United States picks first woman to lead Navy

US President Joe Biden on Friday picked Adm. Lisa Franchetti to be the next chief of naval operations after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin passed over her when recommending for the role.

The promotion of Franchetti, who has been vice chief of naval operations since last fall, will be the first time a woman has the spot of the Navy’s highest-ranking officer and she will be the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Biden, in announcing his nomination, noted that Franchetti has already made history as the second woman ever to achieve the rank of four-star admiral in the United States Navy. She would replace current Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, whose four-year term is over this fall.  

Austin in June reportedly recommended that Adm. Samuel Paparo become the next chief of naval operations despite Franchetti being considered the front-runner for the top position as the Navy’s No. 2 officer. Biden on Friday nominated Paparo for commander of Indo-Pacific Command.

The president also nominated Vice Adm. James Kilby for vice chief of naval operations and Vice Adm. Stephen “Web” Koehler for commander of US Pacific Fleet.

He also urged the Senate to quickly confirm these nominations and the other pending military nominations that have been held up by Sen. Tommy Tuberville. Tuberville is blocking the Senate from moving on military promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy, which allows for paid leave and travel reimbursement for abortions. 

“It has long been an article of faith in this country that supporting our service members and their families, and providing for the strength of our national defense, transcends politics. What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong — it is dangerous,” Biden said Friday.

Biden also called out Republicans in Senate for not stopping Tuberville from continuing the hold and said the Alabama Republican is risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.

 

 

Zelensky accused for embezzlement of millions of dollars

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars that the United States allocated for the purchase of fuel, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh.

In his blog, Hersh writes – The Ukraine government, headed by Volodymyr Zelensky, has been using American taxpayers’ funds to pay dearly for the vitally needed diesel fuel that is keeping the Ukrainian army on the move in its war with Russia.

It is unknown how much the Zalensky government is paying per gallon for the fuel, but the Pentagon was paying as much as US$400 per gallon to transport gasoline from a port in Pakistan, via truck or parachute, into Afghanistan during the decades-long American war there.

The issue of corruption was directly raised with Zelensky in a meeting last January in Kyiv with CIA Director William Burns. His message to the Ukrainian president, I was told by an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the meeting, was out of a 1950s mob movie.

The senior generals and government officials in Kyiv were angry at what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, so Burns told the Ukrainian president, “He was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals.” 

Burns also presented Zelensky with a list of thirty-five generals and senior officials whose corruption was known to the CIA and others in the American government. Zelensky responded to the American pressure ten days later by publicly dismissing ten of the most ostentatious officials on the list and doing little else.

“The ten he got rid of were brazenly bragging about the money they had—driving around Kyiv in their new Mercedes,” the intelligence official told me.

Meanwhile, Hersh, citing an intelligence official, said that the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and lack of strategic planning with regard to Ukraine had caused a growing rift between the White House and the US intelligence community.

“There is a total breakdown between the White House leadership and the intelligence community,” the intelligence official was quoted by Hersh as saying.

The alleged rift dates back to the covert operation last fall to blow up Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines, a move that was purportedly ordered by President Joe Biden.

“Destroying the Nord Stream pipelines was never discussed, or even known in advance, by the community,” the official said.

Another issue dividing the Biden administration and the intelligence community is the lack of planning on Ukraine. The official highlighted Biden’s decision to deploy two brigades a few miles from the Ukrainian border in response to Russia’s special military operation.

The actual manpower of the 101st and 82nd airborne divisions could total more than 20,000, but there is still “no evidence that any senior official in the White House really knows what’s going on in” the brigades, the intelligence officials told Hersh.

“Are they there as part of a NATO exercise or to serve with NATO combat units if the West decides to engage Russian units inside Ukraine? Are they there to train or to be a trigger? The rules of engagement say they can’t attack Russians unless our boys are getting attacked,” the official said.

The official said that while the White House lacks clarity on its policy in Ukraine, the Pentagon is somewhat optimistically preparing for an end to the conflict. Two months ago, the US Joint Chiefs tasked members of the staff with drafting an end-of-war treaty to present to the Russians “after their defeat on the Ukraine battlefield,” Hersh said, citing a source.

But it remains unclear what will happen if the Pentagon’s scenario goes wrong and Ukrainian forces fail on the battlefield. Will the two American brigades deployed close to the war zone join forces with NATO troops and face off with the Russian army inside Ukraine? Hersh asks.

 

Ukraine asks Pentagon for fighter jets

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday directly appealed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for US fighter jets and longer-range missiles in its fight against Russia, echoing the country’s repeated calls for modern weaponry.

“We will win this war,” Shmyhal said at the top of a meeting between the two at the Pentagon. “But to achieve it faster and with fewer casualties, Ukraine still needs intensive military support — more air defense systems that minimize the impact of Russian airstrikes, more heavy artillery, mortars and ammunition for them. We also ask you for reconsider the possibility of providing Ukraine with longer range missiles.” 

Austin, while not commenting on the request, committed to investing in the US defense industrial base to further ramp up production for weapons sent to Ukraine. 

Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion a little more than a year ago has pressed the United States and NATO for advanced fighter jets to protect the country’s skies. 

While some NATO states including Slovakia and Poland have agreed to send Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Western countries have so far held off on sending the more advanced F-15 and F-16 fighters Kyiv is asking for.  

The Biden administration has not been swayed by Slovakia and Poland’s pledges to send its own jets, saying that the choice is a “sovereign decision.” 

Kyiv has also asked for longer-range missile systems in the fight, though the US government has held off on supplying such weapons over concerns Ukraine may use them to strike targets within Russia, which is against US policy.  

At Wednesday’s gathering, which marked the second Pentagon meeting between Austin and Shmyhal, the Ukrainian official thanked Washington for its significant military support, including sending Abrams tanks and Bradley and Stryker infantry fighting vehicles, according to a readout of the meet up. 

But he also asked Austin for more heavy equipment and aircraft.  

“In modern warfare, air superiority is crucial,” Shmyhal said. “That is why Ukraine is initiating the building of a new, so-called fighter jet coalition. And we are inviting the United States to become its most important participant. America can once again demonstrate its leadership by providing Ukraine with F-15 or F-16 aircraft.” 

Austin, in turn, thanked Ukraine for making sure US lethal aid already provided is accounted for. 

 

No punishment for those involved in fatal Kabul drone strike

No military personnel involved in a botched drone strike that killed 10 civilians in Kabul, Afghanistan, earlier this year will face punishment, the Pentagon said Monday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved recommendations from US Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and US Special Operations Command leader Gen. Richard Clarke not to take any administrative action against those involved in the August 29 strike, press secretary John Kirby told reporters.  

Kirby said that when McKenzie and Clarke listed their recommendations to Austin “there was no recommendation by either of them about accountability.”

“The recommendations were more about procedure and process and the secretary reviewed them and has accepted them,” Kirby told reporters. “And again, most of them are of a classified nature. ... but there was no overt recommendation made by either specific to accountability or any punishment for anyone.”

The Defense Department admitted in September that the drone strike — which came in the final days of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan — was a “tragic mistake” that killed the civilians, including seven children. Prior to that, Pentagon officials had said the strike was necessary to prevent “an imminent ISIS-K threat” to US forces evacuating people at Kabul’s airport.

The Pentagon, which initially defended the targeting as a “righteous strike,” carried out the bombing after commanders errantly thought the driver of a white Toyota Corolla — 37-year-old Zemerai Ahmadi, a longtime aid worker for a US-based group — was an ISIS-K operative with explosives.

After a high-level Pentagon review into the incident, no violation of the laws of war were found but it was discovered there were “execution errors” in the lead-up to the strike. 

The investigation, revealed last month, concluded that the errors were not caused by misconduct or negligence and doesn't recommend disciplinary action, but gave commanders the power to decide on what accountability, if any, there would be.

But both McKenzie and Clarke found no grounds for punishing any of the military personnel involved, a Pentagon official told the Times.

In a statement, Kirby said the department takes seriously “our obligation to avoid civilian harm in the execution of our operations, and as the secretary made clear, we will not be afraid to make necessary changes to our processes and procedures to that end.” 

The US military has killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians by accident in war zones in places including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Somalia in the past 20 years but has rarely held specific individuals accountable. 

Public outcry has grown over such killings, including a recently revealed US airstrike in Syria in 2019 that killed dozens of women and children, which military officials tried to conceal. 

 

US getting ready to confront with Russia

The Biden administration is considering sending military advisers and new weapons to Ukraine in the face of a Russian military buildup near the border between the two countries, CNN reported Tuesday.

The proposed lethal aid package could include mortars, air defense systems such as stinger missiles and new Javelin anti-tank and anti-armor missiles, multiple sources familiar with the deliberations told the outlet.

Sources also said the Pentagon has pressed for some equipment that would have gone to Afghanistan to instead be sent to Ukraine, like Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters. The US military has halted sending such equipment to Afghanistan with the end of its mission there in August.

US officials have also talked with European allies about forming a new sanctions package that could go into effect should Russia invade Ukraine, the sources said. 

The discussions are taking place as Ukraine has begun to warn the US and allies that a Russian invasion could happen as soon as January. 

Kyiv earlier this month noted the unusual Russian troop movements, but after discussions between US and Ukrainian officials — and an estimated 92,000 Russian troops now placed close to the border — the warnings have grown. 

US and NATO intelligence now fear Moscow’s troop buildup is preparation for a military operation over Ukraine’s eastern border from multiple locations, much like when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. 

“Our concern is that Russia may make the serious mistake of attempting to rehash what it undertook back in 2014, when it amassed forces along the border, crossed into sovereign Ukrainian territory and did so claiming — falsely — that it was provoked,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week.

Asked about the possible military package, a State Department spokesperson told The Hill that they had nothing to preview or confirm. 

They did note, however, that the administration has “demonstrated that the United States is willing to use a number of tools to address harmful Russian actions and we will not hesitate from making use of those and other tools in the future.”

"We continue to have serious concerns about Russian military activities and harsh rhetoric towards Ukraine, and call on Moscow to de-escalate tensions," they added.

Russian officials, meanwhile, have maintained that the troops and military units are in the area as part of exercises and a response to threats from NATO. They also have called reports that they may soon invade Ukraine “false.”

Asked on Tuesday about the possibility that the US will send additional assistance to Ukraine, Russia spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday suggested that should it happen, it could lead “to a further aggravation of the situation on the border line.”

 

Blaming Iran for supporting Syrian Regime

Suffering from extreme Iran obsession United States never misses an opportunity to prove that Iran is a threat to Arabs. It had played on Sunni Shia divide in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and even in Pakistan.

There is growing perception that a proxy war is being fought in Syria in which on one side are US-supported rebels and on other side are Syrian forces, allegedly supported by Iran.

Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff while talking to ‘Pentagon Reporters’ has once again alleged Iran for supporting the Syrian militia, which is generally made up of Syrian Shiite forces and being used for taking the pressure off the Syrian regime forces that have been at war for almost 18 months. In fact he openly accused Iran for playing a growing role by supporting the Syrian regime and helping in building and training a militia to fight opposition forces.

Dempsey was very cautious in admitting that US-supported rebels are now equipped with arsenal to down Syrian jets but said, “It appears Syrian rebels were able to shoot down a Syrian warplane” but insisted “I have no indication that they are armed with heavy weapons or surface-to-air missiles, at least not yet”. He admitted the MiG fighter could have been shot down with small arms fire. 

Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta voiced concerns about Iran's growing presence in Syria, even as President Bashar Assad's regime steps up its aerial attacks against the rebel forces. Fierce fighting and attacks from warplanes and helicopter gunships have pushed the opposition forces back in key fronts, such as Aleppo.

"We do not think that Iran ought to be playing that role at this moment in time," the defense secretary said. He said that "it's dangerous, that it's adding to the killing that's going on in Syria and that it tries to bolster a regime that we think ultimately is going to come down."

This clearly indicates that the United States is openly supporting the rebels because it doesn’t wish Assad to remain in power, the same ‘regime change saga’ it has earlier played in many countries but does not wish to do the same in Bahrain.  The duality of standards clearly indicates that the grand US plan is not the dismissal of Assad but to create a justification for an assault on Iran.