These stories broke within 24 hours of each other.
First, the UK:
Former British fighter pilots are training the Chinese to shoot down Western aircraft, officials warned last night.
Up to 30 pilots have recently moved to China after securing £250,000-a-year contracts to teach Western flying procedures, it was revealed.
Due to legal loopholes, there is nothing the Armed Forces can do to prevent the Beijing brain drain – a potential threat to national security in which Chinese pilots could be given a lethal advantage in any future conflict.
Western officials said last night Britain was discussing with allies how to respond to the issue as they are similarly affected.
The Daily Mail has been told fast-jet pilots from Australia and Canada have also been lured to China on huge contracts.
An official said last night: ‘Serving and former advanced jet pilots are being openly head-hunted to train People’s Liberation Army (PLA) pilots in China.
The Chinese use a private flying academy in South Africa to act as an intermediary as any direct approaches to RAF fast-jet pilots by Beijing would be intercepted by the security services.
Last night, the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA), based at Oudtshoorn airfield in the Western Cape province, declined to comment on its alleged role.
The TFASA has made offers to RAF Typhoon, Jaguar and Tornado pilots to relocate to China and become PLA instructors, according to Western officials. UK military helicopter pilots have also been approached.
Next, the US:
More than 500 retired US military personnel have taken lucrative jobs working for foreign governments – with generals and admirals landing roles in Saudi Arabia.
It was revealed after a judge forced the military to hand over documents detailing the jobs, but allowed some information – such as payments – to be redacted.
The ministry is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA say approved the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Most personnel have taken jobs in countries known for human rights abuse and political repression, according to an investigation by the Washington Post.
Alexander led the National Security Agency under Obama and President George W. Bush, while Jones was a national security adviser – and has also taken work from the Government of Libya.
It is unclear exactly how much the former high-ranking personnel are being paid per job, but it is more than what most American service members earn on active duty.
Those serving as an active four-star general earns $203,698 a year in basic pay, while former military officials have been given consulting deals worth more than $10million.
A retired US Air Force general was offered a consulting gig in Azerbaijan at a rate of $5,000 a day, with retired generals and admirals being offered the most money.
Retired Army Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, 63, was investigated by the Defense Departments inspector after collecting $449,807 from Russian and Turkish interests in 2015 a year after his retirement.
He was celebrating the 10th anniversary of Russia Today, and was paid $38,557 to travel to the event, and in 2017 pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the US.
The inspector general ordered him to forfeit the cash that he had received from the Moscow trip, but was not penalized further for the remaining $411,250 he collected from Russia and Turkey.
I can guarantee that China is paying retired US military personnel as well.
This shocks me and doesn’t shock me.
For years the culture of the upper echelon of the military has been “how do I take my military experience and turn it into big money in defense contracting.”
There is a whole system of grooming officers to go and cash out in the military industrial complex.
What I didn’t expect, but should have, is that this culture would ultimately lead these officers to go and cash out to foreign countries that are politically or ideologically opposed to the US or the Western World.
Patriotism is dead, the top half of the military is just a prep school for teaching national secrets to people who can then sell that information to the highest bidder.
A Woke decadent military would ultimately turn on its country for money. We should have seen this coming. When we are thoroughly defeated by an enemy that is more that goat rapists in flip-flops, maybe we’ll learn our lesson.
Live YOUR best life.. We the People will never be able to change any of this. Power corrupts n all that. Most of the “elite “ will never have power over individual Americans unless you let them. Continue to live and thrive in your world. Look, estimates say there are over 200MILLION gun owners in the US. Imagine if 200Million of us belonged to gun rights groups. THAT would be power.
Untill We the People can unite under that moldy document signed eons ago we can only live our best life and vote..
“… foreign countries that are politically or ideologically opposed to the US or the Western World.”
Er. This differs from DC, how exactly?
Someone posted side by side the news article that the RAF would freeze the promotion and acceptance of white pilots until they met a certain quota for minority pilots and officers. Paired nicely with that above news.
And what, exactly is wrong with what the military fuckwads are doing, considering what pResidents Clintoon, Bushs, Obozo, Obiden did and continue doing to this day? Anything? I didn’t think so.
And yet if I don’t mark a document correctly I and/or my company face repercussions to include fines and loss of business. Documents, by the way that the DoD themselves can’t be bothered to mark correctly….
Hmmm, yeah. Publish online the dimensions for an M-LOK nut, and you’re in deep doo-doo because ITAR.
Retire from the military, move overseas, and train the warriors of an unfriendly power, and it’s totally cool.
Drain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and sell the contents who-knows-where, and that’s for the benefit of the American People, yup.
That glorified weldnut is subject to ITAR?
When I looked up the specs a few months ago, I saw something to that effect. From Wikipedia:
“While screw and slot dimensions are available on the web, the T-slot nut dimensions are currently under review by the US State Department to determine whether it should be regulated by ITAR, and until it is clarified drawings are only available to US citizens.”
So, maybe ITAR, maybe not, and until the wheels of bureaucracy are done grinding, the dimensions are presumed to be subject to export restrictions.
Oddly enough, Chinese M-LOK nuts seem to be a thing. I suppose some spy managed to acquire a sample nut and smuggle it back to a Chinese factory for reverse-engineering. Or maybe they derived the nut dimensions from the published slot dimensions?
In other fun, a few years ago I tried to find information on line about the design of Geiger tubes. I found nothing but some dead links to deleted articles about how to make your own. Apparently information published in open fora back in the 1930s has been scrubbed from the public Web, presumably to keep it from falling into enemy hands. (I was actually contemplating the practicality of manufacturing replacements for Soviet tubes, whereof the supply had suddenly dried up.)
You just had to ask Magpul nicely and they would send you the specs. It was literally their policy.
Or I could have measured an example… but what I was looking up at the time was the spec for the slot, and that’s public.
Really sticks in your craw don’t it?
The irs isn’t required, or expected, to correctly answer your questions to them on doing your taxes. You can not trust any part of the government and the fellow travelers.
Traitors to what?
Just had the discussion on MeWe – the “western values” are nothing more than smoke and mirrors and we know it. We can thump our chests while talking about democracy and freedom but we know that this is a bedtime story for grown-ups.
So what exactly are these people traitors to?
Our politicians work together with China and the Saudis, our companies do it – but why are soldiers not allowed to?