Tag: iran

IDF Chief Says ‘Campaign Against Iran Not Over’ But Focus Will Shift to Gaza for Now

Eyal Zamir, the chief of staff of the Israeli military, said on Tuesday that while a “chapter” in the conflict with Iran is over, Israel’s “campaign” against the country is not and that for now, the IDF will focus on the destruction of Gaza.

“We have concluded a significant chapter, but the campaign against Iran is not over. We are entering a new phase, one that builds upon the achievements of the current operation,” Zamir said after a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran began to hold.

“Now, the focus returns to Gaza, to bringing the hostages home and toppling Hamas rule,” Zamir added. During the 12 days of Israeli attacks on Iran, the Israeli military continued its genocidal onslaught in Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians each day.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also said that Israel will now turn all of its “strength” on Gaza. “Now [we turn] with all our strength to Gaza, to complete the task: to destroy Hamas and return our hostages and to ensure, with God’s help, many years of security and growth from strength for the people of Israel,” he said.

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Top Trump official calls US airstrikes on Iran ‘pointless,’ suggests ‘deep state’ swayed prez

A top staffer in the federal agency overseeing personnel for the Trump administration has denounced the US strikes on Iran as “pointless” and suggested the decision was made by members of DC’s “deep state.”

Andrew Kloster, who serves as general counsel at the Office of Personnel Management, tweeted — and then deleted — a string of posts ripping the US for having sent “handouts” to Israel in the past and for previously downplaying the threat of Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.

Within a half-hour of President Trump announcing successful US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities Saturday night, Kloster wrote on X, “I apologize and will never again doubt the power of the deep state.”

In a response to an X user saying that “Iran’s nuclear sites being crushed seems a long-term benefit for the US,” Kloster wrote, “I think it was just kind of pointless.”

He also boosted a post from Vish Burra, disgraced former New York Rep. George Santos’ ex-director of operations, that referred to Israel’s conflict with Iran as a “tribal squabble” after Tehran broke a cease-fire Trump secured Monday night.

The posts — still visible as of Tuesday morning — have since been deleted.

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Iranian army sniper and Hezbollah-linked ‘terrorist’ arrested in US as Trump warns of violent sleeper cells

An Iranian army sniper and a suspected terrorist with ties to Hezbollah are among illegal migrants living in the US who have been arrested by ICE since Sunday. 

Ribvar Karimi, who served as an Iranian Army sniper from 2018 to 2021, was arrested in rural Alabama, where he has been living with his American wife. 

When ICE agents found in him in the town of Locust Fork Sunday, he had an Islamic Republic of Iran Army identification card, DHS claimed. 

Karimi entered the country legally on a K-1 visa, for foreigners engaged to be married to Americans, in October under the Biden administration. 

He married his bride, Morgan Gardener, in January this year. However, Karimi failed to adjust his status, making his presence in the US illegal.

In Minnesota, agents nabbed Mehran Makari Saheli, 56, a former member of off the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with admitted connections to Hezbollah, according to the Department of Homeland Security today. 

He already had a conviction for felon in possession of a firearm and served 15 months in prison.

Despite being ordered out of the country by a judge in June 28, 2022, he evaded authorities.

Both men are now in ICE custody pending removal. 

Karimi’s American wife insists he loves America and is a proud immigrant. 

‘This man loves America, the first purchase he made when he got here was an American Flag,’ Morgan Gardner told a local station. 

‘If he was here on bad intentions, he wouldn’t have done that, he wouldn’t be willing to walk around with a flag, knowing he could get deported and sent back to a country where he could be killed for that.’ 

She is seven months pregnant with their first child and fears she’ll have to give birth alone. 

Also arrested over the weekend was Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand, who had been ordered to leave the US 12 years ago by an immigration judge. 

He had also been convicted of threatening a law enforcement officer and being an alien in possession of a firearm. 

Eidivand entered through the southern border in June 2012, DHS said, and he was arrested in Tempe, Arizona Sunday.

Armed with a 9mm pistol when ICE agents caught up to him, Behzad Sepehrian Bahary Nejad was arrested in Texas.

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“They Don’t Know What The F**K They’re Doing” – Furious Trump Slams Israel As Fragile Ceasefire Crumbles

President Donald Trump unleashed a fiery statement to the press just moments before boarding Marine One.

Trump declared, “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*ck they’re doing. You understand that.”

The president then swiftly turned and walked toward Marine One.

The president also unleashed a fiery statement on his social media platform, Truth Social.

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The Strait of Hormuz – Incoming Global Energy Crisis?

Supply chain constraints are inevitable during wartime. Shippers are actively avoiding the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea amid the Iranian nuclear tensions. This is a significant disruption as around 20% of global oil is funneled through this passageway.

Oman’s Musandam Peninsula hosts a narrow passageway with Iran that is only 30 miles wide but large enough for mass oil tankers to navigate. These strategic route allows for the shipment of around 21 million barrels per day. One-third of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) primarily from Qatar, rely on this crucial route. An estimated $1.7 billion of oil can pass through this channel on an average day, and any disruption has the ability to cause ripples throughout the global economy.

The United States, India, China, Japan, and South Korea are among the many developed economies that rely on this strait for its energy needs. Even a temporary pause in shipments would cause oil prices to skyrocket and disturb international trade. Iran has repeatedly used this passageway as leverage in negotiations. The Iranian government is well aware of the power it wields and have threatened to prevent passage during times of unrest and sanctions.

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The Fog (Machine) Of War

The Fog of War is perhaps better described as The Fog Machine of War, for everything presented to the public is some version of Narrative Control, the purpose of which is to establish a context and story that’s beneficial to whomever is presenting “facts,” “news,” “information” and “commentary.”

The other motivation for flooding global media with “news,” “information” and “commentary” is to maximize profits via serving the insatiable appetite for “what’s really going on.” What’s really going on is of course a closely held state secret, the very last thing that would ever be released to the public.

Since everything is Narrative Control and exploiting crisis for profit, there’s little value in any of what’s presented to the public other than what it suggests on a meta-level, that is, what isn’t being revealed and promoted as “what’s really going on.”

It seems to me there is only one way to assemble a jigsaw that approaches the goal of discovering “what’s really going on.” The first step would be to obtain fly on the wall unfiltered intelligence summaries (unfiltered meaning not yet massaged for the political leadership) from the intelligence agencies of the three combatants: Iran, Israel and the United States. This is of course impossible.

The second step would be to obtain the unfiltered intelligence summaries from regional players, for example, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc., who have their own sources.

The third step would be to obtain the unfiltered intelligence summaries from Major Power players with a keen interest in figuring out “what’s really going on,” for example, China, Russia and the European Union intel agencies.

The fourth step would be to survey mid-level officers conducting actual operations. It would also be helpful to have access to those actually conducting post-operation damage assessments.

You discern the meta-thinking here: valuable information tends to get filtered out (or lost) between each level of information gathering, summary and presentation to the next level of the hierarchy.

At the highest level, the military leadership tends to be under pressure to control the narrative of what’s presented to the political leadership. This can play out in any number of ways: the military leadership might exaggerate the direness of the situation to obtain permission for a risky operation, or it may gloss over the situation to avoid being sacked.

What strikes me as interesting is how long this situation has been brewing. Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been front and center for a great many years, and so intelligence and operational planning have been going on for many years.

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DHS Alerts US Public On Iran Retaliation Threat: Just Some ‘Low-Level’ Cyberattacks?

The latest Department of Homeland (DHS) alerts are telling the American public to expect some form of Iranian retaliation in response to this weekend’s major US bombing raids targeting three key Iranian nuclear energy and uranium enrichment sites.

And the Pentagon is preparing for potential attack on US bases in the Middle East, whether in Iraq or Syria where reduced troop presences still remain, or in the Gulf Arab countries – home to major naval and air bases.

But the latest DHS warnings speak of a not-so-new threat (which gets repeated just about every year) of stepped-up Iranian cyber threat activity.

A fresh terrorism advisory bulletin from DHS warns that Iran’s response could include violent actions on US soil as well as increased cyber operations.

The supposed heightened threat environment predicts likely low-level cyberattacks from pro-Iranian hacktivists, but also more serious threats from state-backed Iranian hackers:

“The ongoing Iran conflict is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States,” the DHS said. “Low-level cyber attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against US networks.”

But behind the headlines, the reality is that the fear-mongering from US officials will front-run the actual threats and ‘attacks’ – and likely grow louder, according to the all too familiar playbook of the Bush-Cheney era…

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Russia Ready To Help Iran, Says Has ‘Every Right’ To Nuclear Energy Program

The Kremlin has announced Monday that Russia stands ready to help Iran in its ongoing conflict with Israel and the United States in the Middle East, based on specific requests.

Such assistance “all depends on what Iran needs,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained, as quoted in TASS. “We have offered our mediation efforts. This is concrete. We have stated our position, which is also a very important form of support for the Iranian side.”

“Going forward, everything will depend on what Iran needs at this moment,” Peskov continued, while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is currently in Moscow, preparing to meet with President Vladimir Putin.

“Just today, the Iranian Foreign Minister [Abbas Araghchi] will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where they will be able to exchange views in the wake of this traumatic escalation,” Peskov stated. That’s when he made clear, “And, in fact, the Iranian side will be able to inform us about its proposals and its vision of the current situation.”

It is highly unlikely that Moscow would actually give any level of direct military assistance, but it could possibly come in the form of safety, containment, or logistical help at now damaged nuclear facilities, following American forces’ weekend bombings of three key sites.

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How Trump’s Weakness Betrayed America’s Interests in Iran

In mid-February 1945, a dying Franklin Roosevelt, on his way home from his final meetings with Stalin and Churchill at Yalta, met with Saudi King Ibn Saud on the deck of the USS Quincy on the Great Bitter Lake in Egypt.

An account of the conversation from the Office of the Historian of the US State Department reads, in part:

His Majesty called attention to the increasing threat to the existence of the Arabs and the crisis which has resulted from continued Jewish immigration and the purchase of land by the Jews. His Majesty further stated that the Arabs would choose to die rather than yield their lands to the Jews.

His Majesty stated that the hope of the Arabs is based upon the word of honor of the Allies and upon the well-known love of justice of the United States, and upon the expectation that the United States will support them.

The President replied that he wished to assure His Majesty that he would do nothing to assist the Jews against the Arabs and would make no move hostile to the Arab people. He reminded His Majesty that it is impossible to prevent speeches and resolutions in Congress or in the press which may be made on any subject.

His reassurance concerned his own future policy as Chief Executive of the United States Government. His Majesty thanked the President for his statement and mentioned the proposal to send an Arab mission to America and England to expound the case of the Arabs and Palestine. The President stated that he thought this was a very good idea because he thought many people in America and England are misinformed.

What Saud was saying, in other words, was: Why should Arabs have to pay the price for Germany’s crimes? Yet even then, the longest-serving president in our history recognized that when it comes to the politics of the Levant, the Lobby rules.

In the 75 years since its founding, Israel has repeatedly undermined the United States and has murdered numerous American civilians as well as 34 members of the crew of the USS Liberty. Still more, Israel poses a unique, continuing and dangerous counterintelligence threat. It acts with impunity because Congress is bought and paid for by money funneled to it from its domestic lobby, AIPAC. It treats US presidents like doormats. Bill Clinton famously asked after his first meeting with Netanyahu in 1996, “Who the fuck does he think he is? Who’s the fucking superpower here?”

Good question.

Americans are increasingly asking themselves with regard to Israel: At what point does it become enough?

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The Constitution Won’t Save US From Trump’s War Idiocy

On June 21, US president Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. You may have heard. As I write this, we’re in the “boasting about how splendid it all is” phase of Trump’s cyclical foreign policy approach.

Phase One: Pretend to be “anti-war” and feverishly “negotiating” to avoid escalation of this or that long-term conflict.

Phase Two:  Escalate.

Phase Three: Brag about what a genius he is.

Phase Four: Backtrack and maybe whine a little when it blows up in his face – or, rather, in the faces of the troops he puts in harm’s way.

It remains to be seen whether we’ll get the usual Phase Four (a la the ignominious but long overdue US surrender in Afghanistan after his “surge,” the Iranian strikes on US bases in Iraq after his operation to murder Iranian general  Qasem Soleimani, etc.), or whether he’ll really screw the pooch and set the Middle East on fire this time when the Iranians retaliate.

In the meantime, let’s talk about the US Constitution.

This morning, I received an email from Defending Rights and Dissent, a pro-Constitution organization with a history stretching back to the era of McCarthyism.  Subject line: “Trump shreds the Constitution. Bombs Iran. TAKE ACTION.”

DRAD wants you to write “your” US Representative and US Senators, urging them to support a “War Powers Resolution” requiring Trump to stand down, on the clear and irrefutable constitutional claim that only Congress has the authority to declare war and that Trump’s actions are therefore illegal.

Okay, yeah, I did that.

But realistically, Congress isn’t any more likely to reassert its power over US war-making this time around than it did with Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and numerous other belligerent actions/involvements.

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