Category: Military

Lisa Mortensen was sent a holiday greeting recently from Congressmember Scott Peters. Here’s her holiday greeting back and response.

By Lisa Mortensen

Hello Congressman Peters:

Happy New Year and thank you for your kind email of holiday wishes and appreciation of my community activism and dialogue with your office.  Your email was timely since I was going to reach out to your office regarding the NAVWAR project.

A brief recap on the background of this project which became known to the citizens of San Diego was in 2021.  At that time the Navy did a public engagement campaign asking for feedback and a selection of one of 4 different project designs.  The community overwhelmingly chose the least detrimental plan which was plan 1.  The reason why I say ‘least detrimental’ was because countywide, citizens spoke out in opposition to this high-density, high-rise megalopolis project which would wall-off access for those coming westbound on highway 8 or northbound/southbound on highway 5 to the airport and beaches.

During the spring and summer of 2021, the Navy orchestrated public outreach and feedback with virtual meetings that were well-attended.  There were many cogent suggestions such as this government land be set aside for military housing and public park with ‘non-profit’ oriented retail.  We expected the Navy to provide affordable military housing for its active-duty personnel.  We also questioned the Navy’s reasoning of having private high-rise residential and hotel use surrounding a top security building which seemed to be a major breach to secure such a highly sensitive facility.  Which is why we believed the Navy should have considered our options to rebuild a state-of-the-art top-security building to house the SPAWAR systems and secure the surrounding area of the building with government housing.

The development team that was selected by the Navy to redevelop the 70.3-acre NAVWAR facility has released a preliminary project summary to the City and we can now have a glimpse of what they’re planning.

Recall that when the Navy first released its 2021 draft environmental impact statement, it caused quite a roar of pushback because it showed buildings as high as 350 feet. The pushback — the City and Navy called it “a panic” — was substantial enough for the federal agency to put the federal environmental work on hold.

U-T reporter Jennifer von Grove wrote:

Last month, the development team led by San Diego-based Manchester Financial Group and McLean, Virginia-based Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate submitted a preliminary project summary to the city of San Diego. The draft document is a precursor to starting California’s mandated environmental review process, which is expected to begin early next year. San Diego will be the lead agency for the state environmental work.

The document, obtained by the Union-Tribune, details that the mixed-use project calls for:

By Mexico News Daily Staff / November 19, 2024

United States President-elect Donald Trump confirmed on Monday [Nov. 18]  that he plans to use the U.S. military to carry out his proposed mass deportation operation, an initiative that could result in millions of immigrants being sent to Mexico.

On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump shared a Nov. 8 post by the president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, who, citing “reports,” wrote that the incoming Trump administration is “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.” Above the post he shared on his personal account in the early hours of Monday morning, Trump wrote: “TRUE!!!”

The former and soon-to-be president of the United States stated during the presidential election campaign that he planned to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history,” but until Monday he hadn’t indicated that he would use the military to execute it.

By Marjorie Cohn / Truthout / November 12, 2024

[Please see original for important links]

Employing federal troops to suppress domestic protests and deport immigrants from U.S. soil en masse would be illegal, but Donald Trump has been pushing to do so since his first administration. The recent Supreme Court decision granting presidents nearly absolute immunity for official acts has created a situation with far fewer guardrails to prevent Trump from abusing his authority in his second presidential term.

Trump and his allies have reportedly drafted plans for him to deploy the military against civil demonstrators on his first day in office, according to a Washington Post report from November 2023. And Trump, who promised to carry out the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, has also indicated that he will use the military to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

By David Badash / AlterNet / October 11, 2024

General Mark Milley, one of then-President Donald Trump’s top generals who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the Republican presidential nominee is “fascist to the core” and there is no one in America who has ever posed more of a threat to the nation.

Milley, appointed by Trump in 2019, served as the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Armed Forces until his retirement last year. His remarks appear in Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book, “War,” The Independent reports.

After the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Gen. Milley requested a meeting with incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland, “to urge him to investigate domestic violent extremism and far-right militia movements.”

The San Diego Veterans for Peace, plus members of over twenty local groups, will be out on the Carroll Canyon Road Overpass over the I-15 this Thursday, August 29  and every Thursday until Thursday until the end of September at 4-6 PM protesting the dangerous and highly polluting Miramar Air Show.

As we read the dismal reports of experiencing the hottest year on record along with droughts, floods, far-too-early hurricanes and rising sea levels, the military (the world’s single largest institutional user of fossil fuels and GHG emitter) is planning to pollute our skies once again with the annual Miramar Air Show.

San Diego’s Fox5 has provided the rest of us with an update of the Navy’s ambitious effort to revitalize the 70.3-acre Old Town campus with the redevelopment of the NAVWAR facilities.

Why, it was just Monday, July 29, that Navy officials reported the environmental review process was proceeding alongside the exclusive negotiation period for a long-term lease with the potential master development group military officials selected to lead the renovation, Manchester/Edgemoor.

Manchester / Edgemoor consists of two firms — Manchester Financial, a hotel and commercial development firm, and Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, an affiliate of Clark Construction that specializes in public-private partnerships.

By Marjorie Cohn / TruthOut / June 13, 2024

On June 4, a coalition of active-duty service members, veterans and G.I. rights groups launched a campaign called Appeal for Redress V2 to encourage military personnel to tell Congress to stop funding genocide in Gaza. Israel’s genocidal operation, now in its ninth month, has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 85,000.

The campaign is sponsored by Veterans For Peace (VFP), the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, About Face: Veterans Against the War and the Center on Conscience & War. It is modeled after the 2006 Appeal for Redress issued during the occupation of Iraq. During that campaign, almost 3,000 active-duty, Reserve and Guard personnel sent protected communications to their members of Congress urging an end to the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

James Soriano is accused of taking bribes from two defense contractors

Here’s 2 Sources:

From US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California

A former civilian employee of San Diego-based Naval Information Warfare Center and a former executive with a South Carolina defense contractor were charged in an indictment unsealed today with participating in a bribery scheme to trade expensive meals, jobs and a ticket to a premiere sporting event for help obtaining more than $100 million in government contracts.

By Alexander Nguyen / KPBS / February 5, 2024

San Diego’s Naval Information Warfare Systems Command accounts for more than $3.1 billion in gross regional product (GRP) for the economy, according to a report released last week by the San Diego Military Advisory Council and the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business.

The report compiled by USD researchers found that in Fiscal Year 2022, NAVWAR was responsible for between $3.14 billion and $3.38 billion in GRP. Additionally, it employs more than 5,300 people and, when wages and benefits are considered, that workforce brings $910 million to the local economy.

By Jennifer Van Grove / San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 9, 2024

The United States Navy has selected a development team led by San Diego-based Manchester Financial Group [surprise, surprise] and McLean, Virgina-based Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate to replace its obsolete NAVWAR facilities and remake the rest of the 70.3-acre military campus in San Diego’s Midway District with private development. …

By Beth F. Coye / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 26, 2023

The motivating factor behind my life has been protection and defense of America from all enemies. My dad, a World War II-decorated submarine skipper, instilled in our family that duty was above all else. So, it was no surprise to anyone that my adult career was spent as a naval officer, retiring as a commanding officer in San Diego, my birthplace.

I loved the Navy, I loved that we had a serious mission to protect and serve our country. I had always been so focused that the military’s raison d’etre was to protect against the enemy from without that it took me years to unravel that the military’s perception was that certain people were unfit to serve this mission, and I turned out to be one of those people.