Neo-Nazi group with US links may be backed by Russian intelligence
Read More »Suspicions of Russian influence have persisted since the group’s founding in 2018 due to the fact that Nazzaro, a former FBI intelligence analyst and onetime U.S. civilian analyst supporting military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, now lives in St. Petersburg.
DARWIN, July 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. military is building infrastructure in northern Australia to help it project power into the South China Sea if a crisis with China erupts, a Reuters review of documents and interviews with U.S. and Australian defence officials show.
US military, seeking strategic advantages, builds up Australia’s northern bases amid China tensions
Related:
US military eyes Australia’s Indian Ocean toehold to deter China
SYDNEY – A remote Australian island close to an Indian Ocean chokepoint for Chinese oil shipments is on a list of possible locations for US military construction aimed at deterring China, with the US saying it “may or may not” support American forces.
Australian-based Marines ready to support Manila in sea-territory skirmish
Australian-based Marines ready to support Manila in sea-territory skirmish
“We were given a warning order to support the Philippines defense forces in resupplying of the Second Thomas Shoal,” Marine Rotational Force — Darwin commander Col. Brian Mulvihill told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday at an Outback training camp in the Northern Territory.
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The Marines have been monitoring events at the shoal over a drone feed, Mulvihill said.
“We were ready to support the Philippine defense forces,” he said, noting that Marines across the Pacific are also ready to back the U.S. ally.
The rotational force can airlift food and water by pushing pallets out of helicopters, he added.
“We can control airspace and aircraft from many nations,” he said. “We provide a range of options if a host nation, through the embassy, requires assistance.”
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Darwin is an excellent platform for launching forces into Southeast Asia, according to Grant Newsham, a retired Marine colonel and senior researcher with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo.
“It’s good to see Darwin and Northern Territory being used this way … rather than just as a training area for Marines, Air Force, and Australian and other forces,” he said by email Thursday.
The Marines can offer the Philippines fire support coordination. They can help with logistics and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and guard locations that support Philippine forces operating towards the disputed shoal, he said.
“Of course, Marines can deploy aboard Philippine resupply boats alongside [Philippine] personnel,” he said.
Marine engineers could repair the Sierra Madre at the shoal and Marine helicopters could resupply it, Newsham added.
“A U.S. amphibious ship or two with Marines and their aircraft and other hardware aboard deployed to Second Thomas Shoal would be a serious force — and also sending a clear message,” he said. “Deploying Marines in the Philippines with their aviation, long-range rockets, and other hardware has a political significance in itself.”
Related:
Japan Forum for Strategic Studies
South China Sea: Philippines says to solely run Second Thomas Shoal resupply missions
The head of the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed on Friday that a former US Marine general was working for the group.
Ex-US general among ‘Russia’s Wagner fighters’
As I write this, BBC reports that UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is “urgently” investigating reports of a chemical weapons attack in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The US Department of Defense finds the reports “deeply concerning.”
Usually when the western governments start quacking about “chemical attacks,” it means they’re planning to take action of some kind – airstrikes in Syria, sanctions on Russia, what have you – and are looking for an excuse.
Mariupol: Let’s Talk About ‘Chemical Weapons’ Propaganda
by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
February 4, 2022
Smedley Butler is generally left out of U.S. history. If you bring up a guy who prevented a Wall Street coup against FDR, you do real damage to the tale of peaceful respect for government from the beginning of time up through January 6, 2021. If you mention the scandal that erupted when he recounted how Mussolini had run over a little girl with his car, it’s hard to leave out the U.S. government’s friendly relations with Mussolini.
Smedley Butler Wasn’t Kidding, by David Swanson
Previously:
Why Smedley Butler left the imperialist front despising ‘Gangsters of Capitalism’
Pentagon whistle-blower under US govt probe for publishing op-eds at Global Times
Related:
In May 2007, amid a U.S. troop surge in Iraq, Wired magazine published a piece titled “Military Dragged Feet on Bomb-Proof Vehicles.” The article unleashed a whirlwind of controversy that led to congressional hearings and, ultimately, hundreds of millions of dollars for lifesaving equipment.
The exposé didn’t mention Gayl, but he had leaked a key document to Wired. As a science adviser to the Marine Corps, he had recently returned from a stint in Iraq, where he had seen signs the military had delayed the rollout of much-needed armored vehicles known as MRAPs. Gayl briefed the staffs of Sens. Biden and Kit Bond (R-Mo.), who both later praised him as a “hero.”
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Gayl claims he didn’t receive any blowback over the first op-ed, but that changed after he wrote another claiming “China-averse special interests” in the United States were “othering” or trying to “dehumanize” the Chinese in preparation for a war.
Op-eds in a Chinese state tabloid slammed U.S. policy. The author works at the Pentagon.
Censored – North Korea Accused U.S. of Working with Unit 731 War Criminals on BW Attacks (Archive) (Snapshot)
Notes: Original may be behind a paywall. Archived is missing a photo, so I posted the Snapshot.
Related:
Revealed – The long-suppressed official report on US biowarfare in North Korea (Full Report)
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 