Consider this indictment against the backdrop of a totally politicized Department of Defense.
(VIA DOJ – May 31, 2024) – […] As alleged in an indictment unsealed today, from 2020 to 2022, Robert Burke, 62, of Coconut Creek, Florida, was a four-star Admiral who oversaw Naval operations in Europe, Russia, and most of Africa, and commanded thousands of civilian and military personnel.
Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger, both of New York, are the co-CEOs of a company (Company A) that provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019. The Navy terminated a contract with Company A in late 2019 and directed Company A not to contact Burke.
Despite the Navy’s instructions, Kim and Messenger then allegedly met with Burke in Washington, D.C., in July 2021 in an effort to reestablish Company A’s business relationship with the Navy. At the meeting, the charged defendants allegedly agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a sole-source contract to Company A in exchange for future employment at the company. They allegedly further agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to Company A to train a large portion of the Navy with a value Kim allegedly estimated to be “triple digit millions.”
In furtherance of the conspiracy, in December 2021, Burke allegedly ordered his staff to award a $355,000 contract to Company A to train personnel under Burke’s command in Italy and Spain. Company A performed the training in January 2022. Thereafter, Burke allegedly promoted Company A in a failed effort to convince a senior Navy Admiral to award another contract to Company A.
To conceal the scheme, Burke allegedly made several false and misleading statements to the Navy, including by creating the false appearance that Burke played no role in issuing the contract and falsely implying that Company A’s employment discussions with Burke only began months after the contract was awarded.
In October 2022, Burke began working at Company A at a yearly starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options. (read more)
REPORT: IDF EXPOSES SECRET EGYPT-GAZA BRIDGE IN RAFAH OPERATION
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in Rafah has exposed the existence of a secret overpass between Egypt and Gaza, which Hamas could use to import anything without international supervision, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Lt. Col. Amit Yagor (Res.), a former intelligence officer, wrote:
[Egypt] enables an entire industry of smuggling tunnels from its territory to the territory of the Gaza Strip and, in practice, constitutes the organization’s “oxygen pipe” and a main source of illegal weapons, ammunition, and prohibited materials that enabled the establishment of “Deep Gaza.”
The highlight was the existence of an overpass between Egypt and Gaza – the Salah al-Din crossing that was used for the movement of goods from Egypt to the Gaza Strip without any Israeli or international supervision. It was not widely publicized and operated in addition to the famous Rafah crossing.
Apparently, the economy of the tunnels/goods/crossings and the industry that developed on Egyptian soil contributed quite a bit to the quiet that Egypt asked to preserve in the Sinai Peninsula, and hence the Egyptian interest in not eliminating it, as Egypt knew how to do in many other cases.
Todah rabah
Why am I not surprised??
Why they didn’t destroy it immediately, I do not know.
As much as people want to think otherwise, this is WAR for Israel and they should act accordingly.
Similarly, Russia has started enforcing an expanded “territorial waters” policy because THEY TOO are at WAR. When I hear people complain or suggest that any such thing is unwarranted or unreasonable because it impacts their vacation? How out of touch does one have to be to not understand WAR?
DISGUSTING … “our Nation’s Finest … ” ???? I think not …
Speaking as a 25 year USN Vet who entered as E-1 and retired as a senior Officer … IMO this current crop of USN Officers and Enlisted are the worst I’ve ever seen. Yes, there’s good ones, to be sure, but they are largely “keeping their heads down” if they want to advance in rate or rank.
Starting right at the top — think Sec of Defense — these careerists and DIE (a.k.a. DEI) hires are absolutely in it for themselves (self-serving suck-up climbers, or can’t-get-a-job in civvie-street, or are ‘affirmative action’ hires of many stripes and backgrounds). And collectively taken they’re a disgrace to the uniform they wear and to our Navy’s heritage and traditions …
And while some may still criticize those Vietnam-era “draftees” … speaking from personal experience, 95% of those folks were head and shoulders above our current “all volunteer force” version …
A small example, if I may?? I went onboard the local NAS today and I had to suggest to the gate guard that she might want to check her eye-makeup … as it was running …
Now that’s a FIRST for me …
Man o’ man, that hurts, but based, if I daresay.
Remember that Viet Nam (and, probably the Korean War as well), taught many sons (and later, daughters, as well), that their outstanding scholarship in high school might be better used by attending schools other than the military academies.
You can’t keep going to war for nefarious purposes, then never actually winning those wars and expect great students with integrity to seek an appointment to a military academy.
Poor leadership from Congress and the Oval office resulting in senseless wars coupled with affirmative action, DEI appointments, with shameful military academy presidents/leadership have left our military leadership peopled by the mediocre to the corrupt.
TLH, thank you for keeping this data in the “public eye.” If things are to change for the better for our military branches having a clear and concise view of the trouble and the way forward is indispensable. Again, Thank You
Appreciate your honesty and your service but I’m not putting any hope in our so-called military. That goes for any branch.
If we go to civil war there’s only a few actives that I would trust. Now for those that left before the jab…..that’s a different story.
See ya in the trenches.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!!!
Was the gate guard a biological male or female?
I did some contracting work for a while, the entire enterprise is sordid and corrupt; oversight be damned. Very Masonically influenced. I called it out on a number of occasions and was eventually removed from the SoW. At one time I spoke with Sopko, provided irrefutable evidence (DoS/DoD) and was railroaded for it.
Ne Obliviscaris.
F’em all. Sit tight. Know that you are not alone.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Is this a dig at Freemasons? Certainly was not my experience!
Gee, wonder if Biden got 10% of that.
The “Big Guy” always gets a piece of the action!
Probably Not! That’s why he was arrested.
Defense contracting is very dirty. The government people are awful, highly corrupt and incompetent. The contractors prey on this stupidity.
Yes between the stupidity, ignorance, perfidy, and outright graft the DC contracting community is a mess beyond belief.
Look up DIMHERS and you will find that DOD wasted $ 1 Billion to create a joint military pay system.
https://www.stripes.com/opinion/military-update-dimhrs-program-dumped-as-a-disaster-1.99558
The Army, Navy, and Airforce were fighting to keep their military pay and personnel systems. The Marine Corps already had a functioning personnel and payroll system.
What is really sad….
My first thought is who did they piss off? And is it a setup?
They pissed off whoever spent three+ years lining up the “triple digit millions” contract to their sugar daddies.
Don’t be surprised if some people whose last name starts with a B is involved.
He must have information on the Clinton’s, he’s refusing to be blackmailed by the cabal anymore, or he’s openly supporting MAGA and PDJT…
Just one who has been caught. Politicians set the standard by insider trading and committing FARA violations.
I was recently doing some research on someone who works for the state of California, custodian/bus driver in a school district, and their pay from 2016 to 2022 doubled+. As in $45k+ to $95k+.
And that period includes the scamdemic, so literally this person did nothing during that entire period.
And that is just the salaries.
I quit voting for Ds based on public employee salary and benefits. Vote buying with my money.
This stuff is rampant throughout government, local and federal. How much do we really hear about? In MN we have a major scandal that only one outlet truly covers. So much taxpayer dollars scammed into NGO’s and distributed amongst all the democrat corruption usually would be called money laundering.
Check this out. These people used children for their own selfish gains and the democrats just look the other way because,”DONATIONS”!
https://alphanews.org/?s=feeding+our+future
If there was some miraculous way of auditing corruption and frog-marching legions of criminal grifter into Gitmo our country could possibly operate at half the national budget and pay off half the debt in 10 years.
What do ya do with a drunken sailor
What do ya do with a drunken sailor…
How are people supposed to figure out the Military. We are told the Military are in charge, trust the Military and Trump and then we continually hear this kind of thing. Is the Military trustworthy and ready to defend America and the world or are they owned by the Cabal 🤷♀️
The same way one looks at most large groups – realize that some are good, some are bad, and the ratio has been going towards the bad side for a while.
You have to realize, not taking the Covid shot resulted in a purge in the military. Those of us that were purged were the ones no to blindly follow orders. We were replaced by????
Fully cognizant of the purge. Was (and still am) disgusted and angered by the actions that the government and officers involved took – both the forced injections and the purge.
Also aware that there were many more that felt the same way but for whatever personal reason (often related to caring for their family) went against their own better judgement and took the injection under protest – with far too many badly effected.
Since those horrendous actions by the government, they have also been unable to replace everyone forced out…and as you indicated there are…concerns…about those who came in after.
Part of the reason I said “the ratio has been going towards the bad for a while…” (It really started during Dopey’s reign of error)
“Part of the reason I said “the ratio has been going towards the bad for a while…” (It really started during Dopey’s reign of error)”
Actually, I believe it started with Clintoon and the VSI/SSB separation that occurred in the late 80’s.
That gutted middle management in the Armed Forces and it never really recovered.
It’s easy; there are lots of good people in the military but the bureaucracy is rotten to the core and in an environment like that, the good you can do as an individual is severely limited. So most people keep their heads down, do what little they can but also try not to attract too much attention while doing it.
The military is not coming to save anybody. And I say that as a 17 year veteran.
I agree with you, Yin. I did 22 years in uniform and have been in DoD as a civilian for another 14 years. Many of us are fully aware of what is going on. Think back to BO’s purge of the military starting with O-6s. That means every general or flag officer today is a survivor of that purge. That helps explain the corruption at the top.
And you are correct that the military isn’t coming to save anyone. That said, they aren’t coming to shoot anyone either.
No, but “The Newcomer” Recruits will shoot anybody without question. Illegals can become Voters and Citizens by “serving” their Masters…….. Who open the borderless flood gates for them to Enter the USSA.
in the meantime, for this Summer of Love and Rememberance of Saint Floyd of Fentanyl, a Feral JustUs Judge rules Illegals have “A Right” to Guns.
I’m sure it’s All the New Normal, Comrades. Welcome to the USSA.
Don’t believe any of that white hat horse manure. It’s all propaganda to keep us from getting involved thinking some white knights who honor their oaths will save us. The military is corrupt and dishonorable as the day is long.
Sundance’s sentence implies scam in indictment. Note indicted by Mathew Graves in DC. A good friend, former Navy, forwarded a separate article related to this admiral. One word in his text: scam. I replied to him (this prior to cth post) that he’s innocent until proven guilty. But for sure he will be found guilty by “a jury of his peers” in DC!
He said scum,…not scam.
Matthew Graves is the judge who is throwing the J6ers into the DC Gulag.
I believe he is the prosecutor.
Matthew Graves is the US Attorney for the District of Columbia. Apparently not a person whose only desire in life is to do justice.
If I hear one more time how the rank and file of gov agencies are good people, I will puke. FBI, CIA, Secret Service,DOD, DOJ, IRS, USDA, CDC, FDA, USNavy…is there ANY agency not cancerous with corruption? I can’t think of even one. Not one. Gov, Inc. and Congress LLC are for profit corporations.
Trump was being framed as a Russian agent for years and the FBI knew it was foolishness, but the rank and file was silent. They still are. FBI agents are bad people in my estimation.
In War If you wear the uniform, then you have made your decision. Discernment is a luxury ill afforded.
I can understand “Getting” a government job, I Got many corporate jobs, with high hopes. After awhile I couldn’t tolerate the tedium or the corporate brown nosing and quit after an average career of no more than 4 years.
Having a Corrupt government job would be so intolerable that I would be fired for insubordination.
I ask myself “How?” does a border Patrol person, for example, get up every day and put on their discraced uniform and go to work processing Illegals over the borderless areaa??? Not Me, still an old Rebel after 160 years, I suppose.
I can more easily understand the sadistic evil tyrants in government than the “normies” getting a paycheck, plugging along obediently.
Apparently the suicide rate among CBP is rather high.
Corrupt at every level
Check out Eric Prince’s TOO BIG TO WIN article in the WSJ. He has a great channel on rumble UNLEASHED.
Eric Prince for Secretary of Defense. At least for a month or two.
Even if his nomination couldn’t make it through the Senate, the confirmation hearing would be worth watching for the entertainment value alone.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the award of a $355,000 contract to Company A in exchange for a yearly starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options makes no sense. They bribed him to lose money?
Yeah that’s some Democrat math. A separate article on this issue stated something about a multi million dollar contract he was involved with as well, so it was supposed to be much more.
There is always a first “loss leader” contract by which they get their foot I the door to get more.
It was a sound “business decision”.
I wonder if the military people being arrested are really being arrested for being patriots? Its just a thought for now, but anyone with a minimum of intelligence knows we are headed for some type of conflict in the near future
“Donald Trump is a threat to our oligarchic, plutocratic, kleptocratic kakistocracy!” Fixed it for ya.
yeah f’d up bs…. and all this time the cia fblie dojackoffs aided and abet the biden obama and clinton crime family’s…
Another routine day for our overlords. He’s definitely one of many. What a shame.
One big new Navy bribery scandal.
But the last big Navy bribery scandal just got washed away and the perpetrators let off: https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2024/05/21/felony-convictions-of-5-retired-officers-dismissed-in-fat-leonard-case/
All these top brass line up lucrative gigs from the companies they favor while in uniform
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-10/biden-defense-pick-to-get-up-to-1-7-million-from-raytheon-role
The dismissals reported in the 5/21/2024 Navy Times/Associated Press article above in the “Fat Leonard”case, IMO, is an important read to give full context to this Post. Thx, Gulag escapee.
Thank you for this info. One doesn’t know what to think, because federal prosecutors are so often corrupt, and it looks as though that was the case here: among other things, they withheld exculpatory evidence (which serms to be not that uncommon for feds). These people may in fact be guilty, but the prosecution will have to convict them without cheating. If possible….
As it is the Biden administration, I suspect Burke was a “rear” admiral…
This has an anomalous skeezy feel. I can’t find who appointed Burke as an Admiral. The dates of his highest commands coincide with PDJT. What’s missing from this story?
FTA below – “Messenger allegedly “felt slimy” following the call”
https://news.usni.org/2024/05/31/former-vice-chief-of-naval-operations-robert-burke-arrested-by-feds-on-bribery-charges
Why no info on who promoted him? Admiral is a flag officer. So is he one of PSJT’s?
‘The process of appointing admirals in the United States Navy is a complex one, involving both the President and Congress. While the President has the authority to nominate admirals, Congressional approval is required for their appointments.’
AI generated- Who appointed robert burke admiral?
Based on the provided search results, it is not explicitly stated who appointed Robert Burke as an Admiral. However, it is mentioned that he served as the Vice Chief of Naval Operations from June 2019 to May 2020, and as the Commander of United States Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Force Command Naples from July 2020 to June 2022. It is likely that he was appointed to these positions by the United States Navy or the Department of Defense, but the specific individual or entity responsible for his appointment is not mentioned in the provided search results.
I think he wss an Admiral (O-10). Figure 2-3 years per promotion (O-7 is rear admiral lower half, O-8 upper half, O-9 is vice admiral). Equivalent to one through four star generals). Retired in June 2022. So if 2.5 years he would have made rear admiral ~ 2010 I think assuming he retired with ~3 years as admiral. Not DJT.
DJT promotion — twice.
Vice Admiral confirmed by Senate 05/23/2019
Admiral confirmed by Senate 03/20/2020
I was going to include the link to congress.gov but there was a formatting issue that would have thrown off the page margins.
ETA: Rear Admiral 05/26/2016.
The way it works is there is a selection board to Rear Admiral Lower Half (one star) and then Rear Admiral Upper Half (two star). After that all positions are Presidential nominations and you have whatever grade is assigned to the position (three or four star). When you retire they generally retire you at the highest rank served. Looks like his first 3 star appointment was as Chief of Naval Personnel under Obama in 2016.
Huh. Piker.
Burke could have gotten as much ripping off the City of Houston’s public works department. The projects manager responsible for contracting to do emergency repairs on the water system, Patrece Lee, sat atop a fund worth up to $80 million. She was working her way through that stash until an investigative reporter and her producer at a local TV station found themselves digging into contracts. They had started with one story about an elderly man who was having a bad experience with the water department and it grew from there.
Although the reporter, Amy Davis, went to the city with her information, the city (under Sylvester Turner) wanted to keep the problems “in house” so she presented her results on-air. Her reporting was seen on the news by some persons in the DA’s office who notified current DA Kim Ogg who asked the Texas Rangers to investigate. That was in November.
Since that time, John Whitmire, a Democrat, has become mayor. He has publicly thanked Amy Davis. A grand jury has met and returned indictments against Patrece Lee and six friends and family members. Mrs. Lee’s immediate supervisor is gone. The Director of Public Works also has been allowed to resign.
Mayor Whitmire has said that more housecleaning has happened and the public should expect more to come. I would be willing to bet that Sylvester Turner himself is in the crosshairs. Interestingly enough, the city’s inspector general is not independent, but reports to the mayor. When Whitmire came into office in January, he found that the Metro Transit Authority had 29 (!!!) vice presidents, all of whom were “working from home because of COVID” and banking salaries of around $300,000. He replaced the entire housing authority board because of conflicts of interest that seem to be associated with choosing to build affordable housing on top of a toxic landfill. The nepotism and conflicts at the airport are still under investigation but the airport manager is now gone.
DA Kim Ogg lost her (Dem) primary to a Soros-backed candidate and will be gone at the end of the year. Trials need to happen quickly or the Republican candidate needs to win.
DA Ogg’s public corruption unit has investigated and obtained indictments of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s chief of staff and two other staffers over an $11 million COVID engagement contract. Ken Paxton’s office is now involved with that case.
Thank God that John Whitmire defeated Shelia Jackson Lee in the runoff for mayor. And thank the voters who came out and voted against her in that runoff.
Popcorn.
Yep….
Your opening line, “Consider this indictment against the backdrop….” says it all.
Perhaps it has become known that he’s a Conservative? Perhaps a Trump supporter who must be knee-capped?
Whenever I read a story these days, I say, “Well, maybe?”
Unless it’s from Sd, on CT, it may or may not be true.
The amount of recompense indicates there are a lot more contracts/combined value involved. Wonder why this individual was thrown to the wolves, the entire system of modern governance and administration operates this way.
Would not surprise me at all. It’s kind of an open secret in the military that this happens ALL THE TIME with higher level officers; they’re just usually less blatant about it. Heck, I watched it happen real time at my last base, and that was with majors and lieutenant colonels.
Why was his protection from prosecution withdrawn?
There’s obviously lots more to this.
So what is General Mattis up to lately?
As with ancient Rome at their end, we are a nation and a culture that has become rotten with gluttony, and the lust for more power in every area of man’s evil side in our governments and the elites of society. Hit your knees and repent We the People if there is any hope of saving our way of life.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you! But, don’t worry, Trump will fix it! /s
Pentagon fails sixth audit, with number of passing grades stagnant
Nov 15, 2023
https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2023/11/16/pentagon-fails-sixth-audit-with-number-of-passing-grades-stagnant/
WASHINGTON — For the sixth year in a row, the Pentagon failed its annual audit.
The result is not a surprise. The Department of Defense’s assets are vast and decentralized, amounting to $3.8 trillion alongside $4 trillion in liabilities. These are located in all 50 states and more than 4,500 sites around the world.
Since the Pentagon began auditing itself in 2018 — the last department to do so after Congress required the practice across the government in 1990 — it’s solved some of its easiest accounting problems. Now change each year is more incremental.
If there’s change at all, that is — last year, auditors only rated seven of the nearly 30 sub-audits as clean. This year too there were seven.
One other was rated as “qualified,” the next step down in accounting jargon. Three more audits are still ongoing. The remaining 18 were given failing grades.
May or may not be guilty but it seems likely that the only reason he was charged had something to do with opposing Biden.
Deceit, greed, and criminal behavior seems to have seeped into every division of government! This shocking story about someone who would normally be considered a patriot and hero, reinforces how deep the corruption has become in every facet of all Governmental Departments. This crook, a 4 star General whose power and control, before he left the Navy was massive, and now we discover he is nothing but a two bit crook. Involved up to his neck in criminal behavior for the purpose of enriching himself. You have to wonder how much of this corruption in his personality was always there, and what evil did he involve himself in while he was “serving his country”!
Since the training company was employed during President Trump’s office and banned by the Biden regime promptly, it would help to know exactly who ‘Company 1 ‘ is and what their training focus was. We have seen the lawless lawfare attack Flynn, so what is the background of this Admiral… was he a targeted officer as well, or is there legitimacy in the Biden DOJ weaponized lawfare against him ? I suspect it is not legit with it being a DOJ proclamation article that conceals the company name, the training substance, and the names of the people involved.
The US Government put John Walker in prison for life for spying for the USSR. That was 1985. Does the USA still have the courage to put that kind of punishment forward as an example in this generation? We will see.
I worked in the defense industry…you want to talk about corruption….the defense industry is soaked in corruption…everyone is playing the money game. It’s a microcosm of the entire Federal machine….
This is a natural outcome when the highest office is unashamedly corrupt. Everyone else down the line says, “well, the boss is doing it, let’s get paid” Moral’s and standards are no longer required for advancement. This kind of Quid Pro Quo is now very common in the military when it comes to retiring brass. Ole Joe knows a bit about that game now doesn’t he?