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After the January 2023 rescission of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s August 2021 military vaccine mandate, service members are still suffering at the behest of its untested and unlawful implementation.
The Gateway Pundit spoke with Captain Rebecca Tummers, an officer set to leave the Army at the end of August after 10 years of service. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Capt. Tummers was one of thousands of service members reluctant to take the COVID-19 vaccine due to concerns about the expedited timeline to create, test, and manufacture the vaccine.
According to her, “This rush to failure attitude did not take adequate time to identify possible negative side effects to the vaccine, nor populations that may be at increased risk of negative side effects.”
After months of declining the shot, she was “told staunchly” that she would soon forfeit her ability to earn a high evaluation if she continued to refuse the shot. The Army also threatened to separate her from service.
As previously reported by The Gateway Pundit, many service members were coerced into receiving the shot. They were made to feel as though it were an obligation to progress, and even maintain their careers.
Interestingly, Capt. Tummers said, “I had already secured my next job and really didn’t need a good eval, [admitting] I was willing to take the risk [a poor evaluation] so I continued to resist the vaccine.” While she would have willingly accepted the poor evaluation, her brigade and battalion commanders hit her with something she couldn’t ignore.
“The awards and positive personnel actions for my soldiers would not be processed if they came from a commander who had not been vaccinated,” she explained. “Therefore, any of us who were unvaccinated and submitting packets for a soldier to go to a school or to get an award for something good that they had done, that paperwork would not be processed.”
With that, Capt. Tummers was stripped of her “stubbornness,” she said. “Threatening the people that I’m responsible for and have an obligation to changed the dynamic entirely, [as] I wouldn’t do anything that would put their well-being or the future of their careers on the line because of my failure to get a vaccine.”
Capt. Tummers took the shot in March 2021, reconciling her action by saying she “would die for these soldiers if I had to, so what is another shot in comparison to that?” While her decision has not resulted in death or severe medical complications, it has placed another unexpected burden upon her that refuses to relent.
Inexplicable Symptoms
In November 2021, after serving three years at Fort Cambell, Capt. Tummers returned to the installation where she had begun her career: Fort Bragg, now known as Fort Liberty. However, her arrival to North Carolina was plagued by what was assumed to be a series of inexplicable allergic reactions.
“This was a bit strange, [considering] I had lived here just a few short years ago,” she said. Attributing her reaction to pollen, she tried “every [antihistamine] under the sun” to no avail.
Severe inflammation around her face and eyes landed her in the emergency room on several occasions. “It was extremely uncomfortable and just embarrassing and humiliating to go in public,” she shared. At the time, corticosteroids appeared to be the only solution.
In October 2022, Capt. Tummers was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq. She began to experience similar stateside symptoms to include not only swelling of the face and eyes, but also hives all over her body.
“I came back [to the United States] and put my foot down with the doctors,” she said, having grown tired of attempting to ward off the symptoms. After blood tests which included positive results for the high presence of antinuclear antibodies, an allergist failed to pinpoint the trigger to her reactions. A rheumatologist also struggled to identify the culprit to her ongoing problem, calling them benign idiopathic allergic responses.
Capt. Tummers was told that these cases are often triggered when people contract viruses or receive certain vaccinations. She then asked: “Did you receive the COVID-19 injection?” In fact, Capt. Tummers had taken the shot just months before her symptoms began and had gotten a booster for her deployment when her reactions increased in frequency, duration, and extremity. Her rheumatologist admitted that she was seeing an increasing number of cases like hers, and that “it is an unfortunate reality.”
“Over time I had begun to develop my suspicions that my reactions were related to the COVID-19 shot,” Capt. Tummers disclosed. “I went back through my medical history, my reactions, and the timelines associated with both, and after the meticulous inventory, it seemed like it was a plausible culprit, but I knew talk about the vaccine was a very polarizing issue,” she shared. “I was hesitant to bring it up with my medical providers because I knew they would be very resistant to admitting that the vaccine was the problem.”
She concluded, “They were the ones administering the shots so they would have every reason to defend its efficacy and safety.” And by her estimation, “To administer something harmful to people would have been deemed unethical and violated every medical provider’s code of ethics.”
Despite once giving military leadership and medical providers the benefit of the doubt, Capt. Tummers now knows the unlawfulness of the Secretary of Defense’s now-rescinded COVID-19 military vaccine mandate. Service members were never offered a vaccine with full FDA approval and licensure. Rather, they were subjected—without informed consent—to a vaccine issued under emergency use authorization (EUA).”
Today, Capt. Tummers makes a three-hour drive to undergo immunotherapy treatments twice per week, using her body’s own immune system to fight the symptoms she has determined were caused by the COVID-19 injection. “While I’m told that I’m just having benign, idiopathic allergic responses,” she said, “I’m hoping immunotherapy will eventually resolve all of this as I continue to undergo blood tests to determine if there is a bigger cause of the arbitrary symptoms I’ve developed.”
Recruiting and Retention Suffer
According to Capt. Tummers, “The vaccine did nothing to increase readiness of the force.” She explained, “Vaccinated soldiers still contracted the virus and went on 14-day quarantines, forcing us to operate with minimal manning.”
In addition, she said, “retention decreased as they enforced the mandate.” For example, she said, “many soldiers became ill after the vaccine and are no longer deployable or are receiving medical separation boards for medical ailments that came after the vaccine.”
Prior to the vaccine mandate, she noted, there were no existing cases of soldiers dying due to contracting COVID-19. “There were few existing cases of soldiers being hospitalized due to severe COVID-19 symptoms,” she said.
“For people like me who have been impacted negatively by the shot, there needs to be some sort of acknowledgement that some people did in fact have a negative response and those people were forced to get the vaccine against their own judgement,” Capt. Tummers asserted.
Like thousands of others are demanding, it begins with the acknowledgement that the COVID-19 shot mandate was unlawful and harmful, and those who pushed it must be held accountable. Thousands have come alongside service members by signing a petition that accompanies the Declaration of Military Accountability.
The post Army Officer Experiences ‘Inexplicable’ Symptoms After Being Forced to Take the COVID-19 Shot, While the Department of Defense Continues to Evade Accountability appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
In 2023, although reported by the National Center for Health Statistics as the first annual decrease since 2018, drug overdose deaths still reached 107,543 in the United States. This amounts to a three percent reduction from the 111,029 deaths estimated in 2022. There were 74,202 and 76,226 estimated deaths attributed to synthetic opioids (fentanyl) in 2023 and 2022, respectively. Thus, for 2023, nearly 70 percent of deaths were likened to the presence of synthetic opioids—primarily fentanyl.
But according to Derek Maltz, a former head of the Special Operations Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), this doesn’t tell the whole story. On X this morning, he offered a novel idea, questioning how many American lives have been saved by Narcan® (naloxone). The medicine can be given as a nasal spray or injection to rapidly reverse the potentially deadly effects of opioids, which can often slow or stop breathing of an individual as a result of overdose or fentanyl poisoning.
@JMPhelpsLC In order to properly address this historic fentanyl poisoning crisis, the government should be capturing the number of people being saved daily from Narcan all over America.
Obviously, we can’t capture every single number since private citizens are using Narcan on… pic.twitter.com/rrvptNVgr5
— Derek Maltz Sr (@derekmaltz_sr) May 23, 2024
In the accompanying video to his post, Maltz contends, “Once we get an accounting, we’ll see that it’s not just a hundred thousand dead Americans from fentanyl. It’s hundreds of thousands that are being poisoned all over the country in these mass poisoning events.” He points out, “The government is not providing that data, [because] they’re not asking for the data.”
In an interview with The Gateway Pundit, he asks, “Why can’t we get an accounting of every single person that was saved from Narcan in America?” He says, “All throughout America, emergency response workers, and police officers have issued Narcan to people, but this is never reported and collected for data.”
The number of fentanyl deaths around the country is “mind-blowing,” but Maltz also recognizes that “knowing how many were saved would demonstrate to the American public exactly how widespread and how dangerous these drugs are to the people who take them.”
Because many people across the U.S. have Narcan® kits available to them personally, Maltz admits it would be impossible to determine the most accurate number of how many people are saved using naloxone.
“But for every EMS official, every cop, and every ER doctor that is out there giving Narcan,” he submits, “let’s at least report what we know.” He is not asking for any personally identifiable information that would violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), but the simple statistics of how many have been spared from meeting their death.
“How the hell do you solve a problem if you haven’t even adequately assessed the magnitude of the problem?” he asks, suggesting that elected officials should require these statistics to be collected. “Deaths and record-breaking fentanyl seizures are one thing, but it’s not the full picture,” he argues. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of others have also taken fentanyl and “cheated death”— and this has never been recorded, according to Maltz.
“The current administration is not going to do it because it would make them look horrible,” he notes. “However, maybe there is a member of the House or Senate, or a state legislator, that would be proactive enough and care enough to require emergency response workers, including all first responders, and emergency room doctors to report not only the number of deaths attributed to fentanyl but also the number of lives saved through the use of Narcan.”
“Until then, this country will never know the true magnitude of how fentanyl is wrecking communities across the United States,” Maltz argues.
The post Fentanyl is More Prevalent in Communities Across America Than What’s Being Reported: Former DEA Exec appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
As the Department of Defense continues to ignore the plight of many service members injured in the line of duty, the House Armed Services Committee shamefully ignores repeated calls for accountability and compliance with federal law.
The Gateway Pundit spoke to Major (ret.) Jeremy “Weed” Sorenson, a former F-16 and A-10 fighter pilot who was deployed to combat on multiple occasions throughout his career. Today, Sorenson serves as Director of Guard and Reserve Affairs for Uniformed Services Justice & Advocacy Group (USJAG).
He shared that a whistleblower complaint was received on January 31, 2023, by the House of Representatives Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability regarding “widespread, systemic mistreatment of injured U.S. military Service Members.” Extensive information and evidence of widespread misconduct was provided to the author.
After reviewing the documentation, it was confirmed that the complaint identified specific widespread violations of law and regulations against service members, primarily the intentional denial of military pay, medical care, and disability benefits for service members who are injured in the line of duty (LOD).
Allegations included the following:
Additionally, allegations were made that a key National Guard Bureau (NGB) official involved in unlawfully denying benefits, was simultaneously serving on active duty while also employed as a Department of Defense (DOD) contractor.
Sorenson said the Oversight Committee did not address the complaint but referred it to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) in April 2023. “On April 24, 2023,” he said, “[A HASC staffer] reached out to the whistleblower for information, and the whistleblower learned that the Oversight Committee had failed to forward any information on the complaint to the HASC.”
After the whistleblower provided HASC “extensive information on the widespread misconduct and unlawful activity within the DOD,” Sorenson pointed out, “five more whistleblowers also came forward and provided extensive personal information and compounding evidence to HASC.”
Six months later, he noted the whistleblowers had not been called by any HASC official or staffer. “They never even spoke with the five whistleblowers,” he added. During this time, the Chairman of the HASC Subcommittee on Military Personnel, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) was also contacted multiple times, but the calls for help were ignored.
On December 1, 2023, Sorenson said, HASC staff informed three of the whistleblowers that the matters were “outside of our jurisdiction” and closed their complaints despite HASC leadership being provided specific details and evidence of alleged misconduct.
Due to the lack of attention by the staffers, HASC and Senate Committee on Armed Services (SASC) chairmen and ranking members were contacted by USJAG on December 1, 2023. One week later, USJAG received a response from a HASC research assistant. She said, “The Committee…will consider the individual cases closed.”
Another HASC staffer then followed up to state: “I wanted to foot stomp some of the points…Specifically, that we reviewed and analyzed each individual case that was brought before us, found that there was no systemic link between the cases, and therefore was not in HASC jurisdictions…”
For the USJAG Director of Guard and Reserve Affairs, White’s tone was clear. “HASC didn’t care and blatantly refused to address the matter any further,” he explained.
And according to Sorenson, “It was clear the HASC had not thoroughly investigated the matter, but had instead just provided the ultimate congressional cover-up for the DOD’s misconduct.” Interestingly, he disclosed that “at the same time HASC was finalizing their cover-up, the Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. Air Force, Lt. Gen. Stephen Davis, directed SAF/IGS (the senior investigative element in the USAF) to conduct a major inquiry into the numerous allegations of systemic misconduct.”
“More than a dozen whistleblowers came forward, and the IG inquiry now has the direct attention of the senior leadership of the USAF and DOD,” Sorenson said, adding that “except for Lt. Gen Davis, however, the senior leadership of the U.S. Air Force and National Guard have refused to respond to any communications from individual service members and advocates. “It is clear the Air Force and National Guard leadership’s only goal is to cover up the egregious, systemic misconduct within their ranks,” according to Sorenson.
Six months after the HASC closed all of the complaints, on May 5, 2024, HASC staffers sent additional closure letters to five of the six original whistleblowers, tacitly admitting they had previously provided false information about thoroughly investigating and finding “no systemic link between the cases.” Interestingly, they are now stating, “We are actively seeking, through legislative means, a way to increase transparency and efficiency surrounding this area.”
“Unfortunately, it appears that NGB and DOD leadership had misled HASC, and as a result, HASC ignored the matter,” according to Sorenson. “But HASC should and does know better,” he argued. “Just like the DOD IG, it appears HASC is just another fox watching the henhouse, an organization that selectively disregards their oversight responsibilities.”
In response to an inquiry from the author, a HASC spokesperson said:
The House Armed Services Committee worked closely with individuals who sought help from the Committee with challenges they were experiencing with the National Guard. While assisting these individuals, the Committee identified extreme delays in military records processing. As the Committee looked closer at the issue, the Committee found that the office within the National Guard Bureau that handles FOIA requests is understaffed, resulting in extended wait times to fulfill FOIA requests. To address the issues the committee found and restore public confidence in the National Guard Bureau’s FOIA process, the FY25 NDAA will require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study on the staffing needs of the National Guard Bureau to administer its responsibilities related to FOIA requests so that Congress can address these issues in the near future. In addition, the committee staff informed impacted individuals of their options to appeal, as well as encouraged them to engage with their congressional representatives.
To that, Sorenson argued that the HASC response is “a bold face lie and simply more deflection away from the actual complaints brought forward.” He noted, “The HASC didn’t even speak to the whistleblowers, let alone work closely with them.” For this reason, he said, “This misleading response addresses FOIA, not the actual complaints of mistreated injured service members and the rampant violations of law.” He called it “disgusting, but not surprising.”
For Nic Gray, USJAG CEO and Army veteran, “This is all another example of politicians doing just enough to make it look like they care about a problem.” According to him, “It’s a stall tactic, buying them time and finding a way to bury the problem rather than addressing and solving it.” He considers HASC and SASC to be “compromised,” explaining, “they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them, aka defense contractors.” He proposed, “Follow the money and you’ll find the motive.”
USJAG continues to represent many injured service members, like Army Master Sergeant James Buckley, for example, who was abandoned by the Air Force after being injured in the line of duty.
The post House Armed Services Committee Ignores Whistleblowers – Refuses to Stop the Mistreatment of Injured U.S. Service Members appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
For service members whose careers survived the now-rescinded COVID-19 military “vaccine” mandate, many are becoming increasingly concerned about all vaccines, which include the flu vaccine.
Objections, including those based on religious grounds, about the safety, efficacy, testing, and research of the injections they once agreed to receive are on the rise.
The Gateway Pundit spoke to Daniel Schmid, Liberty Counsel’s Associate Vice President of Legal Affairs. “Many military members have sincere religious objections to certain immunizations, either because of their connections to aborted fetal cells or because they just have other religious convictions,” Mr. Schmid said. “There’s a federal statute called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), as well as the First Amendment, which entitles them to protection for those religious beliefs,” he explained.
Upon the 2021 implementation and enforcement of COVID immunizations, thousands of service members were reluctant to take the vaccine—and many sought religious accommodation. According to Mr. Schmid, these requests should have been reviewed by a chaplain and then sent up the chain of command for serious individual consideration. However, he said, most requests for religious accommodation were “denied in mass.” The appeals of service members were also overwhelmingly denied.
Members of the military who refused to comply with the now-rescinded COVID-19 vaccine mandate faced a variety of punitive actions, including letters of reprimand, dishonorable discharges, and more. At the same time, COVID-19 injections were being “billed as 100 percent safe and effective, and they clearly are not.”
As service members began to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine, he said, the conversations often steered toward the use of aborted fetal cells in vaccine testing and research, as well as the toxicity of the “gene altering” injection and its associated adverse health effects. According to a 2020 Moderna, Inc. report by the Securities and Exchange Commission, “mRNA is considered a gene therapy product by the FDA.” The Gateway Pundit has widely reported the vaccine’s adverse health effects.
“As the knowledge base increased [among service members] as to what is in certain immunizations, what they’re connected to, and how they’re developed, tested, and manufactured,” Mr. Schmid said, “it began to crystallize a more informed knowledge base that was previously lacking.’ And for him, “the more education, the better for it is for individuals, especially when you’re talking about putting something into their body.”
As knowledge continued to grow, Mr. Schmid said many service members also began to learn that requests for religious accommodation were an option they could pursue in the military when objecting to a given vaccine on the grounds of religion. “Most signed up as pincushions, getting jabbed with everything, not knowing it was an option to assert their religious beliefs,” he explained.
“Shouldn’t we protect the ones who swore an oath to defend the Constitution of all people?” he said, pointing out that “it seems patently obvious that they’re entitled to the same protections for religious freedom found within the document that we all are.” Moving forward, Mr. Schmid expects the number of requests for religious accommodation to increase because of a more informed military population.
Evidence of Hypocrisy
Many service members have now raised objections to the annual flu shots among the many vaccinations that service members have been required to take in recent years. The Gateway Pundit spoke to Captain Joshua “Hippity” Hoppe, an MV-22B Osprey pilot who is now an instructor in the T-6B aircraft, training the next generation of aviators for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
Not only did he defend religious and medical freedoms during the unlawful COVID mandates, he also requested a religious accommodation for the flu shot in December 2022. He cited his family’s approach to living a healthy lifestyle, the fact that he’s not in a high-risk category for severe cases of influenza, the DoD Immunization Program allows for medical and religious exemptions to the flu shot, and the fact that he believes the Lord is leading his family to no longer receive the flu shot annually.
Capt. Hoppe’s request was denied in February 2023. While the Marine Corps Headquarters agreed that he “may be healthier than the average citizen,” they claimed that the seasonal flu is “a highly contagious disease that has the potential to significantly and negatively impact” him and the safety of his unit.
The Marine Corps further claimed that reducing this risk was a “compelling government interest” and the “seasonal influenza vaccine is the most effective and readily available tool the Marine Corps has to keep [him and his] fellow Marines healthy and safe.”
Capt. Hoppe appealed this decision in June 2023 after obtaining the endorsements of his request through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. In his appeal, he cited the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website on Seasonal Flu Vaccine Effectiveness that illustrates the average flu vaccine effectiveness from 2009-2023 varying from as low as 19 percent to as high as 60 percent.
Capt. Hoppe also stated in his appeal “that a continued disregard for service members’ religious and medical freedoms that were given by God and protected by our Constitution will continue to negatively impact recruitment and retention if not corrected.”
His appeal was denied in February by Gen. G. P. Olson, Director, Marine Corps Staff. Although Gen. Olson affirmed his request was based on “sincerely held religious faith and beliefs,” he stated that Capt. Hoppe must remain “world-wide deployable” and surmised that “because there are no less restrictive means to ensure these compelling government interests, I deny your appeal.”
This final denial led Capt. Hoppe to conduct a survey among DOD service members who have also requested exemptions from the annual flu shots. Between March and April, Capt. Hoppe conducted an independent survey to collect data on the influenza vaccine religious accommodation and medical exemption process in the DOD. The results were compiled into a report titled DOD Flu Exemption Survey Results and included as an attachment in an Inspector General Complaint that he submitted alleging the final decision was a discrimination of his Constitutionally-protected religious freedoms.
The survey’s 143 respondents represented all branches of U.S. Armed Forces. Ninety-one respondents indicated they had requested religious accommodation for the flu vaccine. Fourteen others indicated they had requested medical exemption. According to survey, the DOD does have the ability to approve exemptions as seen by the 13 service members that were approved (to include longstanding 10+ year approvals) where service members have been able to remain “world-wide deployable” while remaining exempt from the annual flu shot.
As in Capt. Hoppe’s example, Mr. Schmid said, “the DOD will often argue that they’re weighing a military member’s religious beliefs against the government’s compelling interest in military readiness and in the health and safety of the force.”
“If you scratch their rationale a little bit below the surface,” Mr. Schmid said, “you’ll find that this isn’t entirely true.” On the one hand, he agreed that the Marine Corps might have a legitimate interest in preventing illness. But on the other hand, he said, “what they consider fully vaccinated among the force is generally about 90 to 93 percent of the force.” To that end, DOD Instruction 6205.02 (p. 3, paragraph 1.2.c.) confirms “a goal of 90 percent immunized by January 15th of each year.”
“Considering this, it’s obvious that they’ve baked into it a number of service members who don’t get the shot, whether for medical reasons or some other reason. He questioned, “Why can’t the DOD acknowledge that the First Amendment should be extended to the small percentage of those who would fall within your window of those unvaccinated?”
For Mr. Schmid, “the notion that forcing Capt. Hoppe to get the flu vaccine means that the United States military is now ready at a moment’s notice to go and defend the nation is just comical and patently absurd to me.”
“Does the DOD really have a compelling interest in making sure Capt. Hoppe is vaccinated versus a larger pool of people who have no religious objection or medical problem with the vaccine?” he asked, disclosing, “he [doesn’t] buy their rational and [thinks] they’re actually hiding behind it, just like they did while pushing the COVID injection.”
Interestingly, Capt. Hoppe and the author have reviewed some of the Navy’s approved religious accommodation requests (RARs) that cite the “current disease environment” as a reason they could approve an exemption from the flu shots—or all shots for that matter.
For Capt. Hoppe, “It seems hypocritical that the DOD can approve some requests due to the current disease environment, but deny others for individuals who aren’t even attached to a deployable unit.”
In January, he and 230 other service members signed the Declaration of Military, pledging to hold leadership accountable for the COVID mandate which unlawfully separated roughly 8,600 service members. Any American can join them in this pledge by adding their name at MilitaryAccountability.net.
Capt. Hoppe emphasized that his views don’t reflect those of the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy, or the United States Marine Corps.
The post The Department of Defense Continues to Hypocritically Deny Military Service Members Medical and Religious Exemptions for Vaccines appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Ironically, a growing number of soldiers once trained in Afghanistan to fight against the Taliban alongside U.S. forces are now teaming up with Russia to defeat Ukraine—not through Wagner Group, but simply through the Russian embassy in Iran.
Ahmad Ehsan (a pseudonym) is one of more than tens of thousands of Afghan interpreters and others who fought alongside U.S. forces and were left behind to be hunted by the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal from the country in August 2021. With the fear of torture or death, if he’s found, Ehsan used a pseudonym and an encrypted messaging service to communicate with the author.
Prior to U.S. withdrawal from the country, he said an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Afghan special forces fought alongside the Americans. While it’s unclear how many members of the Afghan commandos fled to Iran after the fall of Kabul, in 2022, Wagner Group was widely recognized as the leader of efforts to recruit the highly skilled soldiers to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. More recent news reports suggest the mercenary group has rebranded itself as the Africa Corps—or the Russian “Expeditionary Corps.”
That hasn’t stopped the flow of Afghan soldiers from Iran to Russia. In fact, according to Ehsan, it’s more widespread. Although they’re still prioritizing special forces soldiers, he claims that former Afghan commanders are working directly with diplomats at the Russian embassy in Iran. Having served under their command at times, these past military leaders are responsible for finding and reaching out to former Afghan soldiers within the country who were once trained by U.S. forces and NATO.
Although he’s still hiding from the Taliban in Afghanistan, Ehsan provided the form being given to former members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Written in the Persian language, the form requests an applicant’s name, rank, duration of service, last responsibility and duty, date of entry into Iran, place of birth, district name, religion, ethnicity, national registration number, passport number, and more.
“They’re filling out these contracts and they’re being sent directly to the Russian embassy in Iran for processing,” Ehsan said, explaining, “They’ll evacuate these people to Russia, and I’m one hundred percent sure they’ll use these soldiers in the Ukraine war.” Completed forms are often collected by former Afghan commanders through WhatsApp and other private messaging services. The applications of commandos, ANSF, and other security elements are then delivered to the Russian embassy in Tehran.
Once a Partner, Now a Problem
Sources tell Ehsan that the Russian government is promising money and citizenship to the former soldiers in return, providing the largest rewards to former Afghan commandos trained by the United States.
Many of those who are accepting the offer either need the money or they are acting out of spite, according to Ehsan. “For those who once fought alongside Americans, but now feel betrayed by the U.S. government [for withdrawing from Afghanistan], they are willing to fight for Russian interests,” he explained. He confirmed, they are now enemies to the United States.
On April 24, President Joe Biden signed over $61 billion dollars as part of an aid package to assist Ukraine in their fight against Russia. The package includes air defense capabilities, artillery rounds, armored vehicles, and other weapons to shore up Ukrainian forces.
While the White House has denied it has any evidence to support the claim that Russia may be asking the Taliban to help replenish its weapons cache and more, it must not be forgotten that more than $7 billion worth of American military equipment, including aircraft, vehicles, munitions, guns, communication equipment, and other gear, was left behind in Afghanistan after U.S. withdrawal.
One can only speculate if Russia is using American military equipment in their fight against Ukraine, while evidence clearly indicates they are using an undisclosed number of former Afghan soldiers previously trained by U.S. forces in the war. Whether one or both assertions are true, the fact of the matter is U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was an abject failure. Outside of the death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, for some service members like Connor Izunya (a pseudonym), it was a waste of 20 years for those involved in America’s longest war.
Izunya spoke to The Gateway Pundit on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from the U.S. government. With over 20 years of service in the Army and three deployments to Afghanistan, and while serving in the Special Forces, the Sergeant First Class helped train soldiers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) Special Operations Command. Some of these may be the same soldiers being solicited in Iran for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Interestingly, he recalls an agreement that Afghan special operators signed to not engage U.S. Armed Forces in the combat in the future, but questions how that might unfold in Ukraine, particularly if U.S. troops were ever engaged in combat against Russia.
On the one hand, Izunya applauded the courage of the Afghan soldiers he worked with, calling it “something they’re born with.” For him, “it takes a special kind of courage to fight for something [like democracy] that doesn’t exist, knowing that you could be killed in combat for it.” He added that “it’s boundless and borderless,” and something considers “an embodiment of the warrior race.”
But on the other hand, he understands the betrayal felt by Afghan soldiers and interpreters as the U.S. withdrew all forces from the region. “Many were promised to be relocated to America, but tens of thousands were not,” he said. “Many were good people and deserved to have more opportunity, but they were lied to.”
In Izunya’s opinion, “America overpromised and underdelivered.” He’s not surprised they’re looking for opportunity in Iran or Russia. “A return to Afghanistan would result in death [at the hands of the Taliban], so why wouldn’t they use the skills they’ve learned for combat to make a living?” he asked. “Why wouldn’t they also be vindictive, considering how the U.S. used them?” The U.S. government can be blamed for any disdain they might have toward American interests, he added.
The post While America Props Up Ukraine, Former Afghan Soldiers Trained by U.S. Forces Are Coming to the Aid of Russia—And It’s Through Their Embassy in Iran appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Panama could play an integral part in slowing the flow of illegal migrants enroute to the southern border of the United States.
Earlier this week, the Central American country’s newly elected president Jose Mulino, promised to halt the flow of illegal migrants passing through his country. On X, Congressional candidate Mara Macie called out “our own uniparty representatives and government” for failing to express the same interest in the U.S. southern border as Mulina has his border. She credits Michael Yon and others for drawing attention to the problem “weaponized migration” and its global implications.
Whether Mulino follows through on this promise is TBD. However, I’m disappointed that he is far more interested in this problem than our own uniparty representatives and government.
Instead, the heat on this topic was brought by @Michael_Yon, @annvandersteel, @Oscarelblue,… pic.twitter.com/l0e3HYY3Wj— Mara Macie (@MaraMacie) May 9, 2024
The Gateway Pundit spoke to Macie, who is vying for a Republican seat in Florida’s 5th Congressional District. Interestingly, Mulino promised to shut down the Darien Gap. But what does that mean for a bridge under construction across the region’s most dangerous stretch of jungle?
Macie questioned whether the promise by Mulino to stop illegal immigration would end construction of the bridge between Colombia and Panama. While she admitted there are likely many legitimate reasons to maintain a highway through the Darien Gap, Macie hopes the endless flow of migration can still be stopped through the area.
Macie said Mulino’s stance against illegal migration is “absolutely necessary.” And while she is hopeful, she won’t believe it until she sees it.
More concerning than the bridge is the number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) functioning in the country, said Macie. Some of these have been responsible for providing to maps for safe travel to the United States. Some have also provided financial assistance for the journey. “Stopping illegal immigration is feasible, but [Mulino] will have to get directly involved in the NGOs and shut many of them down from operating [in the region],” she argued.
“I am hopeful that [Mulino] appoints a security minister with the best interest of his country in mind,” she said. With the massive influx of over a half million migrants traveling through the area, she pointed out that parts of Panama have been “destroyed.” For example, incredible amounts of trash now litter the jungle. Many waterways have also been polluted and are now deemed unsafe.
Another potential problem Mulino must consider are the “false economies” developed through recent years of migrant flow. When the number of people passing through Panama dwindles, locals will not be able to sustain the economies that have been created as a result of sheer number of people who have needs as the travel. “Migration has changed their way of life [through trade and business], and it’s going to be hard to go back to the way they’ve lived for hundreds of years prior.”
While Panama engages in an uncertain future, Macie expressed some of the positives for America’s future if migration stops. “Of course, the number of illegals crossing the southern border [of the United States] will decrease,” she said. But one of her primary concerns, human trafficking, will also decrease. For that, she is thankful.
“The wide-open door through Panama has made things more difficult [for the United States at the southern border], so having Mulino shut down illegal immigration can only help,” Macie said. “But we still have other borders, [like] the Canadian border and people flying directly into the United States.”
“Even if it’s not through Panama, people are going to find other ways,” Macie warned. “It’s not just immigrants we have to worry about, but it’s the criminals, terrorists, and other nefarious actors that are intentionally plotting and trying to destroy our country.”
“If Panama comes through and stops illegal immigration through their country,” she said, “it will play a large role in at least pulling back some of the people coming through Mexico.” Nonetheless, she said, “at some point, we’re going to have to stop all of this at our own borders.”
To take on President Joe Biden’s open border policies and more, Macie is running for U.S. Congress.
The post Panama Might Help Shut Down the Invasion of Illegals, As the U.S. Government Continues to Show Little Interest in the Problem appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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