It's been a busy year for American arms sales -- "busier than ever" as one official put it in June. In the first eight months of 2017, by the latest count, the total value of U.S. "arms transfer notifications" has almost doubled compared to the same period last year, reaching $48 billion. The Trump administration's … Continue reading U.S. plans even more aid for state-subsidized arms exporters
Month: September 2017
We may soon learn more about the extent to which the United States' military has allowed its own soldiers to be exposed to a wide range of poisons -- on purpose, in some cases, as part of chemical weapons experiments. In what Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News calls "an unusual … Continue reading NDAA requires declassification of toxic exposure records
Despite growing concerns from experts and the public about the security of increasingly interconnected machine networks and the potential dangers of artificial intelligence leading to "killer robot" technology, top military strategists are pushing forward with ambitious plans to vastly expand the Defense Department's concept of "network centric warfare." In a recent article on the Pentagon's … Continue reading The Pentagon’s classified plan to create Skynet
The Pentagon's propaganda activities -- what it now euphemistically refers to as "military information support operations" (MISO) -- have a long history of both using trickery and deception to provide incredible tactical advantages in some cases, and failing spectacularly in others. "When employed correctly Military Information Support Operations (MISO--formerly PSYOP [psychological operations]) as a force … Continue reading U.S. should test propaganda before using it, psy-ops commander says
In the past few years, various aspects of the United States' security clearance system for allowing individuals to access classified information have come under scrutiny, following some major failures and embarrassments. In 2014, a massive data breach at the Office of Personnel Management led to the exposure of sensitive information on tens of millions of … Continue reading DoD grants temporary clearances to rapists, murderers to avoid ‘horrific impact’ on weapons development
An artificial intelligence arms race seems to be officially underway following Russian President Vladimir Putin's comment last week that whoever comes to dominate the field "will be the ruler of the world." This is one area, at least, where top U.S. policymakers can apparently agree with Putin. The military and the Central Intelligence Agency are … Continue reading CIA, DoD eager to tap AI capabilities they don’t understand
Two "official use only" government documents published this week offer insight into federal investigators' perceptions of the domestic terrorism suspects they pursue, making them especially relevant in light of revelations in a recent in-depth article from The Intercept exploring the murky world of undercover terrorism stings. "Analysis of 57 fully adjudicated FBI international terrorism cases … Continue reading New documents show how feds view domestic terror cases
The Pentagon's recent admission that more U.S. troops are deployed to war zones than previously disclosed has caused some controversy. But another consistently underestimated number -- that of civilian casualties of America's wars -- has received less attention, even as the death toll continues to mount seemingly without interruption. On Friday the U.S.-led coalition fighting … Continue reading U.S. acknowledges civilian casualties as death toll keeps rising
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