How The Pentagon Uses A Secretive Program To Wage Proxy Wars

Nick Turse, Alice Speri, The Intercept, Jul 1 2022

Small teams of US SOF are involved in a low-profile proxy war program on a far greater scale than previously known, according to exclusive documents and interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials. While The Intercept and other outlets have previously reported on the Pentagon’s use of the secretive 127e authority in multiple African countries, a new document obtained through the FoIA offers the first official confirmation that at least 14 127e programs were also active in the greater Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region as recently as 2020. In total, between 2017 and 2020, US commandos conducted at least 23 separate 127e programs across the world. Separately, Joseph Votel, a retired four-star Army general who headed both SOCOM & CENTCOM, which oversees US military efforts in the Middle East, confirmed the existence of previously unrevealed 127e “counter-terrorism” efforts in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.

How The Pentagon Uses A Secretive Program To Wage Proxy Wars

Related:

America Is Quietly Expanding Its War in Tunisia

Jim Bovard: The Justice Department Pressured USA Today to Stop Publishing Me

by Jim Bovard | Jun 28, 2022

In 2015, Justice Department press chief Brian Fallon bitterly complained to USA Today editors about my articles walloping Attorney General Eric Holder, including”Eric Holder’s Lawless Legacy,” [Feb. 3, 2015] and “Eric Holder’s Police Shooting Record? Dismal,” [Aug. 20, 2014]. Fallon (who later became presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s press secretary) protested to USA Today commentary editor David Mastio and another USA Today editor, Brian Gallagher, about my “consistently nasty words about Mr. Holder” and said that Bovard “has never had a kind thing to say about Holder.” (Actually, I praised Holder’s curtailing prosecutions of minor drug possession in a 2013 USA Today column that recounted my experiences working with a convict road gang.)

The Justice Department Pressured USA Today to Stop Publishing Me

Military Could Keep Shipwreck Info From Public If New Amendment Passes

As members of the House of Representatives debate the details of their latest draft of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), one possible addition came seemingly out of left field, or maybe 20,000 leagues. It could change the public’s access to information about military ships and aircraft that have sunk. The amendment, put forward by Rep. Austin Scott, a Georgia Republican, is said to have been motivated by unlawful salvaging operations that occur at these sites.

Military Could Keep Shipwreck Info From Public If New Amendment Passes