Officially they are Government troops. Unofficially they are mercenaries fighting for the benefit of corporations and banks.
‘Unknown’ soldiers: US won’t disclose location of thousands of its troops
RT: 12 Dec, 2017
The White House has omitted, from a report prepared for Congress, the number of US troops fighting around the globe, including in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The expunged data coincides with a Pentagon report listing the location of 44,000 military personnel as “unknown”.
In accordance with the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the Trump administration provided Congress on Monday with a semi-annual report accounting for US military personnel stationed abroad. Although the reports are meant to make the executive branch more accountable for US troop deployments, Monday’s report left out the number of US troops operating in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Cameroon.
The Trump administration has argued that concealing troop numbers would prevent America’s enemies from gaining a strategic advantage. However, in a previous report in June, the White House listed 8,448 Americans serving in Afghanistan, 5,262 in Iraq, and 503 in Syria. The latest briefing for Congress does not provide figures for those war zones or a reason for their omission.
While the White House deemed troop numbers too sensitive to disclose, last week the Pentagon told reporters that 5,200 Americans were serving in Iraq and another 2,000 in Syria, about four times as many troops as previously reported.
The Pentagon also said that it could not disclose the location of tens of thousands of its personnel stationed across the globe.
A report compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center under the Office of the Secretary of Defense shows more than 44,000 personnel in a category labeled "Unknown," according to Stars and Stripes, a US military newspaper.
The United States maintains approximately 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad. US military personnel are stationed in 150 different countries.
“Our commitment is to be as transparent as we can, within the constraints of operational security," Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters last week. The Pentagon claimed in a statement that it is unable to accurately assess how many US military personnel are stationed overseas, where they were or even when they were there.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has previously expressed frustration with the Pentagon’s accounting techniques, ordering a review of how US troops are counted while serving overseas.
“There’s a very strange accounting procedure I inherited ... What I’m probably going to end up doing is outputting everyone into one thing and saying, ‘Here’s how many are really there now,'" Mattis said during a news conference in August.
The Department of Defense announced its first-ever audit in December.
The massive undertaking will require 2,400 auditors to review the Pentagon’s $2.4 trillion in assets, including personnel, real estate and weapons.
Selected Comments:
# They are not soldiers..............they are "moderate terrorists"..........
# Then, if any legitimate government kills US soldier while they're covertly on it's territory (like in Syria) then America should have no one to blame but itself.
# ...The United States maintains approximately 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad. US military personnel are stationed in 150 different countries.... Is this all in the name of "Human Rights", "Democracy", "Spreading Freedoms", or for the quest for world domination? Hmmm, let me guess.
# Nothing surprising here. The Pentagon dare not admit how many troops it has sent to foreign countries, constantly reducing the number for a certain number of countries. This also applies to the US Defense Budget, which analysts calculate to be almost double to what Washington admits it is.
# When these mercenaries are operating incognito - how we know they are Americans? Maybe some of them are just for hire, maybe part is a Mossad wing, maybe some of them just criminals fighting for own redemption. What is a difference between gangsters, sanctioned crime division? Such army can do anything and declare - we weren't there - finger point on others.
# yanks lie about everything else, so why not troop numbers?
# These are paid mercenaries not soldier. They sign up for benefits and a license to kill defenseless innocent people to further Israhell and the war machine. Americans spend $1.5T a year on wars and are too stupid to recognize their idiocy.
Confusion or deception? Report shows thousands more US troops abroad than Pentagon claims
RT : 28 Nov, 2017
US deployments in some states are up to several times higher than numbers quoted by military officials, the latest report from the Defense Manpower Data Center shows, indicating that the Pentagon is failing in its promise to provide more transparent troop data.
According to the quarterly report produced by the DMDC, which is itself a part of the US Department of Defense, on September 30 there were a total of 25,910 US troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, compared to the 14,765 declared by the Pentagon.
In Iraq, there were 8,992 troops, not 5,262, in Afghanistan 15,298 troops, not 14,000, and in Syria the deployment appears to be three times bigger – 1,720 against the latest official level of 503.
The data forced the Pentagon to acknowledge on Monday something that is widely known by military and Washington media, but is barely understood by the American public – that the US overseas mission figures regularly quoted by US officials are “not meant to represent an accurate accounting of troops deployed to any particular region.”
Instead, the usual neat numbers signify so-called Force Management Levels (FMLs) – an Obama-era deployment cap that was used by the White House during the previous administration to restrict US involvement in foreign wars. Even before Donald Trump was elected, the actual numbers were usually different – and almost invariably higher – than those reported, as the US used counted some troops as being on “temporary assignments” while others were on “overlapping rotations.”
“There are several other things that go into those numbers,” Colonel Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, attempted to explain, when challenged about the discrepancies. “It is a snapshot in time and have to also consider that number is quarterly. Our official deployment count has not changed.”
But the Pentagon also admitted that the numbers – even the ones in the DMDC report – are fudged for military and diplomatic purposes.
“We are going to be as transparent as we can possibly be without telegraphing or silhouetting ourselves to the enemy and showcasing our capabilities to the bad guys,” said Manning. “Some of that is based on operational security, some is based on agreements with partners and allies.”
While fooling Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) is all well and good, those who appeared to be most misled are ordinary US citizens – and even some politicians – who are lied to on a daily basis by Pentagon officials repeatedly mentioning what they know to be phony figures, without ever giving disclaimers that they are doing this for the sake of operational secrecy.
In August, Defense Secretary James Mattis confessed that he “inherited” a “very strange accounting procedure,” and the Pentagon promised that “this way of doing business is over,” but the newest data suggests that little has changed so far.
 |
| US soldiers in Mosul, Iraq |
RT: 12 Dec, 2017
The White House has omitted, from a report prepared for Congress, the number of US troops fighting around the globe, including in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The expunged data coincides with a Pentagon report listing the location of 44,000 military personnel as “unknown”.
In accordance with the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the Trump administration provided Congress on Monday with a semi-annual report accounting for US military personnel stationed abroad. Although the reports are meant to make the executive branch more accountable for US troop deployments, Monday’s report left out the number of US troops operating in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Cameroon.
The Trump administration has argued that concealing troop numbers would prevent America’s enemies from gaining a strategic advantage. However, in a previous report in June, the White House listed 8,448 Americans serving in Afghanistan, 5,262 in Iraq, and 503 in Syria. The latest briefing for Congress does not provide figures for those war zones or a reason for their omission.
While the White House deemed troop numbers too sensitive to disclose, last week the Pentagon told reporters that 5,200 Americans were serving in Iraq and another 2,000 in Syria, about four times as many troops as previously reported.
The Pentagon also said that it could not disclose the location of tens of thousands of its personnel stationed across the globe.
A report compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center under the Office of the Secretary of Defense shows more than 44,000 personnel in a category labeled "Unknown," according to Stars and Stripes, a US military newspaper.
The United States maintains approximately 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad. US military personnel are stationed in 150 different countries.
“Our commitment is to be as transparent as we can, within the constraints of operational security," Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters last week. The Pentagon claimed in a statement that it is unable to accurately assess how many US military personnel are stationed overseas, where they were or even when they were there.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has previously expressed frustration with the Pentagon’s accounting techniques, ordering a review of how US troops are counted while serving overseas.
“There’s a very strange accounting procedure I inherited ... What I’m probably going to end up doing is outputting everyone into one thing and saying, ‘Here’s how many are really there now,'" Mattis said during a news conference in August.
The Department of Defense announced its first-ever audit in December.
The massive undertaking will require 2,400 auditors to review the Pentagon’s $2.4 trillion in assets, including personnel, real estate and weapons.
Selected Comments:
# They are not soldiers..............they are "moderate terrorists"..........
# Then, if any legitimate government kills US soldier while they're covertly on it's territory (like in Syria) then America should have no one to blame but itself.
# ...The United States maintains approximately 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad. US military personnel are stationed in 150 different countries.... Is this all in the name of "Human Rights", "Democracy", "Spreading Freedoms", or for the quest for world domination? Hmmm, let me guess.
# Nothing surprising here. The Pentagon dare not admit how many troops it has sent to foreign countries, constantly reducing the number for a certain number of countries. This also applies to the US Defense Budget, which analysts calculate to be almost double to what Washington admits it is.
# When these mercenaries are operating incognito - how we know they are Americans? Maybe some of them are just for hire, maybe part is a Mossad wing, maybe some of them just criminals fighting for own redemption. What is a difference between gangsters, sanctioned crime division? Such army can do anything and declare - we weren't there - finger point on others.
# yanks lie about everything else, so why not troop numbers?
# These are paid mercenaries not soldier. They sign up for benefits and a license to kill defenseless innocent people to further Israhell and the war machine. Americans spend $1.5T a year on wars and are too stupid to recognize their idiocy.
Confusion or deception? Report shows thousands more US troops abroad than Pentagon claims
RT : 28 Nov, 2017
US deployments in some states are up to several times higher than numbers quoted by military officials, the latest report from the Defense Manpower Data Center shows, indicating that the Pentagon is failing in its promise to provide more transparent troop data.
According to the quarterly report produced by the DMDC, which is itself a part of the US Department of Defense, on September 30 there were a total of 25,910 US troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, compared to the 14,765 declared by the Pentagon.
In Iraq, there were 8,992 troops, not 5,262, in Afghanistan 15,298 troops, not 14,000, and in Syria the deployment appears to be three times bigger – 1,720 against the latest official level of 503.
The data forced the Pentagon to acknowledge on Monday something that is widely known by military and Washington media, but is barely understood by the American public – that the US overseas mission figures regularly quoted by US officials are “not meant to represent an accurate accounting of troops deployed to any particular region.”
Instead, the usual neat numbers signify so-called Force Management Levels (FMLs) – an Obama-era deployment cap that was used by the White House during the previous administration to restrict US involvement in foreign wars. Even before Donald Trump was elected, the actual numbers were usually different – and almost invariably higher – than those reported, as the US used counted some troops as being on “temporary assignments” while others were on “overlapping rotations.”
“There are several other things that go into those numbers,” Colonel Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, attempted to explain, when challenged about the discrepancies. “It is a snapshot in time and have to also consider that number is quarterly. Our official deployment count has not changed.”
But the Pentagon also admitted that the numbers – even the ones in the DMDC report – are fudged for military and diplomatic purposes.
“We are going to be as transparent as we can possibly be without telegraphing or silhouetting ourselves to the enemy and showcasing our capabilities to the bad guys,” said Manning. “Some of that is based on operational security, some is based on agreements with partners and allies.”
While fooling Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) is all well and good, those who appeared to be most misled are ordinary US citizens – and even some politicians – who are lied to on a daily basis by Pentagon officials repeatedly mentioning what they know to be phony figures, without ever giving disclaimers that they are doing this for the sake of operational secrecy.
In August, Defense Secretary James Mattis confessed that he “inherited” a “very strange accounting procedure,” and the Pentagon promised that “this way of doing business is over,” but the newest data suggests that little has changed so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment