The Drone Base Will Provide a Stronger US Presence in a Region

[Combating Extremism is the stated objective. Terrorism is the Justification for the Militarization of Africa, GR Editor]

Back in 2013, President Obama had ordered a drone base to be built in the capital of Niger, Niamey, but even than military officials already indicated that ideally, they wanted the drone operation to be based outside of Agadez. The NY Times reported moving the drone base to Agadez had two main advantages. First, it is better positioned to launch drone operation throughout the southern regions of the Sahara that are turning into an alleged “terrorist hotbed”. Second, the drone operations are better shielded from prying eyes in isolated Agadez than in Niamey. A third reason, not mentioned by the NYT might well be that with the fall of Libyan leader Gaddafi, Agadez has turned into the smuggling capital of Africa, according to Politico Europe.

A key U.S. official involved in denuclearization talks with North Korea is leaving the White House just as the Trump administration prepares to engage in high-stakes negotiations with the isolated regime, the official confirmed to The Washington Post.

The departure of Andrea Hall, the National Security Council’s top staff official on weapons of mass destruction, comes as the Trump administration assembles a negotiating team capable of the intricate task of understanding and negotiating over North Korea’s elaborate array of nuclear weapons production facilities, warheads and missiles to deliver them.

When a delegation of senior Israeli officials visited the Trump White House on February 13, 2017, they wanted to discuss several issues with their new American counterparts. Topping the list was a secret letter concerning a subject the Israelis had promised the Americans never to discuss publicly—Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal. In a recent piece for The New Yorker, I described a tense scene in the West Wing as the Israeli delegation—which included Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer—tried to get the letter signed by President Donald Trump. By all accounts, the American Administration was eager to please the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Trump had promised to lavish with unprecedented support. But, at that chaotic moment, Trump’s aides felt blindsided by the Israeli request. They knew nothing about the existence of any letters and were confused by the sense of urgency coming from the Israelis.

The world waits with bated breath as a “mad king” descends on Singapore, his finger itching to press the launch button and totally destroy his adversaries. Few disagree that a “radical and absolutist” dictator who can “use the power of the state to suppress the opposition while shielding itself from all potential sanction or limitation” should not have access to a possibly world-ending arsenal of nuclear weapons.

“Surrounded by a clique of sycophants who are willing to justify any course he might take,” there is little stopping this impulsive ruler from making a sudden, cataclysmic decision that could forever alter the course of human history. Indeed, “a party organized around a single extreme personality seems like a brittle proposition.” With this “cult of personality” in place, his people will be dragged unwittingly and hopelessly into the nuclear abyss along with him.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting with CSTO Foreign Ministers in Almaty, announced Russia's desire to gain access to reference laboratories that were opened with US financial support in Armenia and Kazakhstan

The words of Lavrov quoted the publication Kommersant: "Our special services and scientists are tense with the appearance of these laboratories, they do not rule out that this can somehow later be used against us, they do not put them in Western Europe."

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with other interested Russian departments (including security forces) seeks to avert the threat of the world's use of biological weapons. In some areas there is a positive trend. Thus, Moscow and Yerevan are discussing the possibility of signing an agreement on cooperation in the field of biological research, which will open access for Russian specialists to the US laboratories in Armenia.

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have captured the airport at Hodeidah and have started preparations for the more complex task of capturing the city and its port nine miles (15km) to the north. The port is critical to the supply of aid to the rest of the famine-struck country.

Confirmation that the airport on the southern outskirts of the city had been seized after three days of fighting came from both TV pictures and eyewitness accounts. At least 40 Houthi fighters who had held the airport were killed, but most retreated into the city, preparing to fight a potentially intense street-by-street campaign that could endanger tens of thousands of civilians.

Hundreds of Afghan peace marchers arrived exhausted in the capital, Kabul, on Monday after spending the fasting month of Ramadan crossing the sun-baked, war-torn country, much of it under Taliban control.

The marchers, all men, including teachers, students and war victims on crutches and one in a wheelchair, were welcomed along the way by village women carrying the holy Koran, men singing and dancing or offering bread and yoghurt, some in tears.

"I saw and learnt things that I had never thought of before," said Iqbal Khayber, 27, a medical student from Helmand.

"We met people in areas controlled by the Taliban and in areas under government control - everyone is really tired of war."

The march was triggered by a car bomb in Helmand on March 23 that killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens. No group claimed responsibility.

Saudi-led coalition forces stormed the airport after fierce battles broke out between coalition forces and Houthi militants who hold the main port city of Hodeidah, a local resident said.

"They have stormed the airport," said one Yemeni military source.

The Saudi-led coalition's aircraft carried out airstrikes, targeting Houthi fighters at the airport in Yemen's main port city of Hodeidah on June 18 in response to a missile targeting the southwestern Saudi city of Jizan.

Israeli warplanes on Monday conducted air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip in response to incendiary kites being sent into Israeli territory, the military said, as two Palestinians, including a 13 year old, died later in the day in distinct circumstances.

Israel said it had carried out nine strikes targeting two Hamas compounds and one Hamas weapons manufacturing site and photos showed explosions lighting up the Gaza City skyline.

Colourful kites decorated with flags, slogans and patterns have become a symbol of resistance in the face of overwhelming Israeli military force during weeks of demonstrations.

Some with flaming tails have also been flown towards Israeli territory, causing several fires in farmlands and forests adjacent to Gaza and prompting Israeli officials to warn that kite fliers risk being targeted by snipers.

In a vote that further "entrenches endless war and bloated Pentagon spending" and places greater nuclear capacity in the hands of President Donald Trump, 38 Democrats and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) joined nearly every Senate Republican on Monday to pass a $716 billion defense bill that boosts military spending by over $80 billion and authorizes another $21.6 billion for nuclear weapons programs.

"We cannot spend more on our military than the next 10 nations combined while millions of Americans do not have food and housing and healthcare...That is why I voted against spending $716 billion on the military today."
—Sen. Bernie SandersHad the Pentagon's budget simply remained the same as it was in 2017, Congress "could have funded public college for every student in the U.S. and had $12 billion left over," noted media analyst Adam Johnson.

On May 24th, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) met behind closed doors and approved the massive 1140 page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA S 2987 ) of 2019 by a 25-2 vote which authorizes ‘funding and provides activities for the US military.’ At the same time, the Committee‘s l0 page Executive Summary and its 654 page Committee report were released explaining ‘details’ of the $716 billion legislative package.

While the Committee dutifully heard public testimony on the NDAA including Department of Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on April 26th , once the SASC subcommittees began their mark up on May 21 and May 22 and the Full SASC met to begin its two day mark-up on May 23 and May 24th, all SASC consideration of the NDAA was declared “SECRET” as committee doors were sealed shut preventing all public and press attendance

New York Times reporter David M. Halbfinger didn’t know whether the demonstrations in Gaza were “peaceful protests or violent riots.” So he embedded himself with Israeli snipers poised on the perimeter of Gaza concentration camp to find out (“At Gaza Protests: Kites, Drones, Gas, Guns and the Occasional Bomb,” June 8, 2018).

One might suppose if he wanted an answer to that question, the obvious place to go would be among the demonstrators. But never mind.

According to human rights organizations, the weekly Gaza demonstrations have been overwhelmingly nonviolent. But from day one, Halbfinger and his Times colleagues have recurrently portrayed them as armed confrontations in which Israeli snipers return the fire of protesters. They rely on official Israeli statements that are quoted without demurral, without further investigation, and without independent corroboration from, say, human rights monitors:

French special forces are present on the ground in Yemen with forces from the United Arab Emirates, French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Saturday, citing two military sources.

The newspaper gave no further information about their activities. The Defence Ministry was not immediately available for comment, but its usual policy is not to comment on special forces’ operations.

A French parliamentary source recently told Reuters French special forces were in Yemen.

Forces from an Arab alliance entered the airport in Yemen’s main port city on Saturday, in the biggest battle of the coalition’s war against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

The French Defence Ministry said on Friday that France was studying the possibility of carrying out a mine-sweeping operation to provide access to the port of Hodeidah once the coalition had wrapped up its military operations.

A Swedish call at the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire in the Yemen port of Hodeidah was derailed during a closed session Friday. The US and Britain both expressed opposition to the measure, designed to prevent Saudi-led forces attacking a port responsible for feeding 8.4 million civilians.

Britain insisted on the meeting being a closed session, meaning specific comments during the hearing, and the reiteration from UN officials of the humanitarian crisis threatening to kill millions, would not be done for the public to see.

US officials did not publicly comment on why they’re opposed to the ceasefire, but likely is a reflection of the Saudis really wanting to attack the city. British Ambassador Karen Pierce said their opposition was made purely based on “the British national interest.”

It’s not clear exactly how preventing food being delivered to Yemeni civilians is in the British national interest.

This year’s Bilderberg summit is a council of war. On the agenda: Russia and Iran. In the conference room: the secretary general of Nato, the German defence minister, and the director of the French foreign intelligence service, DGSE.

They are joined in Turin, Italy, by a slew of academic strategists and military theorists, but for those countries in geopolitical hotspots there is nothing theoretical about these talks. Not when the prime ministers of Estonia and Serbia are discussing Russia, or Turkey’s deputy PM is talking about Iran.

The clearest indication that some sort of US-led conflict is on the cards is the presence of the Pentagon’s top war-gamer, James H Baker. He is an expert in military trends, and no trend is more trendy in the world of battle strategy than artificial intelligence. Bilderberg is devoting a whole session to AI this year – and has invited military theorist Michael C Horowitz, who has written extensively on its likely impact on the future of war.

United States Army Secretary Mark Esper recently revealed that the military has a strategic vision of utilizing autonomous and semi-autonomous unmanned vehicles on the battlefield by 2028.

“I think robotics has the potential of fundamentally changing the character of warfare. And I think whoever gets there first will have a unique advantage on the modern battlefield,” Esper said during a Brookings Institute event.

“My ambition is by 2028, to begin fielding autonomous and certainly semi-autonomous vehicles that can fight on the battlefield,” he added. “Fight, sustain us, provide those things we need and we’ll continue to evolve from there.”

In a preview of the U.S. Army’s strategic vision, released on June 6, Esper said the integration of these forces would become a critical strategic component, quoting from the document:

In the early hours of 10 March 1945, as America’s heavy aircraft dropped over 1,600 tons of bombs on Tokyo, a firestorm larger and hotter than ever before was brewing. During the firebombings of Dresden and Hamburg, temperatures reached 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, but in Tokyo it soared to a blinding 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Such was the heat unleashed by US bombers over the Japanese capital, that civilians in their air raid shelters were beginning to suffocate. Rather than be overwhelmed, they fled into the streets, becoming glued to the melting asphalt under their feet. Those now stuck in the roads or pavements were helpless, many of whom were heavily charred by the rapidly growing fires.

The U.S. has called on Japan to reduce its high levels of stockpiled plutonium, a move that comes as the Trump administration seeks to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, Nikkei has learned.

The request was made by the U.S. Department of State and National Security Council ahead of next month's extension of a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, according to people familiar with the matter.

Japan has about 47 tons of the radioactive element -- enough to produce around 6,000 nuclear warheads. Foreign and domestic critics have pointed to these reserves as a ready source of bomb-making material should Japan choose to become a nuclear weapons state.

Plutonium production is banned in principle, but energy-poor Japan has been allowed to extract the material from spent nuclear fuel rods under the bilateral pact.

The NGO CAGE, which campaigns against discriminatory state policies and advocates observance of due process and the rule of law, reminds readers that in October 2017, US President Donald Trump replaced the Obama rules pertaining to drone strikes with his own ‘rules’ called the “Principles, Standards, and Procedures,” or PSPs.

It reports that according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) these laws “make it easier to kill more people in more places outside recognized battlefields, posing grave risks of death and injury to civilians”:

Lockheed Martin, the defense company behind F-35A Lightning II, a fifth-generation combat aircraft, won a $928 million contract April 18 to develop a hypersonic missile for the U.S. Air Force that will travel more than five times faster than the speed of sound to overcome Russian and Chinese missile defense systems.

According to Lockheed Martin, under the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, the company will design and manufacture the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW), a new air-launched weapon system. The missile will be capable of speeds higher than Mach five and could render Russian and Chinese ballistic missile defense interceptors useless.

Lockheed Martin will be strategically working with the U.S. Air Force to “finalize system requirements under the contract’s initial task order,” the press release stated.

Islamic State still keeps its presence in Syria, but only in US-controlled areas while those liberated by Syrian government forces areas are slowly recovering after terrorists’ defeat, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
“All the remaining pockets of resistance of ISIS terrorists in Syria are only in areas controlled by the United States,” Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a defense ministry spokesman, said on Saturday.

Earlier, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a bold statement that pulling out of the Arab Republic “must avoid leaving a vacuum in Syria that can be exploited by the Assad regime or its supporters,” in apparent reference to Iran and Russia.

Russia has been fighting terrorists in the country on the invitation of the Syrian government, while the US presence there has been deemed aggressive by Damascus.

Reza Najafi, Tehran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the IAEA Board of Governors that Israel's nuclear program poses a threat to peace and security in the region, according to PressTV.

According to Reza Najafi, Israel's nuclear program should be put on the IAEA's agenda as a real threat.

He added that the control over it should continue until Israel joins the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Najafi criticized the West's double standards concerning nuclear programs.

Tel Aviv has rejected requests to join the NPT and refused to allow international inspectors to enter the country.

India will press ahead with the procurement of five regiments of Russian-made S-400 Triumf advanced Air Defense Systems (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) intended for service in the Indian military notwithstanding U.S. sanctions, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a recent press conference.

Speaking to the press on June 5, the defense minister emphasized the close defense ties between India and Russia. “In all our engagements with the U.S., we have clearly explained how India and Russia’s defense cooperation has been going on for a long time and that it is a time-tested relationship,” Sitharaman said. “We have mentioned that CAATSA cannot impact the India-Russia defense cooperation.”

As the fate of the 2015 nuclear deal hangs in a balance, and with Europe wavering in doing business with Iran due to the return of US sanctions, Tehran is making a hard turn East to boost its economy, and counter mounting pressure from Western powers.

On Friday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani heads to China for an economic and security summit in the coastal city of Qingdao, where he is expected to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on bilateral relations, and the future of the nuclear deal.

Amid rising anti-Iran sentiments from the West, analysts said, the meeting between Rouhani and Xi presents an opportunity for Tehran to further cement its economic and political ties with Beijing, and for China to reinforce its growing geopolitical influence in the region.

Knowledge is power, and the Defense Department wants to ensure it can outpower any enemy in any domain. But first, it needs to know what is technically possible and how industry can support those efforts.

Information warfare—controlling the flow of information in and out of a battlespace to gain a tactical edge—is one of the oldest military tactics in existence. But with the rise of the internet and other advanced communications technologies, it is fast becoming a core tool in every military’s playbook.

In February 2017, Russian military leaders announced the existence of an information warfare branch, replete with troops trained in propaganda and other information operations. In the U.S., these duties are performed by troops in the Joint Information Operations Warfare Center.

One question Putin received referenced the new cold war between East and West, and whether this could lead to a hot World War 3.

Putin noted that such a scenario would be “an end of civilization” event, and awareness of this should be enough to restrain international powers from engaging in global conflict.

Scientists at MIT have revealed how they trained an artificial robot to become a “psychopath” by only showing it captions from disturbing images depicting gruesome deaths posted on Reddit.
The team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) named the world’s first psycho robot Norman, after the central character in Hitchcock’s 1960 movie ‘Psycho.’ As part of their experiment they only exposed Norman to a continuous stream of captions from violent images on an unnamed “infamous” subReddit page to see if it would alter the bot’s AI.

After the gruesome exposure, Norman was subjected to the Rorschach inkblot test - a psychological exam from 1921 which tests what subjects see when they look at nondescript inkblots. As part of the test the answers given by participants are then psychologically analyzed in order to measure potential thought disorders.

In mid-December 1960, a conference was held at Strategic Air Command headquarters near Omaha, Nebraska, to outline America’s nuclear war strategy. During the meeting, plans were revealed whereby Moscow alone would be hit by 40 megatons of nuclear weapons. That is: about 4,000 times the force of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima, on 6 August 1945.

Forty megatons also exceeded, by up to 30 times over, the full outlay of Allied conventional bombing during the Second World War. US General Thomas Power, commander-in-chief of Strategic Air Command, outlined at this meeting that radioactive fallout from the bombings would kill about 100 million Soviet citizens – roughly four times the total wiped out by the Nazis. The 100 million death toll was from radioactive fallout alone, not taking into account the further millions that would be killed by the bombs’ direct impact and blast radius.

Israel has been a nuclear power for decades, though its nuclear arsenal is undeclared and the country has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Estimates of its arsenal vary, with most suggesting that Israel possesses from 100 to 200 nuclear weapons. Israel was aided in the development of its nuclear program by Western powers, particularly France. Much of the Western “help” Israel received, however, was the result of covert thefts of nuclear material from countries such as the United States and Belgium.

While Dor-On, speaking to news outlet Arabi21, did not elaborate on the details of the information being exchanged, he stated that the sharing of this information was likely to be just the beginning of Israeli involvement in a future Saudi nuclear weapons program, which would likely see Israel “take the initiative to develop Saudi Arabia’s effort to acquire nuclear weapons” as a result of “the growing Saudi-Israeli relations.”

A letter from a number of ranking Senate Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), is setting out a series of demands for any denuclearization deal with North Korea. The letter suggests they intend to undermine any sort of deal made in the Trump-Kim summit next week.

The letter demands any denuclearization deal be complete and “permanent,” and threatens legislation to prevent any sanctions relief without their approval. They also demand that Trump force China to play a role in enforcing the deal.

This closely mirrors the way Congressional Republicans undermined the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, as reached by President Obama. This ultimately led to the US withdrawing from the deal just a couple of years into it.

Iran has begun working on infrastructure for building advanced centrifuges at its Natanz facility, Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said today.

Iran’s nuclear activities would remain within the framework of the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, Salehi said.

Salehi also said Iran had developed infrastructure to produce electricity at Natanz.

Last month, the US pulled out of what it referred to as the “defective” nuclear deal signed between the P5+1 states in 2015. The move has put the future of the deal at risk and left European leaders scrambling to ensure Iran complies with its terms and companies wondering if they should do business with Tehran as the US threatens to apply unilateral sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Moscow and Abu Dhabi have said they would take “active” efforts to turn Middle East into a zone free from any weapons of mass destruction. The ambitious goal was stated in a newly signed strategic partnership declaration.

“Turning Middle East into a zone free from weapons of mass destruction” was listed as one of the major aims in a declaration on strategic partnership between Russia and the United Arab Emirates signed on June 1. The goal is seen as part of a wider effort aimed at enhancing international security.

In an oddly open and honest press release this week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - the U.S. military’s top research and development laboratory - explained how it has begun a new program - PREPARE - with the goal to change human genetics to defend against specific threats.

As DARPA explains so disquietingly, "PREPARE aims to develop new class of generalizable medical countermeasures that safely and temporarily tune activity of protective genes."

The "PReemptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements" program is aimed at exploring ways for the human body to protect itself against biological, chemical, and radiological threats by “temporarily and reversibly tuning gene expression to bolster the body’s defenses.”

For now, however, the military lab is exploring four current health challenges as part of its “proof of concept” stage:

influenza viral infection,
opioid overdose,
organophosphate (e.g. pesticides) poisoning, and

Before the vote, 32 former top security officials opposed the idea of low-yield nuclear warhead in a letter sent to the members of Congress. The appeal failed to influence the outcome of the vote in the House. With the funding approved, the W76-2 could be in service during the current presidential term.

Chinese scientists are running simulated tests at a faster rate than America as world’s leading powers develop arsenal of ‘usable’ next-generation weapons

British defense companies made a record amount of money from selling weapons and military hardware to Israel, anti-arms campaigners’ data shows. New figures were revealed ahead of the royal trip to the country in June.
According to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), defense contractors made at least £221 million ($294 million) last year from deals with Tel Aviv. That is a significant increase compared to £86 million ($114 million) in 2016. Export licenses to Israel issued by the UK government and tracked down by CAAT cover a wide range of military equipment, ranging from missile components and explosives to body armor and weapon sights.

The news emerges just days after Prince William announced the date of his forthcoming trip to Israel and Palestine. He will arrive on June 25, and is scheduled to travel to Israel’s capital Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is based. His tour will be the first-ever official trip of a British royal to Israel.

The government has already prepared some scripts to use on the terrified public should the United States ever be attacked with a nuclear weapon. The US government prepares for all sorts of threats, but none match the pomp and circumstance they’ll display in the event of a nuclear explosion.

Here’s an example of what the government will tell people to try to prevent widespread panic:

“Lives have been lost, people have been injured, and homes and businesses have been destroyed. All levels of government are coordinating their efforts to do everything possible to help the people affected by this emergency. As lifesaving activities continue, follow the instructions from emergency responders… The instructions are based on the best information we have right now; the instructions will be updated as more information becomes available.”

It was supposed to be a joyous occasion, marking the commencement of a new and better phase in the life of nearly 1000 graduates. Instead, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the 984 new lieutenants who are graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy to prepare for the worst: war.

On Wednesday night, Mattis spoke at the graduation ceremony on the campus outside Colorado Springs and told the 2018 graduates they must be ready to fight and win. The Pentagon chief also told the 60th class to graduate from the academy that they must maintain U.S. military superiority in the air, and urged them to make the Air Force better.

As the ceremony ended, the newly commissioned officers threw their white hats into the sky as the Air Force Thunderbirds roared overhead, a longstanding tradition. Of the nearly 1000 graduates, more than 400 are headed to pilot training, and 69 will be trained to operate drones.

Two weeks ago, President Trump terminated the United States' participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo started his speech at the Heritage Foundation on Monday.

"President Trump withdrew from the deal for a simple reason," he continued. "It failed to guarantee the safety of the American people from the risks created by the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Thus Pompeo began a talk grounded more in fantasy than strategy.

He spoke repeatedly of an Iranian "march across the Middle East," painting Tehran as the mastermind of regional instability which poses an active, existential threat to U.S. friends and allies.

The "path forward," as Pompeo described it, is for Iran to submit to onerous new U.S. sanctions and concede to a long list of demands.

In his first statement since Pompeo's Wednesday speech, Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei set 7 conditions for the European nations if they want Tehran to remain in the agreement.

Khamenei laid out the full list on Twitter on Trump's favorite social media network, remainder of continued on twitter where in a brief tweetstorm, he unveiled the following demands of Europe:

Over the course of 2 years, US violated #JCPOA, several times, while the Europeans remained silent. These 3 European countries should prove that they won’t be as dishonest & untrustworthy as they were during nuclear talks in 2004-2005. Europe needs to compensate for it:
The US has violated Resolution 2231. Europe must issue a resolution against US’s violation [of it].
Europe must guarantee it will not raise the issue of the Islamic Republic's missiles and regional affairs.

One airman said he felt paranoia. Another marveled at the vibrant colors. A third admitted, “I absolutely just loved altering my mind.”

Meet service members entrusted with guarding nuclear missiles that are among the most powerful in America’s arsenal.

Air Force records obtained by The Associated Press show they bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering illegal drugs as part of a ring that operated undetected for months on a highly secure military base in Wyoming. After investigators closed in, one airman deserted to Mexico.

“Although this sounds like something from a movie, it isn’t,” said Capt. Charles Grimsley, the lead prosecutor of one of several courts-martial.

The Pentagon plans to invest more than $20 billion in munitions in its next budget. But whether the industrial base will be there to support such massive buys in the future is up in the air — at a time when America is expending munitions at increasingly intense rates.

The annual Industrial Capabilities report, put out by the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, has concluded that the industrial base of the munitions sector is particularly strained, something the report blames on the start-and-stop nature of munitions procurement over the last 20 years, as well as the lack of new designs being internally developed.

Some suppliers have dropped out entirely, leaving no option for replacing vital materials. Other key suppliers are foreign-owned, with no indigenous capability to produce vital parts and materials ? setting up the risk that a conflict with China could rely on Chinese-made parts.

The Nevada Test Site was established a few years after the end of the second world war, against the fear of an all-out nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. As the Cold War took hold, America needed a convenient place to design and build its nuclear arsenal.

From 1951, over four decades, the US government carried out almost a thousand nuclear tests at this test site, earning it the nickname of the “most bombed place on Earth”. Here, they took the crude nuclear weapons that had been dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and honed their destructive power.

A hundred of these tests, known as atmospheric shots, took place above ground, creating the characteristic mushroom clouds that have become synonymous with nuclear detonations.

The government still carries out classified work on the site, and access is limited to a small number of carefully vetted visitors each year, who are not allowed to take photographs. The Guardian was given extremely rare access to film at the site.

The discovery of gear meant for protection against chemical weapons was part of a vast stock of NATO weapons found Monday by the Syrian military and members of the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation in territory recently freed from militants.

Commenting on Monday's weapons discovery, which included gas masks and other equipment, in addition to heavy weapons, retired Lebanese Brigadier General Amin Hteit warned that the chemical protection equipment pointed to a possible preparation for another false-flag attack involving the use of chemical weapons.

"The warehouse find includes a great deal of equipment associated with chemical attacks," the former officer said, speaking to Sputnik.

On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry released footage of the Borei-class submarine Yuri Dolgoruky successfully test-firing four Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, the first such test for this type of submarine. The missiles were launched from the White Sea and hit designated targets at the Kura range in the Far Eastern Kamchatka region.

According to Russia's Tass news agency, it was the first salvo fire from this type of submarines: "The test confirmed combat readiness of the Project-955 Borei strategic submarine and the Bulava missile system."

The video published on Wednesday shows some pre-launch activities on board the Yuriy Dolgorukiy, the launching submarine. Then the submarine is shown firing four Bulava missiles at a test range in Kamchatka in quick succession.

As RT notes, previous tests of the weapon were conducted solo or in barrages of two on two occasions.

In 2016, Donald Trump distinguished himself from his chief Republican opponents and certainly from Hillary Clinton by saying out loud what many ordinary Americans already suspected: that in terms of immediate threats, it’s not some faraway axis of evil that we need to worry about so much as pervasive stupidity among the managers of Pax America in Washington. In memorable fashion, Trump vowed to “drain the swamp” and to formulate an “America First” approach to policy. If elected, Trump would end the reckless squandering of American power. So, at least, he said.

Earlier this month, SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) which monitors global military spending, released its latest report. To no one's surprise, the US topped the list, with more spending than the next seven biggest spenders combined.

According to the report, in 2017 the US spent 610 billion dollars, while China spent 228 billion. The rest of the list engaged in miniscule amounts of spending by comparison, with Russia spending 66 billion, the UK spending 47 billion, and Japan spending 45 billion — to list a few examples.

Viewed in light of the deterrent power of the US's enormous nuclear stockpile, US military capability is far greater than even the SIPRI report suggests.

Nevertheless, there are some in Washington who every year cry wolf over how the US military is being stripped to the bone, and that the US must "rebuild" its military capability.

Sources in the Russian law enforcement agencies, citing data from closed communication channels with the Defense Ministries of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, say that the operation to prepare a large-scale hybrid offensive against Russia through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is in the final phase.

Reports of this have been received earlier, in particular, this was mentioned at a recent security conference held in Tashkent. Then the head of the Tajik Foreign Ministry Sirodzhiddin Aslov openly announced the activation of terrorists in the region:

The activation of terrorist groups, their advancement to the northern regions of Afghanistan, especially in the territories bordering Tajikistan, the increase in the number of ISIS supporters, as well as the participation of a certain number of citizens of the post-Soviet republics in the terrorist groups and movements present in Afghanistan … causes our serious concern

A sample of Novichok (substance A-234), the nerve agent allegedly used to poison the Skripals in the United Kingdom in March 2018, was obtained by German intelligence in the 1990s, local media have reported. Since then, the substance has been studied and produced by NATO countries.

Western countries, including the US and UK, have long been aware of the chemical composition of the nerve agent known as Novichok, a group of German media have reported following after a investigation.

The inquiry, based on anonymous sources, gives new insight into the issue of the nerve agent that would have been used in the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, UK, in March.

Western governments managed to get their hands on the formula of what is described as “one of the deadliest chemical weapons ever developed,” after the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, obtained a sample of the nerve agent from a Russian defector decades ago.

The US has cleared the sale of 3,200 bombs valued at about $45 million, including powerful bunker busters, to Bahrain. The Persian Gulf monarchy is hosting the US 5th Fleet and has been involved in the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen.
The order would consist of 1,500 Mark-82 general purpose bombs; 600 Mark-83 bombs; 600 Mark-84 bombs; and 500 BLU-109 “bunker busters,” bombs armed with special warheads designed to penetrate hardened targets, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced on Friday.

The ordnance is intended for Bahrain’s US-made F-16 combat jets, and would come directly from US government stocks. Bahrain “will use these munitions as a deterrent to regional threats, strengthen its homeland defense, and execute counter-terrorism operations,” the agency said, as well as “operate with US-led and US-supported coalition operations.”

The Trump administration escalated its demands on Iran on Monday while giving Tehran a possible loophole if it wants the US to return to the nuclear deal which President Trump unilaterally cancelled last month, laying out a list of demands that Iran has to satisfy for the deal to be restored, including a stop to all uranium enrichment and halt to Iran's support for militant groups in the region.

The administration’s demands were outlined in a speech by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which for the first time spelled out all of the administration’s requirements for a new agreement. Pompeo laid out an onerous list of 12 "basic requirements" on Iran which toughened the nuclear demands and called for a wholesale change to Iran’s military posture in the region, that he says should be included.

Facebook has announced a new partnership with the Atlantic Council, a think tank with close ties to the Military Industrial Complex and Defense Department.

On Thursday Facebook announced a new partnership with the Atlantic Council, a think tank which officially claims to provide a forum for international political, business, and intellectual leaders. The social media giant said the partnership is aimed at preventing Facebook from “being abused during elections.” The press release promotes Facebook’s efforts to fight fake news by using artificial intelligence, as well as working with outside experts and governments.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced from Yemen’s coastal province of Hodeidah, as pro-Saudi forces invaded the area with an eye toward eventually seizing the last port held by Shi’ite Houthi forces.

The civilians say they were facing terrifying mortar attacks, with rockets flying overhead and landmines ripping people to shreds. Amnesty International is reporting that the worst is yet to come, however, for the entire nation, as this offensive worsens.

That’s because as the last Houthi port, Hodeidah is the lone source of humanitarian aid for roughly half of the country. That makes it a “strategic target,” but the fall of the port also means that half of the country, the half already on the brink of starvation and recovering from a record large cholera epidemic, will be under even tighter siege.

As global counterterrorism operations show no signs of slowing down, U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) are receivingthousands of light, gliding missiles that are smaller and more powerful than an AGM-114 Hellfire and fired from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules above the modern battlefield.

In recent years, insurgent groups have outsmarted American precision-guided weapons launched from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with fast traveling vehicles. However, a new powerful gliding munition can chase down and destroy these fast-moving targets.

President Donald Trump has confirmed in no uncertain terms, his support of Israel’s illegal settlements (including his opposition to UN Security Council Resolution 2334, pertaining to the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank).

Moreover, by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and allowing for the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and beyond, the US president has provided a de facto endorsement of the “Greater Israel” project as formulated under the Yinon Plan.

Bear in mind: this design is not strictly a Zionist Project for the Middle East, it is an integral part of US foreign policy, namely Washington’s intent to fracture and balkanize the Middle East. Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is intended to trigger political instability throughout the region.

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 10-5 to support Gina Haspel’s nomination today, despite the fact that her facilitation of torture should disqualify her from assuming the role of CIA director.

Next the full Senate will make a final decision on Haspel’s nomination in a vote that is expected to take place next week but could occur as early as tomorrow.

In her testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on May 9, Haspel insisted that the CIA’s interrogation program during the Bush administration was legal. Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran, argued that it could not be determined whether torture was effective to gain intelligence. She refused to state categorically that torture is immoral. And she never condemned the torture program in which she participated.

There aren’t really examples of nations with substantial nuclear arsenals giving them up as part of a broad negotiated settlement and it working out. North Korea’s denuclearization, then, is very much uncharted territory. The Trump Administration, however, insists on drawing parallels to Libya.

National Security Adviser John Bolton in particular is trying to draw this comparison, even though there are obvious, dramatic differences between the two situations. North Korea is also furious about the Trump Administration’s talk of Libya, and it’s not hard to see why.

Libya never had functional nuclear weapons, and gave up its equipment in 2003 in hopes of ending its international isolation and reforming its image. North Korea’s interest in diplomatic engagement is one commonality, but makes it a particularly poor example, as Libya never really enjoyed much of a reward.

Russia will keep its warships – armed with Kalibr cruise missiles – in the Mediterranean to thwart the possible re-emergence of terrorist groups in Syria, President Vladimir Putin said, hailing the navy’s operations overseas.
Russia’s standing naval task force, which includes warships equipped with Kalibr-class cruise missiles, will remain off Syrian shores on permanent deployment “given the persistent threat of terrorist incursions” in the country, Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

Russia’s naval presence in the Mediterranean has become a game-changer in combatting terrorism in Syria, Putin said, adding that “missile strikes as well as efficient action by our naval aircraft inflicted serious damage to terrorists.”

Russia’s state-of-the-art hypersonic glide vehicle, which analysts say is capable of easily cutting through the existing US missile shield, will become operational by 2020, reports citing US intelligence have warned.
Speaking to CNBC on the condition of anonymity, sources aware of US intelligence reports, said the Russian military successfully tested the weapon twice in 2016. The third known test of the weapon was allegedly carried out in October 2017, and allegedly failed when the device crashed seconds before hitting its target.

The sources believe the device would be a significant breakthrough which could enable Russian military to surpass US counterparts. The intelligence sources claimed that the hypersonic gliders will get onboard countermeasures to enable them to defeat even the most advanced missile-defense systems.

Google's "Project Maven" is supplying machine-learning tools to the Pentagon to support drone strikes; the project has been hugely divisive within Google, with employees pointing out that the company is wildly profitable and doesn't need to compromise on its ethics to keep its doors open; that the drone program is a system of extrajudicial killing far from the battlefield; and that the firm's long-term health depends on its ability to win and retain the trust of users around the world, which will be harder if Google becomes a de facto wing of the US military.

A dozen googlers have put their money where their mouths are, publicly resigning over the contract; 4,000 more googlers have signed an open letter to the company's CEO asking him to cancel the contract.

The US, Swedish, and Finnish defense ministers signed a trilateral Statement of Intent (SOI) to expand defense cooperation on all fronts. The signing ceremony took place in Washington on May 8. In 2016, the two Scandinavian nations finalized separate defense SOIs with America. Now they have signed a joint document to unify those previous agreements and enhance their interoperability.

The Scandinavian visitors claimed this was just a starting point for a more mature relationship. The agreement emphasizes the countries’ combined joint exercises and streamlines the procedures that have been established to manage them.

At some settler event in the capital of Palestine Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, mentioned today's Gaza massacre in which Israeli soldiers murdered at least 52 and maimed 1,200 unarmed Palestinians. He accused them of being the guilty ones because they protest against the Zionist theft and occupation of their land:

"As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today, those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution."
The White House omitted that sentence in its official transcript. In its daily press briefing the White House called the murder committed by the Zionist army "a propaganda attempt" by Hamas and Palestinians.

In response to today's massacre South Africa recalled its ambassador from Israel. It is so far the only country which did so. South Africa knows apartheid and colonial violence. It no longer condones it.

North Korea plans to join global efforts to implement a total ban on nuclear weapons tests, Pyongyang’s ambassador told the United Nations disarmament body on Tuesday.

Tensions are at an all-time high in the Middle East as Israel launched more than sixty missiles at Syria because Israel claimed that Iranian forces fired rockets into the Golan Heights, an Israel-occupied territory since the 1967 Six-Day War.

ran responded to the Israeli claims in a Zero Hedge report:

In the aftermath of one of the most severe Israeli attacks on Syria “in decades,” Iranian lawmakers said Thursday that Iran had no role in the attack, and that Shia nation doesn’t operate any bases in Syria.

Mohammad Javad Jamali Nobandegani, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said Israel’s claim that Iran had provoked Israel by firing first was “a lie,” adding that

“Israel’s history of carrying out unprovoked attacks in Syria has been well-documented.” “Iran does not have military base in Syria,” Nobandegani added

he U.S. Government Accountability Office is expected to rule soon on a disputed contract worth more than a billion dollars to supply food to American forces in the Middle East.

The big-dollar decision will mark the most recent twist in a battle over giant U.S. military logistics deals dating back nearly a decade, and includes allegations of sanctions busting, corruption, and fraud. The ruling could also prove troublesome for the Defense Department, which for years has faced criticism over its contracts with Gulf-owned logistics companies the military has used to feed deployed troops.

The Saudi-backed Yemeni army took control of the town of al-Bareh, west of Taiz, earlier this week. The fall of this town is less important than what comes next, as the army draws ever closer to the key port city of Hodeidah.

Hodeidah is the lone seaport under the control of the Shi’ite Houthi movement, and by extension is the only port through which humanitarian aid can flow for the entire northern half of the country. A vital humanitarian location, which to pro-Saudi forces is a vital military target.

Successfully conquering Hodeidah would, after all, mean the Houthi territory, including the capital city and many millions of people, would have no access to food or medical aid. This would be an opportunity for the Saudi invading force to really crack down on them.

They envision it forcing a surrender, but it may also could bring millions of malnourished people into outright starvation.

“Trump’s reckless, unwarranted, utterly irrational action will pull Washington ever deeper into an incendiary Middle Eastern vortex of political and religious conflict that has absolutely nothing to do with the safety and security of the American people”.
— David Stockman, Former Congressman and Ronald Reagan’s Budget Director on Trump pulling out of the Iran nuke deal

“Sheldon Adelson, for his part, has advocated launching a nuclear attack against Iran as a negotiating tactic and threatening to nuke Tehran, a city with a population of 8.8 million people if Iran does not completely abandon their nuclear program”.
— Eli Clifton, Writer

A Japanese newspaper has raised the possibility of Chinese President Xi Jinping also travelling to Singapore when US President Donald Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for an unprecedented summit on June 12.

The Mainichi Shimbun's Washington-based correspondent cited American diplomatic sources as saying there was a chance that Mr Xi may meet Mr Trump and Mr Kim in Singapore.

In the report published on Friday, the Mainichi quoted a senior international negotiator with the National Security Council as telling reporters that "there is a possibility" the leader of a third country may take part.

Mr Trump announced via a tweet on Thursday that his summit with Mr Kim will be held on June 12 in Singapore.

The United States Army recently awarded BAE Systems $97 Million in orders for new night vision goggles and thermal weapon sights for the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle III and Family of Weapon Sight-Individual (ENVG III/FWS-I) program. The all-in-one weapon sight system allows soldiers to acquire and eliminate enemy targets through a wireless connection that transmits the weapon’s crosshairs and surrounding imagery directly into the soldier’s goggles.

During the election, I wrote a little ebook titled “Donald Trump’s War on Islam.” In addition to pointing out Trump’s pandering to Islamophobia, I wrote about his association with a number of neocons, including Frank Gaffney and John Bolton, who is now his national security adviser. “I think John Bolton’s a good man,” Trump told the Hugh Hewitt Show.
“I watched him yesterday, actually, and he was very good in defending me in some of my views, and very, very strong. And I’ve always liked John Bolton. Well, we are thinking about it, Hugh [nominating Bolton as secretary of state]. I will say that. We are thinking about it. I mean, the negative is what I told you. But we are seriously thinking about it.”

Last month, warplanes belonging to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen repeatedly bombed a wedding party in the northern part of the country, killing more than 20 people, including the bride, and injuring dozens of others. In the days that followed, local media published a photograph of a bomb fragment with a serial number tying it to the U.S.-based weapons manufacturer Raytheon.
Now the State Department is taking preliminary steps toward a massive, multibillion-dollar sale of similar weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, three congressional aides, a State Department official, and two other people familiar with the sales told The Intercept.

The State Department has yet to announce the exact details and dollar value of the package, but it is said to include tens of thousands of precision-guided munitions from Raytheon, the same company that was involved in producing the weapons used in last month’s strike.

At the beginning of the month (May 2018) the British Ministry of Defence seemingly on accident revealed for the first time that they are unloading horrifyingly inhumane, thermobaric weapons out of drones onto the people of Syria: and it wasn’t even in this recent April 2018 escalation of tension, but last year. They are doing it more often than they’d like to admit.

Somehow the use of thermobaric weapons seems less humane than ripping a person to shreds with shrapnel.

The weapons work by igniting oxygen surrounding the weapon.

A cloud of explosive chemicals is released, and upon impact the fuel-air mixture is detonated, exploding the lungs of animals and human beings in the vicinity, not damaging structures much but filling the lungs of all animals with fuel and burning them in what may be one of the most horrifying ways imaginable to die.

The Pentagon’s newly released 8-page report on the Niger incident had a very clear narrative. From the moment local commanders endorsed the mission to the recovery of the four bodies of slain US soldiers, the report goes out of its way to lionize everyone’s actions, and downplay errors.

This makes sense, because underlying these conclusions is the fact that the Pentagon has no intention of holding anyone to account for the mistakes made. Yet the summary report’s decision to tread very lightly on a lot of potentially embarrassing specifics means that it ultimately raises a lot more questions than it answered.

Fortunately, a lot of those answers exist, as this 8-page version was just a summary of a 180-page full report on the incident. The administration is keeping that carefully secret, however. They say that the report needs to be heavily reviewed, and redacted, before ever being made public.

North Korea will openly dismantle its nuclear test site around May 23-25, state media said. Pyongyang has invited foreign journalists, including those from the US, to cover the event.

The dismantling will involve collapsing all tunnels with explosions and blocking their entrances. All observation facilities, research buildings, and security posts will be removed, KCNA reported.

Notably, journalists from other nations, including China, Russia, South Korea, the UK and the US, will be invited to cover the event.

(Authored by Ty Joplin via Albawaba.com)

Erik Prince is the modern architect of private military firms

His latest venture is in training security personnel in China

But he's been all over the world, outsourcing militaries to cheap labor markets

Al Bawaba has provided a partial map to track Erik Prince's activities over the years.

Erik Prince, the brain behind the infamous private military firm Blackwater, is now in China training security forces.

Prince is partially responsible for modernizing the private army for the post 9/11 world, outsourcing militaries to cheap, specialized labor pools and skirting traditional regulations meant to ensure accountability for armed forces.

His journey from hiring mercenaries to help bolster the U.S. occupation in Iraq to China is long, dizzying and includes stops around the world to train Colombian mercenaries to help make a private army for the U.A.E. and outfitting crop duster planes with missiles to be fired at Armenians.

The chief of inspections at the U.N. nuclear watchdog has resigned suddenly, the agency said on Friday without giving a reason.

The departure of Tero Varjoranta comes at a sensitive time, three days after the United States announced it was quitting world powers’ nuclear accord with Iran, raising questions as to whether Tehran will continue to comply with it.