War Profiteers Working to Keep Up with Surging Weapons Demand

U.S. working to keep up with surging weapons demand: Pentagon

November 24, 2015

Reuters - The U.S. government is working hard to ensure quicker processing of U.S. foreign arms sales, which surged 36 percent to $46.6 billion in fiscal 2015 and look set to remain strong in coming years, a top Pentagon official said.

"Projections are still strong," Vice Admiral Joe Rixey, who heads the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), told Reuters in an interview late on Monday.

He said the agency was trying to sort out the impact of a much stronger-than-expected fourth quarter as it finalized its forecast for arms sales in fiscal 2016, which began Oct. 1.

The fight against Islamic State militants and other armed conflicts around the globe were fueling demand for U.S. missile defense equipment, helicopters and munitions, Rixey said, a shift from 10 years ago when the focus was on fighter jets.

"It's worldwide. The demand signal is coming in Europe, in the Pacific and in Centcom," he said, referring to the U.S. Central Command region, which includes the Middle East and Afghanistan.

U.S. companies and some foreign countries have expressed growing frustration in recent months about delays in arms sales approvals. They argue that the U.S. government has not expanded its capacity to process arms deals despite a big spike in such transactions.

Jeff Kohler, Boeing Co's vice president for international business development, said earlier this month he and his Gulf customers were "a little frustrated" with delays in getting U.S. approvals for fighter jet sales.

A $3 billion deal for 28 Boeing F/A-18E/F fighter jets for Kuwait, and a separate Qatari deal for F-15 fighters, have been delayed for some time.

Rixey said DSCA was keeping up with surging arms sales requests largely through process improvements and better training, but he warned that potential cuts in Pentagon headquarters funding could pose a problem.
DSCA is handling a total of 13,500 cases with a total value of $461 billion. Last year's total was the biggest yet, outside of a spike caused by Saudi fighter jet sales in 2012.

Rixey said his agency was coordinating more closely with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commerce Department and other Pentagon agencies and leaders to advocate for U.S. arms sales as a key instrument of U.S. foreign policy.

He said requests from countries that were "well-behaved" and protected U.S. technology were generally processed quickly, but the U.S. government would take its time vetting sales to countries with weaker records on human rights and technology.

Major General Smedley Butler: War is a Racket

The wars are for PROFIT. And our corrupt politicians and the media are used by war profiteers to stoke the fires of war so that weapons can be sold, and people can get rich[er]. Read the book, War is a Racket, by Smedley Butler, the most highly-decorated U.S. Marine of his time, and maybe up to today. He ran many campaigns. He was a patriot. But he woke up to the fact that he was being used as a "highly paid hitman for Wall Street," or some such words. Do not talk about "them" and "us." Because, see, the bad guys are the profiteers. Go to Russia, and the people are JUST LIKE US. They just want to live, in peace, with their families. - Ronald Chism

War Is A Racket

By Major General Smedley Butler
Published in 1935

CHAPTER ONE (EXCERPT)
War Is A Racket

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few -- the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Jeff Kyle's Warfighters Foundation Lied About Eddie Ray Routh in Articles Published During the Trial

'American Sniper' suspect's ex-comrades mourn man they knew

February 22, 2015

The Associated Press - For those who served with Eddie Ray Routh in the Iraqi desert, the man on trial for gunning down the famed "American Sniper" Chris Kyle and a friend is not the Marine they had come to know.

"The Routh I knew looked up to people who did that kind of job," said former Cpl. Ryker Pawloski. "He respected war fighters like you wouldn't believe." 

"It just doesn't fathom," agreed Corey Smalley, who shared a metal trailer with Routh at Camp Fallujah. "He wasn't the picture-perfect Marine, even though that's what he wanted to be. And the people he looked up to the most were people like Chris Kyle. He always wanted to be those people - be the people that Marines from now on will always be talking about."

Routh achieved that - but not the way he'd hoped.

The 27-year-old stands charged with capital murder in the Feb. 2, 2013, slayings of the former Navy SEAL and his friend, Chad Littlefield. Kyle, who by his own count made more than 300 kills, volunteered with veterans facing mental health problems. Kyle and Littlefield took Routh to a shooting range after his mother asked Kyle to help her son cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and other personal demons.

Routh's attorney, Tim Moore, read a text message during the trial in which Kyle described Routh as "straight-up nuts." Family members have testified that Routh came back from his military service a changed man. He was hospitalized multiple times for mental health issues and had trouble keeping a job.

"I noticed that he kind of lost his desire for life," his uncle, James Watson testified.

Moore said that when Routh killed Kyle and Littlefield "he was in the grip of a psychosis" so severe he didn't know it was wrong and thought "it was either him or them."

Erath County District Attorney Alan Nash described Routh as "a troubled young man," but said mental illnesses "don't deprive people from being good citizens, to know right from wrong."

After the killings, Routh's parents described a young man haunted by what he'd seen in Iraq and earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and who sought relief at the bottom of a bottle. Many combat veterans say Routh exaggerated his experiences, and scoff at the notion that he saw anything that would cause PTSD.

Men who served with "Routhy" in Combat Logistics Battalion 8 at Camp Fallujah in 2007-2008 concede he had a drinking problem, even before Iraq. And they don't recall their unit suffering anything overly traumatic.

But they say something must have happened to turn Routh from a gung-ho Marine into an alleged double killer.

Eddie Ray Routh, a Long-term Chemically 'Modified' Patsy

NEO: The Strange Death of an American Sniper

Killings at a five-star, 11,000 acre shooting rang favored by the Bush family, with 24 surveillance, yet investigators never obtained any of the footage from the day of the shootings...

February 16, 2015

Gordon Duff, Veterans Today - Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL revered as a national hero was worth more dead than alive, financially and politically. Martyred, murdered by a former US Marine, or so we assume, his political capital is soaring as Americans relearn love of bravado and swagger and, as is so often the case, embrace mythology and outright lies.

As the trial continues, the narrative becomes more and more fanciful, two heroes gunned down while armed to the teeth, country boys at a millionaire’s dude ranch, a killer who shoots, gets tacos, and moves right on with life.  Nothing wrong here, not so far, happens every day.

Living or dead, there was little truth behind Chris Kyle, now a Hollywood “golden calf” and poster boy for more wars, for torture, a poster boy for indecency.

Kyle, portrayed in the blockbuster film, American Sniper, is portrayed by Bradley Cooper. Kyle’s death is left out of the film and perhaps for good reason. It is very likely that Kyle, killed by Eddie Ray Routh, an Adam Lanza clone, was murdered simply to shut him up.

Dead, Kyle is a key asset supporting America’s illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cleanses the filth from the Bush name, as Jeb plans his run for the American presidency.

The American Sniper phenomena is surprising. There is enough “out there” to trash Kyle already. His “aw shucks” demeanor on TV appearances had been overshadowed by his nearly endless fabrications.

Every time Kyle opened his mouth, he put his foot in it, from his wild claim of beating up former governor of Minnesota and professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura to stories about killing looters in New Orleans or “street thugs” trying to steal his car.  Perhaps Kyle had seen Ventura with Alex Jones?

None of these stories stood up under scrutiny.

Taya Kyle Withheld 'American Sniper' Proceeds from Bereaved Families; Chris Kyle Told His Business Partners That There was Discord in His Marriage and He Believed Divorce was a Very Real Possibility

Chris Kyle talked with a reporter from the Texan News Service, a student run paper at Tarleton State University, on January 28, 2013, five days before he was murdered. Click the link and go to the 7-minute mark to hear Kyle evading the question about how many books he's sold and repeating his claim that all the money he's gotten from the book has been given to the families of veterans. Kent Studebaker, Taya Kyle's father, confirmed Kyle had received a $100,000 advance for “American Sniper” (written in 2011-2012) and an additional $700,000 sometime after that, but wouldn't elaborate on the total paid out to him in royalties before his death.

'American Sniper': Chris Kyle's Widow at Center of Quiet Furor Over Profits

February 18, 2015

The Hollywood Reporter - When he was alive, Chris Kyle told friends and business associates that he viewed any profits from his memoir American Sniper as “blood money.” The legendary Navy SEAL, whose account of his four tours of duty in Iraq was adapted into the Clint Eastwood movie that is now up for six Oscars including best picture, maintained that he wanted the money to go to support struggling military families. After Kyle and a friend were shot and killed in 2013 by a veteran Kyle was helping, The New York Times retold this widely known point of view: “Though his book became a best-seller, he never collected money from it, friends said, donating the proceeds to the families of two friends and fallen SEAL members, Ryan Job and Marc Lee.”

Yet today, with more than $6 million banked from the American Sniper franchise (boosted by the sale of more than 2 million books) and millions more on the way as the Warner Bros. film nears $400 million worldwide, a quiet dispute festers over who is entitled to that windfall. At the center of the discord is Kyle’s widow, Taya, 40, who is alleged to have ignored her late husband’s wishes and withheld money from the bereaved families he publicly had promised to support.

Chris and Taya Kyle Lied About Donating All the Proceeds from 'American Sniper' to Charity

Chris Kyle talked with a reporter from the Texan News Service, a student run paper at Tarleton State University, on January 28, 2013, five days before he was murdered. Click the link and go to the 7-minute mark to hear Kyle evading the question about how many books he's sold and repeating his claim that all the money he's gotten from the book has been given to the families of veterans. Kent Studebaker, Taya Kyle's father, confirmed Kyle had received a $100,000 advance for “American Sniper” (written in 2011-2012) and an additional $700,000 sometime after that, but wouldn't elaborate on the total paid out to him in royalties before his death.

Just days before Kyle was killed on February 2, 2013, he donated about $56,000 to the families of slain SEALs, Ryan Job and Marc Lee, as well as to a charity supporting veterans. At a memorial service for Kyle in Dallas, footage of which is shown at the end of "American Sniper," Lee's mother and president of the nonprofit America’s Mighty Warriors — whom Kyle describes in the book as “almost a surrogate mother to the other members of our platoon”— recalled the moment she learned of Kyle’s largesse. “I was speechless, overwhelmed and in tears,” Lee told the audience of 7,000 mourners. “Chris didn’t publish that book for an income or to be famous. He hated the spotlight. Chris did that for his teammates.” 

Jesse Ventura won his lawsuit against the Kyle estate in July 2014 for $1.845 million after the former Minnesota governor successfully argued he was defamed by a passage in "American Sniper." Taya Kyle has said that she will struggle to pay the $1.345 million of that verdict for which Kyle's estate is responsible. Forged.com, a clothing company that sells officially licensed "American Sniper" merchandise, raised more than $1 million in donations in a week to cover part of what the Kyle estate owes Ventura. Forged.com is continuing to give a portion of sales on the site to the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, which Taya oversees. She also has received other donations intended to help her pay the part of the Ventura judgment that HarperCollins’ insurance does not cover. Shortly after Kyle’s funeral in February 2013, hedge fund manager J. Kyle Bass, who helped Kyle co-found Craft International, visited Taya and promised to give her ownership of the home bought by Bass, through his company, that the family had been living in rent-free; and Chris' partners at Craft raised $300,000 for the Kyle family after his death. [Source]

In 2010, it was Bass, along with other investors, who provided Chris Kyle funds to live on, and he eventually raised a total of about $2.6 million to form what became Craft International. Shortly after Chris' death, Taya filed a lawsuit against Chris' co-founders at Craft, accusing them of mishandling company funds. In her legal filings, she detailed the promise Bass made of giving her the home and noted that he did not follow through. But other sources claim Bass conditioned his gift of the home on Taya giving proceeds from the book and movie to the families of two friends and fallen SEAL members, Job and Lee. The suit was settled out of court in late 2014, and Bass agreed to let her continue to live in the home until October 30, after which she can buy the house for $314,612 or pay rent to remain. [Source]

So whatever happened to the repeated claim that the proceeds from "American Sniper" would go/had gone to charity, benefiting the families of his fallen friends?

Consider what Kyle’s publisher wrote after his tragic passing: "He dedicated his life in recent years to supporting veterans and donated the proceeds of "American Sniper" to the families of his fallen friends."

An article in the Blaze definitively proclaimed: "A perfect reflection of his character, Kyle gave all proceeds from his best-selling book "American Sniper" to the families of soldiers killed in combat."

Or this line from a Human Events article: "For "American Sniper," Kyle donated the profits from that book to charity."

An article in D magazine quoted Kyle as saying he decided not to take a dime from "American Sniper": "As it became a best-seller, he gave two-thirds [of the proceeds] to the families of fallen teammates and the rest to a charity that helped wounded veterans. It was something he and Taya discussed a lot."

In The New Yorker, it was reported that "Kyle split the earnings with DeFelice and McEwen [his ghost writers] and donated his profits to the families of fallen soldiers."

Kyle perpetuated this idea, telling the same proceeds-went-to-charity tale to the Texas News Service and even adding that he regularly received tearful calls and letters of thanks.

And now for the kicker: It isn’t true. Out of the staggering $3 million that "American Sniper" collected in royalties for Kyle (as of June 30, 2013), only $52,000 actually went to the families of fallen servicemen. (Rather than 100 percent of the proceeds, as the public was led to believe, try 2 percent!) While Kyle’s widow claimed, in her testimony, that they never intended to profit from the book, and "wanted" to donate the money to other veterans, she said they were weren’t able to because of — get this! — "gift-tax laws that prevented them from donating more than $13,000 each to two families last year."