arms services comm hse
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">nunes re-elected and 2 guys in coup setup?!</font></div><div>
</div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ringo only a little worried 11/12/20</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1120 holland </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-installs-loyalists-at-the-pentagon-officials-sound-alarm-2020-11?op=1&scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Trump has decapitated the senior civilian leadership of the Pentagon</a> and much of the intelligence community and replaced them with Trump loyalists, many of whom are conspiratorial nutjobs. We don't know towards what end, but it is a brazenly authoritarian move that's inconsistent with the idea that he's just trying to keep donors' dollars flowing....</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'These are dictator moves': Defense officials alarmed as Trump installs more loyalists at the Pentagon</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Adam Payne Nov 11, 2020,</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President Donald Trump has filled a series of senior defense positions with loyalists, causing alarm among Pentagon officials.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Four defense officials, including Mark Esper, the defense secretary, and James Anderson, the acting undersecretary of defense for policy, have either resigned or been sacked since Trump lost the presidential election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Anderson was replaced by Anthony Tata, a retired US Army brigadier general who made false claims about President Barack Obama including that he was a "terrorist leader," CNN reported.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"This is scary. It's very unsettling," one defense official told CNN, adding, "These are dictator moves."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rep. Adam Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the next few months could be "downright dangerous."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President Donald Trump is continuing to replace senior defense officials with loyalists, creating alarm in the Pentagon that his rapid overhaul of key staffers could undermine national security.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Since Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday, three other Defense Department officials have either resigned or been sacked. James Anderson, the acting undersecretary of defense for policy, quit on Tuesday after clashing with the White House over its attempts to insert allies and controversial figures into top Pentagon positions, Politico reported.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Anderson was replaced by retired US Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, an ally of Trump and a regular guest on Fox News. Tata has made several false and Islamophobic claims about former President Barack Obama in tweets unearthed by CNN, calling him a Muslim and a "terrorist leader" who "normalized Islam for America."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Joseph Kernan, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and Jen Stewart, Esper's chief of staff, also left their posts and were<b> replaced by Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Kash Patel. </b>Patel will serve as chief of staff to Christopher Miller, now the acting secretary of defense, CNN reported.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Both Cohen-Watnick and Patel are considered fiercely loyal to the outgoing president, The Associated Press reported.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There is reportedly a growing concern in the Pentagon that the flurry of personnel changes could just the beginning and that Trump's decision-making could become more volatile as he continues to refuse to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">"This is scary. It's very unsettling," a defense official told CNN, adding, "These are dictator moves."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Officials told The Washington Post that Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist could be the next to be dismissed.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Rep. Adam Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee,</b> said in a statement on Tuesday that the "gutting" of the department ought to "alarm" Americans.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition," he said. "The top policy professional in the Department resigning the day after the Secretary of Defense was fired could mark the beginning of a process of gutting the DoD — something that should alarm all Americans."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Smith added that "if this is the beginning of a trend — the President either firing or forcing out national security professionals in order to replace them with people perceived as more loyal to him — then the next 70 days will be precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal echoed Smith's national-security concerns.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Trump's Defense Department purge is deeply dangerous to our national security," Blumenthal tweeted, adding that the outgoing president's "personal vendettas & temper tantrums supersede our national security."</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/calls-intensify-for-hearings-on-us-officials-who-lied-to-american-people-about-endless-afghan-war-lets-bring-rumsfeld-in"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/calls-intensify-for-hearings-on-us-officials-who-lied-to-american-people-about-endless-afghan-war-lets-bring-rumsfeld-in</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Calls intensify for hearings on US officials who lied to American people about endless Afghan War: ‘Let’s bring Rumsfeld in’</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams December 12, 2019</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Ro Khanna on Wednesday said that The Washington Post‘s explosive investigation the “Afghanistan Papers” showed the need for a congressional hearing and that former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld should be among the current and former top officials called in for a reckoning before the American public.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Khanna (D-Calif.) made the comments at a House Armed Services Committee hearing.</b> Hebegan addressing Secretary of Defense Mark Esper by summing up the Post‘s report from Monday.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The bottom line is that top military officials and civilian officials have known that the Afghan war has been has been unwinnable and have been misleading the American public for 20 years,” Khanna said. “Your predecessor Secretary Rumsfeld was quoted there as saying, ‘I have no visibility into who the bad guys are.'”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Are you embarrassed by Secretary Rumsfeld comment and the other people quoted, and do you believe they owe the American public an explanation and an apology?” Khanna asked Esper.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Esper said it was up to the committee on whether or not to call a hearing. “But I do know this much. The story spanned multiple administrations, multiple uniformed and civilian officials, and I think it’s good to look back.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet, Esper said, “I think at this point where I’m looking is forward. And forward tells me… the path to success, the win, is a political agreement between the parties on the ground.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“But don’t you think we have to have some accountability so we don’t make the same mistake again?” asked Khanna. “Would you support this committee holding hearings on the Afghan Papers and calling in front of Congress every official who has misled the American public about whether this war was winnable in all or not? With 2,400 American soldiers dead, 775,000 Americans deployed, dont you think people owe this country an explanation?”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Khanna then said to committee chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), “I would request that this committee hold hearing on the Afghan Papers and call before Congress with subpoena every person who has misled this country.”</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“And just like in the Pentagon Papers,” Khanna continued, “I think that should be one of our highest priorities… examining what has come out in that bombshell report.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith responded by saying he believes “it’s appropriate to have hearing,” but said that calling “every single witness… would not be a productive of this committee’s time.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Khanna shared a portion of the exchange on Twitter, adding, “Let’s bring Rumsfeld in.”</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior military & civil officials knew the Afghanistan war was not winnable, but misled Americans. Today, @RepAdamSmith agreed with my call to hold hearings on the bombshell Afghan papers.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let’s bring Rumsfeld in. pic.twitter.com/KSouR4GBHY</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) December 11, 2019</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The California Democrat’s remarks at the hearing echo comments he made earlier to The Hill.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Subpoena all of the people who were mentioned and have them account and explain to the American people in some cases why they lied and in other cases why they were utterly incompetent,” Khanna told the outlet Wednesday.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Post investigation had already motivated Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, to call for a public hearing “to address these deeply concerning revelations about the Afghan war.”</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a letter sent Monday to Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Gillibrand wrote, “it is deeply troubling</span> to read a report of interviews with U.S. government officials that appear to contradict the many assurances we have heard at committee hearings that the continuing war in Afghanistan has a coherent strategy and an end in sight.”</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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