28 Feb, 2023 19:37

Pentagon says it struggles to track US weapons in Ukraine

The military’s inspector general seemingly admitted that the US can’t follow its own arms control laws

A classified report last year found that the Pentagon was unable to keep tabs on tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons sent to Ukraine. Details of the report were revealed – apparently inadvertently – by a Republican lawmaker during a hearing on Tuesday.

Speaking at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday, Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch noted that the US has allocated $113 billion in aid to Ukraine since the conflict there began last February, around 60% of which went to the country’s military.

Storch – who is tasked with ensuring that this money is accounted for and not lost to waste, fraud, or abuse – refused to say whether his team had encountered any such corruption in Ukraine. However, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson stated that a report from Storch’s office last October found that the Pentagon was unable to carry out monitoring of weapons deliveries to Ukraine in line with its own policies.

Storch responded that the report in question was supposed to remain classified, but admitted that it was “accurate” in acknowledging “challenges” faced by the US in Ukraine.

Monitoring of such arms deliveries is governed by the 1996 Arms Export Control Act. Questioned by Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz – a vocal opponent of military aid to Ukraine – Storch would not confirm or deny under oath whether the Pentagon was complying with this act.

National Security Council spokesmanJohn Kirbyclaimed in January that the Biden administration has “not seen any signs” that military or economic aid “has fallen prey to any kind of corruption in Ukraine.” However, the classified document mentioned by Johnson appears to back up a slew of reports suggesting that weapons often disappear once delivered.

Reports from last year – backed up by Amnesty International – claimed thatas little as 30% of Western weaponssent to Ukraine were actually making it to the front lines. American and Canadian officials admitted at the time that they had no idea where most of these weapons were ending up, with one US intelligence source telling CNN that they vanish “into a big black hole” once they enter Ukraine.

The Kremlin has claimed thatup to $1 billion worth of these weapons are funneled from Ukraine to criminals and terror groups in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia every month, while Europol and Interpol both warned that weapons have likely been transferred from Ukraine to criminal organizations in Europe.

Pressed by Gaetz on Tuesday,Storch admitted that “there’s a long history of issues with corruption in Ukraine.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a former American soldier who fought for Ukraine’s foreign legion before defecting to Russia told RT thathe had personally seen commanders selling off Western missile launchers and rifles.

(So Samantha Powell of USAID was lying when she said they saw no theft! BTW USAID has the worst theft, abuse and waste of US Dollars ever, so she’s lying because of the history of the Agency)

https://www.rt.com/news/572224-ukraine-weapons-corruption-inspector/

28 Feb, 2023 17:47

Kiev’s troops have big Nazi problem – ex-US soldier who escaped Ukraine

John McIntyre, a former US army soldier, spent a year as a mercenary in Ukraine before fleeing to Russia

The Nazi influence in the Ukrainian military is omnipresent, John McIntyre, a former US soldier who served in various Ukrainian military units for a year, has told RT.He defected to Russia after witnessing the actions of the Ukrainian troopsamid the ongoing conflict between Kiev and Moscow.

“When I came, I was really surprised. Everybody had tattoos and Nazi symbolism,” the former American soldier-turned-mercenary told RT’s Murad Gazdiev in Moscow. McIntyre also admitted he did not believe Nazi ideology was “that big of a problem” for Ukraine until he saw things on the ground himself.

The soldier also said he had to conceal his own anti-fascist andcommunistviews to fit in with the Ukrainian troops. Some other Western mercenaries also directly told him: “The Russians aren’t the Nazis, we are the Nazis,” according to McIntyre.

The ex-US soldier served with the Ukrainian forces for a year, although now he claims he had always planned to defect to Russia once he gathered enough intelligence. At a certain point,he was “compromised as a whistleblower” after talking to someone about the war crimes committed by the Ukrainian forces. According to McIntyre, whistleblowers are treated in Ukraine even more harshly than spies.

“Anybody who confesses or is known to be about to confess is shot in the back of the head,” he claimed, adding that “a lot of people go missing … including foreigners.” McIntyre himself managed to flee to Russia through Moldova after finding out that Ukraine had snipers hunting down defectors trying to cross the frontlines.

The former soldier, who previously served in Fort Bliss, Texas, for two years, claims the Ukrainian forces actively use civilians as human shields as they station their troops in basements next to residential buildings and then blame Russia if the area gets targeted in a strike. When such attacks happened, news crews covering the incidents “would not show you the houses to the left and right full of soldiers,” he said.

The former mercenary also said he had heard about the Ukrainian nationalists, including the members of the infamous Azov battalion and another military formation called Carpathian Sech, who torture and kill Russian POWs by cutting off their genitalia or cutting their stomachs open and slitting their throats. McIntyre, who served with the Carpathian Sech, said he personally knew people who executed POWs, including foreigners from Portugal, France, and Argentina.

“It’s funny to them. It’s hatred. They hate the Russian people, they want to kill them, they want to genocide them and remove them from their land,” the man said.

“And we're supporting these guys? And these are supposed to be our allies? And we’re supposed to put them in NATO with us? And they can’t even follow Geneva conventions?” the former soldier asked, adding that “this would never fly in America” if it were made known to the public.

The US, however, is directly involved in providing the Ukrainian forces not only with weapons but also intelligence, McIntyre said. The former mercenary revealed he personally knew about a US Navy intelligence officer working with the Ukrainian foreign legion, where McIntyre himself was serving for some time. “He had a satellite phone and computer provided by the CIA. And every day he would call his contacts and he would get information about the positions, troops movements and so on,” the former soldier said.

The weapons and equipment the US sends to Ukraine also often end up on the black market or in the hands of extremists around the world because of rampant corruption there, according to the former mercenary.

https://www.rt.com/russia/572220-ukaine-nazi-problem-us-soldier/

Something fishy about this story. Why not come back to the US? Why was he planning on defecting to Russia.Did he means he's a communist?when he said I had to his my "anti-facist and Communist views".

I don't doubt about the Nazi's but his story seems weird.

28 Feb, 2023 16:28

Blinken issues warning to China

The top US diplomat said Washington would “not hesitate” to target Chinese companies or individuals who violate its Russia sanctions

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has again warned China of “implications and consequences” should it contribute lethal aid to Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. The senior US diplomat made the comments in Kazakhstan on Tuesday as part of a tour of Central Asian nations.

Blinken is meeting representatives of several former Soviet republics this week, including from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“We did very clearly warn China about the implications and consequencesof going through with providing such support,” he said at a news conference in Astana, following meetings with Kazakh foreign minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

(Conversation from Blinken went like this: Pretty please don’t violate the sanctions with Russia, I know Biden, Me and many in the Administration are bought and sold by China, but could you do us a favor! China: Who do you think you are talking to?)

“We will not hesitate, for example, to target Chinese companies or individuals that violate our sanctions, or are otherwise engaged in supporting the Russian war effort,” he warned, adding that he'd discussed the issue “directly” with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi when they met at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.

CIA Director Bill Burns told CBS News on Friday that the agency was “confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment” to Moscow to aid it militarily in its conflict with Ukraine – an accusation which Beijing denies. Last week, China issued a 12-point plan detailing a potential roadmap to peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaking on Tuesday, Blinken warned that any Chinese moves to aid Russia would create a “serious problem” for US-China relations, and harm many of China’s political relationships across the globe.

“China can’t have it both ways when it comes to the Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Blinken added. “It can’t be putting forward peace proposals on the one hand, while actually feeding the flames of the fire that Russia has started with the other hand.”

Beijing for its part has accused Washington of hypocrisy and of fueling the conflict in Ukraine by sending weapons worth billions of dollars to Kiev.

“The US has no right to dictate China-Russia relations, and we will never accept coercion and pressure from the US,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told journalists during a briefing on Monday.

(China is laughing their asses off! Worst SOS Ever!)

https://www.rt.com/news/572214-us-blinken-china-russia-aid/