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Pentagon Syria Chemical “Deja Vu” all over again

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Syrian Chemical attackThe Pentagon says the United States has seen evidence of what appeared to be active preparations by Syrian government forces for a possible chemical-weapons attack.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on June 27 that activity was detected at Syria’s Shayrat airfield — the same Syrian airfield that was struck by a U.S. missile attack in April.

Davis said U.S. intelligence detected preparations involving “specific aircraft in a specific hangar, both of which we know to be associated with chemical-weapons use.”

The White House said late on June 26 that preparations by Syria were similar to those undertaken before a suspected chemical attack on April 4 that prompted President Donald Trump to order a cruise-missile strike on the Syrian airfield.

“As we have previously stated, the United States is in Syria to eliminate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” spokesman Sean Spicer said.

“If, however, [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] conducts another mass-murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.”

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said that Russia and Iran, Assad’s key allies in Syria’s civil war, would also be responsible if such an attack took place.

Haley told a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on June 27 that the “goal is at this point not just to send Assad a message but to send Russia and Iran a message that if this happens again we are putting you on notice.”

Russia denounced the White House warning, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying, “We consider such threats against the Syrian leadership to be unacceptable.”

“I am not aware of any information about a threat that chemical weapons can be used,” Peskov added.

Trump ordered the strike on Syria’s Shayrat airfield in April after what he said was a poison gas attack by Assad’s government that killed at least 70 people — a charge Damascus denied.

The strike put Washington in confrontation with Russia, which has backed Assad with air strikes in his 6-year-old civil war with rebels.

U.S. officials called the April intervention a “one-off” move intended to deter future chemical attacks and not an expansion of the U.S. role in Syria.

Russia’s Defense Ministry suspends interaction with Pentagon over Syria

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Russia suspends interaction with Pentagon over Syria Russia’s Defense Ministry has suspended interaction with the Pentagon within the framework of the  bilateral memorandum across Syria, after the US  shot down Syrian warplane, RT reported quoting the Ministry.

On July 19, it halted cooperation in the framework of the Memorandum on the Prevention of Incidents and Ensuring Air Safety in Syria.

The ministry has demanded a thorough investigation by the US military command into the incident with the Syrian government military jet, with the results to be shared with the Russian side.

“In the areas of combat missions of Russian air fleet in Syrian skies, any airborne objects, including aircraft and unmanned vehicles of the [US-led] international coalition, located to the west of the Euphrates River, will be tracked by Russian ground and air defense forces as air targets,” the Russian Ministry of Defense stated.

US: Pentagon approves “Kurd killing smart bombs” contract to sell around $700 mln to Turkey

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png.thumbThe Pentagon has approved a deal to sell $682.9 million worth of an unspecified quantity of smart bombs to Turkey through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) scheme, defensenews.com has reported.

The Pentagon awarded the contract to Ellwood National Forge and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems for the sale of BLU-109 bunker-busting bombs and components.

Clashes between the Turkish military and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) resumed in July 2015 after a two-year-long cease-fire, which had come following intense clashes since the mid-1980s between the two parties. Turkish fighter jets have routinely bombed the strongholds of the PKK in northern Iraq, also known as Kandil.

This is the first reported sale of BLU-109 bombs to Turkey. Turkish officials expect deliveries to be completed by 2020.

“The deal was timely as we are deeply engaged in asymmetrical warfare and need smart bombs,” one Turkish military official was quoted as saying by the website.

BLU-109s have been in the Pentagon’s inventory since 1985 and are reported to have been used on fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was mated to a laser-guided system during operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991.

The bomb contains 550 pounds of high explosive Tritonal, a combination of 80 percent TNT and 20 percent aluminum powder. The BLU-109’s tail fuse delays the bomb’s detonation until the bomb has penetrated the targeted bunker, ensuring complete destruction of the location.

Pentagon refuses to share intelligence on IS until Moscow’s stance on Assad changes

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f567e6603e7b4a_567e6603e7b85.thumbWashington will not share intelligence data on Islamic State positions in Syria and will not accept Moscow’s offer to cooperate on rooting out terrorism until Moscow changes its position on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s future, Russia Today reports, citing the Pentagon.
Ever since the start of the Russian campaign in Syria in late September, Moscow has been offering to share information with the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), urging Washington to reciprocate. After months of extensive diplomatic efforts by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, and the Kremlin, the Pentagon is still refusing to enter the proposed cooperation.

“We are not going to cooperate with Russia on Syria until they change their strategy of supporting Assad and instead focus on ISIL,” US Defense Department Spokesperson Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza told Sputnik on Friday.

Moscow has persistently insisted throughout the course of the Syrian conflict that it is only up to the Syrian people to decide who governs them. Russia has repeatedly spoken out against foreign intervention in the domestic affairs of any country, including Syria.
The Kremlin has also made it clear that the government forces of Bashar Assad are the main fighting force against IS on the ground. Since September 30, Russian forces have been helping the Syrian army recapture the territories controlled by IS and other terrorist and jihadi groups.

At the same time, Russia has occasionally been helping the clandestine moderate opposition, such as the Free Syrian Army, when they come forward to request help in their battles against the jihadists, and provides coordinates for airstrikes.

Washington and their Middle Eastern allies do not consider the elected president of Syria to be a legitimate authority and want him gone, claiming only his unconditional departure can ignite a political process in the war-torn country.

However, recently Washington has softened its rhetoric, saying that Assad might play a certain role in the “transitional period” while “how and when he goes” is being decided.
The issue of Assad’s future in the political life of Syria, which has been debated for years, has become acute since the launch of a highly successful Russian air campaign against IS in Syria. The US-led coalition has been accusing Moscow of attacking the “wrong” armed groups in Syria, at the same time refusing to specify which rebel groups they consider to be moderate which should not be targeted.

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry that Moscow’s proposal to coordinate with the United States on airstrikes against
terrorists in Syria had been on the table for two and a half months.

The Russian role in Syria became the focal point of the frequent meetings between Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama from September onwards. During that period, Obama spoke several times with Putin on the phone and met him three times on the sidelines of international events, ending the period of “Russia’s isolation” that followed the Crimea affair of 2014.

Pentagon head to US Congress: Turkey’s ops not directed at Islamic State

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Turkish plans to attack Islamic State excuse for hitting Kurds

Turkish plans to attack Islamic State excuse for hitting Kurds

The US says Turkey’s operations are not “directed” at Islamic State and the Pentagon would like Ankara “to do more” both in the air and on the ground. It has also failed to control its borders “effectively,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told Congress.

“I have been urging, actually, since I’ve come to this job, Turkey to do more,” the US defense chief said.

Carter stressed that Turkey’s geography – “right there next to Iraq and Syria” – makes it an especially useful asset to the US-led mission against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), but its NATO ally has failed to pull its weight so far.

“Most of their air operations are not directed at ISIL,” Carter said. “They are directed at the PKK, which we understand their concern about — it’s a terrorist organization within their borders — but we would like to see them do more against ISIL.”

The Pentagon wants Turkey to focus primarily on “its own territories,” i.e. go after “tentacles of ISIS” in Turkish territory and better control its borders with Syria, “which it has not done effectively since ISIS arose,” according to Carter’s testimony.

“We would like them to operate more both in the air and on the ground,” the Defense Secretary said.

In mid-November, the US and Turkey “entered an operation” to entirely close off the border of northern Syria, the territory long contested between Kurdish militias and IS fighters. The agreement came not long after Ankara declared its plans to “act militarily” against Islamic State.

Even earlier, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had stated that he would “do what is necessary,” including using force, to combat the Kurdish “mindset” of autonomy in Syria.

Since beginning its military operations, Turkey has been accused of targeting Kurdish militias that are fighting IS but also aligned with Turkish Kurds against the Turkish government.

The Kurds have also been involved in the fight against IS in Iraq, where in November they launched an offensive to retake Iraq’s northern city of Sinjar, which had been controlled by Islamic State for over a year.

The operation, dubbed Free Sinjar, included the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), among several other factions.

In his Tuesday testimony, Carter also announced the deployment of special forces to Syria to “conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders.”

“That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids, and more momentum,” he added.

Pentagon claims Russia has fighter aircrafts in Syria

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f560125ae249e2_560125ae24a1e.thumbIn a significant increase to its new military presence in Syria, Russia sent in 24 additional fighter aircraft this past weekend to the airfield in Latakia that U.S. officials say has become a Russian air operations hub in the war-torn country.
Meanwhile, the troubled U.S. effort to train moderate Syrian rebels to fight ISIS continues as a second group of 71 fighters has entered Syria, BBC News reported.
US officials said that over the weekend Russia flew in 24 attack aircraft into Latakia, joining four fighter aircraft that arrived last Friday. That initial group of fighter aircraft are now believed to be SU-30 “Flanker” air-to-ground attack aircraft.

Twelve SU-25 “Frogfeet” and 12 SU-24 “Fencer” attack aircraft flew surreptitiously into Syria accompanying the now daily Condor cargo flights arriving in Latakia, according to a US official.

In addition, unarmed Russian drones began flying reconnaissance missions over Syria this weekend.

The flow of additional Russian military equipment continues at the airfield in the Mediterranean city that is located in a stronghold of support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The number of Mi-17 and Mi-24 attack helicopters has grown to 15, nearly double the number of helicopters at the base last week, the U.S. official said.

Russia now has 36 armored personnel carriers, nine tanks and two air-defense missile systems at the airfield in Latakia, according to US officials. The ground vehicles and helicopters are consistent with the type of equipment that would presumably be needed to defend the new operations hub. It is believed that there are now more than 500 Russian military personnel operating at the airfield.

Christian Sorensen: An Introduction to Pentagon corporate global wars Contracts

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By Christian Sorensen,  is a U.S. military veteran

081415_CSPostHundreds of corporations profit directly from the Pentagon’s global wars. Understanding information about the Pentagon’s acquisition process is crucial to establishing and maintaining an informed citizenry. Using this guide, citizens can break down and decipher Department of Defense (DOD) contracts as an act of education, empowerment, or resistance.
The general format of a DOD contract involves:
NAME OF CORPORATION, City, State, has been awarded a $—,—,— [TYPE of] contract for PRODUCT. Contractor will provide … [further details, often quite obscure, esoteric, or cloudy]. Work will be performed in City, State. Work is expected to be completed by Month, Day, Year. These types of funds are being allocated. This unit is the contracting activity [a.k.a. what DOD authority arranged for the purchase].
The main corporations supporting DOD are: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Textron, and United Technologies. Other frequent contributors include: BAE Systems, CACI, Exelis, General Atomics, General Dynamics, General Electric, Honeywell, Huntington Ingalls, Jacobs Engineering, L3, Orbital ATK, Rockwell Collins, Rolls Royce, and SAIC. Hundreds of other corporations, big and small, cover the landscape.
DOD employs many different contract types. They have fancy names, which vary depending on: whether or how they can be adjusted at a later date; the quantity of the product involved; the product’s delivery schedule; and anticipated price fluctuations. Examples of contract types include: firm-fixed-price; firm-fixed-price with economic adjustment; firm-fixed-fee; cost-plus-fixed-fee; and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity. For thorough elaboration, consult the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).
Exorbitant initial costs worry the taxpayer. Subsequent costs are tacked on later in the form of modifications. Modifications are adjustments and additions to existing contracts. Corporations make a lot of money from modifications. Corporations justify modifications by claiming need for frequent maintenance, upkeep, tweaking, and upgrading.
The product varies. The product can involve: so-called unmanned vehicles; advertising and recruitment; weaponry and materiel; aircraft and maintenance; payment to universities for academic collusion; extortionate weapons platforms, like Aegis, Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), or the X-Band radar; clothing and gear; fuel and energy; medical and dental services; environmental remediation; food services; base administration and logistics; domestic and overseas construction projects; river dredging; or many other goods and services.
Look at this example, which has been revised to highlight the important parts:
Airtec Inc.,* California, Maryland, is being awarded an $80,661,914 modification against a previously issued firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N68335-14-D-0030) for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) services in support of the U.S. Southern Command. The contractor will provide ISR services utilizing a contractor-owned, contractor-operated Bombardier DHC-8/200 multi-sensor aircraft, with government-furnished property previously installed on the aircraft. Work will be performed in Bogota, Columbia (90 percent); and California, Maryland (10 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2018. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey, is the contracting activity.
The aforementioned contract now becomes:
Airtec Inc. received $80,661,914 to provide ISR services in support of USSOUTHCOM utilizing an Airtec owned/operated Bombardier DHC-8/200 multi-sensor aircraft, with government-furnished property previously installed. Work will be in Bogota, Colombia (90%); and California, MD (10%).
Those who compile DOD contracts often misspell the names of sovereign nations. In this case, they misspelled Colombia. We can begin to see the value of distilling these contracts. From this contract alone, we learn much regarding DOD’s overseas posture and bureaucratic competence.
Now analyze this concrete example:
Raytheon Missile Systems Co., Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $10,647,581 not-to-exceed letter contract for Small Diameter Bomb II. Contractor will provide Small Diameter Bomb II aircraft integration test assets, to include jettison test vehicles, and instrumented measurement vehicles on the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will be performed at Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be complete by Aug. 10, 2016. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2015 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity.
Compare that contract to previous templates. Knowing what you’ve learned so far, try to distill the essential information.
Links help the public understand information clearly. Links can be provided regarding: type of weapons platform; corporate history; Combatant Command (UCC); and any other pertinent information one deems valuable. Over time, one will become acclimated to what is essential information and what is chaff. One also may decide to keep the chaff for personal notes, along with, of course, the meat of the contract. In one’s own notes, track the corporation’s branch location, the good or service they provide, where that good/service is provisioned, and any additional information that will help understand DOD’s domestic industrial base. After a few months of this hobby, a solid picture of DOD’s industrial footprint materializes.
A modification, as mentioned briefly before, is basically an extension of a contract. A contract is inked, and later a modification adds funding to the original contract, which permits more work to be done. Take the following Lockheed Martin contract from 8 August 2014, which involves an Aegis product:
Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, Moorestown, New Jersey, has been awarded a $193,610,317 modification to previously awarded contract number HQ0276-10-C-0001 for procurement of necessary material, equipment, and supplies to conduct the technical engineering to define, develop, integrate and test Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense 4.1 and 5.0 Capability Upgrade baselines through their respective certifications. This modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $2,002,542,722 from $1,808,932,405. Work will be performed at Moorestown, New Jersey, with an expected completion date of May 31, 2016. Fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $19,500,000 are being obligated at time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Dahlgren, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
What have we learned? We know that this modification adds almost $200 million to a previous contract involving the Aegis weapon system. We know where the product is crafted. We know the end user, in this case MDA. Googling the previously awarded contract number often yields relevant background information. Much can also be learned about this weapon platform from Lockheed Martin’s own website.
There is a surprising amount of public data available on the Internet. After all, war corporations have products they want to market and sell. Often their corporate websites display piecemeal information. When searching those locations fails, the public domain contains more information elsewhere, especially if the contract was bid on in a relatively open manner. Try consulting fbo.gov, clearancejobs.com, and LinkedIn.
Organization is key. Major corporations (Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, etc.) are large enough to each require their own word processing document. Other players can be grouped in a document based on function. For example: AM General, Caterpillar, Navistar and Oshkosh all provide vehicles to the U.S. military. Therefore, one might want to consider grouping them in a single word processing document. Other function-based groupings may include: A) major cyber-related contracts; B) space and satellite corporations; C) U.S. telecommunications providers; D) overseas base support; E) helicopter accessories; and F) Afghanistan profiteering, etc. Over time, experimentation is encouraged for arranging notes to best suite one’s personal organizational strengths.
Sometimes war corporations deliberately phrase contracts in a vague manner. Elusive phrasing results in contracts being awarded for “knowledge based service-type requirements”; “equipment related services”; and “R&D services for the purpose of creating and developing new processes or products.” While this lack of clarity can be frustrating, creative Google searches using combinations of corporate names and contract numbers often yield more information.
This guide is by no means exhaustive. Curators of the military-industrial complex (MIC) will inevitably develop individualized approaches to cataloguing MIC activities. This is both expected and encouraged. As long as citizens are engaged and diving into DOD contracts, then the public good is being served.
Concerted pursuit of this pastime requires a daily commitment of less than an hour. This includes research, organization, distillation, and frequent revision. Polishing the little pieces matters, like changing “and” to “&” when it is part of a single company’s name. That way, your reader isn’t confused as to whether the corporation in question is one entity or two.
For public consumption, attention to detail can distill this:
Parsons Government Services Inc., Huntsville, Alabama, is being awarded a ceiling $68,845,081 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a five-year ordering period. The contract provides scientific and technical support to the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center. Work will be performed at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, with an expected completion date of June 25, 2020. The acquisition was solicited on the basis of full and open competition, and two bids were received. Funding will be obligated on individual task orders with the initial task order scheduled to be awarded July 7, 2015, at an estimated ceiling price of $1,300,000. Virginia Contracting Activity, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (HHM402-15-D-0007).
… into this:
Parsons Government Services received $68,845,081 to provide scientific and technical support to DIA’s Missile & Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) at Redstone Arsenal.
Christian Sorensen, a BFP Contributing Author & Analyst, is a U.S. military veteran. His writing has been featured in CounterPunch and Media Roots.

 

Source: boilingfrogspost.com

 

Pentagon Denies Report US Is Bombing ISIS Targets In Iraq

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BY BRETT LOGIURATO
The Pentagon moved swiftly to shoot down a New York Times report Thursday afternoon that American military forces had bombed at least two places in northern Iraq targeting fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Report businessinsider.com
“Press reports that US has conducted airstrikes in Iraq completely false. No such action taken,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, wrote on Twitter.

President Barack Obama is preparing to make a statement Thursday evening, the Times reported. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Times reported, citing Kurdish officials, that U.S. military forces struck at least two targets with the intention of routing ISIS fighters who have created what officials have called an urgent humanitarian situation in northern Iraq. ISIS has trapped tens of thousands of religious minorities on Mount Sinjar who belong to the Yazidi religious sect.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that U.S. airstrikes appeared underway. Anwar Haj Othman, deputy head of the Peshmerga ministry, a defense ministry for the Kurdish forces, told the Journal that U.S. jet fighters struck targets in both the Mount Sinjar plains and in a Kurdish area known as Gwair.

The situation has given the Yazidis a near-impossible dilemma — leave and risk being killed by the militants, or stay and hope aid comes their way.

A senior Defense Department official told Business Insider earlier Thursday that the U.S. was considering emergency-relief airdrops of food and medicine to aid the religious minorities. Other reports indicated Obama was considering airstrikes targeting ISIS fighters at the base of the mountain.

“We have been working urgently and directly with officials in Baghdad and Erbil to coordinate Iraqi airdrops to people in need,” the Defense Department official told Business Insider. “The Government of Iraq has initiated air drops in the region, and we are in constant communication with them on how we can help coordinate additional relief, enhance their efforts, and provide direct assistance wherever possible.”

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-bombing-isis-iraq-pentagon-denies-nyt-2014-8#ixzz39kDuikeS