted from, so that a reader can obtain — even without clicking onto the links — a sense both of the enormity of the corruption, and also of the authoritativeness of the official statements that are being made in these documents, regarding the extent of that corruption.
I am using here the word “corruption” because whenever an official finding by a U.S. government agency is reporting trillions of dollars of taxpayer money that have been spent for purposes and recipients which are unknown, I call it “corruption,” on the basis that: regardless of whether or not the matter is intended or is instead sloppiness, even mere sloppiness is heinous if it ranges into trillions of dollars of taxpayer-money missing or wrongly spent. Even sloppiness, of that magnitude, in the expenditure of taxpayer funds, reflects corruption, if it continues on for years, or especially (as it is shown to do here) for decades, and still has not been stopped.
In fact, the most recent such IG report makes clear (on page 7 of 74) that “Army and Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis personnel did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in third quarter adjustments and $6.5 trillion in yearend adjustments made to Army General Fund data during FY 2015 financial statement compilation.” These “adjustments” — a total of $9.3 trillion over the half-year period examined — had been made to prior unacceptable reports, but were still failing to explain where the money had gone. Here is the main site (solari, of Catherine Austin Fitts), and excerpts from the main documents, which excerpts are posted immediately below it:
——
“DOD and HUD Missing Money: Supporting Documentation for $21 Trillion of Undocumentable Adjustments”
2 October 2017, Catherine Austin Fitts, News & Commentary
“Dr. Skidmore and his team have now reviewed additional documentation and undocumented adjustments at DOD and HUD now total $21 trillion – more than the outstanding debt on the US government balance sheet.”
——
“We determined that 236, totaling $2 trillion, of the 263 third quarter JV adjustments in our sample, and 170, totaling $2.1 trillion, of the 194 yearend JV adjustments in our sample, were in fact unsupported.”
“OASA(FM&C) and DFAS Indianapolis personnel did not adequately document or support adjustments made to AGF data during FY 2015 financial statement compilation. Specifically, OASA(FM&C) and DFAS Indianapolis personnel did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in JV adjustments for third quarter and $6.5 trillion in JV adjustments for yearend.17”
——
23 September 2011 “Testimony of the [DOD] Deputy Inspector General for Auditing”
“We found the Department’s review process included less than half of the fiscal year 2010 first quarter gross outlays.10 … Comptroller officials stated that the $167.5 billion in outlays the Department did not examine for improper payments included internal and intragovernmental transfers. Those outlays were not subject to the OMB reporting requirements since the payments did not leave the Government. However, we later determined that Comptroller officials did not perform a reconciliation to determine whether these outlays were internal or intragovernmental transfers. A complete reconciliation is still needed to demonstrate that all outlays are being examined for overpayments and in order to accurately report the extent of the overpayments. Specifically, DoD did not review approximately $167.5 billion of the $303.7 billion in gross outlays for high dollar overpayments. Additionally, some overpayments that we or the Department identified were not reported, and the First Quarter FY 2010 High Dollar Overpayments Report did not include sufficient information about recoveries and corrective actions.”
“Unless DoD improves its methodology to review all its disbursements, it will continue to understate its estimate of overpayments and will likely miss opportunities to collect additional improper payments.”
“We are concerned with the accuracy and reliability of the Department’s estimation process. Without a reliable process to review all expenditures and identify the full extent of improper payments, the Department will not be able to improve internal controls aimed at reducing improper payments. 12 The Department’s financial management processes are not always adequate to prevent or detect improper payments. For example, in our recent audit of a contract supporting Broad Area Maritime Surveillance, we found DoD personnel did not validate that the contractor was entitled to $329.3 million it received as of January 12, 2010. These are costs paid to contractors that Defense Contract Audit Agency questioned because they do not comply with rules, regulations, laws and/or contract terms which meets the definition of an improper payment. These improper payments the audit agency identified are greater than the $1.3 billion of improper payments the Department identified during 2004 to 2010.”
——
“The audits of the FY 1999 DoD financial statements indicated that $7.6 trillion of accounting entries were made to compile them. This startling number is perhaps the most graphic available indicator of just how poor the existing systems are. The magnitude of the problem is further demonstrated by the fact that, of $5.8 trillion of those adjustments that we audited this year, $2.3 trillion were unsupported by reliable explanatory information and audit trails or were made to invalid general ledger accounts. About $602.7 billion of accounting entries were made to correct errors in feeder reports.”
——
THE MAJOR RECIPIENTS OF FEDERAL FUNDS:
Here, from the list of the 100 largest U.S. federal Government contractors, are the 20 largest recipients of U.S. federal government money:
The following is a list of the Top-100 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Prime Contractors in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 ranked by total contract funds awarded [and showing also the aggregate percentage of total U.S. federal spending on private contractors going to each company].
- Lockheed Martin Corp., 10.71% of all U.S. $ to contractors
- The Boeing Company, 5.33%
- Raytheon Company, 4.54%
- General Dynamics Corp., 4.22%
- Northrop Grumman Corp., 3.49%
- United Technologies Corp., 2.58%
- L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., 1.86%
- BAE Systems plc, 1.63%
- Humana Inc., 1.31%
- Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., 1.13%
- Bechtel Group Inc., 1.07%
- Health Net Inc., 1.01%
- Unitedhealth Group Inc., 0.97%
- SAIC Inc., 0.92%
- General Atomic Technologies Corp., 0.85%
- McKesson Corp., 0.79%
- Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, 0.75%
- AmerisourceBergen Corp., 0.68%
- Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., 0.65%
- United Launch Alliance L.L.C., 0.63%
As is obvious, all or almost all of these firms are contractors to (recipients of money from) the U.S. Department of Defense; and they may reasonably be presumed to be benefiting significantly from some of the unaccounted-for payments from the U.S. DOD. However, if the money isn’t going to them, then where is it going? And why? And for what? Why is there no congressional investigation to answer these questions? And why are U.S. ‘news’-media not publicizing this matter so as to force such investigations? Are payoffs involved — payoffs for silence? Why are none of the ‘news’-media that have the resources to explore these questions, publishing their own investigations into it, since Congress won’t investigate? And, since the Inspector General’s reports into these matters have had no impact, why isn’t the focus finally shifting away from studying to find how much is missing, toward instead prosecuting the people who — at the very least — failed to do what they were being paid to do: keep track of every cent of taxpayers’ money? If doing that job is too dangerous, then shouldn’t the people who are tasked to do it be paid more, so as to cover their exceptionally high personal risk? Is all of this secrecy really necessary in order to keep “The Military” far on top as the most respected of all institutions in the United States — even after all of the harms that the U.S. military has actually caused in Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc., destroying those countries and others? How much would the American public’s respect for the military — the mass-killing institution — be brought down, if the truth about it were known? Would the mass-killing institution deserve to be the most respected institution even if it weren’t so profoundly corrupt?
UPDATED DATA:
Scott Tibballs – August 8, 2019
- Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT)
Revenue: US$53.8 billion; year-to-date gains: 39.5 percent
- Boeing (NYSE:BA)
Revenue: US$101.1 billion, year-to-date gains: 2.34 percent
- Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC)
Revenue: US$30 billion, year-to-date gains: 46.7 percent
- Raytheon (NYSE:RTN)
Revenue: US$27 billion, year-to-date gains: 19.72 percent
- General Dynamics (NYSE:GD)
Revenue: US$36.1 billion, year-to-date gains: 15 percent
- United Technologies
This company will be merging with Raytheon in 2020. UTX is up by 19.12 percent year-to-date, with its shares valued at US$129.01.
- L3 Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX)
L3 Harris develops advanced defense technologies in communications. It is up by 55.82 percent year-to-date, at US$207.46.
- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII)
Huntington Ingalls is a major component of US Navy shipbuilding capacity. The company is trading at US$207.37, up by 7.69 percent year-to-date, though it has been much higher.
- Leidos (NYSE:LDOS)
Leidos is a technology company with major contracts with the Department of Defense. The company was trading at US$80.54 as of August this year, up 54.79 percent year-to-date.
- Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH)
Booz Allen Hamilton is a cyber security and intelligence company, once called the “world’s most profitable spy organization” by Bloomberg. The company is trading up 58.94 percent year-to-date at US$70.46 as of August.
ADDED OBSERVATIONS, regarding those recently soaring military sales:
On 21 May 2017, I headlined “U.S. $350 Billion Arms-Sale to Sauds Cements U.S.-Jihadist Alliance” and reported that, “On Saturday, May 20th, U.S. President Donald Trump and the Saud family inked an all-time record-high $350 billion ten-year arms-deal that not only will cement-in the Saud family’s position as the world’s largest foreign purchasers of U.S.-produced weaponry, but will make the Saud family, and America’s ruling families, become, in effect, one aristocracy over both nations, because neither side will be able to violate the will of the other. As the years roll on, their mutual dependency will deepen, each and every year.”
I followed that up, on 14 August 2018, by “America’s Militarized Economy” and opened with “Donald Trump’s biggest success, thus far into his Presidency, has been his sale of $400 billion (originally $350 billion) of U.S.-made weapons to the Saudi Arabian Government, which is owned by its royal family, after whom that nation is named. This sale alone is big enough to be called Trump’s ‘jobs plan’ for Americans. It is also the biggest weapons-sale in all of history. It’s 400 billion dollars, not 400 million dollars; it is gigantic, and, by far, unprecedented in world-history.”
That’s what has mainly been driving the recent massively increased sales-volumes of America’s ‘defense’ contractors. It also underscores why Trump refuses to blame Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud for ordering Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi to be chopped up in Istanbul and disposed of, even while Trump blames leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, etc., for all sorts of alleged (usually fictitious) atrocities. On December 24th, İbrahim Karagül, of Turkey’s Yeni Safak newspaper, bannered “Khashoggi murder: Five executions, one cover-up can’t save you.” and he said, of Saudi Arabia’s ‘investigation’ into Khashoggi’s murder:
The case was a setup, the trial was a setup, the death sentences are also a setup. The Saudi administration, which refrained from disclosing even the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body, resolved to kill those who did the crown prince’s dirty work to save Salman. This is an act of silencing, destruction of evidence, the liquidation of people whose loyalty is in doubt and who are likely to talk.
Saud al-Qahtani, the leader of the murder team, was not convicted. Even Mohammad al-Otaibi, Istanbul consul general, whom Turkey showed as the unwanted man and asked the king to withdraw, was not even accused. Ahmed Asiri, deputy chief of intelligence who planned the murder – and was supposedly dismissed – was released.
But, because the vast majority of Americans don’t get to know any of this, they think that today’s America is still like pre-1945 America was, instead of having switched to become more like the fascist powers themselves were. Germany, Italy, and Japan, had heavily militarized economies during the 1930s through early 1940s, and America has a heavily militarized economy ever since (at least) 1980, and especially now — long after the Cold War ended on Russia’s side in 1991, and especially long beyond any reasonable excuse for these constantly rising ‘defense’ expenditures. There’s economic growth in such countries (that is, in imperialistic fascist countries), and almost all of it goes to the controlling owners of ‘defense’ contractors. What grows, then, in such countries, isn’t actually the patient, but the tumor. However, lots of Americans don’t know the difference between the two and are satisfied with any type of growth at all, and they even respect the world’s most corrupt military more than they respect any other institution. In a functioning democracy, this would be impossible, because any public anywhere would be outraged by it and would be in open revolt against it if only they knew about it. Furthermore, if this were a democracy, then the entire public would already have learned about this, and the situation wouldn’t have reached so bad — and so dangerous (for the entire world — such as now, after Trump assassinated Iran’s #2 leader) — a stage, as it already has reached, while nothing was being done to stop it and to imprison (and nationalize the wealth of) the U.S. billionaires who have been behind (and so enormously profiting from) heisting the Government and getting the public to fund these imperialistic operations of the nation’s aristocrats. Astronomical political corruption is the sole source of all of this. And this corruption is in the courts, and not only in Congress and in the Executive, and allows this rape of democracy to be called ‘constitutional’ and thus go unpunished, and thus to become constantly worse.
Soaring wealth-inequality, not only inside the United States, but throughout the world, results from this. And the biggest crimes are at the top — where there is impunity (because it’s ‘constitutional’ — even though that’s only a lie about what the Founders had meant by their Constitution).
When the crooks actually write the laws, the laws become crooked. When the crooks also control the ‘news’-media, the public are defenseless because ignorant and deceived. Wherever fascism is in control, this is the way that it functions.
HOW THE ESTABLISHMENT RESPOND TO THIS:
Mick West, who blogs as metabunk dot org, is a propagandist for the “Establishment” or the billionaires’ preferences of what the public should believe; and, on 16 May 2018, he headlined “Debunked: Missing $21 Trillion / $6.5 Trillion / $2.3 Trillion – Journal Vouchers”, and he presented a representative of America’s Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) asserting, to U.S. House members, that “this is not a new story, it dates back to 2001 and before,” and, West noted, “All these things are accounting things that, as Norquist says ‘occur after the money is spent’. They are things that you want to get right in your accounting, but if you get the values wrong then it does not mean you’ve lost the money. It means you’ve got some estimate wrong, and you’ll put to little or to much [West meant “too much or too little”] in one fund or another.” Referring, then, to the $21 trillion, he wrote, “This is just more of the same though, still not missing money, still just unsupported accounting information transfers.” However, only a sucker would take that casual attitude to the enormous amount of money in the ‘defense’ budget that is “unsupported” as to who received it, and whether or not those payments were in accord with what Congress had actually authorized. Furthermore, such a casual attitude toward U.S. ’defense’-expenditures — the expenditures which constitute actually over half of the U.S. federal Government’s discretionary expenditures, and even around half of the total world’s military expenditures — is an invitation to corruption in over half of this Government’s annually authorized spending; and any intelligent person would expect that such an invitation would be taken advantage of by insiders who are in a position to benefit from it. West quotes from only one alleged authority, the “Defense Department Comptroller, David L. Norquist,” a person who is largely responsible for the problem, who said “it’s an accounting problem that does need to be solved because it can help hide other underlying issues,” but (at 1:43 in the accompanying video) “it’s not the same thing as not being able to account for money that Congress has given you to spend, but it’s still a problem that needs to be fixed.” Mick West simply trusted this statement, by Norquist — though Norquist is one of the officials responsible for the problem — but Norquist failed to prove (and wasn’t even asked to prove it, by the Representatives whom he was there addressing, who didn’t seem to be alarmed about where that $21T actually went) his key assertion, that “it’s not the same thing as not being able to account for money that Congress has given you to spend.” And, even if that assertion, by that official, is true (which should not be assumed, and which even seems ludicrous on its very face), the problem is unquestionably an invitation to corruption in ‘defense’-expenditures, and those are precisely the type of federal expenditures that overwhelmingly dominate the income to the federal Government’s contractors, the corporations that make all or most of their profits from sales to the federal Government and to its allied governments (such as to the Saud family). Therefore, casually allowing — and not even investigating as being possibly treasonous — these expenditures, is, itself, enormously scandalous, but the Representatives there were treating it so casually. In fact, at the very opening of the hearing, which was held on 10 January 2018 (at 02:12 in the video of the 1:41:33-long hearing) the Chairman of the Committee emphasized the “We must spend more” on the military, even though we already spend around half of the entire world’s military expenditures. Manifestly, this hearing was a charade. In the full video, the passage that Mick West quoted from is at 18:00-22:00, and the Representatives were clearly on the side of the charade, not on the side of the American people. Clearly, all members of that Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, behave as if they are in the pockets of firms such as Lockheed Martin.
On 15 November 2018, Reuters headlined “Pentagon fails its first-ever audit, official says”, and reported that “‘We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it,’ Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told reporters.”
On 27 November 2018, The Nation headlined “Exclusive: The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud Exposed” and David Lindorff opened: “On November 15, Ernst & Young and other private firms that were hired to audit the Pentagon announced that they could not complete the job. Congress had ordered an independent audit of the Department of Defense, the government’s largest discretionary cost center — the Pentagon receives 54 cents out of every dollar in federal appropriations — after the Pentagon failed for decades to audit itself. The firms concluded, however, that the DoD’s financial records were riddled with so many bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors that a reliable audit was simply impossible.”
So, that was the result of the latest version of this charade, which is virtual treason by the federal Government.
In short: Congress is satisfied for this situation to continue, and the members of Congress evidently have no fear that the voters back home will vote against them if a challenger makes this issue a major issue in that Senator’s or Representative’s next Party primary. The presumption is that the voters don’t care, and that the ‘news’-media won’t enlighten the voters about this matter, and about how it impacts, for example, which nations the U.S. will categorize as being an “ally,” to sell weapons to, and which nations it will categorize as being an “enemy,” to target for conquest.
Invading and militarily occupying all of these countries which ‘our’ Government calls an “enemy” (though that country never even threatened, much less invaded, the U.S.) is the end-product of a vast amount of corruption — this much is absolutely clear.
None of this could happen if the United States Government did not secretly continue the Cold War against Russia after Russia ended it on its side in 1991. Russia is the U.S. aristocracy’s necessary bogey-man. For example: how many Americans know that in June 2013, which was months before the Maidan demonstrations even started in Russia’s next-door-neighbor Ukraine on 21 November of that year, the U.S. federal Government was already seeking U.S. Government contractors to transform a building in Sevastopol Crimea in Ukraine into becoming part of a U.S. naval base there which Obama was planning to replace Russia’s largest naval base, which had been — and still remains — located there since 1783? He had started by no later than June of 2011 his planning for the February 2014 coup in Ukraine.
The origin of this goes all the way back to 26 July 1945, but the next key date was 24 February 1990, which continued the Cold War after Russia ended it.
Anyone who writes about U.S. policy and doesn’t place this issue front and center is either misinformed or else corrupt. But anyone who does place it front and center will be unemployed (except, perhaps, at struggling non-mainstream U.S. national news-media). This is how much of a dictatorship today’s U.S. has now become. Lying and cover-up have now become obligatory in all of the mainstream U.S. media, so as to prevent the American public from knowing what this article has documented to be true. This article has been written as an introduction to understanding recent American history.
—————
(This updated version is first published at The Saker.) This article from 21 July 2017 is here updated and expanded to the present; and the dead links in it have been replaced by functional (this time, archived — and thus more permanent) links:
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
How the President Became a Drone Operator
by Allegra Harpootlian
From Obama to Trump, the Escalation of Drone Warfare
A Dalit Girl Gang Raped And Hanged From A Tree In Gujarat
by Countercurrents Collective
In north Gujarat a 19-year-old Dalit woman was kidnapped, gangraped and murdered before her body was hanged from a tree to make it look like a suicide.
In north Gujarat a 19-year-old Dalit woman was kidnapped, gangraped and murdered before her body was hanged from a tree to make it look like a suicide.
The victim had gone missing on December 31 and her body was found on January 5.
According to the details of the Nirbhaya-like case, after the deceased went missing, her family had approached the police on January 3 to lodge an FIR but the local police refused. Local police inspector N.L. Rabari told the family that the girl was safe and had eloped with a boy of the same community and both had got married so no case was required to be lodged.
However, on January 5, her body was found hanging on a tree. The family members refused to accept the body contending that she was murdered and did not commit suicide.
A panel of doctors at the Ahmedabad civil hospital conducted the postmortem.
The autopsy was conducted after the police lodged a case of kidnapping, gangrape and murder against four persons. The four had allegedly kidnapped the victim, gangraped her before murdering. They did not stop at that, after murdering, they hanged the body on a tree to make it a suicide case.
On Tuesday, the police lodged an FIR naming four persons — Bimal Bharvad, Darshan Bharvad, Satish Bharvad and Jigar — for the incident.
After the registration of the FIR, the family agreed to claim the body, which was sent for postmortem at the Ahmedabad civil hospital.
The case was registered under various provisions and Sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act after protest by thousands of Dalits in front of the local police station.
Citizenship Amendment Act and Religious Minorities in South Asia
by Ram Puniyani
https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/citizenship-amendment-act-and-religious-minorities-in-south-asia
While other South Asian countries should have followed India to focus more on infrastructure and political culture of liberalism, today India is following the footsteps of Pakistan. The retrograde march of India is most visible in the issues which have dominated the political space during last few years. Issues like Ram Temple, Ghar Wapasi, Love Jihad, Beef-Cow are now finding their peak in CAA.
Students As Torch Bearers
by Kabir Deb
We live in times when students act as torch bearers
while the senior citizens act like idiots, cowards and opportunists. A country or society is shaped by education and education itself acts as a boat which travels large distances for people who battles with the waves and paddles the anchor! It is often said that an educational institution should not have politics in it. But it is a farce. Politics exist,
Another Nail In The Coffin Of Democracy
by Advait S Iyer
We have become a nation that not only supports but glorifies terrorists. We looked on as people we consider our own citizens in Kashmir were tortured, for years. But we cheer, as our citizens in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Delhi are tortured. Sadism has permeated the Indian consciousness, and this will be our downfall. Every time we cheer the loss of an innocent life, we drive another nail into the coffin of democracy.
On 10th January 2020, the Citizenship Amendment Act came into effect all over India. Debating about the CAA is a pointless exercise, since it is only a problem if there is a register to tie it to, and until the NPR starts, we really have nothing to go on regarding the legality, or morality of the CAA, in objective terms. We know we shouldn’t give the government the right to discriminate between religions, especially Islam, considering the track record that our leaders have with treating Muslims, but there is not much that can be discussed. What will be the eventual document that will decide your fate? You cannot know for sure. The government refuses to tell you.
The biggest problem currently, is that the government is not held accountable to the people anymore. Any dissent, no matter how peaceful, is met with extreme, over-the-top muzzling. Even Arundhati Roy has a criminal case filed against her, for just talking about civil disobedience. The judiciary is toothless, and actively refuses to interfere. Washington Post says “Democracy dies in darkness”. Democracy in India has died, not in darkness, but illuminated by muzzle flashes as protestors are shot dead.
The government continues to lie to the people. The IT cell is constantly churning out propaganda, but this is unnecessary. Decades of Indian schooling has led to the decline of critically examining the decisions that authority takes, and decades of propaganda has convinced people that it is actually Hindus who are suffering in this nation. As a result, people will blindly defend the BJP, and when facts quickly run out, they will call you an “anti-national”, or an “urban Naxal”. People defended the existence of NRC, when the government could not. People defended the detention centres, when the government could not. People are defending state sponsored terrorism, and cheer when students are beaten and publicly ridiculed for political gains.
The police have repeatedly admitted that the violence they have carried out against Muslims doesn’t truly have an element of proof, either before or after they attacked them and injured several people. They didn’t have proof in Jamia. They did not have proof in Muzaffarnagar. They will not have proof in the next wave of brutal attacks as well. Meanwhile, as long as the ideologies of our Supreme Leader are met with, they will look on, as people are brutally beaten in front of them. What both groups did in JNU is inexcusable. However, what the police did is worse, much worse.
We have become a nation that not only supports but glorifies terrorists. We looked on as people we consider our own citizens in Kashmir were tortured, for years. But we cheer, as our citizens in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Delhi are tortured. Sadism has permeated the Indian consciousness, and this will be our downfall. Every time we cheer the loss of an innocent life, we drive another nail into the coffin of democracy.
Advait Iyer is a law student.
Shouldering of Responsibilities to Save the Desperate Tamils in Sri Lanka
by
Thambu Kanagasabai
There is no denying of the fact that Tamils in Sri Lanka have been at the receiving end since 1949, when power was transferred to the majority Sinhala Government. Successive Sinhala Governments continued and still continue the marginalisation of minorities to achieve their goal of a SINHALA-BUDDHIST STATE. Peaceful protests, non-violent and violent campaigns were ruthlessly crushed by the 99% Sinhalese dominated Security Forces.
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