Latest news with #CostofWar
New Indian Express
14-05-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Reading between the ruins
Recommendations: Cost of War by Simran Randhawa: It is a personal and moving account of love, loss, and resilience. 'It tells the story of Major SJS Randhawa, an Indian Army officer who died in service and was posthumously awarded the Kirti Chakra. Just as much, it is about the family he left behind — his wife Romi (RJ) and their daughter. It also captures the transformation of Romi into Lt Col Ravinder Jit Randhawa — from a grieving wife to the first war widow to join the Indian Army as an officer. 1971: Stories of Grit and Glory from the Indo-Pak War by Maj Gen Ian Cardozo: 'In 1971, Maj Gen Ian Cardozo shares untold stories of bravery and sacrifice from one of South Asia's most important wars. Through interviews with survivors and families, the book brings to life acts of courage: a Gorkha battalion's heliborne assault behind enemy lines, Indian Air Force raids over Dhaka, and the INS Khukri captain who went down with his ship.'
Daily Maverick
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Media under siege: The alarming toll of war on Palestinian journalists in Gaza
More media workers have been killed in Gaza than in all the wars over a period of more than 100 years combined. That means more than 200 journalists have been killed during the Gaza conflict. Two Palestinian journalists and a media worker were burned alive in a targeted attack by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza overnight on Sunday and Monday, 6 and 7 April 2025, once again highlighting the dangers faced by those covering the Gaza war and West Bank conflict. 'An Israeli airstrike on a tent in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday evening killed several journalists and a 27-year-old father who was working with an NBC News crew,' the channel reported. 'The strike killed Ahmed Mansour, an editor with the Palestine Today news agency, and his coworker Hilmi Al-Faqawi. Yousef Al-Khozindar, a father of two working with NBC News to procure supplies and fuel, was in the tent next door,' said NBC. The Committee to Protect Journalists denounced Israel's targeted airstrike that hit the media tent in the grounds of a hospital in Gaza, killing the two journalists and injuring seven others, and called on the international community to act to stop Israel killing Palestinian journalists. Cost of War report Al-Khozindar later died from his burns, bringing the death toll to three. Meanwhile, a Cost of War report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in the US says the war in Gaza has, since 7 October 2023, killed more journalists than the US Civil War, World Wars 1 and 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined. More than 200 journalists, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed in this conflict. Reporters Without Borders stated in its press freedom report for 2024 that Israel, a country that has always prided itself on being the only democracy in the Middle East, had slid down to number 101 out of 180 countries for media freedom. South Africa came in at number 38. Omar Nazzal from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, who was held in Israeli administrative detention, or detention without trial, said covering the conflict had always been tough for Palestinian journalists because of attacks by Israeli soldiers, but the situation had escalated significantly since Hamas' 7 October attack on Israel. 'It's a scary situation now because we never know when Israeli soldiers and settlers will shoot at us, beat us up, vandalise our cars or arrest us without charges,' said Nazzal in Jenin, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed, including gunmen. Palestinian civilians have also been forced from the Jenin refugee camp and its surrounds as Israel carries out a vast displacement campaign, which has resulted in more than 40,000 Palestinians being driven from their homes in several towns and cities in the West Bank. Nazzal said Israeli soldiers had also deliberately run over Palestinian journalists and destroyed their equipment. The deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists has been investigated by several media organisations. The International Federation of Journalists said it had evidence that the Israeli army had deliberately targeted journalists, and some of these cases were now the subject of a complaint filed at the International Criminal Court. 'Longstanding pattern of impunity' The Committee to Protect Journalists called for an end to the longstanding pattern of impunity in cases of journalists killed by the IDF. Even before the October attack, the committee said a pattern of journalists being deliberately targeted and the consequent impunity was a problem. Several internationally renowned media outlets also carried out their own investigations into incidents in which Palestinian journalists were killed by the IDF, which then denied responsibility before deflecting blame. For example, the Washington Post did a forensic investigation into the killing of renowned Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked for Al Jazeera. She was shot dead by Israeli soldiers near the Jenin refugee camp in the northern Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank in 2022. The newspaper disputed Israel's original claim that Abu Akleh had been killed by 'indiscriminate gunfire' from Palestinian armed groups. Foreign journalists who have spent time in the West Bank and reported from there have also faced difficulties trying to cover the situation despite their foreign passports, Israeli government press accreditation and mostly white skins. While international media organisations investigate the intimidation and targeted killings and crunch the numbers, many foreign journalists don't need convincing. Intensified pressure Several foreign media teams, including Australia's ABC and CNN in the US, have been harassed and intimidated by both Israeli settlers and soldiers as they tried to cover West Bank violence. 'The repression of reporters in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has intensified in recent months despite the recent ceasefire in Gaza, which collapsed when Israel resumed its strikes on the Western Palestinian strip,' said Reporters Without Borders. 'In the eastern Palestinian territories, Israeli armed forces have shot at journalists, arrested them and restricted their movement.' Jafar Shtayeh, a photographer with AFP who has been on several assignments in the West Bank, has also been shot at and beaten up over the years by Israeli soldiers. 'However, the situation is way more serious because working as a journalist has now become a life-and-death event, and every time we cover a story we worry about getting out alive,' Shtayeh said. Wajjah Mufleh and Mujahid Mufleh, two Palestinian journalists from Beita, near Nablus in the West Bank, have in recent months been stopped regularly by the Israeli military as they enter and exit the village covering stories. 'We were assaulted, held for hours with our hands zip-tied and then released with no reason given for our detention. It's just a repeated pattern of harassment and intimidation,' Wajjah said. Reporters Without Borders traces Israel's disinformation campaign and its increasing repression of the media to the right-wing, conservative Israeli government and several laws passed by the Knesset, or parliament. These include a 2023 amendment to the anti-terrorism law that punishes those who 'systematically and continuously consume terrorist publications', or who broadcast 'a direct call to commit an act of terrorism'. 'Its broad interpretation in the context of war carries risks for press freedom,' Reporters Without Borders said. A second law, approved by Parliament in 2024, makes it possible to prohibit the broadcast of foreign media that allegedly threatens state security. Palestinians have also been arrested and charged simply for expressing sympathy for Gaza or sharing posts by resistance groups. Attacks by organised crime and police brutality during protests are the main concerns in terms of the safety of journalists in Israel. Twenty-three journalists are being detained at present. Meanwhile, the Foreign Press Association in Israel has taken the Israeli government to court twice, demanding that the ban on journalists entering Gaza to cover the conflict be lifted. Twice this has been rejected, including by Israel's Supreme Court. DM
USA Today
16-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
As Elon Musk eyes Defense Department, conflicts of interest, accounting issues loom
As Elon Musk eyes Defense Department, conflicts of interest, accounting issues loom Trump floated cutting the defense budget in half, once things 'settle down' with Russia and China. That contrasts with comments from Hegseth about investing in national security. Show Caption Hide Caption Musk defends 'deleting' entire agencies amid rising criticism Elon Musk pledged to find $1 trillion in savings in the government. But some have accused him of letting politics drive his decision-making. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed DOGE to the Pentagon, where Elon Musk will face an accounting system that has never passed an audit and decades of rampant price gouging by defense contractors. On Thursday, Trump floated cutting the defense budget in half – after things "settle down" with Russia and China. It was a sharp turn from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's comments earlier the same day that "nobody can or should test the extent of America's willingness to invest in national security." Defense policy experts say the Pentagon's $850 billion budget is in sore need of oversight – investigators regularly uncover billions of dollars of waste and the department's disjointed accounting system has yet to pass an audit. For years, the Pentagon has been trying – and failing – to clearly account for its finances. Seven years after it handed in its first official audit, the Defense Department has not received a passing grade on a single one. But balancing the military's books, which Hegseth has said he would achieve within four years, is not the same as the sweeping cuts of programs, sacking of federal workers, and shutdown of entire departments orchestrated by Musk elsewhere in Washington. The Pentagon has spent more than $14 trillion since 9/11, with up to 50% going to defense contractors, Brown University's Cost of War project found. Defense contractors often hire subcontractors, who then hire their own subcontractors, creating a dizzying spiral of spending. "It becomes, with each layer of contracting, harder to track who's getting the money, and whether it's actually going for its intended purpose or not," said Heidi Peltier, an economist with the Project. "By the time the final bill is hitting the Department of Defense or hitting the taxpayer, you have these multiple layers of profit." Musk's defense contracts raise conflict of interest questions Peltier said oversight was necessary to track down wasteful spending. Within the Pentagon, the main source of that oversight comes from the Pentagon's office of the inspector general, which maintains an anonymous tip line to collect reports of fraud, waste and abuse. Its mission is nonpolitical – it serves as an "independent, nonpartisan, objective oversight agency," said Mollie Halpern, a spokesperson for the office. In the first quarter of this year, the office's criminal investigative branch recovered $46.3 billion through its criminal, civil and administrative recoveries, according to Halpern. Trump fired Robert Storch, the Defense Department's inspector general, along with the inspectors of 16 other agencies last month. Storch and seven other inspectors sued Trump this week, claiming their ousting was illegal. The role is currently held by an acting inspector general who is a veteran of the office. But Trump can nominate replacements for the inspectors he fired, although they would need to pass senate confirmation first. And Musk's financial entanglement with Washington's largest department has stirred skepticism and concerns about conflict of interest. Musk, a defense contractor, has already faced questions of whether his wide-reaching business interests disqualify him as a government watchdog. The State Department quietly removed the name of Tesla, which is owned by Musk, from a $400 million contract for armored vehicles on its website this week after multiple outlets reported on it. His entrance to the Pentagon, where his companies hold billions of dollars in contracts, raises the question of whether he could tip the scales in his financial favor. In 2020, SpaceX, which Musk owns, won a $150 million contract to build launchers for the Space Development Agency's spaceships. And the Pentagon is paying Starlink, his satellite company, millions to provide Ukraine internet. The true scope of Musk's contracts with the Defense Department is impossible to know, since many of his contracts are classified. "There already is the appearance of conflict of interest," Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who specializes in the defense budget, said of Musk's role in the administration. Even contracts that have already been obligated could be canceled. Although "it's unusual, you could do it more broadly," he said. Pentagon bogged down with price gouging, accounting troubles In recent decades, internal investigations, congressional commissions and reports have unearthed myriad examples of the scale of contractors' price gouging. Just this week, Lockheed Martin, the top U.S. defense manufacturer, settled a $30 million lawsuit accusing it of overcharging the Pentagon for years. Examples over the years include Lockheed Martin and its subcontractor, Boeing, charging the Pentagon a 40% greater price for Patriot missiles and an additional $16 million Haliburton charged to feed a military base in Kuwait. Some veer into the ridiculous – an extra $149,000 spent on soap dispensers, and $14,000 toilet seats. The Pentagon's discombobulated accounting system also creates a black box where potential fraud or wasteful spending can't be found. The internal financial controls of the Defense Department's many organs are rife with data processing incompatibilities, making it difficult to accurately compare books. That runs the risk of inconsistencies and inaccuracies popping up as accounting information is handed off between components. The Department's accounting has "weak internal controls," said Asif Khan, a Government Accountability Office director focused on financial management. Values could be "materially misstated, and there aren't enough controls to be able to identify what the misstatement is." If an accounting value is lost, it's difficult to ascertain "whether that really is an improper payment, or whether, indeed, fraud is taking place," Khan said. The Pentagon points out that some of its parts – a minority – have passed their audits. Of the 28 components within the Department that reported their finances, nine received an "unmodified" opinion, meaning a clean audit, one received a "modified" opinion, meaning its bookkeeping had issues, but was ultimately reliable, three reviews were still pending, and the remaining 15 failed. Hegseth has said he will push for the Pentagon to pass an audit at the end of Trump's term. Khan said, to pass the 2028 audit, new systems would likely need to be in place by the end of 2026. Modernizing those systems costs even more money – around a billion dollars, according to Harrison. This fiscal year's defense budget includes an another $1.3 billion for "audit services, support, remediation and financial systems" in the push to pass the next audit. Harrison said passing the audit has value in transparency and accountability. "The American taxpayers deserve that," he said. "They deserve to know where their $850 billion go, how it's spent and make sure it's spent wisely," he said.
