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Europe’s financial sector ‘directly funding’ firms complicit in Gaza genocide: Report

Press TV – November 26, 2025

A new report published by a coalition of 24 European and Palestinian organizations and trade unions has exposed financial relationships between top European institutions and 104 companies complicit in Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Under the title of “The Private Actors behind the Economy of Occupation and Genocide,” the report by the Don’t Buy Into Occupation Coalition (DBIO) lists 104 global companies that are active in one or more of the identified complicity categories in the Gaza war.

The list includes companies involved in the military-security sector, technology, resource extraction, construction and demolition, financial services, and other enterprises that sustain Israel’s unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East al-Quds.

Among them, the report includes priority BDS divestment targets such as major weapons manufacturers and tech companies that played a crucial role in providing Israel with key military components and technology to carry out its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Among these 104 companies are numerous BDS campaign targets, including but not limited to Airbnb, Amazon, AXA, Booking.com, CAF, Carrefour, Chevron, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Caterpillar, CISCO, Coca-Cola, DELL, Expedia, Google, HPE, Intel, Microsoft, and RE/MAX.

The report showed that 1,115 European financial institutions (including banks, asset managers, insurance companies, pension funds, and the European Investment Bank) have massive financial relationships with such complicit businesses.

Among the top creditor banks financing the Israeli genocide are BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Barclays.

According to the report, European financial institutions provided over $310 billion in the form of loans and underwritings to these companies between January 2023 and August 2025. European investors also held over $1.5 trillion in shares and bonds in these businesses as of August 31, 2025.

“This report leaves no doubt, European financial institutions and investors have been funding dozens of corporations that are directly enabling Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide against Indigenous Palestinians,” DBIO said.

“Without this, Israel wouldn’t be able to sustain its regime of oppression. These European institutions are in breach of both their international human rights responsibilities and their legal obligation to respect international law.”

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and Israel agreed last month to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, aimed at ending the latter’s two-year-long genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged territory.

The truce took effect on October 10, but Israel has continued to violate it by carrying out airstrikes, incursions, shootings, and arrests.

The deal marks the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, with further stages to be negotiated at a later date.

Israel has killed at least 69,000 Palestinians since it waged the US-backed genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Palestinian children have borne the brunt of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. UNICEF estimated last month that at least 64,000 children have been killed or injured in Israeli attacks since October 2023.

November 26, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

US admits F-35 program failure after decades and trillions spent

Al Mayadeen | October 7, 2025

Nearly 25 years after awarding Lockheed Martin the contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter Program, Responsible Statecraft analyst Dan Grazier says that the US government has finally admitted that the F-35 will never achieve the combat capabilities it was designed to deliver.

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last month details the program’s ongoing issues and includes a key acknowledgment: “The program plans to reduce the scope of Block 4 to deliver capabilities to the warfighter at a more predictable pace than in the past.”

Grazier says that this statement, while phrased bureaucratically, is a quiet admission that the F-35 will not meet its original goals. “Reducing the scope of Block 4” effectively means that planned combat capabilities are being abandoned.

The Joint Strike Fighter Program began in the early 2000s as the Pentagon’s most ambitious weapons development initiative, a single aircraft platform meant to serve multiple branches of the US military and allied nations.

However, as the GAO report notes, many of the F-35’s core design elements remain incomplete. Officials were unable to finish the jet’s baseline development on time or within budget. Instead of admitting failure, they rebranded the process as the “modernization phase,” also known as Block 4, to mask ongoing design work.

Grazier says “reducing the scope” of this modernization effort confirms that many of the F-35’s touted features in areas like electronic warfare, weapons integration, and navigation will never materialize.

Lockheed Martin’s ‘modernization’ phase masks ongoing failures

The decision marks a stunning reversal for the Pentagon, which for years defended the F-35 as the future of aerial warfare. With costs exceeding $2 trillion, the program has become the most expensive weapons project in history.

For two decades, Lockheed Martin and US military officials promised a revolutionary fighter jet that would ensure American air superiority for generations. Instead, the GAO findings reveal a project mired in delays, performance shortfalls, and spiraling expenses.

The report also highlights how the Pentagon reclassified unfinished development work as “modernization” to secure continued funding and avoid scrutiny from Congress.

Fallout for US allies and global weapons sales

Grazuer states that the ramifications of the F-35’s shortcomings go beyond wasted money. 19 countries have purchased or plan to operate the aircraft, including the United Kingdom, Norway, and Italy, many of whom were partners in the program from the outset.

These nations invested heavily, expecting the world’s most advanced fighter jet. Instead, they now face rising costs and reduced performance. For allies that committed billions based on Washington’s assurances, the admission could strain future defense spending cooperation and arms sales.

If the US military cannot deliver the promised technology, Grazier says skepticism toward future US weapons programs may grow, reducing trust in the country’s defense industry.

A symbol of flawed defense spending and mismanagement

The Responsible Statecraft report says the F-35 program has become a cautionary tale of overreach, that of an effort to design one aircraft to meet the needs of multiple branches and allies, while serving political and industrial interests at home.

As critics note, trying to build a single jet to satisfy at least 15 militaries worldwide was doomed from the start. What was intended as a triumph of innovation has turned into a $2 trillion emblem of waste, inefficiency, and failed accountability in US defense policy.

For the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin, Grazier says the F-35 may not stand as the future of warfare, but as a monument to the limits of ambition and the dangers of unchecked defense spending.

October 7, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | 1 Comment

Pentagon effectively confirms ‘Golden Dome’ will breach Outer Space Treaty

By Drago Bosnic | August 14, 2025

On January 27, US President Donald Trump announced that the construction of the “state-of-the-art ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense shield” will begin “immediately” and will be made “right here in the USA 100%”. Since then, apart from a name change to avoid confusion with a homonymous Israeli system, there’s been little concrete information on the project.

However, last week, the Pentagon presented more details about the upcoming “Golden Dome”, revealing that it will be a four-layer missile defense system and that it will also include a space-based component (the other three are ground-based, including eleven short-range batteries planned for deployment in the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii). Reuters cited a presentation of the project, titled “Go Fast, Think Big!”, shown in Huntsville, Alabama, last week to around 3,000 representatives of the American Military Industrial Complex (MIC).

The revelation didn’t really show much more than what was already known about the US strategic missile defenses. The slides revealed there would be early warning satellites for detecting missile launches, tracking and “boost-phase interception”. The “upper layer” would be composed of the Next Generation Interceptors (NGI), Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and “Aegis” systems, with a new missile field “likely in the Midwest”.

This would be followed by the “under layer” composed of “Patriot” systems, new radars and a “common launcher for current and future interceptors”. The space-based “boost-phase interception” capability is particularly curious. Although the slides didn’t really reveal how this would be accomplished, common sense implies that this is either deliberate disinformation (like the SDI was) or the Pentagon is actively pursuing space-based weapons.

Reuters noted that “one surprise was a new large missile field – seemingly in the Midwest according to a map contained in the presentation – for Next Generation Interceptors (NGI) which are made by Lockheed Martin” and “would be a part of the ‘upper layer’ alongside Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and ‘Aegis’ systems which Lockheed also makes”. The NGI is supposed to be the next iteration of GBI (Ground-Based Interceptors), which is part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD).

This system is a nationwide network of radars, interceptors and other assets that the US planned for decades, even unilaterally withdrawing from the 1972 ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty back in 2002, so it could pursue the project. This arms control agreement served to prevent the US and USSR/Russia from being incentivized to endlessly enlarge their thermonuclear arsenals by limiting the number of deployed ABM systems.

The logic was that, whoever acquired better missile defenses, this would only force the other side to increase their offensive potential to enable saturation attacks that would inevitably overcome all ABM systems. Although the treaty was by no means perfect, it still slowed down the growth in the number of warheads and delivery systems.

However, after the unfortunate dismantling of the Soviet Union, the US thought that Russia would be unable to revive its massive military-industrial potential, meaning that the aforementioned ABM Treaty was now “holding America back” in its quest for total global dominance. And yet, the opposite happened. Moscow not only reactivated much (if not most) of its military-industrial might, but actually restarted a number of highly advanced military programs that eventually resulted in a decades-long lead in a plethora of various high-tech hypersonic weapons.

Now that this backfired, Washington DC is faced with a far more complex and challenging task of intercepting weapons that work on very different principles, eliminating the predictability of regular ballistic missiles. The cumulative effects of these factors have increased costs and made maintenance and logistics a true nightmare. Not to mention that the (First) Cold War was far simpler due to the fact that America had only the Soviet Union to worry about, while its aggression against the entire world forced several more countries to build up their arsenals (notably China and North Korea).

Unfortunately, there’s no other way to ensure viable deterrence. However, instead of easing tensions, the US is doubling down on its belligerence. Despite formally being a defense system, Washington DC sees the “Golden Dome’s” actual purpose as a way to facilitate its global dominance by undermining other arsenals.

The Pentagon’s presentation last week suggests that the “Golden Dome” will effectively be both an expansion and integration of existing missile defenses, with the third site in the Midwest serving to augment the current GMD launch sites in California and Alaska. The US military will have to deal with challenges such as “communication latency across the kill chain (a step-by-step sequence of actions needed to find, target and destroy a threat)”, so the most prominent corporations of the American MIC (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX/Raytheon, Boeing, etc.) will be included in the program.

However, the very idea that the “Golden Dome” will be able to shoot down hypersonic weapons is highly questionable, given the horrible performance of the GMD even against regular ballistic missiles. On the other hand, the MIC is exhilarated with such a windfall (considering the system’s costs).

And yet, while the project has a lot of similarities with the (First) Cold War-era SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative, but better known as the so-called “Star Wars”), the idea of space-based weapons is still a highly disturbing development that would lead to an inevitable militarization of space. US Space Force Gen Michael Guetlein, who serves as the head of the “Golden Dome” program, is required to “deliver the first designs within 60 days and a complete roadmap of the project within 120 days”.

The new missile defense system is expected to be able to “intercept targets in their boost phase” and “deploy relocatable defenses capable of rapid global deployment”. This is a clear violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST).

There’s also a lot of symbolism in Trump’s first announcement of the “Golden Dome”. As previously mentioned, he unveiled it on January 27, which was when the OST was signed by the US and USSR.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

August 14, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

FedEx faces criminal complaint in Belgium over arms shipments to Israel

The Cradle | June 26, 2025

Belgian peace organization Vredesactie filed a criminal complaint on June 26, accusing FedEx of violating international and national law by facilitating the transfer of US-made F-35 components to Israel via Liege Airport.

The shipments, linked to Lockheed Martin, arrived between 20 and 24 June from US military hubs and were marked for final delivery to Nevatim air base, from which Israeli jets have taken off to bomb Gaza and, more recently, Iranian territory.

The complaint, lodged under Belgian criminal law, claims the shipments constitute “punishable cooperation in war crimes,” referencing the Arms Trade Treaty and Belgium’s export control regulations.

“This transit is in violation of the Arms Trade Treaty,” said Hans Lammerant of Vredesactie, “and constitutes punishable cooperation in war crimes under Belgian criminal law.”

Of the twenty FedEx deliveries identified, seven originated from Fort Worth, Texas, home to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 assembly line, while others came from Tracy, California, where the F-35 Joint Program Office operates.

All deliveries were marked with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) labels, placing them under strict US military export controls.

While Lockheed Martin is listed as both the sender and recipient, the cargo was routed through Cologne, Germany, before being transported overland to Liege.

Belgian officials confirmed that no transit permits were filed with the Walloon Region, which maintains a 2009 agreement barring arms shipments that would support Israeli military operations.

Walloon Prime Minister Adrien Dolimont reiterated this stance, saying no authorizations would be granted for equipment “that would strengthen the Israeli armed forces.”

FedEx has denied any wrongdoing, claiming it complies with all the required legal frameworks. However, media outlets De Morgen and Le Soir, in collaboration with Irish investigative group The Ditch, report that contents and end-user details remain undisclosed.

The weight of some packages, just a few kilograms, raises questions about the scale and classification of the cargo.

Last year, the same investigative outlets revealed that 70 tons of ammunition were sent to Israel from Liege Airport in just six months, handled by Challenge Airlines. That revelation triggered a similar wave of criticism, but no prosecutions followed.

June 26, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Iran becomes first country to shoot down fifth-gen F-35 fighter jets belonging to Israel

Press TV – June 13, 2025

Iran has earned the distinction of being the first country in the world to successfully shoot down fifth-generation fighter jets by targeting two stealth F-35 fighters belonging to the Zionist regime.

The regime deployed these advanced aircraft in its early Friday morning aggression against the Islamic Republic on Friday, which resulted in the assassination of several high-ranking Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including women and children.

In an official statement, the Iranian Army’s Public Relations Office announced that its air defense forces had successfully struck and destroyed two F-35 fighter jets along with multiple drones belonging to the Zionist regime.

The report noted that the fate of the pilots remains unknown and is currently under investigation. Further information will be released in due course.

The F-35 fighters used by the Zionist regime are considered the most advanced in their class.

Israel acquired these jets primarily from the United States, with the F-35 Lightning II being produced by Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace manufacturer. Israel is one of the few countries authorized by the U.S. to operate this cutting-edge fifth-generation stealth fighter.

Delivered under the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, the first jets arrived in the occupied territories around 2016.

The F-35I, Israel’s customized variant of the stealth fighter, is designed to evade radar detection, allowing the Israeli occupation military to conduct deep penetration missions with a lower risk of interception or tracking.

However, in a significant setback for the Tel Aviv regime and its American backers, the Iranian Army managed to down two of these advanced jets during Friday’s confrontation.

June 13, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | 1 Comment

MIT divests from Israeli arms firm funded program

Al Mayadeen | September 15, 2024

The MISTI-“Israel” Lockheed Martin fund has been shut down after continuous pressure from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) staff and faculty, the MIT Coalition for Palestine announced on Friday, marking a major divestment win for the university’s Scientists Against Genocide (SAGE) movement.

“Under pressure from students and scientists of conscience at this Institute, the MIT administration has discontinued MISTI-Israel’s Lockheed Martin Seed Fund and will not renew its contract,” the organization said in a statement.

“This was a major target of our divestment action. The program ends after months of protest against it last fall, including letter deliveries, sit-ins, and public information campaigns,” it highlighted.

The Lockheed Martin Seed Fund was a program established in 2019, managed by the MIT International Science and Technology Initiative Israel (MISTI-“Israel”) to connect students and researchers to Israeli offices at Lockheed Martin, a weapons manufacturer firm.

The divestment marks the first American-Israeli arms manufacturer partnership to end at an American university since the genocide began on October 7. Additionally, the fund was removed from the MISTI-“Israel” website between December 2023 and February 2024.

The arms company has supplied the occupation with several billion dollars of weapons to be used during its ongoing genocide in Gaza, including Hellfire missiles, attack aircraft, and heavy artillery. These munitions have been used within the past 11 months to target schools, universities, hospitals, religious sites, and crucial infrastructure, as “Israel” killed over 41,000 Palestinians.

The MIT Coalition for Palestine emphasized that Lockheed also enabled its alumnus, Benjamin Netanyahu, to extend the occupation’s genocidal acts to the West Bank and al-Quds, as well as Israeli concentration camps.

The MIT Coalition for Palestine referred to the UK’s recent suspension of 30 weapons licenses, asserting there are many steps to implement to order a full arms embargo on the regime. The organization also shed light on how boycotts, divestments, and sanctions resulted in the end of South Africa’s apartheid regime in the 1990s.

“A similar campaign is now required of us if we want to see an end to the Israeli apartheid regime in our lifetime and the formation of a free, democratic Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” the statement read.

“Today we are gathered once again as a united MIT community, speaking in its majority voice, as we have in referendum after referendum, from the sit-ins in Lobby 7 to the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment this spring, to say that we are FED UP and DONE with aiding and abetting the apartheid state.”

The movement added that despite this major step in divestment, the institution’s laboratories continue to conduct direct research funding links to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), while the administration maintains its partnerships with Elbit Systems and Maersk.

They denounced these ties and criticized MIT for violating its “own ethical funding criteria, research ethics, and health and safety policies.”

“They are shameful and criminal and signal in clear and offensive terms that the Institute does not care about the human life and dignity of our Palestinian colleagues here at MIT and abroad. We say no. No science for apartheid and free Palestine,” the statement concluded.

Pro-Palestine protests prompt closure of Israeli arms firm’s US office

Last month, a US branch of “Israel’s” largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, announced the termination of its office lease in Cambridge, Massachusetts following months of demonstrations led by Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Boston.

A subsidiary of the Israeli-based company, KMC Systems, had moved into a building at 130 Bishop Allen Drive in December 2021, where the lease was expected to end next year.

The BDS organization described the end of Elbit’s lease as “a testament to our collective power,” attributing “varied community efforts” for the disruption of Elbit and its landlord, Intercontinental Management Corp.’s operations and “forcing the early termination of the lease.”

The movement has pledged to keep fighting to “prevent Elbit from moving to another nearby location,” as well as attempt to “sever Elbit’s ties with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other actors in the Boston area.”

“We will not consider ourselves victorious until Elbit Systems is dismantled and until Palestine is liberated,” BDS Boston asserted.

September 15, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , , | 1 Comment

Analysis: Both Parties Always Serve the Military-Industrial Complex

By Connor Freeman | The Libertarian Institute | May 30, 2023

In 2023, despite skyrocketing inflation, debt, as well as rising sociopolitical divisions, leadership among both the Republicans and Democrats will always agree that substantially more US taxpayer money, never less, should be poured into the military industrial complex, according to an analysis by Judd Legum.

Case in point, the debt ceiling agreement established between the Joe Biden administration and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy caps military spending at a record $886 billion, exactly matching Biden’s mammoth budget request.

The GOP was seeking large increases in military spending and would only entertain cuts in non-military expenditures. The agreed upon war budget represents a 3.3% increase over the current year. The tentative deal still needs to make its way through Congress, where hawks will fiercely oppose any and all military spending caps.

Half of this money will go to defense contractors with Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics receiving the lion’s share. Some of these arms industry giants are currently ensnared in a massive “price gouging” scandal, with a bipartisan group of Senators demanding an investigation be opened at the Pentagon’s highest levels.

Legum highlights the lack of any “peace dividend.” after the disastrous 20 year war and occupation in Afghanistan. “This military spending increase has occurred even as Biden ended the war in Afghanistan, the military’s longest-running and most costly foreign intervention… Each year, the costs go up dramatically,” Legum writes.

He explains that the US has added more than $300 billion to the military budget during the last eight years. In 2015, the Pentagon budget was $585 billion. Half of this obscene increase in war spending and profiteering has been bylined by the Biden administration. Legum continues,

(Had military spending kept pace with inflation, [it] would still be less than $700 billion annually.) Biden has added nearly $150 billion to the military budget since 2021, the last budget approved by President Trump. The budget of the Pentagon now exceeds “the budgets for the next ten largest cabinet agencies combined.”  In 2020, Lockheed Martin received $75 billion in government contracts, more than 1.5 times the budget of the entire State Department.

Last year, the United States spent more on its military than the next 10 highest-spending countries combined.

A recent report on 60 Minutes, the CBS news program, saw former Pentagon officials, contract negotiators, and insiders accuse these defense firms of “astronomical price increases” and “unconscionable” fraud.

In particular, the CBS report cites Shay Assad, a 40-year veteran contract negotiator, who says military industrial complex behemoths, such as Lockheed and Raytheon, overcharge for “[everything from] radar and missiles … helicopters … planes … submarines… down to the nuts and bolts.”

The cited experts described these practices, as well as the accompanying rampant unaccountability, as largely the culmination of bureaucratic decisions made during the immediate post-Cold War era.

In the early 1990s, ostensibly to reduce costs, the DOD “urged defense companies to merge and 51 major contractors consolidated to five giants.” This drastically reduced competition and put the big five industry “giants” in an extremely advantageous situation. The War Department “has few options today, and the defense contractors know it,” Legum writes.

Assad clarifies the effects of this centralization of power, “In the [1980s], there was intense competition amongst a number of companies. And so the government had choices. They had leverage. We have limited leverage now,” Assad said. “The problem was compounded in the early 2000s when the Pentagon, in another cost-saving move, cut 130,000 employees whose jobs were to negotiate and oversee defense contracts.”

Retired Pentagon auditor Mark Owen bluntly told CBS, this is “not really a true capitalistic market because one company is telling you what’s going to happen. [It’s a] monopoly.”

The report highlighted the fact that, before the clamp down on competition, a shoulder-fired Stinger missile, produced by Raytheon, cost $25,000 in 1991. Now that Washington is subsidizing the provision of so many Stingers to Ukraine, as well as Taiwan, the weapon is now priced at more than $400,000. This is an “eye-watering” seven-fold increase, even when taking inflation into account as well as interim technological advancements.

Lockheed and Boeing were found to have yielded an over 40 percent profit on sales of PAC-3 surface to air missiles to Washington and its allies. Assad explained the companies saw a windfall of hundreds of millions on the deals over seven years, and “based on what they actually made, we would’ve received an entire year’s worth of missiles for free.”

The DOD also “caught Raytheon making what they called ‘unacceptable profits’ from the Patriot missile defense system by dramatically exaggerating the cost and hours it took to build the radar and ground equipment.”

Assad demonstrated to the 60 Minutes host that an oil pressure switch was selling for over $10,000, when he claimed the switch should cost $328. The host asked Assad a question regarding the huge discrepancy, to which the former official responded “Gouging. What else can account for it?”

A major aspect of this problem is the Congress and defense contractors’ bribes. As Legum details, the military-industrial complex spent $2.5 billion on lobbying in the last two decades. “During that period, defense contractors employed an average of 700 lobbyists — more than one lobbyist for every member of Congress.”

Though, some Senators just denounced the contractors, in a letter to the Pentagon chief, saying these firms are  “dramatically overcharging the Department and U.S. taxpayers while reaping enormous profits, seeing their stock prices soar, and handing out massive executive compensation packages.”

The lawmakers charged that these “companies have abused the trust government has placed in them… exploiting their position as sole suppliers for certain items to increase prices far above inflation or any reasonable profit margin.”

June 1, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bipartisan Group of Senators Call for DOD to Investigate ‘Price Gouging’ by Major US Defense Contractors

By Connor Freeman | The Libertarian Institute | May 29, 2023

A bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter to the Defense Department chief calling for an investigation into major American arms dealers accused of systemic “price gouging,” on Wednesday, according to The Hill.

The letter, signed by the likes of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mike Braun (R-IN) Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), cites former Pentagon officials, auditors, and other insiders who spoke to CBS and accused military-industrial complex giants, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing, of ripping off the US taxpayer.

During a recent 60 Minutes report, Shay Assad, who worked as a Pentagon contract negotiator for 40 years, cites numerous examples while explaining to the outlet that these firms overcharge the DOD for “[everything from] radar and missiles … helicopters … planes … submarines… down to the nuts and bolts.”

The report said these “astronomical price increases” have worsened sharply amidst Washington’s exponentially rising demand for weapons systems to both bolster Taiwan – in a thinly-veiled effort to destabilize China – and support NATO’s proxy Kiev during its war with Russia.

“Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and TransDigm are among the offenders,” the senators asserted. Their letter continues, “[these contractors are] dramatically overcharging the Department and U.S. taxpayers while reaping enormous profits, seeing their stock prices soar, and handing out massive executive compensation packages.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the letter’s recipient, sat on Raytheon’s board of directors before accepting his current post. The lawmakers charge that these companies are securing profits ranging from 40% to even as high as 4,000%.

The military budget will soon surpass the once unthinkable $1 trillion mark. The DOD has requested a record $842 billion for the next fiscal year, roughly half of which will go to “the offenders,” just such private defense contractors.

While the Joe Biden administration has asked Congress to approve a nearly $900 billion military budget. The hawkish legislature will almost certainly add tens of billions more to Biden’s proposed budget. For 2023, Congress added another $45 billion to Biden’s already mammoth request for $813 billion, resulting in a finalized $858 billion annual military spending bill.

Even these eye-opening numbers do not tell the whole story, because the real national security state budget is already fast approaching $1.5 trillion.

The lawmakers’ letter also expresses concerns about the Pentagon’s ability to audit, track and mitigate fraud risk. The DOD’s accountability system is completely “broken.” Assad said, “No matter who they are, no matter what company it is, they need to be held accountable. And right now that accountability system is broken in the Department of Defense.”

The Senators complained that, for decades, this obscene, unaccountable spending has been ongoing. The letter cites a 2021 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which found the Pentagon failed to implement any comprehensive solution to combating this “unconscionable” fraud, as Assad has described it.

“The DOD can no longer expect Congress or the American taxpayer to underwrite record military spending while simultaneously failing to account for the hundreds of billions it hands out every year to spectacularly profitable private corporations,” the Senators declared. These firms “have abused the trust government has placed in them…exploiting their position as sole suppliers for certain items to increase prices far above inflation or any reasonable profit margin,” the letter continued.

“It’s not really a true capitalistic market because one company is telling you what’s going to happen. [It’s a] monopoly,” retired DoD auditor Mark Owen told CBS.

Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on Conflicts of Interest.

May 31, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism | , , , | 2 Comments

Former DOD Insiders Accuse US Arms Manufacturers of Price Gouging Amid Ukraine Proxy War

By Connor Freeman | The Libertarian Institute | May 22, 2023

American military-industrial complex firms are guilty of “price gouging,” amidst the exponentially rising demand for weapons systems to both bolster Taiwan as a counter to Beijing and support NATO’s proxy Kiev during its war with Russia, former Pentagon insiders told Newsweek.

The Ukraine policy of providing massive quantities of arms “no matter the expense,” in particular,  is weakening America’s national security and combat readiness by depleting stocks which cannot be easily replenished due to the weapons firms’ skyrocketing prices, according to the former officials.

For four decades, Shay Assad worked as a contract negotiator at the Defense Department. He recently sounded off about these “astronomical price increases” and the resultant detrimental effect on the military, during a recent report on 60 Minutes, the CBS news program.

“The gouging that takes place is unconscionable,” Assad said. “There’s no doubt about it,” he continued, “You just can only buy so much, because you only have so much money. And that’s why I say, is it really any different than not giving a Marine enough bullets to put in his clip? It’s the same thing.” Assad previously worked for Raytheon as well, the arms industry giant on whose board Lloyd Austin sat before becoming the Pentagon chief.

According to Assad, the DOD overpays for “for radar and missiles … helicopters … planes … submarines… down to the nuts and bolts.” The report highlighted the fact that a shoulder-fired Stinger missile, produced by Raytheon, which cost $25,000 in 1991 is now priced at more than $400,000. Newsweek described the price rise as an “eye-watering increase,” even when taking inflation into account as well as interim technological advancements.

He went on to explain the Pentagon’s accountability system, such as it is, is completely “broken.” Assad said, “No matter who they are, no matter what company it is, they need to be held accountable. And right now that accountability system is broken in the Department of Defense.” Moreover, Assad cited two more instances of gouging on the part of arms industry behemoths Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon.

Lockheed and Boeing were found to have yielded an over 40 percent profit on sales of PAC-3 surface to air missiles to Washington and its allies. Assad explained the companies saw a windfall of hundreds of millions on the deals over seven years, and “based on what they actually made, we would’ve received an entire year’s worth of missiles for free.” Lockheed protested to 60 Minutes that the deals had been negotiated “in good faith.”

Both by overstating the cost and time needed to produce the radar equipment, Raytheon was also alleged to have taken obscene profits from the Patriot air defense system. The reporters were told by a company spokesman that Raytheon was working to “equitably resolve” the dispute. It is also noted that, in 2021, CEO Greg Hayes notified his investors that Raytheon schemed to put aside nearly $300 million for probable liability.

Assad demonstrated to the 60 Minutes host that an oil pressure switch was selling for over $10,000, when he claimed the switch should cost $328. The host asked Assad a question regarding the huge discrepancy, to which the former official responded “Gouging. What else can account for it?”

Assad went on to say that this widespread practice shows arms firms are hoodwinking and taking advantage of the American taxpayer. “We have to have a financially healthy defense industrial base. We all want that. But what we don’t want to do is get taken advantage of and hoodwinked […] We have nowhere else to go. For many of these weapons that are being sent over to Ukraine right now, there’s only one supplier. And the companies know it.”

Retired Air Force Lieutenant Gen. Chris Bogdan, who oversaw weapons purchases during his time in the military, further explained his concerns over the fact that when companies sell their weapons to the DOD, they retain the proprietary information required to fix the systems themselves, precluding the Pentagon, in some cases, from doing its own repairs.

“It’s not really a true capitalistic market because one company is telling you what’s going to happen. [It’s a] monopoly,” retired DOD auditor Mark Owen told CBS.

These reports come as tensions between Washington and Russia as well as China are growing at a rapid clip. The US is planning on fighting a hot war with China. Concurrently, the White House is committing billions of dollars in unprecedented military aid to Taipei, some of which is being drawn from the same dwindling DOD stocks used to prop up Kiev’s war against Moscow via the “Presidential Drawdown Authority.”

Since 2018, the Pentagon has been shifting its focus away from counterterrorism in the Middle East and North Africa, to focus primarily on so-called “great power competition” with China and Russia, pegged respectively as the number one and number two targets.

This has been reaffirmed in subsequent national defense strategies, as the shift in 2018 was codifying renewed Cold Wars against Russia and China launched by the US years and, in the case of Moscow, decades prior to the officially adopted national defense strategy.

It is also critical to note, that as the new Cold Wars get hotter, the nominal Pentagon budget is nearing a whopping $900 billion and will soon surpass the previously unthinkable $1 trillion mark. However, a closer look reveals the real national security state budget is already fast approaching $1.5 trillion.

This larger figure includes not only the mammoth War Department’s budget but – among a plethora of other expenses – the Department of Veterans Affairs, interest on the warfighting share of the national debt, nuclear weapons, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Congress recently simulated a Chinese attack on Taiwan and came to the conclusion that Taipei should thus be armed “to the teeth” by Washington. Center for a New American Security (CNAS), the ultra-hawkish think tank which has members and associates planted throughout the Joe Biden administration, carried out the exercise with the lawmakers on the House Select Committee on China.

CNAS is funded by Taiwan via the island’s de facto embassy in the United States, as well as the Pentagon, the State Department, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. In August 2021, investigative journalist Dan Cohen reported CNAS “has taken more money from weapons companies over the last several years than any other think tank in Washington… At least 16 CNAS alumni are now in key positions in the Biden Pentagon and State Department.”

May 22, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism, Timeless or most popular | , , , , , | Leave a comment

US Democrats fundraise from arms dealers amid Pentagon budget fight

Press TV – April 29, 2023

Top Democratic lawmakers in the US are holding a fundraising meeting with major arms companies on Thursday as Washington plunges into a budget battle in which concessions to the Pentagon and the defense industry could mean cuts to welfare programs such as food stamps.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, his deputy Pete Aguilar, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chair Rep. Suzan Delbene have been selected as the honorees to be invited to the event. The downtown D.C. function ― dubbed a “defense and national security dinner” ― is set to raise funds for the committee, which is the campaign arm for House Democrats and is central to their hopes of regaining the lower chamber of Congress.

Dozens of representatives of Pentagon contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, SpaceX, Palantir, and General Dynamics will attend the event.

The group includes figures who previously worked for congressional Democrats, such as Shana Chandler, director of government relations at General Dynamics. Chandler spent 15 years as chief of staff for Rep. Adam Smith, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and another co-host of Thursday’s event.

The event could provide a significant signal about the priorities of the House Democrats as they prepare for the 2024 elections and battle Republicans who are demanding spending cuts in exchange for passing critical legislation. It could be a disappointing message to those who want the party to support social justice and progressive reform.

A senior congressional aide said news of the fundraiser set off alarm bells among staffers, and the event could be a stark example of senior Democratic leaders saying one thing but doing another. Democrats claim to support reining in out-of-control defense spending and criticize Republicans for serving America’s most powerful corporate interests while doing exactly that themselves.

In the coming months, Democratic lawmakers are expected to make key decisions that will affect the US defense industry as they fight Republican efforts to cut government spending.

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he wants comprehensive cuts. But signals from influential Republicans and analysis by budget experts suggest that McCarthy will protect the Pentagon budget.

Democrats can also demand limits on Pentagon spending to protect other government agencies. However, the defense industry will lobby hard to prevent such a development.

The United States remains by far the world’s biggest military spender, according to new data on global military spending published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

US military spending reached $877 billion in 2022, which was 39 percent of total global military spending and three times more than the amount spent by China, the world’s second largest spender.

The 0.7 percent real-terms increase in US spending in 2022 would have been even greater had it not been for the highest levels of inflation since 1981.

“The increase in the USA’s military spending in 2022 was largely accounted for by the unprecedented level of financial military aid it provided to Ukraine,” said Dr Nan Tian, SIPRI Senior Researcher. “Given the scale of US spending, even a minor increase in percentage terms has a significant impact on the level of global military expenditure.”

US financial military aid to Ukraine totaled $19.9 billion in 2022. Although this was the largest amount of military aid given by any country to a single beneficiary in any year since the cold war, it represented only 2.3 percent of total US military spending.

In 2022 the USA allocated $295 billion to military operations and maintenance, $264 billion to procurement and research and development, and $167 billion to military personnel.

April 29, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism | , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Swiss leaders shrug off referendum on F-35 deal

Samizdat | September 18, 2022

Swiss legislators have given final approval for the country’s controversial purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the US, ignoring a successful petition drive that was supposed to force a public vote on the issue.

Switzerland’s lower house National Council voted to approve the $6 billion deal with US defense contractor Lockheed Martin on Thursday. The upper house, the Council of States, had previously approved the purchase of 36 F-35s.

The Swiss government, which received voter approval in 2020 to modernize the country’s fleet of fighter jets at a cost of up to $6.3 billion, reached a preliminary agreement with Lockheed Martin last year after choosing the F-35 over France’s Rafale, Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet and the multinational Eurofighter Typhoon.

Opponents have argued that although voters narrowly approved the fleet’s modernization, they didn’t agree to the F-35, which has been branded too expensive and not a good fit for militarily neutral Switzerland’s defense-focused air force.

Last month, the government confirmed that the “Stop F-35” opposition group had gathered the necessary 100,000 valid petition signatures to force a referendum.

The Swiss defense department argued that there wasn’t enough time to hold the vote before Lockheed Martin’s offer expired. The government has a March 2023 deadline to sign the contract or risk higher costs and a longer wait for the jets. Other countries, such as Germany, Finland and Canada, are queuing up to buy F-35s amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

September 18, 2022 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | 1 Comment

Biden mobilizes US military industry to arm Ukraine

Samizdat | April 13, 2022

US President Joe Biden is looking to mobilize the military industry and send another $750 million worth of the Pentagon’s own weapons stockpile to Ukraine, according to new reports citing anonymous officials in Washington. This is on top of the $1.7 billion worth of goods sent to Kiev courtesy of American taxpayers since the conflict escalated on February 24.

So far the US “lethal” aid has consisted mainly of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger portable anti-air systems.

Now Biden is preparing to escalate the aid to include heavy artillery and other systems, worth three-quarters of a billion or so, Reuters reported on Tuesday citing two US officials. The official announcement could come within a day or two, the agency added.

Biden wouldn’t need congressional authorization for this, either, as it would be done under a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which authorizes transfer from current US military stocks in response to an emergency.

This would put the amount of US military aid to Kiev at over $2.4 billion since Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, when added to the White House’s own figures made public last week.

The US has sent more than 1,400 Stingers and 5,000 Javelins to Ukraine already, Financial Times (FT) reported on Tuesday citing the Pentagon. This amounts to a third of the US stock of Javelins and a quarter of its Stingers, estimated the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think-tank. At current production rates, it will take 3-4 years to restock on Javelins and at least five for the Stingers.

Production levels will be one of the topics at the meeting between the Pentagon officials and top eight US weapons manufacturers, which both Reuters and FT said is scheduled for Wednesday. Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and L3 Harris Technologies are expected in attendance.

Kiev has reached out to US allies far and wide – from its NATO neighbors all the way to South Korea – asking for airplanes, tanks and artillery in particular. On Saturday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that Berlin could not afford to send any more weapons without depleting its own stocks too much. By Monday, however, the Rheinmetall conglomerate said it could refurbish some obsolete Leopard 1 tanks and send them east.

Last week, Slovakia announced it would send its only battery of S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine, and get US-made “Patriots” to replace them. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the battery had been obliterated in a cruise missile strike against a hangar in Dnepropetrovsk, a city Ukrainians call Dnipro, the day before.

April 12, 2022 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , , , | 12 Comments

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