House bill requires women to sign up for draft

By Travis J. Tritten | Stars and Stripes | February 4, 2016

Female Marine recruits practice rear hand punches during training at Parris Island, S.C., in July 2011.JAVARRE GLANTON/U.S. MARINE CORPS

Two House Republicans introduced a bill Thursday requiring eligible women in the United States to sign up for the military draft, just days after it was recommended by the Marine Corps and Army.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a Marine veteran, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Minn., a retired Navy SEAL, filed the Draft American’s Daughters Act to stoke debate over the military’s historic move to fully integrate female troops into all combat roles. If passed, women from 18-26 years old would for the first time have to join men in registering with the Selective Service program and potentially be forced to fight in future wars.

“If this administration wants to send 18, 20-year-old women into combat, to serve and fight on the front lines, then the American people deserve to have this discussion through their elected representatives,” Hunter said in a released statement.

On Tuesday, Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testified to the Senate that they believe there no longer should be an exemption in the draft for half of the country’s population now that the military is all inclusive.

The Marines and Army, along with the other service branches, were ordered by Defense Secretary Ash Carter to open about 225,000 combat jobs to women candidates – the last remaining occupational specialties that had barred female troops.

The decision was made despite research and reservations from the Marine Corps and special operations community, and without adequate debate among lawmakers, according to the two congressmen sponsoring the bill.

“My daughter is a damn good Navy diver. I know women play an invaluable role in war. Many times women can gain access to strategic sites that men never could,” Zinke said in a released statement. “However, this administration’s plan to force all front-line combat and Special Forces to integrate women into their units is reckless and dangerous.”

The Marines completed a study last summer that found women get injured more often and perform below males in combat. During an oversight hearing in the Senate on Tuesday, lawmakers repeatedly referenced the study and said they are worried the military could lower standards to accommodate more women in combat occupational specialties.

Zinke said the decision now means the country must contemplate changes to the draft. His bill requires women to register beginning 90 days after it is signed into law.


“This is a very important issue that touches the heart of every family in America, and I believe we need to have an open and honest discussion about it,” Zinke said.

Men, who historically filled combat roles, are required to register with Selective Service when they turn 18 years old in case a draft is again needed. The Supreme Court had in the past backed the exemption for women, but only because they were not expected to fill crucial combat ranks.

Millions of women might now suddenly and unexpectedly be required to register due to the Pentagon decision on combat roles.

Neller, who initially requested exemptions for women in some combat positions, said he thinks it is fair that women now face being called up to wartime service.

“Every American that is physically qualified should register for the draft,” said Neller, who had requested but was denied the exclusion of women in some Marine combat jobs.

HACKERS ALLEGEDLY HIJACK DRONE AFTER MASSIVE BREACH AT NASA

Mikael Thalen | Infowars | JANUARY 31, 2016

IMAGE CREDIT: INFOWARS.COM

Members of the AnonSec hacking group have released more than 276GB of data after allegedly spending months inside NASA’s internal network.

The collection of files, provided to Infowars by AnonSec admin Dêfãult Vírüsa prior to being made public Sunday, include 631 videos from aircraft and weather radars, 2,143 flight logs as well as the names, email addresses and phone numbers of 2,414 NASA employees.

A “zine,” or self-published paper detailing the hack, dubbed “OpNasaDrones,” reveals everything from AnonSec’s motives to the specific technical vulnerabilities that enabled the extensive breach.



“NASA has been breached more times than most people can honestly remember… However, this hack into NASA wasn’t initially focused on drones [sic] data and upper atmosphere chemical samples. In fact the original breach into NASA systems wasn’t even planned, it was caught up in a gozi virus spread,” the hackers write, referring to an infamous Trojanthat has infected more than 1 million computers to date.

The Hack

After purchasing an “initial foothold” from a hacker with knowledge of NASA servers over two years ago, the group says it began testing how many machines it could “break into” and “root” – a term referring to an account with complete control over a computer or network.

Brute forcing an administrator’s SSH password, which reportedly only took “0.32” seconds due to the credentials being left as default, AnonSec gained further access inside – allowing them to grab even more login data with a hidden packet sniffer (tcpdump).

The hackers say while some members mapped the network, others analyzed the “different missions, airbases and aircraft” listed by the agency. Public missions like “OIB – Operation Ice Bridge” and drones such as the “Global Hawk“ were among those mentioned.

Deleting records of their presence as they hacked deeper into the agency’s system, AnonSec, who even hacked security cameras and uncovered the schematics to one base’s camera layout, then infiltrated the networks at “Glenn Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center and Dryden Flight Research Center.”

Once inside, the group says it began noticing numerous systems and networked devices “popping up in scans that were not previously visible…”

After sniffing a password belonging to the system administrator, the hackers say they were eventually able to gain full root access to three network-attached storage (NAS) devices tasked with compiling backups of aircraft flight logs.

“Now we had all 3 NAS devices automatically making copies of the logs as they are uploaded from the drones and renaming them to look like semi ordinary index files,” the group writes, mocking the system administrator responsible for protecting the data.

Hackers Attempt to Crash Drone into Pacific Ocean

As the information began flowing unsuspectingly to an AnonSec-controlled server outside of the NASA network, analysis of the data yielded what the hackers described as “weird traffic.”

According to the group, the traffic consisted of “pre-planned route option” files which allow NASA to upload specific flight paths prior to take off.

After protest from several hackers, the group says it decided to carry out a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack several months later that replaced the drone route file with one of their own in an attempt to crash the aircraft into the ocean.

“Several members were in disagreement on this because if it worked, we would be labeled terrorists for possibly crashing a $222.7 million US Drone… but we continued anyways lol,” the zine states.

A screenshot from the hackers shows their intended flight path, which they say was cut short after drone pilots on the ground likely noticed the aircraft’s unusual behavior, forcing NASA to restore manual control.



“This recreated flight is from our attempt to crash the GlobalHawk [sic] into the Pacific Ocean but seemed to have been taken off of the malicious pre-planned route and was controlled via SatCom [sic] by a pilot once GroundControl [sic] realized,” the hackers write.

Soon after the alleged drone episode, the group says it was completely shut out from NASA’s networks.

“Whether it was the high amount of traffic sending drone logs across their compromised network or the attempted crashing of a GlowbalHawk [sic] that caused them to FINALLY inspect their networks, we don’t know. But it went down for a while soon after.”

“When they came back up several days later, we had completely lost access.”



Despite NASA’s ability to boot the hackers by changing passwords and patching critical vulnerabilities, vast amounts of information had already been exfiltrated.

“People might find this lack of security surprising but its [sic] pretty standard from our experience,” the group says. “Once you get past the main lines of defense, its [sic] pretty much smooth sailing propagating through a network as long as you can maintain access.”

Aircraft Footage & Flight Logs

The 631 videos siphoned out, filmed during 2012 and 2013, feature footage of weather radar readings as well as both manned and unmanned aircraft in multiple stages of flight.

One 59-minute video from May of 2012 shows one such drone taking off from a NASA runway before cutting out 30 minutes into its mission.



Other videos appear to be above large bodies of ice, likely related to the agency’s climate studies.



Flight logs which seem to coincide with some of the video files include the location of take off, aircraft model, mission name, sensor readings and GPS coordinates.

A screenshot showing a small portion of one log file, possibly from 2014, details the flight of a DC-8 involved in the public “Alternative-Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise EmiSSions” project.

The Dox

After examining the list of 2,414 employee names, emails and phone numbers, Infowars was able to confirm the legitimacy of several entries.



Although no calls were answered, names mentioned on each answering machine matched those listed in the hack.

At the time of publishing, Infowars did not receive calls back from any employees on the list or representatives at the Glenn Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Dryden Flight Research Center and the NASA Media Room.

Infowars briefly spoke to NASA’s IT Security Division but did not receive a call back for comment.

Infowars did not receive comment from the FBI after both calling and emailing the agency.

Method Behind the Madness

AnonSec’s zine specifically cites climate engineering methods such as cloud seeding and geoengineering as the main driver behind the hack.

“One of the main purposes of the Operation was to bring awareness to the reality of Chemtrails/CloudSeeding/Geoengineering/WeatherModification, whatever you want to call it, they all represent the same thing. NASA even has several missions dedicated to studying Aerosols [sic] and their affects on the environment and weather, so we targeted their systems.”

Cloud seeding, a weather modification method that uses silver iodide to create precipitation in clouds, was most famously used by the U.S. military under “Operation Popeye” during the Vietnam war. After seeding clouds in the northern part of the country, U.S. forces were able to thwart Viet Cong supply lines by creating heavy rain over the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Geoengineering, according to NASA’s Erik Conway, involves “injecting sulfate particles into the upper atmosphere – essentially mimicking a large volcanic eruption,” in an attempt to reflect sunlight away from the planet.

A poll conducted by the Independent in 2009, outlined in the article “Climate scientists: it’s time for ‘Plan B,'” states that more than 50 percent of climate scientists support looking into geoengineering.

“Just over half – 54 per cent – of the 80 international specialists in climate science who took part in our survey agreed that the situation is now so dire that we need a backup plan that involves the artificial manipulation of the global climate to counter the effects of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.”

The hackers link to several mainstream reports and patents as evidence of current weather modification programs.

A 2013 article from Slate entitled, “Climate Intelligence Agency: The CIA is now funding research into manipulating the climate,” examines a 21-month, $630,000 project carried out by The National Academy of Sciences.

“The goal of the CIA-backed NAS study is to conduct a ‘technical evaluation of a limited number of proposed geoengineering techniques,’ according to the NAS website,” the article reads. “Scientists will attempt to determine which geoengineering techniques are feasible and try to evaluate the impacts and risks of each (including ‘national security concerns’).”

Another article from The Telegraph listed by the hackers mentions how “The Chinese government covered Beijing in snow… after meteorologists seeded clouds to bring winter weather to the capital in an effort to combat a lingering drought.”

The hackers argue that if cloud seeding, geoengineering and weather modification “are all publicly acknowledged as real, why are Chemtrails [sic] discredited when its [sic] literally the same exact thing just with a different name?”

“We find it staggering how many people still dont [sic] believe the federal government is doing this when its [sic] already public knowledge that the CIA is funding studies, certain states and countries already have WeatherModification [sic] programs in place for the past several years, not to mention all the government whistleblowers,” the zine says.

AnonSec’s Dêfãult Vírüsa, who spoke with Infowars over encrypted communications, stated that no one involved in the NASA breach has been apprehended by law enforcement.

Is a secret sniper killing off Isil's high command in Libya?

The Telegraph | By Colin Freeman | 3:08PM GMT 29 Jan 2016

Mystery gunman credited with shooting three of the terror group's leaders in their new "Caliphate" in Colonel Gaddafi's home city of Sirte

As befits all the best practitioners of his shadowy trade, no-one is quite sure whether he is one man or many, or even simply an urban legend.

But after a string of assassinations of its local henchmen, the Islamic State's new "Caliphate" in the Libyan city of Sirte is abuzz with talk that an anti-Isil sniper is at work.

In recent weeks, no fewer than three Isil commanders in Sirte have been shot dead from long range, according to local media.

The killings - reported to be the work of a sniper who honed his skills in Libya’s uprising against Colonel Gaddafi - are said to have sowed panic among Isil's forces in the city, who have carried a string of arrests and executions in a bid to track down the culprit.

The Sirte assassin's most recent casualty, according to social media reports from Sirte, was Abdullah Hamad Al-Ansari, an Isil commander from the southern Libyan city of Sirte, who was shot dead on January 23 as he left a city centre mosque.

The birthplace of Libya's late Colonel Gaddafi, Sirte has been under Islamic State control since last summer, Libyan intelligence officials estimating that there may now be up to 2,000 jihadist fighters now based there.

The port city’s new masters have made brutal examples of opponents, via a regime of floggings and beheadings enforced by black-masked religious police.

But while the group's leaders now enjoy unchallenged rule on the streets, that does not appear to have left them immune to long-range attack from Sirte's many battle-scarred buildings.

Tales of the mystery marksman are believed to have found a ready audience among the city's population, few of whom actively support the city's new hardline rulers.

The morale-raising effect of his exploits has echoes of the 2001 film 'Enemy at the Gates', in which Jude Law plays the Soviet Union's top sniper against Hitler's armies in the Battle of Stalingrad.

The film has since gained large fan club among fighting men in the Arab world, and such is its hero's warrior allure that one Syrian rebel group fighting President Bashar al-Assad named their top sharpshooter "Sniper Moscow" in his honour.

Jude Law in Enemy at the Gates Photo: REX FEATURES

In similar fashion, locals in Sirte apparently relished the panic caused in Isil’s ranks when Hamad Abdel Hady, a Sudanese official in Isil's newly-convened Sharia court, was felled by a sniper's bullet outside a hospital earlier this month.

One eye witness told the al-Wasat website: "A state of terror prevailed among the Isil ranks after his death. They randomly shot in the air to scare inhabitants, while searching for the sniper."

The identity of the mystery marksman - if indeed it is just one - is now the subject of frenzied online discussion. Many believe he may be a militiaman from the neighbouring city of Misrata, whose security forces fought Isil for control of Sirte in the early part of last year but eventually pulled out.

Misratan commanders say they still maintain networks of informants and agents in the city, despite Isil subjecting all spies to crucifixion.

Adding to the sense of intrigue is speculation that the sniper might be a American special forces soldier, some of whom are thought to be operating in the region to gather intelligence on the Isil presence.

However, in a city where little reliable information is currently available, there is a more mundane possibility - namely that reports of the sniper and his exploits may be simply the product of wishful thinking among Sirte's unhappy residents.

Russian Fighter Conducts Dangerous Intercept of U.S. Recon Jet

Washington Free Beacon | BY: Bill Gertz | January 28, 2016 2:02 pm

IMAGE SOURCE: WIKIMEDIA

A Russian Su-27 jet fighter came within 20 feet of a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea on Monday in Moscow’s latest military provocation involving dangerous aerial encounters.

“On Jan. 25 an RC-135 aircraft flying a routine route in international airspace over the Black Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” Navy Capt. Daniel Hernandez, chief spokesman for the U.S. European Command, told the Washington Free Beacon. “We are looking into the issue.”

Defense officials said the Su-27 flew alongside the RC-135, an electronic intelligence-gathering aircraft, and then performed what they said was an aggressive banking turn away from the intelligence jet.

The thrust from the Su-27 “disturbed the controllability” of the RC-135, said one official familiar with details of the incident.

A second official said the reconnaissance aircraft was flying 30 miles from the coast—well within international airspace and far away from any Russian territory—at the time of the encounter.

The Pentagon announced Thursday that it has concluded a flight safety memorandum with Russia after holding a video conference with Russian Defense Ministry officials.

The areas of discussion included air safety over the skies in Syria as well as “the means to avoid accidents and unintended confrontation between coalition and Russian forces whenever the two sides operate in close proximity,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement.

The statement made no mention of Monday’s dangerous aerial encounter.

The Black Sea encounter was the latest in a series of aggressive Russian military activities aimed coercing or harassing U.S. military aircraft and ships in both Europe and Asia.

The provocations are not limited to U.S. forces. On Tuesday, Japan’s Defense Ministry revealed that Japanese interceptor jets were scrambled to chase two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers that approached the northern end of Japan and flew just outside that country’s airspace in maneuvers described by analysts as unusually close.

Other incidents included a similar near-collision between a Russian fighter and RC-135, a militarized Boeing 707, over the Black Sea on May 30. Around the same time, a Russian Su-24 jet buzzed the destroyer USS Ross in the Black Sea near occupied Crimea.

Earlier, on April 7, another Su-27 flew within 20 feet of an RC-135, this time over the Baltic Sea.

The RC-135 intercept over the Black Sea took place around the same time as a Russian Su-24 jet interceptor buzzed the destroyer USS Ross in the Black Sea, near occupied Crimea.

Navy footage showed the jet made several low-level passes over the Ross.

In October, two Russian Tu-142 bombers made low passes near the aircraft carrier USS Reagan as it sailed in the Sea of Japan near the Korean peninsula.

Navy F-18 jets were scrambled to intercept the bombers during that incident.

And last July 4, two Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers flew within 40 miles of the California coast and communicated a “happy birthday” message to intercepting U.S. pilots. That incident took place the same day President Obama held a telephone conference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Russian Tu-95 bombers also circumnavigated Guam in December, for the second time in two months. Guam is the U.S. military’s major hub and a key facility in the American military rebalance to Asia.

“Much of what Russia is doing today is aimed at generating fear of Russian military power and the possibility of war,” said former Pentagon Russia expert Mark Schneider.

“That is broadcast on a daily basis in the state media and through Russian military actions,” Schneider added. “Provocations involving aircraft are now common place. Russia also tends to be paranoid concerning foreign espionage and the protection of state secrets.”

Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said Russian military activities, including aircraft flights, are an increasing concern as Moscow seeks to reemerge as a world power.

Haney voiced concerns about Russian nuclear-capable bomber flights around the world, and large-scale ground forces nuclear exercises, along with vocal statements threatening the use of nuclear weapons.

Russian military aircraft have been conducting flights in Europe without the use of air-traffic control tracking transponders, a practice Haney called “reckless.”

Russia has stepped up aggressive military activities in response to NATO’s deployment of forces closer to Russian borders following Moscow’s military annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and continuing covert military destabilization of eastern Ukraine.

NATO has increased its force posture with additional military exercises, troop deployments and increased intelligence-gathering to support NATO allies that are threatened by Russian military revanchism.

Russia announced a new military strategy in December that increases the country’s reliance on nuclear forces over conventional troops and weapons.

Russia also is expected to announce a new military doctrine, a senior Russian commander announced on Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Sergey Chvarkov, deputy chief of the general staff academy said the United States is seeking to weaken Russia and is creating new national security threats to Moscow.

“At the foundation of the negative development of the international situation lie the USA’s actions, which in striving for global hegemony intentionally forms global instability to weaken strategic opponents, primarily Russia, creating national security threats to our country,” Chvarkov said, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

Western policies are fomenting global and internal conflicts that have produced the flood of refugees in Europe, Chvarkov said. He added that the West is waging “information war” on Russia.

The Mystery of ISIS’ Toyota Army Solved

Tony Cartalucci | New Eastern Outlook - JANUARY 28, 2016

IMAGE SOURCE: INFOWARS.COM

The US Treasury has recently opened an inquiry about the so-called “Islamic State’s” (ISIS/ISIL) use of large numbers of brand-new Toyota trucks. The issue has arisen in the wake of Russia’s air operations over Syria and growing global suspicion that the US itself has played a key role in arming, funding, and intentionally perpetuating the terrorist army across Syria and Iraq.

ABC News in their article, “US Officials Ask How ISIS Got So Many Toyota Trucks,” reports:

U.S. counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world’s second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SUVs seen prominently in the terror group’s propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, ABC News has learned.

Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles and is “supporting” the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury Department — part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.

The report went on to cite Iraqi Ambassador to the US, Lukman Faily:

“This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” Faily said. “How could these brand new trucks… these four wheel drives, hundreds of them — where are they coming from?”

Not surprisingly, it appears the US Treasury is asking the wrong party. Instead of Toyota, the US Treasury’s inquiry should have started next door at the US State Department.

Mystery Solved

Just last year it was reported that the US State Department had been sending in fleets of specifically Toyota-brand trucks into Syria to whom they claimed was the “Free Syrian Army.”

US foundation-funded Public Radio International (PRI) reported in a 2014 article titled, “This one Toyota pickup truck is at the top of the shopping list for the Free Syrian Army — and the Taliban,” that:


Recently, when the US State Department resumed sending non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels, the delivery list included 43 Toyota trucks.

Hiluxes were on the Free Syrian Army’s wish list. Oubai Shahbander, a Washington-based advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, is a fan of the truck.
“Specific equipment like the Toyota Hiluxes are what we refer to as force enablers for the moderate opposition forces on the ground,” he adds. Shahbander says the US-supplied pickups will be delivering troops and supplies into battle. Some of the fleet will even become battlefield weapons.

The British government has also admittedly supplied a number of vehicles to terrorists fighting inside of Syria. The British Independent’s 2013 article titled, “Revealed: What the West has given Syria’s rebels,” reported that (emphasis added):

So far the UK has sent around £8m of “non-lethal” aid, according to official papers seen by The Independent, comprising five 4×4 vehicles with ballistic protection; 20 sets of body armour; four trucks (three 25 tonne, one 20 tonne); six 4×4 SUVs; five non-armoured pick-ups; one recovery vehicle; four fork-lifts; three advanced “resilience kits” for region hubs, designed to rescue people in emergencies; 130 solar powered batteries; around 400 radios; water purification and rubbish collection kits; laptops; VSATs (small satellite systems for data communications) and printers.

It’s fair to say that whatever pipeline the US State Department and the British government used to supply terrorists in Syria with these trucks was likely used to send additional vehicles before and after these reports were made public.

The mystery of how hundreds of identical, brand-new ISIS-owned Toyota trucks have made it into Syria is solved. Not only has the US and British government admitted in the past to supplying them, their military forces and intelligence agencies ply the borders of Turkey, Jordan, and even Iraq where these fleets of trucks must have surely passed on their way to Syria – even if other regional actors supplied them. While previous admissions to supplying the vehicles implicates the West directly, that nothing resembling interdiction operations have been set up along any of these borders implicates the West as complicit with other parties also supplying vehicles to terrorists inside of Syria.

What Mystery?

Of course, much of this is not new information. So the question remains – why is the US Treasury just now carrying on with this transparent charade? Perhaps those in Washington believe that if the US government is the one asking this obvious question of how ISIS has managed to field such an impressive mechanized army in the middle of the Syrian desert, no one will suspect they had a role in it.

Of course, the trucks didn’t materialize in Syria. They originated outside of Syria and were brought in, and in great numbers, with the explicit knowledge and/or direct complicity of the US and its regional allies. Asking Toyota where the US State Department’s own trucks came from is another indication of just how lost US foreign policy, legitimacy, and credibility has become.

Russia’s intervention, and what should become a widely supported anti-terror coalition must keep in mind the criminality of the US and its partners when choosing its own partners in efforts to restore security and order across the Middle East and North Africa.

The admiral in charge of Navy intelligence has not been allowed to see military secrets for years

The Washington Post | By Craig Whitlock | January 27 at 8:06 PM

In this 2012 photo, Rear Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch, commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, speaks to the crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Spec. 3rd Class Heath Zeigler)

For more than two years, the Navy’s intelligence chief has been stuck with a major handicap: He’s not allowed to know any secrets.

Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch has been barred from reading, seeing or hearing classified information since November 2013, when the Navy learned from the Justice Department that his name had surfaced in a giant corruption investigation involving a foreign defense contractor and scores of Navy personnel.

Worried that Branch was on the verge of being indicted, Navy leaderssuspended his access to classified materials. They did the same to one of his deputies, Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the Navy’s director of intelligence operations.

More than 800 days later, neither Branch nor Loveless has been charged. But neither has been cleared, either. Their access to classified information remains blocked.

Although the Navy transferred Loveless to a slightly less sensitive post, it kept Branch in charge of its intelligence division. That has resulted in an awkward arrangement, akin to sending a warship into battle with its skipper stuck onshore.

[Epic Navy bribery scandal shows how easy it can be to steal military secrets]

Branch can’t meet with other senior U.S. intelligence leaders to discuss sensitive operations, or hear updates from his staff about secret missions or projects. It can be a chore just to set foot in colleagues’ offices; in keeping with regulations, they must conduct a sweep beforehand to make sure any classified documents are locked up.

Some critics have questioned how smart it is for the Navy to retain an intelligence chief with such limitations, for so long, especially at a time when the Pentagon is confronted by crises in the Middle East, the South China Sea, the Korean Peninsula and other hotspots.

“I have never heard of anything as asinine, bizarre or stupid in all my years,” Norman Polmar, a naval analyst and historian, said in an interview.


In an op-ed in Navy Times last fall, Polmar urged Navy leaders to replace Branch and Loveless for the sake of national security. He cited complaints from several unnamed Navy officers that “intelligence management is being hampered at a moment of great turmoil.”

Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, left, and Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch. (U.S. Navy via Associated Press)

It’s a touchy subject for Navy brass, who have struggled to replace Branch. Twice in the past 14 months, they have taken steps to nominate a new intelligence chief — who must be confirmed by the Senate — but haven’t followed through. There’s no indication that a successor will be in place anytime soon.

In a statement, Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler, the Navy’s chief spokeswoman, said the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation of Branch and Loveless “has not impacted the Navy’s ability to manage operations.” She said the two still perform managerial duties while their civilian and military deputies handle the classified aspects of their jobs.

Branch and Loveless declined interview requests placed through the Navy.

In addition to serving as chief of Navy intelligence, Branch holds the title of the Navy’s chief information officer, oversees the Navy’s 55,000-member Information Dominance Corps and is in charge of many cybersecurity programs.

Privately, some Navy leaders acknowledged that dealing with the fallout from the Justice Department’s investigation has been a nightmare, and that they never anticipated the case would drag on so long.

“We had the understanding that this was going to resolve itself pretty quickly,” said a senior Navy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing federal prosecutors. “We have no actionable information on Admiral Branch, good, bad or otherwise. All we know is that he’s wrapped up in this somehow.”

“Until these things resolve themselves, we’re kind of frozen,” the senior official added. “Is it optimum? No, it’s not optimum. But it’s where we are.”

Cigars and suckling pigs

Branch has long been a star in the Navy’s officer corps. A fighter pilot by training, he has flown combat missions over Grenada, Lebanon, the Balkans and Iraq.


He’s perhaps best known for his leading role in a 10-part PBS documentary, “Carrier,” an inside account of life aboard the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, which he commanded in 2005.

In July 2013, he was promoted to become a three-star admiral and director of naval intelligence. But he would soon become hamstrung in the job.

About the same time, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Justice Department were intensifying an investigation of Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a Singapore-based firm that had resupplied U.S. Navy vessels at Asian ports for a quarter century.

The company’s chief executive, Leonard Glenn Francis, was lured to the United States in a sting operation and was arrested at a San Diego hotel. A large and charismatic man known as “Fat Leonard,” he was charged with running a bribery scheme and defrauding the Navy of more than $20 million.

An undated company handout photo shows Leonard Glenn Francis, aka “Fat Leonard,” defense contractor who supplied U.S. Navy vessels in Asia for a quarter century. (Glenn Defense Marine Asia)

Several Navy officials were arrested, including a senior NCIS agent who confessed to feeding inside information to Francis for years.

As the case unfolded in federal court, prosecutors described in astonishing detail how Francis had bribed Navy officers with prostitutes, cash-stuffed envelopes, lavish hotel stays, spa treatments, and epicurean dinners featuring champagne, Cuban cigars, Kobe beef and Spanish suckling pigs.

In exchange, prosecutors said, some Navy officials provided Francis with classified information and steered Navy vessels to ports he controlled so he could overcharge the U.S. government for fuel, food, water and other supplies.

The investigation escalated quickly as federal agents traced Francis’s interactions with hundreds of Navy personnel over the previous decade.

On Nov. 8, 2013, late on a Friday night, the Navy announced that Branch and Loveless had been swept up in the case.

The Navy gave no details about what they were alleged to have done. Although the Navy said there was no evidence that either admiral had compromised military secrets, it suspended their access to classified material, saying the move was “prudent given the sensitive nature of their current duties.”

‘Good time on Leonard’s dime’

Little information about their predicament has surfaced since then.

One year later, Branch issued a statement to the Navy Times in which he said investigators were examining work performed by Glenn Defense Marine Asia while he served as the commander of the Nimitz.
He didn’t elaborate, but said he looked forward to the end of the inquiry “so that I can resume in full my service to the Navy and the country.”

Justice Department officials declined to answer questions about their scrutiny of Branch or to discuss why the inquiry has taken so long.

“This remains an active, ongoing investigation that covers conduct that spans more than a decade and involves a massive amount of evidence, multiple countries, tens of millions of dollars in fraud, and millions of dollars in bribes and gifts to scores of U.S. Navy officials,” Laura Duffy, the U.S. attorney in San Diego, said in a statement.

[Three U.S. naval officers censured in ‘Fat Leonard’ corruption probe]

A source close to the investigation said more than 100 Navy personnel and other people remain under investigation for potential criminal, financial or ethical violations.

“The sheer number of people involved here is extraordinary,” the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

A second source close to the investigation said that Branch met Francis 16 years ago, when Branch was the executive officer of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and that the pair stayed in regular contact.

The source said Francis has also known Loveless for many years, dating to his deployments in Asia as an intelligence officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and as intelligence chief for the Navy’s 7th Fleet, based in Japan.

Although it is against federal ethics regulations to accept gifts from contractors, the Justice Department is focusing on Navy personnel who in turn did Francis’s bidding by sharing inside information or enabling him to overcharge the government.


“Some guys were just having a good time on Leonard’s dime,” the second source close to the investigation said. “Other guys were passing on classified information.”

Prosecutors have suggested that more arrests are likely. Seven defendants, including Francis, have pleaded guilty so far in federal court.

Federal corruption charges also are pending against a Navy commander and a senior Pentagon civilian. In addition, a former Navy contracting official living in Singapore was arrested there last month.

The extent of the scandal has been deeply humiliating for the Navy. Last week, at the sentencing of an enlisted sailor who forked over military secrets in exchange for cash and electronic gadgets, Rear Adm. Jonathan A. Yuen, the chief of the Navy Supply Corps, said he was mortified by the revelations in court.

“I do not have the words to express the depth of the betrayal,” Yuen testified. “No amount of money is worth betraying our nation, our Navy or our shipmates.”

In addition to those facing criminal prosecution by the Justice Department, the Navy has been investigating an unspecified number of people suspected of violating military regulations.

In February, for instance, the Navy officially censured three admirals for dining at “extravagant” banquets and accepting other gifts from Francis when they were assigned to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike group a decade ago.

Three stars or two stars

With Loveless’s status in limbo, the Navy transferred him to another position in December 2014.

As the corporate director for information dominance, he still works for Navy intelligence. But he deals primarily with issues that don’t require a security clearance, such as personnel and training, officials said.

The Navy has twice taken steps to replace Branch as well, but for reasons that remain unclear, hasn’t gone through with it.

In November 2014, the Navy prepared a nomination package for Rear Adm. Elizabeth Train to become the service’s intelligence head. But her promotion was put on hold after someone filed a complaint against her with the Navy inspector general.

Rear Adm. Elizabeth L. Train. (U.S. Navy)

Details of the complaint couldn’t be learned, but Pentagon officials said Train was cleared of wrongdoing by the inspector general. Her nomination was finally sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee in September.

Nothing has happened since. Pentagon officials said that her nomination has been placed on the back burner and that she’s not scheduled for promotion until July, although they declined to explain why.
Such a delay could work in Branch’s favor.

If he remains in his current job until July, he will have enough service time to qualify to retire as a vice admiral. If forced to leave before then, it’s more likely that he would have to retire at a lower rank as a two-star admiral, with a smaller pension.

The senior Navy official disputed that Branch’s rank and retirement eligibility was influencing the timetable to replace him. “That has not been a factor whatsoever,” the official said.
Even if Branch were cleared of wrongdoing by the Justice Department and the Navy tomorrow, he would face a much longer wait to regain access to military secrets.

Pentagon officials said his security clearance would have to be restored by a separate arm of the bureaucracy — the Defense Department’s Central Adjudication Facility — in a process that usually takes months.