Tag: US Navy

Let’s Blame The “America Hating” Media

When things blow up in Donny’s face he turns to his stand-by excuse….blame the media….and so it is with the problems on the USS Lincoln….

Over the past week, Pentagon officials launched a broadside against reports of dire conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which has been deployed in the Middle East for more than eight months.

Less than 24 hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth first criticized reporting about the Lincoln as “completely misrepresented,” a seemingly coordinated messaging campaign spread across the Pentagon’s social media apparatus. At least six senior Pentagon and Navy officials and spokespeople, along with official department accounts, published or amplified substantially similar attacks on the reporting across X and Facebook.

Recent reporting by Military Times and Stars and Stripes has drawn significant national attention to alarming conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 3 operating under the U.S. 5th Fleet.

Reporting by Natalie Oliverio, a Navy veteran and award-winning journalist, documented concerns from service members and their families about suicide attempts, inadequate food, shortages of basic hygiene products, and deteriorating sanitation conditions aboard the carrier.

The concerns have since drawn coverage from CNN, NPR and other national news organizations.

U.S. Central Command subsequently placed Oliverio’s reporting prominently in an infographic declaring that “multiple media outlets have reported several false claims” about the Lincoln. While five other reports displayed in the graphic were labeled “FALSE,” Oliverio’s reporting was labeled “MISINFORMED.”

On Aug. 14, Hegseth accused the “reckless & shameless ‘American’ media” of “completely & intentionally” misrepresenting the situation on the Lincoln, later referring to “fake, America-hating news.”

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/uss-abraham-lincoln-news/

That is their answer to any facts that puts them in the spotlight…..Donny and the slime ball Pistol Pete care nothing for the men and women that service and protect this nation.

The only shame is what these fools are doing to our troops….they deserve better than the morons that run their lives and the suck ups that command them.

I believe the horror stories….do you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Venezuela–The Rest Of The Story

News broke over the weekend that Donny is sending a carrier strike force into the area around Venezuela….all this rhetoric and moving of assests and the strikes on the small boats seems to be a ramp up to some sort of direct action against Venezuela.

But is it really necessary?

Or is it just a cover for more BS that the US has spread over the years….

Here’s your answer….

U.S. intelligence has assessed that little to none of the fentanyl trafficked to the United States is being produced in Venezuela, despite recent claims from the Trump administration, a senior U.S. official directly familiar with the matter tells Drop Site.

The official noted that many of the boats targeted for strikes by the Trump administration do not even have the requisite gasoline or motor capacity to reach U.S. waters, dramatically undercutting claims by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The claim is backed up by recent comments made by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who similarly noted that zero fentanyl is produced in Venezuela.

Despite the lack of intelligence linking Venezuela with fentanyl production, the Trump administration has made alleged Venezuelan drug trafficking the casus belli in its drive to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro. On Thursday, President Donald Trump referred to possible ground action, claiming at a press conference that the “sea drugs” coming in are “5% of what they were a year ago. So now they’re coming in by land.” “The land is going to be next,” he said, indicating he was willing to bypass congressional approval. On Friday, the U.S. announced it is sending an aircraft carrier to Latin America in a further escalation.

Two sources familiar with discussions at the White House note that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a long time proponent of regime change in Venezuela, has been the driving force behind the aggressive military and rhetorical posture toward the Maduro regime.

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/marco-rubio-secretary-state-push-venezuela-maduro-regime-change-boat-strikes

This just the typical propaganda used to justify and illegal action against a sovereign nation….

So is this a real threat to the US or just another pile of steaming manure?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Navy To The Black Sea

The US seems to be trying to provoke…..we have sent a carrier group to the East China Sea and now we have sent the US Navy into the Black Sea….

For what purpose?

The US Navy has three warships operating in the Black Sea, a region where NATO is looking to increase its naval presence.

The USS Porter, a guided-missile destroyer, entered the waters on Thursday, joining two US ships that were already there. The USS Donald Cook, another guided-missile destroyer, and the oiler USNS Laramie transited into the Black Sea on Sunday.

Russia noticed the US warships operating near its coast and deployed a mobile coastal defense anti-ship system in Crimea. The Russian military said it tracked the USS Donald Cook as it entered the Black Sea.

Russia hawks and NATO are hoping the US keeps up the military activity in the Black Sea this year.

While the US and Russia reached an agreement on extending New START, the vital nuclear treaty, the Biden administration is maintaining a hostile stance towards Moscow, and more US-NATO military cooperation is expected.

(antiwar.com)

Again why is the US presence necessary?

Are we there to protect or provoke?

A situation that I shall watch with interest.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Dept. Of Navy You Have A Problem

Closing Thought–27Aug20

No I am not talking about all the problems it has within the SEALs…this problem is one of sex trafficking by members of the Navy.

I covered this when it was first reported in June of this year…..https://lobotero.com/2020/06/22/tinker-sailor-hooker-pimp/

And the problem seems to be persisting……

The Navy has seen an uptick in cases of sailors and Marines involved in human smuggling over the past year, a Navy official told Task & Purpose this week.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service “had an increase in documented cases involving human smuggling in fiscal years 2019-2020,” said Navy spokesman Ensign Mohammad Issa, though he added that “during the last five years, there have been less than 30 total documented human smuggling cases” within the Navy and Marine Corps.

The service made the disclosure when asked by Task & Purpose whether there had been an increase in human smuggling after a number of cases in Southern California made national headlines.

Much of the increase can likely be attributed to Marines at Camp Pendleton, where investigators uncovered a human smuggling ring of two dozen active-duty service members in July 2019 after two enlisted Marines were arrested by Border Patrol agents with three immigrants in their backseat while driving in Jacumba Springs, a small desert town on the U.S.-Mexico border.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-human-smuggling-increase

American service people engaged in a form of slavery…..can it go more disgusting than that?

Can we blame globalization for this rise in human trafficking?

I posted on this as well…..https://lobotero.com/2020/08/24/globalization-and-the-sex-trade/

I know many see globalization as the root of all modern evil…..greed, corruption and slavery of one type or another seem to be the only things globalization has accomplished in the long run.

Any thoughts?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tinker, Sailor, Hooker, Pimp

Closing Thought–Jun20

That title sounds like something from the typewriter of John LeCarre….right?

But this time it is a real situation uncovered in Bahrain that involves a sailor and human trafficking…..

It all started on WhatsApp.

The first in a cascade of U.S. Navy investigations into sailors accused of trafficking, housing and pimping female prostitutes in the Middle East can be traced back to June 2017 and a string of sex-charged encrypted text messages between a sailor in Bahrain and a Thai prostitute he met on the island.

“Yo u sexy than a mother fucker with your mean ass,” Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Jihad H. Littlejohn had texted the woman on June 4, 2017, according to Navy court records.

Prosecutors would later allege that Littlejohn, a 29-year-old from New Jersey then assigned to the patrol ship Hurricane, had paid the so-called “working girl” for sex.

“I want to sleep on your titty,” the sailor had texted her.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/06/16/tinder-sailor-hooker-pimp-the-us-navys-sex-trafficking-scandal-in-bahrain/

But there may be a problem in getting a conviction….

While the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigated numerous sailors for crimes involving sex trafficking and prostitutes in Bahrain in recent years, Navy prosecutors have struggled at times to win criminal convictions in court.

The Navy filed charges against at least nine sailors for such offenses in 2017 and 2018, including one mid-grade officer and five chiefs. The charges included allegations that some sailors were trafficking or attempting to traffic Thai prostitutes into Bahrain and housing them in their off-post apartments with the intention of taking a cut of their nightly cash earnings.

Navy prosecutors secured guilty pleas in five of those nine cases, but officials concede that they offered watered-down plea deals to some of the accused sailors due to a recurring problem: the failure to get the Thai prostitutes at the center of the cases into a military courtroom to testify.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/06/16/why-the-navy-struggled-to-convict-in-bahrain-sex-crime-cases/

This comes at a terrible time for the Navy…they are already dealing with scandalous events and situation within their elite fighting force, the SEALs….https://lobotero.com/2019/08/15/seals-have-a-problem/

Our military has Special ops soldiers killing each other, soldiers accused of war crimes, spying accusations, on and on…..and now this little piece of human trafficking for sexual stuff…..

Someone needs to get a grip on these things….and by someone I mean the Pentagon…..and yet the best we can do from them is a yes man for Donald the Orange….

These problems will continue until there is someone who will stand up and do what is needed to clean up our services.

But who?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

USS Liberty–2020

Today in history…..

452 AD  Attila invades Italy

1953  Supreme Court forbids segregated lunch counters

1965  LBJ allows US troops in combat in South Vietnam

1967  Israeli forces attack USS Liberty….and this where this post picks up…..

Fifty three years and counting…….

Every year on the day of the attack, 08 June, I do a post on the USS Liberty in honor of those killed and wounded by the cowardly attack by Israel on a US Naval ship….there are many articles and papers written about this attack and I try to give my reader a library of work on the situation…..so they can better understand what happened on that fateful day.

Image result for USS Liberty

And yes it was a fateful day…34 American sailors were murdered by a supposed ally, Israel and the US allowed the cowardly attack to go unanswered.

John McCain’s father is the one that allowed the attack to go unanswered…..

The below sources are the writings on the dastardly attack by the Israelis on the Naval vessel. USS Liberty…..

Source: Remembering the U.S.S. Liberty – The Unz Review

Source: Infamy at Sea: Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty 50 Years Later

Source: The Day Israel Attacked America – Al Jazeera English

Source: USS Liberty crew member recalls fatal ’67 US-Israeli skirmish – News – Stripes

Source: 50 Years Ago: NSA’s Deadliest Day | Observer

Source: The USS Liberty Must Not Be Forgotten – The Unz Review

Source: https://theintercept.com/2017/06/06/fifty-years-later-nsa-keeps-details-of-israels-uss-liberty-attack-secret/

https://lobotero.com/2015/07/09/still-waiting-for-uss-libertys-truth-by-ray-mcgovern-antiwar-com/

https://lobotero.com/2015/06/08/uss-liberty-end-of-the-day/

https://lobotero.com/2015/06/08/leaving-the-uss-liberty-crew-behind-by-ray-mcgovern-antiwar-com-2/

https://lobotero.com/2015/06/08/the-case-of-the-uss-liberty-anatomy-of-an-israeli-provocation-world-socialist-web-site/

https://lobotero.com/2015/06/08/uss-liberty-israeli-pilot-speaks-up/

https://lobotero.com/2015/06/08/dead-in-the-water-the-sinking-of-the-uss-liberty-must-watch-uprootedpalestinianss-blog/

https://lobotero.com/2015/06/08/uss-liberty-incident-in-saner-thought/

https://lobotero.com/2013/06/08/uss-liberty-incident-2/

Source: Two important lessons from Israeli attack on the USS Liberty – In Saner Thought

Source: USS Liberty Veterans Association | Letter to Bibi – In Saner Thought

Source: Liberty Survivors Say US Still Downplays Israel’s Attack on Ship – In Saner Thought

Sad thing is Americans thump their chest and hate Iranians because of the attack on the embassy in 1979 but yet the death of 34 American sailors means NOTHING to them.  I find that PATHETIC!

In case you are interested…..these are the dead killed by Israel…..

Never Forget and Never Forgive!

The brave men of the Liberty deserve better than this nation has given them…they died for nothing more than to preserve a notion of friendship.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Navy Screw Up!

The Big Stick has a problem with the virus and the captain put it on a northerly course and asked for help to evac the crew.

It seems he, the captain, has run afoul of a Trumpian tool in the Secretary position…..and has lost his command……

The captain of a US aircraft carrier has lost his command after asking the Navy to let him evacuate crew members who tested positive for the coronavirus. Thomas Modly, acting secretary of the Navy, said Thursday that he gave the order to relieve Capt. Brett Crozier of his command, the Wall Street Journal reports. Crozier had written his superior officers asking for permission to remove ill crew members from the ship in Guam, where the USS Theodore Roosevelt is docked. It wasn’t possible to isolate ill patients on the ship, he said. The San Francisco Chronicle, Crozier’s hometown newspaper, saw a copy of the memo and reported it; Modly declined to say whether he thought Crozier leaked it but said that would violate Navy policy. Crozier did forward the memo to as many as 30 people, Modly said. President Trump said late Thursday that he didn’t agree with distributing the memo, “not even a little bit.”

Modly said Crozier, who had written his bosses that “sailors do not need to die,” had exercised poor judgment, per ABC. “I lost confidence in his ability to lead that warship as it continues to fight through this virus, get the crew healthy, so that it can continue to meet its national security requirements,” he said. Distributing the memo, Modly said, “was a completely unnecessary thing to do in the midst of a crisis.” The ship has nearly 5,000 personnel on board. Modley said Friday that 114 sailors had tested positive and that the number would climb, per NPR, “maybe in the hundreds.”

I think it is a dereliction of duty for this man to be removed…..he did what he thought was the best thing for the men and women under his command and to be treated like this by the Trump admin is just pathetic……and I am not alone…..

Veterans have spoken out against the decision to relieve the captain of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt after he sent a letter to the Navy pleading for help after his ship was stricken with the coronavirus.

Thomas Modly, the acting secretary of the Navy, accused Capt. Brett Crozier of having “poor judgment” for using a “non-secure, unclassified” email address to write an email to his immediate chain of command which also included “20 or 30” additional recipients.

Crozier’s letter, which was then leaked and published by the San Francisco Chronicle, asked officials for help in isolating more than 4,000 sailors onboard the aircraft carrier docked in Guam, after a COVID-19 outbreak was detected among its crew. A day after the letter was published, around 1,000 sailors were removed from the Theodore Roosevelt. A total of 114 crew have since tested positive for COVID-19.

https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-navy-ship-captain-brett-crozier-1495923

In this time of crisis is this the time to be playing politics?

And the SecNav is just another sycophant that does Trump’s silly work….he should be ashamed.

The captain’s men showed how they feel about their captain…..

The captain of a Navy aircraft carrier fired Thursday after asking superiors to let him evacuate crew members sick from the coronavirus received a heartfelt goodbye from the sailors in his charge. Per USA Today, videos on social media showed rousing shows of support Friday aboard the USS Roosevelt, now docked in Guam, in a send-off for Capt. Brett Crozier. “Now that’s how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had!” one man in a clip shown on Facebook proclaimed. The man in the video added, “The GOAT [Greatest Of All Time], the man for the people.” In another video, along with the caption “So long to our hero Captain Crozier,” a man (apparently Crozier) strolls down the ship’s gangway and to a waiting car, to cheers, applause, and chants of “Captain Crozier! Captain Crozier!”

Crozier was relieved of his command after sending an urgent memo on Sunday to the Navy, asking to get sick crew members off the ship and into isolation. The letter ended up getting leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published it. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly says Crozier was let go because he sent the letter via “non-secure unclassified email” to a “broad array of people.” Modly added that Crozier showed “extremely poor judgment” and incited “panic” on the ship. In a statement to NBC News, sailors from the ship said, “Modly has broken faith with the crew” and that “there was nothing alarming or sensationalist in Capt. Crozier’s letter. It was simply a recitation of the bleak facts facing this warship. Capt. Crozier has the full faith and confidence of this crew, who would sail with him again at a moment’s notice.”

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Venezuela–WTF?

This post is the 15,000th post I have put on IST! (Damn my fingers are tired…LOL)

Covid-19 is screaming around the globe and the preparations and responses have been pathetic at best…..and yet with all that to deal with Donald the Orange has decided to flex his muscle against Venezuela…..first just a couple of days ago The Trump team put a bounty on the leader of Venezuela…..https://lobotero.com/2020/03/30/venezuela-the-bounty/

We have a naval operation is being carried off along the waters off the coast of Venezuela……

President Trump announced Wednesday that Navy ships are being moved toward Venezuela as his administration beefs up counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean following a US drug indictment against Nicolás Maduro, the AP reports. The president’s announcement was a break from the daily White House press briefing to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, which has left much of the country in lock-down and which the government warns could cause 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. “The Venezuelan people continue to suffer tremendously due to Maduro and his criminal control over the country, and drug traffickers are seizing on this lawlessness,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said after the president’s announcement.

The mission involves sending additional Navy warships, surveillance aircraft, and special forces teams to nearly double the US counter-narcotics capacity in the Western Hemisphere, with forces operating both in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Esper said the mission would be supported by 22 partner nations. The enhanced mission has been months in the making but has taken on greater urgency following last week’s indictment of Maduro, Venezuela’s embattled socialist leader, and members of his inner circle and military. They are accused of leading a narcoterrorist conspiracy responsible for smuggling up to 250 metric tons of cocaine a year into the US, about half of it by sea.
Really?
 
Sorry but I think that a concentration on handling the virus is far more important than a desire for regime change.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

More Americans Killing Americans

This could be another post about our daily dose of gun violence….but it is not…it is about American troops killing other Americans……

In the past it has been SEALs and Marines killing a Green Beret that was scandalous enough..l..but the Navy and the Marines have once again made the news….but this time they are accused of killing an American contractor….

Two Marine Raiders and a Navy corpsman have been charged with involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, and other offenses in connection with the death of a Lockheed Martin contractor, who died following a reported fist fight in Iraq, according to Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

Rick Anthony Rodriguez, a former Green Beret, died in Landstuhl, Germany, on Jan. 4 after being medically evacuated from Erbil, Iraq.

Todd South of Military Times first reported on Monday that two Marines and one sailor face general courts-martial for Rodriguez’s death: Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Draher, Gunnery Sgt. Joshua Negron, and Chief Petty Officer Eric Gilmet.

https://taskandpurpose.com/marines-sailor-charged-contractor-death

I do not know the particulars but this sounds more like macho bullshit that occurs when alcohol and egos are involved.

The old “who is tougher” scenario……

I have made my opinions known on this type of death before….to refresh everyone’s memory…..

I think it is pathetic that Americans feel that they must kill other Americans….it is PETTY and SMALL.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–16Sep19

When I was in the military (1967-1971) the best food was at Navy installations in second place was the Air Force….but that was the days when we had cooks not culinary specialists.

The US military is hell bent on the appearance of their members. Are they buff? Are they overweight? Are they in good shape?

So which service branch is the most obese?

The US Navy takes the prize.

Sailors need remedial physical training.

That could be one just one of many conclusions drawn by a recent Department of Defense study that found the Navy earned the dubious honor of surpassing all other branches in its rate of obese personnel.

The overall rate of fat service members is also up from recent years, with the percentage of personnel weighing in at obese standards climbing to over 17 percent, according to a Health of the DoD Force study.

That number spiked to over a quarter of service members over the age of 35.

For the Navy, the overall number of obese personnel was a shocking 22 percent. The other branches reported the following frequency of obesity:

  • Air Force: 18 percent
  • Army: 17 percent
  • Marine Corps: 8.3 percent

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/09/03/this-branch-takes-the-cake-as-the-us-militarys-fattest/

I guess the food is still pretty damn good, huh?

Thoughts?

“Lego Ergo Scribo”