Tag: Pentagon

Defense Secretary Says 256 Miles of New Border Wall Coming Soon

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by Jason Hopkins   The Pentagon announced that well over 200 miles of physical barrier is slated to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border in the coming months. “We now have on contract sufficient funds to build about 256 miles of barrier,” acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said Wednesday while testing before the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. Shanahan noted that current funding is sourced from Treasury forfeiture funds, diverted money from the Pentagon, and other border funds secured by the Department of Homeland Security. “How you will see this materialize in the next six months is that about 63 additional new miles of wall will come online,” the acting defense secretary added. The rate will equate to roughly half a mile of border wall a day. President Donald Trump enraged Democrats after declaring a national emergency on the southern border in February, a move that allowed him to allocate billions more for wall construction. After the Pentagon diverted $1 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers in March to build new physical barriers, without first seeking congressional approval, Democratic lawmakers threatened to strip the Defense Department of its budget authority. The Trump administration argues that the funds are not enough…

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Pentagon Warns of Chinese Military Spying

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  China’s two decades of military modernization has paid off begin missile development and domains like cyber and space, but the Pentagon says China is still relying on spying on others to steal the latest military technology. “China uses a variety of methods to acquire foreign military and dual-use technologies, including targeted foreign direct investment, cyber theft, and exploitation of private Chinese nationals’ access to these technologies, as well as … computer intrusions and other illicit approaches,” according to a congressionally mandated Pentagon report released Thursday. Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told reporters Friday at the Pentagon that China frequently uses tactics that fall just short of armed conflict to reach its goal of becoming a “world-class military by 2049,” from threats and coercion against media and academia to jamming systems against ships in international waters in the South China Sea. The report said China has used these illicit approaches to acquire military-grade technologies from the United States that ranged from antisubmarine to aviation equipment. He said the Chinese were “very aggressive” with modernization and had made “significant progress” in their ballistic and cruise missile development, but he stopped short of calling Beijing an…

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Pentagon Awards Nearly $1 Billion in Border Wall Spending Contracts

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by Jason Hopkins   The Department of Defense awarded two military contracts worth almost $1 billion for wall construction on the U.S-Mexico border, the first funds granted since President Donald Trump declared a national emergency. The Pentagon announced Tuesday it awarded a $789 million contract to Texas-based company, SLSCO Ltd. for “border replacement wall construction” in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, according to a news release from the Department of Defense. Additionally, Barnard Construction Co. Inc, a company based in Montana, was given a $187 million contract for a wall replacement project in Yuma, Arizona. The New Mexico wall will be 30 feet high and include a five-foot anti-climb plate at the top, and is expected to be completed by October 2020. The Arizona project, expected to be done by September 2020, will include 18-foot bollard fencing with the same five-foot anti-climb plate. The announcement marks the first contracts doled out to construction companies after Trump declared a national emergency in February, a move that allowed him to allocate billions more in funds for border wall spending. The Pentagon informed Congress in March that it had diverted funds to the Army Corps of Engineers for new border walls, upsetting lawmakers from…

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Charlie Daniels and The Journey Home Project Announce Pentagon Art Exhibit

Zachery Schmidt

Country music icon Charlie Daniels has opened an art gallery of combat and civilian photographs by veterans and their families at the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. The Journey Home Project (TJHP), a nonprofit founded by Daniels, teamed up with the Rich Poverty organization to create the new art exhibit called The Alliance Collection. This collection displays photos from over 50 veteran artists from around the world. “It’s a real honor to do anything that benefits our heroes in the military, and to be a part of something displayed in the Pentagon makes it even more special,” Daniels said. The exhibit will be on display through March 2020 and is free to the public for viewing while touring the Pentagon. The collection of photos features a wide range of military history. Photos displayed range from World War II to the present day. The Alliance Collection has contributions from across the world, including photos from veterans from Belgium, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. “Each corridor of the Pentagon has displays of our nation’s military history,” said TJHP board member Major General Terry “Max” Haston (retired). “These professionally designed exhibits reflect the factual lineage of our services. The Rich Poverty Alliance Collection goes beyond…

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Pentagon Is Sending Thousands of More Troops to the Southern Border

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by Jason Hopkins   The Pentagon is sending several thousand more troops to the southwestern border, fulfilling a request made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Currently, there are about 2,300 troops stationed at the southwestern border. Pentagon officials revealed Tuesday that they will be deploying an additional 2,000 troops as part of the DHS’ request for the military to extend its mission there. Originally intended to last until Dec. 15, the military’s mission will now be extended to Sept. 30. The entire operation is estimated to cost $132 million by the end of January, and over $600 million by the close of the fiscal year in September. “We are supporting our federal partners on the border, and that mission has been extended until September,” stated Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jamie Davis. “We are currently sourcing the units involved and there will be an increase of a few thousand troops.” Beyond maintaining a troop presence, the Pentagon will also aid DHS officials with infrastructure development. Military troops will help set up more concertina wire and expand surveillance capabilities along the border. “Most recently DHS has asked us to support them in additional concertina wire and then expanded surveillance capability,…

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Commentary: Trump is Smarter Than the Generals

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by Christopher Roach   A bipartisan consensus among the foreign policy elite holds that America needs to maintain its de facto overseas empire. This includes both preserving stability, as well as fomenting deliberate instability, including regime change in places like Syria. This consensus among elected officials, defense contractors, general officers, talking heads, and various experts is not shared by the vast majority of Americans, who elected Barack Obama and Donald Trump on their promises to end “stupid wars” and put America first. The American people have good instincts on these matters. The Confused Syria Campaign Our Syria campaign has been a confused affair from the beginning. In the waning days of the Arab Spring, Obama supported various rebel factions seeking to oust Bashar al-Assad, as he had earlier in Libya and Egypt. Syrians soon found themselves in the midst of a brutal civil war, and in this vacuum—as in Iraq only a decade earlier—jihad tourists from all over the Middle East soon joined the fray. The various enemies of the Syrian regime included the so-called “moderate” rebels, Kurds, and Sunni extremists, the latter of which were divided between al Nusra and ISIS. There are no obvious good guys here, and…

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Memorials to Honor Victims of 9/11 Across America

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by Max Jungreis   Americans on Tuesday will mark the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that claimed almost 3,000 lives. President Donald Trump will attend a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, near where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers retook control from the al-Qaida affiliated terrorists who had hijacked the plane. In a statement Saturday, the White House declared September 7 to 9 as National Days of Prayer and Remembrance for the victim of the attacks. “The faith of our Nation may have been tested in the avenues of New York City, on the shores of the Potomac, and in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, but our strength never faltered and our resilience never wavered,” the statement said. In the capital, the Pentagon will hold special services for families of those killed when a plane crashed into the building. And in New York, hundreds of survivors and family members of those killed will gathered at Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood before two hijacked commercial flights brought them down. Twin beams of light will be projected into the sky to memorialize those lost in the attacks. The…

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Memorials to Honor Victims of 9/11 Across America

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by Max Jungreis   Americans on Tuesday will mark the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that claimed almost 3,000 lives. President Donald Trump will attend a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, near where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers retook control from the al-Qaida affiliated terrorists who had hijacked the plane. In a statement Saturday, the White House declared September7 to 9 as National Days of Prayer and Remembrance for the victim of the attacks. “The faith of our Nation may have been tested in the avenues of New York City, on the shores of the Potomac, and in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, but our strength never faltered and our resilience never wavered,” the statement said. In the capital, the Pentagon will hold special services for families of those killed when a plane crashed into the building. And in New York, hundreds of survivors and family members of those killed will gathered at Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood before two hijacked commercial flights brought them down. Twin beams of light will be projected into the sky to memorialize those lost in the attacks. The hijackings…

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Vice President Pence Outlines The Pentagon’s Four Steps For Making The Space Force Happen

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Mike Pence, James Mattis

Vice President Mike Pence asked Congress to appropriate $8 billion over the next five years for President Donald Trump’s proposed Space Force, during a speech at the Pentagon Thursday morning. “As President Trump has said in his own words, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space,” Pence said Thursday. “We must have American dominance in space, and so we will.” The Space Force is a potential sixth branch of the military that Trump proposed in March. Pence outlined four steps to “evolve our space capabilities” that will be echoed in a Pentagon report set to be released Thursday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiy5aqF6hwo The report calls for the creation of the U.S. Space Command as a first step. It will be a “new command structure for the physical domain of space led by a four-star flag officer … to ensure integration across the military,” Pence said. The second step is creating an “elite group of warfighters” drawn from men and women in all branches of the military who will specialize in space operations, Pence said. The third step is creating a joint organization called the Space Development Agency that will focus on giving members of the U.S. Space Force the most cutting-edge…

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Defense Department Audit Is Overdue

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At the beginning December 2017, the comptroller of the Department of Defense (DoD) David Norquist announced that DoD would conduct its first ever audit. According to Mr. Norquist, “It is important that the Congress and the American people have confidence in DoD’s management of every taxpayer dollar.” Given that President Trump subsequently signed the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act – authorizing nearly $700 billion for DoD and that the Pentagon has an estimated $2.4 trillion in assets – an audit is long overdue.

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Pentagon Preparing for Shift in Syrian Strategy

Tennessee Star Staff

The United States is preparing to shift its approach in Syria, pledging to help with the initial recovery following the collapse of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate. U.S.-backed forces liberated the terror group’s Syrian capital of Raqqa in October. Since then, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have focused their efforts on eradicating remnants of Islamic State.

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Pentagon Has Greater Autonomy and Decision-Making Authority Under President Trump

Tennessee Star Staff

Pentagon officials are welcoming the greater autonomy and decision-making authority under President Trump, after what they say were years of Obama administration micromanaging. Within the hallways and offices of the Pentagon, top military brass and national security leaders have lauded the actions taken by the Trump administration, saying privately that the Defense Department now has an…

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Commentary: The Battle to Keep the Pentagon in Democrat Hands

Tennessee Star Staff

By: George Rasley, CHQ Editor Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis’ reputation as a warfighter is unimpeachable, but his political and personnel judgement – not so much. Almost since the day he was confirmed Mattis has engaged in guerilla war with President Trump’s White House staff to advance his plans to bring Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans into the top echelons of the PentagonPentagon. As part of this guerilla war Mattis is blocking some rock-star conservative talent that the White House slated for appointments at the Pentagon. One is Mira Ricardel, a former Boeing executive and Bush Pentagon alum who helped with the Trump transition. And as Gen. Mattis continues to nix a long list of names offered by the White House team, he hasn’t been bashful about pushing for the appointment of Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans. First, Gen. Mattis flirted with appointing Michele Flournoy, formerly the third-ranking civilian in the Pentagon under President Barack Obama, and the person expected to run the Pentagon had Hillary Clinton won the presidency, as his deputy. The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel reported Mattis also looked to recruit from Ms. Flournoy’s liberal-hawk think tank, the Center for New American Security. And he pushed…

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